THE GLAD TIDINGS OF YOUR SALVATION
A. A. Bellamy
Ephesians 1: 13–14; Hebrews 4: 1–7, 11–13; Matthew 11: 25–30
I read from Ephesians because of the reference to the glad tidings. Paul, as we know, is writing to believers; he writes to “the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus who are at Ephesus” (Ephesians 1: 1), and he brings in very early this allusion to the glad tidings of their salvation.
It proves one thing at least, that the saints need the glad tidings, and we have to be specific in our thoughts of the glad tidings as presented to the saints—I mean as distinct from persons who are unbelievers. If any such were to come into this occasion, the Lord would surely speak to them. So I believe the Lord would speak to us who, like those in Ephesus, have trusted in Christ.
How simple these thoughts are that Paul speaks of in the highest of his epistles, “In whom ye also have trusted”. He begins, and we begin, with Christ, the One in whom we have trusted.
But then he says, “having heard the word of the truth, the glad tidings of your salvation”. This is very interesting because it shows that the full thought of salvation involves that we are not only to be delivered from the bondage of Egypt, and brought into the wilderness, as the people were, but we are to be brought out of the wilderness, and into the purpose of God for us as believers.
We are prone to think of God’s purpose as something to be fulfilled in the future, when we are in bodies of glory, and so it will be; but there is a side in which we can, and should, come into the realm of His purpose for us now. Therefore it is “the glad tidings of your salvation”. We know, in the history of the people of God in the wilderness, what a great matter it was to get them out of the wilderness and into the land, and there is the same reluctance with us as believers very often, not because of the claims of the world, but of nature, and all that is connected with the provisional order of God’s ways in the wilderness where, nonetheless, He may be learned, as the hymn says—
“In the desert God will teach thee
What the God that thou hast found”
But then many who came out of Egypt into the wilderness died in the wilderness; Caleb and Joshua, however, went right through. They really represent those who go right through today.
I want to raise that exercise with us, because it is the glad tidings of our salvation that is being presented to us, and we have the Holy Spirit of promise “who is the earnest of our inheritance”—the foretaste of the real thing. There is every inducement from the divine side to go on and not to remain in the wilderness; to enter into the purpose of God’s love, and to do so now.
Now, in Hebrews, Paul (I suppose the writer of this epistle) is addressing the Hebrew christians. We say that Hebrews is a wilderness epistle, and Paul presents to them what is heavenly. That is the purpose of God’s love for us—to enter into what is heavenly and to taste and experience the rest that we have sung about (Hymn 85). The promise is left of entering into His rest, and we are to fear lest any might seem to have failed of it. The promise will not fail, let us be sure of that God will not withdraw His promises. The opposition of the flesh in His people will never influence Him to withdraw His promises—they remain. But we may fail of them. That is a very serious consideration—to fail of the promise which He has left of entering into His rest.
Let me say that that is not ‘going to heaven when we die’, such as popular preaching holds out to people—something to be entered upon in the future. What God is presenting now to His people in the glad tidings of their salvation is to be entered into now; and we are responsible, and have the power, to do so. Every one who has received the Holy Spirit has the power in himself to enter into the purpose of God. So Caleb bore testimony to what kind of land it was, flowing with milk and honey, and he brought out the fruits of it, and he urged the people to go forward into it because, he said, “We are well able to do it” (Numbers 1: 30).
We need to regard ourselves, dear brethren, as those who have the Spirit and therefore have the power to enter in. Of course, the flesh is against the Spirit; it is lethargic, or it may be very active in opposition in any one of us. If this be so, we do not get the gain of the Spirit and may fail of the promise that is left us. But this epistle to the Hebrews is very stimulating, very encouraging to young people. The way to help young people is to encourage them.
Always put something before them to be reached, something to go on to. That is how Paul is writing this epistle, so that we do not settle down and remain on the wilderness side of Jordan, just enjoying the mercy of God and His providential care. That is a very attractive region to the flesh in us; not evil things, not gross things, but just comfortable, and suitable to settle down in, for flocks and herds. Some said they would go over Jordan and engage in the conflict, and they would come back again and dwell “on this side the Jordan eastward” (Numbers 32: 19). But the full thought of God is “the glad tidings of your salvation” and to go on into the fulness of the rest of God here.
So we find that God is referred to as swearing in His wrath as to certain who were not disposed to enter into His rest. They had had the word of the report, and what a report there has been from those who have gone this way! We have the ministry of such, who have gone into the land and brought us back the report and the evidence. How they have urged us to move on! It is a very necessary thing, if God gives us light, to see that the report is mixed with faith. That is really how faith comes. It comes by a report, and the report by God’s word (Romans 10: 17). It is God speaking in His word to us and we are tested as to our readiness to go forward.
It is very beautiful to see how God, having rested on the seventh day from all His works, desired man to enter into the enjoyment of rest. I do not think God secures much from restless persons. When we have been restless, God has not failed to minister comfort, the assurance of His interest, and many tokens of His mercy to us, day by day. But, in those conditions, He gets very little, if anything, from us.
How much the Lord had from Mary, who sat at His feet and was listening to His word! I wonder what the Lord was saying to Mary. I think He would have been opening up to her the depths of God. Do we want that? The depths of God are being searched by the Spirit of God, and He brings out things that men, as such, know nothing at all about. We want to accustom ourselves to do as Mary did. There she was, restful. We might say there are righteous obligations which we have to meet, but Mary somehow found time to sit down at the feet of Jesus and listen to His word. There was Martha, ‘bustling Martha’, she has been called, and she questioned His care. “Dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?” (Luke 10: 40). Well, Martha was adjusted, and she serves in restfulness, and there was more at Bethany for Christ in John 12 than there was for Him in Luke 10, much more, because there was what was collective and unified, and they were one in what was provided, in restfulness, for the heart of Christ.
So the rest remains, and God renews the opportunity for us to enter in. “Seeing therefore it remains that some enter into it, and those who first received the glad tidings did not enter in on account of not hearkening to the word, again he determines a certain day, saying, in David …” (Hebrews 4: 6, 7). God may have come to us before. He may have said something about this matter to us, and we may not have heeded it. Now He comes again. Think of God saying something in David to us, saying it in the true David, ‘great David’s greater Son’, saying “Today, after so long a time … today, if ye will hear his voice”. He gives us today—“as long as it is, called Today”, we read (Hebrews 3: 13). There is a little of the day left, so there is, time to commit ourselves in a fresh and vital way, to go on and to taste and experience what lies beyond death—a great order of things suited to God’s work, not only for us in the death of Jesus, but His work in us by the Spirit.
I do not know that I understand this verse fully—“Although the works had been completed from the foundation of the world” (Hebrews 4: 3). That is a long way back. The works have been completed. Think of the work of redemption, it has been completed. It was not an after-thought that God brought in. The works were completed from the foundation of the world.
The current of the Spirit’s mind is in the purpose of God—what has come out of eternity, and what is going into eternity. So Peter speaks of the blood of Christ, “foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1: 20). Nothing has ever happened in the history of time that has caused God to modify His purpose. His purpose stands, according to election, as it says in Romans 9: 11.
Let me appeal to the elect, here in this little company tonight—the “elect according to the foreknowledge of God” (1 Peter 1: 2). God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we might receive sonship, for His praise and His glory, as we have in Ephesians 1: 12, “that we should be to the praise of his glory”. It is to such persons, elect according to the foreknowledge of God, the appeal comes, “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”. Then, “Let us therefore use diligence”—be in the state of having used diligence—to enter into that rest, that no one may fall. It is not ‘fail’ here. Some might seem to have failed, but this is even more serious, to fall; it says “after the same example of not hearkening to the word”.
I would appeal to us, if God is urging in this direction, that we might not settle down, but go on to the full purpose of His love. Let us be those who use diligence, “for the word of God is living and operative”. It is God Himself “with whom we have to do”. I love the thought of having to do with God. He will have to do with all men. Here it is, Him “with whom we have to do”. We have had to do with Him today, and as long as He leaves us here we shall have to do with Him, but in love. It is very affecting that John writes to the little children, “because ye have known the Father” (1 John 2: 13). Do we know the Father? Let us, not put these things from us, thinking that they are beyond us.
Now I come to the passage in Matthew. It is quite clear that entering into rest here is not a matter of the future; it is present. The Lord says, “Come”. The Lord is addressing persons here who are burdened. He has spoken to the Father, and He speaks of the Father. Then He turns to those around Him and says, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”. It is very personal. He has to do with us individually and we have to come to Him to get what He has to dispense. “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened.”
How many are like that! How many are not fully in the liberty of the Spirit. The Lord says, “Take my yoke upon you”. That is a testing matter. If we desire to come into blessing, and into rest, it is upon the principle of relinquishing our wills.
How the Lord subdues us! The Lord can break a person’s will, if He has to do so. But what He desires to do is to subdue the will. Think of what He did to Saul of Tarsus. He could have crushed that man, but he rose up as a subdued man. His first word was, “Who art thou.
Lord?” Then, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22: 8, 10). That is a subdued person. That is the secret of progress in spiritual things, that you are subject to Christ, and that is the meaning of the yoke. It is a very intimate matter; it is identification with the rejected Christ here, because the cities had rejected Him and His ministry. At that very point it is said, “Jesus answering said, I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth”; He is occupied in what is well-pleasing to the Father.
How wonderful the present moment is, this dispensation, that here in the presence of Satan’s power—so manifest in lawlessness rising up on every hand—that in the very midst of it there is a sphere where God is praised. That is what energised Mr. Darby as he began. He tells us, ‘I sought a place where God’s praises could be sung’, and he found a place. I trust we have found it. That a wonderful moment this is when, in spite of Satan’s power, the Father’s praises somewhere are being sung. We know where it is—“in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises” (Hebrews 2: 12). This is the great assembly gospel, Matthew; and the way into the assembly is to be subject to Christ. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”; that is, the Lord is taking on this matter of instruction. He is taking on persons to instruct them, to make them disciples. “Learn from me”—He is not deputing the teaching to anyone else; He does it Himself. Oh, it is a great thing to come to Christ in subduedness of spirit and to learn from Him. He says, “I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls”.
Much was said a few years ago about the sabbath, and we found ourselves on Jewish ground; but “There remains then a sabbatism to the people of God” (Hebrews 4: 9). You say, Where is it? The question is not only, Where is it? but Who is it?—Jesus is the rest of God, the One who says here, “Come to me … and I will give you rest … and ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. I think we shall find, in company with Him, how quickly the transit is made from the plains of Moab to the things which Paul speaks of as “the glad tidings of your salvation”. May we know it increasingly, for His name’s sake.
Cardiff
25 February 1973