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LOYALTY TO CHRIST

J. Harthill

Just a simple word, beloved brethren, on loyalty to Christ. I believe in this wonderful dispensation, this time of the Spirit, this wonderful dispensation of grace, one of the outstanding features that is called for is loyalty to Christ. It is remarkable how this comes in, in this chapter so long and so full of spiritual substance. It says, “From that time many of his disciples went away back and walked no more with him”; solemn indeed! Then the Lord spoke to the twelve. It is very noticeable; the Spirit of God says “the twelve”; and the Lord says to the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” Simon Peter answers for them all and he says, ‘To whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal’. He says, “We have believed”—they were true believers. “We have believed and known”; they knew from observation; they were moving with the Lord, very near to Him—and how He loved them! And Peter says, “We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”—the true Aaron, the holy One of God. They had seen something of the glory of that wonderful Person, the Son of God.

“The Word became flesh”—you know, everything hinges on the incarnation. It is wonderful to think about that prophetic word, “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will” (Hebrews 10: 7)—that the Word should become flesh; and the One who came into manhood was the Son of God. John says, ‘ we’, ‘ we have contemplated his glory’, John 1: 14. Think of what had come within the range of men through the incarnation. Could God be expressed in the prophets, great as they were? No. In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is God speaking in Son, a divine Person here in manhood, beloved. It required the Son of God to die, for you and me, to bring us into such wondrous blessing, to complete the work of redemption; then there is the coming in of the blessed Spirit.

Think of these twelve, and the sorrow they passed through. As Jesus lay in death, what sorrow they passed through. The Lord had spoken about a woman “when she gives birth to a child, has grief because her hour has come; but when the child is born, she no longer remembers the trouble, on account of the joy that a man has been born into the world”, John 16: 21. These men had been through the sorrow, but they were formed men. There was the breach with Judas. The Lord goes on to speak about that here in John 6. But then that breach was repaired, and when the blessed Spirit came in in Acts 2—with the hard breathing and with irresistible power, the power to carry on this wonderful testimony, this wonderful dispensation of blessing and grace—the twelve were there. There had been the one hundred and twenty, of course, but the twelve were there, and what men they were!

The dispensation, as our brother has said, began with manhood, those who moved with Christ, those who were loyal to him, and how loyal these men were.

I believe that is why this word comes in in John 6, “the twelve”, because in the Acts the twelve, the apostles, set on authoritatively this wonderful dispensation. So in that sense they gave a lead, and they gave a lead in loyalty to Christ. Now we know that every one of the twelve who was there as the Spirit came in fulfilled his service. The proof of that is that their names are in the foundations of the wall of the city (Revelation 21: 14). These foundations are spoken of as adorned with every precious stone. You need pressure to bring out these jewels, these precious stones. What pressures these men passed through. There have been no men like them; men who were formed after Christ. The testimony of the apostles set the world in tumult. That is what men said about them (Acts 17: 6). What power and what loyalty to Christ! So Peter says, “To whom shall we go?” Who could they go to? They were loyal to Christ. And so the dispensation began that way. We are getting toward the close of this wonderful dispensation and the call is for loyalty to Christ.

I believe that is what Amasai sets out. These men were moving out to David to the stronghold, and David tests them. ‘Are you come peaceably? Are you come in a right way? Is your heart right?’ I think David’s heart would surely be toward them if their hearts were right. It says, “The Spirit came upon Amasai”. That is an outstanding thing. I do not know if we have another record quite like that. The Spirit came upon Amasai and he spoke, He was speaking for all. He says, “Thine are we, David, and with thee, thou son of Jesse”. That is the position. You come out to Christ. The call is for loyalty, loyalty to Christ. Right at the end of the dispensation the call is for loyalty to Christ. “Thine are we, David, and with thee, thou son of Jesse”. You think of the crises we pass through. Crisis, I believe, brings out manhood.

And one of the outstanding features of manhood would be loyalty to Christ. Have we said in our hearts as we have faced these crises, “Thine are we, David”?—the true David, Christ, none other than Christ—‘We are on Thy side’. Have we said that? Are we standing to it? The times are difficult. The times call for maturity. They call for manhood, manhood to fill out our part in the testimony.

You know, the mighty men were with David at the beginning, and in David’s last words the mighty men were there at the end. Mighty men are loyal men. But one of the most remarkable things we have in the last words of David is that he reduced the age of the Levites from twenty-five to twenty (1 Chronicles 23: 27), making way for the younger men. So towards the end there is room in the testimony for the youngest. Christ has His mighty men today. There is no doubt about it. He is taking one here and he is taking one there. The leaders of the revival filled out their part, those men of God, and they have gone to be with Christ, which is very much better. Some have been taken recently, but the Spirit of God is here. The testimony is going forward.

Are we going to be loyal to Christ? The older ones are going, the Lord is taking them, and you feel how much the younger side is in view. John says in regard to the young men, “I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one”, 1 John 1: 14. O, beloved brethren, that is needed in testimony today, young men, strength,

formation after Christ, the word of God abiding in them. That is what it says about the man of God—“fully fitted to every good work” (2 Timothy 3: 17), because of the word of God. It is wonderful, you know, that we get David’s mighty men at the end; it gives you the list, thirty-seven in all, and the last one is Urijah the Hittite (2 Samuel 23: 39). Why is he there at the last? That question has often been raised. How David stands out, and yet there was a time when Urijah outshone David.

I would just like to appeal to the younger people; you can never tell what the Lord may give you to do in the testimony. You can never tell. Think of this man and of how he shone when David did not shine. How true he was, how loyal he was, Urijah the Hittite. It has been beautifully said that his name comes in at the last because it keeps before us, typically, loyalty to Christ. “The ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in booths; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields—shall I then go into my house?”, 2 Samuel 11: 11. That was Urijah, and David wrote telling Joab to put him in the forefront of the battle. Joab assigned Urijah a place where the valiant men were, and he died there. He was an obscure man, maybe, up to that point, but he was brought forward. God brought him forward and he shone.

I just want to say that with regard to the younger people; you never know what part the Lord may call you to fill out in the testimony. We are nearing the end. One generation is going and another is coming in and, you know, the generation that is coming in may well be the last. The scripture speaks of keeping the best until the last, the coming generation may be the best. The Lord is able for that. What a joy to think of it that the last generation may be the best.

Well, may we be encouraged, beloved brethren, and may we be loyal to Christ, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry
Glasgow, 29 January 1985

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