LOVERS OF CHRIST
LOVERS OF CHRIST
1 Corinthians 12: 1-3; Hebrews 13: 20, 21; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-26; Acts 7: 54-60
I would like, dear brethren, to say a few words tonight in the way of bringing before you the means I believe the Lord Jesus Christ takes with His people in order to secure their affection. I think the Lord is looking today that there should be here on earth those who are characterised as lovers of Christ, I do not mean, dear brethren, simply that we love Him as we first learn to love Him as Saviour, as the Blessed One who died for us. I believe the Lord Jesus is looking today to find here on earth, those who are marked continuously as lovers of Christ. In the epistle to Timothy the apostle tells us that in the last days, difficult times shall come. One feels, dear brethren, that one feature of the difficult times is that men are lovers of their own selves. You could write that upon this world, that men are lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and I believe the Lord is stirring up the hearts of His people, that in contrast to that He should see here those who are lovers of Christ. I believe that we may see from these Scriptures how He works to produce this in our hearts. We might speak of His love to us as individuals. How wonderful it is! The apostle could say, “Who loved me,
and gave Himself for me.” That is the love He bears to us individually. We might think of His love to the Church. “He loved the Church and gave Himself for it.” How wondrous, and how blessed!
And in Ephesians, the apostle speaks of “The love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” Here we are brought face to face with the totality of His love. What I want to show is that the Lord looks for an answer to His love. The effect of the appreciation of His love to us as individuals, and to the Church, would be that we should be here as lovers of Christ. You remember, the Lord speaks to the disciples on that last evening in John 14, “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me! and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” We might perhaps say, “Surely that is true of all?” But does he say it of all? “He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father.”
In John 11 we read, “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.” He loved all in a sense. His compassions were great to the poor and the wretched, but it says, “He loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus.” Why? I believe He saw in their hearts that whole-hearted affection for Himself, that was a joy to His heart, and, thank God, I believe He does see something of it now. There are those here who are not lovers of themselves, but who are characterised as lovers of Christ. One is struck with that thought in the history of Solomon. You remember Solomon’s purpose to build God a house. It had been in David’s heart to do it, but David was a man of war, and war is not a feature of God’s house. The great features of God’s house are peace and prayer. “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” Peace and prayer go together. So David could not build the house. Solomon was a man of peace. He takes up David’s thought, and intends to build God a house. Now the question arises, where is the suitable material to come from to build God a house? We see how beautifully it comes out. Hiram, King of Tyre, “was ever a lover of David,” Solomon seems to have divine wisdom as to him. He sent for that man so as to have durable materials for the house. And we read, “Hiram greatly rejoiced.” Because of his love for David he delighted to send material. So he sent Solomon timber of cedar, and timber of fir. He sent his servants into the forests to hew material suitable for the Temple of God. It was provided by one who was called ever a lover of David. Hiram’s compensation comes in a most beautiful way. Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 measures of wheat for food, and 20 measures of pure oil. There came from the heart of Hiram, because of the love he bore to David, material suitable for God’s dwelling place. He got in return, food, and that which would make his face shine. Oil makes a man’s face to shine. But what has struck one particularly is this, that when material was necessary for God’s house, the one who provided it is called ever a lover of David. I’m sure it’s true the Lord finds from those who love Him, material suitable for the house of God. But there is a difference, for in our case the one who loves becomes the material. “To whom coming, as unto a Living Stone... ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house.” The materials for God’s house today are not literal timbers of cedar and fir. But ye also. The one who loves Christ is suitable material for that house, “In Whom all the building fitly framed together... In Whom ye also are builded together.”
Ah! it is fitly framed together, you cannot conceive of disorder in a structure composed of lovers of Christ. It is fitly framed together and groweth. I thought the four Scriptures I read might be used to create this condition of heart. I am not referring to the first time He meets us. But in these Scriptures there is that calculated to move our affections, so that if we listen we become lovers of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12, the apostle tells us, “No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed.” No one upon whom the Spirit is operating will speak detrimentally of Christ. No one who is going to have a place in the divine structure, hates Christ. That belongs to another structure altogether, to that of the prince of the power of the air. He works in the children of disobedience, in order to produce a structure in this world where he can dwell. When the Lord spoke to the Church at Pergamos He said, “I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is.” We know that the spirit of the world is hatred of Christ. It is growing too, we see it in spite of fair words. It is the governing spirit. Satan hates Christ. The apostle says, I would not have you ignorant that no man speaking by the Spirit can curse Jesus Christ. But mind you, he adds, “No man can say that Jesus Christ is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” No one can say Lord Jesus except by the Spirit of God. It has been pointed out that the expression Lord Jesus, is an expression of affection of heart. What is before the heart in giving expression to those blessed words is not the dignity of Christ exactly, not His official glory, but the breathing of our heart. And the apostle says no one can say Lord Jesus but by the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit of God is here. How different from the spirit of Satan. The Spirit of God is operating in the children of light, in order to produce a blessed response to His love, and to bind the hearts of those who love Him to Himself. May the Spirit work in our souls, dear brethren, so that the Lord Jesus may engage our affections absolutely. That is what the Spirit is doing today. He is here. His work is great, it is immense. The Spirit maketh intercession for us. The mighty work of the Spirit is going on all the time here on earth, to form in the saints, affections that will answer to Christ, and so the apostle says, no man can say “Lord Jesus,” except by the Spirit of God. It is the work of the Spirit to bind our hearts to Him.
Then, dear friends, in the Scriptures we read in Hebrews, I think we have one of the means the Spirit uses to bring about that end. The Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to us. And so the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, writes to the saints of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the character of Shepherd, that Great Shepherd of the sheep. He is thinking of all the blessed Lord’s activities as the Great Shepherd, who has given His life for the sheep. Think of the activities of the Lord Jesus in that character. There was nothing of the hireling about Him. What a contrast to the wolf who comes to destroy and scatter the sheep. The hireling flees, but the Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd who giveth His life for the sheep. He went down into death itself for the sheep. And the writer thinks of this. He is so delighted in that Great Shepherd of the sheep, that he says, “The God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep,” as he thinks of Him in that character he says “our Lord Jesus.” How our hearts are moved as we think of that Great Shepherd, our Lord Jesus? God brought Him again from the dead, that Great Shepherd of the sheep. He’s not lost to us, beloved friends.
We see a line of shepherds running down from the earliest times. We find Abel was a keeper of sheep. Then again Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were shepherds. You remember when Joseph’s brethren came before Pharaoh, he said, “What is your occupation?” They answered, “Thy servants are shepherds.” Further on, the line was continued in Moses. He was a keeper of sheep in the wilderness. The line goes on to David. God took him from the sheepfold to shepherd His people. He guided them in the way of integrity. Later we get the shepherds who watched their flocks on the night the Lord Jesus was about to come. Those watching shepherds stand for the whole line of faithful shepherds who went before. They were to see One who was to be the Great Shepherd of the sheep. The shepherd character is taken up again in Peter. The Lord Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. Feed My lambs.” The apostle Paul said, “After my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.” They dare not come while he was there, he was such a faithful shepherd.
Timothy takes up the line. “I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state.” Timothy had the shepherd heart.
Beloved brethren, we need more of the shepherd heart. One would be greatly encouraged to go on that line. When that Great Shepherd was down in death, in His activities as a Shepherd, God would not allow Him to remain there. All the other shepherds we were speaking about had fallen asleep. But God brought again from the dead the Great Shepherd, and the Spirit of God would engage us with the shepherd activities of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God would bring Him before us in that way. When our affections are moved we can say, “Our Lord Jesus.” Before one leaves that point, it is very blessed to see that God has the heart of a shepherd. God spoke of “David, My servant, a man after Mine own heart.” What kind of a heart had David? A shepherd heart. God said, ‘He’s got a heart like Mine.’ Think of it. God, in all His majesty and glory, has the heart of a shepherd. The Man after God’s own heart, dear brethren, is only to be seen perfectly in the Lord Jesus, but in David’s heart we have a reflection of the heart of God.
In coming to 1 Corinthians 11, one feels that the Lord Jesus is presented there in such a way as to gain lovers of Christ, to secure now on the earth, lovers of Christ. I think we’ll agree that there is nothing like the Supper to gain lovers of Christ. Paul, about to speak to the saints at Corinth, of that blessed institution, says, “The Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed.” That same night, the night, if any, that might have turned His thoughts from His own, that same night He took bread, “And when He had given thanks, He brake it and said, Take, eat, this is My body, which is given for you.” As the Lord speaks to us in the Supper, our affections are moved, are renewed. I believe the affections of the saints grow through the Supper, as He speaks of His love in such a wondrous way. In Exodus 21, we have the instance of the Hebrew servant. After six years’ service he could go free. If he came in by himself, he should go out by himself. If he brought a wife in with him, she should go out with him. As the margin reads, if he came in with his body, he shall go out with his body. But if he shall say, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free,” then his master will bring him to the judges, they will bore his ear with an awl at the doorpost, and he shall serve him for ever. You can understand, dear friends, that as the Hebrew servant would be gathered from time to time with his wife and children, they would look often at that mark in his ear. Their hearts would be moved. They would understand he had had the opportunity and the right to go out free, but he loved them. “I love my master, my wife, and my children.” Dear friends, I think that’s what the Lord Jesus says to us in the Supper. He says, “This is My body.” It was the body prepared for Him, and which He need never have given up. He had never forfeited the right to live, and as Christians our bodies are the Lord’s. “This is My body.” He could have taken it with Him. He came in with His body, in the words of the type, and He could have gone out with His body as far as His personal title was concerned, but in the Supper He says plainly, “I will not go free.” The apostle says, “The Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed..., said This Is My body.” The apostle’s whole heart goes out with his words. “The Lord Jesus, the same night.” “This Is My body, which is given for you.” I’m sure, dear brethren, that the Lord is using the Supper to create on this earth myriads of lovers of Christ, who are thus made into suitable material for that structure which is growing into an holy habitation for the Lord.
Just a few words as to Acts 7. Here we have a different point of view. We see Stephen about to depart from this world. Here we are not thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Great Shepherd, nor of the Supper. But we find a man who says, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” He looked up into the heavens. The heavens are spoken of in Scripture as a curtain which hides from the natural eye the other side, the dwelling-place of God. Oh, think of that dwelling-place in the heavens! But Stephen saw the heavens opened. He saw the glory of God and Jesus. He saw in the Person of Jesus, all the glory of God shining for him, and his heart was enchanted. He was so taken up with the wondrous vision that, though the stones were flying, he was outside of it all, and knelt down and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” As he looked at that wondrous scene, his heart beheld Christ, and he said “Lord Jesus.” He is another example of a man like Hiram. He went out of this world governed by the spirit of that world. He went up from the wilderness leaning on his Beloved, leaning upon Christ, and he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He thus qualified to become material for God’s dwelling-place. What excellent material! It is not lost. It has gone into that wonderful structure that will come into display for the glory of God and the great blessing of man. So Stephen has gone there. He was ever a lover of Christ.
Well, beloved friends, that, I believe, is the way God is working to produce in our hearts material for His house. As Peter wrote, “Ye also, as living stones, are built upon a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ.” And as that work goes on, and it is going on, it prepares us for that blessed close of the Scriptures when the Lord speaks to His own, “He that testifieth these things, saith, Surely I come quickly.” The Spirit of God will so work in the hearts of His people that there will arise from myriads of hearts the blessed response, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” I am sure that is what the Spirit of God is doing. He is working to produce that here. The Lord takes account of every move in the soul. He takes account of every living thing. If there is a desire to answer to His love, the Lord satisfies it by the power of the Spirit of God.