THE FLOCK OF GOD
[p. 147] THE FLOCK OF GOD
John 10: 22 - 33; Acts 20: 28 - 32
It is extremely important to apprehend that in the coming of Christ every divine thought previously made known is taken up afresh. Christ, the Son of God, comes forth from God, not simply to establish something new, but to take up things that are, in a sense, old. They are taken up in a peculiar way, but they are taken up, so that nothing is allowed to drop.
I have attempted to point this out in the gospels. In Matthew we have the idea of Israel. God had taken them up as the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Ten tribes had been carried away captive, and, after that, Judah and Benjamin were carried away, and a remnant only were brought back to the land. Their moral condition was worse than their outward condition. The house was empty, swept and garnished. They had purged themselves from idolatry, but the house was empty, and hence at the end the idolatrous principle comes back. But whatever might be the then condition of Israel, the thought of Israel is taken up again in Christ. That is not a new thing, but the church is new. Israel is old, and old things are taken up in Christ.
In the gospel of Luke we see that the nations had a place in the thought of God. Christ was a light for the revelation of the gentiles. The gentiles were to be brought into the light of Christ. The coming of Christ meant not simply the blessing of God’s people Israel, but the revelation of the gentiles. That is not a new thought, it comes out in the Old Testament. It is there said, “Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people”. Many other passages in the Old Testament speak of the blessing of the nations. When Christ came, all that was brought into view, for He was a light for the revelation of the gentiles.
[p. 148] So, too, in Mark the word is taken up in Christ. The prophetic word had lapsed for many years, but in Christ it is again presented. In John the same principle applies. There the temple is spoken of. As regards Israel, it had become a den of thieves, but now it is seen in Christ. It is really a point of the deepest interest to see that Christ came, not simply to be the foundation of what was new, but to take up what was old. The Lord in Matthew 16 said, “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”; but He was here also that every divine thought might be established. Whether it is Israel, the nations, the word, the temple, or any other thought, all is taken up in Him. If you apprehend that, you will see how in Christ the divine ways are bound together.
Christ is the bond of everything. We see in Him the establishment of all that was old, and the introduction of what is new. The holy Jerusalem is a new thought; but all that had been spoken of and predicted in the Old Testament is not inconsistent with it. Christ comes in as the foundation of the church, but, at the same time, we get every previous thought of God established.
Now we have on the other hand the fact that Christ was rejected by man. Jew and gentile joined in His rejection. That is brought out in John. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not”. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not”. The simplest person can see that the rejection of the Son of God must make a great difference on earth. It came out very soon in connection with His presence here. Man’s will was bent upon the rejection of all that was of God. That is, alas! the heart of man. You can see it in the world today: the spirit and purpose of man is the rejection of Christ. The thought of God in any moral sense, and as having any spiritual relation to man, is intolerable to the world. The simple thought of Creator may be admitted, but when you present to man the idea of a [p. 149] living God who regards man, and to whom man has responsibility, the thought is obnoxious. The mind of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. A great many people read that as if it applied to the ten commandments, whereas it applies, I judge, to the rule or principle of God. The mind of the flesh is not subject to the principle of God, and neither indeed can be, so that they who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But I was saying that Christ was rejected here. Pontius Pilate no more accepted Christ than did the Jew; and the consequence is, that Christ becomes a test. The one thing follows upon the other. If Christ is presented to man and is not received by man, then He necessarily becomes a test to man. I admit that if God did not work, Christ would not be accepted by anyone; there is the activity of God underneath all. But the position is, that He is the Head of every man: He is placed thus in regard of every man, and the result is, that every man is tested by Him.
The consequence of His being the test is, that you get souls attracted to Christ. In John 12 the Lord says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out: and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”. There is in Christ a power of attraction, and men are attracted to Him. This has been verified in all of us. We have been attracted to Him, though we may not have understood very much about it. A great many are content with believing what is written in the Scriptures, and that is of all moment; but the secret is, that there is a power of attraction in Christ, though He is rejected of men, and that souls have been and are attracted to Him.
Christianity will endure every assault of the enemy, and for this reason, that in every part of it it is living. Christ is the principle of it. There is a contrary principle at work in the world which blinds men to the glory of Christ, but in Him there is an irresistible attraction [p. 150] which will draw all to Himself. That is what is coming out at the present time. Christ — unknown of the world and rejected by His own — has become the test of every man. If He had been received there would have been no testing of man. But He has become the test of the Jew and also of the gentile.
And what is the secret of that? He is full of grace and truth. John speaks of this, and says, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us ... full of grace and truth”. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. In Christ we have the revelation of God and the expression of His mind toward man. “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. He has declared God, and that is the power of attraction in Him. God is declared according to His disposition and thought toward man, in grace and truth. Christ did not come like Moses as a law-giver, but the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and of His grace have all we received.
No power of evil can ever get christianity out of the world, because it depends upon the living Christ who has declared God, and God is declared in such a way that the word is irresistible. Men come to feel the need of what is presented in Christ: grace and truth. They are conscious of being infirm and sinful, and they want God; they feel that they are in the dark in regard of Him, and have need of the truth. From the moment that Christ came here to the present time the principle of testing has been going on in the world. Man will be tested to the end by Christ, and the result is, that while some are drawn to Christ, on the other hand, the testing makes man darker and worse than he was before. We have all been drawn to Christ by what is presented in Him. You may not have understood it, but when you heard the gospel He was drawing you to Himself. He is the magnet. Christianity depends upon the living Christ, who is the point of attraction to men. What is presented in Christ precisely meets the need of men,
[p. 151] though it is another thing for man to realise His need. Men would like to know forgiveness of sins; well, grace is presented in Christ. And man would like to know what is truth, and it is there in Christ. When you look at Christ you see all in its proper place and proportion.
Now while we see the truth set forth in Christ, we get all those thoughts of God which He had previously made known established in the companions of Christ. When I speak of the companions of Christ, I refer to those who have been drawn to Him. They are companions of His rejection. No divine thought has lapsed. I once had the idea that many things made known in connection with Israel had, in a sense, for the time being lapsed, and that they would be taken up in the future; but the truth is, that nothing has lapsed and every thought of God is taken up in the church; in the companions of Christ. They are His companions in the time of His rejection. They are much like the disciples to whom the Lord said, “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations”. Our part is, that if we suffer with Him we shall be glorified together. If a christian wants to be much in the world he falsifies christianity immediately. The idea in connection with the children of God is, that we are in the fellowship of Christ in rejection.
I pointed out previously that you get the Israel of God; the true Jew, the circumcision, and the house of God taken up in the companions of Christ. This shews us how the thoughts of God are established, in spite of the rejection of Christ by those who, after the flesh, were His own people. The mind of God has found a way to establish itself. The apostle said to the Galatians, “if ye be Christ’s”, that is, companions of Christ, “then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”. The gentiles came into that position. If the thought of the true Israel were not fulfilled in the companions of Christ, how would the promises be taken up? The gentiles could not take them up as such,
[p. 152] because they belonged to Abraham and his seed, and yet the promises are for glory to God by us. The true Israel is taken up in Christ, and fulfilled in His companions, and the promises are for glory to God by us. That is not for the future, but now.
I pass on now to another thought: the flock of God. That is a thought which is undoubtedly connected with Israel. If you have read the prophets you must have seen that to be the case. God was indignant with the nations for their treatment of His flock, and with the pastors, who fed themselves instead of the flock. Israel came out of Egypt as Jehovah’s flock, they were under the leadership of Moses as such. They had that place as after the flesh. It was not that the thought of God was really fulfilled, but He gave a foreshadowing, of what His thought was.
In John 10 we find that those who were ostensibly the sheep were tested by the coming in of the Shepherd, and the result was, that while the sheep were led out of the fold the Lord had to say to the mass of the Jews, “ye are not of my sheep ... My sheep hear my voice”. The effect of the testing was to bring to light those who really were the sheep.
Christ was the Shepherd of the sheep and He entered by the door. He did not come into the fold clandestinely. Abundant witness was given to Him when He came into the fold. “Many good works have I shewed you from my Father”. He came in by the door. He spoke of His being the door of the sheep, the good Shepherd, and the one Shepherd. What comes out is the fact that the Jew was tested by Christ, and failed to answer to the test.
Now you get the thought of the flock of God fulfilled, in the present time, in the companions of Christ; that is, in those who have been attracted to Him. I cannot conceive anything more important than to apprehend the reality of a living Christ, in whose name grace is presented. In the darkest period in the history of christianity there was the idea in the world of a living [p. 153] Christ, and of grace in His name. No one can gainsay that. In the darkest days of popery, mixed up as things were, there was the thought maintained in the world. God had made provision for this in the power of the Holy Spirit here, and His name has ever been the test, and continues to be so.
Now the first point about the sheep is, that they hear the Shepherd’s voice. The reason of this is, that He presented what they wanted to know. They did not want to know law, not even prophecy, they wanted to know grace and truth. His was the voice of wisdom and wisdom is to attract man. “I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures”. Wisdom cries in the world, in spite of everything, to attract man into the way of righteousness. Wisdom presents to him grace and truth with that object in view.
“My sheep hear my voice”. That indicates a work of God underneath, and so the Lord says, “I know them”. It is a wonderful thing that there are those in the world who are known of Christ. He knew Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdalene, Peter and John, and He knew them individually. Each one of them had a secret history with Christ, and so it is with every one of us. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”. It is not only that we have believed certain things about Christ, but He is to us a living reality. He knows every one of us intimately, far better than we know one another. Each of us has a history with Him which would be impossible with one another. He knows us and we follow Him. If you have not heard His voice and are not conscious that He loves you, you are not prepared to follow Him. It is a great thing for the soul to know that it is known of Christ.
And now He says, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish”. That should have been fulfilled in Israel. They ought to have heard Christ,
[p. 154] then they would have understood that He knew them, but it was not so. “He came to his own, and his own received him not”. Israel will in result come into their own land and blessing as the flock of God, and everything will be fulfilled in them; meantime, everything is fulfilled in us. Christ gives to His sheep eternal life. The thought of eternal life is not deferred. It is properly connected with the coming age, but every thought of God is established in the companions of Christ. The particular form in which it is given to us is no doubt in the way of knowledge. The Lord speaks in John 17, “as thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal. And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”. It is in that form we have it. It will not be quite in the same sense in the future. When Christ comes He will be eternal life in the world, but the peculiar way in which we have it at the present time is in the knowledge of the Father and the Son. That knowledge is fitting us for courts above.
The thought we get here is of what properly belongs to Israel, but, for the time being, Israel has perished. It may be said of them that they have been plucked out of the hand of Christ, but the Lord says in regard of His sheep, “They shall never perish nor shall any one pluck them out of my hand”. What we come to is, that we have those who have been drawn to Christ, by the power of attraction in Christ, who have been given to Him of the Father, and every thought proper to the flock of God is fulfilled in them.
I read the passage in the Acts because there we find the flock of God spoken of by Paul, though we have been accustomed to think it is peculiar to John. Paul speaks of it to gentiles. He is speaking in Ephesus. In John to the Lord was speaking in the midst of the Jews. The passage in the Acts shews the fulfilment of what the Lord predicted in John 10, “I have other sheep which [p. 155] are not of this fold: those also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd”. Paul charges the elders to take heed to the flock of God, and predicts what would take place after his departure. It had been the case in Israel that grievous wolves had come in. This took place very early in the history of the church. They did not come exactly into the flock, but into the assembly, into that which was outward in a way, but their object was the flock.
The flock is not taken up on the ground of profession, it is that which God has purchased with the blood of His own. The thought in the early church was (and it succeeded only too well) to scatter the flock, that is, to destroy unity. If the enemy succeeded in doing that, he succeeded in destroying testimony. Unity was the testimony of the flock. The Lord prays in John 17, “That they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. We are intended to be a testimony here for God. God was the Shepherd of Israel, and they should have been a testimony to Him.
I speak of these things, because it is important that they should be maintained in the saints. In the coming of the Lord every promise will be fulfilled. In the meantime all the promises are for glory to God by us. Everything which God has had in view, and which He had made known, is established in the companions of Christ, and hence the church becomes the connecting link between the past and the future, and the practical result is that we come into many blessings and privileges which properly belong to Israel. There are things which are peculiar to the church. The heavenly places belong to the saints, and the calling on high of God. He has blessed us in the heavenly places in Christ, that never could be said of Israel.
We have been drawn to Christ of the Father, and are [p. 156] joined to Him in the power of the Spirit, and in us every divine thought is for the time being established. We come into very great blessings which have reference, in their strict application, to Israel. In the light of the holy Jerusalem, Israel resumes its own proper place down here as the house of God; the church comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God. That is the climax, and God is forming us in the sense of it now for heavenly glory, to be the vessel in which He will display His glory in the presence of the universe. We ought to cherish every divine thought. To me it is a matter of the greatest comfort that God had in Christ His own way of taking up all things, and, once taken up in Him, they are established in the church of God. I want you to apprehend that. We come into the place of the flock of God. We hear the Shepherd’s voice and know Him, and He knows us individually.
May God give us to see every divine thought in its establishment in Christ and the church, and yet the church as that which is new has its own proper glory in being called to Christ above.