"MY LORD"

E.M.Walkinshaw

Luke 1: 43; John 20 : 13, 27, 28; Philippians 3: 8

The Lord has brought us to see the importance of our personal link with and knowledge of Himself. It is intended that we should know God and that a man or a woman should be with God; that we should not be merely dependent on others but directly in touch with God Himself. There is a lot in the world that is a the result of influence, influence of others, and of course there is argument, and argument leads to persuasion, and persuasion to brainwashing; that is the way someone put it. But those things are not intended to influence the believer because each has the Spirit - that is if he has the Spirit, of course. I am assuming that each of us has and that each is directly taught by God, directly in touch with God. The Lord is exercising us about this in these days and far from weakening what is collective it strengthens it, because it must be evident, I think, to any thoughtful person that if I am with God and you are with God we shall very quickly be together. In fact the break-up of what is collective is because of the breakdown of what is individual. While the collective in the years past has been used to weaken what is individual, we have found a swing in the other direction, that the emphasis, at any rate in argument, on what is individual has been used to destroy the collective. Now properly in Christianity our individual link with God is the basis of everything, and the more you are subject to the one Lord in the power of the one Spirit and the more I am the more we shall be together, and that becomes the basis of what is collective and is the way in which the truth proceeds in 2 Timothy 2. The letter is not written to a company; it is written to an individual. So that the exhortation to the individual is to "pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart", that is to say, I judge, with persons who are doing the same thing. So that as I have said, far from weakening what is collective, the more each strengthens his individual link with the Lord the more we shall be together and have what is properly collective according to God - that which is of the assembly in its nature and character - and the more we shall find the expression of the assembly and be able to enter with our blessed Lord in what is so near to His heart, and that is the praise of His God. Now I suggested these four scriptures, in which we have two women and two men. I think I am right in saying that they are the only persons in the New Testament who are recorded as saying "my Lord". Elizabeth says, "the mother of my Lord". The expression "our Lord" is quite common in scripture and it is often quite common on our lips and in the documents of men - 19th day of October or November or whatever it may be, in the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-two. But the question arises to whom is He Lord? It is a very easy thing to use the words but it is a test to us as to how far we are subject to Him. So we begin with what is personal. You and I would speak of 'Jesus Christ our Lord' and the gospel teaching brings it frequently before us, which shows that what is in mind in the gospel is that persons should be together, but that must be reached individually. When it comes to a question of my saying 'my Lord' that is another question altogether. So these persons I suppose are lovers of Jesus and this one, Elizabeth, says, "whence (is) this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Think of the spiritual instincts with that woman. These persons dwelt in the hill country and I think were devoted to the Lord. They are a link as we know with those "that feared Jehovah and spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed it and heard, ..." I wonder if we realise when we speak together that the Lord is listening with the keenest interest to the subject of our conversation. These persons had a link with those persons; they are in the hill country, and they had conversation that was according to that elevation. I wonder what our conversation is. Again that is a test; it should not be of course, because our conversation should centre in Him who is the centre of God's purpose. Here Jesus was coming in and as we have been taught He was coming into an environment that was sterile as far as evil was concerned, and these persons were consistent with that. I believe this woman knew God ln personal experience. Often when we think of the scriptures and prayer, or of reading the ministry or having time for deliberate prayer and meditation, we put it on to the brothers as though it is essential for them because they take part in the meetings. The sisters do not take part audibly: in God's ways in government they are not the vessels of audible expression in the assembly except in singing and therefore there is a tendency as not carrying that public responsibility to neglect the private devotion to the Lord. I hope I am not being unfair in saying that, and I would only suggest that in two women as well as two men we find brought before us the need for sisters also to have their personal link with God. I have heard some say, and maybe you have heard me say it before, "I never realised until I lost my husband how much I leaned on him in spiritual matters". That is not the intention because what God would have is that sisters should develop their personal link with Himself. True they have a link with their husbands, true they have their family altar, but it is essential that each sister should, as this dear woman, develop spiritually and develop in a personal knowledge of God. Now as each develops you will say, 'they will develop a distinctive personality and will that not then set them one against the other and cause a rift between them?' Never! I say, and I am convinced of it, that any two persons developing their link with God will increasingly and imperceptibly develop their link with one another because it is the same Spirit that links them with Christ above that links them with one another. Immediately we get social links, fleshly links, natural links, and they become the power in our lives, it is then that the rift comes in. The difference always lies in society, nature, riches or poverty, but if any two persons are developing their links with the Lord Jesus and their knowledge of Him those two persons necessarily are being drawn together. So I would suggest that our sisters weigh it over. I am only really taking example from Mr Raven, who said, 'all I want to do is to throw out a few thoughts for you that might help you to develop in the knowledge of God'. What more can anybody do - throw out a few thoughts, you know, about twenty-four volumes of them, that is all! Just a few thoughts to help you! That is of course with that beloved man, but in lowliness he developed and helped the brethren. So I would suggest to our beloved sisters that this is the way that they will give body to our assemblings. It has often been said that spiritual sisters give substance to our reading meetings and our gatherings together. The brothers may speak, but I think from experience we have learned the difference in the atmosphere and the power of the meetings when there are spiritual sisters present.

Here is a woman speaking to another woman, Why does she not say the mother of 'our' Lord? He was equally Mary's Lord as the Lord of Elizabeth; why then does she not say 'our'? No, she is suggesting that she has a personal knowledge of God. Mary of course would have the, same, but Elizabeth expresses this unique word "the mother of my Lord". Now what about you? What about me? What about our sisters, younger sisters, older sisters? Perhaps we could bring in a simple exhortation for the younger sisters if they would bear it, just to spend a little time with the Lord each day. It is well worth while. It does not take long to read two verses of scripture or to speak to the Lord for a little while on your knees when you get up. It does not take long to spend time on your knees before you retire and gradually you will find you will get a taste for it. And the more you pray the more you will want to and you will find also that the less you pray the less you will. want to, the less you look into the scriptures the less you will want to, the more you look into them the more you will want to.

Now I think these persons in the beginning of Luke showed that they were devoted to God and to His interests. There was breakdown; it was very much like our day, it was the end of a dispensation. Israel had broken down, the recovery had broken down, the recovery after a recovery had broken down, everything publicly had gone to pieces. What this must have meant to God to find a handful of persons speaking often one to another! That is what we are doing, dear brethren; we are only a few but thank God for every lover of the truth. Our brother thanked Him at the end of the reading for those with whom we could walk. Thank God for every one of them, and because they are few we are learning to value them the more. Now these persons were few but they were energetic. This particular one to whom I draw attention was a sister and she says, "the mother of my Lord". No jealousy with her - 'why should not I be the mother of the Messiah?' The outlook of every godly woman in Israel would anticipate that in God's ways she might be privileged to be the mother of the Messiah. No, in God's ways it was Mary and it was simply accepted by this beloved woman; she was a spiritual person and we need in these days spiritual sisters, not only spiritual brothers but spiritual sisters. May the Lord grant that in our looking to Him and in our links with Him we may have such developed among us. Let us look to the Lord for it and let younger sisters and older sisters take on this character of being able to say in sincerity and truth 'my Lord'.

Now the next is Mary to whom we have already referred and her devotion and real affection for the Lord Jesus is very evident. When the apostles had gone to their own homes she remained at the tomb. She represents as we have already said formed affection for Christ, but she was a sister, and I think the Lord would develop that. The service that is rendered by sisters in the gospels is remarkable. You never read of a man washing His feet, do you? As far as I know none of the disciples ever washed His feet; it is never recorded at any rate that they did so, it was a woman. And you think of the service that can be rendered to the Lord by sisters in obscurity. 'Lord when did we do that', some said, "Inasmuch as ye did it to one of the least of these my brethren". Now this sister Mary is devoted to the Lord. As far as I can see she is entirely alone there, she has no company in the early hours of the morning at the tomb. I suppose men generally would think she was mad, hanging about the tomb where there is a dead man, and she thought he was dead; but she loved Him so intensely that she would have Him, and to her great surprise and no doubt to her joy she found that He was alive. The expression she uses to the enquirers is this "they have taken away my Lord". O how possessive that is! She was not concerned whether He was Lord to others, or whether they recognised it or not. As far as she was concerned He was the object of her affections and she belonged to Him. Now I would like to ask you, do you claim the Lord as your own in this way? While we could say it is another sister, yet at the same time I think she represents spiritual affection which is to be formed in us all, that is formed love for Christ. You say, well she was not very intelligent - how very intelligent to say that, is it not? You do not need a very high measure of intelligence to be critical. O what affection she had and how quickly she was enlightened, and she had the company of the Lord too. If your desires are earnestly after Christ He will not disappoint you whether you are a young man or a young woman. If your desires are intensely and devotedly after the Lord Jesus He will not disappoint you. In fact He says, "I will manifest myself to him", that is to an individual. So here is this sister and she says, "they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him". How enlightened she became. He says, "Mary", and she suddenly became aware of the fact that Jesus was there. I have thought sometimes it is like the experience you get at the Supper; you may not be aware that the Lord is there, you think it is somebody else, then in the power of the Spirit of God you become aware of the fact that it is not the somebody that is speaking, it is the Lord, known by the Spirit. She thought she was speaking to another, in fact the gardener, "supposing that it was the gardener". Think about that for a moment, why should she suppose him to be the gardener? Was there something not too distinguished about Him, to be the gardener? Would He appear something like that, do you think? If He had stood out in some way she would hardly have supposed Him to be the gardener. She was speaking really to the same Jesus that she had always known. In another sense He was the gardener of course, divinely so, and of course He was in the garden, as it says, "But there was in the place where he had been crucified a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever laid". (John 19: 41). Now He is alive in the garden, the same Jesus and when He says, "Mary" she recognises Him. We have often said of the Lord Jesus that He was looking at one of His sheep; "my sheep hear my voice ... and they follow me" (John 10: 27), she was one of them. She says immediately "Rabboni". Now that means 'my' teacher or 'my own teacher'; it is that personal devotion that claims that Man for myself. But then I come into the understanding that others are doing the, same, so immediately Jesus says, "Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God". She comes bringing word to the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and I wonder dear brethren, if we ever go from the Lord's Day morning meeting and can say in sincerity and truth that we have seen the Lord? Or I have seen the Lord. We may say it is not possible, this was physical; we get happy impressions and we have a good time and some nice singing and so on, and sometimes it is not so good, and the meetings fluctuate, they are up and down and so on and so forth. She carried the message that she had seen the Lord; now in the faith of your soul do you believe that? The challenge is, do I believe that Jesus comes to those who assemble in this room on Lord's Day morning? Do I believe that Jesus comes to those who assemble in the various rooms of those who are represented here or am I infidel about it? Do I think that it is just a happy gathering of certain believers who hold certain teachings and claim, some say, that they are the only people to whom He comes and the like? Or can I go away from an assembling of the saints and say 'I have seen the Lord'; because seeing especially in John's gospel is not necessarily seeing physically, but seeing spiritually. It is discerning, and I think in the power of the Spirit we are to discern the Lord coming in and we are to be with Him and to discern when He goes out. So He comes in and He goes out. Now I think, dear brethren, we should individually take this up with the Lord so that His presence in the assembly might be realised by us and our apprehension of Him in the midst might be greater and more real. You must take it up as being with God. It is not a question of coming and finding something there. If I might again quote that beloved man, Mr Raven, when you come the room might be empty, but what is there that is available to the Lord is what you bring. And what do you bring? Do you come to get or do you come to give? Primarily you should come to give and the more you give the more you will find you will get. How wonderful that is!

Now Thomas is an object lesson for us, is he not? He did not believe it. They said they had seen the Lord and he would not believe it. Moreover he does not say it is just something I cannot believe, he says, I will not believe it.

He says, "Unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe". Think of Thomas saying that. I know he represents dispensationally the remnant, but he is an object lesson for us. How often we find ourselves like that, dear brethren; unbelieving about these things. What about the younger men? Think of John who wrote this: I suppose when he wrote this he was an old man. When he had the experience of it he was a very young man, but he had had many an experience between those two ages in his life. What about you young men? I will tell you I would love to see young men, or a young man, prepared to sacrifice for the Lord through devotion to Him. We commented earlier today that may be he was only seventeen or eighteen years old - what that must have meant to the Lord to have such a young man. When an older man is devoted to the Lord I think the Lord appreciates it very much, but when a young man, perhaps seventeen or eighteen, is prepared to sacrifice, give up his life for Christ, I think the Lord values it even the more. Do you not think so? Think of what may lie ahead of a young man, think of Mr Darby when he was quite a young man and what lay ahead of him. I doubt not that what has been said is true that he had the capacity for the highest offices in this country. There is a sublime character about his poems, no doubt from the Spirit of God: nevertheless, there was something there natural to him that he gave up. He gave up his life but he found it, how wonderful! Is there some young man here to whom the Lord could make an appeal. Are you prepared to give up the many things that interest you, the many things that hold your attention, which might be quite right and normal in themselves, to give them up for His sake? I think the Lord would make an appeal to younger men in these days that from their youth up they may be prepared sacrificially to serve Him and they will find that if they give up their life whatever it may be, as He says, they will find it. You will find your life with Him in another order of things altogether.

Well, there is hope, however unbelieving, Thomas comes to it, he says, "My Lord and my God". What an utterance from such a man, who just before that was an unbeliever, but now he comes to it that the One that is before him is "My Lord and my God". Now this is a brother. The two sisters we have been speaking about were very good sisters, but we might not think that this brother was too good, not at this juncture anyway, but the Lord in His infinite grace brings him, as He does us, to saying "My Lord and my God".

Now I will just say a word or two about Paul. "But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all". There is another man; he was not an old man, but relatively a young man. I suppose from the time he was very young the Lord laid hold of him, but here it is the energy of the man himself; his devotion, sacrificial devotion, to that Man Who died for him and was raised, Who was sitting at the right hand of God, and absorbed him absolutely; think of that! So that he was engrossed with Christ, he says in this passage as we know, "but one thing", and that of course is some people's definition of a madman, he was absorbed with one idea you see, a madman in the eyes of men. You think of this man, absolutely engrossed with the Man at the right hand of God. The whole of his life, his service, whatever it was, was controlled by a glorified Man. I wonder how true that is of any of us. You say well, of course, he was an apostle, he had a very special place. That is true but also he was a simple Christian, and as we have often reminded ourselves in this epistle it is Paul the Christian, it is not Paul the apostle. I could never have his gift nor could I have the gift of such as Mr Darby, but it is open to me to be committed in devotion as these persons were. The fact that I am not does not mean that the resource is not available in the Spirit, because it is; if we are not devoted, it is failure in our responsibility. It is no reflection on the resource available in the Holy Spirit that we might as having the Spirit, and being in the Spirit, and walking by the Spirit, and living in the Spirit, be here for God.

Well, I do not think I have more to say other than to draw your attention to these two sisters and two brothers each of whom said "my Lord". Paul pre-eminently, who is our apostle is the one I think whom the Lord would bring before us. We so often think of him as unique, and in a way he was unique in the place the Lord gave him, but I do not think that Paul as an individual ever had any experience in privilege that was greater than what is proper to the assembly. I do not think any person at any time anywhere has ever had any experience in privilege that is greater than what belongs to the assembly. Do you believe that? I believe that to be the truth, and I believe as we touch it a little it becomes the spring of this devotion to Christ which was so seen in the apostle Paul, or in the Christian Paul perhaps I should say, and can through God's grace be seen in us. May the Lord encourage us, dear brethren, to see that all is not lost. As we reminded ourselves God had a Man here in whom there was no ruin, no breakdown, no failure, and now He has that Man in His presence and He is at perfect rest. May we know more about His presence and enjoy His peace and His rest for His glory.

 

MAIDSTONE

25 November 1972