WHAT BELIEVERS HAVE COME TO
I think the meetings we have had together, dear brethren, have served to give us a fresh impression of the greatness of that which we have part in as sealed with the Holy Spirit and living in a day when all God’s thoughts regarding the assembly are being recovered to the saints, and it is therefore of great importance that we should all be helped to have a greater understanding, a more definite appreciation, of what it is that we have been called to, and it is for that reason that I have read these three verses in Hebrews 12, for the writer of the epistle says, just before where we commenced reading, that we have not come to the mount that could be touched, but then he says, “ye have come to mount Zion”, and then to seven other things which are enumerated one after the other. And therefore he is giving, by the Spirit, an outline of what it is that we believers have come to, what we belong to in contrast to the system of law with which God’s people of old were connected. And the first thing is mount Zion, and that is the great principle of God’s sovereignty exercised in mercy.
It is a great thing to get the sense that all that we have part in is due to the sovereignty of God and to His intervention in mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ when all was lost on the line of man’s responsibility. We are always to be kept in the sense of that, and that is why I read those verses from Psalm 78, because they indicate in an unmistakable way that that is what mount Zion stands for. The psalmist is recalling one of the blackest points in the history of Israel, when, through unfaithfulness to God, everything committed to them was lost; even the ark was lost, so that everything had broken down and gone on the line of responsibility, and then it says that the Lord awoke, as though He would rise up in His own sovereign rights; nothing could be hoped for on the ground of responsibility, but if He was pleased to intervene sovereignly in mercy, then, of course, He had a free hand to do what He pleased, and that is what the Psalm opens up; that the Lord awoke and “rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved”. It is a great thing to have the sense that all that we have part in through grace, and will have part in eternally, is the outcome of God having been pleased sovereignly to intervene in mercy when there was no hope for us at all on the line of responsibility, because it gives God all the glory, and it leaves God a free hand to do whatever He pleases. He is in no sense limited now to what would be forthcoming if responsibility were fulfilled—not that I am suggesting, of course, that in Christianity responsibility is not fulfilled, because one result of the giving of the Holy Spirit is that there is power in believers, in the Holy Spirit, to fulfil every responsibility, and the righteous requirement of the law is being fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, but the basis of all that is that God has intervened in sovereign mercy, accomplishing redemption in the death of Christ, and then giving the Holy Spirit to those who believe.
None of us could claim these things as a right or as deserved; it is a question, purely, of the sovereignty of mercy, and it is well, as I have said already, that we should be confirmed in the sense of it, because if God is operating now on those lines it means that He is left free to do whatever He pleases, and that means that He can bring in the greatest possible thoughts, whatever His love desires, whatever His wisdom is capable of conceiving; whatever His power is equal to establishing, God is free to do it all, and hence that is what we have come to, dear brethren, a system of blessing and glory which has its roots in the fact that God has of His own free will intervened in mercy, accomplishing redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ, and freely giving the Holy Spirit to those who believe. And so it says, “ye have come to mount Zion”. It is an immense thing to get the sense of it, and Psalm 125 gives us another touch in regard of mount Zion, for it says, “They that confide in Jehovah are as mount Zion, which cannot be moved; it abideth for ever”. That is, mount Zion not only stands for that which exists in the sovereignty of divine mercy, but it also stands for that which is absolutely stable. It will never be removed, and that implies that we have come to finality.
Then it says, following on that, “and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem”. Now we have not only come to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, but we are the thing itself, that is, the assembly is the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem. It is the idea of what is dignified; that which we can rightly be proud of belonging to. You remember on one occasion, Paul, speaking as a man, said that he was a citizen of no mean city. He was speaking as a man and referring to Tarsus, but in a much greater and in a spiritual sense every believer can say that he is a citizen of a very great city, the city of the living God; and what city could be greater? That is what the assembly is, the city of the living God, and the Spirit of God is bringing these things before us in order that we might be lifted up in our thoughts, in our thoughts of ourselves, though not to be occupied with ourselves, or in any sense to be boastful save as we may rightly boast in God. As it says, “He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord”. And so we are, in fact, the city of the living God. The idea of a city, as we often say, is that it is a centre of rule and influence, and we are being fitted for it. We are to come down from heaven from God, having the glory of God, having it substantially, able to express God in all our actions, in all our movements, in all our influence; we are being formed in view of it, the city of the living God. How important it is that we should be formed in love. It is the time of formation, and when the heavenly city comes down out of heaven from God it will, above all things, radiate love. Its influence will be an influence of love, and this is the time of formation, and we are set in relation to one another in order that we might be developed in love. A person who lives in isolation has very little opportunity of developing in love, but the Lord has set us together in localities, set us in relation to one another, in order that we might develop in love, and love is of God, and we are to come down out of heaven, not simply from heaven, but out of heaven, as characteristically heavenly, out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And so it is said to be “the heavenly Jerusalem”.
Those to whom the epistle was written would remember that Jerusalem had been God’s centre on earth, His chief interest, and indeed one of the psalmists says, “if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy…”. Jerusalem was to be first with him, but now the assembly is the heavenly Jerusalem. It is to come down exercising an influence that is really heavenly, and where can we learn that but from Christ? He is the One out of heaven, and we are intended during this time to keep ourselves more and more under the influence of Christ, and the Spirit is faithful to that end. What is heavenly is now to come in, so that you remember in the gospel of Matthew, in what we call the sermon on the mount, the Lord several times says, “Ye have heard that it has been said ...” so and so, but then He says, “But I say unto you”. That is to say a new influence, a new heavenly influence, was now to come in and it was to be learned from Christ in view of the formation of this city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Psalm 122, as you may remember, refers to Jerusalem, and we may well apply it to the assembly. It says: “Jerusalem, which art built as a city that is compact together”. That is the first thing—compact together, involving what I have been saying, that we love one another, because you cannot get the divine idea regarding the assembly in practical expression save in the measure in which love amongst yourselves is operating, because the city is not the idea of so many individuals moving or acting, it is a question of an entity, one influence expressed by the saints viewed as the assembly of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and hence the first essential in Psalm 122 is that it is “compact together”. And then it says, “Whither the tribes go up ... to give thanks unto the name of Jehovah”. That is to say, what characterises the assembly, as we have had so much before us during these meetings and of recent years, is that the service of God marks it. The first thing is love amongst ourselves, and then the service of God, and what can be greater, dear brethren, than to be permitted, under the hand of the Lord Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, to maintain the service of the blessed God day in and day out, and week in and week out, in the very world where Christ has been crucified, and where, as we have been hearing, apostasy is developing fast. And not in any formal way, but in a constantly fresh and living way; hence we can understand why the Lord is emphasising the place that is to be given by us to the Holy Spirit, because the recognition of the Spirit, on our part, brings in increasing freshness and fulness, and increasing substance and joy, in the service of God, so that God should be served in a way that is worthy of Him.
Thank God we have such an One as our Lord Jesus Christ as our great High Priest. So that the service of God is in good hands, in the hands of Christ on high and the Holy Spirit here. What is required is that we should render ourselves fully available to the Lord and to the Spirit, as we may see when we come to our last scripture, but these verses that I have read in Hebrews 12 are intended to give us some idea of the greatness of what we belong to in order to stimulate us, to see that not one of us is negligent in regard of filling out his own part in it. And so, Paul, in writing to the Philippians, says, “we”, in contrast to what was around him religiously, “are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh”. But then not only is the service of God to characterise the assembly, but also rule and influence, and so Psalm 122 goes on to say that “there are set thrones for judgment”. That is to say there is a perfect judgment according to God maintained in regard of everything in the assembly. That is an important matter, dear brethren, and maintained in a dignified way, in a royal way—“thrones for judgment”. Is it so with us always in our assembly meetings, because matters arise in the assembly that are intended to test us as to whether they can be judged by us according to God? The Spirit of God is here to give us discernment, to give us intelligence, to enable us to be pure in our motives, to enable us to be faithful and courageous, so that judgment should be executed in a way that can be rightly connected with the idea of a throne—“thrones for judgment”.
You can easily understand, dear brethren, that if we do not develop now in this period of education and formation in spiritual judgment there will be something lacking in our administration in the day to come, but God intends that there should be nothing lacking, and we are to be concerned that there should be nothing lacking, and I might just add this, dear brethren, that the first element in spiritual judgment in the assembly is that each of us should know how to judge himself. Self-judgment should be a characteristic feature with us, and the word of God applied in the power of the Spirit of God, is that which is always available to us to enable us to maintain real self-judgment; not self-occupation or introspection, but that we should not be deceived by the heart which is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; but we can thank God that the Spirit has taken His abode in us, in order that all the thoughts and motives that are operating in our minds and hearts should be disclosed to us in their true character, and to enable us to range ourselves on the side of what is of God, and to refuse by the Spirit’s power all that is not of God. And as this feature of spiritual judgment is developed in ourselves, in our own personal exercises and circumstances, so we shall become increasingly qualified to have part in the judgment that is one feature of the administration of the assembly. And so it is the “city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem”. Then it says that we have come to “myriads of angels”. What a comfort that is! Of recent years the Lord has been stressing the thought of angelic ministry, and I believe the idea is to help us to be restful. There are two things, it seems to me, that are intended to make us restful in going on with the things of God whatever may arise in the world. The first thing, and the supreme thing, is that the Spirit of God Himself is with us, never to leave us, so God is always with us in the Spirit, a most impressive thing, that with the saints as moving together, and with each saint individually, the Holy Spirit is with us, and therefore there is no reason why we should be overcome at any point. And then in addition to that, in regard perhaps more particularly to what is circumstantial, we have the myriads of angels, an innumerable company of angels, as it might be rendered, and they are all sent forth, as this very epistle tells us, to minister to those who are heirs of salvation. Not that that necessarily means that we shall be spared suffering, for it does not. It is not God’s way that the saints of today should be spared suffering. It is part of His way that we should suffer, and so you remember when the Lord was about to be taken and Simon Peter drew his sword in defence of his Master, the Lord told him to put up the sword within its sheath, and then He said, “Thinkest thou that I can not now call upon my Father, and he will furnish me more than twelve legions of angels”, but He says, “how then should the scriptures be fulfilled?” So that it is a question of going through with the will of God, whatever that will may entail, but understanding that there are myriads of angels serving the saints, constantly at hand in order that whatever man may do there should be no obstacle to the going forward of the truth to completion.
We well know that when the women on the first day of the week, after the Lord had died, came to the sepulchre, saying among themselves, “Who shall roll us away the stone out of the door of the sepulchre?”, they found that an angel had been before them, and had rolled away the stone, and not only rolled away the stone but was sitting on it, as though the angel would pour contempt on the whole power of the Roman empire, and in order that those who loved Jesus might be assured in their minds that if it was necessary that obstacles should be removed, they would be removed by angels, and they would be removed in such a way as to indicate that all the power of man was nothing as compared with the power of an angel. And so “ye have come” it says, “to myriads of angels”, and then it adds “to the assembly of the first-born who are registered in heaven”. That is another view of the saints in their personal dignity. It has been well said that our being the assembly of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, is a kind of civic idea, enabling us to understand that we belong to a city that we can be proud of, but then the assembly of the first-born who are registered in heaven is a kind of social idea, that we belong to the very highest of society; that a peerage of the realm is not to be compared with the dignity attaching to the saints of God, they are all first-born ones.
So, dear brethren, these things are set before us, that we may turn them over in our minds, and not be ashamed of being Christians, and not treat Christianity as though it is a kind of appendage to our lives, but that we may understand that what we have been brought to and what we belong to, is the thing, the choicest thing that has been in the mind of God from before the foundation of the world. It has now come in, and we are to move in it in faith, finding power for it in the Holy Spirit. And how it will affect us, dear brethren, if we look first upon ourselves and then upon one another, as first-born ones, registered in heaven. What could be greater in the way of honour conferred upon us? and that is the idea, that we are to understand the dignified character of what we now belong to. Every one of us has been sealed with the Holy Spirit, every one of us is known in heaven, every one of us partakes in the Spirit of the life of the heavenly One, “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, and we are intended as having these things before us to learn to comport ourselves as heavenly ones.
And then it says, “to God the judge of all”. That will help to save us from the fear of man, that we have been brought to God, and we know Him as the judge of all. He is going to have the last word, and He has a perfect judgment about everything and everybody. We have come to God, the judge of all. An earlier chapter in this epistle says, there is in Christianity the bringing in of a better hope by which we draw nigh to God. It is an immense thing to cultivate drawing near to God, dear brethren. We often refer to Psalm 73, where Asaph says that his steps had well nigh slipped because he was occupied with outside appearances in the world. “Until”, he says, “I went into the sanctuaries of God, then understood I their end”, the end of the wicked. He drew near to God, and as he drew near to God he saw things in God’s light, and he understood that God is the judge of all, and that He is going to have the final word, and to vindicate His saints, and judge the wicked, and so, dear brethren, the knowledge of God, the judge of all, will be a great element in our souls as delivering us from the fear of man. We get it exemplified outstandingly in Daniel, for his very name means ‘God is judge’ showing, I have no doubt, that that is what Daniel had in his soul, that God was judge, and in the light of that we can understand how well Daniel was able to go through. What it says of Daniel is that he continued, and also that he prospered. It says, “this Daniel prospered”, at the end of chapter 6, and that should be an incentive to us, dear brethren, to study the first six chapters of Daniel, to see what kind of man Daniel was, the kind of man that prospers over a long period of years, for he lived, apparently, to be an old man, and passed through various changes of dynasty, and yet he prospered in it all—“this Daniel”. The kind of man, who, when he was a young man, refused to be defiled with the king’s meat and was content with pulse and water. He started thus, and he continued and prospered, and the secret of it all was that he had in his soul that God was judge.
Now we come to God, the judge of all, and then it says, “the spirits of just men made perfect”. That is, we have now come to perfection; redemption has been accomplished, and the time for perfection has come in. Very soon we shall see all the Old Testament saints, raised in glory with ourselves. We have come to the time of perfection, “the spirits of just men made perfect”. And then it adds, “to Jesus”. We have come to Jesus, Mediator of a new covenant. Allusion was made in the course of the reading this afternoon to the constant repetition in this epistle of the personal name of Jesus; and that is what is so blessed about Christianity, it is a great system, indeed, a glorious system, but it is a system that has as its centre the Person of Jesus, so that it is a system of affection, centring in Jesus, and He is known by His personal name to the saints of the assembly. I do not believe He is known in the same way by any other family, but what is peculiarly the portion of the assembly is that the Lord Jesus is known to us by His personal name, and He addresses us by His personal name, saying, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star”.
Christianity is a great and glorious system, but it is a system of affection centring in Jesus. And, of course, the name ‘Jesus’ conveys the glory of His Person as being Himself God, and hence we are intended to be impressed with the glory of the system to which we belong, that the One who is the centre of it and who is the Head of it too and gives character to it is no less than Jesus. And so He is Mediator, it says, “of a new (or fresh) covenant”. That is, the idea of freshness is connected with it, and how often we taste that at the Supper. It seems to turn our thoughts to the idea of the cup. The Lord says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me”. That is to say, He is calling attention to Himself, it is Jesus, and as things are held in relation to Jesus in that way, things become constantly fresh. It is a Person appealing to us, and showing us that in His own death He went the whole length that was required in order that we might be freed from all that attached to us, and might take up what belongs to us as heavenly. He went the whole way in all that death meant to Him, in order that we might be liberated to move in the dignity and liberty of Christianity, and every Lord’s day He confirms it to us afresh, and there is a freshness attaching to the Supper, and peculiarly, may I say, to the cup, because it is not simply what Jesus has done, but it is Jesus Himself confirming His own personal love to us in the cup, and we all drink of it together.
And so we have come to Jesus, Mediator of a new (or fresh) covenant, and then it says “the blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel”. That is to say, it speaks, I believe, of the claims of divine love over us, that redemption has been effected in the blood of Christ, the blood of God’s own, we might say, and the sprinkling of the blood would convey to us, I believe, that God would claim us by the appeal of His love to yield ourselves wholly now to this system of service Godward, in which we are privileged to have part.
Now, I do not need to refer further to Psalm 78, save that we might look for a moment at the last verse which I read, which says that “he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded forever”. That shows that God in intervening in mercy, had in mind the sanctuary, and establishing eternal conditions, in which He would be served by the saints for His own pleasure. As I say, nothing is more stimulating than the thought that we are called to minister to the pleasure of God as serving Him in His sanctuary. The idea of the sanctuary, of course, implies holy conditions, and when it comes to eternal conditions, of course, they are essentially holy. There is no need to stress the idea of the sanctuary when we come to eternal conditions, for the conditions then will be essentially and eternally holy, but the idea of the sanctuary refers especially to the present time, that in a world of evil, holy conditions can be maintained among the saints in which God can be served according to His pleasure.
But now we come to the passage I read in Leviticus 24, and I read it because it has in mind that the system, so far as concerns affording pleasure to God, makes certain demands upon us; not demands in a legal way, but that we are essential to it. We sometimes speak of the wonderful economy into which God has come in view of revelation, and all that is involved in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, but I think you will agree that if God has come out in revelation it is us, that is, the saints, who are in mind. The saints are needed to fill out the Economy with the response in love which God’s heart looks for; the Economy requires the saints for the filling out of it. The Economy, of course, is the arrangements, if one may use such a commonplace word in such holy things, which the Persons of the Godhead have entered into between Themselves with a view to God being revealed as Father, and the revelation being made effective, and response to it secured, in the saints. So as I say, it requires the saints for the filling out of it, and that should be a great stimulus to us, to see that not one of us is failing to fill his own part in this wondrous economy.
Leviticus 23, the chapter preceding where we have read, gives the feasts of Jehovah. That is, it gives a list and details of the various holy convocations of God’s people. How God takes pleasure in the gatherings together of the saints! He would have them together in order that they might afford pleasure to Him, and chapter 23 goes into that in great length, leading right on to the thought of the feast of tabernacles. But now when we come to chapter 24, we find that the children of Israel are commanded that they are to bring—it is not what Moses is to bring, nor what Aaron is to bring, but what the children of Israel are to bring; to bring “pure beaten olive oil for the light, to light the lamp continually”. You will notice in these verses that I have read, the constant repetition of the word ‘pure’—“pure beaten olive oil for the light” and then “the pure candlestick” in verse 4, and then “the pure table” in verse 6, and then “pure frankincense” in verse 7. That is, God is stressing what is pure, and that is what the Spirit of God, I believe, would emphasise amongst us in these closing days, that whatever mixture there has been in Christendom hitherto, whatever there has been that has been impure, God is looking for a complete answer to His own holy thoughts at the end. He wants purity; He wants His own thoughts maintained in absolute correspondence to them. You might say that is expecting too much. No, it is not expecting too much, and that is why the Holy Spirit is being so stressed at the present time, and why the urgent need is for all of us to see that we not only recognise the truth of the Spirit, but that we ourselves are formed in subjection to the Spirit, so that our very thoughts are spiritual, and our movements are spiritual. That is what we all are intended to arrive at in the closing days, because God wants purity; He wants a perfect answer to His thoughts to find expression among the saints.
Now, I cannot go in any detail into these verses, but we get first of all the light, the light of the candlestick, and then the table, the table with the bread of remembrance, and the first thing is that the people are called upon to bring the pure olive oil beaten for the light to light the lamp continually. That is, the light is always to be shining. It is a question of the light the Holy Spirit will give amongst us, the light as to Christ, the light as to divine thoughts. It is to be always shining continually. The lamps were to be trimmed, it says, from evening to morning. That is to say, the whole period of the night is to be covered by this idea of light in the power of the Spirit, the light is always to be there. It is to be there in ministry, but not simply in the gifts, but it is to be there as the saints gather together. There is always to be light shining, and what is necessary for that is that we should bring “the pure beaten olive oil for the light”. That means, of course, the Holy Spirit in each one of us. The “beaten”, no doubt, is an allusion to the discipline and exercise that we must all go through, because if the Spirit is to gain increasing place with us, flesh and what is natural is to have less and less place, and God will help us on those lines in order that the light may shine more simply, but the great point is that the saints themselves are to bring the oil. That is to say, we ourselves, in ourselves, in the Holy Spirit being unhindered amongst us, are to provide the conditions every time we are together in which the light can shine unhinderedly. It is a question of light shining among the saints; and so, dear brethren, if there is not light shining amongst us, we should ask ourselves as to what is the reason.
If there is no light shining in our reading meetings, for instance, what is the reason? Has there been an exercise on the part of the brothers, and on the part of the sisters, to provide the “pure beaten olive oil for the light”, or do we come to the meetings carelessly, and as a matter of course, and are we careless as to whether we come at all, or not? God has in mind that right through the night until the morning comes, there should be light shining among the saints, light as to Christ, and light as to God’s thoughts concerning the assembly as bound up with Christ, and we ourselves are responsible to bring, in the Holy Spirit, the conditions which will ensure the shining of the light. But then the answer to the shining of the light is seen in the table. That is to say, the table suggests the saints appearing before God in divine order, characterised by the features of Christ. That is to say, that is the answer to the light, the light shines on the one hand, it shines over against the candlestick, it makes everything of Christ, but then the answer to the light for the pleasure of God is to be found in the saints formed after Christ, moving together in divine order and unity. And so that is what the table suggests. The apostle refers to it in the epistle to the Colossians, where Christ is presented in His ability to sustain the saints before God as characterised by His own features, living in His own life, and the apostle says, “Rejoicing and seeing your order, and the firmness of your faith in Christ”.
So that is what is in mind, and I referred to this passage in closing, simply to touch on these two things, and to indicate that the system that we belong to is to be maintained in its living character before God for His pleasure, and God looks to us to provide the spiritual conditions, in the Holy Spirit, so that the light may shine, and the formative work go on, so that Christ reproduced in the saints is continually before God for His pleasure. And that is what is in mind, and then you notice that it says “it shall be a bread of remembrance”; a most precious thought. How God can look down upon the saints as walking before Him in unity and love and as having taken on and become characterised more and more by the features of Christ, how He can look down on it with pleasure. It is a bread of remembrance. I suppose it brings Christ to remembrance on the one hand, and then it is also a memorial for the saints themselves—bread of remembrance.
Think of this pleasure for God in these days, when, as we were hearing this afternoon, communism in all its dreadfulness is spreading on every hand. Think of the privilege attaching to us as providing this bread under the eyes of God continually, it is continually, an everlasting statute, and I only mention these things, dear brethren, in order that every brother and sister, old and young, may understand that he and she have a part to play in this living system which is intended to afford pleasure to the blessed God. And then it says that the priests also were to feed on this bread. That is to say, as having to do with God, if we are spiritual we shall not be occupied unduly with the discrepancies in the saints, save as seeking to learn how to serve them in love with a view to their being removed, but I say we shall delight to dwell on how God views the saints. This bread of remembrance was to be the food of the priests, and so you remember, that just as David, not that he was officially a priest, was to enter upon a period of severe testing, when he was to be persecuted by Saul and those with him, the people of God who should have known better, what he ate was shewbread. That is, he would become fortified in having to endure the testing of being persecuted by his own brethren, by feeding on what the saints were as God Himself views them in Christ. And that would be a great thing for us, dear brethren. Not that I suggest there is any spirit of persecution amongst ourselves, but if in any locality there should be found conditions of testing, then let me say to those who are tested, exercise yourselves to feed upon what the saints are in the sight of God, as in Christ, and you will get a better view of them than if you are occupied with their misconduct.
May the Lord help us in these things, dear brethren, to have a greater sense of the reality of what we belong to, and to see to it, that through grace, we fill our own part in affording to God the pleasure that He is entitled to from us, for His Name’s sake.
MAIDSTONE
7th August 1950
From Ministry of James Taylor—Old Series, vol 185
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