READINGS AND ADDRESSES ON SOME OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (7)
[p. 375] READINGS AND ADDRESSES ON SOME OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (7)
What I seek to bring before you is the question of obligation, the obligation under which we are placed as children of God. We are placed under obligation from the fact of being children of God. For the fact of our being brought into any relationships, intelligent beings as we are, must entail obligation, and the obligations are corresponding to the relationship.
When God created man at the beginning he was set in relation to God, and thus there was obligation to God. Then when God created the woman and Adam had a wife there were the corresponding obligations. The same principle is true as regards children, masters, servants. The principle holds good the moment you get relationships established in connection with intelligent beings. That, therefore, is my point tonight. I want to show where the obligation lies.
There are three things I want to speak of. (1) In regard to worship. (2) In regard to service. (3) In regard of good works. I want to show how obligation is connected with each of these three. If we do not know what the obligations are it will hinder our carrying them out. Last time I spoke of the peculiar place the church has at the present time. Every thought of God is taken up in the church down here, so that all is maintained for God. I spoke of the thought of the flock: it is not part of the church’s calling, but it is what the church is brought into incidentally from being down here. The church properly belongs to the heavenly places, and there are no flocks in heaven, but the thought of the flock is maintained in the church down here.
[p. 376] Now in this chapter another thought is taken up, that of fruit-bearing. The first few verses refer to a vine, which has reference to earth, for Israel was said to be the vine of the earth. Christ superseded the vine. Israel was the vine, but Christ was the true Vine, and the disciples were the branches if they abode in Him, if they brought forth fruit. It applies to the time when the Lord was here. The Lord looked on, however, to the disciples abiding in Him. The idea of the vine is given up, but not that of abiding in Him, nor of fruit-bearing. It would be a demonstration that they were disciples of Christ if they bore fruit. The church is expected to be fruit-bearing here. Israel will find their fruit from Jehovah, He will be the source of their fruit and they will then bring forth fruit to God. I wish tonight to show the secret of fruit-bearing.
There are two things I identify, and these are fruit-bearing and good works. They are certainly linked together in Scripture, and both are enforced upon us. We are to be fruitful in every good work; there they are combined. Saints are looked upon as vigorous; healthy trees bring forth fruit.
To speak first in regard to worship, in that connection I read John 4: 21 - 24. Now I do not see that we are placed under any obligation to worship, and yet it is not well if we do not worship. It has become a part of the divine system. People think they do duty to Almighty God on Sunday, and then do duty to themselves the rest of the week. God will not exact worship. The woman says, “where men ought to worship”. The Lord never uses “ought” in that connection, but “the Father seeketh such to worship him”, and further He shows what is essential to the worship of God. Every condition for worship is there. What was set forth figuratively in times gone by was no longer in figure. That which [p. 377] was prefigured had come to pass; the approach is equal to the revelation.
You will never apprehend the mind of God in regard of everything except as you see it in Christ. You see perfection in Him, both as regard revelation and approach. There were two great principles in connection with the tabernacle, the one was the ark and the other was the priest, but the system was imperfect, for it was only figurative; and when man came to act failure came in immediately, Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire.
Revelation is no greater than the approach. God has been fully revealed in Christ, and in Him, too, man has gone in to God. Our High Priest has gone in. He has touched the mercy seat, and then you have perfection in every way. There is no approach to God but by the High Priest, but the High Priest has gone in in virtue of His own blood to give us a footing with God in Him. I speak of that in connection with worship.
There is another error abroad, and that is in respect to priesthood — that priests are so by calling; but only Aaron and Christ are spoken of as being called to priesthood. We are priests on the ground of being kindred to the High Priest, not by calling. It is as kindred to the High Priest that we can approach God; “Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father”.
All worship is dependent upon the measure in which God is known and enjoyed; but it is not the divine way to put us under obligation to worship, yet it is a very poor thing if we do not worship. Worship is dependent upon the measure in which God is individually known and enjoyed. God is not worshipped by order, by arrangements, by forms, by the outwards, but in spirit and in truth: that is apart from what is formal, and in the light of revelation. We cannot have arrangements in divine [p. 378] worship. It is contrary to the character of the present dispensation.
But, people may say, are we not to come together for the breaking of bread? The character of that is a witness, an announcement. It is a great witness to the truth — Christ. It was ordained at the outset, and is, therefore, a kind of witness. It may be carried out in a worshipping spirit, but I should not like to say it is an act of worship. Worship is dependent on the measure in which God is known and enjoyed. It cannot be carried on by deputy. They who worship (that is, all who assume to) must do so “in spirit and in truth”. But worship is not exacted, and yet it is a poor thing if worship be not rendered. If God were known He would be worshipped. When the Lord made Himself known to the blind man he worshipped Him.
Now in regard to service, a great many people make a good deal of service. I regard service as a great privilege, but I could not put it upon people as an obligation. I admit special cases. The apostle Paul had a special dispensation committed to him, and he was under obligation to carry it out. So, too, Archippus, who had received a ministry, had to see to it that he fulfilled it. But service as it applies to saints generally is a matter of spiritual privilege conferred on them individually. You do not worship God by the mere fact of coming into the meeting. You may have to be with others for worship, for worship is not an individual act; but neither as regards worship nor service are we placed under obligation. I believe that as regards good works we are placed under obligation, (Titus 3:1,2; Titus 3:14). So also Colossians 1: 9, 10: “Fruitful in every good work”. The figure is taken from a tree, a tree is to bring forth fruit. It is not a sign of vigour if there are only leaves. I will tell you why good works are so important — for the same reason as fruit-bearing [p. 379] is: they are both the evidence of creation. God has brought to pass new creation: this is to be a witness for God down here, and the way in which new creation comes out is in good works. (Ephesians 2: 10 and Galatians 6: 10 - 16; “by this rule” is the rule of new creation.) Good works are the evidence of new creation, and it is in this connection that good works are enforced in Scripture. If we are His workmanship, God will have the evidence of “good works”.
Whatever God may have in His mind for us is set forth in Christ, and we only learn it there; but as regards us, there is nothing true of any believer save what is true in Him. The importance of that lies in this, that all is vital.
You may make up your mind to this, that there is nothing true of you except what is true in you. Everything is given to you in the witness of the Spirit, and if given to you thus, there it is in vitality. I take it up in regard to justification. There is no justification except in the witness of the Spirit. My justification is in Christ: hence it is by the Spirit.
It is in the witness of the Spirit that I have justification. Take the blessing of eternal life. Man reaps eternal life in the Spirit. Every blessing given to us lies in the witness of the Spirit, and if so it is given to you vitally, and hence only what is true in you is true of you. There are many things true for you. All that is set forth in Christ as man is true for you, but only what is true in you is true of you. I desire you to weigh these things. It is important to think these things out and to consider them, for they are of vital import.
The principle is true from the initial blessing, forgiveness of sins, to the highest blessing. You cannot be in Christ without Christ being in you. You must take one side with the other, and hence you get vitality at once. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ [p. 380] be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”. Everything in the gospel is vital, because all is given in the witness of the Spirit. You get thus the ground of fruit-bearing and of good works. The Spirit is also a mighty power in the believer. He brings us into the realisation and enjoyment of everything God has for us, and the issue is in the way of good works. Good works are very important. I see this in three circles.
(1) In Christ’s circle, which is the believer’s true home circle; your proper home is not the domestic circle. The idea of your home in Scripture is Christ’s circle. In early days, in times of persecution, the saints found their home in Christ’s circle. Now that (sphere) circle is the sphere of fruit-bearing and of good works. Take a believer isolated from others, being shut up in a prison — he would not have much opportunity of carrying out his desires to do good works.
(2) Then there is another circle — the domestic circle, the home circle. In that sense a believer is looked to to show piety at home and to requite his parents; he is to be marked by good works at home; he is to be marked by fidelity in that circle.
(3) Further, there is a circle that is in connection with God’s government down here: I do not say in the world. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers”. A child of God is not to be radical or lawless.
Good works become a testimony to God. We are known here as preferring the knowledge of God and Christ, and good works are a testimony to that. The Lord put the disciples under the obligation to love one another, and that they might go on and bring forth fruit. God puts us under an obligation to do these things. There must be vitality, because Christ is in us. The vitality is to come out in a [p. 381] practical way. First of all in connection with the Spirit’s sphere. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. The Lord puts us under solemn obligations to love one another. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ”.
Now, what is the secret of fruit-bearing? Scientists say human life could not exist on any other planet except our own because the forces which are necessary to human life, and upon which it is so dependent, are so peculiar and complex; they do not exist, so far as we know, on any other planet save this. God has constituted peculiar and complex conditions which are just suited to human life. If this be true physically, I am convinced it is equally true spiritually. If you take a man as a spiritual being, new created, he is dependent upon certain peculiar conditions correlated to one another. If you do not recognise these conditions there will not be much life. Now human life is dependent upon rule, atmosphere and light. If this be true in natural things, how much more in spiritual! Every inch of the body is subject to the law of gravity. So you must, in every part, be subject to Christ. The apostle says, “legitimately subject to Christ”. We are married to Another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, so that we might come under His influence and that there should be no assertion of our wills, and then there will be fruit-bearing. We are thus under rule.
Then there is the divine circle, and there Christ is. There is a circle upon earth of which Christ is the centre, and if so Christ influences that circle. The disciples lived in and breathed that atmosphere — no assertion of their wills, rights or tempers; thus they were under rule, and they also found their proper atmosphere under the influence of Christ.
Then another condition, and that is being in the light of divine love in its application to you; not as [p. 382] in heaven, but as you are down here. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. No spiritual life can subsist without these three conditions. If God has wrought in us, He has likewise formed the conditions in which we can live. The point for us is to live in these conditions. If we get into the world we shall get out of the atmosphere; if we get self-willed we shall get away from rule. Our responsibility is to abide in the conditions essential to life, and if we do, the result will be we shall be fruitful in every good work. We have to accept our obligation as to this.
It is important to apprehend where God has put us on the ground of obligation. Worship and service are not put on the ground of exaction, but if we do accept our obligation and are fruitful in every good work, then God will have His part, He will be worshipped. There are obligations, and they are expressed in regard of good works and fruit-bearing, but both one and the other are based on the evidence of healthy vitality. Whatever is given to us is given in the witness of the Spirit, so that everything in us is connected with Christ and is marked by vitality. We are under obligation to prove that all is vital, and we do so in the way of fruit-bearing and good works.