THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER
The apostle appeals to them here on the ground that he was a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker of His glory. The twelve were appointed witnesses. The only witness now, is the Holy Spirit in the church: there is no witness except that. The church is simply the vessel of the Holy Spirit. So we get: “And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him”, Acts 5: 32. The normal cry of the Spirit and the bride is “Come”. It is very important to apprehend the place of the church as the witness of Christ by the Spirit. The church is the vessel of the witness — not exactly the witness — but you cannot think of the Spirit apart from the church, save of course as a divine Person: if you think of the Spirit as a witness down here, you are compelled to think of the vessel.
One sees the wisdom of God, that when the twelve witnesses were taken away, we get the Spirit as witness. It needs the witness of the Spirit today to give any power to preaching, and any preaching apart from that witness is very poor work. If Papists go to the heathen, with them the church is the witness. They have got the right idea, but that idea is a travesty of the truth.
We are not witnesses in the true sense; there is nothing of which we are witnesses. The Spirit is witness of what has taken place in heaven, for He did not come down till Christ was glorified, and hence the Spirit is an effective witness. But then the vessel of the Spirit is the church, and as such, witnesses to the glory of Christ. The moment she came under the influence of the world, she ceased to be a witness.
What an expression of grace it is, a witness of the sufferings, but a partner of the glory. The apostle had [p. 96] had no experience of the sufferings. Christ took the sufferings, but he is a partaker of the glory.
It is no very exalted ground he takes: “Who am also an elder (i.e., an elder man) and a witness of the sufferings of Christ”. There is nothing ecclesiastical about it — no outward dignity, though there was what was moral. He exhorts the elders to be bishops, that is, to take the oversight, to shepherd the flock of God (not ‘feed’).
The first idea of elders, was elder men; they were to be men full of the Holy Spirit. Titus appointed only those who were morally qualified for it. “Taking the oversight”, is oversight of saints. Saints very often lack in this way — they need oversight and visiting. “Pastor and teacher”, are one, I think: “Elder” has more the character of office: it is not perhaps so much teaching as taking oversight, shepherding people. The evangelist is a distinct gift, but pastor and teacher are one. Oversight, is a divine principle; without question, God intended that His people should have shepherding. The Lord had compassion on the people because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. Nothing could give greater evidence of the great weakness amongst us than that there is so little of this oversight. It is the thought of God that people should be looked after, and often those who are not going on well do not like it; it may be they are ashamed of associations and the like, but all the same it is the divine thought that people should have oversight. It is to be done “of a ready mind” and with no thought of selfish ends.
They were to be ensamples to the flock. You cannot exhort others to do what you do not do yourself.
A young man cannot exhort an elder. We cannot be too rigidly apart from anything that savours of officialism. I would not go to a funeral, even of my nearest relative, if a clergyman was officiating. To care for the saints “of a ready mind” will get its [p. 97] reward in the day of glory; there will be a full recognition of all that has been carried out here for Christ. People are liable to get depressed in Christianity. A shepherd may encourage and lift them up a bit. A great many people try to live in connection with the things that brought them out of Egypt, i.e., the knowledge of forgiveness, justification, and so on. The truth is that in that case they grow old in the wilderness, they get jaded. People cannot live on these things. Life is the only means of continuance. Life brings in the thought of love and light. Grace has met my responsibility, but if I want to continue, I need other things — the light of divine love and the purpose of God. The second part of Numbers contemplates that side — life. If we want to be maintained in the freshness of what brought us out of Egypt we must go on to life. Arminians take up the first part of Numbers, Calvinists the second part. We want both, but if you have life you will be maintained fresh in the first also.
It is a great thing in our experience to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. It is necessary to be humbled. When God finds things in us which are not according to Him, He resists. God knows how to humble, but He knows too how to exalt in due time.
We all ought to be overcomers. “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”. We often get overcome of evil; we get offended, our pride gets hurt, but the whole principle of Christianity is to overcome evil with good. It is a great thing to be an overcomer; there is a strength and enjoyment in it. The Lord says of such: I will make him “a pillar in the temple of my God”. The natural disposition of man is to deal with others as they deal with him. Retaliation is what is natural to us, but that is not overcoming evil in the power of good. If you retaliate you have not seized the moment, you have missed the [p. 98] opportunity. Things are very difficult in the present day. Take debt; it is very hard to be defrauded; but then, if you go to law, you go to law against a professed Christian. It is this latter which makes the practical difficulty.
We have the care of God: “He careth for you” (verse 7), but then we have an adversary too — the devil going about like a roaring lion. Subtlety acts much better than open opposition. The great effort of Satan is to dislodge Christians from the faith, and therefore it says: “Whom resist stedfast in the faith”. The minds of men, nowadays, are filled with ideas of science and the like, and the effort is to undermine the faith. Greater importance is attached to science than to revelation which is of God. If you have an inspired revelation, it is unquestionable that, being what it is, it cannot be broken nor can it accommodate itself to what is of man. If anyone seeks to accommodate what is revelation to man’s ideas, it is a practical denial that it is revelation. You cannot mix oil and water; you cannot reconcile revelation with what is of man and human deductions.
These saints were not alone in affliction — others too came under it (verse 9).
“The God of all grace who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus” — or rather, in Christ Jesus. It is a great idea! The point is that you have eternal glory in view, and it is in Christ Jesus, it is in another Man. We have come to the beginning when we come to Christ. Christ is the beginning. We might think Genesis was the beginning — it is not so. Christ is the beginning: He is the outset of God’s ways for His glory. The great object of grace is to bring you to be partaker of His Spirit — that you may get living water from Christ — then you come to life. Grace operates to show how all that is connected with us in our responsible life has been fully met, and we come to Christ and receive from Him living water;
[p. 99] and then we live; we live in Him who is the beginning. John is very strong about “the beginning”. All will disappear but the glory of God and Christ Jesus: all else but that will most surely disappear. Christendom has got the idea of benefits by Christ, and they leave out Christ Himself. Hymns often convey wrong ideas. “Our title to glory we read in thy blood” will not do. There is no title to glory in connection with the blood. The blood of Christ is purgation, we could not go to glory without the blood, but glory is calling and purpose and sovereign mercy. Blood is purgation, and we want it, of course, but title lies in the sovereign gift of God.
The effect of preaching should be to lead people to the Person who is the Head of every man. It has a great effect because you get the sense of being livingly connected with that Man, and as a consequence you are more separated from the man with whom you were connected. It is wonderful to contemplate the eternal glory of God and Christ Jesus, all the moral effulgence of God coming out in Christ Jesus. God coming out displayed in all that He is, and we in the presence of it and able to abide in it. It is possible for man to abide in the presence of God’s glory.
The witness of the Spirit is not in what Christians say, but in what they are, and it comes out in their love one to another which is the moral reflection of Christ down here. The great point is that the Spirit’s witness is a living witness. It is all living.