READINGS AND ADDRESSES ON SOME OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (2)
[p. 351] READINGS AND ADDRESSES ON SOME OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (2)
In the present time we get everything that can be secured to us and maintained in us by the Spirit of God. This marks the present time, so that we have no lack: everything is maintained by the Spirit; but on the other hand it is a time of testing for the saints. It is not like the time to come, the time that shall be when the Bridegroom comes, and the time of testing will be over.
Every blessing must be according to the pleasure and will of God; that must be the source of everything. Every thought for man has its origin in the pleasure of God; that is why the Lord Jesus said, “I come to do thy will”. Then, too, the blessing is secured and maintained in Christ; that is very important; and in regard of us, every blessing must be witnessed to us by the Spirit down here, by whom everything comes to us. There must be the witness of the blessing down here.
Forgiveness of sins is also in the pleasure and will of God; it is secured in Christ and witnessed to us by the Spirit. We do not get the witness until there is faith in Christ, then we have forgiveness of sins. While it is true that there is a point where the blessing is secured, yet in ourselves and without there are not a few contrary elements; our surroundings affect us. If an angel came into the world, nothing would affect him; but with us there is so much that is kindred to it, hence it is that we are affected, and hence it is that faith has to overcome the world, and faith has to be maintained. It is a time of testing for us, and will be as long as the Lord is absent. God [p. 352] will come out in light, the Bridegroom will come, and then it will be a time of sight instead of faith.
What leads me to speak of this is that one great test now is fidelity to the Shepherd; following the Shepherd is a very great point. The church is a kind of connecting link between the past and the future; one example of this is in regard of the law. God cannot set aside the great moral principles of the law, though He has set aside the covenant. The law was given to Israel and they did not fulfil it, but now we get the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us, “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. It will be fulfilled in the world to come.
The church comes in as a connecting link in the ways of God between the past and the future in order that there may be no lapse. The righteous requirements of the law are maintained when the Spirit is in the church. In the world to come it is part of the new covenant. There are many other ways in which the church is a connecting link; it is “a holy nation”, and thus comes in, in a sense, as a nation. As Peter says, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”. Paul, too, speaks of Christ having redeemed us from all lawlessness to “purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works”. The kingdom, too, is manifested now in the church and will be re-established in Jerusalem, so that we get the thought of a city also.
In this scripture we get the thought of the Shepherd, the flock, and eternal life. Of old the flock was Jehovah’s flock. He led them by the hand of Moses. David, too, was a shepherd of God’s people. The divine idea of a king is seen in a shepherd. Who is first exposed to danger? The shepherd. That characterised David when all Israel were affrighted [p. 353] and trembled like an aspen leaf, and he went before the people and met Goliath. Israel was Jehovah’s flock; they did not always prove faithful to their Shepherd, as in the case of Absalom. Their fidelity was tested by the way they followed the Shepherd.
Now we have come to a time of a shepherd and a flock. Christ is the Shepherd. He is Jehovah. It is Jehovah’s flock, and we have the true David. Jehovah will have His flock in Israel by-and-by, as we see in Psalm 95 and Psalm 100. You get that thought coming out continually in regard of Israel. These psalms are prophetic and celebrate Jehovah’s coming in, and in the meantime the thought of the flock and the Shepherd is maintained in the church, and our fidelity is tested. We have the true David, the true Beloved, which is the meaning of the name David.
Another thought is eternal life, which was a promise in the Old Testament, and now we are brought to eternal life. The promise of eternal life will be fulfilled in the coming age to Israel, but we are brought to it because we are brought into the presence of eternal life in the Father and the Son by the Spirit. The more you think of it the more you will see that the church is the connecting link. There is the possibility of everything for us in the power of the Spirit, but many a believer misses everything. They are believers, but are defrauded of their inheritance; they allow the world and other things to come in and defraud them of everything to which they are entitled; but everything is possible to us in the power of the Spirit. God has taken pains to secure everything to us where it cannot be vitiated. May we be diligent, so as not to miss anything which God has established in Christ Jesus for us.
Looking at verses 9, 11, 14, and 16, you will notice three thoughts: first, Christ is the Door; secondly, He is the good Shepherd; thirdly, the chief [p. 354] Shepherd. We enter in by Christ as the door, and thus we enter in to God, for Christ is the revelation of God, and He has accomplished redemption that we may go in to God and be saved, come into liberty, go in and out and find pasture: salvation, liberty, pasture. Now having entered, we come to the thought of the good Shepherd, and that is continuous. He proves Himself the good Shepherd, laying down His life. He was the first to encounter the power of evil, as David did Goliath; the wolf is the power of evil.
In connection with the thought of the good Shepherd I desire to press what is of great importance, and that is the individual knowledge of Christ. We cannot know Christ collectively, it must be individual. We cannot live on meetings, formalities, ministry; He knows each one individually, and would have one know Him individually. In the present day nothing can be more vitally important than individual knowledge of the Shepherd. Each one of us has to see to it that we cultivate our relations with the Shepherd. Each one of us needs diligence to cultivate fidelity to the Shepherd.
There is the greatest possible gain in the knowledge of the Shepherd, for He never forsakes the sheep. The idea of “flock” is to follow the Shepherd. If you follow the Shepherd you do not settle down except for pasture; you do not settle down on your lees.
After David had slain Goliath the soul of Jonathan was knit to David, he loved David as his own soul; he felt that David was the man. We ought to have the same affection for Christ as Jonathan had for David, and then we shall be prepared to abdicate every natural right in order to be true to Christ, our David, our Beloved. Jonathan failed in fidelity to David, he clung to Saul; the natural tie came in, and he fell with Saul on the mountains of Gilboa. But [p. 355] Christ laid down His life for the sheep. May we be prepared to forego every natural tie, so as to be in fidelity to Christ.
One flock and one Shepherd is a very great test to us in the present day. Fidelity to the one Shepherd means standing apart from everything which hinders, and which is accredited in christendom, and which denies the thought of the one flock, one Shepherd. We are all tested by this, and we ought to prove our fidelity. If there be one flock and one Shepherd, I cannot be identified with what in its government and constitution is a denial of the flock. All believers are tested by the one flock and one Shepherd. In Israel there were twelve tribes, but only one flock. It was a bad day for Israel and the beginning of the end when they were divided into two nations. Elijah at Carmel took twelve stones, recognising the whole nation, and thus proved his fidelity to Jehovah. Elijah was a faithful man, and recognised the unity of Israel. It is a mark of fidelity to the Shepherd at the present time to recognise the unity of the flock. It is a great point to cultivate our relations with the good Shepherd and to prove our fidelity to the one Shepherd.
Verse 28 has reference to the present time. “Perish” has no reference to the future, and in heaven ‘plucking out’ could never occur, so that the passage only refers to the present. You get a great contrast between Paul’s ministry and that of John. Paul says very little as to eternal life, because he conducts us into the land of promise on the line of divine counsels; but John brings us into the greatest thing that can be established here on earth. Paul is on the up line, taking the saint to heaven; John is on the down, as it were, because he brings God down to earth. We have the full light of God the Father revealed in the Son.
[p. 356] In Matthew, Mark and Luke the Lord connects eternal life with the coming age; in John with the present. How can that be? Because John brings us into the full light of the Father revealed in Christ. John brings us the full revelation of the Father and the Son, the full light of God.
There are three things essential to life in natural and in spiritual things — rule, atmosphere and light. All these conditions have come to pass. The Father is revealed in the Son; nothing is hid, there is nothing more to be revealed — the word of God completed, light is provided and rule, and we are brought into attachment to Christ. We are not lawless, we are under the influence of rule, and God has given us an atmosphere down here where spiritual life can be developed — the circle which is pervaded by the Spirit of God. The Spirit is here to maintain this, and Christ’s circle is attached to the divinely appointed centre, and the spiritual life can thrive in the full light of the Father and the Son. Whatever people have in themselves it is impossible for any creature to live apart from the conditions that God has appointed. None but God Himself can live without conditions.
How does Christ give to us eternal life? He has given to us all that is necessary, so that as born of God we can live and thrive. By the Spirit of God we are brought into the full light of divine love. As spiritually born of God we have all we need to support life. The newborn babe is born into the atmosphere within and without, and also the same in regard of rule and also of light. If we abide in the light, the light abides in us.
The instincts of people are often beyond their intelligence. These are conditions in which the flock can live spiritually. There will be a blessed day in the world when the atmosphere will be the greatest possible contrast to the atmosphere of lust and pride [p. 357] which characterise the world now. The flock belongs to the earth, and is composed of Jew and gentile in sanctification of the Spirit. Christ has given to His flock eternal life in influences maintained down here by the Spirit of God. Saints have been injured because they do not give full place to the Spirit of God. You are under obligation to do this and to look to it that you do not hinder the Spirit from making good to you all that God has to give us at the present time.