THE OPPOSITION
[p. 428] THE OPPOSITION
Our subject this evening is the opposition which we encounter. Before the coming of Christ the effort of Satan was to divert man from God in the worshipping of idols. But when Christ came the opposition was against Him, as you read in Revelation 12. The effort of Satan through Herod was to destroy Him; with this intent from two years old and under every child was slain. “Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not” (Matthew 2: 18). The opposition now is against a Man, “the man Christ Jesus”. God, of course, could always control Satan; but man was under Satan until Christ came. It is important to bear this in mind, hence in the opening of the gospel by Mark, you find that Christ’s first work was to cast the unclean spirit out of a man, and then Satan exclaims, “I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God” (Mark 1: 24). It is inconceivably great that a Man has come who can dislodge the power of, Satan, so that you find further on in Mark 5: 10: “And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country” - that the devil owned His power, that there was a Man who could dispossess him. Finally, Christ enters into death, as we read in another place, “Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, he also, in like manner, took part in the same, that through death he might annul” - not death only, but - “him who has the might of death, that is, the devil; and might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2: 14, 15). And as you find it testified by the scripture, “The ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing” (John 14: 30). Nay more, as I hope to show you presently, you get in John 16: 11 “The ruler of this world is judged”. It is an immense fact that however great the evil, the moral chaos in this world, the ruler of it is judged. But then in order that you may know this, you must be in the power of Christ; hence I have read to you what will be the summing up of the subject, that is, how you are “able to withstand in the evil day, and, having accomplished all things, to stand” - to confront the whole force of Satan’s antagonism, not merely defending, but to stand for the Lord here.
But I want first to interest you in the great fact that Satan has been overcome by Christ; a Man here on this earth has overcome him, and that Man has gone to the right hand of God. Therefore it says that He has “annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings” (2 Timothy 1: 10). The believer can now say as to death, “Thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15: 57). Now I have to try and present to you what is the character of Satan’s opposition, and I turn for that to Matthew 13. In that chapter there are seven parables, only six similitudes; the first is that the seed of the kingdom is sown; it is all good seed, and some takes root, and some does not through the power of Satan; Satan carries it away. That is the good seed. But then come the tares; and what are the tares? An imitation of the real thing, profession; professors are found in the church. When you look round, it is what I may call a standing miracle that the word of God in the hands of man has brought about this great system called christendom, that the Roman earth has become what you call ‘christian.’ And through what instrumentality? You might expect there was some reality in it, for it was all effected by the word of God, but through the human mind, and the result you get in those three similitudes: the tares, that is, profession without reality; the mustard tree, a huge system that grew up; and the leaven, “until it had been all leavened”. There is not to my knowledge a single [p. 430] doctrine in christendom that is pure and without mixture according to the word of God. I am looking at the character of the opposition, because you may say we know the truth better, but remember, “evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15: 33); we are all brought up more or less connected with system, and you have to learn the character of things all around; it is all profession, not paganism, but nominal christianity; it is the leaven. And that led to the fact that vessels to dishonour were found in the house of God very early. As we see in the epistle to the Corinthians, leaven was tolerated, that is how the opposition worked; there was no right sense of what was due in the house of God. And when vessels to dishonour were tolerated in the house the faithful had to purge themselves from them. separation became necessary; you have to purge yourself from the vessels to dishonour, and “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2: 22. That is the general character of things around. But there was a worse state than that, for while we get in 2 Timothy 2 that they erred from the truth, we get a deeper thing in chapter 3, that in the last days they resist the truth, and we are there. And if you ask what characterises it, it is a “form of piety but denying the power of it” (2 Timothy 3: 5). I say to anyone who has been brought up as we all have been more or less, what is around you? Great religious profession, churches, ministers; it is all materialised, man does it all. Can anything surpass the masterpiece of Satan, his artifice to divert the soul from the right thing? There is a church for you, and a minister for you, it is all made to your hand, and it is all materialism. You have to rise out of it, and the only way to rise out of it is to get to the top; nothing else will save you. I want the youngest in this room to be alive to the character of the opposition that is abroad. A man may say he has nothing to do with it, but we are all affected by it, and we are all responsible;
[p. 431] and happy is the man that is clear of it. You will find there are traces of it here and there continually.
I turn now from what is outside to what is inside, to the direct opposition of Satan to any child of God. I believe the first great lack in the believer is that the dispensation according to God is not known. If you do not understand the calling or dispensation, though you are saved, you do not know what you are saved for. The mass of christians in christendom at this present moment never get beyond the Lord’s prayer, that is, Jesus on the earth. What is the dispensation? The Holy Spirit is here. You hear continually christians praying for the Holy Spirit, a sure sign that they do not know anything about it, and are exposing themselves to all the delusions of Satan, like the Irvingites. I remember when young being very much taken up with praying for the Holy Spirit, and a beloved man of God saying to me. He is in the vessels. That altered everything to me. But I am referring to the direct character of the opposition; the first thing a man knows is that the blood of Christ saves his soul, but he gets no further as a rule; he never gets out of Egypt, and therefore he is occupied with worldly things, he does not know what he is saved for. There is no link whatever to Christ risen but the Holy Spirit, there could not possibly be. The flesh could not be the link; Christ has overcome, He has borne the judgment upon man, He has terminated that order of being in the sight of God in judgment, and now He is risen from the dead and glorified; and the testimony, or if you like, the response which He makes to you, believing in Him risen, is the “living water”. There is no other link with Christ risen but the Holy Spirit. But I am speaking of the direct opposition of Satan, and now I say the first effort of it is to keep you in Egypt.
Then I come to those who are out of Egypt. How many are looking back to Egypt, longing for something [p. 432] in it, caught by the earthly thing. You will find this - it is a very simple rule to me - the one thing that Satan is against is the Man Christ Jesus. I have already quoted Revelation 12, where his whole point was to prevent Him being born into this world. When the “man child”, which includes the church, is caught up, Satan will be cast down. I believe that is the only allusion to the rapture in the Revelation; we are all to go up together, because the man child in fulness is not caught up till we are caught up, and then Satan is cast down to the earth, there is no place for him in heaven. I am only showing you what Satan’s opposition is; he cannot frustrate the work of God, but he tries to counteract it in every way he can. Hence, though you may have got out of Egypt and have learnt by grace that you are out, you may be drawn back into it. And even if you are not, you come to what I may call the next form of opposition, and that is, Balaam association. There is hardly a man I know of that has not suffered from his company. No matter how good the company a man keeps, he is coloured by the lowest, and Satan has gained his point. You see how Israel were drawn away, and what destruction came upon them because of it. And we are drawn away by it, as I have already quoted the scripture, “Evil communications corrupt good manners”. Therefore in Corinthians we are warned that if a man saw another eat sitting in an idol’s temple it defiled his weak conscience. Happy is the man that is not influenced by other people! This is what I call the direct opposition.
Now I turn to another form of it, and that is, what we suffer from inside. I think the first great snare that christians suffer from is making the law the rule of life; there is something so specious about presenting God’s law. And when we think of who is opposing, we need not wonder at it. Satan was against God’s law before Christ came, but now you will be unmolested [p. 433] by Satan in keeping it, because the law acknowledges the first man; it is keeping that which men can understand. You find Saul of Tarsus keeping the law, and he was opposed to Christ. It is a remarkable fact that those who look for perfectionism, those who consider themselves very much enlightened and speak of holiness by faith, their standard is the law; it is not generally known. They say, I have not committed a sin for so long; and if you ask, How do you know? they say, I have never broken a commandment; they have made the law their standard. The standard is Christ. You see the Spirit is left out, and this is the Spirit’s day, the dispensation of the Spirit of God. The Spirit is the witness, and if you have not got the Spirit, where are you? It is a very great snare, and many are taken with it.
Now I come to two more forms which affect us in different ways. It all shows how subtle the enemy is. One speaks of the work that is done for you, what is called objective, but ignores the work in you. Of course it is all done for you; but you must not leave out the Spirit, by whom it is all done in you. You must have both. I do not like the words, but you must have not only the objective but the subjective. I do not want to say anything unkind; but to say it is all done for me, without having the subjective, terminates, I believe, in Laodicea; there is no really vital work there. I have no doubt that there is no machination of the devil that has worked more insidiously amongst us. While it was most blessed and necessary to bring out that it was all done for us - the completeness of grace - there is another side, the work of the Spirit; there is not only the work done for me, but the work done in me. On the other hand, we have to contend with the Arminian snare which makes it all our attainment. The evil of that is that it leaves Christ out; the attainment school want to make it all originate with themselves. The subtlety of Satan is [p. 434] wonderful to me. I see a most devoted man, perhaps, who is set upon attainment, and I listen to his prayers, and he prays as if God was to make him an original. No, you get nothing but through Christ; “by whom are all things” - “Christ is everything, and in all”; and I am sure there is not a heart in this room that is true to Him that is not glad to get all from Him. I am showing you the different characters of opposition that are working around, because when you come to find out what the aim of it is, you are safe: “In vain the net is spread in the sight of anything which hath wings” (Proverbs 1: 17).
There is only one more form of opposition that I will refer to, but it is a very large one, and I commend it very much to your notice. The tendency of us all, in fact of almost every one I meet with is to limit the truth; that is Satan’s object, to prevent you from getting the finish. It is important to be exercised about all these things. If a person is asked about any truth, he may know part of it, but he does not know the crown of the grace, the finish of it. If I speak to a man about the gospel, I find that he knows Christ died and perhaps Christ risen, but he does not know Christ glorified; it does not occur to him, and I have even known it resisted. Yet surely the heart that knows it at all knows that nothing less will do. The light comes from the glorified Christ - “If also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost; in whom the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them” (2 Corinthians 4: 3, 4); it comes down from the top. I quite admit it is some time before one gets to it, but I am looking at where God begins; God begins from the finish. And you will find that many will take a part of a truth, take a part of Christ’s life, for instance, and not take the finish of it; and so it is with regard to all truth, the object of Satan is [p. 435] limitation. As I have already said, I do not know a doctrine that is held correctly in christendom. For instance, take the Lord’s supper: ‘Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee;’ that is not scriptural, it is Christ’s death you are to remember. Or take baptism: ‘An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace;’ where is that in Scripture? Or take it among ourselves, resurrection is called a receipt. Well, it is a receipt, but it is a great deal more, and to call it a receipt is to limit it down to the human mind. There are only two channels by which Satan can work: one is, he can work upon your mind; and the other is, he can work upon your body religiously. You get one in the Corinthians and the other in the Galatians; and you get them combined in the Colossians as to serving Christ. And what is the reason? Simply because you have left out the Spirit of God; He would refuse the flesh in every form.
I must turn now to the scripture I read, because it is a positive relief to the heart to know that we can be completely superior to all the machinations of the enemy. What a cheer to every true heart! But then let me tell you that though it is true for every believer, yet you must be able to appropriate the truth, and you cannot appropriate the truth but as you know union with Christ in heaven. For instance, look at verse 10; I do not want to discourage you, but I want you to rise to the height of your blessing. If I were addressing a number of worldly people and could tell them of a great position they could arrive at if they had purpose of heart, how readily they would listen. And I add, this position is the fruition of your being united to Christ. I have been interested in seeing that each part of our subject culminates in union with Christ; and it is the climax. Now in verse 10, you are to “be strong in the Lord, and in the might of his strength”. Well, you must know it; you could not be strong otherwise. The same words are used in chapter 1: 19,
[p. 436] where the power is towards you. In chapter 3 it is in you, and here it is from you. How could it be from you if it were not in you? But how do you get it? Only by union; I believe here the objective school will mislead by saying it is yours by grace, though you have not got it; while on the other hand, the subjective school try to attain to it, not owning that it is theirs in Christ. I am by the Spirit to have conscious knowledge of the power that wrought in Christ. It is in you, as you get in chapter 3, and then it is from you; and the grand result of being in this position is, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the might of his strength. Put on the panoply of God, that ye may be able to stand against the artifices of the devil”. It is the armour of God, and you find that the armour is in parts, and that the different parts represent protection against the special activities of the foe. But when you are in the panoply of God, you are so protected that you are invulnerable; you stand. I can understand a person saying, You are portraying a thing that is beyond possibility. No; I am stating a fact, and a most interesting fact. The Lord grant that many in this room may understand the reality of this fact. “Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies. For this reason take to you the panoply of God” - it is only the heavenly man that can take it - “that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having accomplished all things, to stand”. It is not like the armed men going round Jericho, they were fighting for possession; we are not fighting for possession, we have it, and we are armed to keep it; he that is united to Christ has got possession, but he has to “withstand in the evil day”. “Stand therefore, having girt about your loins with truth”. That is the first great thing not a part of the truth, not a mutilated truth, but the truth as it [p. 437] comes from God; you must bring in the finish as well as the beginning. Christ Himself is the truth; that you start with, and if you do not start with that you could not have any of the rest. See how it meets both the objective school and the subjective! How could you be girt with it if you had it not? It must be yours for you to be girt with it; but you must be girt with it. Your loins girt about with truth because it is outside of all that is false. He is the truth. It is an immense thing to get hold of, that our Lord Jesus Christ down here was the truth. And it is said of the Spirit, He is the witness because He is the truth; 1 John 5. 6. Girt about with truth - that is the first thing, and it could not be otherwise. A person who knows he is united to Christ, and enters into the reality of such a position, will know that the things which belong to the Lord must characterise him, and that all his activity must be in that connection. Then, “having put on the breastplate of righteousness” - nothing can daunt you; it is not only that I am true to a measure but I am true to the truth; it is not a question of what you have been, but what you are; it is “the breastplate of righteousness”; it is not the righteousness of God, because the armour is not for God but for Satan. If Satan can point to a defect or a departure in you, you cannot stand; and very often you find that men that are not bold are not righteous, because the righteous are as bold as a lion. It is an immense comfort to me to see Moses come down from the mount and face alone six hundred thousand men. I see Paul, the master builder, reduced to a unit, and he is not afraid; all the saints even deserted him, but the Lord stood with him and delivered him, he says, “out of the lion’s mouth”, and he “shall deliver me from every wicked work, and shall preserve me for his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4: 17). Many do not stand because they have not on the breastplate of righteousness; you must not only have it, but have it on. And so [p. 438] with the prodigal, it is not only, Give him the clothes, but, Put them on him; you get both the gift of grace and the work of grace in him. “And shod your feet with the preparation of the glad tidings of peace”. A person that is walking with God is in the dignity of one that knows what it is to be at peace with God, and therefore he is not ruffled, he does not lose himself, because he knows in whom he has believed. And that is not all - “having taken the shield of faith with which ye will be able to quench all the inflamed darts of the wicked one”. No one goes on with the Lord without finding how Satan will oppose him. Very often saints have what you call an easy time of it because they are not going on with the Lord. I have often compared it to a horse turned out to grass; he may think he has got very fine times because he is left entirely to his ease, but it is because he is of no use, that is the simple reason: “Ephraim is joined to idols: leave him alone” (Hosea 4: 17). I believe, if you are going on, Satan knows and watches, and will do all he can against you. And therefore Peter has to write to the Jewish christians, “Take not as strange the fire of persecution which has taken place amongst you for your trial, as if a strange thing was happening to you” (1 Peter 4: 12). And James 1: 3 says, “The proving of your faith works endurance”. No one can have faith without being tested some day. Therefore it is “The proving of your faith works endurance”, it proves the reality of it. David could say, “I smote both the lion and the bear”; after the death of Goliath I daresay he did not speak of slaying the lion and the bear, but of slaying Goliath; he had proved it in another way. That is how Satan will try to upset your faith, “the inflamed darts of the wicked one”. If you look at the actual course you have to run here, it is a course of faith, you are to overcome the difficulties here by faith. It is faith in God; it is not anything you can do by some means or other, but it is the shield of faith. “Have [p. 439] also the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word”. The helmet of salvation - you are assured of your safety, and you lift up your head and go on with confidence, knowing what is before you. And then you can come out and draw the sword, and can set forth what the word of God is. Now I say you are on vantage ground. What a wonderful thing for a man! Little do we know what it is, but even to get a glimpse of it is a cheer to our hearts, that we should be on such vantage ground in the midst of the accumulation of opposition all around. I can understand one saying to me, You fill me with alarm; it seems the very air is crowded with opposition. It is - Satan is the prince of the power of the air; but I am insisting that the believer is united to the One who has overcome all, and that he is in concert with His mind and sharing His power. I confront the whole force of the enemy to maintain the position in which by grace I am set. Therefore you come out, “Praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” - you are associated with the Lord in His interests - “and watching unto this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints; and for me in order that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings”. It was the apostle’s greatest interest, and surely it should be ours.
I need not add more. I can only ask the Lord that He will use what I have been trying to present to you as He knows how to do it, and apply it to each of you; and that each one of you may be so interested that it may lead to a growing desire in your heart to realise union with Him, that you might come out here upon this earth in this wonderful position as standing, and “having accomplished all things, to stand”, for His name’s sake.