THE LORD SOUGHT-THE LORD KNOWN
[p. 286] THE LORD SOUGHT-THE LORD KNOWN
2 Timothy I desire to say a few words, taking up the thought expressed by our brother who has just spoken, that is, of ‘the second blessing’. He has put it before us in a way with which I fully agree, but I am going to dwell on the term in a somewhat different way.
I fully admit that there is for the Christian the ‘second blessing’. The first blessing I shall refer to is that he believes on the Lord; and the second is that he has reached the Lord.
A mistake that is made by many is in thinking that because they have believed in the Lord, that they have reached the Lord; but it is not so — the two things are distinct — I can refer to the subject feelingly, because I know what it is to have gone through this.
What I am about to say will connect itself with the second epistle to Timothy; I will give you a sort of arbitrary division of the epistle: that is, in the first two chapters we have the seeking of the Lord — in the last two we have the Lord found and known.
It is good to remember that it is a divine and unchanging principle which was uttered by the Lord, that “He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”. That is a sure principle, which, if held to, will never fail you.
I may just say that I am not attempting to give you a gospel address, I shall speak entirely to those who have believed on the Lord; and having believed, the great point for the soul is to reach the Lord; and I think if I take up a few passages in the epistle it will make what I mean plain. It is the soul personally appropriating the Lord.
The first passage I turn to is in chapter 1: 8, “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord”. I think the first thing that you need to bear in mind, in seeking to reach the Lord, is that the testimony of the gospel by which you are saved has come to you distinctly from Him. When you first believed the testimony, you could have been scarcely conscious that it came to you from the Lord; you would have been more disposed to assume that you had received it from the preacher that you had listened to; but it is a great point to apprehend that the Lord was the One from whom you did receive it. To establish the truth of this we may refer to chapter 1 of the epistle to the Hebrews; and there it is seen clearly that God is no longer speaking by the prophets, for, as to the prophets, what marked their testimony was that there was no perfection or finality reached, and there was consequently no announcement with them of rest for God. Now God has spoken in the Son: and who could speak after the Son? He is speaking in the Son and thus finality is reached in the testimony. God has reached His own rest in Christ.
If you look at the chapter, what it tells us of is the things in which God can now rest, because everything is secured for His glory in the Son; and the first thing noticed is that He has sat down on high having accomplished the purging of sins; and then His superiority to angels is set forth. “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?” He is the Son of God, and even as Man He is thus an object adequate for God; and anyone must see that it is a wonderful thing for God to have secured an adequate object for His affections and delight in a Man.
Then there is another thing, and that is He has secured an eternal throne, and that based on perfect discrimination between righteousness and iniquity in the One who has loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. And it is the good pleasure of God [p. 288] to present to us all that has been secured for Himself in that Man who is the suited object of His affections.
But there is a further point, namely, that in the Son there is no decay, no growing old. “Thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail”. The quotation in Hebrews 1 is from Psalm 102, and is the divine answer to the Lord’s words as Man here, “He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days”.
Another point of deep interest and importance is in that He is called to sit at the right hand of God; and let us remember that that place is His, because He has been refused a place here. It is His place provisionally until His foes are made His footstool. And hence, if you want to know what the will of God is, or to learn His good pleasure, you must find it in Him who sits at God’s right hand; for all is for the moment hid in Him, where He is. It is sometimes said that such things are too difficult, but is it too hard to seek to reach the things which God has made known in the Son? All is secured there, but for the moment all is hid in God and can only be known by the Spirit. Hence every Christian’s interest is at the right hand of God, where Christ is in perfect patience.
It has often been said in relation to Israel that though they spent forty years in the wilderness, yet the wilderness was no part of God’s purpose for them. As to ourselves we are actually in the wilderness, and so long as God sees well, content to be there; but, thank God, our hearts are bound up in the One who is at His right hand. It is only a little moment and He, who waits in patience there, will be displayed in glory, and we with Him.
In the Lord’s testimony is presented to us His work, His resurrection, and His glory. God has made known to us that glory, and how everything has been secured in the Son for Himself, and He would have our hearts to be beholding the glory of the Lord.
The testimony is from the Lord; if you or I present [p. 289] it, the danger is lest we dress it about with much that is of ourselves; but the testimony is nonetheless the Lord’s; the Son is the Speaker, and He it is who is both the ark of the covenant, in whom all is secured, and the mercy-seat, the One in whom God’s glory rests and in whom He speaks.
In following on to the next point, namely, the seeking of the Lord, I would refer to the fourth and following verses of 2 Timothy 2. “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet he is not crowned, except he strive lawfully. The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things”.
I want you to notice that all this was written to a distinguished servant of the Lord, much more so, I need not say, than any one of us; and to such an one the apostle says, “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things”. The servant must hold loosely to things here, strive lawfully, and labour patiently. These are the conditions for the consideration of the soul, and the Lord will give understanding in all things. If we are seeking, our desire is to reach the Lord, that from Him we may get understanding, may have His mind; and let me remark that if that was needful for a servant like Timothy in those times, surely it behoves us to seek the Lord that we may get understanding in these last perilous times. There is no uncertainty as to one thing, namely, that the testimony is that of our Lord; and if it has reached us as from Him, and we seek Him, He will give us understanding.
The next point I refer to is in verse 19, and there is brought out another principle, that which is the seal of God’s firm foundation, namely, that if you name the name of the Lord, you must depart from unrighteousness.
[p. 290] This is imperative. What we see all around us in Christendom is that a position is claimed on the earth, just as though Christ were accepted here; that is what I am sure may be rightly called unrighteousness, because the Lord alone is the true standard of righteousness. How can a Christian rightly claim a status in a world where Christ has been cast out, and to which He has not yet returned? It cannot be gainsaid that all the religious systems around us are acting as though they were in a scene where Christ and His rights were accepted and maintained. But it is plain enough to any spiritual mind that we are in the place where both the Person and the rights of that Person are disallowed. How, then, can the Christian, with that in view, be found accepting honour or distinction here? The thing is clearly unrighteous, and you must take care that you answer to the call to depart from unrighteousness.
But what next? You are to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. You are still in a sense seeking, and in doing it you are to be in the company of those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The path marked out is plain and simple enough, but how few of us, when the Spirit of God opened our eyes to the confusion and unrighteousness around us, entered upon that path in all its simplicity! What a tendency there has been, and is still, to bring in an order of things after our own thoughts, and so without the real support of the Lord. The great point is that when your eyes are opened to the true state of things around you in Christendom, you should be careful that you really get to the Lord. Made sensible by the Spirit of God of the confusion on every hand, and which cannot possibly be met by any wisdom or device of man — the one and only resource is to be found in the Lord. Do not rest in simply believing in Him, but follow on to reach Him in all His sufficiency, that He may [p. 291] give you understanding in all things, and that you may answer to His blessed mind down here.
I do not question for a moment but that the weakness of our fellowship is because saints have got, as to the state of their souls, so little to the Lord. I have sometimes said that there is only one possible ground of fellowship for us, and that is the name of the Lord. That is the only legitimate bond, there can be no other maintained by the Spirit in this scene. You may get a great deal of instruction and help after being brought into this fellowship; but the bond is that we confess as Lord Him whom the world has rejected. You separate from what is around, that you may follow Him. My soul is set on reaching the Lord that He may be the great reality to my heart, and I get my guidance solely from Him. My desire is to walk in the light of the Lord, so that I do not miss my way; and one sure result is that the closer we get to Him, the closer we are drawn to each other.
It is certain that the bond of fellowship that is according to God is found when we come to the Lord, and that alone will be effective in binding saints together in the midst of a dark scene where Christ has been rejected. If India were in a state of revolt, the true bond between those who were awakened to loyalty would be the name of the Queen. What binds us together is the Lord’s name, and the Holy Spirit has come down to maintain this fellowship, and it is important to have in mind that if you are in the fellowship of the Lord, you must be in the fellowship of His death here.
I now pass on to what I have referred to as the second blessing, and that is, the Lord found, and for that point I would turn to chapter 3: 10, 11: “But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity [love], patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me”. Here,
[p. 292] what is seen is experimental acquaintance with the faithfulness of the Lord. What a blessed thing it is to find, after having been well-nigh overwhelmed with difficulties, you can look round and say, “out of them all the Lord delivered me”. The Lord is reached, the soul is in experimental acquaintance with Him and His intervention — whatever man could do to the apostle, and although he had been well-nigh brought to death, all the power of Satan and man combined could not quench him; he knew not only the blessedness of seeking, but what it was to have reached the Lord, and to have proved Him in His delivering grace and power.
In the next chapter we find another thing, and that is, the Lord is “the righteous judge”. The apostle says, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”. When once I have reached real, personal acquaintance with the Lord, in the sense that I can say “the Lord delivered me”, I am very well content to wait for Him as the righteous Judge. The apostle knows Him, and though he might be misjudged of men, he knows that He is the righteous Judge, whose estimate of his course was just. He is perfectly satisfied to wait till “that day”, to leave all in His hands, knowing that he will then get the crown of righteousness; and he adds, “Not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”. You will get the crown if you love His appearing; and if you love His Person, you will also love His appearing. “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha”. How blessed to be able to say I know Him and have reached Him, I know His delivering power, and I can leave all to Him as the righteous Judge, whose appearing I love.
There is one more point, and that is in verses 16 and 17: “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”. Now I think this is the most touching allusion of all to the Lord by the apostle. It is not here “the Lord delivered me”, but that when all forsook the apostle, the Lord stood with him, and strengthened him; he had stood faithful to the Lord, and now when all were unfaithful the Lord’s faithfulness is found. He stands by His faithful servant, He will not forsake him; and I am sure that this is full of the most blessed encouragement for any servant of the Lord. Stand for Him, and you may be assured of this — He will never desert you. The Lord Himself was the only One to be wholly forsaken.
I would just add how I wish that I could have brought the subject more clearly and powerfully before you, for I do feel the immense importance, not only of seeking the Lord, but that we should never be content until we have consciously reached Him and had experience of His delivering power; and let us lay to heart the sure truth, that if as His servants we are faithful to Him, He will not forsake us. It was a wonderful thing that Paul should be the solitary witness, but it was that through him the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear. The apostle was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, and he adds: “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom”.
Peter says to a new-born babe, “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”. Paul says at the end of his course, “the Lord stood with me”. The Lord is gracious at the beginning, and faithful at the end; and how much lies in our experience between the two, He only knows.