RELATIONS IN WHICH WE ARE TO DIVINE PERSONS
[p. 170] RELATIONS IN WHICH WE ARE TO DIVINE PERSONS
CAC I may say that my desire in suggesting this scripture was that we might be reminded of the relations in which we are set to divine Persons at the present time, more particularly as suggested to us in this chapter. I think we should all perceive that there is nothing of greater practical importance than to understand our relation to divine Persons and that of divine Persons to us. The scripture we have read together speaks of the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Lord. And each of us, as believers having the Spirit, is set in relation to these Persons of the Godhead, and our prosperity, our development according to God, depends upon our being true to the relations in which we are set with divine Persons.
Ques Are you speaking of relationship?
CAC No, relations: that is, the relation in which we view the Persons of the Godhead.
The Holy Spirit in this scripture teaches us how we should speak. That is the particular relation in view.
The Father is brought before us in His paternal interest and care over us and as having a kingdom that we may seek. The Lord is presented as having a household of which we are left in charge, to hold it in suitability to Himself, that He may come to it at any time that suits Him.
Those are the relations in this chapter. Firstly as to christian speaking, all christian speaking properly is the kind of speaking taught by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come to teach us to speak. In this scripture it is brought before us particularly in regard of answering (verse 11), but I wish to speak of the general principle that the Spirit as a divine Person is given to us to teach us how we should speak. Everything that is proper to the Christian is patterned in the Lord Himself [p. 171] seen in this gospel as sealed and anointed with the Holy Spirit. There was a moment when He received the Spirit. He was the Son of God, but there was a moment when He took up the place which is His in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus the relation in which we are set is patterned in Him. We should all be ready to admit that the first way the Holy Spirit teaches us to speak is to God. He comes into our hearts as the Spirit of God’s Son crying, Abba, Father — as the Spirit of liberty in speaking to God and saying Abba, Father.
Rem “Praying in the Holy Spirit”.
CAC All christian speaking is in the Holy Spirit. We find the Lord having to speak to the adversary immediately after the “voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight ... . But Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness” (Luke 3: 22; Luke 4: 1). We find He has to speak to the devil in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the character of His speaking, not His own authoritative voice but the same kind of speaking as is possible to you and me. How pointed and effective His replies to the devil in the power of the Holy Spirit! We are often brought face to face with those adverse to the truth, those who are in direct opposition to what is of God. It is a comfort to know that the Holy Spirit is given to us to know how to speak to those people. The Lord used the words of Holy Scripture. That is the character of speaking to use to adversaries. There is power in it, and God supports it. The adversary knows its power. There is power in their consciences when we use the words of Holy Scripture.
Ques Would Stephen be an example? “And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke” (Acts 6: 10).
CAC Yes. We next find the Lord in Galilee speaking to men (Luke 4: 21, 22) as the anointed Preacher, the full Vessel of divine grace — every word in the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not give place enough to the Holy Spirit [p. 172] in this particular character. It would preserve us from a great deal of unprofitable talk if we considered the Holy Spirit as given to us to enable us to speak in a christian way. We are not patient enough to wait on the teaching of the Holy Spirit that it may be given “in the hour itself what should be said” (verse 12). The Spirit greatly helps in speaking. We should give more place to the teaching of the Holy Spirit as to how we should speak, and firstly to God. Very often we speak to God in a way that does not please Him at all. We get impressed with the consciousness of our weakness and failure and get shut up to selfish exercises. How do you speak to God?
I am sure you are humbled as to how much you speak about yourself. The Holy Spirit would teach you to speak to God according to the grace in which He has made Himself known to you and also of the preciousness of Christ: that is liberty. If you begin to speak to God of what you know of Christ and of His grace your heart expands immediately. You want power to judge failure. The power for self-judgment is the better knowledge of God and of Christ.
Rem Both prayers of the apostle in Ephesians are in regard of the knowledge of God. He says, “I bow my knees”.
CAC The Holy Spirit would never teach me to speak but in harmony with all the thoughts of God and of the value of all Christ has accomplished. We are put on a divine platform to speak to God, to adversaries and to men. The Holy Spirit teaches and supports that kind of speaking. We are privileged to speak in a divine way (1) to God, (2) to the devil or those who are his instruments and (3) to men.
Each one of us as a believer is entitled (1) to speak to God as a son, (2) to say to the enemy, ‘I am a subject one’. That silences him. The Lord was subject to the Word. People not subject to Scripture cannot use it. And (3) to speak to men. Each one of us is constituted a vessel of grace to make God known in grace to men. “And there appeared to them parted tongues, as of fire ... . And they ... began to speak ... as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth” (Acts 2: 3, 4).
[p. 173] Rem It is said of the Lord in Acts 1: 2, “having by the Holy Spirit charged the apostles”.
CAC The Lord in resurrection still speaks in the Holy Spirit. When the apostle warns against “foolish talking” etc., it is in immediate connection with being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5: 4, 18). We should speak according to God. In Mark 7: 32 they bring to the Lord “a deaf man who could not speak right”; at the end “he spoke right” (verse 35). Would not each one of us like to be an example of speaking right according to the Holy Spirit?
Ques Must there not be conditions with us for it?
CAC The principal condition is that we should recognise the presence of the Spirit. If there is a definite recognition of the Spirit it involves the refusal of the flesh. There is power for the refusal of the flesh in the recognition of the Spirit. It is often long after the soul has received the Spirit that he recognises the Spirit as the result of the death of Christ. Every believer can say, ‘Through Christ’s death my sins are forgiven’, but it is equally true that through death — the death of Christ — I have the Spirit.
In Romans 4 we have two things brought before us: the blessedness of sins forgiven (verses 7, 8) and circumcision — “seal of the righteousness of faith” (verse 11). Both lie in the Holy Spirit. Circumcision involves that I cannot go on any longer in the flesh; the power to cut off has come in in the Holy Spirit.
Forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit go together. God has forgiven me that He might give me the Spirit. He would so clear the believer of all imputation that He may give him the Spirit. It is the great end God has in view. So that now we are able to speak in the power of the Holy Spirit. We can all see, I trust, the important truth of christian speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit.
We come now, secondly, to the Father. The Lord speaks to us in a most affecting way of the Father’s care and He shows us the end the Father has in view in exercising this care over each one of us — for those who have “little faith”. Many [p. 174] believers have little faith as to the Father’s paternal interest in us. Many take high ground, but when testing in practical life comes they have very little faith in the Father’s paternal care. He feeds the ravens and clothes the lilies with glory, but no raven and no lily ever said ‘Father’ to Him. And the Lord says, “How much rather you?” Do we make material things our chief object? or advancement in this world? All that stands connected with food and clothing. “All these things do the nations of the world seek after”. But the Lord says, ‘I would give you such a sense of the Father’s care that undistractedly you may seek the Father’s kingdom’. How does it work? How have you seen it work? I never saw anybody seeking the Father’s kingdom lacking any good thing needed for the pathway here. Have you? You have never seen it and you never will. “Your Father knows that ye have need of these things”. What are we to seek? “But seek his kingdom”. It is the Father’s kingdom here in Luke. “It has been the good pleasure of your Father to give you the kingdom”. What encouraging words for us.
Rem It is important that we should seek it.
CAC The paternal care is to set us free that we may seek the Father’s kingdom. Many make their material needs an excuse for not seeking the Father’s kingdom. It is a kingdom of great moral and spiritual realities. Those are the things to seek, those precious things that fill the Father’s kingdom, the result of God revealing Himself in grace in His beloved Son. He will look after the temporal things if we seek the Father’s kingdom. The things in the Father’s kingdom are quite diverse from what is in the world. John has summed it up, “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2: 16). It is all outside the Father’s kingdom and not to be sought after. What are His things? Learn it in His blessed Son as Man in this world. He says, “I am not of the world” and to His disciples, “Ye are not of the world”, also of them, “They are not of the world,
[p. 175] as I am not of the world”. Have you considered what it means?
“The lust of the flesh”. That was not true of the Son of God. Divine love filled Him — the contrast. No thought of gratifying self, but divine love in its ceaseless activity for the good of others. He devoted Himself in every way for the good of others.
“The lust of the eyes”. The intellectual world appeals to the young — intelligence and knowledge. They are allured by this aspect of the world. Was there any in the Son of God? There was no element of worldly intelligence but the perfect outshining of the light of the knowledge of God.
“The pride of life”. This is the dominant characteristic of the world. Divine holiness marked Jesus. He was “meek and lowly in heart”.
These things-divine love, divine light and divine lowliness — fill the Father’s kingdom. Seek these things. They are abiding things. Our thoughts are turned heavenward, to what is valued there. “Make to yourselves purses which do not grow old, a treasure which does not fail in the heavens” (verse 33). I had reason to buy a purse today and was told that it had ‘everlasting wear’. But the “purses” we read of here cannot be bought in shops. They are only known by those in the Father’s kingdom. He is delighted to give you the kingdom. Righteousness, peace and joy — the new covenant in the knowledge of God — eternal life — immense things.
Rem “Whatsoever things are true, ... noble, ... just, ... amiable, ... of good report; ... think on these things” (Philippians 4: 8). They would be things belonging to the Father’s kingdom, I suppose.
CAC They abide and put us in the place of the “little flock” here. We could not be connected with anything pretentious here. Fine buildings, good singing, etc., are thought necessary to hold people, but they are out of keeping with the knowledge of the Father and His kingdom and the things belonging to it, all of which put us in the place of the “little flock”. “The little flock” is the whole company as viewed in relation to the Father’s kingdom, so that no exception need be taken to the hymn book being said to be ‘for the little flock’. The Father has the whole flock before Him.
Thirdly there is the relation in which we stand to the Lord.
We have considered our relation to the Holy Spirit in regard to christian speaking, our relation to the Father as knowing His paternal care and the character of His kingdom. Now we come to our relation to the Lord, and the first thing suggested is that He was going to be absent. His absence is supposed in the scripture we read. He speaks to us as those whose loins are to be girded about and whose lamp$ are to be burning, “and ye like men who wait their own lord whenever he may leave the wedding, that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately” (verses 35, 36). The figure used is of a house and of a household of servants in it keeping a place of suitability to an absent lord. What a privilege and honour to be left here to keep a place suitable for Him whenever He comes. Conditions of suitability are found maintained so that there is no need for delay in opening the door. “That when he comes and knocks, they may open to him immediately”. That suggests our relation to the Lord.
Ques Would the book of Revelation suggest the same, and at the close, “Come”?
CAC We could hardly have the Spirit and the bride saying “Come” without suitable conditions and all being ready for Him to come.
Ques. Is it the rapture?
CAC There is nothing at all about the rapture here.
They are not looking for Him to come and take them away, but for His coming to His house, so that everything is preserved and cared for in suitability to Himself. He is so pleased that He serves them (verse 37).
This scripture suggests that He comes repeatedly — there are repeated visits. “And if he come in the second watch, and come in the third watch” (verse 38). The “second watch” and the “third watch” suggest repeated visits. The Lord has left His household here, and us, His servants, in charge of His household, that things may be so preserved that any time He likes to come all is suitable. When He left He meant to come repeatedly. Wondrous blessedness of it! “Blessed are those bondmen” (verses 37, 38).
The Lord is received as having obtained the object of His affections. “Whenever he may leave the wedding” (verse 36). The bride is not seen here nor in the gospels generally. We read of “the sons of the bridechamber”, the “virgins”, the “friend of the bridegroom”, etc., but the bride herself is the great secret of the gospels; she is never seen there and she never will be seen till the Lord brings her forth Himself. The Lord is received here as having obtained the object of His affections. What a character in which to receive Him, as having secured the assembly. He comes in that character.
Rem “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you” (John 14: 18).
CAC That is a parallel passage, and there is the orphan idea. When the Lord was here He had brought the warmth of the Father to them. In the presence of the Lord they were all the time under the Father’s influence, guarded and folded up in the Father’s name (John 17). But He went away, and now He comes to renew all that blessed impression of the Father that He had made them conscious of. He comes spiritually. The Lord’s supper is the Lord’s knock. He says, as it were, ‘I want to come in and have a place in your midst where I can serve you according to the love in My heart’. To eat the Supper rightly would secure all the conditions the Lord would desire. He comes in to minister all that the household may need at that particular time. We could not eat the Lord’s supper in an unholy way. “It is not to eat the Lord’s supper. For each one in eating takes his own supper before others” (1 Corinthians 11: 20, 21). As it is the Lord’s supper we should be jealous to maintain the conditions suitable to it. Great exercise is needed to eat the Lord’s supper.
[p. 178] The title of Psalm 24 in the Greek is “A Psalm for the First Day of the Week”. The door is open for the Lord to come in, victorious in battle, Jehovah of hosts.
These are great things which concern each one of us as to how we stand in relation to the Holy Spirit, to the Father, and to the Lord as composing His household during His absence. One would earnestly seek that the Lord would work this out in our exercises to His praise.