The Glory Of Christ As Seen In The Presence Of God
THE GLORY OF CHRIST AS SEEN IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD
We have been impressed, dear brethren, with the value of appropriating our privilege of withdrawing into the presence of God, and contemplating Christ there, because if we get into the presence of God we will always find Christ there, and there is nothing more important for us, particularly as in a world of a good deal of pressure and stress, including pressure and stress in connection with conflicts from time to time as to the truth, than to know what it is to withdraw into the presence of God. There is no disturbance in the presence of God, and there is no uncertainty as to the final issue when we come into the presence of God. We come to a remarkable point of rest for the heart and soul, when we come to some appreciation of Christ as He is before God, and as God takes account of Him. There are times when the Father specially calls attention to Him, as you will remember when the Lord took Peter and James and John with Him on to the holy mount and they found themselves in the presence of the glory, the excellent glory, there was a voice from the excellent glory saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. The voice was speaking to Peter and James and John, and I believe, dear brethren, the Father would speak to us in a similar way, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. And we might well ask ourselves; from time to time, as to how far we have any definite impressions in our souls as to what it is in Jesus that calls forth such delight on the part of the Father, because it is clear that the Father desires to share it with the saints. According to the words on the mount of transfiguration it is not as at the baptism at the Jordan, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, but it is, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”—that is it is the Father seeking to draw the saints into the restful enjoyment, with Himself, of One in whom He finds undisturbed rest. And while, indeed, that will be, among other things, our eternal portion, it is most blessed if, in any degree, we touch it and experience it, as we may, at the present time. While we are in the position of testimony and in conditions of testing, it is of all moment that we should know something, at any rate, of withdrawing into the presence of God and gaining some impression according to God of what Christ is as before Him.
As we know, the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews was considerably concerned that the saints should be encouraged to enter the holiest, to go right in; he goes to considerable trouble to assure us how every question that would hinder our entering freely and with boldness into the immediate presence of God has been settled once and forever by the precious sacrifice of Christ. And so he says, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh … let us approach”. How touching is the expression, “he has dedicated for us”, showing how the heart of Christ enters into it, how His own feelings and desires enter into it, that we should move in this direction, and having, it says, our hearts sprinkled “from a wicked conscience, and washed as to our body with pure water”, let us draw near.
Well now, in these three verses I have read from Hebrews 9, we get the writer of the epistle telling us what is to be found as we enter the holiest. He, no doubt, knew a great deal about it, so that he is able by the Spirit to set it out in such a remarkable way, and I desire the Lord’s help just to speak a little of the “ark of the covenant” and of the things that were found in it. “The ark of the covenant”, it says, “covered round in every part with gold”. The ark of the covenant speaks of Christ, as the One who has proved Himself mighty, and also devoted, to give effect to every thought that God has had in His heart towards His people. He is One who has proved Himself equal to bringing it all to pass for God; the ark of the covenant is not exactly what He is on our side, but is more what He is on God’s side, the One who is the power of God and the glory of God, to bring to pass every thought that the blessed God has conceived in love. What an attractive thing it is, beloved brethren, to be able to contemplate Christ in that light, while we are still here; indeed it is a remarkable thing that in Exodus 15, before either the tabernacle or the ark had been constructed, Moses, doubtless by the Spirit of God, looks right on to the full effectuation of all the thoughts of God in relation to His people, and to their effectuation in power, so that the enemies all flee, and there is a straight course made through for the establishment in power and glory of every thought of blessing that the heart of God has conceived in relation to His saints. And the One who does it all is Christ, it is Jesus, how attractive Jesus becomes to us, beloved brethren, when we begin to think of Him as coming forth from God, charged with everything which God had committed Himself to, and proving Himself equal to carrying it all through in irresistible power, whatever it might involve for Him. And we can contemplate Him in the presence of God, He is now there, as having carried everything through in triumph. I know that the epistle to the Hebrews contemplates the wilderness position, it views us as here in the position of testimony, but then in Christianity we are able, in the Spirit, to pass over also and see everything secured for the blessèd God in Christ, and in any case as we were saying, Moses as having light from God in his soul was able to visualise the whole position brought in and established. “Thou shalt bring them in”, he said, “and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance … the Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared”, and so on; he saw the whole thing from the beginning, although as I say, neither the tabernacle nor the ark had yet been constructed, yet Moses in the faith of his soul could see the whole thing brought in, and how much more so now with us who have the Spirit of God, who have Jesus in our hearts, risen from the dead and established in God’s presence, how we can see every thought of the blessèd God secured. Think of the largeness of what is involved in the epistle to the Ephesians, as we read what the thoughts of God are, the good pleasure of His will; see how glorious Christ becomes to our hearts as we apprehend Him as the One to whom God could safely entrust the carrying out and bringing to pass in power of all that He had committed Himself to.
And so we read of the “ark of the covenant”. In the book of Exodus and the book of Numbers it is usually the “ark of the testimony”. The ark of the testimony, I understand, refers to Christ as having come in delighting in God’s will and becoming thus a testimony, that God would yet establish His will on the earth in men. Coming into this lawless world, He secures, through redemption, and the result of His own influence upon them by the Spirit, those who love God’s will. And thus He becomes the ark of the testimony, He becomes a testimony to the fact that God will yet establish His will in a universal way and secure it in men who love Him. But then in the tenth chapter of Numbers, we find, rather unusually for the book of Numbers, the ark of the covenant brought in. It says that the people started out on their first journey as committed to the testimony of God in the wilderness, and they went three days’ journey in the wilderness, and the ark of the covenant went before them in the three days’ journey to search out a resting-place for them. The three days’ journey, I suppose, is the full proving of what the wilderness is, the testings and exigencies of it, and it went before them in the three days’ journey to search out a resting-place for them. It is a most affecting thing for us, beloved brethren, I believe we taste something of it every first day of the week, how in the very presence of all the exercises that arise in connection with our position here in testimony, the Lord gives us a resting place for the time being, a moment of rest, so to speak; He gives us the sense that He has gone before and met everything that needed to be met, every moral question has been solved, the power of death has been broken, the Lord has done it all by Himself, it is His personal glory that He has done it, One of the Godhead entering into Manhood in order that these things might be done, and now, dear brethren, He goes before and searches out a resting-place for us. And as the ark went forward Moses said, “Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee: flee before thy face”—what a note of triumph it is, how it gives us courage to continue in the path of testimony and exercise and conflict here, in the sense that things are completely under divine control, and so Moses said, “Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee: flee before thy face. And when it rested, he said, Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel”. I believe the Lord gives us a taste of that every Lord’s day morning, or is prepared to, that all the enemies have been disposed of, everything that stood against us has been met and overcome, and now He loves to return, so to speak, and find His portion among the myriads of Israel. Well, it is the ark of the covenant, it is Jesus in His glory as having come in in order to carry through in irresistible power, and establish for ever, every thought of the heart of God in regard of His saints.
And so we find that in the ark the tables of the covenant were there, that which was expressive in detail of what God’s thoughts were towards His people, they were all safe as entrusted to Christ, all carried through. It necessitated, of course, the incarnation, it involved, of course, His precious death and all that was connected with it, the bearing of sin and the meeting of it according to God, the entering into death and the grave, the whole thing was involved, and Christ is the One whose glory it is, that He has proved Himself equal to taking up all these matters and to disposing of them in glorious and irresistible power, so that we might be brought into all that the heart of God has for us. And now He has gone into heaven itself, He is in the presence of God crowned with glory and honour, and as we withdraw into the presence of God the first thing that God engages us with, if we go there not to be occupied with our needs, but to be in the place where God is known in His rest, is Christ, in His wondrous glory. It says “covered round in every part with gold”, it is a glorious Man, and yet the glory of His Person shines, it shines all the time, who else but One who is in His Person God, yet in wondrous grace became Man, could ever have effected or carried through what the Lord Jesus has effected.
And so, beloved brethren, as I say, it is a great matter to withdraw into the presence of God, because you reach in Christ a point where God is absolutely at rest, there is not a vestige of any disturbance in the presence of God. Indeed, He is called “the God of peace”, and it has been a comfort to one lately to remember what it says in Romans 16, “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly”. He is going to do it shortly. The time for conflict and opposition may go on for a little while longer, but God is going to bruise Satan under our feet shortly, under our feet too, not simply under Christ’s feet, but under our feet, and the God of peace will do it. But thank God we can know something of the blessedness of the peace of God’s presence, the presence of the God of peace, as we withdraw into His presence and contemplate Jesus there.
And then it says further, passing over the other things for the moment, “and above over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat”. What a glorious apprehension of Christ the mercy-seat! How God’s glory is bound up with it, how the Lord loved to say, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice”. God had said that, and the Lord charged Himself with establishing in His own precious death the ground on which God could righteously take up that attitude and have mercy, showing mercy unto thousands, indeed, we might say unto millions. The whole redeemed universe will stand in the mercy established in righteousness by the blessed God, and what a glory it is to contemplate Christ as the mercy-seat, the cherubim of glory shadowing it, as though God would impress us with the sense that He loves His rights in mercy, and will protect them, and has found in Christ One who has proved Himself equal to establishing them without a flaw, so that God can in the presence of the whole universe set forth Christ as a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. I am not speaking of these things, dear brethren, from the standpoint of what they mean to us, although that is very blessed, but what a glory to see God in this wondrous light, enthroned on the mercy-seat, and to take account of Christ who is the mercy-seat, and of His glory as having established it through His precious blood.
Well now, the more we withdraw, beloved brethren, into the presence of God and contemplate Christ as the ark of the covenant and as the mercy-seat, and contemplate God known in that light, the more we shall be impressed, I believe, with the blessedness and the majesty of God. And that is one thing that the Lord would help us in, that we should have greater substance in our souls in the knowledge of the blessed God, more real substance in the service of praise to God. What a privilege it is that we should have been taken up in the grace of God to be those in whom the praise of God is to find intelligent and affectionate expression unto all generations of the age of ages. Think of the immensity of the privilege, and the immensity of the conception of the assembly as united to Christ, as the fulness of Him that fills all in all, but a vessel which the Lord can operate upon, a vessel too which is marked by the intelligence which the Holy Spirit gives, and the affections which the Holy Spirit begets, the affections proper to the Spirit of God’s Son—what a marvellous thing it is to have part in such a vessel, that the Lord, as I say, can use in the constant service of the blessèd God as it will go on through eternity in infinite variety and freshness. Are we to allow anything that is going to hinder us filling out our part in the assembly? Are we going to allow trivial things, that Satan would bring in to rob us of our liberty Godward, when these are the things to which we have been called? These are the things that are within our reach in virtue of the service of the Holy Spirit who has taken up His abode in us, then is it not important, beloved brethren, that every one of us, as we have been saying to-day, should consider how we have received the ministry that has come to us, and whether anything is being allowed in our lives and associations which operates as a hindrance, so that we are not available in full measure for the service of the blessed God? The Lord would challenge us as to these things. We have only to take account of the course of the Lord Jesus here and we are impressed with One who was absolutely devoted, from beginning to end, to securing the will and establishing the glory of His God. He had nothing else before Him. As He could say, “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work”, to finish His work. See how the Lord had completion in mind, we are constantly having it brought before us at the present time, that the great thing now is to see to it that we reach completion, that there is no failure in regard of answering to any thought that God makes known as His desire concerning His people. And so the Lord said it was His food to do the will of Him that sent Him and to finish His work, and then we find Him in John 17 saying, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”, and then we find Paul marked by the same sentiments saying “I have finished the race”. And so we are to be concerned as to that, beloved brethren, and I believe the more we repair into the presence of God the more we shall be impressed with absolute devotedness to God on the part of Christ, and it will help to promote the desire with us to be similarly devoted.
But then we come to two remarkable things that are also to be apprehended in the holiest, which are provisional in character. When we come to 2 Chronicles 5, where the ark is brought into its final resting place, we are told that there was nothing in the ark save the tables of the covenant, because the wilderness journey then with all its exercises is over, but here as entering into the holiest in wilderness conditions the writer of the epistle not only mentions “the ark of the covenant, covered round in every part with gold”, but then he says “in which were the golden pot that had the manna”. This is the only place in Scripture in which we are told that the pot was golden, as though the writer has been into the holiest and is impressed with glory in everything that he discerns there, so that even the pot that had the manna is a golden pot, he is impressed with the glory of every feature that is apprehended as he goes into the presence of God. And the manna, what a wonderful thing the manna is, very small indeed, as the hoar-frost upon the ground, it says. Manna is a very sustaining thing, but it is a very reducing thing, very small, as the hoar-frost, and you have to stoop to gather it. And so, dear brethren, I believe God is working with us individually on the line of reduction, we have all got to be reduced more and more; it may be a process that is painful to the flesh, but it is a process which ends in very real good. As we read in Deuteronomy, He fed them with manna which their fathers knew not, in order that He might humble them and that He might do them good at their latter end—that is the remarkable thing, that even when the wilderness itself has passed, when the need for the manna is over, the good that has resulted from the feeding on the manna remains, “to do thee good at thy latter end”, what a consideration that is. And so what a contemplation Jesus is in His humiliation here, think of Him who is God over all, blessed forever, wondrously entering into the human condition in order to fill it out in a way that is according to God, but wholly suited to manhood conditions, to fill it out in such a way as to become the food of His saints in their wilderness pathway. Think of the grace of it, the wonderfulness of contemplating Christ as a babe here, “I was cast upon thee from the womb”, introducing from the very outset of His being here, in holy manhood, that great principle of dependence which is man’s true glory, and yet which flesh resents so thoroughly. The Spirit of God would bring us to it as seen in its attractiveness in Jesus, and I would say, beloved brethren, that this is not only an individual matter, but it has in view our fitting into our place in the assembly in its position in testimony here, because I do not think it is wrong to say that constant feeding on manna will, in principle, develop acacia wood, that is to say, it will develop the order of manhood that is able to stand in all the rigours of wilderness testing and support the testimony of God, because one who feeds on manna is governed by the will of God and by no other principles, and he learns dependence, and he learns subjection, and he learns contentment. All the different features that shine in their moral glory in the pathway of the Lord Jesus here are learned by saints who know what it is in any degree to feed upon Christ as manna. It is a daily matter, that is one thing that manna enforces. When the children of Israel murmured and asked for flesh, God said they should have flesh, and they had it for a month, given all at once, but He does not give the manna on that principle, He gives the manna day by day in order that we might be renewed in the dependence that the manna produces as it is fed upon. And I would just say this too, dear brethren, that God delivered His people from Egypt, and I take it in all probability we have been delivered in the mercy of God from the world as a system, but the point is have we been delivered from the principles of the world? Egypt, as I understand it, refers to the world as a great system in which man lives in independence of God. It is not the world viewed as marked by gross wickedness like Sodom, nor is it the world of man’s glory in the things of God, like Babylon, but it is the world as characterised by living to itself and finding its resources in itself, and God hates that, He wants to be the sole support of His people, He wants to become everything to His creature. And therefore, if He redeems us out of Egypt, He has in mind not only to deliver us from the system, but to deliver us from the principles that mark the system, and that perhaps is a deeper thing. It is a deeper thing, and nothing will so deliver us from the principles that mark the system as knowing something of what it is to feed constantly upon Christ as manna. As I say, it is very reducing, it is that which flesh will resent, but, thank God, we are not in flesh but in Spirit, we have the ability in the Spirit to appreciate Christ and to delight in Him, and to desire that the Spirit may have liberty to form us according to Him; then let us seek grace, beloved brethren, to move on those lines. The glory of the manna is wonderful, and he who entered into the holiest apprehended that inside the ark of the covenant was this golden pot that had the manna. God had commanded that an omer of manna should be placed in a pot before the testimony, as though He would have it, so to speak, perpetuated before Him, the wonderful grace in which the Lord Jesus entered into the circumstances of human life, sin apart, in order that in the perfection in which He moved in those circumstances He might become the food and support of His saints in their circumstances. And as they feed upon Him thus, they are built up in an order of manhood that is incorruptible, that is able to stand in the testimony here as wholly committed to God’s will and glory. Well, that is something that we apprehend, beloved brethren, and it draws out our affections to Christ. A child will find something that he can feed upon in Christ as manna; a Christian child who sometimes finds it irksome perhaps to be obedient, will learn in Jesus as the manna that He moved here in perfect obedience, and in characteristic subjection to His parents, whom God had placed in relation to Him. And so in every position, whatever may be our circumstances, we shall find in the manna that which is able to sustain us in them, so that we might be in them according to God.
But then there was also Aaron’s rod, “the rod of Aaron that had sprouted”. It speaks of Christ on His people’s behalf before God as the One whom God has attested in His priesthood by raising Him from among the dead, it speaks of life out of death. These twelve rods were all dead things, a rod is not a living thing, it has been cut off from a tree, it is a dead thing, and they were all laid up, twelve of them, before the testimony before God, and then the next morning when Moses went in to bring them out, Aaron’s rod had budded and bloomed blossoms and brought forth ripened almonds; what a wonderful expression of life out of death, life in its beauty, life in its attractiveness, speaking of the Man upon whom God has set the seal of His approval, showing it by raising Him up from amongst the dead. All the other eleven rods were just as dead as they were before, but Aaron’s rod had budded and bloomed blossoms, the beauty of it, and brought forth ripened almonds. And so, beloved brethren, the resurrection of Jesus, as we have often said, was a selective resurrection, a resurrection from among the dead, God raising up one Man from among the dead, as the One whom He approved of, and delighted in, and leaving all the others in their graves. And we are to come to that appreciation of Christ, and to understand that He in all the personal attractiveness and pleasurableness to God that mark Him is ever appearing before the face of God for us. So the saints of God are maintained, their murmurings do not come before Him, they are maintained before God according to His own desire, so that they should go through. But this is the service of Christ, how much depends upon the Lord Jesus, dear brethren, what an enlarged view it gives us, Christ as the manna, Christ as Priest, Christ on God’s side as the ark of the covenant, what enlargement of thought it gives us in regard of Christ, and everywhere you turn you find perfection, you do not find a single flaw, you find everything that the heart desires, all that God looks for is found in this one glorious Man who is in the presence of the blessed God.
Well, I do not know that I can or need say more on those verses. But in closing I just wanted to refer briefly to the verse in John’s gospel, a most wonderful verse, a verse that is in the setting, you might say, of love. We all know how unique and precious and wondrous indeed is this 17th chapter of John’s gospel. The Son is speaking to the Father in holy intimacy which, of course, always marked Him in His relations with His Father, but speaking without any limitation. We have often remarked that when the Lord spoke to His disciples, there were certain limitations imposed on Him by the limitations on their side, so that He said there were certain things that He would have spoken to them about but they could not bear them then, but when He turns to His Father, there is no limitation. And so we are in the presence of this beautiful unfolding on the part of the Lord Jesus, in His speaking to His Father, of His thoughts in regard of His own, and His thoughts in regard of them too as in the place here in testimony which He had filled so blessedly, but which He was now leaving, as He says, “these are in the world, and I come to thee”, and we are privileged to stand by and hear what the Lord says about His own, about the men whom the Father had given Him, how the Lord cherished the thought of having men, those who could be regarded as trustworthy in the testimony. Are we going to fail Him? Or are we, through grace, going on to the end, as those who are trustworthy? There will be some who go through to the end, dear brethren, we can rest assured of that, there will be sufficient who go through to the end to maintain the testimony in the power of the Holy Spirit, but the point for every one of us is whether we are going to be among them. Hear what the Lord desires regarding us, that we should be kept, kept in the Father’s name, sanctified by the truth, marked by unity, these important features in the testimony; what a slur on the testimony disunity is, let us look into it and see whether there is a reason for the disunity that may exist in some places. Of course, it may be caused, and is caused, by the workings of the enemy, but let us each one see that it is not he himself who has given any entrance to the enemy, and, if so, let him see that the thing that has afforded an entrance to the enemy is judged in its roots, so that we may go on together as lovers of the truth, and loving one another in the truth.
But now the Lord says to His Father, “Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me”, it is future, of course, as to its actuality, but may we not say that we can touch something of the blessedness of this in the power of the Spirit who is the Earnest of our inheritance? It is a question of love. The wonderfulness of the love of Christ for His own, “those whom thou hast given me”, and His expressed desire that they should be with Him where He is, and He is in the Father’s presence, indeed, He personally is in the Father’s bosom, in a setting of love. What an attractive presentation this is—“Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me”. It is, as I say, a setting of love, the love of Christ, the love of Christ for His own, on the one hand; the love of Christ for His Father, on the other hand. I have no doubt we get them both, the more you get into the presence of God, the more you are impressed with the love of Christ for His Father, and the love of Christ for His own. The saints are indispensable for the divine thoughts to be filled out and the answer to God to be secured, and it will be secured and held throughout eternity in the power of the love of Christ. How wondrous the love of Christ is! The more you get into the presence of God and see Christ there, the more you are conscious of the love of Christ. You are conscious, too, of the presence of the Spirit, not that He is mentioned here in so many words, but you are conscious that He is there, too, in order to give full effect in the saints to all that the Father has in mind regarding them. And so the Lord says here, “that they also may be with me”—what for? “that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. There was love there before the foundation of the world between the Persons of the Godhead, but now it is centred in One of those Persons of the Godhead who in wondrous grace has become Man, and in manhood taken up sonship in order that love might be known in that setting, and that we might be brought in with Him, as those upon whom His love is set, to find our place with Him before the Father. It is a question of the filling out and establishment forever of the wondrous counsels of love, necessitating for their fulfilment the establishment of the economy, and all that Christ has done in His precious death, and all that the Spirit has done in coming in and indwelling the saints. Wondrous these things are, and they need for their fulfilment, too, the wondrous coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power when He will assert His right to all His own, and without exception, whether sleeping or living, all will respond to His voice. “Father”, He says, “as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me”; the glory has been given to Him to take this wondrous place in manhood and in sonship and to bring to pass all the thoughts of the blessèd God in regard of men secured in sonship, and sustain them in holy response Godward, the Spirit, as I have said, doing His part also. And so, dear brethren, as in the immediate presence of God with Christ we are in the presence of the unfolding of all that the blessed God has purposed, and the way all has been brought to pass, so that conditions of rest for God are brought in and we find ourselves in the very presence of these things, and what shall we do there but worship: what can we do there but worship? That is what the Lord has in mind, that the worship of God should be secured as His own are brought in with Him into this most holy and most privileged place.
That is all I have to say. One can touch these things but feebly, but if what I have said induces in us the desire a little more to repair into the presence of God, the word I have sought to give will have had its desired result. May the Lord bless the word.
LONDON
28th July 1955
From Discipleship and the Assembly, 1955
____________________