LOOKING STEDFASTLY ON JESUS
[p. 156] LOOKING STEDFASTLY ON JESUS
2 Corinthians 4:18; Revelation 1:9
What exercises me in turning to these two scriptures is to point out that the Spirit of God ever turns the eye towards Christ; and in that way the Spirit of God leads those in whom He dwells to where Christ is. In other words, that the Spirit of God always presents Christ to the believer’s eye; and in presenting Christ objectively He governs the eye subjectively, so that there is correspondence. Now I want to enlarge upon that; and I have selected these two writers, Paul and John, as setting before us the effect of the Spirit in that way.
First of all, I want to show you how heaven has set the example of interest in Christ. You will all remember that in Exodus 25 we have the pattern of the cherubim, which the Spirit of God in alluding to, in the New Testament, calls “the cherubim of glory”. Hebrews 9:5. That is the comment of the Spirit on the attitude of the cherubim in the holiest. He says, “the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy seat”. Hebrews 9:5. Mark that, “shadowing it”. That is an allusion to the interest of heaven in Christ as Man down here. Heaven was, so to say, engrossed with Christ. The interest up there was reflected down here in the “multitude of the heavenly host”. Luke 2:13. In that way God has set before us an example. If earth was unappreciative and it was, heaven was astir with interest. And who gave impulse to those hosts? God. Everything, every movement, in heaven began with God, and the angels waiting on God saw the first movement, and responded to it; so that we are told by Luke, that “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God”, Luke 2:13.
In what is said of the cherubim of glory much is [p. 157] made of their wings, but what is specially said of them is that the attitude of “their faces” was “toward the mercy seat”, Below the mercy seat there were the tables of the covenant. Below the mercy seat of gold there were typically all the movements of the heart of a Man for God, of the Man who could say, “I have set the Lord ALWAYS before me”, Psalm 16:8. It was upon that Man that heaven looked; and further on, at the opportune moment, the heavens opened on that Man, and there is heard, not now angelic voices, but the Father’s voice, the Father’s own voice. Jesus saw the heavens opened; it is as if He were looking there; the Father was ever before Him; there was the countenance of a Man looking up which met the Father’s eye looking down. The Father Himself looked down and said to Him, “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”, Mark 1:10, 11, All that reveals what was below the golden mercy seat. It reveals the inner springs of Christ; every movement within Him was towards God. And those holy wings of the cherubim extended over the Lord in every stage of His life, whether He is viewed as a Boy, or as a Man; divine protection was ever there. And the Father’s heart told out in divine appreciation of what was below the mercy seat. In that way God has set us an example of the attractiveness that His eye saw in Christ. He has set us the example Himself. It is as if He said, I am well pleased in Him; what is your estimation of Him? The time arrived later on when those same eyes of the cherubim looked out from the holiest towards the house. They had found their satisfaction in the Man, for every divine attribute rested on Him. The Lord, at the end of His course on earth could say of Himself, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gayest me to do”. John 17:4. O! how God was justified in that pathway!
[p. 158] And now that every divine attribute rests there, we read in 2 Chronicles, that those same eyes of the cherubim which had looked down looked out toward the house. You need not think that occupation with Christ will prevent your occupation with the need of man. The cherubim’s faces, we are told in 2 Chronicles 3:13 (margin), looked toward the house. They really looked outwards, for the “house” referred to was before the holiest. God would, as it were, beckon to man to come in and find satisfaction there in Christ with Himself. There was that long look out of God, beckoning men in to find the satisfaction of their hearts where He had found His satisfaction, in the Ark of the covenant. John came; Peter came; Mary of Bethany came, and Mary Magdalene came; and myriads since have come, and have found a resting-place for their eyes and their hearts in that Man. The need of man is provided for; and the government of God on earth is also provided for.
We find the same cherubim in the book of Ezekiel associated with the wheels; they have four faces apiece. Those divine wheels move on with infinite accuracy, the wheels of divine government. Nothing escapes the notice of the government of God. We need have no anxiety as to the course of this world. We are sympathetic with men; we pray for them, for kings, and for all men; but the government of God goes on outside that with infinite accuracy. There is not a thing that happens under the sun without being noticed by the eyes in the rings (or rims) of the wheels. Everything will be weighed in the divine balances. Nothing that has occurred from Adam to the end but will be weighed with infinite discrimination, and all will be perfectly adjusted in the government of God. We do well to take notice of that. The book of Ezekiel is a book written to set the hearts of the godly at rest. The awful things [p. 159] that are happening will come under the unerring government of God, and all will be dealt with according to the infinite knowledge and discrimination of God. I refer to that so that you may understand that in pre-occupation with Christ and the things of Christ you at the same time may be assured that all that goes on around us is being taken care of by God.
Well, now, I was saying that the divine example set by heaven was not in vain; and I want to trace for a moment for you how Christ obtained a place in the hearts of His own, so that He became their Leader. In saying that He became their Leader I do not for the moment refer to outward leadership, but rather to the leadership that results in our being placed in the inheritance. We are told in the book of Proverbs that the locusts have no king; that is, that they have no outward leadership, yet they go forth all of them by bands; and the secret of the parable is that Christ has a place in the hearts of those whom the locusts represent.
When Mary brought the Babe into the temple, that was a distinct mark of divinely given intelligence. Joseph had been directed, according to Matthew 2:13, to take “the little Child and his mother” to Egypt; this answers to the wings of the cherubim. Why “His mother”? Because she was best qualified to take care of Him then, but when she brought the Babe into the temple, there was a priest there. Luke always presents the bright side. Instead of money-changers and robbers, Luke presents the bright side; he shows us there was a Simeon there. And Simeon took the Babe in his arms. There was at least some reflection of heaven in the temple; it was the “Father’s house” still, and the Son is suitably received in the Father’s house. And Simeon blessed God, and said, “Now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation”.
[p. 160] In other words, Simeon was content to leave the earth. He “was awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him”. Luke 2:25. He had an associate in Anna; she had done according to her ability; she did “what she could”, and Simeon did what he could; and the greatest thing was to hold Christ, the Babe, the Son of God, in his arms. But now, he sees that the salvation of Jehovah is here; “mine eyes have seen thy salvation”, Luke 2:30, he says, and I can leave. Henceforth this Babe becomes the attractive Centre.
You do not find any of those who become attracted to Christ afterwards wishing to go before Him. No spiritual person would wish to go before Him now, we wish to go to Him now. But He becomes the Object of attraction to His own. John leaned on His bosom, and Peter would follow Him to death. They were all drawn after Him. The Lord said, “thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards”. John 13:36. Peter meant to follow the Lord. We often speak disparagingly of Peter, but he meant what he said. He could say to the Lord, “thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I am attached to thee”. John 21:17. He was attached to Christ; his heart was really fixed, but the flesh was weak. We may condemn the flesh in Peter, but let us not disparage the love that was in Peter. Satan acted on the flesh in Peter, but he could never dislodge the love that Christ had begotten in his heart. That is the hope that one has as regards everyone who loves Christ and who for the moment has turned aside, and there are many, alas! If the Lord were to speak tonight He would say, “Where are the nine?” Luke 17:17. He misses every one of them. But if Christ has a place in the heart it is there for ever, and He will come back to it, and the erring one in whom it is will come back to it; that is the encouragement that one has.
[p. 161] This is a day of recovery, and if the Lord has placed His love in your heart He will never withdraw His eye from it. He looked on Peter when Peter least expected it; that was enough. At some moment the Lord will look right into your conscience and into your heart, and all is set right. In due time the Lord speaks faithfully to you and probes your conscience, like the high priest dressing the lamps. All that wretched flesh has to be removed, and then you follow Him. Where? Where has He gone? The gospel of John abounds with evidence of where He has gone and how He has gone there. He went by way of the cross, and Peter would follow Him. The Lord had said to Peter, “thou shalt follow me afterwards”. John 13:36. Wonderful it was how the Lord gave him the desire of his heart, “When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands”. John 21:18. Peter would be brought to perfect resignation. Where the flesh would never go, Peter would go. He tells us calmly afterwards in his last letter that he was about to put off his tabernacle, as the Lord had shown him. How suggestive is the word tabernacle. Peter had come to regard his body as a vessel of the testimony. He had seen Christ on the holy mount; he had talked about “three tabernacles”; as regards himself he had only one, and he was about to put it off; he had cherished Christ in it; he had protected Christ in it, because he loved Christ, and he departs through death.
What about John? John is following, too. In the first chapter of Revelation we find John following; and in dwelling upon that, I want, for a moment, to show you how that for the spiritual a new day had dawned, which was an eternal day. I want to make clear to you briefly that Christianity is connected with what is eternal. This is seen in John. The assembly has its place down here in the ways of God. It is like the four-cornered sheet let down (Acts 10); it has its place here on earth in the ways of God, but [p. 162] its face is heavenward, its place is outside the world. There are no limitations to the Spirit. Now I would like to make that clear to you, and I know of no better way to explain it than to refer you to Deuteronomy 16, in which we have three feasts of Jehovah detailed; and you will find that when the Spirit comes to the “feast of weeks” there are no limitations mentioned. It was not for a week or for any specified duration. The Spirit of God has come in from Christ in heaven, and He has linked the assembly up with Christ in heaven, with eternity. The world to come, the millennium, is limited; the very name signifies limitation. The assembly has its place in what is eternal; the assembly, in itself, is unlimited. I would that you could get hold of that. Paul meant it when he said we are looking at what is eternal, the “unseen” things.
Well, John is following; and following brought him into the circumstances of the testimony. He says, I was in the Isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ; that was where following brought him. He says to the saints, to you and to me, “I John, who also am your brother” (that is a lovely expression: the follower of Christ is the brother of the saints) “and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ”. Revelation 1:9. These are the circumstances of the testimony at the present time. Do you not desire to be in them? John says, “I am your brother”. Are you his brother? You will not misunderstand my question. He says, “I am your companion”. Are you his companion? Are you following Jesus into the circumstances of the testimony? The testimony is ever in those circumstances. John says, “I became in the Spirit”. Revelation 1:10. Did you ever have that experience? That is the recompense. You will very soon grow weary of the circumstances of the testimony if you have not the recompense.
[p. 163] There are very few believers who have the recompense. One is pained to see in the saints the sense of loss, as if they felt that something were lost because they have come into the testimony. That is because they have not the recompense. The Spirit of God connects the heart with what is eternal. Is not that recompense? John retired from the circumstances of the testimony into privilege; he says, “I became in the Spirit”. Revelation 1:10. Would to God the saints knew something about that! If we did we should be much more content to be in the circumstances of the testimony. “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. Revelation 1:10.
If you are in the Spirit on the Lord’s day you will be cheerful on Monday. There will be no grumbles in the week if you became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. You may retire from that which engages you naturally into what is spiritual. John was a follower of Christ, and he was in the Spirit. He is engaged with Christ and His things there in heaven; but he had to look behind him to see the things that related to the earth. It was as if the Lord says, John, I must call you back; it would be but for a moment and John would go into the eternal things for ever and for ever. But the Lord says to him, as it were, I must call you back for a little while, to occupy you with the sorrows of the assemblies. Do you know anything about those sorrows? What a contrast that was to being “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”. Had the assembly been in the Spirit on the Lord’s day there would be no such sad record as we find in the second and third chapters of Revelation, nor for the judicial garb in which the Lord is seen. But John hears the voice and returns to the earth; that is the divine way. If the Lord calls you back to earth you are not likely to be earthly minded; you want to be back “in the Spirit” again.
In John’s gospel, which, doubtless, was written afterwards, we have in chapter 20 a true presentation [p. 164] of the spiritual man, and the spiritual order of things which engages him on the first day of the week. In the Revelation John is called back from occupation with his own, and indeed, the assembly’s special place and portion, to see the course of God’s dealings on earth, which culminates in the assembly coming out of heaven. In his gospel we have the unfolding of what is spiritual that is, what is inside. I want you to get hold of that. It is what Paul was looking at. John was in the enjoyment of the spiritual. Having his eye on Christ led him there. He had been one of those who accompanied the Lord to mount Olivet; he had seen Him go up; he knew the Lord was there. He had no thought of finding Him behind him. When he heard the voice behind him he looked back “to see the voice”, Revelation 1:12, but he would not have thought of finding the Lord behind. It was different when the Lord spoke to Paul. Paul was on the earth, and engaged with the earth. The Lord spoke to him, not from “behind”; He spoke to him from heaven. A light above the brightness of the sun shone round about him and He spoke to Paul from heaven, and in Paul’s own language, the Hebrew tongue. He would encourage Paul as to the simplicity of conditions there. There can be communications between man and man in a known tongue. It is affecting to think of the Lord Jesus speaking out of heaven to Saul of Tarsus in his own language. Well, Paul was spoken to from heaven, and his great objective from that moment to the end of his course was Christ in that place. Stephen had said, “I see the heavens opened”. Acts 7:56. In the power of the Spirit he looked into them; he saw the glorious vision of Christ there. The glory of God and Jesus were there. Had Stephen been allowed to live on earth, what would his course have been? He would have pursued the divine course toward that spot where he saw Christ. His spirit went to Christ, and [p. 165] the thread was taken up by Paul, and his constant habit was to look into heaven.
Now, where are you looking? Are you looking at the terrible things that are happening down here upon earth? The apostle Paul says, “we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen”. 2 Corinthians 4:18. Then he explains, that “the things which are seen are temporal”. Everything that your eye rests upon will come to an end. Everything. The things which are seen, whatever they are, are temporal; he makes no qualification; even the millennium is a temporal thing. I am not detracting from it. It will be a wonderful testimony to God, that He can keep men alive here in flesh and blood as a testimony in spite of Satan’s assumption. But the millennium, as I said, is limited; it is temporal. But what is not seen, the assembly’s proper place and portion, is eternal. Are you looking at that?
I would again remind you that the day of Pentecost is the beginning of eternity for us. The more you sow to the Spirit, the more you reap what is eternal; so that the more you look at it the more you are prepared for it. The Spirit through Paul engages the heart with what is eternal, so that before we get there we are prepared for it, 2 Corinthians 4:13. Hence in chapter 5 he is looking for his “house from heaven”. 2 Corinthians 5:2. If you get a “house from heaven” you will not be a stranger when you go there; the house is for that place. And then he goes further and he says, “He that has wrought us for this selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit”. 2 Corinthians 5:5. So that the Spirit which we have already is the earnest of all that.
Now, beloved brethren, I would appeal to you. I believe that we have come to a crisis. There is a crisis in the souls of God’s people at the present time. We have arrived at a place where two roads meet; the one leads straight to heaven, and the other leads [p. 166] into the world. It leads gradually, I admit, but it leads there, and it is for you to make up your mind which way you are going to tread. The Lord is bent on placing us in possession of the inheritance. The daughters of Zelophehad said, ‘We want an inheritance amongst our brethren’, and they got it. May God grant that that, too, may be the desire of every one of us. Not a fine business, nor a status in the world, but an inheritance amongst our brethren, where Christ is the centre and sun.