SALVATION AND LIBERTY
[p. 221] SALVATION AND LIBERTY
John 9: 39 - 44; John 10: 1 - 18
I was referring last night to what was an important principle, that is, that God has been pleased to gather up the threads of His past dealings in the companions of Christ which otherwise would have lapsed. In the setting aside of Israel they would have dropped, but God foresaw, and having done so, He saw to it that there should be no loose threads; and that is, that every thread should be gathered up in Christ. Now tonight I purpose to take up the thought of the flock. Now the thought of a flock does not connect itself with heaven, but like that of the vine, with the earth. The thought of the flock is taken up in a peculiar way in christianity. In the Old Testament you get expressions which show that Israel took that ground — “We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture”. The expression is prophetic, and refers to when Jehovah reigns; then they will say, “We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture”. Then again we get, “He led them, like a flock”. Now the strength of a flock and the sheep of His pasture properly belongs to Israel, and will be taken up in a future day, and then Israel will be a known and recognised people, and God will make it patent that they are His people, and He (Jehovah) their shepherd. It will be a public thing, and made evident in the world. It is not so now. You can neither see the flock nor the Shepherd. We can only know it by the revelation of God — the Shepherd too is unseen. All that is proper to the flock is at the present time remarkable. I have thus so far shown that the idea of the flock is therefore still existing, and finds its place in the companions of Christ, but is not manifested in a public way, as it will be in the future in connection with Israel. Everything is peculiar and paradoxical at the present time. Things [p. 222] are fulfilled now in principle, and in the power of the Spirit. Everything for God is by the Spirit of God — we have to learn what is here of the Spirit of God. Professing christianity is outside the Spirit of God; it has become a great religious system of the world — but there is nothing for God here which is outside the Spirit of God. The Lord said of the Comforter’s coming, “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him”, “He ... shall be in you”. I shall now say a little about the flock and the shepherd but I want first to tell you the gain we get from it. The question is appropriate, What gain do we get from being the flock of God, and Christ being the Shepherd? Well, it forms part of our education. We are undergoing an education. A man does not become a professor before he himself has gone through a course, and obtained a degree. A professor is a public teacher, and has a chair, but it is the result of having gone through a long course of training, and obtained a degree. Now how is the church going to fill the place which God intends it should in the world to come? We are going through a most important training, in order to give us instruction in every way of God. That is going on, and the effect will be great. We are brought into the knowledge of the Father, and of Christ, and this will qualify us for the part we have to fulfil in glory. God is qualifying us for the peculiar place which will be exercised by the church, the Lamb’s wife, in the day to come. The church will not be unintelligent in any way of God, for all the ways of God will be centred in Christ for the blessing of man. Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant. We have come to Jesus — the “mediator of the new covenant”, Hebrews 12: 24. That indicates the place which Christ will have in that day — it is most essential therefore that we should be instructed in every way of God. Now turn again to John 10: 1 - 10. We get here two figures under which Christ is spoken of: (1) The shepherd of the sheep (afterwards He speaks of Himself as “the good shepherd” and the “one shepherd”); (2) He is a door. Both are figures — but both quite different — Shepherd of the sheep — a door of the sheep. As Shepherd He is the One entitled to be followed by the sheep. He was entitled to gather the sheep, and if need be, to lead them out of the fold. Christ could not have abode in the fold — it was too narrow and restricted, but He led them out of the fold. A fold is a religious enclosure, which existed in the world, and where the sheep of God were kept, and into which Christ came. He entered in legitimately. We are not unaccustomed to these enclosures. Popery is a large enclosure. A papist would tell you that you could not be saved outside that enclosure. An Irvingite would say, you could not escape the great tribulation, save as you came within the enclosure. There are many enclosures, and the advocates of each have much to bring forward as to the special advantages of its own enclosure. The Jewish fold, however, was divinely constituted, but it was too narrow for Christ. So He led the sheep out. Christ is there, outside the fold. He is outside the camp — He is outside every enclosure in the world. They are too narrow and restricted entirely for Christ, and Christ is outside of them all, outside of the whole religious organisation in the world. There may be sheep in them, but Christ is outside all. He stands at the door and knocks. Mark that! it is very serious. All christendom acknowledges Christ in some way or another, but the truth in regard of Christ is, that He is outside all — He is not to be found in anything which has the nature of an enclosure.
Now I come to the next point. If I want to get to Christ, I have to get outside of the world. When Christ was here judaism was the world. I ask, what is the world now? Christendom is the world, christendom is not of the Spirit of God, and if you want to find Christ, He stands at the door, and knocks, and you have to find Him outside all the enclosures in christendom.
[p. 224] But (2) He is the door of the sheep. The door is a way of entrance, and it is an entirely different idea. It is not entering an enclosure. The Lord does not leave one enclosure to establish another. He did not leave judaism to establish christendom. If you have apprehended Christ as the door, where do you enter? You enter in to God, and that according to the way in which God has been pleased to reveal Himself according to the truth and love in which God has been pleased to make Himself known in Christ. It is made good to us, in the Holy Spirit which is given to us. “By me if any man enter in”. The door is open to any one; the passage is essentially evangelistic. If any one does enter in, he will get the love of God which is shed abroad in the heart, by the Holy Spirit given to him. Now I see the result of entering in — “he shall be saved”, and “go in and out and find pasture”. There is thus the greatest gain in entering in by the door to the knowledge of God. These blessings were never found in the fold, and if not found there, it is certain you could not find them in any organisation set up since. There is nothing here for God outside the Holy Spirit. The church is in God the Father. No organisation in the world could pretend to have salvation, liberty, and pasture. If I go in to God by Christ, I get salvation. In Christ there is salvation, that is, deliverance from this evil world. You get that in Christ. We have gone in to God to the love of God, and in Christ we get salvation, liberty, and pasture. We do not need a fold. A christian can walk above the world, without an enclosure. I have salvation in Christ. I am not afraid of the wolf; or of the roaring lion, or of the serpent. The wolf might terrify me by death, but I am not afraid. In Christ I have salvation, and there we have life, and have it abundantly. We have life by Christ; we are kept here by attraction to Christ. Every sheep is effectively attached to Christ by the Spirit of God, that is, Christ has given to each sheep living water; they are there [p. 225] attached to Him, and they are sustained in fidelity to Christ, and thus can say, ‘I am saved, and go in and out and find pasture’. I could not conform to the demands of any system. I am maintained here in the state of salvation, and the secret is I have gone in to God, and I am attached to Christ, and that maintains me here, without the necessity of an enclosure.
It is amazing to me that a person should have known salvation and liberty, and have had pasture, and then go back again into an enclosure. It is appalling that such a thing could take place. What holds me is the Spirit of Christ to Christ, and I should not need an enclosure.
Life depends on two things: (1) that I have gone in to God, and (2) we respond to that love. God has given us a habitation, and that is the love of God, and we want to abide in the habitation appointed us. We can abide there because we have the Spirit of God. We have a well of water, springing up to everlasting life. The subtleties of evil are against the believer, but by attachment to Christ I am saved, and not afraid of anything. With us, all hangs upon knowledge — there is nothing manifest. All our blessing depends upon knowledge spiritually; by the Spirit of God we have knowledge of divine Persons — I touch now upon another point. We come to the thought of the good Shepherd, and that is very important as regards our education. The object of the good Shepherd is to prove and make manifest goodness, so that we are enabled to overcome evil. What should mark a christian is goodness — not hardness, not sourness. Suppose you were marked by goodness — it proves you are acquainted with goodness, and that you have learnt the goodness in the good Shepherd, and the sure proof of it is that He laid down His life. We know Christ in goodness as the expression of divine goodness. Our goodness is the answer to His goodness made known to us. If God looks at the harm in us, He may need to bring in discipline. The good Shepherd has given proof of goodness in laying [p. 226] down His life for the sheep.
Now one point more; there were other sheep to be brought, and He becomes the one shepherd, and we want to become acquainted with Him as such. We must remember there are other sheep; some of these may not be agreeable to me, but if I recognise that there is one flock, and one shepherd, I should do all in my power to maintain the unity. We do not want to produce a jar between the sheep, we do not want to mar the thought of Christ. We are to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now all that I have spoken of is a great education for us. The ability to maintain goodness here is proportionate to my acquaintance with divine goodness. As we appreciate goodness we express goodness. If you appreciate Christ and His mind, the One who was to have but the one flock and is the one Shepherd, both in the power of the Holy Spirit, you will endeavour to keep the unity of that Spirit.
These things are a great education to lead us into the mind of Christ then to be led to the Father who sent Him. We know the Father, as we know Christ. How do we get eternal life? It is eternal life to “know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. If we are thus educated, we shall have obtained a degree; we shall be qualified to fulfil the function which God intends to be fulfilled by the bride, the Lamb’s wife; and all will be the result of the blessed training to which she has been subjected. “Her light was like unto a stone most precious”. There will be no gifts in that day — but all the grace she will exercise will be according to the education by which she was fitted when down here. It will be wonderful in that day to see the church come down from God, out of heaven, all prepared. May we be ready for the training through which He passes us.