FRESHNESS

Nelson Grace

Leviticus 14: 21,22,30,31,49 -53; 16: 11-13 Psalm 92; 10

I feel the need if we stand up to preach or give an address, that there should be something fresh in what is said. I may say the same things and speak of the same scriptures but as there is the recognition of the Spirit of God there will always be a touch of freshness. That is Christianity. The Lord is the living God. It would not do to bring a book of ministry and just read it here, that would not be the fresh touch of the Spirit of God. We could not do without Him.

We could not of course do without the written ministry; thank God for it. I hope all the younger brethren read it and go back and read the books that we have of ministry by Mr Darby, Mr Raven, Mr Taylor and others too. Thank God for them. What a treasury we have! It is good for us while we are young to fill our minds with the truth to which God has been recovering us; the Spirit will help us to make it good in our souls. That is what is needed so that when we come to speak about the Scriptures we are not reading from the book of ministry. We speak from the knowledge of God in our own souls; that is where all that we have on our bookshelves is intended to lead us, otherwise we are just giving it out intellectually. Some of us have good memories, but that in itself will not do in the things of God, not in the temple; it is the temple of the living God. So we need what is living.

These three scriptures which I have read speak of what is fresh. It is wonderful how God can come in in circumstances that seem disastrous and turn all to His own account with a fresh touch in our souls that will bring something to Himself in the way of results - even in the matter of leprosy, the worst thing I suppose that they could experience in the Old Testament. What can be done about it? There is no cure for it, and yet the Spirit of God looks forward in these chapters in Leviticus to the time when the leper is cleansed and there is a fresh start. That is what God can do. Of course it is just a shadow of what God can do in Christianity, the Spirit of the living God operating in our souls. Well, the leper is to be cleansed, and Leviticus tells us that he is going to have a fresh start. A man with a history of sin, not just his sins but full of sin a sinful man; that is what Peter came to (see Luke 5: 8); he was cleansed and released and was able to help others.

This leper was brought to the priest. God comes down in His cleansing of the leper to our capacities. I suppose there is not one of us but would feel how little we know: when it comes to dealing with divine things we hardly know anything. The Spirit of God says "as his hand may be able to get". If he be poor, maybe it comes down to two turtle-doves or two pigeons: God is accepting that. It says in verse 30, "And he shall offer one of the turtle-doves, or of the young pigeons, of what his hand was able to get". I do not think any of us is able to get much. The older you grow the less you feel you know about the wealth that lies in the death and resurrection and exaltation of Christ and His blessed Person. The more you consider what is set out in the Scriptures about Jesus the more you feel you want to worship Him. Well, the leper takes these two turtle-doves; it means just a small impression of Christ; one is to be killed - a reference to the death of Christ - over running water: running water, that is not something we have learned from the books. As I said, thank God for the ministry we have on the bookshelves, but do not let it remain there: let us get it into our hearts and the power of the Spirit of God will give us a fresh view of the death of Jesus. It will meet every condition. There is not one condition in our lives, dear brethren, or circumstances in our lives, that cannot be met in the power of the gospel; "the blood of Jesus Christ ... cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1: 7) or every sin. And we have the Spirit of God to help us in the application of that. It is not something in the books, it is running water. Running water alludes to what is fresh, the current application by the Spirit of God of the death of Christ. How good it is to get it in our souls. That is why we have the gospel preached every Lord's day - to get a fresh touch of the death of Christ to set us free. How easily defilement comes in but we have the means by way of the Spirit of God to be cleansed, and it brings us back, as the cleansing of the leper did, to the first touch; he is set up before God in all freshness and power by the Spirit of God. Now we not only have the cleansing of the leper connected with the blood of the turtle-dove over running water; it is a fresh view of the blood of Christ by way of the teaching of the Spirit. Oh how good it is to get impressions every day from the Spirit of God, to be delivered from what is historical, even, dear brethren, the recovery to the truth one hundred and sixty or so years ago, and to have a fresh touch of the blood of Jesus. Have you had that today? It is available, just some fresh touch as to the running water and the blood of Christ to meet every situation.

I read in Leviticus 16 because that is another view of things. It is dealing with the day of atonement. It had to be once a year in Israel's history but there is no repetition in the history of the assembly of the day of atonement; what it speaks of has been done once for all. But the wonder of this that I am calling attention to in this chapter is not the blood of Christ but it is the incense. The priest had to take burning coals from off the altar; that is a fresh touch of the sufferings of Christ in relation to the pleasure of God and al! that was to be established in the service of God. It says, "And he shall take the censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before Jehovah, and both his hands full of fragrant incense". I think that is the way God loves us to come before Him, with our hands full of Christ, the fragrance of Christ. There was a time when every year all the sins of Israel were met, the whole setting of things in Israel met by the blood, met by the fragrance of the Person of Christ. This day of atonement must have meant something for God in a peculiar way, the power of the blood to meet all that was connected with the majesty of God, the intrusion of sin offending the majesty of God and the blood meeting it; not only the blood on the mercy-seat but the censer full of burning coals, as it says. The burning coals allude to a fresh view of the sufferings of Christ in connection with atonement; the Person and His work are not to be separated. Our acceptance before God is all that Christ is in the presence of God now. I think it is the only time in Scripture that any quantity of incense is mentioned, which is a striking thing: "both his hands full of fragrant incense beaten small, and bring it inside the veil. And he shall put the incense upon the fire before Jehovah, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat which is upon the testimony, that he die not". And then it speaks of the blood. It is just a suggestion I think, dear brethren, of how the reality of the day of atonement is to be maintained in its freshness currently in our histories. It goes along with what the Lord speaks of in the gospels as to the repenting sinner; it is not a historical thing, it is something that is maintained in the sense of the greatness of Christ and His work and the blood that is needed to meet the whole current position in Christendom. How wonderful that is! The more you think of it the more wonderful it becomes, how the blood of Christ can meet the whole position. Romans 3 refers to it, that God might be just (see v 26) - not that the sinner might be forgiven - but that God might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. That is the blood on the mercy-seat, that God is free; because of the blood of Jesus and because of the fragrance of His Person - they go together - not a challenge can be raised in the universe about God exercising mercy. Do not let us separate them; He is still the same and all that Jesus is in the fragrance of His Person enters into that work and the blood was shed. May our hearts adore Him!

Then in the other scripture the psalmist is giving thanks; that is a good thing. He says, "It is good to give thanks unto Jehovah, and to sing psalms unto thy name, O Most High" (v 1). As he goes through the Psalm he surveys the work of God - "hast made me glad through thy work", and he says, "Jehovah, how great are thy works! Thy thoughts are very deep". How God takes account of us in the smallness of our minds and brings before us a fresh view of what is in His mind. And that again makes our hearts worship. As we think of God how small our thoughts are. But God is so patient; in His grace He comes down to where we are and gives us a fresh view of Christ and of His own thoughts. We can carry it into our day and say that all the purpose of God has come to light and has been expressed in a Man, a Man now in conditions of glory in the presence of God in finality - one Man. God is saying that if He can have one Man in final conditions before Him He has the resources in the Spirit to bring all into that, as He will. God is not defeated at all in any of His thoughts. He has the means in the work and the Person of Christ, and the presence of the Spirit, to carry all into effect, and He will; so let us be with Him.

Now let us get something of what this psalmist says in verse 10: "I shall be anointed with fresh oil" - fresh oil. We come into a meeting like this, or any service at all that we take on, but that will not suit God unless it is taken on in the power of the anointing. That means the Spirit is upon us in view of service - the anointing. But then the psalmist says, "I shall be anointed with fresh oil". We come to a meeting and we say, The Lord was in this or the Lord was in that and you get a touch from the Lord in ministry. That is for that meeting or for that day, and the psalmist says, Well, I want a fresh one. Every time we come together we need fresh oil. Thank God for the current ministry - God gives us some thing every week and every day if we are available and open to Him - but we want it to be fresh oil, some fresh opening for the Spirit of God. That is why John writes to the overcomer, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies". He is not looking for much. It says in another part of Scripture, Mine ears hast thou digged (see Ps 40: 6). That is a reference to the Lord, but think of the grace of God in this dispensation coming down to the fact that if you have one ear, "He that has an ear ...", - it says in another part of Scripture "a piece of an ear", Amos 3: 12 - how far God goes with us in His designs of love and the working out of things in grace; and if you make your ear available to Him He will anoint it. He will anoint you with fresh oil, a fresh touch. Is it not worthwhile, dear brethren? This is Christianity. We think so little of what God has done in Christ and is doing in Christ and what He is doing in the power of the Spirit, the Father, the Son and the Spirit all engaged currently in view of your blessing and mine, but also in view of carrying through every divine thought at the divine level however small it may seem to be. God will secure that in the overcomer. You may not see it but God will ensure the whole of the truth according to the divine mind will be carried through in someone. Publicly there might be breakdown but the overcomer goes through and I want to be one of such. Every heart that loves Christ and every heart that has proved in some way the presence and power of the Spirit would want to be among them too.

Now I think we can join in with the psalmist and say, "I shall be anointed with fresh oil". I think that is why the Lord has given us the Supper every first day of the week. There is a freshness about the Supper that God intends should mark that week. It speaks in another part of a fresh jawbone of an ass (see Judg 15: 15) and that has been likened to a fresh experience at the Supper of the love of Christ. How can we get on without it, dear brethren? God has seen to it that we have all the resources that are needed in the presence of Christ on high and the presence of the Spirit here for us to go through in freshness of spirit, in freshness of judgment, in freshness of appreciation of Christ, that we will be maintained not only in the presence of God but in freshness in the testimony. That is what John alludes to as to the overcomer: "let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies" in view of the testimony being carried through in conditions of smallness, in conditions of opposition. God has provided the means for it all to go through in victory. I think that is the time we are in. We may dwell upon our own failures or the failures of others but let us keep in our minds, dear brethren, that God has the victory and He will have the victory, and He will assure you if you are with Him that you will be carried through in victory. In all these things, Paul says, we are more than conquerors (see Rom 8: 37). How wonderful to be in a system of things where Christ has the first place, to be in a system of things that God is maintaining in the face of apostasy. Now that is wonderful, not only will God see things through but He will see things through on His own level in the face of an apostate Christendom. That is how God shows what He thinks of the rejection of the Spirit. There is no change in the Spirit, no change in Jesus and no change in the Father; what a wonderful economy is going through, dear brethren, and the assembly is related to it. Let us find our place in it in a fresh way with a touch of fresh oil. The Lord says to the woman in John 4 in regard to the living water, "shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up", not a river flowing out but a fountain springing up - living water. We want life, dear brethren. It is not a question of our carrying through the testimony by way of our understanding the doctrine of things - we need that, we must have it - but things are being carried forward in the power of life, and life involves our enjoyment of what belongs to the assembly in our relations one with another and that works out in our local companies. May the Lord bless the word.

NEW YORK

16 June 1990