THE LORD TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE (1)
[p. 192] THE LORD TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE (1)
We were speaking last week of the Lord as maintaining the true character of the temple, the house of God, in spite of the state of the nation and the city being under judgment, the true character of the house being maintained by the Lord in spite of all that was public, and the true character of the temple as the place of divine light. We were thinking that this answers very much to the Lord’s position at the present time; whilst the public profession of christianity is the subject of judgment, yet divine light is maintained for those who have an ear to hear, answering somewhat to Revelation 2 and 3.
The Lord would maintain in our souls the true character of the house as the house of prayer, so that faith in God remains; whatever be the public state of things, God is available as the resource. The Lord has preserved that to us, it is preserved in the last days; and divine teaching is preserved.
God is found in these chapters: He is found teaching in the temple. The character of the temple as the place of divine light is maintained. One was thinking that that is very much how the authority of the Lord is being exercised today. His authority is being exercised, not on the line of miracles, but on the line of maintaining divine light in teaching for the people of God, so that everyone who has an ear to hear what the Lord is saying and who comes into subjection will be preserved in the secret of the mind of God in spite of all the conditions around. That is the character in which the authority of the Lord is being exercised, not exactly to put things right, but to bring out in an authoritative way the mind of God for us.
An ear to hear can only be found with a self-judged person. Only those who are in a condition of repentance, who have listened to John the baptist, will be prepared to [p. 193] recognise the authority of the Lord and His teaching, because it is a question of moral discernment. It is no longer miracles. We have come to the end of miracles here in the Lord’s teaching. The miracles are over; in the temple He works no miracles: He is teaching.
There is a call to repentance, showing how necessary that is in conditions which have become unsuitable to God in that which professes to stand in relation to Him. Things have become unsuitable. Repentance is the first condition; there will be no moral discernment apart from it, and the Lord does not justify His authority to persons without moral discernment. A repentant person is the first condition of assembly material.
You have at the end of chapter 19 that “all the people hung on him to hear”. What a blessed attitude to be in! Self-judged; hanging on Him whose authority is exercised in the way of teaching. The whole mind of God is being brought out in the temple in the authority of the Lord at this present moment just as really as it was then. It is extremely encouraging. It is remarkable that the call to the one who has an ear, in Revelation, comes after the promise to the overcomer in the last assemblies. There is a certain quality of overcoming needed in order to give one an ear.
We should get this temple thought in our minds. It is of the greatest importance that there is a sphere where the authority of the Lord is in exercise. We recognise that those who buy and sell should be cast out; that selfish and commercial spirit has no place in the house of God, it must go. The authority of the Lord would eliminate all these elements. Then the house of God is the place of prayer. The Lord is reconstituting, as it were, the truth of the house and the temple. I think if the authority of the Lord is recognised and we are prepared to listen to Him, He would throw light on the whole situation as He is doing here, showing the character of the system of things which sets aside the rights of God, and giving a hint that there is going to be another structure in [p. 194] which all the rights of God will be maintained. It surveys here the whole history of Israel and, I suppose, the whole history of man after the flesh. The principle of it is as true today as it was then. Things are taken up in self-interest, self-advancement and vain-glory in some way or another. Man is seizing on all that is due to God and investing himself with it.
I suppose the vineyard would indicate a place where God bestowed care and made provision that there should be fruit for Him. Israel was the vineyard. The principle of it would apply to that which comes under the cultivation of God, what is committed to man’s responsibility: the principle would apply to the christian profession.
I think it is suggested here that God is not going to abrogate His rights: He will secure them. The subject is not developed, but the reference to the corner-stone is a hint which suggests that there is going to be a structure, a building, and in the Lord’s mind all that was involved in that was present. It was going to be a structure in which all that was due to God and suitable to God’s testimony would be fully maintained. It shows the entire failure of man after the flesh to render what was due to God, and his entire rejection of every gracious approach of God to him, so that even the beloved Son, the One whom God speaks of as “my beloved son: ... they will respect him”, even that only brought out more the spirit that was there.
One is struck in looking at these closing chapters of Luke, how the rights of God get great prominence. The grace of God has been magnified exceedingly earlier in the gospel, but at the end the rights of God are very much insisted upon. The authority of the Lord is being exercised now in order to bring about a result for God, so that all that is due to God, all that He could delight in, should be fully rendered.
It is a great thing to respect the Heir. If we respect Him we are morally separated at once from all those who reject Him; we are not of that company at all. Hebrews is largely to teach us to respect Him, and in that way you have material for the [p. 195] house of God — persons who respect the Heir, the beloved Son. They are living stones really; they are suitable to be brought into connection with the corner-stone.
I thought we see the truth of “upon one stone are seven eyes” (Zechariah 3: 9) here. That is, the Lord is viewing everything. His eyes are surveying the whole position, and He is bringing in divine light on every phase of the position. There is no idea in the mind of the Lord at the present time to improve things at all. I believe the utmost thought with men is to improve things, to get things put into a little better shape; but then the Lord has nothing less before Him than that all shall be according to the pleasure of God.
We come under the teaching of the Lord and His authority; it is now expressed in teaching, not in working miracles. Men are being deceived today by miracles, but the authority of the Lord is known in teaching, and in His teaching He does not allow anything that is one whit lower than the full thought of God. Well, it brings us to a very spiritual order of things — One who teaches from the standpoint of all that is due to God — and that is what we have to do with now. We look for great things. Though governmentally we have to pay tribute to Caesar, as it were, yet everything that is due to God is maintained.
This section really begins with the Heir being secured, so that all that is kingly is secured, but not at all in a pretentious way; the colt represents how the rights of God are carried in testimony at the present time; there is nothing pretentious, but they are all maintained, and maintained in the presence of hostility. It says that they feared the people, and it is exactly the same today. Religious leaders are no more favourable towards the testimony of God now than they were in the days of the most violent persecution, but God has ordered it that there is a spirit abroad among the people which will not suffer it, and His own are preserved. He is exposing that they have no moral discernment, for along with the greatest pretensions to increased light, there is on all [p. 196] hands a tremendous increase of uncertainty. Whilst there is a great pretension to increased knowledge, there is a greater feeling of not knowing than there ever was before, so that they are being compelled to say in all quarters that they do not know. There is no moral discernment, and nothing can be asserted with any definiteness. The only definiteness now is found with the divine Teacher and the rights that He maintains in the temple. What a contrast there is between the certainties that we enjoy together and all the mixture and uncertainty which is around us in the religious world! That is the way the Lord is exercising His authority. The very fact that there is the maintenance of the mind of God in teaching is the present exercise of the authority of the Lord, and the more we come under subjection to Him, the more we shall increase in our knowledge of God and in all that is suitable to God in His house.
We ought to be conscious of the extraordinary place we have through the favour of God, and it should be a real exercise with even the youngest amongst us not to miss the divine teaching and not to be carried away by anything, however pretentious, that does not bear the impress of the Lord’s teaching in the temple.
There is a general impression about that rights belong to Christ. That is why there is power in the confession of Christ, because if any of us says, ‘Jesus is Lord to me’, it smites through the conscience of the other person. The other person thinks, ‘He ought to be Lord to me’.
I do not think there is anything authoritative now but what takes its character from the authority of the Lord. The authority of the Lord was the authority of obedience and dependence. He would not tell these men the source of His authority because they were morally incapable of understanding it. The source of His authority was obedience and dependence, and only persons on that line were capable of understanding it. Authority is preserved amongst the saints and in the assembly exactly on that same principle: obedience and dependence. There you have divine authority, just [p. 197] the opposite from self-assertion. The Lord does not exactly assert His authority here; it is felt rather than asserted. His adversaries felt it; they spoke of authority; He did not.
What does not correspond with Christ has to be broken. I am referring to the stone which tests everything; what does not correspond with Christ is either broken or ground to powder. There is nothing left that you can build with, and that is the result of the rights of God being maintained judicially. The rights of God are maintained judicially, the man after the flesh with all his pretensions is ground to powder. I suppose the stone has not yet fallen on people to break things judicially, but a great number through many centuries have been stumbling over Christ and been broken. They stumbled, being disobedient. Disobedient ones stumble over Christ, showing how the spirit of subjection is so necessary. The whole position is set forth here that Christ is rejected, He is refused by the builders, “cast away indeed as worthless”, Peter says (1 Peter 2: 4). We are face to face with that system of things; we once belonged to it, were part of it, but now that through grace we are brought to respect the Heir, we are face to face with a whole world that rejects Him and that cannot fit Him in in any way, and so they cast Him away as worthless. And in that way we really come to Him as the living Stone: that is how we come to the part of this new structure in which all the rights of God are maintained. So you get the holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, and the royal priesthood, a people for a possession to set forth the excellencies of God; everything is maintained for God. It is all involved in this rejected stone being the corner-stone.
I think He is the Ornament. Isaiah 4: 2 tells us that He shall be “for excellency and for ornament”. God says, ‘I have got a structure of which He is the ornament and the bond which unites together all those who have an appreciation of Him’; and in that structure everything that is for His pleasure is maintained. You feel it is worth going in for.
He is chosen of God and precious; there is a definite issue [p. 198] raised. He is cast away as worthless by men, but he is chosen of God and precious, and He becomes the preciousness to those who believe; they are governed by Him and find their place in relation to Him; they become capable of rendering to God what is due to Him, and find their delight in doing it.
Peter proposes all this to newborn babes. So that the youngest should take an intense interest in it and see the blessedness of it. He that has an ear — that is the key to the position. The ‘tribute’ would suggest the conditions in which the testimony is found in the last days. The very fact of paying tribute to Caesar was the evidence that the rights of God — what was due to God — had not been maintained. No one felt the domination of Caesar as the Lord did. He submitted to it, and in His submission the will of God was carried out. His very birth took place as expressive of submission to the alien power which was in authority under the government of God. He comes in, as it were, in that very attitude of submission to the authority. The whole condition of the christian profession now, the subserviency, and the domination of the world, is the result of what is due to God not having been maintained. We cannot ignore it, and the Lord would have it to be recognised; but then He puts alongside it the rights of God, and whatever the conditions which have come in governmentally are, they do not diminish the rights of God. So that though the people of God are suffering governmentally through the past failure to maintain what is due to God, the rights of God are still maintained by the Lord; and we have not to wait, so to speak, for Caesar to be dispossessed, we have to maintain the rights of God now whilst submitting to the governmental conditions which have come in, but not surrendering one whit of what is due to God.