DIVINE OPERATIONS WILL HAVE A PERFECT RESULT
IN THE SAINTS
Hebrews 13: 20, 21; 1 Corinthians 1: 1–9; 2 Corinthians 11: 1–3; Numbers 23: 19–23
GCMcK I was thinking, dear brethren, that we should have before us that divine Persons are going to have a perfect result. The divine operations are proceeding continuously and the end of that is going to be a perfect result in the saints. The verse where we began in Hebrews 13 refers to the God of peace perfecting the saints “in every good work to the doing of his will, doing in you what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ”. The footnote says, ‘Or
‘producing’, the present tense, ‘God working in them continually’’. There is going to be a great result, a result in glory. In the epistles to the Corinthians, despite all the discrepancies and the serious conditions that existed practically, that is very much in view. We often refer to the beginning of the first epistle, and I wondered if we might get a fresh touch as to it. I believe the first few verses of the first epistle to Corinthians are essential verses. They are not simply a kind of formal acknowledgment, I think they are necessary verses if there is going to be a result for God. It is remarkable that in verse 8 you get the thought of the saints being unimpeachable, “who shall also confirm you to the end, unimpeachable”. You wonder at that being said in the epistle to the Corinthians when so much was going to have to be taken up by the apostle, but these first verses stand. Similarly in the second epistle, although things were better when Paul wrote it, the exercises were not entirely complete, yet Paul has in mind a chaste virgin. In a locality such a thing as that is in mind.
Then in Numbers, in the end it will be said, “What hath God wrought!” The result will be complete. I believe, dear brethren, that unless we get this view of divine operations and the certainty of them, the fact that divine
Persons have committed themselves to producing a perfect result according to their own thoughts, then we might be overwhelmed by the breakdown and the weakness and the difficulties. The first few verses in 1 Corinthians 1: 4–9 especially, bring out that God has set Himself so that His own work in the saints is going to be established, to be confirmed, to go through. God’s faithfulness will accomplish that, and so our hearts can be encouraged by the thought that God is faithful, that the saints will be brought to the divine end. That is the line of things I thought we could be occupied with.
DTP I am sure it would be very encouraging and stimulating for us, for we do need that. We were looking at some of these matters this week already, in Romans 11 where we see God’s ways, and it is all in view of bringing about a result that is pleasing to Himself.
Paul finishes with the doxology, the glory of God’s ways is before him. We need to realise that God is working and His work will have a result, and the need is to appreciate it and make way for it.
GCMcK Well, that is just the thought. It is not that we ignore the difficulties and the exercises and the discrepancies that come in and exist, for these things have to be taken up. We have to see that these things are maintained in exercise with us, but we can only be strengthened to do so as we have the divine view as to what God is going to bring about, and confidence in divine Persons.
DTP Yes, the glory of what has been set out in One well known to us, our Lord Jesus Christ. There it is, everything is in Him and God’s delight towards men is expressed in Him, but the need is on our part that He has sway with us, He is our Lord.
GCMcK It is clear that everything is assured on account of what Christ has done and what God has done. Where we read in Hebrews He has brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, and it is in the power of the blood of the eternal covenant, a remarkable expression that shows that what God commits Himself to, He is not going to go back on. There is a certain power, through the work of Christ, to accomplish that, indeed to perfect the saints in every good work.
MC It is affecting to consider the Lord Jesus as the great Shepherd of the sheep. I was thinking of the expenditure that is His, and has been His, in view of the saints being brought to this kind of state.
GCMcK Yes, quite so. And not only the great Shepherd of the sheep who has laid down His life for the sheep, but the One who has been brought again from among the dead. How wonderful to think of that, and the result of His work is that everything is going to be secured for God. Not only has His work glorified God, but on the basis of it God is going to perfect the saints in every good work to the doing of His will. These are positive and encouraging features.
RT With reference to the selective resurrection of Jesus, it would be an encouragement and foundation for our souls that these thoughts are already secured in God’s mind, and the Spirit is here to effectuate them.
GCMcK It is a great matter to understand that things are assured. In 1 Corinthians he uses the word “confirmed”, that is that not only is there a setting out of divine thoughts in testimony, what is set out objectively in ministry, but things are confirmed in the saints, confirmed practically in their experience. That involves the presence of the Holy Spirit.
JSp It speaks in Ephesians of arriving at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”, Ephesians 4: 13. Would it be the fact that God has a Man now in these conditions and everything is going to be brought into conformity to that?
GCMcK I think that is right. There is a similar thought in Hebrews 2 where there is the allusion to God bringing many sons to glory. That is the perfect result in sonship, but it is on account of the fact that the Leader of their salvation has been made perfect through sufferings. He has arrived at that place where He is the Leader of our salvation and God can accomplish His fullest thoughts. So, whether it is the perfection of what is in sonship for God’s heart, or whether it is the perfection of the assembly for the heart of Christ, these things are assured. We might be depressed by practical matters, but the thing is assured because God’s thoughts are intact. Christ is raised and it is all established in Him; and God is working in the saints.
DTP I think we need to lay hold of the fact that there is a power that is towards us, is there not? That is vital to realise in the soul. There are things that press upon me as an individual, but there is a power that is available to lift me above it all because it is all established in that blood.
GCMcK Exactly. Not only to lift us out of any preoccupation with weakness and what might mark us, but to raise us up and make us equal to what God has in mind, that is a perfect result. We might shy away from that word, but it is going to be, God is going to have a perfect result in the saints.
DTP Sonship is the height and that is what we are called to; something is wrought out and always goes on, and God sees us as we are according to His thoughts.
GCMcK Yes, that is really what He has in view, bringing many sons to glory. It is not only in His purpose, but He brings them there, and it is glory. I was glad we began with a hymn about glory, because the things that we have to do with are glorious. We need to lift our view to see that.
RG Do you think the fact that Moses went up Pisgah and saw all the tribes in order over the Jordan, that that was the impulse for him to be able to write Deuteronomy? To bring the saints along and see that the difficulties were one thing, but there was a result to be reached, and Moses saw it.
GCMcK Yes, he saw that good land and, as has often been remarked, he saw the tribes dwelling in it, the great and full result. He saw not only the end of the journey, what God had wrought, he looked right through and he saw the saints dwelling in the purpose of God. Well, it is not just to dwell on these things as a beautiful picture, but these things are essential to lay hold of in our souls if we are going to be helped through the present difficulties.
RT The power of the blood being connected with the resurrection is quite a distinctive reference here, is it not? Have you anything in mind about it?
GCMcK No, I would be glad of your thoughts.
RT The resurrection of Jesus is the power that is often referred to, but in the power of the blood gives a wide bearing does it, to the resurrection of Christ? It goes on to the eternal covenant, the whole universe in mind, secured on this basis for God.
GCMcK I think that is right. So that, on that basis, God is operating. There is something being worked out in the saints in the doing of His will; but the second doing is what God is doing in the saints, “doing in you what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ”. He has a basis on which He can work and I suppose that is the point in 1 Corinthians, that we see that there is the work of God in the saints, whatever the discrepancies. So God can work in connection with that.
JAB I wondered if you could say more about the substantiality of what is here as the objective, “perfect you in every good work” and then “doing”, or as the note says, ‘producing’. The thought of perfection and what is perfect might seem like some mystic kind of theology that people can become perfected. The writer here has something concrete in view. Could you say more about why the stress is on that side, “perfect you in every good work”, producing something?
GCMcK Yes, I think the thought in perfection is that the work is finished and complete, it is arrived at, not only the thought of perfect in the common usage of it but the thought that God’s work is complete and His pleasure is fully secured. He has done in the saints what is pleasing before Him.
JDG I was thinking it must have been great encouragement to those persons who had to go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, out of Jerusalem; what an encouragement, to the Jew first in that setting, to think that God’s thoughts will go through and the saints will go through with Him.
GCMcK So the God of peace has done this. We can be settled in our souls, the work has been done by Christ. He has been raised from the dead, everything is going through. These Jewish believers no doubt did view the difficulties, they might tend to be disturbed, but there is such a One as the God of peace operating. He would bring that into our hearts, would He not?
JDG The Lord Jesus as the great Shepherd of the sheep is in view of activity, life, the source being in Christ.
GCMcK So that there is the great beginning for God in Christ raised from among the dead, the beginning for God in regard to the divine operations that are still proceeding in view of a perfect result.
RJC There is another scripture that says, “he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”, Philippians 1: 6. Would that confirm the thought you have in mind?
GCMcK Yes, indeed, and to the Philippians Paul refers to their fellowship with the gospel from the first day until now, so there was a beginning in Philippi, and from that beginning we go right through really to Jesus Christ’s day. God operates with the saints right through to the end, from the first day until He arrives at perfection in the fulness of His thoughts.
MGW Do we read of someone who took this up as a matter of fervent prayer, that the saints might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God? What would you say about that?
GCMcK I was certainly concerned that, in putting forth this line of divine operations, we do not forget that our exercises go along with it, and that is one of them, combating in prayer. Both Paul and Epaphras did that, showing the great work that has to be accomplished. The greater the matter that has to be accomplished the deeper, I suppose, the combating in prayer. In Ephesians 3 Paul bowed his knees. It shows that on our side there has to be intense exercise.
MC I would like further help on “every good work”, as to the extent of that practically. Does it bear on the way we are set together and how we work things out together for profit?
GCMcK That is similar to what our brother has just quoted; the exercise is that the saints might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God, every will of God, I think it says. It shows that what God is looking for is not a partial result. Of course, I am sure divine Persons take account of whatever appears pleasing in us, but really it is a full result that is in mind. If we do not keep a full result in view we are going to fall short in our exercises. I wondered if 1 Corinthians 1 might help us to see that God is bringing about what is in His mind. I know it is said often as to verses 4 to 9 that it is somewhat abstract, that the Corinthians were not really up to this, which is true, but there was something with them, and the Holy Spirit dwelt in them. It is according to that divine view of them that Paul takes up the exercises.
DTP How fine the touch is that he starts with, “to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints”. That brings in a touch of the conscience, does it, as to whether we are so? That is how we are viewed on the divine side, because the work once accomplished remains, we need to be elevated to it in our thoughts and in our ways.
GCMcK I think it must be one of the most elevated thoughts of sanctification, “sanctified in Christ Jesus”. It does not bring forward exactly sanctification by the blood, though that would be true, but sanctified in Christ Jesus shows the level of things at which Paul is considering the saints. And that is another point, dear brethren, that while we are conscious of weakness and discrepancies, we must respect the saints, we must see what they are, as called and as sanctified in Christ Jesus, otherwise we can hardly take up exercises rightly.
GBG It has also been said that these first verses was how Paul knew them.
GCMcK Well, they had declined since Paul spent eighteen months among them.
GBG That is right but there was what was substantial there, especially in certain ones. I think it is encouraging that Paul knew them like this.
GCMcK Yes, so he is not at a distance from them. He brings in Sosthenes the brother when he addresses them, and there is a kind of closeness in his approach to them. And then, thanking God always about them, I suppose would connect with his memory of them as to what had been accomplished. So, do you think that is one of the things we should do, as to our local meetings, or the saints in any place, consider them from that point of view? We have the great advantage in the smallness nowadays, that we know the brethren and we can thank God for what we see in them.
JSp Would that bear on “the testimony of the Christ has been confirmed in you”? I would like you to say something about that.
GCMcK I was hoping for help in these two thoughts of confirmation that come into the section. Paul says at the beginning of the second chapter that he came “announcing to you the testimony of God”, 1 Corinthians 2: 1. And here it is the “testimony of the Christ”. So that what was brought before them, I take it, was that Christ is the One who is accomplishing everything for God, and in some sense that became confirmed in the saints, I think through the possession of the Spirit.
JSp With regard to what you say, it appears to be a very substantial thing, it is the anointed vessel, equal to the anointed Man. There is something here that there is no discrepancy between this vessel and Christ, it is confirmed not to them but in them.
GCMcK Very good. So that Paul uses that expression later in the epistle, “so also is the Christ”. I think that is very helpful. How confirming it is then, how strengthening to our souls to see that there is what is established in the souls of the saints. We may have our eyes on other things, but we should have eyes for what is in the saints, what is confirmed in them, even if there are other matters to be taken up.
DCB I wonder if you would comment on the fact that this is of course before the public breakdown of the church, that we are now long into the period of public breakdown. Would you say something about that?
GCMcK Well, I think the same principle would apply. Although the breakdown now exists, and is so extensive, that does not take from the fact that divine operations are continuing. It does not take from the fact that God is going to arrive at His end, nor does it destroy what does exist and is confirmed in the souls of the saints. Perhaps you have a further thought.
DCB So that that can be in principle identified; for instance, the assembly of God which is in Corinth, can in principle be identified.
GCMcK As was said a moment or two ago, it may be that the thing was seen in a few in Corinth, there were some clearly who were more in the gain of things than others, but some caused very great grief to the apostle. So we can lay hold of that. It runs along with the addresses to the assemblies, there is the overcomer, there is that element right through.
JS Do you think the identification in our day would be connected with moral features?
GCMcK Yes, I think so. The testimony of the Christ would involve that there must be moral features in what is brought forward. It is not what is of man, as Paul said, it was not excellency of word or wisdom.
JS It just seems we cannot look at this officially, it has to be the result of God working morally in our souls.
GCMcK I think that is so. In a broken day we have to give up the thought of what is official as far as the church is concerned, but we have to resort, as John does, to what is essentially there which is life and reality in God’s work.
JS Do you think this word “God is faithful” has some bearing on this therefore?
GCMcK Yes, very much so. God is faithful. You may say, we are weak and conscious of failure, the church has broken down, but has God given up His faithfulness? Shall He say and not do, as it says in Numbers? God is faithful, we can rely on the faithfulness of divine Persons.
JS God is committed to this. We had a reference in the previous scripture in Hebrews to the thought of the eternal covenant. Really God is committed to something, is He not?
GCMcK Quite so, and He is committed to something that is eternal, not something that is transient or interim. What we are speaking about is the work of God in the saints and what is being brought about is an eternal result. It exists now in measure and is going on to completion.
RG Does that bring up the importance of the Supper as it is held by us each week? It is chapter 11 before the apostle introduced the Supper here in this book, but he received it from the Lord, received it from glory, and that was in his heart when he started to write this book to them. That would always be in our hearts after the Supper, so that we view the saints from that standpoint, do you think? You then reach on to what is eternal in character, do you think?
GCMcK Yes, I am sure that that is one of the great confirming features of the present day, what we enjoy at the Supper and what flows out of it, some sense of the Lord having come to us and made Himself known. It is one great encouraging feature that is central to us going on rightly. God is faithful who has called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. God would hardly call us into such an august fellowship, associated with His Son and then let things drop. He cannot do that, He must be true to His own thoughts as to Christ and as to the saints.
JDG Paul was dependent on that in approaching the Corinthians, highlighting what he thinks of them because of what God had wrought in them. That must have had an effect as the letter was read, as the discrepancies come out. Paul was relying on God’s faithfulness in relation to the work that was there.
GCMcK When you think of these beautiful things that are attributed to the saints, it must have touched their consciences, because they must have felt as these elevated things were said about them that they were not really in keeping with them.
JDG We have to have that view of the saints in every place, it does not matter what the difficulties are, in order to secure something in the place for the Lord.
GCMcK Yes, I think that is right. It is remarkable how this is all in the local setting. This is assembly thoughts and assembly features worked out in a place, showing that we must regard our localities in this kind of way.
GAB Do you think what sustained Joseph in his dealings with his unruly brethren in the dreams that he had at the beginning, was that he knew they were all going to come round?
GCMcK Very good. That is right, eventually they came round. What exercise was involved! What exercises Joseph went through, the word of God tried him. Everything seemed to be closing up, the dreams seemed so very far away, but the time came when God acted and things came about. We go through dark spells too, it may be, wondering how the word of God is going to be brought about. I think the encouragement is that divine Persons are faithful, they are going to bring it about.
DAS Job went through a great deal of exercise with God, but then he comes to it when he says, “I know that thou canst do everything, and that thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”, Job 42: 2. It brought Job round, did it not?
GCMcK Yes, I think that is fine, “now mine eye seeth thee”, Job 42: 5. He had some view of God that he never had before, pious man as he was, and he had some real assessment of himself. I suppose that would be a kind of counterpart to this; while these elevated thoughts are to be before us and would encourage us, God is looking for self-judgment with us, and to see that everything depends on Him, not to make much of ourselves.
JS Had you something in mind about this word “unimpeachable”?
GCMcK Just that it seems extraordinary when you compare it with the discrepancies that existed in Corinth, but Paul does not give up that thought, that in the end the saints will be unimpeachable.
JAB What does that word mean?
GCMcK I suppose it means no charge can be brought up against them and established against them, do you think?
JS It is good to get that brought out. Do you think the point of what Paul is saying here is really to elevate the thoughts of the Corinthians and our thoughts too, so that we should be in conformity with what is presented?
GCMcK Yes, I think so. As we were remarking, as the Corinthians heard this read out it must have been an arrow to their conscience as to how out of keeping they were. “Sanctified in Christ Jesus” that very phrase, how much it must have affected them; then the thought of being unimpeachable, how many things might rise in their minds when the word unimpeachable was read out. But then, God is able to do that. He is going to bring about a result in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
RG Do you think this is an Ephesian touch at the beginning of Corinthians, “that we should be holy and blameless before him in love”, Ephesians 1: 4?
GCMcK Yes. We do not miss out the Ephesian thought. Corinthians is illuminated occasionally by the most precious thoughts that really go far beyond the scope of what the epistle is about. We have to have that in view, the light there that lies at the end of the exercises.
RG The whole of the Corinthian epistles was to bring brethren to the Ephesian level, was it not? A corrective epistle but it was to bring us back to the Ephesian level. To do that, we have to start from the Ephesian level.
GCMcK Quite so. God has no other level in view, no other standard than what His thoughts are in Christ, “sanctified in Christ Jesus”. His thoughts are all at the level, as to what is established in a risen and glorified Man.
RJC Perfection is suggested in the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. There is a certain divine standard there, nothing partial or menial. It is the greatest fellowship that we could ever have part in. God is going to arrive at that in our souls.
GCMcK Yes, I think it would be a voice to them if their associations were not what they ought to be, that they were in this most dignified fellowship that is connected with God’s Son. It is the dignity and greatness of this fellowship that is in mind, and God had called them to it, they had been laid hold of for this. If God calls, the gifts and calling of God are not subject to repentance.
RT The fellowship of God’s Son does not bear any compromise, does it?
GCMcK No, it certainly does not. I suppose it should have weight with us. There are other allusions to fellowship as we know in this epistle; the fellowship of His death, which brings in that separating and searching side as to His death; and the fellowship of the Spirit too, the inward side; but this brings out a kind of heavenly dignity to it. We must preserve all this. I would like to ask about the second confirming in verse 8. The testimony of the Christ in verse 6 was being confirmed in the Corinthians, something had been wrought in them in accord with such a testimony; but then it says, “who”, I suppose it is the Lord, “who shall also confirm you to the end”. It suggests a kind of continuance, not only that there was something established in Corinth through the testimony and something confirmed in the saints, but then, ‘confirming to the end’ must go through.
DTP The divine thought is never lost, is it? God takes us up. He has that, we are thankful for it and prove His love and grace, that He never gives us up, does He? And the joy of that in the soul should be a strengthening of our faith and an encouragement for us too to be more devoted in our lives.
GCMcK Yes, I think that. God never gives up His thoughts, and I do not think He gives up the confirmation of His thoughts either. “Confirm you to the end” means there is something practical proceeding in the souls of the saints, so that we continue on this line right to the end. I think that thought is right, it is a continuing thing, the confirmation.
RG Is that why it does not say, Confirm you at the end? We may have thought that it could be confirmation at the end of our course here, but that is not the idea is it? It is, as you say, a progressing matter, progressive but progressing matter.
GCMcK Yes, I think so. I would like to have a better thought as to how it actually works.
You mentioned the Supper, for example, a great confirming feature in our experiences, but it may be at other meetings too and on other occasions we get some sense of the truth being confirmed subjectively in our souls. I think the Spirit would do that, that it is not just objective. You get a sense that this is really being accomplished in the saints.
JSp I was wondering about that, the thought of the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits, would that be a confirming thing?
GCMcK Yes, very good. The suggestion there is that our spirits have some sense of our relations with God, and the Spirit does confirm it. I believe the Spirit is the great confirmatory power really in the saints, it is an inward subjective matter. We have been given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts, it means everything for our whole heavenly portion really is being confirmed to us by the presence of the Spirit.
JDG “Confirm you to the end, unimpeachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Has not that state to be with us every day? The exercise is to maintain it.
GCMcK Yes, I think that is right. Our brother remarked it is not at the end, it is to the end, which suggests that something should be arrived at in the saints that is maintained right through to the end. Well, it is testing, and of course immediately your mind turns to what would militate against that in your thoughts with regard to weakness and discrepancies, but, still, this is the thought.
RT It brings up a good deal in the epistle as to the temple of God working, would that all be part of the confirmation, do you think?
GCMcK Well, that helps. Each one having a part in the body, the gifts set there in the assembly. I think that is good, so that we become conscious that we are part of an operating system, a divine system that is in operation in divine power.
RT It says, “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”, 1 Corinthians 3: 16. Does it not involve teaching being confirmed, teaching and the authority of it bearing on our souls?
GCMcK Yes, I do think that. And I think it is one of the things that practically confirms us, when the truth is brought in, not just simply in the letter of it, but the bearing of it in our souls. I am sure that builds us up and establishes us.
DTP I suppose really in our life we are constantly being enriched in Him, because on occasions like this, the local meetings too, help comes in under the Spirit’s touch, and you find that you are enriched by it; but that needs to grow, it is part of the functioning of the body locally. We need to attend to it and see that it does grow.
GCMcK Quite so. And then, as to following that line as to what is existing among the saints in the way of assembly working, there is all this exercise that Paul goes into to clear the way for that. As soon as we see that this is in view and our hearts are attracted to what divine Persons are doing, there is an incentive with us to meet the discrepancies, to see that things are put right; so that the Holy Spirit can be free amongst us and that assembly function can proceed. “The Christ” as was remarked—the Lord Jesus was the anointed vessel, the Christ, and there is still an anointed vessel here, the assembly.
MC Does this all help us to arrive at what we call normal assembly conditions, where things are proceeding for God’s pleasure?
GCMcK Yes. I do not think we lose sight of the assembly in normality. Things are not always a question of crises and obstacles but there is a normal working of things that we should covet to preserve amongst us, as far as we may.
I thought in the second epistle in chapter 11 there is another similar touch. You might say it is somewhat abstract, because there was much in Corinth that, even at the time of the writing of the second epistle, was hardly in keeping with the thought of chastity, “a chaste virgin to Christ”. Still, progress had been made, and Paul brings out here the depths of his exercises that in this place there would be a chaste virgin. It is a place, it is not only individuals, it is a place, there should be a chaste virgin character that can be presented to Christ. If a thing is presented it must be as completed, there must be a complete thought. Does this seem too far for us to reach? You might question whether this is beyond us, but as far as Paul was concerned that was his objective, and he did not have a lesser one.
JS Do you think this is really a prime matter in relation to the local assembly, that there should be something that is distinctly for the heart of Christ in its feminine character, in purity of affection?
GCMcK Yes, I think that is what it is; “unto one man” indicates that every other man is to be excluded. The chaste virgin to Christ means that every impure element is to be absent, and instead Christ alone should be before us. Paul was concerned, as verse 3 shows, that the serpent would be busy, and that Satan would be busy in corruption.
JSp Do you think we should be exercised as to having these feelings of jealousy then for those in our local meeting, go over them in our prayers? You carry them before the Lord, but this is the great objective you have in your prayers.
GCMcK Yes. We have had the Colossian prayer already and I think that is a very important matter, so the jealousy would come into our prayers; that we would be detecting and praying against everything that would infringe this beautiful state of things among the saints. We might have to take up exercises too, but I think it would begin, as you say, in feeling prayers.
JTB(Gr) I was just thinking of the frequent references in the first epistle to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think as we recognise the authority that there is in the Lord Jesus Christ that would help us to be presentable to Christ as a chaste virgin?
GCMcK Yes. There are references in verses 2 and 3 of chapter 1 to the Lord Jesus Christ. It brings out the full dignity and glory that is in that Person, and what has been accomplished through Him. I think it is fine to have that before us. The names, the titles which we use towards the Lord Jesus are important, they are affectionate titles on the lips of assembly-minded persons, and not only His precious personal name, Jesus, but His title, the Lord Jesus Christ. How great He is!
RT The expression “a jealousy which is of God” seems a most unusual expression.
GCMcK Yes, it is divine in its character. I suppose there is something very special about Paul as expressing this jealousy. I am not sure that anyone else could speak about espousing the saints to one Man. Was Paul not specially taken up to secure this feature in the assemblies for Christ, to commit them to Christ in this way; and would he thus, as having that commission, have corresponding feelings? What do you think?
RT Yes, I am sure that is so. Timothy would have something of it too, would he not?
He was set among them to remind them of Paul’s ways as they were in Christ.
GCMcK Yes, showing that what was in Paul was to be taken on by others; these feelings should be carried on and continued.
JS Do you think that Eve being brought in here, Eve being deceived by the serpent’s craft, would show us that immediately the thought of Christ and the assembly came in typically, the enemy was set against it, and he has been unrelenting in his activities? Do you think it should alert us that God is going to see this matter right through to the end?
GCMcK Well, how remarkable, that into this setting of exercise there should come such a type, a type of the assembly before sin came in. The enemy attacking that, shows the level at which Paul’s affections were operating, as to what was to be for the heart of Christ.
JS So I thought it showed us it was a prime thought with God, and it is going to be carried right through, finally into the eternal day, Christ and the assembly, the Man and the woman. I think we need help to carry this in our affections in this present day, to think of the local assembly in the light of this.
GCMcK Yes, quite so. Well, we might take exercise in prayer that we might apprehend such a thing as the feminine aspect of the assembly; that is that responsive affectionate and subject state that pleases the heart of Christ. That would be involved in a chaste virgin, that there would be subjection to Christ, that beautiful feature would be seen, and love for Him, undivided affection for Him. What a thought to have for our local meeting, that that should characterise it!
MC I just wanted to refer to Paul in relation to his service. Would it be very much in line with the Spirit’s service in relation to the assembly? In the type in Genesis 24, how active the servant was on this line to bring about a perfect answer in Rebecca for Isaac.
GCMcK Yes. That helps, I think. The espousal would involve that. It comes into Genesis 24 that Rebecca became committed to the relationship before she came into it. There is the thought of espousal, and I think the Spirit’s operations would do that. Espousal is a committal, not marriage exactly, but a very serious committal. It means that from that point on there is to be no going back. I think that is the thought of espousal in Scripture. It means that the matter has to go through to the satisfaction of the heart of Christ.
TCM I was just wondering about the expression that he uses, “espoused you unto one man”. Is that intended to affect our hearts? Other men had loomed large in their exercises, but he is really bringing in the one Man. There is skill in that, do you think?
GCMcK I think there is indeed. So that there were divisions among them. They were saying, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, or using other names I suppose, but the “one man” is a delivering thought. How much is excluded
immediately; what influences are excluded! Then the first man, the old man is not going to have any claim on us, because our hearts are taken up with that Man. It is delivering in its character I think. But then there is the thought of corruption in our thoughts, from simplicity as to the Christ.
RG Say something about the simplicity as to the Christ.
GCMcK Well, it says in the footnote it is not exactly a personal trait but it is the doctrine as to Christ. I suppose we can see examples of the opposite in the Colossian epistle and elsewhere, that something was added to Christ; there was an attempt to enhance Christ as it were, by adding some human thoughts or reasonings. All we need is Christ, we do not need anyone else, we do not need any of man’s thoughts to enhance Christ; He just is as He is to our affections as the Spirit enthrones Him there.
RG The day in which we live it is either taking away from or adding to Christ. The simplicity of the Christ is the peculiar blessedness of that Man that has been in the heart of God from before time and will fill His heart for all eternity.
GCMcK Yes, very good. And so there is a purity. You can understand this coming in with regard to the chaste virgin, there is a purity about the thought of simplicity as to the Christ. No other consideration has to come in from any other quarter, our hearts are just taken up with Him and what He would provide for us. Numbers chapter 23 is a very interesting section. The people are approaching the land. Typically something is being formed in the saints now. They have received the Holy Spirit and have acknowledged the Spirit objectively in chapter 21 as we have been taught. They are moving now in a certain power and urgency. As in Romans 8, they are moving towards the land, and at that point I think we can speak a little more of what is formed in the saints. I know that what Balaam says is abstract too, but I think that typically Israel is now coming into some kind of formation. Romans 8 gives us sons of God led by the Spirit of God, persons in whom the Spirit is dominant, and who have a constitution to go into the land.
JAB Would that be implied by the phrase “At this time” in verse 23? I was thinking that the current operations of God are always consistent with what He has been doing, and all through there was this objective in view and it is taken account of here, at this time.
GCMcK Yes, I think that is right. So that the full result is contemplated in that expression, “At this time”, at the end of the wilderness journey. How much, you might say, of Jacob had entered into it, but how much of Israel, and now it is what is in the people, what is formed, and there is a strength in them. “What hath God wrought!” Not many chapters before this Moses is exasperated by the people, he feels the negative side, and calls them, rebels too; he has to be rebuked and suffer for that. So there is that side, what the flesh is and how it shows itself in us at times; but as we proceed, I think we see that God is dignifying His people in the gift of the Spirit and He is preparing them for the good land, dignifying them in the gift of the Spirit.
RT Shall He say and not do, shall He speak and not make it good? Does that connect with Corinthians, God is faithful? Would that help us to lay hold of resources so that it should be so in me?
GCMcK Exactly. And so we can have confidence in Him. He has said and He is going to make it good. Making it good involves that subjective thought, what is made good in the saints.
RT The word abstract has been used quite a bit, but we need to be clear that abstract does not mean it is unreal. There is never an abstract without a concrete, is there?
GCMcK No, that is so. In men’s terms, I think, sometimes abstract is just purely a thought that has no substantial existence at all, but not in divine things because, although we might view the saints abstractly, in any case the work of God is there, and that warrants us to take the abstract view, that there does exist in them the work of God and the Holy Spirit.
JDG Does that mean that we view the saints apart from the mixed conditions in which they are, where the work of God is?
GCMcK Yes, we are entitled to do that because that work is there and it shows itself.
RG Was not the concrete seen in Caleb and Joshua all the way through, and God is bringing the whole twelve tribes to be in alignment with Caleb and Joshua? It is a new generation here, from now on.
GCMcK Yes, it is. It is fine to think that there was a continuation there, two men who had come out of Egypt went into the land. They continued right to the end and Caleb discloses the secret of it in the land being in his heart. As we have these things in our heart we will continue and we will be confirmed in continuing.
DTP What was in a few God credited to them all, you see it in verse 21, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen wrong in Israel”. We can see plenty, but can we see it in ourselves, and can we see what God is doing? What is substantial is there, that is precious.
GCMcK Well, it is precious, what God has in individual saints. Sometimes an elderly saint is taken, and we see how much has accrued to God in that person’s life. But then, even collectively, which this perhaps bears more on, “Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is in his midst”. God is among His people and that is a thought, too, to bear in mind when we speak about the people of God, God is there by the Spirit. When we think of a locality, we think of it in that way. Even in a broken day we hold to that, we see it.
GBG Jacob does not always represent the supplanter and here, especially, he represents the testimonial side.
GCMcK I think that helps, the testimony has been carried through. There is no enchantment against Jacob, so it means, I think, the power of evil cannot withstand the testimony proceeding and the saints being formed in it. No enchantment, no power of evil can rise against this.
JSp There is a suggestion of the convergence of His ways and purpose then. I was just thinking that is touched in the end of Romans 8; you get a thought of God’s ways but then they coalesce with His purpose, that is the great end He arrives at.
GCMcK Exactly. How much detail enters into it, and how much painful exercise for us at times too, but then He is not deviating from His purpose. In the end, His ways bring about what is concrete, entirely in accord with His purpose. It is very remarkable the triumph that enters into Romans 8, things going through to the end in verse 29, “Because whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated”, and then that chain, predestinated, called, justified, glorified. It means that God’s purpose goes through.
KEY TO INITIALS
G. A. Brown
R. Gardiner
D. A. Steven
D. C. Brown
J. D. Gray
J. Spinks
J. A. Brown
G. B. Grant
J. Strachan
J. T. Brown (Gr)
G. C. McKay
R. Taylor
R. J. Campbell
T. C. Munro
M. G. Wood
M. Cowan
D. T. Pye
Reading at Kirkcaldy
15 November 2003