CHRIST DWELLING IN THE HEART - THE CHRISTIAN'S IDEAL
[p. 190] CHRIST DWELLING IN THE HEART — THE CHRISTIAN’S IDEAL
Genesis 21: 8 - 10; Revelation 22: 16, 17
My thought is to point out the importance of having an ideal. I need not say that God has His ideal. He had His ideal long before it took form. Christ was in the Father’s heart as Man long before He became Man, but the time arrived in which the ideal was produced and, as produced, attention was called to Him. Once God’s ideal appeared He became the divine standard; an ideal becomes one’s glory; it is one’s glory. The Lord Jesus as Man was God’s ideal, and in that way He was God’s glory; He was the glory of God. The Father’s public recognition of the Lord was when He was seen in full manhood, when He had arrived at the age of thirty. I need not say that the divine claim to Him had been put forward earlier, for the statement of the angel Gabriel to Mary was, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”. Luke 1:35. But the divine ideal is seen in a Man here. Scripture presents the Lord, as a Babe, and as a Boy, and as a Man. He was perfect in each stage of His growth, holy in His development, but it is when this development is complete that heaven gives public recognition to that blessed Man. He was praying and heaven was opened ... . and a voice came out of heaven, Luke 3:21.
As He came up out of the waters of baptism He was praying, and as His eyes were uplifted they met the Father’s gaze, and He heard the expression of the Father’s delight in Him as the full answer to and realisation of His ideal; and from that day to this, and for eternity, God never recedes from that standard, for that standard is His glory. He has committed Himself to that Man. The coming of the Spirit is the Father’s committal of Himself publicly to that Man. And what a complete vindication of God there was in His public ministry! He can say at the end of it, “I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do”. John 17:4. These were words that were spoken by that same Man after His ministry was over. “He lifted up his eyes to heaven”, we are told in John 17:1; having spoken all those words burning with affection for His own as recorded for us in John 13 to John 17, He lifts up His eyes to heaven. He had completed the work which the Father had given Him to do, and He says: “And now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”. John 17:5. That is the completion, and now that Man is glorified. The work is complete. He came down from heaven and He goes back to heaven and is glorified with the glory of the Father. God is delighting in His ideal.
Now, what I wish to point out is, that God looks that for every one of us His ideal should be our ideal. Not one of us is of any account here in the way of testimony unless Christ is our ideal. There is no definiteness about you until you come to this; but then there is something further, and what I wish to make clear to you is, that the conception of the ideal is not enough, you must bring it forth. The expression used refers to what is maternal. We find in Scripture maternal ideas and paternal ideas. Now what God looks for is that we should, figuratively speaking, bring forth the ideal; it will not suffice, as to God’s desire for us, to have it in a hidden way, though that is the beginning, but you must go on to “the joy that a man is born into the world”, John 16:21. Christ must be everything to you, otherwise you are incomplete. What we find in regard to the church at Sardis in Revelation 3 is, that there was nothing complete with them. The Lord says, “I have not [p. 192] found thy works complete before my God”. Revelation 3:2. So I repeat, that the conception of the idea is not sufficient, there must be what answers to it, the bringing it forth, the completion, and this means suffering. If there is to be completion, if you want to reach the joy of the birth of the Man, there must be the suffering of surrender, but it will be joy in your soul. God has reached His joy. There was the birth of a Man for Him, not simply of a Babe, but of a Man.
The cry now in the world is for a man; the world is waiting for its man. The world’s ideal is not infantile; it is a man that the world wants, and the man will appear. Conditions are ripe for the appearance of the man that the world seeks. The world awaits the appearance of its ideal, and he will be espoused by the world. This is very solemn to contemplate! The world’s ideal is a very old ideal, and has been a long time in coming into evidence, but come it will. The apostle says that the day of Christ will not arrive until the falling away comes, and that MAN OF SIN is revealed. We often speak of him, and wonder at the significance of his number, but what I would press is, that our salvation from him is to have in our hearts the ideal that God has presented to us in Christ. It is either the one man or the other with us. The great antidote to the Antichrist is “the Christ”. I am saying what is very elementary and simple, but what is of all importance to us at the present moment. If you have not Christ as your ideal, your ideal will ultimately be the Antichrist. But then, as I have said, you must not stop at the conception of the ideal, the gospel presents this, but to have the conception and not to bring it forth is simply to be like Sardis, incomplete, and God hates incompleteness.
Well, now, I refer to the type. The scripture I read in Genesis presents Sarah as one who had an ideal and who brought it forth, cherished it, and [p. 193] refused to have anything different. She would have Isaac, and Isaac only; he must occupy the house. The bondmaid and her son must go. Sarah says, “he shall not inherit with my son”. Genesis 21:10. You will find in Scripture that the men who shine most for God are men who are long expected and sought for, who are desired with genuine exercise of heart, promised, and waited for. Isaac is pre-eminently one of these; he was one promised, but long waited for. What we get spiritually we generally have to wait for. Do not misunderstand me: you get what you rightly desire, but very often you have to wait for it. Isaac was a child of promise, a child of desire, a child of exercise, and when he came he shone. Sarah, typically, was equal to such a child as Isaac. Looking at one’s own state and history, and observing that of others, one is pained at our littleness. In spite of our professions as to Christ, how little exercise there is to bring Him forth. How little disallowance of self there is to make room for Him, and to disallow all else, disallow even a half-brother of his, an Ishmael. Is he to inherit with Isaac? Sarah says, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son”. Genesis 21:10. Mark you, the mother of such a son as Ishmael has to go as well as the son; the relation that brought him forth has to be judged. The mother has to go and the son has to go. The son of the bondwoman must not inherit with the son of the free. Such is the decision of Sarah, and such should be our decision.
Well, I was noting that in Scripture men who shine are men who were desired, prayed for, and who, when they appeared, were appreciated. On the other hand, the children brought in after the order of nature, what were they? Take Cain as an example. Eve says, “I have acquired a man from the Lord”, Genesis 4:1 but she spoke too soon. Children that [p. 194] come in after that order are not exactly from the Lord. Jehovah had spoken to her about a seed, and it was quite right for her to have expectation of a seed. Doubtless she got her ideal from Adam, but she spoke too quickly. Our judgment is often hastily formed, and the product of our exercise is not for the Lord though it may seem to be. But let it be tested. You have had your exercise, and there seems to be an answer, but it has to be tested. Presently another comes, and Eve has been learning, so she names him not “acquisition”, but Abel, something like “a breath”. See Note, Genesis 4:2. She has learnt to judge things. Cain was not just what she expected. Very often it is so with us, the early product is not just what we expected; it is simply the man born after the flesh; piously connected with Jehovah, but not yet tested.
We do well to test things. Do not be too sure. The promise of a seed was from God, the seed should come, but do not connect God with what is not of God. Test things before you connect them with God. “Examine your own selves”, 2 Corinthians 13:5 says the apostle, see what you are cherishing, test it with Christ, measure it with Christ. In time Cain was tested. What was disclosed? That he was the man born after the flesh, the great progenitor of Antichrist, a serious consideration! What is born of the flesh always persecutes what is born of the Spirit. Bring in what is of the Spirit and see what the man of the flesh will do, he will persecute. The day arrives when persecution begins and Cain is exposed, and Eve’s judgment of him is exposed; Cain is the man born after the flesh. Abel is a man born after the Spirit; Eve undoubtedly had been exercised. Compare Genesis 4:25.
Our true beginning is with Abel, recognising the man born after the Spirit. There must be the judgment of what man is; the painful discovery [p. 195] in Cain is really the flesh in ourselves, but the flesh that will connect itself with God, piously coming to Him with an offering. All this was in keeping with the name his mother gave him. He professed to recognise God, but he slew him that was born after the Spirit. Let us look within to see what is being formed. Is it of the Spirit or of the flesh? I am not asking you to turn your eye from Christ in heaven, but I do believe that it is well to be called upon to “examine your own selves”. 2 Corinthians 13:5. The apostle Paul says, “my children, of whom I again travail in birth until Christ shall have been formed in you” Galatians 4:19. Why “again”? Because something else had been formed in them. Formation is the difficulty. The question is, What are you bringing forth? The beginning of Christ in you is Abel, you begin with the Spirit.
It is a happy day when you begin to feel persecution, for it proves that the formation of Christ in you has begun. You were of no account in testimony until that day arrived. The moment you discern persecution, not because of what you have done, but persecution because of what you are, it is evidence that the formation of Christ in you has begun. Look at Isaac here! What could he have done to Ishmael? He was but a babe a year old; how could he have provoked Ishmael? We all know that a babe of that age is most attractive. Why then the mocking? Isaac was not as yet a man, he had not developed, but he was recognised in the house; that was what provoked Ishmael. What I am referring to is very simple, but most important, as it is evidence of where you are spiritually. I am not now speaking of the conception of your ideal, but of the formation of the ideal in you. You immediately begin to discern opposition because of what you are. Mark that! Not as yet because of what you are doing, but because of what you are. Isaac [p. 196] could not be doing anything, he was a babe without any power to do anything offensive. It was because of what he was; he was a child of promise, he was born after the Spirit: that is in figure, Christ formed in the believer. Paul says, “Not I, but Christ”. Galatians 2:20. If it had been “I”, if Paul had lived, there would have been no persecution; but Paul’s first introduction to Christ, or rather Christ’s introduction to him was as the suffering One. “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest”. Acts 9:5. The Lord was doing nothing to Saul. But later Saul decided that if any one was to live in him it should be that Man. He said, as it were, in his inmost soul, that Man must have all the place. Well, directly you begin thus you find out there is the spirit of persecution against you. It is not now what you are doing, but what you are. Christ is being formed in you. There is a formation of Christ beloved friends, for God. What is God going to put into heaven? The assembly as formed after Christ. God has His ideal. He has taken up you and me in connection with that, and He is going to bring that out in us: that is what He proposes to do with every one of us. You do not want to be outside of that, do you? You want to be with God in what He is doing. God is forming every one of us in connection with His own ideal.
In that connection I would say just one word as to the place Christ has in you. Do not confound the reception of the Spirit with the formation of Christ in you. The reception of the Spirit is to make a place for Christ in you. Hence the next thing you find is, “If Christ be in you”, Romans 8:10. In the epistle to the Colossians the apostle’s point is, that the mystery is “Christ in you”. Christ had a place among the Gentiles; Colossians 1:27. But “Christ in you” is not the full thought. Christ dwelling is the full thought. The Spirit makes room for Christ, and if Christ comes [p. 197] in the Spirit operates, so that there should be a dwelling for Him.
I do not know of anything that expresses His grace more than His attitude in regard to Laodicea. If it is in your mind after getting the Spirit to keep the Lord outside the door, He will knock at the door, He will not go away. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” Revelation 3:20: He wants to get in. “If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me”, Revelation 3:20. After the Lord gets in He makes a home there, so that you sup with Him. He is not now a visitor, nor is He One whom you have taken in in kindness. It is a poor thing to make the Lord Jesus an appendage of yourself, just One to help you in the time of need. He will do that in His grace. He will stand by you in the hour of need. It may be that you have left Him outside until the hour of your need has come or even until your death-bed; but notwithstanding your cold disregard of Him, He will stand by you then in the hour of your direst necessity. But why leave Him outside so long? “Behold”, He says, “I stand at the door, and knock”. Revelation 3:20. If you open the door and give the Lord a place as a guest, He very soon becomes the Host. “Sup with me”, He says. Such is the attitude of Christ.
Now no one will open to Christ who has not the Holy Spirit. The Spirit opens to Christ. The Holy Spirit in you will keep on and on until you open the door to Christ. Thus Christ dwells in you. I think that Isaac weaned is Christ having a place in the heart. It is obvious that Isaac, when only weaned, could not as yet control the house, but he is recognised as the heir; the weaning was a celebration. Did you ever make a celebration of that kind? It is a moment arrived at in the history of your soul when Christ is supreme. You were ruling the house yourself, but now He will rule it. You recognise Him;
[p. 198] now let Him act for you and see what He will do! He will take up a dwelling in your heart. Could anything be greater down here than that Christ should be dwelling in your heart? The Spirit of God makes a great deal of that.
I have often referred to Bethany, that house where there were two sisters and a brother, all of them loved by Christ, but Christ was not at first the Head of that house. He was regarded more as a friend of the family, truly an honoured Friend, but still not all. But Lazarus died and the Lord was referred to as One who could have kept him alive “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died”. John 11:21. True enough, but the Lord had stayed away in order that he should die. Why? Because He wanted to be supreme with that family; He would not be only an appendage to the family, He would not be content with that, He would be everything to it, and so He was ultimately. The next chapter, John 12, shows us how the Lord is everything at Bethany. “Lazarus was one of those who sat at table with him”, John 12:2, but Jesus was supreme at Bethany. Such is the Lord’s way with us. Sarah took that way as to Isaac. She would not allow any mongrel to be there. I use that word advisedly, because Ishmael was simply a mongrel. His father was a man of faith, but his mother was a bondwoman. The light of God has come into Christendom, but what about the maternal side in Christendom; what has it brought in? It is simply the formation of the man after the flesh, decorated with the light that came out in Christ. Will that do for God? Let us beware of it. Sarah says, “The son of this bondwoman shall not inherit with my son”. Genesis 21:10. Now she had a right ideal, beloved brethren, and she had brought it forth; she cherished it and she would have nothing else.
Now I want to show you how that in the last [p. 199] chapter of Revelation you have the assembly recovered to that. The assembly is delivered from Ishmael and from anti-Christian principles. The great background of the closing chapters of that book is Antichrist. The great opposite of Jesus is Antichrist. “I Jesus”, says the Lord Revelation 22:16. He presents Himself as the Man. Do you appreciate that Man? Or are you engaged with the man with abilities for this world, the six-fingered and six-toed man, the man who asserts himself, the man who is prominent at the present time in the world, the man of violence?
Now the Lord says “I Jesus”. Revelation 22:16. Is there any response? Thank God there is a response; the assembly is recovered. She says virtually, ‘I want that Man’. What a glorious end! The Spirit of God has been labouring in the assembly to this end all these centuries. He is still with her, He has not left her, He has brought her safely through; she has returned to the Man. He announces Himself by name, “I Jesus”. That is the Man who is to people the earth. The book of Revelation is prophetic, it has reference to the dealings of God on earth. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. Revelation 22:17. It is to say, virtually, ‘We have judged antichristian principles, we have judged Ishmael; we want the Man of the gospels’. You may depend upon it that the Spirit of God is labouring that that Man should be supreme in our hearts. The earth belongs to that Man; He it is that is to people the earth; it is “Jesus”. What is the spirit of prophecy? It is “the testimony of Jesus”. Revelation 19:10. Prophecy is not to call attention to the features “of the beast”, those are incidental things. The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus, the spirit of it is to engage you with Jesus. From the outset we get in Scripture inklings as to the order of man that is to people the earth. Abraham was called out of the Babylonish world, and in him you [p. 200] have outlined the features of the man that is to people the earth. From that day onwards the spirit of prophecy is engaged with Christ. Those who know and love Him say:
“We look for Thine appearing,
Thy presence here to bless;
We greet the day that’s nearing,
When all this woe shall cease”. (200:4)
It is that Man whose glorious features are outlined by the spirit of prophecy, and now He announces Himself, “I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star”. Revelation 22:16. It is all over as regards this world, its hideous history, its history of violence and blood, and that Man comes in and takes possession. What the last chapter of the Bible testifies to is that the assembly is brought back to that. She had wandered from it, but the Spirit in faithfulness has held to her and brought her back to it, so that she says to Him, “Come”. It is not there a question of going to heaven, it is a question of that Man coming in and taking up the earth for God.
Well, that is the testimony, beloved friends, of the Scriptures, and my exercise is that every one of us should not only have the ideal in our souls, the gospel presents it to us, but that it should form and characterise us. The apostle says to the Corinthians: “If he that cometh preacheth another Jesus” 2 Corinthians 11:4; but there is not another Jesus. There is the “One Man” to whom the apostle had espoused them. Paul had presented Jesus to the Corinthians, and he says, “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” 2 Corinthians 11:2,3. It is the Man of the gospels that Paul presented, and the Spirit of God is labouring with us so that we [p. 201] might be brought back to that Man. Then you want to bring that Man forth. God is going to bring Him in. “When he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him”. Hebrews 1:6. God would have that Man honoured.
Well, dear brethren, what about ourselves? Is that Man honoured? The ideal is perhaps in your heart, but have you brought it forth so that it is Christ instead of yourself? It will cost you labour and “travail”, but you will have the joy. What is the joy? The joy that “a Man is born into the world”. John 16:21. The result of Christ’s ministry among the disciples was, that after all the sorrow was over there was joy. The Spirit brought in, formed, and developed that Man in their souls. The Acts 2 presents the Man, for the features of Christ were in the disciples when the Holy Spirit came. But how was this effected? Every one of those disciples had gone through something. You do not bring Him forth without exercise. It is not clothing yourself with what is called the objective side; you may be connecting it all with yourself, with Hagar. The apostles did not, neither did the three thousand that came in through their preaching. The glorious features of the Man Christ Jesus, are portrayed in them in the early chapters of the Acts. Look at Stephen. What a reproduction of that Man was in him! Stephen had brought Him forth. He portrayed not himself but Christ. There were the features of Christ in his prayer. “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”, Acts 7:60. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. Acts 7:59. That is the Man brought forth, and that is what God is looking for. The testimony, you may depend upon it, dear brethren, is Christ; it is Christ brought forth in the Lord’s people. That is what Satan hates he hates Isaac.
May the Lord help us. It is a critical moment for us. The great issue is whether Christ is to occupy the [p. 202] place of the man of sin; that is the great issue. Thank God, the Spirit is here, and He never leaves the assembly, but He brings her back to that Man, so that there is a desire down here for that Man to come, and come He will. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Revelation 22:17.
Pages 203 - 212 — “The Ordering of the Camp, Levitical Service and Priesthood”. Belfast, (Volume 27).
The remainder of this Book appears in Volume 6, under the heading, “The Defence of the Testimony”, Belfast, 1914 (Volume 21, pages 71, 82, 125 and 138).