1 PETER 4
In the previous chapter we have the idea of salvation and a good conscience in connection with a risen Christ. Now in the beginning of this chapter we get the other side of it. Christ suffered, the Just for the [p. 72] unjust, that He might bring us to God. We are not yet actually brought to God, but we get the present practical good of it in getting salvation and a good conscience. There is a world of evil around us as it was in the days of Noah; it is going on to judgment, but you can be dissociated from that world, and get a good conscience, by the resurrection of Christ. A good conscience is really righteousness. Righteousness and salvation are always bound up together. We are not brought to God according to the height of His purpose until we get to heaven, but we get it morally now, and in that way we get salvation from the world system and a good conscience towards God. Being brought to God is really association with Christ in heaven. The children of Israel were brought into the wilderness and were brought to God morally in that way, but in its full meaning it refers to their being brought in and planted in the mountain of His inheritance. Sonship fulfils the idea. Practically what we have down here is salvation from the world and all that is against us, and a good conscience towards God, and that because we are righteous as He is righteous. Peter does not take up saints in the light of divine counsel, but more as in the wilderness. The epistle is addressed to the Jews of the dispersion. In the close of the previous chapter you apprehend where you are in regard of God. Now in chapter 4 you get what is the practical answer in us down here, to Christ having suffered for us in the flesh. We are exhorted to arm ourselves with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin — it is suffering rather than gratification. Stress is laid upon the fact, not simply that Christ died, but that He suffered. Christ having suffered for us in the flesh, we are to be armed with the same mind. Christ came into the condition of flesh and blood that He might suffer in the flesh, and it is not a proper answer to that, that we should give licence to the flesh. The [p. 73] only proper answer in the Christian to Christ having suffered is, that we arm ourselves with the same mind. The path of the Christian is suffering in the flesh, and that is, to cease from sinning. You suffer rather than sin. If you sin you gratify yourself. A man would not sin if there was no self-gratification in it. Man sins because he finds pleasure in it. It is a point of great practical moment that Christians should arm themselves with the same mind, that it should be a great reality to us that Christ suffered for sin; it is intended so to affect us that we should arm ourselves with the same mind. The divine idea is, that the fact of Christ having suffered in the flesh is not to be merely a doctrine, but that it should have a moral effect upon us. Each doctrine is intended to have a moral effect upon us, and in that way we get our loins girt about with truth. The resurrection of Christ may be accepted as a doctrine, but it is intended to have a moral effect, and the effect of resurrection is righteousness.
Suffering in the flesh is not fasting. “Fasting” comes in in the denial of things which are not sin, which are within our reach, and to which we are entitled; but arming ourselves with the same mind is not fasting — it is practical and in regard of what is sin. I am so afraid of taking up things in a doctrinal way without their being effective in me. The point is, What effect is it going to have on me? The truth of James is extremely important to Christians, that “faith without works is dead, being alone”.
The constant tendency is to gratify the flesh. This is perfectly natural to us. If we see a Babylonish garment or a bit of the world, the tendency is to covet it. Christ suffered in the flesh by being put to death in the flesh — on our account, of course — but there is no greater suffering than death. The effect of it is that we are to be here the rest of our time in the flesh for the will of God. The will of God is what is morally right — it is not merely what you are called to,
[p. 74] but the will of God is the one and only thing that is right. The will of God is properly the rule of the moral universe; all who are not subject to it are lawless.
Ques What is the difference between the law of God and the will of God?
FER The law of God is the expression of His will in regard to you and me. It is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. The will of God is a beautiful thought. It is the purpose of God to be known by His creatures, and He has come out in such a way that He might be known, so that we might walk in the light of the revelation. Israel was called to fulfil obligations, but God was not revealed and they could not fulfil them. Now, God is revealed, and in the light of God we can fulfil our obligations; God has willed to reveal Himself, and the word of God is that in which He has revealed Himself. Properly speaking, the word of God is Christ: “The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. In the light of God, man has confidence in Him, and in His light every obligation can be carried out. It is a great thing to be in the presence of divine goodness. People are legal because they want to indulge themselves — to secrete something from God, but in the sense and presence of divine goodness you have no fear or torment, but you have liberty, and so can carry out all obligations.
Many in the world are here for the lusts of men, not always gross ones; it may be the pride of life. So it is a good thing to be here for the will of God. When Christ came here He stood apart from everything, He lived on account of the Father. If we cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart, He would direct us into the will of God. He Himself has been here for it. The more a person is attached to the Lord, and true to Him, the more he comes into the path of the will of God.
[p. 75] The end of the previous chapter unfolds that the footing on which we stand with God, and also our justification, are on the ground of resurrection. Everything is borne witness to in the resurrection of Christ: all God’s grace is testified to in the resurrection. God has no thought towards His people but grace, they are on that ground. You can understand therefore the moral suitability of being according to His death. The only ground of a good conscience is the resurrection, because it is the testimony to the righteousness of God secured in the cross. It is not right to be in the benefit of His death, and yet not to be in accord with it: hence the exhortation “arm yourselves likewise with the same mind”.
It was by the Spirit of Christ risen that the spirits in prison were preached to — i.e., it was on the ground of resurrection that the testimony went in Noah’s time to the spirits now in prison. In verse 19, chapter 3, “by which” is preceded by “but quickened by the Spirit”, which refers to resurrection: “being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit”; then follows, “by which he went and preached”, etc. “In prison” is in contrast to their corporeal state. This is brought forward to bring in the truth of the ark. The root from which “ark” is derived is the same word as “atonement”, which means “covering”. We are saved instrumentally through water, which refers to baptism, but we are covered in the resurrection of Christ. Mr. Stoney used to observe that at the time of the flood there was no flesh under the eye of God; it was either drowned in the flood or covered in the ark. Baptism is a figure; you pass through the water of death, to come out into a place where there is a good conscience and salvation. The practical effect of baptism comes out in the beginning of this chapter. The idea of dissociation is very strongly connected with baptism. The Lord says: “I have a baptism to be baptised with”.
[p. 76] He referred to His death, and nothing could more completely sever Him from all previous associations than death. We get its true force and meaning in “Arise and be baptised, and wash away thy sins”, and, “Save yourselves from this untoward generation”. By some in Christendom it is held as being introductory into Christianity, which is so far right, but they do not see that dissociation is involved in it. Baptism is a figure of death, and nothing separates like death. In early days, those who came by baptism on to the new ground had to suffer persecution; we see this in 1 Corinthians 15, “Else what shall they do which are baptised for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptised for the dead? And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?” A Jew converted and baptised would now be exposed to persecution. If we are baptised to His death, all should admit that it is an obligation to be consistent with that death, no longer to live the rest of our time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
God marks out the way in baptism, but it is a long time before we learn what it means. Israel was baptised to Moses in the cloud and in the sea, but they really did not know the meaning of it until they were over Jordan. What Israel did, is a picture of what Christendom has done in the absence of Christ: they sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play — that is, they fell down to the level of the world.
The great mass of Christians drop down to piety and domestic life; they drop down morally; they seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. The time has not come for every man to sit under his vine and under his fig tree; it will come, but that is not the time we live in. The things of Jesus Christ were first with the apostle; and so it should be with us, and our own things, social ties and the like, should have the second place.
“For the time past of our life may suffice us to [p. 77] have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you” (verses 3, 4). Peter always, like John, speaks from a Jewish point of view as to what was antecedent. He looks upon the Jew as walking in the will of the Gentiles, the Jew had been morally degraded to that. The Gentiles thought it strange that the Christians did not (as the Jew had done) run with them to the same excess of riot.
The kingdom, like the Lord Himself, came into the world almost unperceived. It is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, and men hardly knew that it was there nor what it was. The kingdom of God was among them when Christ was here, but it had come without observation. People only perceive it when they see the effect of it — righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. They see people quite different from what they were before. When we come under the influence of the grace of God, it is an entirely new path for us. Titus takes it up. The grace of God teaches us that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. What has come in separates us from the present course of things.
“Speaking evil of you”. It is a very common thing for people to speak evil of what they do not understand. They said of the Lord: “He casteth out devils by Beelzebub”, and I think I have seen the same kind of thing.
The preparation of the ark by Noah was the proof that he himself was accepted of God. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Nine people out of ten take that to mean that he preached judgment. Enoch preached judgment: “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all” (Jude 15); but Noah preached righteousness, that is, the claims of God. Noah himself had accepted [p. 78] them, and he testified to those rights in an age of lawlessness. Enoch, looking for translation, was outside the whole order, and the next thing was, the coming of the Lord in judgment.
The great subject of the testimony is Christ risen, and no man can preach effectively whose mind is not in accord with it. If a man is not in accord with the resurrection of Christ, and he attempts to preach Christ risen, there is a gap between what he preaches and his own state. When Paul preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified, his mind was in accord with it. He could say of himself: “I am crucified with Christ”.
If I have salvation and a good conscience, which means that I stand in righteousness in relation to God, then I am free of the world and the world’s influence, and free to live the rest of my time to the will of God. The will of God is: “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good ... Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”. The will of God is good and perfect and acceptable. It is wonderful that a man who has been under the influence of sin and evil should become morally like God, abhorring evil and overcoming it in the power of good.
Ques To whom does verse 5 apply?
FER To the Gentiles. The fact is, God has brought in what is provisional. The house of God anticipates the world to come. God is going to bring everything to a public issue, and the present moment is provisional. God is dwelling here by the Spirit, and it is “an accepted time”. God is favourable to man, but antichrist will be set up, and God awaits that moment which will bring in His judgment, and all will be brought to a public issue in the man of sin. But it is a great thing that in the testimony of the gospel, we should not becloud the grace of the moment. The two things are brought together in 2 Peter 3.
Until the gospel had come in it could not have been said that God is “ready to judge the quick and the dead”. There is nothing between God and judgment now. God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son; He has given expression to His love; but now, consequent upon that, His Son being rejected, the position of things is entirely altered. God is now ready to judge the quick and the dead. “Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out”, is consequent upon what came out as to the world after God had given expression to His love in giving His Son. The Christian will never come into judgment, but there are those who refuse the gospel. The final thing in regard of man was that he became a rejector of grace. Now, God is ready to judge; the ground of judgment is completed. The broken law and persecution of the prophets might have been a ground of judgment, but that was not a full ground; the rejection of grace completes the full ground of judgment. “Them that are dead”, are those actually dead. They had had the gospel preached to them, and therefore the ground of judgment was complete. The epistle goes on the ground that [p. 81] the end of all things is at hand; judgment is imminent. There are two classes in those to whom the gospel had been preached — those who shall be judged according to men in the flesh, and those who live according to God in the Spirit. “But” has the force of “or”; it is alternative. The preaching of the gospel really divides men into two classes; the one, obnoxious and liable to judgment; the other, who live according to God in the Spirit. It is important to connect verse 6 with the previous verse. The thought and sense of judgment after death is engrained in man; he may reason himself out of it, but it is there.
The effect of the light of grace is, that a man lives according to God in the Spirit — not according to men in the flesh. What we are as down here does not define our relationship with God. It is all inward with the [p. 80] Christian. The Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. If we live according to God, it must be according to God in the Spirit. On the other hand, the ground of judgment is according to men in the flesh, i.e., according to man’s responsibility. The real object of the gospel is life: it is preparatory. God sent law and sent prophets, but in Christ God Himself came into presence of man, and the effect was, man hated Him. See what came out in the ministry of the Lord here! He was exercising patience and compassion, touching the leper, healing the sick; and yet man hated Him. God Himself had come in, and it only brought out the hatred of man’s heart. The revelation of God must run athwart all that is of man. The “dead” are no longer on the footing of responsibility, and there is nothing left for them but judgment. The gospel had been presented to them, and they had not accepted the testimony by which they might have lived according to God in the Spirit, but now, being actually dead, their responsible life was ended, and there was nothing for them but judgment. The divine object in the gospel is life, and while you present the grace of God to men in the announcement of repentance and forgiveness, the object of it is to lead them to Christ that they may receive living water. Verse 6 refers to those in Christianity to whom the gospel had been preached.
Our life with God is all hidden; it is in the Spirit. We live to God in the Spirit. A man may eat and drink to God’s glory, but that is not living to God; living to God is all in the Spirit.
The truth of the gospel will all come up as an element in the day of judgment, man will be judged according to that. The gospel is for the saving of the elect, but the testimony is for every man. God has never brought in judgment without a previous testimony. There was even in Sodom a testimony through Lot.
The end of all things is at hand (verse 7) refers to the present course of things.
We are deficient as to having fervent love among ourselves (see verse 8), the love that covers a multitude of sins. We have the tendency too much of taking account of one another’s faults. We cannot go on in the reality of Christianity without love. Love is not blind, but it covers. It may be conscious of things, but it rises above them, above the pettiness we might find in each other. How could we reach: “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew — Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free”, except by love. Faith would not carry you. It is only spiritual affection that can carry you above these distinctions. I am convinced a man is only effective in the assembly as he has love. If we judge ourselves in regard of ourselves, God does not upbraid as to what we have judged. “Sarah obeyed Abraham”. Scripture speaks of persons according to their general course. So with David — a man after God’s own heart; yet he had signal failures, but Godward he is not characterised by them. So we are told to put on the new man, and yet the flesh is there; but the Christian is characterised by the new man. The Spirit of God takes a far larger thought of things than man does. The Spirit’s verdict of Barnabas is that, he was “a good man”. It is not his failings that characterised him.
The great thing in verse 11 is that everything is to be traced to God. If a man speaks it is not to be of his own cleverness, but as the oracles of God. If he ministers, it is of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified. In verse 10 “the gift” refers to verse 9. It was the favour of God that gave them that by which they were enabled to exercise hospitality. The grace of God is various; one may speak as the oracles of God and another may minister, but the end is that God in all things may be glorified.
[p. 82] I believe it is the pleasure of God to enlighten men through men, and that is the true power of gift. An apostle was “to open their eyes”, to enlighten all, “to make all men see”. God alone can effect the work in man, though He is pleased to use man to enlighten man, but it is not man who is to be glorified. If a man minister, he cannot minister except as he has received light from God; then it is a question not of the minister but of God. In verse 11 “ministering” is a man being a steward of God’s good things, and it is according to the ability that God gives.
Wherever you get “bread” in Scripture, it is a figure of grace. The feeling of the multitude gives a picture of the administration of grace when the Lord comes. So I believe the church will be active in the administration of grace, just as the twelve were used to be the ministers of Christ’s bounty to the people. It is a beautiful picture of what Christ will bring into the world when He comes again, just as the raising up of the impotent man is a figure of the raising up of Israel. Christ will give life to the world when He brings in the light of grace. Death is on everything, and therefore nothing can meet the state of things here but the light of grace. It awaits the coming of the Lord. We await the public administration of grace. When He comes to give life to the world He has to put death aside. The world celebrates “Ascension day”, but do you think the mass of people care for the victory — death swallowed up in victory? No! because victory brings God in, and man does not want God.
The twelfth verse speaks of the fiery trial which was to try them. I suppose he speaks to them as to converted Jews; they had part in the trial which was coming on Israel; in that way it connects the past with the future. In early days, the world took but little account of Christianity, but on the ground of being Jews, those to whom Peter wrote could not escape entirely what befell the nation governmentally, consequent [p. 83] on the rejection of Christ. I think it is a wonderful thing to be in the light of the glory of the Lord; it was an intense reality to the early Christians. Take Stephen as an instance. I believe we should be irresistible, in a sense, if we were strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We have to remember, however, that now is the time of suffering. Christ is exalted to the right hand of God, and the Spirit has come down to report His glory, but He is not yet reigning; His place there is priestly, not kingly; He is not sitting in His own throne. When He comes out He will sit as Priest upon His throne. Now, He is in the priestly place. He has gone up on high, as we get in figure in John 6. Afterwards, He comes into the boat. Israel will need to know Christ as Priest, before they know Him as King. When they pass through the tribulation they will need His support and His intercession, and we need both these now. Every Christian has to be carried through as supported by Christ, if he is to be maintained in faith and hope. We get a beautiful picture of it in the parable of the good Samaritan. He set him on his own beast and took care of him. We could not face the pathway here if we were not under grace. The effect of Christ’s sympathy is that our souls are maintained in the sense of the domination of grace — that grace is enthroned and therefore we come boldly. This is pretty much the kingdom, but you cannot separate the thought of the Priest from that of the kingdom. It is through the grace of the Priest alone that anyone could be maintained here. It is the greatest miracle we could see, that a man should be maintained here in faith and hope to the end of a long course, so that his foot does not swell nor does he get weary, nor his garments wax old. I admit we are kept by faith, but we are supported by the grace of the Priest. It is an anomalous state of things down here. You may be under pressure and tribulation here, but the [p. 84] measure of your joy is the glory at the right hand of God. Tribulation is but for a moment, and it is useful; it works patience, but we are entitled to rejoice in the glory of the Lord.
We ought to reckon that we are to be partakers of Christ’s sufferings (verse 13). “If we suffer we shall also reign with him”, 2 Timothy 2: 12. Our natural tendency is to settle down here and take the world easy. We have to remember that we are in a world of evil, and we cannot go on in the reality of the truth and the power of the Holy Spirit without the suffering reaching us in some way. Suffering for Christ’s sake only begins when we have suffered in the flesh. We do not suffer for Christ if we have not suffered in the flesh.
The last clause of verse 14 proves that there is a witness in Christians to the glory of Christ: “On your part he is glorified”. Any witness to the glory of Christ is intolerable to man. If we were more faithful in witnessing to the glory of Christ we should suffer more. If there is any truth in the glory of Christ, it is the end of everything here. The devil knows that if the glory of Christ came in, it would be the end of his dominion here. The more we realise the glory of the Lord, the more conscious we are of the power of the devil. So we get: “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might”, Ephesians 6: 10. There are two classes of suffering contemplated; for righteousness and for Christ’s sake. The former is because you will not go on with sin; but suffering for Christ’s sake is more your testimony by the Spirit, to Christ in glory. That brings in the thought that if we suffer we shall reign. The character of the present moment is, having fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. It is well to understand what our position is here according to truth. Everything is falsified in the appearance of things in Christendom. It would not do to look at things externally when it is the time of [p. 85] the sufferings of Christ. Things appear in Christendom as if Christ was in honour, but according to truth the position is one of suffering. “Partakers of the sufferings of Christ” really means fellowship in His sufferings. It fulfils what the Lord said, that in those days they would fast, when the Bridegroom would be taken away from them. The simple question is whether we have the truth. Christ is the truth, and in that way everything is determined by the position of Christ. There is the glory to follow, but until you get the glory you have fellowship in the sufferings. If we were more affected by it, and it were more real to us that it is the time of fellowship in the sufferings of Christ, it would have a great effect upon us. The great danger is that Christians should accept the world — the Christian world — as it is; that is the snare into which people have fallen. It will be all right when we get the revelation of His glory: “If we suffer we shall reign with him”: “If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together”. The professing church is a false witness, but to get the divine idea as to it, we have to get back to the fellowship of His sufferings. The great people of the world do not think anything of the sufferings of Christ; those sufferings are what go on till He gets His rights, i.e., until the revelation of His glory. It is not atoning suffering, of course. A special path of suffering was marked out for Paul, in connection no doubt with his work.
“Fellowship of his sufferings” is the sense of being identified with what is being rejected by the world, i.e., with the Christ who is rejected, the Head of every man. He is not accepted by the world, but I recognise that I live by Him. The world does not accept Christ. Suffering with Christ is the common lot of all Christians; suffering for His sake might come out more in connection with the testimony. The world no more accepts Christ or the principles of [p. 86] Christ than it did two thousand years ago. The ruling powers of the world do not take into account that Christ is rejected here, but sitting at the right hand of God until His foes are made His footstool.
The mass of people — professing Christians and real Christians too — have no idea of Christ having rights in connection with the world, and that He will come out to assert those rights; it is not entertained by people at all. It is spoken of in this passage as the revelation of His glory.
In the present day we may find the true spirit of the world coming out in Popery. Religious officialism is against Christ. The great instrument of persecution in modern times is Popery, but the instrument in the time to come will be the false prophet and the beast. Christ is obnoxious to both. The beast and the false prophet will be more infidel in their profession, but what is of God is obnoxious both to religious officialism and infidelity. Officialism cannot tolerate what is of the Spirit of God. Popery would persecute now if she had the power. There is no such thing as officialism in Christianity; officialism always persecutes, and the only hindrance now is lack of power. The opposition to Christ on earth was from officialism — the rulers and chief priests were the source of it. He had authority, and yet they were not capable of finding it out. Protestantism has been as guilty of persecuting as Popery. Officialism will not tolerate what is of the Spirit of God.
Baptism brings us into the external bond of Christian fellowship. It signifies that we are committed to the death of Christ. Every Christian has to come back to his baptism, morally. The real moment when we begin is the moment when we come back to our baptism; it is the moment when you come to the fellowship of His death; all before that is a gap with us as far as God is concerned. There is a measure of truth in the church of England idea;
[p. 87] the sponsors take up the vows for the child at baptism, but when he is confirmed he takes up his own responsibility in connection with the vows. It corresponds with what we are at first committed to by baptism, i.e., the death of Christ, and afterwards we are brought to the truth of our baptism. Very few of these things are absolutely false without a shred of truth in them. Many ideas that are scouted are true ideas, but they have dropped into formality, and the true idea is lost. The truth of the one body is set forth in a carnal way in Popery. Take the “real presence” too. It is in bringing before us that which records His death that we approach the “real presence”; but the Romanist has dropped into materialism.
The intense moral character of Scripture is what brings home to me the sense of its authority as the word of God. Even when material things are spoken of, such as the creation, it is as having a moral bearing; they are always related in that way.
In verse 15 we get what is characteristic of Peter; if you suffer, you are to suffer for good not for evil doing. Verse 16 is one of the places where the name “Christian” is recognised, and it is adopted. One of the hardest things that Christians had to bear in early days was the charge of impiety. They did not conform to idolatrous practices and they were regarded as impious and as the causes of national calamities.
Now in verse 17 we find that judgment must begin at the house of God. It signifies that God has now begun to take account of things. They had in a sense been allowed to go on, but now He takes account. In the Old Testament God had said, as it were, Am I going to take up the iniquities of Israel, and let the heathen go unpunished? So we find the judgment of the nations, but God began with those nearest in relation to Himself. I suppose the way in which the judgment began was by persecution. The persecutors [p. 88] had their own ideas and motives in persecuting, but all the same it was God’s hand on them, and so we get: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God”. Peter’s idea of the house of God never goes beyond the limits of real Christians. What was before the mind of Peter was not the professing body, but the house of God, the real thing. “If it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” And again: “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” The judgment here is wholly governmental, and refers to the present, not to the future. The “end” will be that the remembrance of them shall be blotted out from the earth. It goes right on to the coming of the Lord, but has nothing to do with sessional judgment. So in the Psalms, it is all governmental dealing and the issue of it. Governmental judgment is more in the way of discipline. Sessional judgment is when the Son of man will sit on the throne of His glory. Christ stands in relation to the house of God, and for this reason He stands in relation to the great professing body. He deals with those whom He loves, as we get in Laodicea; but He will eventually spue the professing thing out of His mouth.
God may allow persecution, but it is entirely contrary to the mind of God. Government should concern itself as to whether people are well-doers or evil-doers. When it goes outside the question of well-doing it goes beyond its province. One man is not justified in persecuting another. So we are to commit the keeping of our souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
The “spirit of glory” is that which rests on Christians. It rested on Stephen, and he was enabled to suffer. If we had the sense of the spirit of glory resting on us we should be more prepared to face suffering. The One who has been rejected on earth [p. 89] is glorified in heaven, and Christians are the witness of it; and if so, how separate we ought to be from the glory of the world. England has part in Babylon, the glory of man. There is no “garden of God” now about which He concerns Himself. There is nothing before God now as to the nations, but a beast, and that in a suspended existence. If we are identified with the spirit of glory we should be apart from all that is Babylonish; it is all man and the glory of man. If you give up Christianity, by all means go in for the glory of the world; but if the church is the witness to the glory of Christ, she cannot be too separate from the glory of man, which is Babylon. I respect the authority as much as any, but I would not touch the glory of this world. Man is under death, but his Head is not under death. Christ the Head of every man has been into death and now lives, and if I live in Him, I live to God.
It is not natural for God to judge His house; conditions had come in which necessitated this, as with the temple: “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matthew 24: 2); but this was not natural to God. It is a great comfort to know that there is one light in which the church is viewed in which she cannot be judged: i.e., the living stones built up a spiritual house.
If Christians walked in self-judgment, there would be no need for God to come in; but if the lusts of the flesh are allowed, then God must judge. The fact is that the morality of Christians came down to the level of the world. No confidence can be placed in the external system of Christianity. When Paul speaks of the time when perverse men would come in, he says: “I commend you to God and the word of his grace”.
The remarkable thing in Revelation is, the church is judged, the candlestick removed — the church ceasing to be any light for God down here — and yet at the end [p. 90] she comes out of heaven with the glory of God, and her light like to a stone most precious. The church is all right when she comes out of heaven. Christians were taken out of the world by being put in relation to God and to one another; but at the same time we have an individual path to pursue through this world, and it is in this world that we come under the moral government of God, and in this world too that we may expect the “fiery trial”. I connect it with 1 Corinthians 3. Every man’s work shall be tried by fire. It would burn up what would not stand the test. The day would declare what sort of work every man’s was.
Ques. What day?
FER When the Sun would arise.
Ques Are there not siftings in the ways of God?
FER Yes; but we do not get tested by persecution. It is too late for persecution. Sifting would come in, but the fiery trial would hardly refer to that. In Smyrna they had tribulation ten days — that was “fiery trial”. There was a peculiar raging against the new testimony that had come out. It is not to be wondered at that there was an outcry. Then we read, “Then had the churches rest”. In that case the Lord put a stop to the persecution by the conversion of Saul. The persecutor was converted and the persecution dropped.
I admit that persecution is the natural result of Christ being continued here in the church, but God allows it and turns it to account for His own purpose in view of His people. The house of God was the place of salvation, as we have been seeing. It was the place where the results of God’s government had become manifest. It is the place of salvation because it is the sphere of righteousness. When God manifests His government you get the two things, judgment and salvation. The Spirit of God dwells in the church, and His government is brought to an issue there, and [p. 91] so you get the two principles — judgment and salvation.
We get three instances in Scripture where God brought His government to an issue, and in all three there was judgment and salvation. The flood is the first; there was salvation in the ark, and judgment on the ungodly. Then there was salvation for Lot and judgment on the cities of the plain. It was the same with Israel: what was salvation to the people was judgment to the Egyptians. It is so in the house of God. It was salvation to the Gentile but judgment to the Jew. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment. Water is the figure of both principles. In connection with the house of God the water of baptism is salvation, but it will be the ground of judgment. If righteousness is not maintained in the house of God, then God comes in in judgment. There is no subject that has been less understood than salvation. The house of God is the place of salvation. In popery they have the idea in a carnal way. There is no salvation outside the church, Christ’s Name is there. Salvation is that you are in moral accord with God. When judgment comes, God comes in to deal with what is obnoxious to Himself. It was so with the people at the flood, with the Egyptians, with the Jew. It was the judgment of what was obnoxious to God, but there was salvation — that is, there was that which was in accord with God. The only point of faith related of Israel was when they passed through the Red Sea. They were in accord with God. In the day when Israel’s walls are Salvation, then all will be morally in accord with God. David’s prayer was: “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness”, and the answer is, “I will also clothe her priests with salvation” (Psalm 132), that is, they would be in accord with God. The people of God departed from moral accord with God, i.e., the reality of salvation, and so judgment came in. If people want salvation, let them [p. 92] seek to be in accord with Christ, and they will realise salvation; they will be clothed with it. People want salvation as a term only. The apostle wanted the Philippians to work it out into result. If you are in accord with God, then work it out. Be manifestly the children of God without reproach and you are in the realisation of salvation. “Holding forth the word of life” is holding forth the testimony.
It is a very inexpedient question to put to people, Are you saved? Salvation has not come in manifestly, we can only come into it morally.
Ques How do you understand: “Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls”?
FER That is what the apostle wanted for those to whom he wrote.
Ques Would you say that, saved, or lost, is the state of the case?
FER Nakedly, I would; but more properly, people are on the road to it. The prodigal was not in salvation until he had the best robe on: he was on the road to it. In the house of God all is in accord with God, and so salvation is there.
Rem Things are absolute on God’s side, but we only get a little at a time.
FER Yes, that is just it; the robe was there for the prodigal, but it has to be put on. So the salvation is there for us in the house of God; but we have to be brought into accord with God.
What people are called to believe is, not that they are forgiven, but that there is forgiveness of sins preached in Christ’s Name; which is God’s mind for all men. It is a proclamation. But it is by the Spirit that we appropriate it and know it. It is divine Persons who are presented for faith. We are never called upon to believe anything about ourselves. The nation, i.e., the Jew, must have been peculiarly obnoxious to God, for they had crowned their sin by crucifying Christ; yet Christ was their only way of [p. 93] escape; there was salvation in no other name. “By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved”; it is “By me”.
Ques When people believed what was preached, did they not get forgiveness?
FER They received the Spirit, having believed (see Ephesians 1: 13).
Ques But surely they were forgiven then?
FER What we are speaking of is the appropriation of it for ourselves.
Ques When you believe the testimony, do you not get what is in the testimony?
FER No; you get the Spirit. You must have the witness of the Spirit before you get the witness of the water and the blood, and in that way you appropriate what is in Christ.
Rem While Peter yet spake, the Holy Spirit fell on all that heard the word; Acts 10: 44.
FER That is exactly it, and then it is by the Spirit we appropriate. If we have believed the testimony we have the thing, but we want the witness of it.
Rem The witness is by the blessedness of it, and so it is. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven”.
FER Exactly! That is just it. Then we get a purged conscience.
Ques Have we any witness of anything, save by the Spirit?
FER Nothing at all. Following faith in God’s testimony to every man, there is the seal of the Spirit, and then having the witness of the Spirit you appropriate for yourself what is presented in the testimony for every man.
Ques How do you understand that the Holy Spirit is given “to them that ask him”?
FER God interprets a man’s heart — not merely what he asks for. We receive the Spirit in that way, though we may not ask for the Spirit intelligently.
Receiving remission of sins is relief to a man’s conscience, not to his head. Forgiveness of sins is more than a term. Surely we have something that would answer to the scapegoat. God in that way gave something special and substantial as proof to Israel that their sins were gone. So with us we receive the Spirit that we may know that we have forgiveness. Israel will receive deliverance by the coming of the Lord. They will get salvation by deliverance from their enemies. And how do we get the knowledge of forgiveness? It is by the Spirit.
Ques How was it that in Acts, some had believed the testimony who had not received the Spirit?
FER I could not tell you. God was owning the apostles, and so they did not receive the Spirit until the apostles came down. I maintain that you appropriate nothing save by the Spirit. Whatever is in Christ is for everybody. Simon Magus was discovered; he had not the Spirit.
Old Testament saints had promises and faith, but they had little power of appropriation; the Spirit was not given. God helped them greatly, and they were maintained in faith.
The point in the gift of the Spirit is to give us ability to approach God, to have a purged conscience so that we may have liberty in approaching. There are two things necessary; the two qualifications are, that you must be in the good of the covenant, which is Christ — the appreciation of Christ; and the other is a purged conscience.
God saves the lost by bringing them into moral accord with Himself.