THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD
[p. 242] THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD
I want to bring before you the position in which christians are placed with regard to God, and what is suitable to that position. You need to understand your position. The object in preaching the gospel is to bring man to the understanding of his position with regard to God. It is important that the position should be apprehended. All that God creates stands in relation to every other part, for God is not the author of confusion. You have only to look up to the heavens to see this. All the heavenly bodies form part of one great system, and if that is so in regard of the physical creation, it is the same in regard of the moral creation. David saw all that in Psalm 19 but when he looked at things on earth everything was in confusion. The great point is that we should recognise our position outside of the confusion.
God has wrought to bring about a new order according to His mind, and He is using the material down here to evolve a system according to His mind. Christ is the beginning of the creation of God: that is how the Lord presents Himself to the church in Laodicea. He is the faithful and true witness, and all takes its character from the One who is the beginning. It is not new creation, but a system that is existing now. It is in that we see the complete triumph of God over evil, and God intends to evolve out of the confusion a system according to His mind; Christ is the beginning of that creation.
The rest of God has been interfered with by the coming in of sin, but God will surely find His rest. All creation — I refer, of course, to all intelligent creation — will take its character from Christ. There are people who might be described as children of the devil; I [p. 243] would not put that down as absolute, because there are some beauties of divine origin left in man, such as natural affection. The Lord could look upon the young man in Mark 10: 21 and love him, though the moral springs within him were all wrong. I do not think that young man was converted.
“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures”. God has begun anew in the One who is the beginning of the creation of God, and of His own will He has begotten us by the word of truth. I think the word is as seed sown. God has been pleased to sow the seed. You get several expressions kindred to this in Scripture. You get Christ is the truth, the Spirit is truth, and there is the word of truth. What is truth? I do not pretend to give you a definition of truth; you will have to go to a dictionary for that, and I am not a dictionary. What helps us with regard to the truth in that it exhibits everything in its true character and proportion. Christ is the truth, that was the case when He was here upon earth; all was tested by Him, and the practical result is that we learn everything in its true character and proportion. If that is so, and it really is, then christians are a very remarkable people in the world. I would rather be a lowly christian than a man of great research or scientific knowledge, because I have been begotten by the word of truth; and therefore I am able to form a true judgment of things in their character and proportion before God.
There are three points touched upon here. First, “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God”. Second, “lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls”. And third “whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein”.
When we come to the creation of God, and see things in their true character, we are slow to speak and swift to hear. My thoughts are entirely reversed; all my [p. 244] lifetime I have been entirely at fault, all my judgment of things is entirely overturned. In regard of the Lord Himself, all was divinely perfect. He said, “As I hear, I judge”. “He openeth mine ear morning by morning”. He was slow to speak. You can see how suitable it is to be swift to hear and slow to speak. The wrath of man is the expression of man’s will, and proves that man’s will is in activity. Now man’s will is lawlessness, and is diametrically opposed to righteousness, and hence can never work the righteousness of God. We have to move in the orbit of God’s will, and on the other hand we have to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save our souls. It is deliverance from what I call snares. The implanted word discloses these snares; then it is the snare is broken and we escape. A snare must have a bait, and every bait tends in the way of self-gratification. We are not left here to please ourselves — even Christ pleased not Himself. It is a great thing to receive with meekness the implanted word. Christians may say there is nothing wrong in going here and there — there is no harm in it; but that is doing your own will, and the secret of true happiness is doing the will of God. Paul said, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day”. Committed what? His happiness! Until when? When all would be manifested in the world to come; he gave up all his happiness here on earth, in order that be might receive it at that day from the Lord Himself.
“Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein”. We are all tested by continuance. In a race all start well, but the test is endurance. If you continue in it you will be a doer of the word. What do you think the perfect law of liberty is? I think it is the love of God. The law of the ten commandments was not liberty, but the secret of it was the love of God.
It sprang from the perfect law of liberty. When God commanded men to love one another, it was really love [p. 245] that underlay it. What is the law of liberty in a family? It is the consciousness of the affection of the parents. So in regard of christians — the consciousness of the love of God. There is no such thing in the world as free-will. It is all rubbish. Man is under rule in various ways — under the rule of his fellow, the rule of public opinion, and so on. But we are under the rule of the love of God. I love to see a bird at liberty, then it can sing; God has appointed rules for it also. My point is that we should get a right apprehension of God. What wonderful creatures christians are, they apprehend everything according to the mind of God. Then we are slow to speak, swift to hear, and are delivered out of every snare of the fowler; we look into the perfect law of liberty and continue therein. Christianity does not consist in holding doctrines, it is extremely vital. We have to look to it that the fruit of vitality is seen in us, and that we walk in the enjoyment of the perfect law of liberty and continue therein. It is a great thing to get a proper apprehension of the love of God.