THE PRESENT WORK OF GOD
THE PRESENT WORK OF GOD
Romans 7:1-4; Romans 12:1-6; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20
I am sure that we all feel that God is working. Is it possible that the Almighty would be doing nothing? It is unthinkable. If, therefore, He is working, it is of all importance that we should consider what He is undertaking.
There is nothing among material things which can be compared with God’s work in creation. What could be compared with a lily? It is quite easy to make one out of paper, but what is it in comparison with the real thing? What is there to compare with a dove? Men make them in porcelain, but what are they? What can be compared with an ant? Nothing can be compared with what there is in creation. We are exhorted to consider the work of God (Ecclesiastes 7: 13). It says, “Remember that thou magnify his work, which men celebrate” (Job 36: 24). God desires that we should magnify the work which has been given to us to see; that does not mean that we are able to make it greater than it is, for we cannot grasp its full richness. I do not think it possible for a scientist to understand a worm fully; this living creature, however small it might be, is greater than man’s most beautiful mechanical invention. It is very easy for men to make a motor car, but no one can make a worm; it is the work of God. We have to discern the glory of His work in what is seen.
Now I wish to speak of the work of God in the spiritual realm. God made the material creation. “And the heavens and the earth... were finished”, and no one can add anything to them. God continues to work, but His present work is related to what is spiritual and invisible to the natural eye. The invisible things are eternal, while visible things are only for a time; they will disappear. The heavens and the earth will pass away; the elements will be melted by burning heat. What is spiritual will remain and it is with this that God occupies us. The Lord says, “My father worketh hitherto and I work” (John 5: 17), but this work is spiritual. It is with this in mind that I have read these three passages of scripture. God is engaged in three great operations at the present time.
(i) He is building His assembly, “God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God” (1 Timothy 3: 15).
(ii) He is forming the body of Christ, as He formed Eve. He formed her in the sense of building (Genesis 2: 22).
(iii) He is building His temple. Clearly, He is doing more than this and the full outcome of His work is beyond our grasp.
I should like to speak about these three things — the assembly of God, the body of Christ and the temple of God. This is the divine work; the Deity — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit — is engaged in this great work, at present not yet complete. It is important for us to be in this environment and to have the whole of our being directed to the great divine end.
Now let us see how each of us arrives at this. How am I to be part of the temple of God? These three great thoughts are universal. The assembly of God comprises all believers from Pentecost to the rapture. All believers on the earth are members of the body of Christ. The whole church is the temple of God, as it says in Ephesians 2: 21, “all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord”.
In the epistle to the Corinthians, it speaks of “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”,
that is, that the people of God in one place are viewed as being His assembly. Then the apostle says to the Corinthians, “ye are Christ’s body” (1 Corinthians 12: 27); in this same place He has His body. Then he says of them, “ye are the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3: 16). Think of what there is in thousands of places and which is according to the great universal thought — the assembly of God, the body of Christ, the temple of God! Could anything be greater than this in the locality where we live? It is worthwhile being alive to be in the assembly of God, a member of the body of Christ, part of the temple of God. How will I find my place there? It was Solomon’s desire that each should be there. The children are not too young to have part there. Although He was only twelve years old, the Lord was involved very actively in what God was doing How then can I have part in the work of God? I believe that there is a similarity in what is produced in the individual soul and what exists in the assembly. Christ “also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it” (Ephesians 5: 25). Husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the assembly.
The day is coming when it will be said, “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready” (Revelation 19: 7). The assembly is to be married to Christ. How do I have part in that? It is in being myself married to Christ. The apostle makes allusion in Romans 7 to what is produced in each heart, “to be to another”. This means that Christ has a place in our hearts such that He is a husband to us. He is the object of our hearts. He is the one for whom we live.
See how this took place in the case of the woman in John 4. How many husbands she had had! But she had none. She had no support. Then the Lord appears, the blessed Man, the “one man” of Romans 5. He appears before her. He wins her heart. He becomes for her this one man in such a way that she goes to the men of the city, “Come, see a man” who knows everything, who knows what I have done, but I love Him and I wish that you would love Him too. Such is the greatness of His person that He can be a husband to every human heart, so that every human heart should love Him and live for Him. So this is how it begins — every heart learns to love Him, to be sustained by His love, by His power, realising that what the law could not do, what the world could not provide, what money could not give, what no other could, this man was able to do. We are married to Him in order to bear fruit for God. This is what is produced in a heart.
So there might be thirty brothers or sisters in a place; each of them loves Christ as a woman loves her husband and is conscious of being supported by Him. When people like this are together, the idea of the assembly is realised. What meetings we would have, if things were thus! The whole assembly is going to be married to Christ and every local assembly should reach this. But we begin by having at least one heart married to Christ.
In Isaiah 4: 1 it says, “And seven women shall take hold of one man”. Christ is great enough for all to be able to take hold of Him. Every human heart can find a husband in Him. There is reproach in not being married to Christ. These women in the prophecy of Isaiah say, “Take away our reproach”. When such a One comes on to the scene — the man Christ Jesus, who is Himself over all, God blessed for ever — then, if we are not married to Him, we are under reproach. “And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying — Our own bread will we eat, and with our own garments will we be clothed; only let us be called by thy name — take away our reproach!” A Christian is a person called “by thy name”, that is, married to Christ. It is at this point that we make contact with the assembly. It is not possible to have an assembly if there is only a single person. The idea of an assembly means necessarily that there are others but each person who is part of the assembly of God loves Christ and is married to Him. The assembly is constituted in this way with the end in view of being united to Christ. In reality, how little we contribute practically to the assembly. The Lord expects much more of us.
I move on to the thought of the body of Christ. Many members are needed to form a body. A hand is not a body; an ear is not a body. “If the whole body were an eye, where the hearing?” To have a body, you need to have many members all united together; such is the body of Christ. The body is for the expression of Christ. This is the purpose of having a body; it is how we are represented. How would we know one another if we did not have bodies? What a man is finds expression in his body. God forms the body of Christ in which Christ is to be expressed universally, on the one hand, and locally, on the other. Think of what is in this locality, as expressing Christ Himself, the body composed of myriads of members, of whom most pass unnoticed, but all united together in view of the great function of the expression of Christ.
How can I find my place in the body of Christ? We are led there as having the Holy Spirit — “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body” (1 Corinthians 12: 13). But how can I function in the body? That is the question which every member must seriously ask. What the ear does is done for the body. What occupies the eye occupies the body. What the hand does is what the body does. The action of the foot is the action of the body. No member acts independently of the body. How do I function?
Well, I have a body and I must learn what I have to do with my body before being able to function practically as part of the body of Christ. In chapter 12 of the epistle to the Romans, after speaking about our bodies, the apostle begins immediately to speak of the one body — “we, being many, are one body in Christ”. His thought moves from our own individual bodies to the body of Christ. Thus, the part which I have in the body of Christ depends on my own body. From the point of view of the apostle, it is so great that he says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren”. He exhorts the saints to present their bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”. It is an intelligent service, which we can carry out, but it will cost us something; a sacrifice costs something, but it is acceptable to God. Our bodies are involved. The body is the whole vessel. Some may think, perhaps, that it is enough to present their ears and to pay attention to teaching. Others present their tongue and are careful of what they say. Others again present their hands and are diligent to do nothing which dishonours the Lord. Others are attentive to their feet and do not go where the Lord is dishonoured. That is all fine,
but it says to present “your bodies”, that is the complete vessel and each individual part of the body. The whole vessel is presented to God and God accepts it.
Think of thirty people in this locality acting like this. Would not Christ be expressed in these thirty people, whose bodies are presented to God as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable? In principle, you would have, in this place, the body of Christ in which Christ would Himself be expressed. Christ’s whole body when He was here below, was for the will of God — “Thou hast prepared me a body... Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will” (Hebrews 10: 5, 7). And at the Supper, He says, “This is my body which is given for you” (Luke 22: 19). What are we doing with our bodies, dear brethren? Is our character according to Him? Think of the woman in John 4. What is she going to do with her body, now that she is attached to Christ? She no longer needs her water-pot; she leaves it. She is going to carry in herself what is of God. From now on, her feet will move along a path where she will do what pleases Him; her lips will speak about Him; her body in its entirety will be here for God. Coming into the local assembly, as a person whose body is here for God, she would bring with her wealth for the whole gathering. Many in our gatherings are there only as spectators and that is a source of suffering. In my body, there is not a single member, which does nothing; it may be that they are not all seen, but all are doing something in relation to the whole body.
Meanwhile, God is building His temple. It is to be “great and wonderful” (2 Chronicles 2: 9), “exceeding great in fame and in beauty” (1 Chronicles 22: 5). Men’s buildings sometimes come to my attention; how little they amount to! Could a cathedral, for example, be a habitation for God? The living God needs a living house built with living stones. He must have a spiritual house, with features which are magnificent. Where is magnificence to be found, if not in Christ? “And in thy splendour ride prosperously” (Psalm 45: 4). The temple of God must be splendid. How could it be otherwise? His temple at Corinth was to be splendid. Men were bringing into it what lacked splendour and the apostle felt it; he delivered someone to Satan. Ananias and Sapphira tried to bring in something which lacked splendour. Peter says to Sapphira, “Lo, the feet of those that have buried thy husband are at the door, and they shall carry thee out” (Acts 5: 9). It was essential that such an element of defilement should be removed. The temple of God is holy, in its local, as well as in its universal, character. It is made of that which proceeds only from Christ.
How am I part of this? I must first learn that the development of this begins with me individually. So the apostle speaks thus in 1 Corinthians 6, “Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God?” If we are not in accord with this, how can we maintain practically the truth of the temple of God? It is a collective matter. God’s building is not comprised of only a single stone; it is a building. How do I understand what my place is as a stone in this edifice? By learning to hold my body as a vessel which is holy. The Holy Spirit dwells in the body of the believer. Do we hold our bodies in this light? How can we have holiness collectively, how can we have what is magnificent if each body is not holy, if the Holy Spirit of God is grieved in us individually, if holiness is not maintained in each individual body? Holiness is an important feature. We must worship Jehovah in holy splendour (1 Chronicles 16: 29). According to God, what is holy is beautiful. What beauty in Christ. He the Holy One! His body was holy, “the holy thing”, it says. The Holy Spirit could come upon Him; His body was the temple. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2: 19). He was speaking of the temple of His body. What a sanctuary for the Holy Spirit! John says, “I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven”, symbol of peace and of what pleases God, “and it abode upon Him”. The Holy Spirit descended to abide in this temple, the body of Jesus. No Christian could receive the Spirit in a bodily form. We can receive a little water from the river of God so that our hearts are filled, but the whole river does not flow into the believer. The Holy Spirit, as represented by tongues of fire, can rest upon each one, but not even Peter nor John would have been able to receive all the fire. The Holy Spirit is great enough to make His dwelling in each believer. When it says that the Holy Spirit descended on Him in a bodily form, it means that the Spirit came in His entirety; the Holy Spirit is God and He is sufficiently great to dwell in each believer.
Thirty people come together, each married to Christ, each a member of His body, each a vessel of the Holy Spirit, having judged what is unholy in his life, in his associations, in what he reads, in what he does. If things were thus, what days we would have on the earth! There is consciousness of the love of Christ for the assembly; the body of Christ comes into evidence; the features of Christ are seen in their beautiful variety; the temple of God is known, with His glory, His light and His worship. These things are the work of God and the work of God must continue. Even Balaam recognised this — looking at Israel from the top of the rock, seeing the thoughts of God regarding them, he says, as to a day to come, “it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, What hath God wrought!” (Numbers 23: 23). This is what is continuing, dear brethren, and one would like to arouse interest in hearts, so that each would rejoice in the part which he is to have in the assembly of God. What can be greater than the body of Christ of which Christ Himself is the head? “And he is the head of the body, the assembly” (Colossians 1: 18). How everything of which man is head pales when we think of that of which Christ Himself is head!
Every Christian must share in what God presents in these three aspects. He is married to Christ Himself; then his body is presented to God; finally, his body is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. It will be understood that this is not what is taking place when God speaks that the earth bring forth its fruits, or that the sea swarm with living creatures! It is something much greater which occupies Divine Persons — the constitution of the assembly, the formation of the body of Christ, the construction of the temple. Such is the present work of God.
There are people who occupy themselves only with what Christ has done in the past; others think about what He will yet do — many books are written on events still to come, on the millennium, etc. but is the Lord doing nothing now? We could not accept that the Almighty might be inactive. On the contrary, He is carrying out a great work and He says, “Remember to glorify His works, let men celebrate”. We also read, “I will meditate upon thy wondrous works” (Psalm 119: 27).
On what do we meditate, dear brethren? Does His wonderful work mean so little to us that we do not speak about it? Think of all His works. What a subject of conversation! May the Lord help us to consider the work of God.