THE ENJOYMENT OF LIBERTY
[p. 42] THE ENJOYMENT OF LIBERTY
Rem You were reminding us on a previous occasion that the atmosphere of the synagogue was not good, and that it did not tend to liberty.
CAC Well, the man’s hand was withered there. I think religious profession without faith is a very hardening and withering thing. The Lord comes in there to get something out of it for God. It was not a sympathetic atmosphere at all. “They watched him if he would heal him on the Sabbath, that they might accuse him” (verse 2). The Lord was undeterred by the chilling atmosphere and He went on with His service. He could not be hindered by it but He felt it. Liberty for service is not so much found in the synagogue as by the sea. There are restrictions and limitations in the synagogue, but expansion by the sea. The Lord is still seen as Lord of the Sabbath. He seems to take that title with reference to liberty for the appropriation of what divine grace has made available for us.
For us the cornfields would set forth all that has come to maturity in Christ, the full provision of God for man; the Lord gives liberty on the divine side there, but here, in the synagogue, conditions on man’s side have to be met. The cornfields are thrown open, but conditions on our side have to be met. The same Lord of the Sabbath who brought in liberty on the divine side brings in conditions on our side, that we may appropriate and enjoy it. I think it is a serious consideration. The provision is illimitable, the new garment, the new wine, the Sabbath, and the cornfields! But on man’s side there is no power to avail himself of it. The sufficiency of Jesus has to be proved in connection with that. I have no power to avail myself of the good that God has provided except by the personal power and grace of the Son of man. It involves a personal action on His part.
[p. 43] My impression is that when the Lord came in as the Lord of the Sabbath He came in with all the original thoughts of the Sabbath in His mind, to make available to man all that God had provided. He would go back to the original thought. God finished all His work “and behold it was very good” (Genesis 1: 31). That is the original idea of the Sabbath, an order of things set up concerning which the blessed God could say, “It was very good”. His thought was, firstly, to enjoy it in His rest, and secondly, to have man to enjoy it with Him. There was, firstly, what God found in it, and secondly, His great thought that man should enter into His rest. If these people in the synagogue had taken in that original thought, they would have asked, ‘Is it very good that there should be this wonderful provision and man unable to avail himself of it?’ No! But the Lord Jesus came in to bring about conditions that are “very good”, and to enable man to enjoy them. What a proposal for us today! What you find is that man was content that the man should remain with his hand withered. He rather wished that he should go on as he was. We have here a divine work that could only be accomplished by Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath. We all need Him in this character; amazing wealth and blessedness has come in! We all believe that the good that has come in from God in Christ is immeasurable. Perfect righteousness, full joy in the love of God, a wonderful harvest of God’s thoughts in connection with a heavenly Christ, but how far are we in the good of it? It entails personal acquaintance with Christ in a very individual way. The disciples were in liberty and able to enjoy what there was in the cornfields. The synagogue represents the sphere of profession where man professed to know God, but did not know Him. There is nothing so hardening. It is the most terrible thing possible to profess to know God and not to know Him. In the synagogue the Lord always acts in sovereignty, in the sovereign compassion of His own tender heart. He takes account of our state and comes in to meet it according to God, and to give us power to appropriate. If we [p. 44] all stretched out our dried hands to Him, and got them restored, He would be delighted.
Ques Would it be “the obedience of faith”?
CAC It is very much like it. Exercises are called into being on the part of the man. It is very important to see that the first thing He says to the man is, “Rise up and come into the midst”. He calls upon him to move. He has to move at the word of Jesus.
Rem There is no question of inability when He speaks.
CAC The man who moves at the word of Jesus and comes into the midst becomes an object of attention. The Lord works that way. He does not work in a corner. It is a principle with the Lord. There has to be such a movement that attention is called to the one who moves. As soon as Jesus becomes Lord to us, Lord of the Sabbath, we are prepared to move at His word. It is the first step to the enjoyment of spiritual blessing.
Rem. And you can move!
CAC You can, and confession of the mouth follows. You have moved, and somebody says, ‘Why have you moved?’ Confession is always the answer to a challenge in Scripture. Confession is not when a boy or girl goes home to their rejoicing Christian parents and tells them that he or she has been found by the Saviour, but rather when a boy goes to school, for instance, and his school-friends invite him to do so and so, and he refuses. They say, ‘What is the matter with you, Johnny?’ ‘Jesus has become Lord to me’. That is confession. It is “before Pontius Pilate the good confession” (1 Timothy 6: 13). This man was a public confessor when he moved into the midst. If Jesus is really Lord to me and I begin to move at His word I will soon begin to get the virtue that is in Him. It is what you get for yourself. It is a wonderful moment when a man is willing to let all know that he is an object of mercy, an evidence of God’s election. That is what this man did. We want more publicity. We should pay great attention to the details of the gospels. Am I possessed of the [p. 45] Christ of God in this particular character? The Lord exposes the adversaries; He applies a test, as it were, to see if there was any kind of divine sensibility there (verse 4).
One step taken at the word of Jesus is a wonderful start, one practical step. It puts you in the midst and marks you off at once in the world. There is only one sympathetic heart in the synagogue, “But they were silent”. The man stands forth confessing that Jesus had become to him Lord of the Sabbath. If we thought of Him thus and gave Him His place it would preserve us from any fear of breakdown. We see He has come in to put things right on our side. “Stretch out thy hand”: every one of us knows to what extent we have done that. He stretched it out to the Lord, a withered hand, but draws it back restored, according to the virtue of Him to whom he stretched it out. The personal grace of the Lord is needed for appropriation. It is great grace on His part to be here, that in all our conscious inability to appropriate all that love has provided, we can stretch out our hand to be restored as we sit here. Do we believe it? We see the principle of it in 1 Timothy 1: 12 - 14. It is exactly what this man got. There was every kind of disability in Saul of Tarsus, he was in every way an unsuitable man. His hand was thoroughly dried, but he did really stretch it out to a Person who, as he says, “has given me power ... with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1: 12, 14). It is all on Paul’s side. His hand was restored.
Ques When did he first stretch forth his hand?
CAC I think he stretched forth his hand at the end of Romans 7 first, but there is a continual need for getting the virtue that is in Him, appropriating it that we may have strength to serve, as 1 Timothy 1: 13, “Appointed to ministry”, that we may be able to appropriate all the wealth of divine good for strength for service and to be here for the will of God. Paul had to learn that all was dried on his side.
Rem “Let the stealer steal no more” (Ephesians 4: 28).
Rem Seeing it will not do, we must do it.
CAC “But the grace of our Lord surpassingly overabounded with faith and love”. If we cannot say that, it is a pity. There is every defect on our side, but virtue in Christ has brought in faith and love on our side.
Ques Is this man a sign (Isaiah 8: 18)?
CAC Yes, no doubt he took his place along with others in “the house” (verse 20). In this chapter following upon the synagogue, we have the sea, the mountain, and then the house, people sitting in a circle around Christ, all doing the will of God. The Lord wants to detach us from the synagogue and bring us to the house that we may sit in an orderly way around the Son of God, doing the will of God. We never do the will of God except as in our place in relation to the Son of God. The Lord goes into the synagogue, but He withdraws with His disciples to the sea (verse 7). In the synagogue there is, firstly, no sympathy and, secondly, antagonism. He leaves conditions like that. It was lawful to the Pharisees with the Herodians to destroy a man on the Sabbath, but not to heal one. Now we have to be prepared to withdraw from the synagogue where those are who profess to know God, but in works deny Him. Hardening (verse 5) and opposition (verse 6) develop into speaking injuriously against the Holy Spirit (verse 29). That is final. The withdrawal becomes the occasion of a wider service — the sea: “a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea, and from Jerusalem ... and they of around Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, having heard what things he did, came to him” (verses 7, 8). It goes right out to the gentile world. We are not in a restricted sphere of service. In the synagogue the service is very much official, with appointed servants. Outside there is great liberty for service. “The sea” indicates a wide sphere of service, outside dried-up profession, and the Lord takes His disciples there. God is going to have Him honoured. There is very wide scope of service, but when you get out there you have to be careful that you do not come under the influence of those you serve; hence the “little ship”. That is very important in connection with service. You have to influence [p. 47] those you serve without in the slightest degree being influenced by those you serve. If you come under their influence it means being moulded in your service by the thoughts of man. Paul speaks of being Christ’s bondman (Galatians 1: 10), “not as pleasing men, but God” (1 Thessalonians 2: 4). He always keeps in his “little ship”.
Rem One would be more effectual on that line, but not popular.
CAC You must maintain separation from the influence of those you serve; otherwise you come under their influence. It is not monastic because it has in view the serving of a multitude. Servants get out of the “little ship” sometimes, but Peter and John in Acts 3: 11, 12, and Paul and Barnabas at Lystra in Acts 14: 11 - 18 would not allow themselves to fall under such influence. The Lord spoke to the disciples about the “little ship” (verse 9), so it is instruction for them and us. “And he goes up into the mountain, and calls whom he himself would”. The “little ship” shows the separation, and “the mountain” the elevation in which the Lord would be served.
Ques What is the thought of surnames?
CAC It is the principle of sovereignty. He calls whom He Himself would and three of them are singled out and called to the peerage — surnamed! They were distinctive personages amongst the apostles. We have to accept that it is no use quarrelling with it; the Lord calls to Him whom He Himself would to be with Him, in an elevation far above men. No one goes forth in spiritual dignity to serve but from there.
Rem In John 1 the two disciples ask Him, “Where abidest thou? ... and they abode with him”. It is from that spot that Andrew goes out to find his own brother Simon, to evangelise.
CAC It is all very beautiful. There is also the refusal of testimony from the unclean spirits; although their testimony was true. The Lord would not have it (verses 11, 12).