OUR MANNER OF LIFE
[p. 440] OUR MANNER OF LIFE
Our subject this evening is our manner of life here and the more I ponder it (and I am sure it will be the testimony of every one who ponders it), the more interesting it is. It is so sublime, as if it were beyond us, yet it becomes clearer to us as we are set for it.
I divide the subject into three parts. The first part is in Romans 12, a justified man on earth, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit; if you have not the first part, you will not have the other two, which I will come to afterwards. The first trait of this is that your body is the Lord’s; you are under a new control altogether. It is not quite as simple as one may imagine, but the more you look into it the more it grows upon you. You are under a very much better rule than you were; your will was your master, and if you know yourself at all, you know that at one time you would be very lenient with yourself, and at other times too exacting. But there is evenness in the Lord’s control; He knows what you are equal to, and He never looks for more; “He taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man” (Psalm 147: 10). The great principle you start with is that your body is the Lord’s - “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. I have read a little more, for the next thing is the church, His body. The first claim is that your body is the Lord’s; the next claim is the church, which is His body. “For, as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; thus we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”. But I do not dwell on it; you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit: that is the start.
[p. 441] Our subject is our manner of life here: the first trait is that your body is the Lord’s; the next, the church - His interests are yours; and then, your relations with christians. Finally, in the end of this chapter, you suffer from evil. I must connect the two chapters, 12 and 13. Chapter 13 is outside - the powers that be, you are subject to the powers that be, but you are not a citizen here. Then you come to your general duty to your neighbour; you are to “owe no one anything, unless to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law”. You leave everything as it stands, and do not interfere with anything. “Love works no ill to its neighbour; love therefore is the whole law”. I do not go into it, but love is a wonderful thing when it rules you. When our Lord wanted to show what was the contrast between Himself and the law, He gave us the parable of the man that fell among thieves; the Samaritan went a good deal beyond the law; the priest passed by on the other side, but the Samaritan not only cured him, but carried him, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him, and then when he went away he said, “Take care of him, and whatsoever thou shalt expend more, I will render to thee on my coming back” (Luke 10: 35). It showed he was willing to put himself under a bond for him, just as a father might do for a child; I am quite willing, he says, to put myself under a bond. One word more before I have done with this part, and that is in Romans 13:11-14, “This also, knowing the time, that it is already time that we should be aroused out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, and the day is near; let us cast away therefore the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. As in the day, let us walk becomingly” - it is not the rapture here; the day always indicates our responsibility - “not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and lasciviousness, not in strife and emulation. But put on [p. 442] the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not take forethought for the flesh to fulfil its lusts”. This is the first part: you are dead to sin, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, and you come out in this new way upon the earth.
Now I turn to the second, which we shall find in Hebrews 12: 1, 2 “Let us also therefore, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us, run with endurance the race that lies before us, looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith: who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. Well, anyone who considers for a moment can see the difference between the two parts: one is, that you are dead to sin, that you part company from the man here; but now you leave this place and run on to where Christ is; that is the race. The apostle warns the Hebrews, who had turned back, that that was the failure of their forefathers; they were discouraged and showed an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. And now he presses upon them the path of obedience. He shows how indispensable Christ is to them. In personal trials He only can comfort you. And He comforts you by drawing you to Himself. You know little about sorrow if you think it diminishes. As to joy, every new joy puts out the old ones; while in sorrow, every fresh sorrow revives all the old ones. You speak to a mother who has lost another of her children, and she will revert to the one she lost before; the new sorrow revives the old one. What is the only resource? The resource is the One who makes Himself more to us than anyone else; He draws us to Himself. And not only do we find solace for ourselves, but He introduces us into the circle where He Himself is “a great priest over the house of God”, and there you find that you are brought into a sense of the blessedness of Christ’s place in the presence of [p. 443] God. It is not affliction which drives you from the earth, it is attraction to Himself that draws you out of it. The more afflicted a man has been the more hardened he is, if he has not had sympathy. But now you say, I have been afflicted in this world, but I have found such solace in the company of the Lord that I am drawn out of the place where the sorrow is, and I am drawn to the One who consoles me, and I am more set upon Him where He is than upon the place where the sorrow is. The result is that you run with patience the race set before you.
Now I turn to chapter 11; I trust you will find great profit in the study of it. There we start to leave this place; it is a journey of faith. I desire to bring before you three or four great stages in the journey of faith. I will take them in order, and that, I think, will explain it better. Where does the journey end? In the land where Christ is gone. We are looking out for Him; it is not that we are looking for a place, but we are looking for a Person where He is. Why? Because of what He is to you; He has drawn you out of this place; the attraction of One who is not in this place has drawn you out of it; you are running on to Him. And now I point out the stages; what I mean by ‘stage’ is when you get to a definite point. The first is Enoch, who was translated that he should not see death; he “was not found, because God had translated him”. Then I go on to Noah; Noah is clear of the judgment upon man in the place where the judgment was, and he is in the favour of God upon the earth. Many a one who knows justification does not know that he is in the favour of God. That is number two. Number three is not so easy; that is Abraham; he looked for no place here, but “he waited for the city which has foundations, of which God is the artificer and constructor”. Are you looking for that city? What was he here? A stranger and a pilgrim; it is not easy to be a stranger; but if you [p. 444] are not a stranger, you will not come to the next. It is important to see the character of the race, because you are leaving this place. Now it is not that you part company with man, that you are not in the flesh, but you are running a race. There can be no greater evidence that you have left man than that you have left his place, because the earth is given to man and suits him. Abraham was in the land, but had no place in it; “he waited for the city which has foundations” (Hebrews 11: 10). “All these died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar off and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth. For they who say such things shew clearly that they seek their country” (Hebrews 11: 13, 14). Are you seeking your country? Are you a stranger and a pilgrim here? But that is not all. The next is Moses - the power of the enemy is broken; that is the great point. That is what you get practically in Christ’s death, the power of the enemy is broken; and therefore, you get in the history of faith (which ends properly at verse 30), “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, having been encircled for seven days”; that is possession. Verse 30 shows that you are in possession. Verse 31 shows where the gentiles come in: “By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with the unbelieving, having received the spies in peace”. I want you to understand where the race ends. You are not looking for a particular place, but for a Person, and therefore the sum of it is, “Let us ... run with endurance the race that lies before us, looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith” (Hebrews 12: 1, 2).
One word, before we leave this chapter, as to the discipline to which we are subjected. As you gain on one side you lose on the other. If you are not advancing in the race, there is something detaining, you. “We who live are always delivered unto death”. As an illustration, look at Stephen; he is conducted to the top - Jesus and the glory of God; not a stone was [p. 445] thrown at him until after this, and the last blow separated him from everything here, and made him partaker of God’s holiness. As far as I understand the discipline in Hebrews 12, it is to help those who are suffering for their faithfulness. If you would like to know the things that Paul and John knew, you must be in the path they were in.
Oh, that we might be led more into practical separation from everything here! As our blessed Lord said, “I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth” (John 17: 19). He is apart from everything. You are not subjected to discipline until you are ready for it; it is the stone before the wheel which is removed; there is no use in taking away the stone before the wheel comes up to it; when you feel the hindrance, God removes it. It is loss to you, it is death in a natural sense; but you find that your loss is gain.
I trust you will study these two parts of our manner of life and get great profit from it: one is, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, and you are to come out in a new way, as in Romans 12; the other is, you are drawn away to Christ in another place: it is a race. You will find that Israel were not in the race to Canaan until after Numbers 21; they were wandering in the wilderness; but when they were set for Canaan, then the race began.
Now I turn to Ephesians 4: 17 - 25: “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye should no longer walk as ... the nations walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in understanding, estranged from the life of God by reason of the ignorance which is in them, by reason of the hardness of their hearts, who having cast off all feeling, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greedy unsatisfied lust. But ye have not thus learnt the Christ, if ye have heard him and been instructed in him according as the truth is in Jesus; namely your having put off according to the former conversation [p. 446] the old man which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts; and being renewed in the spirit of your mind; and your having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness. Wherefore, having put off falsehood, speak truth every one with his neighbour, because we are members one of another”. Now we have come to what is really difficult to apprehend, but yet the more you do apprehend it the more sublime it is - you come from heaven.
Let us see now what is the manner of life of a man who comes from heaven. You are sitting in heavenly places in Christ, and you are to come out in everything new; not merely in the church, but in your own house. You begin with union with Christ; this truth is essential. Some may say, We are not up to it. But all culminates (as we have seen in the previous addresses) in union with Christ; and that is the great thought of God for us. If you are not up to it, that is no reason why you should not be interested about it; it is right to feel how far short of it one is. I find that at no time do I learn so much as when I am sensible of how ignorant I am. The one who realises union with Christ will come out in power; he faces this world in a new way. It is not here a contrast with the old, as in Colossians, but it is coming out in the new, which “according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness”; you come out in the truth, the truth really of your position. When you look at it for a moment you see what an immense thing it is to understand that you come out a new man. Now you get some idea of what the truth is in Jesus; He came out from the brightness of eternal glory, the express image of God, to set forth divine beauty in every detail of human life down here. You may say, I cannot conceive it. No, nor can I. But it is so in everything; it is not merely obedience, but the way everything was done, the manner of it; not merely fulfilling the law,
[p. 447] but the divine grace in which it was done. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight” (Matthew 17: 5). Would you like to tread the path He trod here upon earth? He had no inclination for what suits man’s will. I can conceive a beautiful flower from the tropics brought into this climate, maintaining its beauty and fragrance in spite of all the contrariety. You get the idea of it in Psalm 92: 13 “Those that are planted in the house of Jehovah shall flourish in the courts of our God”. You may say, Well, I am not up to it; but what I want you to say is, I would like to be up to it; I should like the path that my blessed Lord walked in here upon earth to be my path. Just let me touch on one or two things which will make it clear to you. Ephesians 4: 28 will give a sample. “Let the stealer steal no more, but rather let him toil, working what is honest with his hands, that he may have to distribute to him that has need”. See the transformation! What a wonderful change that a man, instead of stealing, was to be a giver - that he should work in order to give to another! What a new style he comes out in! We read, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4: 30) - as we have already seen, you are in the Spirit - “with which ye have been sealed for the day of redemption”. If you are in this, the third part, you will keep up to the other two. You could not say, I am come from heaven, if you were in the flesh; nor could you say, I am come from heaven, if you were not running from everything here. You are set in heavenly places, to come out here a new man.
One or two things more I must dwell upon that you may understand the greatness of this position. It is an interesting fact that the two things which are to characterise you are love and light. I have been very much interested in looking at John’s gospel to see that it is not only love, but it is light; we read, “He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8: 12). I refer to Ephesians 5: 1, 25 - “Be [p. 448] ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love”, and “Ye were once darkness, but now light in the Lord; walk as children of light, (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth)”. I want to bring those two before you, that you may see that love serves, but the light discloses the character of everything. As we see in John 9, everything is exposed; all that seemed so fair and had great pretension and great reputation - his neighbours, the Pharisees, his parents, the nation - all are exposed in their true character, and the man who had received light is cast out, he is in the solitude of light. You come in the grace of Christ to be “imitators of God, as beloved children”. But not only that, you “do not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness”, but “the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth”. You then come into the christian circle - “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”. That is the way you have to commune one with another; it is not foolish talking and jesting and the like, but spiritual songs; I do not think this means the meeting, but the characteristics of one in love and light.
Now you come into the family circle, it is familiar to you all. “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord, for a husband is head of the wife, as also the Christ is head of the assembly. He is Saviour of the body. But even as the assembly is subjected to the Christ, so also wives to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your own wives, even as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”. I need not read more. But note that in everything you come out in a new way, even down to the master and servant. I trust that the Lord is interesting you as to the manner of life of a christian. Being united to Christ you are above the power of evil and this place.
[p. 449] The climax, as it has been in each of these lectures, is union with Christ. Now, as united to Him, you come from heaven, and nothing is plainer than that you are to walk as Christ walked. It is not that there is no opposition, quite the contrary; but you are above the power of evil. It has been remarked that in Ephesians you are warned against the lowest order of things, because if you fall there you fall to the bottom. We know too well that when a christian falls, the higher he has been the greater the fall. May the Lord interest you, and I have confidence that He will interest you, in this subject, and make you understand the manner of life to which you are called on the earth. Hence you come out here as a new man, beautiful in grace; you belong to Him in heaven; you have tasted the blessedness of being brought there -
’...The Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heav’nly door,
Has brought me to that favoured hour’. (74:5)
You come out practically, in the light of Himself, to reflect Him here, as the moon reflects the sun. You know we should always have a full moon if there were no earth between the moon and the sun. And so you come out here as the reflection of Himself.
I do not think I need add more. It is an immense subject; but I have this comfort that every true heart in this room will see that not only are you united to Him, but you come out here in His light, to be for Him in this place of darkness and contrariety; and being for Him, whatever be the demand on you, you have the consciousness of a present portion with Himself, and are delighted to be found in any measure in correspondence with Himself.
The Lord lead your hearts to be really for Him, that you may be so drawn to Him that no other path can please you but the path in which He was found Himself, and that you may be able to say, as the apostle said, “For me to live is Christ”, for His name’s sake.