The Wilderness Journey .................................................. 128
‘Well, if you want to enjoy the inheritance in the mid-week, seek the company of the saints as they are gathered’. It is possible. That should be the objective of our lives.
These are the only impressions I had. I trust they have been some encouragement to us. No condemnation! May it be an encouragement to us as we set our feet again on the highway and are strengthened in it by the Spirit!
GLASGOW
26th April 2008
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T.D.Beveridge, Kirkcaldy; G.A.Brown, Edinburgh; D.C.Brown, Edinburgh; J.T.Brown, Edinburgh;
R.J.Campbell, Glasgow; J.A.Gardiner, Aberdeen; R.Gardiner, Kirkcaldy; J.C.Gray, Grangemouth; J.D.Gray, Edinburgh; A.S.Henry, Glasgow; W.Lamont, Cumnock; W.M.Patterson, Glasgow; D.T.Pye, Kirkcaldy; D.B.Robertson, Cumnock; C.K.Robinson, Glasgow
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Exodus 15: 22-27; 16: 1 (to “wilderness of Sin”) We have all begun the Christian path, have all come to Christ as Saviour. We have all been saved by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. We have all set out on that path, the Christian path. We are at various stages in it. You might recall in your own history the first steps you took after conversion, and what the change was in the circumstances in which you found yourself; in the same place, same town, same school, same office, but things had changed, something had changed.
God had worked in your soul. Conversion is a wonderful thing.
It is a real thing, conversion. It is not just a matter of the mind and accepting things in the mind, even the things of God. It is not that. It is more than that. Has there been a change in you and me? New birth has taken place. The Spirit of God has worked sovereignly in each of our hearts to bring about a change in our spirits; our own spirit changes, a new creature begins to develop, and it comes to fruition at one point when you confess Christ as your Saviour, and that is the simplicity of Christianity. You then do not desire, according to the type, to live in Egypt where you once were in the sin system. You do not want to live there. You have a desire to be here for the Lord Jesus. Your tastes have changed. You have been made a partaker of the divine nature, wonderful thing! Then you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is another transaction that takes place, maybe not immediately, but it takes place in any case. You set out, you cross the Red Sea. You move into another area in your pathway, a different walk, a walk that Romans 6 speaks about as “newness of life” (Rom 6: 4), and you come into the wilderness.
That is where I began: “And Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur”.
You find you need Christ. They come to the bitter waters of Marah and the wood is cast in. It speaks of Christ. There is initial experience in the believer’s history, and he learns it in a simple way in his life’s history when he sets out on the path of faith. We learned it initially. We all learned it when we were young and thereafter going through life you learn at different stages what these matters are that I am going to speak about, 128
the pilgrim pathway and what you meet on that pathway. You spend Lord’s day amongst the saints, and that is wonderful.
You touch a sphere of privilege where the pressures of death are lifted from your spirit. You are in another realm for a time, sustained only for a time. That is all we are equal to, but your spirit is refreshed. Then on Monday morning you come into the wilderness of Shur. Every Monday morning you come into this wilderness. You have learned Christ, though, and you find that you cannot do without Him. If you are going to continue in the Christian path, you cannot do without Christ. But you come into this pathway and you find you are in that world where Christ is not, but He came into it. The wood cast into the waters suggests that the Lord came into the condition in which you and I are. He has been in it, and I refer to His days of flesh and blood. He has been in it. He is no longer in it, but He does say, “I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, Matt 28: 20. Another thing He says is, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”, John 14: 18. So He has been in it. He is in it with us, and He will come into the position with us. What a Saviour! What a Lord! And so the wood is cast in and the waters become sweet. Are you in bitter circumstances, dear brethren? Some of us have known what bitter circumstances are. I think I can say that all of us have known in our measure what bitter circumstances are. The wilderness is not to my taste naturally or yours naturally, but you are moving as led there. “And Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and ... into the wilderness”. You are moving under the direction of the Lord, you might say, and He knows what you are passing through, and be assured that He is in the circumstances with you; be assured of that. He knows what the bitterness is; He knows that. He knows the waters are bitter, He knows the experiences we go through in life can be bitter, sometimes very bitter, but He comes into it and when you find Christ you find sweetness. If you do not find Christ you remain in bitterness, but He is available to us, He is available to us all. In life’s circumstances He is available to us all but you have to seek Him out. You have to find that blessed Man, you have to have contact with Him. The Spirit of God is the Gift the believer has to revive him as he draws on that power and his link with Christ. You need to make contact with 129
the Lord Jesus. If you do not make contact with the Lord Jesus you cannot continue as a Christian in testimony. It is too much for us. Luke’s gospel speaks about the man that is going to war, “Or what king, going on his way to engage in war with another king, does not, sitting down first, take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him coming against him with twenty thousand?”, Luke 14: 31. That is the believer’s position without Christ in the world. He is meeting a force he is unable to overcome, but with Christ he is able to overcome. That scripture gave me some encouragement to proceed with this word. James’s epistle speaks about the tender compassion and pity of the Lord, “Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful”, James 5: 11. That is the Lord we know. I would encourage us, whatever circumstances we are in, to continue, continue with the Lord.
We are faced with exercises where some have not continued.
Somewhere along the line contact has been lost with Christ.
Dear brethren, and dear younger brethren, we need it all the time. It is not only for young people here, it is for all of us. We need it all the time. We need contact with Christ daily, the Spirit too and the Father. We need contact with divine Persons. I am speaking about the Lord Jesus particularly because He came into the circumstances in which you and I are. He knows them. He has been in them. He says of Himself,
“Reproach hath broken my heart”, Ps 69: 20. What a statement from the lips of the Lord Jesus, and yet He continued. He is the obedient Man, here for the Father’s will, so He would succour us in the midst of the waters of Marah by coming in and being with us, alongside of us to make them sweet. “I am with you all the days”. What a blessed statement!
And to know Him that way! Make your Christianity real, dear young brother, dear young sister, dear older ones too. Make your Christianity real: keep alive in it, be alive in it and come into the enjoyment of it. You will find that the burden is released from your spirit. You may still have the burden but it is released. You have had a contact with the Lord and He will sustain you. I would encourage us all. He passes us through circumstances so that He might form us after Himself.
He brings them into the wilderness of Shur. There is going to 130
be a test. There are tests in all our lives. The humanity of Christ was tested; it was tested in the temptations at the beginning of His public pathway and He was found to be an overcomer. I say that with all holy reverence. He was tested again at Gethsemane and He was prepared for the will of God.
God tests us but He is very tender about it. When you are younger He is very tender and there is grace upon grace. He can understand your thoughts, He can understand your feelings and He will support you in it. That is the God that we know, the God that we sang about, our times are in His hand.
He will support us in it. He knows what we are passing through. I say again, He is going to form you after Christ.
Whatever circumstances have come into our lives, He has an object in mind,
The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.
Grant Colfax Tullar (1869-1950)
That is God. He is going to bring it all to fruition. He is going to secure a work in all our souls that can be housed in a body of glory. That is what is going through, personality after Christ.
He brings you into these circumstances. He says, “I am Jehovah who healeth thee”. The brethren might help me, and they do. You might get a word of encouragement to keep near the Lord. Someone might minister to our needs, as the scripture says in John 13, washing our feet to refresh us.
Someone might help me to regain contact with the Lord Jesus, but only Christ can heal, only God can heal. We cannot heal anybody: only God can heal. Only God can heal what is in your soul and my soul that may be bitter. By Christ coming into it and being alongside me; and by drawing near to my Saviour and my Lord, I find healing, healing of a wounded spirit, healing of a distressed soul. Only Christ can do that, only a divine Person can do that, “I am Jehovah who healeth thee”. Be assured of that. We would desire to help one another, but there is only one blessed Person who can heal.
God as healing can come into your life and my life. They say 131
time is a great healer, but greater than time is Christ. If He has made a void in your life He will come in and fill that void.
Make way for Him. Make way for Christ to fill your soul. Make way for Christ to fill your life.
Then they come to Elim and twelve springs of water. I think He gives you companionship on the pathway, sometimes unlikely persons, but look upon each one as belonging to Christ. Try to find a bond, try to find a bond with one another after Christ. We were reading this morning, ‘Absolute consecration to Jesus is the strongest bond between human hearts’, JND Synopsis vol 3 p402. Is that true? A bond between human hearts—find that bond with one another.
However difficult one another may be, find that bond and you will prove the blessedness of entering into a sphere of eternal life. I think Elim with seventy palm trees and twelve springs of water suggests a sphere of eternal life known amongst the saints, and after that you will journey. They are not wandering here. They are led in verse 22 and they are journeying in verse 1 of chapter 16.
May the Lord encourage us with these few words to continue journeying under His guidance. For His Name’s sake.
EDINBURGH
26th August 2008
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Acts 11: 19-26; 13: 1-4; 19: 1-10, 17-20
J.D.G. What was in mind was the thought of naming the Name of the Lord as related to the expression of God in His house in the setting of the local assembly. I thought we might look at Antioch and Ephesians to see how things worked out in the lives of believers in those days, and then come on to 2
Timothy to see how Christianity works out in our lives as naming the Name of the Lord. We can go into the detail as we proceed. Firstly, those persons who heard the word of the Lord in the area of Antioch; then those who heard the word of the Lord in Ephesus; and how our lives are to be changed as the Name of the Lord comes into our lives, not only individually but as naming that Name and finding some expression of the assembly in its characteristics in our own day. That is what was in mind.
J.McK. So it is interesting in chapter 11 in verse 23: “and exhorted all with purpose of heart to abide with the Lord”. It seems that their whole lives were affected by their profession.
J.D.G. The background to the passage was that there had been persecution on the occasion of the death of Stephen and brethren had been scattered and then there was a new movement. The Lord Jesus was establishing Christianity in the power of the Holy Spirit on the earth. He Himself is at present in glory and He was so when these disciples heard this word, but there was something down here that He was going to establish. It has been pointed out by others that Judaism was set aside and now He is establishing Christianity. There are some earlier interesting passages in the Acts but it would be too much to go into them all today. So I thought we would begin in this part where there is the setting up of a local assembly in a place, which has become the pattern for the dispensation in which we are. So, as our brother points out, they announced the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus to them, v 20. Now that is very fine. It is good to be enlightened about the place of the Lord Jesus as a Man in heaven and to have a 133
link with Him as our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, but He would point out to us that He has something down here that will glorify His Name.
J.McK. So the preaching of the Person is very important, is it not?
J.D.G. The Holy Spirit has come here as indwelling the saints. The Giver of the Holy Spirit is the Lord Jesus Christ, although the blessed Spirit came down at Pentecost; there was only one outpouring from heaven of the Holy Spirit of God, and it spreads from that point to other believers who come into it.
The One who gives is Christ.
M.J.W. Is it the truth of the kingdom that is being established in view of the assembly by acknowledging and professing the Name of the Lord?
J.D.G. The truth of the kingdom involves persons and involves a certain kind of person. The Lord Jesus says in John’s gospel at His trial: “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my servants had fought that I might not be delivered up to the Jews”, chap 18: 36. The persons of the kingdom are distinct persons, are they not?
They do not belong to this world. They do not fight according to this world. What do you say?
M.J.W. I am really trying to get what is in your mind by the naming of the Name of the Lord.
J.D.G. Christians are persons in whom a change has taken place in their lives. Conversion is a real matter. It is not just an acknowledgment by name of the Lord Jesus Christ, wondrous as that is, but as you confess the Name of the Lord Jesus truly, a change has taken place in you. You become
“partakers of the divine nature”, 2 Pet 1: 4. So what comes to light in the persons in the book of the Acts as they set up assemblies, and are gathered together to the Name of the Lord Jesus, is that love is working amongst them; not philanthropy, not the love of men, but love that derives its fruit in God.
Would that be right?
A.E.M. Is something of that seen in Barnabas? The way he exhorts them “with purpose of heart”. I was thinking of what 134
you were saying, that there is something concrete in view. This is not just a random exhortation to movement, but there is a real objective, is there?
J.D.G. Barnabas is first brought to our attention in chapter 4 of the book of the Acts. It says there in verse 36: “And Joseph, who had been surnamed Barnabas by the apostles (which is, being interpreted, Son of consolation), a Levite, Cyprian by birth, being possessed of land, having sold it, brought the money and laid it at the feet of the apostles”. That was not philanthropy. That was movement because of a change in the man’s soul in becoming a partaker of the divine nature, and so he acts accordingly. So he is a Son of consolation and he remains that and in this chapter he comes to light as the same kind of person.
I.McK. Say something as to the widening out of the gospel here. The first preaching seemed to be just to the Jews alone at the end of verse 19, but then there is great expansion when these others, Cyprians and Cyrenians, speak to the Greeks also.
J.D.G. That is a new movement, one for which we are very thankful, that the word of the Lord was not restricted to the Jewish nation now. In the Old Testament times God worked with the Jewish nation and set other nations in relation to the Jewish nation so that blessing might flow to man. Israel failed and thwarted God’s thoughts as to that immediately, but here Christ is in glory, the Spirit has come down, and is establishing something that is to go beyond the Jewish fold. “And I have other sheep which are not of this fold” (John 10: 16); that is not of the Jewish fold. He had other sheep. We belong to that and this is the first movement of it and what comes to light is remarkable vitality in the power of the Holy Spirit in the persons thus received. Barnabas was “full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”. You can be assured that the teaching that took place, particularly with Barnabas and Saul, would stress that thought.
J.McK. Although the outward circumstance that prompted the widening out was the Saviour of the Jew, the real reason was the greatness of Christ.
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J.D.G. That is interesting. It was in the divine mind. Still in God’s faithfulness He presented the word to the Jews after they crucified the Lord Jesus. He presented the word to them until the stoning of Stephen and then the matter was widening out now through that incident, but the Lord’s hand was in it to bring in the Gentile and to set up on this earth the expression of Himself in a place, in a local assembly.
B.W.B. So these persons were “added to the Lord”. Is that the result really of naming the Name of the Lord? It is a gravitational attraction in that way; they were drawn to the Person, do you think?
J.D.G. Yes, I was thinking that naming the Name of the Lord is not a casual matter. It is a very sincere matter and a deep matter because it involves my committal to the expression of Himself here below in persons seen together in a place. The expression of God is seen in persons. The presence of the Holy Spirit and His activity is seen in persons; it is seen in believers; it is seen in you and me, or ought to be seen in us.
B.W.B. So in that way we find our place in the assembly.
J.D.G. That is right. That is how we come into it. The assembly is a great divine conception. It is one whole matter, the matter of the assembly. “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly” (Eph 5: 32) involves all the saints, but the expression of it for us is seen in local places. That is what we can compass. We may take account of the work of God in a universal way, in a certain objective way, and have love towards all the saints—that is the Ephesian situation—but the actual expression is seen in persons that I come in contact with.
J.A.T. Lydia did not assume a place. She said, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there”, Acts 16: 15.
J.D.G. That is the kind of person that is coming to life here.
We are also told what Lydia did for her business and what the jailor did for his business before he was converted. But it does not tell us what these persons here did. What it tells us is what their life was. What is my life? Sure, we all work and earn our bread and that is necessary, but where is my life?
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What is coming to light in this section of scripture is where the life of the persons is, and chapter 13 brings that out in a very distinctive way, where their life was.
J.A.T. It has been suggested, I believe, that the Gentiles needed to be brought in really to get the full thought of what was in mind in the assembly.
J.D.G. That would be right. We will come on to that when we come to Ephesians: “For through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father”. That is Jew and Gentile, but we will come to that. I thought in Antioch we should see the evidence of life coming to light, life according to God, life in relation to a Man in another world, but life in relation to His Name here below.
J.McK. So what is the force of “ministering to the Lord”?
J.D.G. I think that is the climax of being converted and set together with others in this place of Antioch. We will take Antioch as it stands. These persons were set together in Antioch, a varying company of persons, of different social status, but they had one common matter and that was the Lord and the Spirit as indwelling them. So “they were ministering to the Lord”; they were exclusively taken up with Him. Their hearts and minds and souls were absorbed by Him.
I was going to suggest it is not just the ones that are named; there are named persons as the Spirit of God brings out personality in the place; but they are set in the assembly. So the whole assembly would be affected in Antioch by this gathering together to minister to the Lord and fast. At least that is my thought.
J.McK. I wondered if there was something very positive in it.
It is not that the Lord was ministering to them. It is that He was receiving something from these persons as thus together.
Is that right?
J.D.G. That brings to mind something I came across in the last several weeks. Mr James Taylor was asked about Christians being in the Lord’s service. Is it preaching the gospel? He said, ‘No. In a comprehensive way the service of God is the activity of divine love toward God, toward one another, and toward all men’, JT vol 1 p176. That is what you 137
have here: divine love in activity Godward and divine love in activity in the company, and it makes way for divine love in activity towards all men because the Spirit is free to name them to go out in service.
R.D.P-r. I wondered whether you could help us a little bit into coming into this. I was thinking there are a lot of young ones here with us. We want them to know what it is to name the Name of the Lord, and what it means as a result of doing so and in a sense how simple it is to do it.
J.D.G. That is the object of what is in my heart. Perhaps we will come on to it in more detail when we come to speak of 2
Timothy because that has a direct bearing on us at the present time. This that we are reading about was, you might say, in the springtime of the assembly’s history on the earth, and I just thought we should see how it began in relation to the establishment in a place of the expression of the local assembly and the persons that were added to it and how they continued.
It says in chapter 11: 26: “And so it was with them that for a whole year they were gathered together in the assembly and taught a large crowd: and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch”. You can understand that their life was now in relation to the Lord Jesus and what He had down here in His saints, and they were subject to teaching. It was not a crash course; it was for a whole year. It brings out the agricultural thought: there was growth in them. They “taught a large crowd” and then “the disciples were first called Christians”. So there was an evidence of formation of Christ in them in accordance with the divine work that had taken place in their souls, new birth having taken place and culminated in the confession of the Lord as Saviour. They had been made “partakers of the divine nature”; now they were in an atmosphere where they were taught. Am I prepared for teaching?
G.R.
This is a different thought from naming the Name of Jesus. Does it involve understanding of the truth and subjection to the Lord personally?
J.D.G. What was your thought in naming the Name of Jesus?
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Well, in Christendom there are many dear believers who will name the Name of Jesus, but you bring the thought of His authority and its bearing on them and they may be a bit lost because they do not understand the truth.
J.D.G. I think that is important what you have brought up.
It is not to be despised, to name the Name of Jesus. We have the hymn:
Jesus! how much Thy Name unfolds
To every opened ear!
(Hymn 6)
We would not despise that. There is a work of God in naming the Name of Jesus, the preciousness of that One. He is the One who was crucified here. But then naming the Name of the Lord involves, as you point out, that He has authority over my life. Mr Darby has a hymn:
Blest Lord, Thou spakest! ’twas Thy voice
That led our hearts to Thee
(Hymn 47)
and he speaks too in that song of another voice. It is not a different voice, but it is the voice of Jesus as Lord that is leading him on from the simplicity of the Name of Jesus to understand that as Lord He has a place in my life of regulation.
Would that be your thought?
G.R.
Yes, surely. I feel concerned as to the need of understanding the scriptures. There are some who say they have the Bible and they do not need anything else, but I would say I would understand the Bible very little if I had not got the gain of the ministry of the recovery. It helps me to be intelligent as to naming the Name of the Lord and what it means.
J.D.G. That is what I thought in this passage in Antioch.
They were gathered together for a whole year and they taught a large crowd. The crowd does not suggest too much of formation but it does suggest there was an ear for the teaching.
Do I have an ear for the teaching? Do I recognise that I need teaching? The Lord has given persons ability to teach. Now, that comes out in this passage in a most distinctive way 139
because Barnabas “was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”. But he felt, I think, there was need of further help and he had an acquaintance with Saul of Tarsus and he had an understanding that the Lord had given Saul of Tarsus something that he had not given to Barnabas. So he goes away to Tarsus and he finds Saul and he brings him and together they teach a large crowd. That is, there should be a recognition in my life that there are those who have ability to teach that I do not have and for us, we would say, much of it is written down in ministry that we would regard as being of the Lord.
D.J.W. Can you help us as to why the twelve are in the background here and the Lord takes up Paul particularly?
J.D.G. That is a big subject. In the context of it the twelve were related to the initial work of God in Jerusalem and the immediate areas beyond Jerusalem, really in the area of the Jew, but the Lord had in mind to set up Christianity apart from Judaism and so He brings in this other vessel, Saul of Tarsus, to work out His thoughts. But, in saying that, I read in Ephesians 2: 19, 20, just to touch on it as we are speaking about it: “So then ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone”. That would carry forward not exclusively the twelve, but it would include them, would it not? It would not be exclusive. There would be other apostles and prophets included there, but it would carry forward the teaching and is the Lord not very careful in the early days in the Acts to show that what was established in Jerusalem was not immediately set aside in relation to the work of God there, but the Lord was now establishing something to show that the assembly had nothing really to do with Judaism?
D.J.W. Does it connect particularly with the fact that Saul was affected by the light out of heaven? It was Christ glorified,
“a light above the brightness of the sun”, Acts 26: 13. There was something really that eclipsed everything that had gone before.
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J.D.G. Of all the apostles at that time he was the one who was clearest in his understanding of the revelation in relation to the assembly. There was a distinct vessel apart from Judaism. The Lord in His grace went along with the twelve at Jerusalem and did not in any way set them aside. When the matter of the circumcision came up, the matter was not settled in Antioch; it was settled in Jerusalem. That was divine grace to maintain “the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace”, Eph 4: 3.
R.H.
Is it affecting to be reminded that this thought of movement is not a historical one, it is a current one, one in which we have our part now through grace? I was thinking really as to the thought that there are no national boundaries in God’s mind. This thought is a comprehensive idea, is it not?
J.D.G. That was a large lesson that was learned at the time that these chapters were penned—what took place in Antioch!—there were lessons to be learned that there were no national boundaries. The dear Jewish brethren had quite a bit of difficulty about having to do with Gentiles, and you can understand that because God had committed Himself to Judaism for centuries. Now it was set aside in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and they had to learn that and God was very gracious with them, but here where we started, it is really apart from Judaism, this local assembly in Antioch.
R.H.
Is it good that we should have these lessons rehearsed amongst us at this particular juncture?
J.D.G. That was in mind in reading this section, to carry forward what was in Antioch on into Ephesus, on into our own day. Maybe we should go over to Ephesians. One thing that comes to light when Paul comes to Ephesus, he finds twelve men there and the first matter he raises was the matter of the Holy Spirit. You cannot have an expression of the assembly without the persons involved having the gift of the Holy Spirit.
J.McK. Is it so that the Spirit in His greatness could not be confined to the national boundaries, even as the Lord Jesus could not be?
J.D.G. Say what is your thought about the Lord Jesus not being confined to national boundaries.
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J.McK. Well, we said that the widening out was not simply a consequence of Israel’s failure but because of the greatness of Christ. You can also say that because the Spirit, Himself being God, is so great, He could not be confined to what was in Jerusalem so the widening out is clearly of God and must be so.
J.D.G. That is right. Divine Persons knew what was going to take place on the earth. It has been said before there is no future really with God from His point of view. He knows what is to be and He had in mind the development of the Christian assemblies, particularly in the western world. We cannot go into all the detail in the book of the Acts, but chapter 16 shows that the Spirit of God had in mind to come westward into Europe and to establish the light of the assembly in places and cities in Greece and in Italy or Rome, and here He comes into a place that is called Asia Minor, which is part of modern Turkey.
B.W.B. Was there something of this in Paul’s own commission as he recounts it in Acts 26, “taking thee out from among the people, and the nations, to whom I send thee”, v 17? He was taken out of the Jewish nation altogether and sent really from the Lord’s own presence, do you think, in view of what was much wider?
J.D.G. That is right. It is good to see that. There was the expression of the mind of Christ in a man here through revelation. That was Saul of Tarsus who became known as Paul. That dear man had the light of what was in the Lord’s mind to set persons apart for the Lord in places in this world and how the testimony should progress from there. So in this passage what I wanted to draw attention to first of all was the necessity of the Holy Spirit. That is received as individuals. In Acts 10 when Peter was preaching to Cornelius and his household, to quite a company there, it says in verse 44: “While Peter was yet speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word”. There may have been others there but He “fell upon all those who were hearing the word”. That was the activities of the Spirit in identifying Himself with those persons.
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B.W.B. Would you say in that way God was justified in His sovereignty, as He always is, in taking up Cornelius and those with Him in that they heard the word and the Holy Spirit was free to fall upon them?
J.D.G. That is right. The boundary of nationality disappeared completely. The boundary of race disappeared completely; so neither nationality nor race is of any consequence in the assembly. At Antioch there were mixed races, various races.
R.D.P-r. Peter says in Acts 10 of Jesus Christ “he is Lord of all things” (v 36), and the note says ‘Gentile and Jew’.
J.D.G. That is right. That comes out in Ephesus too: “has broken down the middle wall of enclosure” (chap 2: 14) and made them into one body.
J.A.T. So divine love cannot be restricted. This is the heart of God involved in this enlargement and expansion. It is really the heart of God that is behind it which must link with the sovereignty of His choice, in whatever He chooses.
J.D.G. It links with His sovereignty; but what comes to light in persons is the substantial results of a sovereign operation, and that is what was seen in these persons. Their lives changed. I read that verse in the middle of chapter 19 about burning the books to show that it had an effect on their whole manner of life. Now we will come onto that in 2 Timothy in relation to ourselves but that is what happened to these Ephesian believers and also there is a basis there for separating the disciples from those who were argumentative, or contending. It says, “But when some were hardened and disbelieved, speaking evil of the way”, chap 19: 9. Paul did not continue with that. He separated the disciples to an area where there was the thought of rule as suggested in the name of the schoolmaster. It was the schoolmaster’s room, and he was able to teach them for two years. Christianity is not just one meeting. It is a commitment for life and these Ephesian believers committed themselves to a line of teaching day by day. Paul says, “for three years, night and day”, chap 20: 31.
It says two years here but in chapter 20 it tells you “three years, night and day”, both in the assembly and the houses.
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He was teaching. That became their whole object in life, to be related to the Lord, to His people here below, and to divine love in activity in the saints. Someone has said you cannot see the Holy Spirit. Can you? How do we see the Holy Spirit? You see the Holy Spirit in divine love in activity in the brethren. A few persons, meeting together, naming the Name of the Lord, owning His rights with love amongst themselves, is something that is far removed from this world’s system.
J.McK. So do you think what happened in Antioch in chapter 13 was part of Paul’s education, that is that having ministered to the Lord, the Spirit was free and He says, “Separate me now”? Was that part of his education in view of the emphasis he was to put on it later?
J.D.G. Yes. Paul did not say “Separate me”; it was the Spirit of God who said it. He would say it through someone, but it was not through Paul, but the Spirit of God was free to say there, “Separate me now”. First of all he had seen something of that in the city of Damascus when he was converted. He saw something of an expression of divine love in activity when Ananias came and said, “Saul, brother”, Acts 9: 17. What a word to a man who had been a persecutor and murderer of the saints and yet had met the Lord on the highway and was subject to Him from that day forward!
J.McK. So Paul was already aware or would have been of his own commission. He had met the Lord, as you say. He had been apprehended for greater things, but he was to learn that there was something in the assembly that was to set him forward in the presence of this divine Person.
J.D.G. His history is very interesting because it tells us in the Acts that from Jerusalem the brethren sent him away to Tarsus; and he never moved from there until Barnabas went and sought him out. And then he stayed in Antioch until the Holy Spirit said “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”. He was moving in relation to what the Lord had here below in setting him forward on his commission. That is a very beautiful circumstance that he waited until such times as the Spirit of God indicated it was 144
time for movement. I do not doubt there was education for Saul in those waiting times.
D.J.W. In referring to the Holy Spirit have you in mind that He is still here, completely, and perhaps 2 Timothy helps us to identify where He is free?
J.D.G. That would be in mind. Yes, the Spirit of God has remained throughout the dispensation. The Lord said in John 14 verse 16: “And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive”. Now I understand that scripture to mean that the Spirit would remain here during the dispensation. He would always have vessels in whom He could dwell and throughout the dispensation He makes use of persons who are available to Him
G.J.R. One of the things we might fear is narrowness. I was just thinking that after the disciples were separated, it did not lead to narrowness, but to the opposite: “And this took place for two years, so that all that inhabited Asia heard the word of the Lord”, Acts 19: 10. It actually led to great expansion.
J.D.G. I understand that scripture is a basis for saying Ephesus was the candlestick. What you have referred to was a public expression, “that all that inhabited Asia heard the word of the Lord”. It was a public expression of what He had in His mind and what He could identify Himself with as expressing fully His thought in the local place. Do you think that is right? It is worth thinking about anyway.
In Ephesus, there was an expression of “a habitation of God in the Spirit” about which we have been speaking. In 2
Timothy we come to a day of public confusion and breakdown.
We cannot return to Ephesian days, but we can have the privileges of the Ephesian saints in a lowly walk and in humility as taking account of this second epistle to Timothy.
No believer needs to go on with evil, morally or ecclesiastically, that is in the church or the establishment. No believer needs to go on with that because of this scripture we have in 2
Timothy. I was thinking that in Antioch and in Ephesus and further back in Jerusalem they had named the Name of the Lord. I think it was true that the saints as separating from 145
what had marked them beforehand were naming the Name of the Lord, particularly in Antioch and Ephesus as coming into an understanding of it, greater than what the saints had at Jerusalem. So we are here as believers in the Lord Jesus and we would have to say, these are broken days; there is mixture in Christendom. There are many so-called churches and establishments and many believers going on with things such as the clergy, robes and crowns on men’s heads and all that, as well as wrong teaching. As believers in the Lord Jesus we would say, Does that reflect the Lord Jesus Christ? Is that in keeping with the One who says to Paul from heaven, “I am Jesus the Nazaræan, whom thou persecutest”, Acts 22: 8?
And you would have to say, ‘I do not think so’. “Yet the firm foundation of God stands”. That is His foundation. “The Lord knows those that are his”. But what is the responsibility of a believer who names the Name of the Lord? Everyone of us here as believers, are we naming the Name of the Lord? It says, in this scripture, “and, Let everyone who names the Name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. Now we may be alongside believers at work, etc. who are free to belong to associations, and professional bodies, and trade unions and other such things which involve membership of a corporate body.
Believers who have the light of the assembly as the body of Christ, and are governed in their walk by scriptures such as 2
Timothy chapter 2 and 2 Corinthians chapter 6 would have to say that such membership of worldly associations is inconsistent with being a member of the body of Christ. The young people here are on the threshold of life. According to the hymn (228) that we sang at the beginning, we have taken up the highway of life, ‘My song is ever—God!’. What is my walk going to be through this scene? Am I prepared to name the Name of the Lord at the present time? What does it mean for me? It meant for the disciples in Antioch that they separated from what they had been attached to before, heathenism and such like things, and the same in Ephesus.
They gave up their books of charms, they burnt books valued at fifty thousand pieces of silver, Acts 19: 19. What am I going to do as naming the Name of the Lord?
R.W.F. Can you tell us why the name “Master” is introduced here?
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J.D.G. “Serviceable to the Master”: well, the scripture exhorts us in this setting, “in a great house”—what is the “great house”?
R.W.F. Well, that refers to the wide extent of Christendom, but the question is whether in naming the Name of the Lord, I acknowledge His sovereign power. That is what the name Master implies.
J.D.G. Paul uses the simile of a great house, a literal great house, to say that in that house there are “not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen; and some to honour, and some to dishonour”. Now we know at the present time that the name “Christian” does result in reproach and persecution for believers. In India there is persecution in certain parts of one of the states. It was so in Iraq according to what has been made known by the media, regarding Christians. “The Lord knows those that are his”, but the name
“Christian” brings a certain reproach. What is in question in this scripture is the Lord’s Name; what I may go on with as attaching to that Name, as naming His Name, and saying that He is my Lord. Am I going to go on in my life with that which scripture says I should separate from? He says, “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”. Well, that is what I would desire to be. What would you desire to be?
R.W.F. Precisely that. It is a positive thing. What I mean is, we do not just, as it were, grow into it or flow into it; it needs the positive confession of His Name, positive action in separating.
J.D.G. What you have brought up is interesting because a week or two back in speaking about “prepared for every good work”, the scripture that came into my mind was in Ephesians 2 verse 10: “For we”—that is believers—“are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them”. That is the positive side of separating from vessels to dishonour, that you are available to the Lord and He has prepared things for you 147
to walk in, but on the negative side, it may cost me something.
It has cost brethren that have gone before us trials and tribulations. When I was a young man, one of the issues that came up at the time in Scotland was that brethren who worked in the mines were required to join a trade union, and they would not do it; and some lost their jobs. In Loanhead where the meeting room now is in Edinburgh, the other miners went on strike. There was animosity and anger in the place; the brothers stood firm and they lost their jobs. That was naming the Name of the Lord. So I would say to young people here, as you have careers in mind and other such like things, what does the Lord Jesus mean to you, and what does His Name mean to you? You might need guidance and help, but there is a place where you will get it and that is amongst the people of God.
Salvation for the present time is keeping amongst God’s people.
D.J.W. So, does naming the Name of the Lord involve a public expression in testimony of what you hold to?
J.D.G. That is good to say that. Naming the Name of the Lord is an expression in testimony. So they say, ‘Why will you not join this professional association?’, and you say, ‘Well, I have named the Name of the Lord. I belong to another body, the body of Christ. I am a Christian and want to be free from other associations’. Some persons will respect that.
D.J.W. And the Lord must honour that. Practically I have proved He came in for me in those circumstances.
P.J.H. So enjoying being “called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor 1: 9) is how we respond to that.
It is really the Master’s use of those who are serviceable. We have found, “But he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”, 1
Cor 6: 17. It is the power of the Spirit that comes in there.
J.D.G. I am glad of your reference to “called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. There is only one Christian fellowship in the world, but scripture here is exhorting us in the midst of the public confusion that you have a right: you can name the Name of the Lord and separate from iniquity because you have authority in the Scriptures to do 148
that. You are not casting any slur on any other believer. You are putting yourself right with the Lord.
P.J.H. And there is security in it too. It is fit for the Master’s use.
J.D.G. There is salvation practically as walking in testimony here below for the Lord Jesus. Young people have to face these matters, indeed we all do, but a good number here have proved, as our brother has said, the protection and care of the Lord, and the succour and support of the saints as being identified with what the Lord has here in places, persons walking in the light of the assembly.
J.McK. So the subject of this passage is not the judgement of evil; it is keeping myself from it.
J.D.G. That is right. It is not ours to judge the churches or to judge a man’s ways. It has been pointed out that if somebody comes to your door with wrong teaching, it is not our position to stop him going to the next door. Our position is to clear ourselves from him and not encourage him on his way. John’s second epistle says that, verse 10, 11. You would not help a man who is carrying evil doctrine on his way, but it is not your job to go out and stop him from going along the street. You clear yourself from the matter.
R.D.P-r. Does the Supper help us to be sustained in this naming the Name of the Lord, and continuing in it?
J.D.G. I think that is very attractive. You meet together with persons with whom you can express fellowship in the Lord’s Supper. That is unity in testimony.
R.D.P-r. We need to be kept fresh in our affections for the Lord and for one another. To name the Name of the Lord historically would not preserve us as we go on day by day.
J.D.G. No, naming the Name of the Lord is an active thing that I maintain daily. Every day of my life here while the Lord leaves me here I am naming the Name of the Lord and my pathway is consistent with that. It is His honour and His Name. You are fastening your flag to the pole, saying, ‘I am here for the Lord Jesus and there are certain things I cannot 149
go on with. I will steer my course in relation to the blessed Lord Jesus who is my Saviour and my Lord’.
J.A.T. So in Isaiah Jehovah is power for “them that turn the battle to the gate”, chap 28: 6. There is that in it really, do you think?
J.D.G. Turning the battle to the gate is seeking counsel. That comes out in the book of Ruth, that Boaz turned the battle to the gate. He sought counsel and wisdom and testimony amongst the elders, chap 4. So there is a place here where you will get help as to your exercises. Young people want help and guidance: there is a place here where they will get it. They will get it among the brethren. They will get protection and care there that is not in the world.
J.A.T. Amen. It was just that I was feeling that we need the help of the Holy Spirit when we take this stand. The Spirit would be the verity and strength of the one seeking counsel, and the Spirit would be a help for anyone who would take that stand. We do need the Holy Spirit to help us in this stand, would you say?
J.D.G. The scripture that supports your thought is in Peter:
“If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”, 1 Pet 4: 14. How is it that young people can go against the streams of this world? Another has said that it is the holy, unseen, unknown-by-the-world protection that enshrouds the believer.
D.B.B. In the other scripture it spoke about him not contending; it says here: “And a bondman of the Lord ought not to contend, but be gentle towards all; apt to teach; forbearing”. Could you say something about that?
J.D.G. I am glad you brought it up because I nearly read from verse 14, but we had read quite a bit, but this matter of naming the Name of the Lord is encased between two matters: verse 16: “But profane, vain babblings shun, for they will advance to greater impiety” and then this matter here in verse 23: “But foolish and senseless questionings avoid, knowing that they beget contentions”. The believer is not going to be carried into that line of argument over scripture. He sets the truth out in his person and his body and his actions. As naming the Name 150
of the Lord he takes a certain course and establishes that course positively. Is that what you have in mind?
D.B.B. That is very good because it is what he actually is, not exactly what he says.
J.D.G. What we are speaking about as not having part in is negative but necessary, but the great matter is to see the positive side: “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work. But youthful lusts flee, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. You come into fellowship one by one. We come to the Lord one by one. You come into fellowship one by one, and then we find companionship in which these matters; “righteousness, faith, love, peace” are in activity. Our bond together is the truth, but love must be in activity. If there are a few believers meeting together in love in activity, God can work there.
G.J.R. There are those that “call upon the Lord”. There seems to be a great humility attached to such persons.
J.D.G. Humility, yes, I would say so. There is humility because you are a broken-hearted churchman, to use an expression that Mr Lyon used years ago. You have not left other believers because you do not love them. It is not hatred of your brethren; it is hatred of the things that they might be associated with even if they do not understand. But humility is needed. You would carry in your spirit the conditions in Christendom. We were reading Habakkuk two or three weeks ago in Edinburgh. Habakkuk is a man whose spirit was burdened by what was going on in Israel at that time, just as many a believer may be burdened at the present time by what is going on in Christendom, and what the teaching that is going on there is. The Lord has shown to us the teaching that is in the establishment, particularly in Anglicanism at the present time, and the awfulness of it, and there are believers there and they are still going on with it. But, thank God, we have been liberated from it and set apart, but you still carry in your spirit 151
the burden and humility of what is associated with the Name of the Lord Jesus publicly.
Well, these were thoughts we had. I trust they have been of some profit.
WITNEY
18th October 2008
Key to Initials
D.B.Bodman, Birmingham; B.W.Burton, Taunton;
R.W.Flowerdew, Sunbury; J.D.Gray, Edinburgh; P.J.Herbert, Newport; R.Hodge, St Ives; I.McKay, Witney; J.McKay, Witney; A.E.Mutton, Witney; R.D.Painter, Yeovil; G.Richards, Malvern; G.J.Richards, Malvern; J.A.Turner, Malvern; M.J.Welch, Newport; D.J.Willetts, Birmingham
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BY HIM, IN HIM, TO HIM, WITH HIM
2 Corinthians 5: 17-18 (to “Jesus Christ”)
I have an impression as to what is achieved by faith in
“the name”, what it is to be “in Christ”, to “go forth to him without the camp”, and then to be with Him.
Our brother has referred to the Lord having been victorious over the power of death. He is exalted. In this passage in the Acts He has been made Lord and Christ, but He has acted down here and He is in the testimony, “And, by faith in his name, his name has made this man strong”, Acts 3: 16. He deals with persons in whom sin has been active, and affected them in mind, body, soul and spirit,. and He heals them. This man is healed. He stands before them a testimony, “by him”, that is by the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the Man who has come into all our lives. It is “by him” that we stand here tonight, “sound in body”. We are here together,
“sound in body”, morally sound, spiritually sound, persons who have the gift of the Holy Spirit; and we are able to be here for God and for Christ, having proven what salvation is. “And salvation is in none other”—that is none other person—“for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”. That is an appeal you can still make in the glad tidings, and that is an appeal that has affected every one of us here tonight. We have been saved by the power of that blessed Name.
In 2 Corinthians 5 you find out after your conversion that something else has taken place in you—“So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”. How do you become “in Christ”? Well, you become “in Christ” by trusting Christ as your Saviour. If you trust Christ as your Saviour you come in for the blessings He has secured. Reconciliation was effected on the cross apart from us, while we were enemies; the scripture says, “we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son”, Rom 5: 10. So you come into that blessing 153
and God regards you now as “in Christ”; no longer in Adam but “in Christ”, and “if anyone be in Christ, there is a new creation”. It is a real matter, conversion, a real thing. It means the work of God has begun in the soul of a person and there is something there that is called new creation. “The new man”
is spoken about, “which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness”, Eph 4: 24. That is true of every believer when they come to Christ as Saviour. The work of God in you and me will be true to itself if we make way for it.
That is true of every believer, so that it says here, “So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new: and all things are of the God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”—that is what I was speaking about: “reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ”. What a joy to God to receive repenting sinners. The young man, the prodigal, in Luke 15
came back reconciled. It does not say that in Luke 15, but that is the truth, he came back reconciled, he came back in another Man; that is why the Father could run and greet him.
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee; I am no longer worthy to be called thy son” (Luke 15: 21), but he was worthy because of the work of reconciliation. Then you can say, ‘Well, there is a work of God in me and it is called new creation’. That is “in Christ”.
Then I want to come briefly to Hebrews 13. “We have an altar of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle”. The scripture says in chapter 10: 9, “He takes away the first that he may establish the second”. The first that is taken away is Judaism and what He has established is Christianity; so now the Jews have no priority. In the Old Testament times they had a priority amongst the nations because God recognised them as His people, but now they have no priority. Christianity is established by God and Judaism is set aside; so “We have an altar of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle”. Then it speaks of the Lord Jesus having “suffered without the gate” and it says,
“let us go forth to him without the camp”. When you are converted and you come to Christ and come into the gain of 154
the truth of reconciliation, you need to go “to him”. Where is He to be found? Well, we live in a world which is religious in the main in various ways throughout the world. Man is a religious creature. Go forth to Christ without the camp. What does that mean? Well, it involves for us, in this part of the world anyway, that Christendom exists all around us. The name of the Lord is there in various ways amongst men, and there is public breakdown in the church. Persons, true believers are going on with things like the clergy—which sets aside the Spirit of God—sacraments and orders and services.
That is all related to the camp. If you want to find Christ you have to go forth to Him without that camp. He is speaking in Jewish terms here because the writer is writing to the Jews in Jerusalem that they might flee before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and he is telling them to “go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”. It would be a reproach to leave Jerusalem at that time. It is a reproach for us to find Christ outside the systems of men. Many believers are caught up in the systems of men. We need to be thankful for the light of the assembly, we really need to be thankful for that, but you only find it by going forth to Him. If we go forth to Christ we find a few believers like we have tonight “without the camp” yet “bearing his reproach”. It is a reproachful situation. In the city of Edinburgh, it is a reproach to be identified such as we are together in relation to naming the Name of the Lord (2 Tim 2: 19) because we are apart from all that marks Christendom. What are sacraments, orders, vests, crowns, robes? What does that mean to Christ? Nothing. It is a reproach to Him. It is the reproach of Egypt. What does it mean to us? What does it mean to be identified with such things? It would deprive us of the living character of the word of God, dear brethren, to be identified with such systems. The clergy sets aside the presence of the Holy Spirit acting in the body of Christ. It says in Hebrews 10, “For by one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified”, v 14. That is a company of persons (all the saints) secured by one offering,
“perfected in perpetuity the sanctified”. Does a sanctified person need robes and gowns and crowns and cathedral windows and cathedral domes? He does not need any of such 155
things; it is a reproach. What he needs is Christ. So “let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”, and we will find one another on that basis as going forth to Christ without the camp. “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of the lips confessing his name”. That is not confessing Christ’s name in reproach, as I understand it; that is confessing Christ’s name in the presence of God. It says, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of the lips confessing his name”. I am not saying the other thing does not come into it, but as far as I can see confessing His name in that situation is confessing in the presence of God.
What a delight to God to hear persons confessing the name of Christ, offering the sacrifice of praise continually to God!
And then finally, to be with Him is the final hope of the believer. The triumph of Christ in going through the Jordan is to have us with Him. It was at that time to have the people with Him in the land of promise, the land of Canaan, in the heavenly land. Here it is to be with Him finally, having bodies of glory like unto His own body of glory, Phil 3: 21. So it says,
“for the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven ... then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them”—that is the believers who are raised from the dead—“to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord”. That is the final thing, “with the Lord”.
That is the great triumphant final rallying point, the trump of God sounds, the saints taken to be with Christ to come out, as we sang in our song when “Israel’s race shall then behold Him” (Hymn 291), not alone, but He will have His saints with Him.
May the Lord encourage our hearts with these few thoughts. For His Name’s sake.
EDINBURGH
17th March 2009
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Genesis 47: 31 from “And Israel”; 48: 1-2, 15-16
The first three scriptures I have read relate to the common lot of men, that is, “in iniquity was I brought forth, and in sin did my mother conceive me”; and, in Romans 3: 23,
“for all have sinned”; and then, in Hebrews 9, “it is the portion of men once to die”. That is the common lot of everyone in this room and you can do nothing about it as far as that goes, but God has a proposition to make to you. It is His glad tidings, and it concerns His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God requires righteousness. He cannot bypass sin or sins, and He has not.
You and I could do nothing about righteousness. The whole of the Old Testament is a time when God gave man an opportunity to see whether he could establish his righteousness to the satisfaction of God by works of law, but he failed and we come into that failure. God says, ‘I have a proposition to make. I have glad tidings. It is my glad tidings concerning my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ’, and the glad tidings is that He has secured a righteousness that makes men and women, boys and girls, suited for His presence. It is a gift, and it is towards all. It is only “upon all those who believe”, but it is “towards all”. It is because He has given His only-begotten Son, in whom the matter of sin and sins was dealt with on the cross. “Him who knew not sin”, Christ, “he has made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Cor 5: 21. That is available to you, friend, and to everyone in this room, by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. So that is what He has to offer to you . “All have sinned”, but in Christ Jesus “God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood”. If you have faith in the blood, God can justify you.
Now then, in Hebrews 9, “it is the portion of men once to die”. That is true but Scripture adds more than that, “and after this judgment”. Our dear brother whom the Lord has taken will have to face the judgment too, and so will we all. I am not at this moment discriminating. The judgment is not in 157
death. The judgment is in resurrection. “It is the portion of man once to die, and after this judgment”, the judgment is in resurrection. Scripture speaks about “the resurrection of the just”, Luke 14: 14. Does our brother have to fear the resurrection and the judgment? No, he does not have to fear that. Why? He made Christ his Saviour in his lifetime and God gave him as a gift the righteousness of God. When he wakens in the resurrection, he has that righteousness. It is secured in time; it is valid for eternity. If I may be simple dear friends and brethren, it is like the visa to heaven. If you go to another country you need a visa. He has his visa secured in Christ here in time. His sins have been forgiven and he has a righteousness of God that is yours today if you lay hold of it.
Now I want to speak about Jacob. Jacob has a portion that is not the lot of all men. Where I have read, it is the crowning touch of the life of a believer. He worshipped on ‘the top of his staff’ (note). He finished as a worshipper. Our dear brother finished as a worshipper. His life included moments of toil. He proved what a toilsome life was. I want to allude to the fact that in his early life he went through bitterness. He never lost his faith in his God. He went through sorrow, deep sorrow. Not everyone has faced that kind of sorrow. I will tell you what I read in a letter written by a Christian brother who went through similar exercises in his early life. He says,
‘feelings of unutterable pressure and loneliness, known only to those who have passed through them’. In those moments, only one blessed Man can be with you all the way. Friends and brethren are with you, and that is a great comfort, but only one blessed Man goes all the way. That is Jesus. He found Him as his Friend. He walked with him through that valley and He brought him forth to green pastures. Our dear sister who has been with him is now going that way but Christ can be the Friend all the way to succour and sustain her in these hours of sorrow.
For this man, Jacob, at the close of his life is a family man. This scene is a family scene, the scene you would be acquainted with when our brother was sick, and here the son goes along with his two sons; a son and grandsons. He takes his grandsons into the presence of this dying believer. What did he want? He wanted to put them in an area where they 158
would hear about God, hear about the God who had shepherded his father Jacob all his life long until this day That was a characteristic of our brother; God shepherded him all his life long, brought him through, brought him through all the exercises of life, and there were many after the one I have spoken about. God brought him into blessing, gave him light as to the house of God, “Arise, go up to Bethel” (Gen 35: 1); that is the word to Jacob. He gave Jacob light as to the house of God which he followed through, and then as departing he desires that the generations that are following on may come into blessing. He says, “bless the lads”. What a heart he had for the testimony as every father, every grandfather, every brother, every sister would have for the generations coming on.
Come into the Christian fellowship; come in to the Christian circle! He says, “let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the land!” What did he have in mind? Not that they would make much in this scene. We need our bread and butter to get through, we need to do our work, we need to exercise prudence. There is another life, dear brethren. Our brother knew another life. He had a link with a Man in heaven, a real and living link with a Man in heaven, forgiveness of his sins, and he received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is real.
Conversion is real. A real change takes place in the soul of a believer when he is converted. He lives in the real sense of the life of a blessed Man in heaven and he meets with Christians and he enjoys the life that is called eternal life. That is not future. There will be a future life with Christ, but this is a present thing. It is a sphere of life. You and I are living persons, but we have our life, a sphere of life that we live in.
What sphere of life do you live in, friend? This dear brother that we are burying today lived amongst his family. That was one side of his life. He had a sphere of life there, but he had a greater sphere of life amongst the circle of Christians because he had a link with a Man in heaven, and what they spoke about was not the life in this scene. It is life that is to come, but not only life that is only to come, life that is present, knowing the blessings of what they have in Christ, “inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”, Acts 26: 18. What is this inheritance? For these persons here literally, Jacob had in mind they would enjoy the promised land, but for the 159
Christian it is the circle of affection amongst believers where the presence and blessing of Christ is known, a peace that passes understanding, a bond that is not broken in death.. As belonging to the family of God we have a link together as believers that is not going to be broken. We can enjoy that living link now because each believer is in touch with the Man in heaven. It is a real matter. There is a real sense of joy in the soul, a real buoyancy. It draws you to where believers are.
The Bible is not a dead book, you know. It is full of life. You are linked with a glorious, living Man and that attracts you to that sphere. You are drawn like a magnet to where life is. May it be the portion of all here today, for the Lord’s Name’s sake.
EDINBURGH
11th June 2009
(At the meeting for the burial of Mr David Scougal) 160
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND HIS MINISTRY
J.D.G. In chapter 16 the Lord waits on the Father to disclose something to Peter. Just prior to entering on our subject I would like to draw the brethren’s attention, particularly the younger brethren, to chapter 15 where the Lord Jesus, after having been wearied by the traditions of the Pharisees, He goes outside the realm of circumcision. Vvs 22 and 23 of chapter 15 where the woman comes beseeching Him to heal her daughter; it says in verse 24, “he answering said, I have not been sent save to the lost sheep of Israel’s house”. Was there to be no hope for the Gentile? Ah yes, the heart of Christ could not contain Himself when that Gentile woman pleaded for mercy. She says in verse 27, after the Lord said, It is not well to take the bread of the children, that is the Jews, and cast it to the dogs, that is the Gentile, “Yea, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the table of their masters”.
How the Lord’s affections were moved and His power moved too to heal the daughter. That is what we began with in Romans 15, the Gentiles, the nations crying to the Lord for mercy. Now the Lord Jesus is moving on by way of Caesarea-Philippi which is almost suggestive of a Gentile area, still within the limits of the Jew. He says, “Who do men say that I the Son of man am?” The Lord was waiting on the Father’s movements. How we have been affected previously by His address, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes”, Matt 11: 25. Here is a man who is the subject of divine workmanship, Peter, the principle of revelation comes about. The Lord asks, “Who do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some, John the baptist; and other Elias; and others again, Jeremias or one of the prophets”. Then He says to them, “But ye, who do ye say that I am?” That is a question for all of us here today.
“Simon Peter answering said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering said to him, Blessed art 161
thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”.
It has been helpfully pointed out, he did not gain this knowledge of the Christ as Son of the living God from external circumstances. In chapter 14, when it was a storm and the Lord walked on the water, and He came into the ship with Peter, it says, “when they had gone up into the ship, the wind fell. But those in the ship came and did homage to him, saying, Truly thou art God’s Son”, Matt 14: 32, 33. That is objective, how the Lord was seen as God’s Son objectively, outside of themselves, but this is not objective, this is a subjective work of God in the soul of a person; that is spiritual and it is open to all of us, and indeed necessary for all of us to come this way.
Not that we all claim to get the distinctive and initial matter, as Peter got it, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, but I think we have to come to some understanding with the Father and with the Lord Jesus and the Spirit, that we are convicted, not by what is external, but what God has done within us, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And then, He says, I am going to build something, and you, Peter, are going to be in that building. It is not that Peter is the rock on which He will build the assembly, it is the confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”; on that confession the Lord is going to build His assembly. That is important, particularly on account of teaching that goes around in Christendom.
But we have to come to it that we are material, the Lord has formed us as material; Peter was a stone. And then, I was affected in reading verse 21, “From that time Jesus began to shew to his disciples that he must go away to Jerusalem, and suffer”. In chapter 16 He is to be delivered into the hands of the elders and the chief priests; in chapter 17 He is to be delivered into the hands of men. I thought Isaiah would help to affect us in our affections, just to tarry a little in this reading on the subject of Christ, before we come to consider the matter, that in some sense is a kind of climax to the thoughts we have had, as to the two persons, or three persons, gathered together to the name of the Lord Jesus. I think before we come to that we will immerse ourselves for some time in the consideration 162
of what it meant to the Lord to be delivered into the hands of the elders and the chief priests, and into the hands of men.
Isaiah 50 brings that out in the most touching way. I only read a few verses to bring out the conciseness and the specificity of the matter; and then chapter 53 is another matter, bringing out in the main the atoning sufferings that should affect us.
So that when we come to our little gatherings, two or three gathered together to the name of the Lord Jesus, the basis for it all has been the sufferings of Christ. These are the thoughts I had in mind.
J.S.
I wondered if you would say a little more as to what you have in mind about the sufferings of Christ in this connection.
J.D.G. Well, it seems to be that when the revelation comes out from the Father, when the Lord indicates He is about to build His assembly, coming into His mind, that from that time He began to show, that is manifested to the disciples He must go away to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests, be killed, and then the third day be raised again. All their hopes were to be pinned on a Man that was going through death, coming out of death. This wonderful matter, this wonderful structure could not take place until after His atoning work. Would that be right?
J.S.
Yes, quite so. It involved His going through these sufferings. And then His atoning sufferings in order that there should be a basis laid for the securing of material for the assembly, and the building of the assembly.
J.D.G. That is right. I thought maybe we would just tarry for a moment on the subject of the revelation. I would like to ask a question; When the gospel is preached to you, it is preached on the principle of faith to faith; when the believer is converted and progressing in the truth, is that when we come into the area where revelation takes place? I am asking that question.
J.A.G. They are hardly out of Egypt when the principle of revelation appears. Jehovah showed Moses wood, that is the principle of revelation. You are saying that once we are converted we begin to get impressions; I suppose that is how 163
it works out in our souls, and growth comes about, it comes about as we realise that we are having something from God.
J.D.G. That is what I thought. The gospel comes to us on the principle of faith to faith; you are affected by it; repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Once the vessel is secured, as Peter was secured, there is a work of God there, because it was so in Peter. He is named ‘stone’ which involves the work of God, which involves he is a suitable person to be built into the structure of the assembly. He lays hold of that himself in his epistle, speaking about living stones. Christ is the living stone and then the living stones coming to Him for a spiritual house. So he lays hold of that, but the Father is able to operate in relation to imparting to us impressions of His Christ. That is not exclusive to Peter; that is the portion, or should be the portion of all of us.
J.M.
Did you remark that revelation requires a state in the person for the reception of it? Could you say something about that?
J.D.G. For us, we would be persons who have received the Holy Spirit. Peter was not actually here, but in character he would take that place; in that character we can view him. I know he did not actually have the Spirit, we are in the gospel, but in character he would be a person who has the Spirit and who is making room in his soul for the operations of the Holy Spirit. So that there is a state there that is equal to receiving communications, divine communications. Would that be right, would you go with that?
J.M.
Yes, I understand so, that revelation is personal, and really requires a state, and if declaration is general it does not matter if there is a state or not, it is there. But when you come to revelation it really involves divine operations already in the vessel to whom the revelation is made. So that there is no failure with the revelation.
J.D.G. That is good. I am glad you remark these things, we appreciate it. Revelation is the normal way God communicates with a saint who is in touch with Himself, in a living system; Christ is the Son of the living God, what He builds is a living house, a living assembly, composed of persons who are viewed 164
as coming to Him. I agree with what you say, the living stones coming to Christ would involve a state in which they are attracted to that blessed Man.
J.M.
Could I ask another thing, because I have heard questions asked about it, What do you understand is the foundation here? On this rock, what do you understand the rock is?
J.D.G. Well, I was saying that the rock is Christ. We will read it, verse 18, “And I also, I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly”. The rock on which He is going to build His assembly is not Peter, but Peter’s confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”; that is the foundation on which it is going to be built. It is not built on Peter, that is wrong, it is built on Christ. Is that right?
J.M.
I have understood what you said earlier that the rock is really Peter’s confession. It is that on which the building is; it certainly is not Peter personally, but it is the confession that he makes, and that comes as a result of the revelation.
J.D.G. And that confession is, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”; everything is built on that blessed Man, but it is after He goes through death and resurrection that the building begins. The building is not beginning here, but it is in mind to begin. Brethren will need to keep us right in these things.
J.A.G. Would desiring earnestly the pure mental milk of the word provide the state, or make way for the state, and coming to Him is characteristic, and then you are built up yourselves living stones, 1 Pet 2: 2–5?
J.D.G. That is right. So we would encourage us all, and the younger men and women, to reach a measure of maturity, to seek to be persons who know something about it. It is not to make us unnatural, but spirituality and what is natural according to the flesh and blood condition in nature does not conflict, where room is made for what is spiritual. It could conflict if we get overawed by it, and did not make room for what is spiritual.
W.L. Is there anything apart from being born anew?
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J.D.G. Well, I suppose the answer to that is no. There is nothing apart from being born anew, but this goes further than that as you would understand.
W.L. I appreciate that, but we must have that sovereign action of the Spirit before we can progress to this.
J.D.G. Yes. The sovereignty of God in new birth is His matter, although it says that ye must be born anew, as if to exercise a person, but the sovereignty of God in new birth is His matter. But when it comes to conversion and the confirmation that I have in myself that I have trusted Christ as Saviour and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, I have answered in responsibility from my side, but then my life as a believer after that, as having these wonderful gifts, is to be exercised to make way for what is spiritual in my soul, over against what is fleshly or natural, keeping the natural in its place, because natural is not wrong, fleshly is wrong. Is that right?
W.L. It certainly is, and God acts in this way, revelation is a sovereign matter too, is it not?
J.D.G. Yes, sovereign but we can put ourselves in the way of it. Would you agree with that?
W.L. Undoubtedly.
D.B.R. Would it bring out the importance of what we touched on in an earlier reading as to secret experience with God, and we might say, waiting in His presence?
J.D.G. That is good. Now, would you say that we have learned the Father first of all in Matthew 6, “enter into thy chamber, and ... pray to thy Father ... and thy Father who sees in secret will render it to thee”, Matt 6: 6? Maybe the first operations of my heart speaking to the Father might be in relation to my needs and things here below that burden me, but do you not think as we progress we find the Father is a Person who is prepared to let us know something of His side of things?
D.B.R. That is what I thought. It is a very precious thing to have to do with God about our needs and He never disappoints us, but it is a greater thing to enter into the presence of God and perhaps share some secret with Him. Do you think that?
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J.D.G. Yes, I thought what you are drawing out is a progression of the line of the Lord’s teaching that He began by teaching that to enter into thy chamber and speak to thy Father. Now He is looking to the Father to be able to communicate something by revelation to us, because we have got the gain of His teaching, and there is a state with us now, by the Spirit that is equal to going into the presence of God, and, like Moses, instead of speaking to God He speaks to us.
D.B.R. That is really how the subjective work in our souls is established. It is not established perhaps through much reading, although I am not deprecating reading, but I think we need to be persons who frequent the presence of God. Would you say that?
J.D.G. Yes, and find that there is something communicated to you and becomes part of you, so that it can be said you are stone in this setting, not hardened stone according to flesh, not that line at all, it is another form of things, divine workmanship.
M.G.W. Would that agree with what we have in Isaiah 50; would Peter appear to have received the tongue of the instructed, someone whose ear had been wakened morning by morning, “he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, and so on?
J.D.G. Well, that is Christ particularly, but the believer who is formed after Christ has that kind of ear.
H.P.
Is knowing grace one of the things we are in need of?
J.D.G. Well, grace has a great formative power in the soul of a believer; we all have received, John says, grace upon grace; what a flood of grace comes into the soul to form us after the One who was here; grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ. What a feature comes out in the believer after that blessed Man.
J.S.
Do you think it is progress to see Christ in this way as the One who has something that He is building, My assembly, something that is so precious to Himself, and He wants to incorporate us in that?
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J.D.G. That is right. I think I recall coming across something like this, that the Lord had no home here, but He builds His assembly, a place He can come to where He finds a home. That is a wonderful matter that He comes among persons (the assembly is built of persons), a certain kind of person, persons who are the subject of revelation from the Father. They have a link that is within, according to the work of God within them, absolutely convicted on account of God’s operations within.
P.J.H. As the question in Lamentations, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” (Lam 1: 12), it is a continual thing that comes before us as we go through life, evoking greater replies to that question, as we contemplate the cost to the Lord and His desires.
J.D.G. Well, we will come on to that in a minute, it is in our hearts to look into it, but this structure here, it has been said by another, if love had not failed the devil would not have got an inch to overthrow even what was public.
R.T.
Would you say something about the impregnability of this building? In the day when there is much under attack it would stabilise our souls, would it? Hades’ gates, the whole organised power of the devil is against it, but yet the building is still going on.
J.D.G. The whole administration of hell was against it, hades’
gates involve an administration, and it has been prevalent throughout the dispensation to overthrow what Christ has in mind. But it goes through in impregnability, strengthened by divine Persons but secured in saints who are held by the Spirit of God’s power in relation to Christ’s own thoughts about the assembly. There is a need to lay hold of the truth of the assembly and all that it meant to Christ. It will go through, it will not be overthrown and that involves it is not overthrown in persons’ souls.
J.A.G. The Lord can trust these persons, would you say?
Peter was trustworthy here, he gets something, he gets keys, and there is another administration continuing in the face of Satanic administration.
J.D.G. Yes. The truth of the church has been held precious in the souls of believers, it will be so until the Lord comes, 168
inviolate, it will not be overthrown, it is the work of God. It says in another scripture, “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”, 1 John 4: 4.
J.A.G. These persons have power with God in chapter 18, whatever they ask comes to them.
J.D.G. Yes, that is true.
R.T.
It is not going to fail, it is going to be raptured.
J.D.G. That is right, that is good.
A.M. Would you open up the title “the Christ” in this connection?
J.D.G. Well, I suppose it is God’s anointed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” that is God’s anointed.
Another has said He is the great divine operator, doing things for God. He is the Son of the living God, that is new. “Thou art the Christ” may have been known to Peter as the Jewish side of the Messiah, but “Son of the living God” is new. There is something revealed as to His Person here. We have been speaking about certain matters that have not been revealed as to the Person of the Son, but here is something revealed about Him and He is going to operate and build a structure; we have to be intelligent about that, but it is assured, because it is the work of God. The devil will try to overthrow it; hades’ gates is a real matter here, the administration of evil in this world is a real matter, if it could it would destroy every feature of the assembly. You know, dear brethren, matters in this country at the moment are not exactly against men and women, it is against the truth of the church, it is an attempt to wipe out any reference to Christ in Christendom.
J.W. I would like to enquire as to what is involved in being built into the assembly. Do you think it is more than receiving the Spirit and belonging to the assembly?
J.D.G. Well, it is building a structure that is according to the divine pattern; “I will build my assembly”. We know the Spirit’s operations in relation to it but from this point of view it is Christ’s own work, “I will build my assembly”; He is building according to the pattern, it will shine finally in the day of display, a city that will shine there with its gates and its pearls 169
and administration, it will have an influence on the whole world.
J.Mar. Would this have any relation to Genesis chapter 2, it refers to the rib being taken from the man, built into the woman, and then it goes on, “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh—this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man”, Gen 2: 23?
J.D.G. Well, I think this is a little different, this building is built of stones that come to Christ; they are persons coming to Christ. What you have in Genesis is the entity, what the assembly is as a vessel or a person, “I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly”, Eph 5: 32. It is a personality.
J.W. There are many believers who belong to the assembly but really have not the light as to it. You could hardly say they were built into it, could you? While they belong to it, I wondered if you could help us more as to the thought of being built into it in that way?
J.D.G. If I understand the truth, I think what you have said is right, that there are believers who belong to Christ, they belong to the assembly in an abstract way, or in a sense in an actual way, but they have little light of it. I understand in order to come to an appreciation of your place in the structure you have to come through the principle of revelation, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. I understand that from ministry and teaching, that every believer should come to that in some way; that they receive from the Father or the Lord Jesus an understanding to the fact that He is building them into His building.
J.M.
Does “the Son of the living God” really involve that there is a living system, and you would almost think it is superfluous because God cannot be anything other than living? He has put that there to stress that what is being built is a real living system.
J.D.G. Yes, that is how I understand it. That is why Peter’s epistles are helpful to us, because there is the living stone that is Christ, and there are living stones who come to Him, built up a spiritual house, a spiritual habitation. So that, over against all the deadness that has gone before in the history of 170
the Old Testament in relation to the literality of it, here is a new thing being brought in and it is being built by Christ, and it is being built of certain persons of certain character that belong to Him as stone, but the whole thing is pervaded by love.
H.P.
Mr James Taylor speaks of it, if I remember rightly, as needing a second conversion.
J.D.G. Well, I have not heard that but it is very good, needing a second conversion.
H.P.
I think it is really something additional to new birth and having faith in the Saviour, but having to do with the Lord in relation to these things in personal deep exercises.
J.D.G. I think you are absolutely right; conversion initially is the beginning of the Christian path for us. The operation of God in sovereignty in new birth was His matter, but when we come to Christ as our Saviour that is the beginning of the Christian path. Receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is another matter; it is really Christ’s disposition to give us it, or God’s disposition to give us it. That is not the end of the Christian path either, we come on to understand that the whole area of Christianity is living; it is not a liturgy, it is not a creed (that is maybe right in some ways); it is a living system and a living God. Communications come day by day, opening our ear morning by morning. He is prepared to communicate to us as He is in this reading and opening up our understanding and laying something on our hearts.
H.P.
Mr James Taylor refers to this in relation to men, I think it is in Mark, the blind man who got the second touch, Mark 8: 22–26.
J.D.G. It is a good thing to get a second touch to see all things clearly.
R.G.
We preach the gospel, and we preach a full gospel as we say, and we bring in the gift of the Holy Spirit, but there are many persons out there who have the gift of the Holy Spirit but that gift may be grieved. But the next step should be a personal link through the Spirit with the Lord, so that there 171
might be fresh impressions granted to us by revelation, do you think?
J.D.G. That is right. That is the truth of Corinthians, “he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”, 1 Cor 6: 17. You have a direct link with the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit. You had a link with the Lord Jesus by faith when you came to Him as your Saviour, but you received the Spirit, it is in view of communication. You get that in Acts 16, where it says, “having passed through Phrygia and the Galatian country, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, having come down to Mysia, they attempted to go to Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; and having passed by Mysia they descended to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night—There was a certain Macedonian man, standing and beseeching him, and saying, Pass over into Macedonia and help us”, Acts 16: 6–9. And then it says, “immediately we sought to go forth to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to announce to them the glad tidings”, Acts 16: 10.
It shows you how the Spirit comes into matters. Then again in Acts 13 when they were gathered together in the assembly, the Spirit of God speaks, “And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”, Acts 13: 2.
Both scriptures confirm the fact that the structure is living; the assembly is a living structure where divine operations and divine communications can take place, with the persons who belong to it and who are intelligently in it, who are making way for the Spirit of God in their lives.
J.A.G. Does the building of necessity involve the Lord’s headship, because there must be impartation if there is going to be a building?
J.D.G. Yes, I would say that.
J.A.G. There is the Supper and the meetings that follow it during the week, they are vital to this building.
J.D.G. I would say so. Maybe we will come on to that when we come to Matthew 18.
J.T.B. Does David building round about from the Millo and inward enter into this? It is something built constitutionally 172
into the soul of the believer, do you think? David dwelt there in the stronghold, there was no place for the lame and the blind, it was whole men, really men developed in their knowledge of God, do you think? Of David typically.
J.D.G. The Jebusite who had held that territory for so long was completely overthrown by the might of David.
J.T.B. It is there that the king and his men came to Jerusalem. Is it the thought of maturity that really develops in us a sense of our place in the structure?
J.D.G. That is good. So you come in relation to David, and what we were is one thing, but what we become is another thing, become mighty men, come into his cabinet you might say. Would that be right?
J.McK. Peter says in his second epistle, “in your faith have also virtue”, 2 Peter 1: 5. Mr Darby says that is moral courage (Collected Writings vol 19 p 93)—that would link with this, would it?
J.D.G. It certainly would, it is a feature that is needed because hades’ gates are seeking to prevail against the assembly, so moral courage in the believer is a feature that would stand in good stead to thwart the attempts of the devil to overthrow in my soul the precious truth of the assembly.
M.M. Is there any link with the impregnability that you have referred to and the showing forth of the Lord’s death until He come in the Supper?
J.D.G. Yes, it would be a rallying point for a saint, would it not? Rallying point is for us in relation to the king, as our brother referred to the king and his men, a rallying point for the affections.
Perhaps we could come on to Isaiah for a short time to consider the two references along with Matthew. In Matthew 16: 21, He is to be committed into the hands of the elders and the chief priests. In chapter 17 He is to be committed into the hands of men and the disciples were greatly grieved. So I thought, particularly for younger persons, to understand the feelings of the Lord Jesus, what He exposed Himself to.
Chapter 50 gives us His martyr sufferings, to be affected by 173
them before we come to speak about our present matters. It says of the Lord Jesus in verse 5, “The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious”. I think that is seen in Gethsemane, “I was not rebellious; I turned not away back”.
The other matters are His martyr sufferings, He gave Himself over into the hands of men. But I think we should be affected by the fact that His ear was opened and He was not rebellious and turned not away back. What an hour for Him, it was not the hour of His atoning sufferings, but it was the hour when the obedience of the Christ was seen; He says, “My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”, Matt 26: 39. Absolute committal to the divine will.
D.B.R. “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”. I came across a beautiful touch by Mr Taylor where he spoke about God whispering into the ears of Jesus, vol 78 p80. It brings out the sensibilities and sensitivities of this holy Man, and we accept that is a pattern for us, some word of God for us?
J.D.G. The sensitivity of the ear in the quietness of the moment in the morning, before many matters take up our attention through the day, whether we are retired or whether we are working—There are matters come into your mind, but to be touched in the morning in its quietness by what God would have to say to you for the day brings us through each day.
J.Sp. Would that bear on the verse immediately after, “He is near that justifieth me”? I was thinking of what it says in Timothy that He is justified in the Spirit.
J.D.G. Yes, that is right. We did not read that but it is very precious that “He is near that justifieth me—who will contend with me?” Perhaps you could say a bit more about your thoughts as to the verse in Timothy, justified in the Spirit.
J.Sp. It is obviously a direct reference to Christ. In principle we should know something of that, should we not? There is no outward justification, we have to wait for that, but an inward knowledge that we are here pleasing to the Father should be a believer’s normal portion, do you think?
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J.D.G. Do you not think that would be there as we share a place in the structure, in the assembly, having received from Christ personally some appreciation of the way He would have us to be. This passage in Isaiah 50, just to touch on the fact that He was not rebellious, turned not away back. We see that peculiarly in Gethsemane; then giving His back to the smiters, what He endured at the hands of the elders and the chief priests, and at the hands of men, hands of the nation. Then in Isaiah 53 I thought we should ponder the fact that the Lord Jesus, if we were going to have the privilege of coming into this structure that is built after His death and resurrection, coming down to our own time seen in Matthew 18, there has to be a sincere and deep appreciation of what it cost Christ. “Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath subjected him to suffering. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin”.
These are deep matters, dear brethren; it should sober us as we handle the truth in our places, that the basis of it all was these sufferings of Christ, particularly the atoning sufferings, also His martyr sufferings, but particularly His atoning sufferings. Then it says, “by his knowledge shall my righteous servant instruct many in righteousness”. I was linking that with the twos and threes meeting together; we are in an area where “my righteous servant shall instruct many in righteousness”. There is an interesting note for all of us, particularly younger men and women, ‘ lit ‘the many’, i.e. those that are in relationship with him’. There is no one condemned or damned by predestination, so the gospel is available to all; so as we come to Christ and establish a relationship with Him we come in for all the blessings that He has for all men. “I will assign him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong”. The Lord has these persons, we come into the matter of David’s spoil, what Christ secures for Himself out of His death.
N.J.H. Speaking of the sufferings of Christ, would that enter into the communion that He enjoyed with His Father as He went over what was contained in that day He would go through?
J.D.G. You mean when He spoke to His Father in Gethsemane. What a holy conversation took place in 175
Gethsemane; Christ falling to the ground it says, there was evidence seen in His human frame of the intensity of His sufferings, what that frame anticipated. Well, how are we going to be persons who handle divine things?
R.G.
I was going to ask if the sufferings of Christ are what were involved in what it says of the Hebrew bondman, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”, Exod 21: 5.
J.D.G. Yes, it is an all-inclusive love, service springing from His love for each one. Well, He has secured us. I thought to refer to these two scriptures in Isaiah just to sober us in our thoughts and affections before we consider Matt 18.
W.L. Is it significant that evidence of the gates of hades at work in the early error as to the sufferings of Christ that Mr Darby had to meet?
J.D.G. Yes, we are very thankful for clarification by men who were more able than ourselves to show us what is right and wrong, but what comes in in hades’ gates might attempt to seduce us and lead us away from Christ. John’s epistles were particularly concerned with attempts by hades’ gates to disestablish and lead souls away.
Well we should go on to Matthew 18. I would like to get the brethren’s help on this. The Lord Jesus is speaking in Matthew 18, through the whole of the chapter as far as I understand it, speaking about the kind of spirit that marks the believer who is an assembly person, and that in the day in which the assembly was normal. As far as I understand, up till the end of verse 18, there is normality of assembly function.
Mr James Taylor says, just for the help of the younger men and women, chapter 5 of Matthew is legislation mainly for the remnant, but it also has application to the Christian. Chapter 18 is the law that governs matters in the assembly. That is where we go for help mainly. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 have a bearing on us, we have been speaking about it, but it is mainly for the remnant. I do not think the remnant will look to chapter 18 of Matthew’s gospel in a day to come, that is the scripture for us. But then we come down to “Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any 176
matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens. For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”. Think of the Lord Jesus coming down in His foreknowledge to speak about our own day. Long before Paul’s ministry was brought out, where Paul says that in the great house there are certain matters to purify yourself by separating. Here the Lord Jesus says in anticipating that day, that the preciousness of the assembly, the assembly in function, can be experienced in the day of two or three, because “there am I in the midst of them”. What kind of manhood, and have we got the kind of manhood that would attract Christ to say, I am in the midst of you?
J.M.
“Again I say to you, that if two of you”, is that really two assembly persons?
J.D.G. Well, I have to ask you the question, What is an assembly person?
J.M.
I think it would be a person who holds in his affections, and in his practical walk, all that is proper to the assembly, even in a day of breakdown. So that while we cannot claim to be the assembly, the assembly characteristically is in operation, is it not?
J.D.G. That is not because we belong to a certain named sect.
J.M.
No, not at all, that is a moral work, a spiritual work in the souls of persons.
J.D.G. That is what I think. I do not think we should assume because we walk together and belong to a named sect that this is true of all our gatherings. We should be exercised to be such persons that it is true. If the Lord tarry the assembly’s history here is going to continue; it is going to continue on the basis of two or three gathered together to the Lord’s name. We experience the Lord coming to us, I say that in humility, but there must be conditions with us.
G.B.G. I am sure what you say is right, so we just cannot take this for granted. It has been said it is a consequence of these 177
conditions being provided, not exactly a promise, but a consequence.
J.D.G. We want to instruct the younger persons coming on, persons who are coming into responsibility, and those of us who are in responsibility, to see to it that we are this kind of person, see to ourselves. We were speaking about humanity and manhood in the Lord’s ministry; well it seems to me if we get the gain of this line of teaching we will be this kind of person, committed to the light of the assembly and practice. It is not just to hold the doctrine of the assembly; I might hold the doctrine of the assembly and not be in the practice of it; I could hold the doctrine of the assembly and be in a monastery but that is not where I can practise it. It is not enough to see our father and mother in this thing, we want everyone to be in it. It is a certain character of manhood that lays itself out for the interests of Christ here, paramount in their affections, the Supper means something to them, they are loyal to that blessed Man who comes to them. They are prepared to be apart from the world, apart from anything that pertains to the world, all its associations and partnerships, to be for Christ and Christ alone, committed to supporting the gatherings, not because it is a legal matter but because it is precious to Christ.
J.M.
There is a very fine touch in the ministry of Mr James Taylor where he says that every time we put our hands to the loaf in the Supper we commit ourselves to a covenant with God, that we will walk in the practice of the assembly in its totality even though we are in the days of breakdown. The matter of putting your hand to the loaf entering into a covenant is something that was new to me, but I think it is very beautiful.
J.D.G. I have not read that and very much appreciate you brought it in, because it removes from the celebration of the Supper any casualness about taking the loaf. We pass that loaf one to another; I think that is very fine, you are entering into a covenant in taking that bread, or a portion of it, participating in the eating of it.
J.S.
The word to Timothy would come into this, in regard of two of you “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”, 2 Tim 2: 22.
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There is not only the separation but there is actual pursuit of these features which came out in Christ Himself.
J.D.G. Yes, I think that shows how we are held together in righteousness. Well, we began in Matthew chapter 3, fulfil all righteousness, then faith, love and peace. I cannot see how the Lord can come to any company where there is characteristically hatred, no matter what light they have. I think the Lord comes to where love is; I am not saying there can be little spats arise, where self-judgment comes in and matters can be clarified. I am speaking of what is characteristic, the Lord comes, “here am I in the midst of them”. There is appreciation of one another. I think this is a most important matter.
R.T.
“Gathered together unto my name” seems to be the regulating feature, would you say something about that?
J.D.G. Well, that is true, I would like to hear what you say about it. It must be that all that is done is to the honour of the name of Christ, so there is no disrespect brought on the name of the Lord Jesus by the company with whom I am participating in the breaking of bread, and with myself in particular. Corinthians shows you proceed to the Supper on the basis of your own self-judgment, and consider that others who are there have also entered into that covenant with God as to self-judgment. Would that be right?
R.T.
It is not only separation, that is underlying it, but
“unto my name” is an objective, it is what governs the conversation in the meeting. I was thinking of Philippians 2,
“let this mind be in you” (Phil 2: 5); there is something that dominates the gathering, that Name.
J.D.G. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. Mr Darby says, ‘O lowliness, how feebly known’; it is a wonderful state to be there, in accord with the One who is coming in. Others can help us as to the matter of the Name.
D.B.R. I appreciate what is being said, because I feel that certain matters might become a little grey, particularly perhaps as to associations, we need to be clear of that. One touch I have appreciated in Mr Taylor’s ministry as to the Name, he said ‘These are persons who have gathered together 179
by motive’, vol 58 p303. That is, your motives are pure, they are centred in Christ. Another feature I wondered about, “unto my name” is that we are absolutely dependent upon Him. He says “in the midst of them”; that would be a dependent circle, do you think? We cannot do without Christ, so we would keep everything clear that Christ might have free way with us, do you think?
J.D.G. Yes. It is a great encouragement to have some appreciation of the Lord coming amongst us, making Himself known to us. I refer to the occasion of privilege, because it is some indication from Him, although matters might not altogether be wholly in accord with Him, He is prepared to identify Himself with us because of what is real there, and desire there and earnestness there and love there.
D.B.R. It is really the present reward that we have in seeking to be faithful to Him, do you think? He is the reward, He personally is the reward.
J.D.G. Without Christ we have nothing. Mary of Magdala, on the resurrection morning, what did she have?—Bereft of everything if she did not have Christ.
J.A.G. I understand that the characteristics of the Name are to be found amongst the brethren. If we are to read the Name amongst the brethren, we should be able to, because the Name is the character of the Person. If I say a person’s name, I think about him and his characteristics. The name of Jesus makes you think about Him and all the beautiful features about Him, and that is expressed in the brethren, and He can come to that.
It is basic to Christianity.
J.D.G. Yes, everything is done; gathered to the Name involves His absence; the Lord is absent, but then all that is there in that company represents Him completely, expressed in one and another.
R.T.
The Lord seemed to appreciate Philadelphia, did He not? “Hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name” (Rev 3: 8), it infers that they kept it.
J.D.G. Yes, “kept my word and hast not denied my name”, there was nothing disrespectful in them, in their gathering, or 180
in the persons, that would bring a blot on the precious name of Christ. Well, that is what we have to be in our lives, walk is practical, that we walk in such-wise that something is in accord with that blessed Name, with the truth, as it has been opened up to us.
J.S.
It says; “there am I in the midst of them”. Do you think that means that He is central, He has really the chief place?
J.D.G. Yes, it is in relation to a company is it not? “In the midst of them”, crowned in the midst of His brethren, He finds delight. Who distinguishes this company, this two or three? It is Christ that distinguishes it. Who says it is an honour to us?
It is Christ that says that, “there am I in the midst of them”, that is the whole confirmatory matter. The Lord chooses to identify with a company, not us, is that right?
J.S.
So there are these persons, “in the midst of them”, that would be the persons, and you have the One who is in the midst. It is a company where Christ has acquired this central place.
R.T.
Referring to Corinthian conditions, an unbeliever coming in saying “God is indeed amongst you” (1 Cor 15: 25), he sees something in the conduct, the way the brethren are gathered together, and the way they appreciate one another, that God is there.
J.D.G. I am glad you bring that in, because it extends the matter into the working out of the exercises in the place in the week. Not just exclusive to the Lord’s supper, it is precious there, but it is a committal to the saints in the wilderness setting too, with all the exercises that are there. As long as we are exercised about them; someone remarked that Mr Darby said that he would not leave a place for evil, but he would leave a place where evil was not taken up and dealt with.
W.L. I wondered if this was a lesson that Saul of Tarsus had to learn. There was absolutely no doubt about the thoroughness of his conversion, but the Lord says, Go into the city and you will find there something that represents Me.
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J.D.G. Yes, I think that is right, and he came away with something in his soul, he preached Jesus as the Son of God.
He came quickly into the light of what the assembly was as a construction of divine workmanship. I think what has been said as to the Supper should be paid attention to, and as our brother has brought out the matter in the Corinthian setting, a man coming in and saying, “God is indeed amongst you”, 1
Cor14: 25. But that involves state with us, and that is what is in mind, that there is a practical answer to the truth in our lives and in our souls, and the appreciation of what proceeds of assembly character in the place, to be identified with it.
Maybe we cannot be there at all the gatherings, but it is a committal to be there; businesses are arranged as far as is possible to be present; not by legislation but because “there am I in the midst of them”.
DUNDEE
13th August 2005
List of initials
J.T.Brown, Edinburgh; J.A.Gardiner, Aberdeen; R.Gardiner, Kirkcaldy; G.B.Grant, Dundee; J.D.Gray, Edinburgh; N.J.Henry, Glasgow; P. J. Herbert, Newport; W.Lamont, Cumnock; A.Mair, Cullen; J.Marshall, Edinburgh; M.Matthews, Kirkcaldy; J.McKay, Witney; J.Mitchell, Edinburgh; H. Pfeiffer, Bad Endbach; D.B.Robertson, Dundee; J.Spinks, Grangemouth; J.Strachan, Dundee; R.Taylor, Kirkcaldy; M.G.Wood, Dundee; J.Wright, Upminster 182
THE LORD JESUS PRESENTING HIMSELF
LIVING
This scripture came to me in giving thanks for the emblems, “to whom also he presented himself living, after he had suffered, with many proofs; being seen by them during forty days”. In chapter 16 of Luke’s gospel there was a rich man and there was a poor man called Lazarus. I do not think it gives the rich man’s name—but they died. The scripture draws aside the curtain for us to see that there is another world. What it shows us is that Lazarus is in the enjoyment of Abraham’s bosom; that sphere for us would be heavenly things. The rich man was in torment and there was a chasm fixed. That is a position that is fixed, eternity brings in fixity.
None of us is in the position of fixity yet. It is conveyed through the rich man that there is no way to come and go between those two places. He is concerned about his brothers who are still alive, and he appeals to Abraham that someone raised from among the dead might visit them and tell them of what is behind the curtain of death, you might say—Another world, the unseen world where persons that are Christ’s enjoy the presence of the Lord. Persons that are not Christ’s do not enjoy that presence, they are left with their guilty conscience. So the word comes to him, “not even if one rise from among the dead will they be persuaded”, Luke 16: 31.
I am about to speak to you about a Person who came back from among the dead—the Lord Jesus Christ. But He was not presented to the world. You might say, ‘why was He not?’ They would not have believed anyway; that is what Abraham says to the rich man, “not even if one rise from among the dead will they be persuaded”. Here is a blessed Man who has come back from among the dead; the Lord Jesus Christ after He had suffered was raised from the dead.
He does not go into Jerusalem to preach again. Those days are finished, the days of the Son of man are therefore finished, but He seeks out companionship. I am speaking actually of what happened. He sought out companionship, 183
and that companionship was in persons who had formed a link with Him in the days of His flesh, “But ye are they who have persevered with me in my temptations”, Luke 22: 28. He sought out sympathetic persons; that was the divine intent.
How could He present Himself to the world again when they had rejected Him. He could not present Himself to the Jewish nation again without repentance. He took up the matter of sin and sins before a holy God; He was lifted up, men lifted Him up out of the earth. He did not die on the earth, He glorified God on the earth; but He was lifted up out of the earth and He died on that cross. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, He was made sin, the transaction in which God was involved. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3: 16. Consider the preciousness of the place that Christ came into; in coming into manhood, He came into the Father’s bosom, “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father”, John 1: 18.
Was that disturbed in the forsaking? I think it was. Now you can think about that yourself. But that precious link that was there was broken for the time being, communion was broken.
In the first three hours on the cross He could say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, Luke 23: 34.
They could taunt the Lord by saying, “save thyself”. One of the malefactors on the cross said, “save thyself and us”, Luke 23: 39. Christ could not save Himself. He was held there in relation to divine counsel. He had the sin question to undertake and that blessed, holy communion that was known between the Father and the Son for the meantime was broken in the forsaking. Who can fathom these things? God was prepared to yield that blessed One, His Son, in view of the matters that pertain to fallen man, and pertain to sin having come into the universe, being settled, because the new heavens and the new earth are a sphere where sin is not, where there is no vestige of sin. At present even the heavens are not pure in His sight. So that the work of Christ on the cross in the forsaking exhausted the wrath of God; the wrath from heaven was upon the head of the Lord Jesus. When He comes into this section of scripture, that is behind Him. He had said,
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”, John 184
2: 19. So you have a Man who is out of death, but He does not present Himself to the world. How could He? He was rejected of man, rejected of the nation. When He comes the next time, that is at His second coming, He will come without having to say to sin for salvation, Heb 9: 28. He will come to those who look for Him.
Here He comes and finds persons gathered together who love Him. Not only does He do that, He goes after them to find them too. In Luke’s gospel the Lord Jesus goes after the two on the way to Emmaüs. He also goes after Peter, a man who denied Him, and He speaks with him in private (Luke 24: 34); we do not know what He said to him, but we know Peter was restored.
Here He gathers with His own. He had in mind that He should be testified to in the world, not by Himself coming immediately, but through persons who are witnesses of Himself, persons who had seen and heard Him after He arose from among the dead. How remarkable these forty days were when there was a Man out of death. To prove the reality of His being out of death, Luke tells us, He took of food and ate it before them. He did not require to do that for His sustenance because He was in a spiritual body, but He did it in regard to the weakness of their faith, to prove that as out of death, He was a real Man. It says, “ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. The name of this blessed Man and His fame, what He had undertaken on the cross would be preached in the whole world. He was not doing it personally, but He was doing it through persons. Think of the harvest that has been brought in through the outgoing of the glad tidings; this is the beginning of it, “... he presented himself living”, a real living Man.
He came in and went out among them in those forty days. John says in his epistle, “and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us”. I have no doubt something of that was seen in His life here, but the Lord Jesus said, “But I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened until it shall have 185
been accomplished!”, Luke 12: 50. In the forty days there was a demonstration of a character of life that was eternal life.
These dear brethren gathered in the upper room after His departure, they were Jews. Their thoughts of eternal life up to this point, I think, lay in relation to the world to come when Christ would rule; life on earth, that sort of life—that was Israel’s hope. Israel’s hope in the Messiah was that He would come and set up His kingdom here and deliver the people from the bondage of the Roman Empire, but the Lord had more in mind for them than that. Luke is concerned that we should grasp hold of His manifestation to them in the Acts, he writes to a man called Theophilus, and tells us that the apostles and others had an extended period of forty days when the Lord Jesus came in and went out among them. John tells us, in 1
John 1: 2, there was a manifestation of life, that was eternal life, and it was not related to this earth, and that is what is before the Christian.
The persons to whom the Lord came after His resurrection, if I may say so, were persons who had an established relationship with Him. It says in Isaiah 53, “by his knowledge shall my righteous servant instruct many in righteousness; and he shall bear their iniquities”, v 11. The note says there, “the many’, i.e. those that are in relationship with him’. That is the persons to whom He manifests Himself, not to the world, but to persons who are in relationship with Him, persons in whom there is repentance. In the beginning of the Acts, the preachings had in mind to bring about conviction and repentance and it was secured in many, they were added to the assembly. Peter even says that if the nation had repented, Christ would have come again at that time; but they rejected Him, they did not accept Him, so He did not come back. He is going to come back as Judge at the appearing, but in the meantime He has in mind that believers in Himself should come into the blessings of eternal life now.
So how do we come into that, how did it come down to us? John says here, “we report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us”, that is with the apostles. But he said something more than that, “and our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ”. That is distinctive 186
to the apostles. I think it was the fellowship that they enjoyed especially in the forty days, convinced as to a Man out of death, and that Man introducing them into a realm of life that was out of death. What a thing the Lord did in those days, helping them to become habituated to His presence and to have an understanding of what it was for Him to be there, no longer in flesh and blood condition, but to be there in a spiritual body, coming in and going out amongst them through closed doors.
Who can fathom that? We accept it by faith. We accept it by the report that these things happened and that they enjoyed a sphere of life that he calls here “the eternal life”; that is not a person but it was seen in a Person, “which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us”. I think that was manifested particularly in those days. John says, “our fellowship is indeed with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ”, but he wants us to understand “that ye also may have fellowship with us”.
That is a wonderful thing to think about. That is Christian fellowship.
Can you find that anywhere in the world, is there any brotherhood of men, or fellowship, that relates to a Man in heaven? That relates to contact with persons who walked here in those forty days with a Man who was no longer in flesh and blood condition, a Man who was out of death. Could you ever find another fellowship like that, dear friend? It is not only the gospel of relief, blessed gospel it is, that Christ died for our sins, and my sins are forgiven, but having a relationship with Him I come into the blessing of what these persons came into in Acts 1, where the Lord says to them, “and, being assembled with them, commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father, which said he ye have heard of me”. Then, further down, verse 8, “but ye will receive power, the Holy Spirit having come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses”, Acts 1: 8.
That was true, these persons were gathered together in the upper room and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, but there was more than that. That blessed Person, the Holy Spirit, was going to remain here on the earth until Christ should come again. These persons who received the gift of the Holy Spirit, those one hundred and twenty, have all gone, they 187
have gone to be with Christ; but the testimony has remained.
How did you come into fellowship, how did you come to Christ as your Saviour? We came into it through the report of the glad tidings. Where did you see the expression of Christian life?
You and I have to say that we saw it in persons. The principle of witness has come down the dispensation, “ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. We do not take away the distinctiveness of the initial witness, as John speaks of, “that which was from the beginning”, that is the beginning of Christ’s history here, the beginning of Christianity (not the beginning of John 1 when divine Persons were alone). It says,
“after he had suffered, with many proofs”. He convinced them as to Himself.
What has affected me as leading a Christian life here is the proofs of divine workmanship in persons. I was struck in giving thanks by the fact that, as the Lord comes amongst us, there is a wealth of divine workmanship in the saints that is released at the touch of His hand, the touch of the One whom we know as Head. There is an organic link there that releases that precious substance in relation to Himself. I think Christians become the many proofs at the present time of the verity of the work of God and the results of the work of Christ.
The testimony remains and you and I come into that and are affected by it. Here are persons whose lives have been changed. What changed their lives? Reformation? New Year resolutions are hopeless. Man’s human morality is hopeless.
What changed their lives? What changed their lives was conversion.
Thank God that you have been converted, friend, that you have come to Christ as your Saviour and Lord, and have come into contact with Him and know the blessedness of being part of the body of Christ. Take account of believers, not only amongst ourselves, but believers that belong to Jesus, come in contact with them and you find that you have a link there, in the Spirit, and belong to the same body. What a testimony it is to the fact of what the Lord says, “to whom also he presented himself living, after he had suffered, with many proofs”; we come into the proofs, it has come down the dispensations, one 188
witness after another witness, their generation passing on, not just by word of mouth, but in the power of the Holy Spirit who remains here and will remain until Christ comes. Christians, generation after generation fill out their day, and go to be with Christ, but the Spirit remains, what a thing that is. The Lord said that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit remains and remains to bear witness to Christ in glory, and it is seen in the lives of persons. I know what we are doing just now is proclaiming the word, speaking from scripture and that is right, but it is expressed in the lives of persons. What a poor thing it would be just to speak about scripture as a theology, and no expression of divine workmanship in me or in you and no change in our lives.
The verity of the work of God and the work of Christ in the soul, and the verity of new birth is that there is some result in the believer’s soul: in the souls of men and women, and boys and girls. Persons can see that there is something different about them. There is a way of life that is brought into the view of men and women, that is really the life of the blessed Man that was rejected, but is displayed now in human beings in a path that is akin to the path He trod. There are believers on the same path, working out their daily toils, their daily manner of life, how they express themselves, how they bear themselves through the toils of life. People say, What is it? It is a link with a Man in heaven. What a thing to have been brought into such a circle, “that ye also may have fellowship with us”, there is no other fellowship to be compared to the Christian fellowship. It says, “he presented himself living”, He has never ceased to do that, He still presents Himself living. The Lord’s supper is a special time for the manifestation of Himself living. The prayer meeting is also an occasion where you have a sense of the presence of the living God, and persons whose lives are bound up with that living God. The ministry meeting and the reading meetings are the same. It is not a theological discussion on the Bible that persons can have, but it is a speaking over things with a sense of and waiting on divine activity; conscious not only of a link with one another but knowing that the Holy Spirit is active in persons. That is the life of the believer. He has a link with a Man in heaven, he has the gift of the Holy Spirit, he has a bond with other believers, knows the joys of a 189
fellowship, and he knows the pleasures of eternal life before the final day comes. It is also held out to the believer in the epistle to the Romans, “and the end eternal life”, Rom 6: 22.
That is wonderful, but John says the test is that you can know something of it now.
Why not go in for this kind of life, dear brethren? Why not arrange our lives as we are capable of it in the scene of time and testimony, to make way for entering into the joys of an atmosphere and a place, where for a time the pressures of death can be lifted from the human spirit. What a thing that is! Especially in the service of God, for a time, you can prove that in the reality of it, the pressures of death are lifted from the spirit and you are refreshed; I know we come back into that area. It is the same when we are gathered together in the week day, pressures of business upon the brethren are real, but where sacrifice is made to be in the area of the fellowship that John speaks about, “that ye also may have fellowship with us”, for a time you are in an atmosphere where those pressures can be lifted and you can prove the blessedness of the reality of a link with the Man in glory. May the Lord just encourage us with these few words, for His Name’s sake.
KIRKCALDY
1st June 2008
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THE SPIRIT’S SERVICE IN THE PRESENT
RECOVERY
2 Timothy 3: 1-5, 12-17; 4: 1-5
J.D.G. We are pursuing the Spirit’s service in the dispensation. We have spoken about times that existed from the departure of Paul, as seen in John’s ministry, which goes through to the coming of Christ. So it still continues at the present time, the need for that kind of ministry. The Lord in His graciousness and the Spirit operated, you might say historically around about 1827, to bring about exercise in godly and pious men in relation to the state of affairs that existed, which at that time largely was the churches, what we call the established churches. There was Rome, there was the Anglican system and also other Presbyterian systems. But a good number of these persons who got light as to the truth were committed before that to go in for what they called ‘the ministry’ in a real sincere way to be available to the Lord to secure souls for Him. The Lord and the Spirit granted them light as to the need for what comes out in this scripture in 2
Timothy 2. The believer in the Lord Jesus does not require to go on with evil of an ecclesiastical or moral character. This was a remarkable ministry of Paul’s here, because there was light given, I believe, for the end of the dispensation.
Otherwise, perhaps, believers would have been slow to take this step because they were breaking publicly the unity that existed early in the dispensation. But unity in the church publicly does not justify a believer staying in religious systems which have developed in the hands of men. There is an open door here, which the Spirit of God has provided, so that we can find our way out. Publicly we are still in Christendom, but morally we can find our way out to call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart.
I read in Jeremiah because I think it helps to see how God had this principle before Him, even in the past dispensation—the delight it was to Him. At this time in 191
Jeremiah’s history it was near the end of the kingdom of Judah. The captivity to Babylon was just about to take place.
But God is desirous of securing what He can. And He delights in persons who are taking forth the precious from the vile,
“thou shalt be as my mouth”. He affords protection to them.
They will be persecuted as we come to in 2 Timothy 3: 12, “And all indeed who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”. But they become a brazen wall. There is a protection there. “I will make thee unto this people a strong brazen wall”. That is there is something morally in the character of the persons who separate the precious from the vile that can resist the intrusion of evil.
And then I read in Ezra to bring out, in type, the preciousness of the vessels, that is believers, who are delivered from the systems of men. You will note in the scriptures that these vessels are being returned from Babylon after the captivity. Babylon represents the ecclesiastical world, which has taken the people of God captive. Recovered vessels moved back from Babylon to Jerusalem represent persons being recovered to the truth of the assembly. One thing that is important is their weight. Persons who return from the captivity, God delights to have them weighed. They are taken care of in the journey and weighed when they get to Jerusalem.
Divine delight is in them. These two vessels of shining copper are precious as gold. All these vessels represent features of Christ in the saints—the gold and the silver—divine righteousness and the truth of redemption. The two vessels of shining copper would be persons who have come the moral way, which we will speak about, to return to the truth of the assembly typified in Jerusalem.
Then in 2 Timothy 3 it seems to me that the persons who have been separated, purged from what is around, have to maintain themselves in the face of further declension. And that is our time—the last days. A further declension even, from things that took place when the truth of the assembly was recovered about 1827, is described in these verses, “having a form of piety but denying the power of it”. And then Paul’s word, as I mentioned already, “And all indeed who desire to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”. Paul states 192
that the sacred letters, that is the Scriptures, “are able to make thee wise unto salvation”. There was further declension in chapter 4. “Be urgent in season and out of season” that was when Paul was writing. “For the time shall be when they will not bear sound teaching”, that is our day. So you continue to do the work of an evangelist, and Timothy personally was to fill up the full measure of his ministry. Things are not going to fade away. There are vessels in whom the Spirit is going to display something of a glory that was not before. We live in a time, dear brethren, which is expressed in chapter 3
particularly. You have nothing to do with the system that is described in the first five verses of chapter 3. You purge yourself from the ecclesiastical Christendom in chapter 2, but in chapter 3 the believer should have nothing to do with it. The evil is so rampant in it. But he finds he is tested then to maintain the truth in dignity, in the light to which we have been recovered.
J.A.G. Keeping His word and not denying His name would be characteristic, or should be characteristic of persons who have separated themselves, and call upon the Lord out of a pure heart “and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace”, would you say?
J.D.G. I was going to remark that the brethren who came out of the systems of men about 1827 had very deep exercise before they moved. They did not just read the scripture and say, ‘Oh I should break bread on Lord’s day morning’. They did not do that. They had real concerns before the Lord as to making this move, as to whether the Lord would support them in it. We have come into what has been established, and we have come into the fact that the truth has been unfolded to us through these faithful men who have gone before. But we are tested as to maintaining it.
J.A.G. We often say that there are believers and believers.
We have to leave it with the Lord, and if persons are not going to purify themselves, not going to separate themselves, then we have to separate from them.
J.D.G. That is right. So another question came up once persons had broken bread together in accordance with the 193
light they had from this scripture, if evil came in amongst them they had to judge it. According to 1 Corinthians 5, you remove the wicked person from amongst yourselves. Then in this scripture you withdraw. There was debate about that amongst brethren but the thing was to deal with the evil; it was said at one point that both scriptures apply. But the real matter is that if evil arises amongst us we have to deal with it. Grace would be there but you have to deal with the evil, because you have to act on this scripture, “purified himself from these”.
D.B.R. Do you think the teaching of the cross would underlie the depth of exercise that is needed to face these matters?
J.D.G. You say more about the teaching of the cross.
D.B.R. Well, I just thought that God’s standard was established in the teaching of the cross, but God could not go on with evil. It had to be judged and judged unsparingly. Of course that involves a measure that we could never imitate, but nevertheless we should be affected by it do you think?
J.D.G. That is right. He could not pass it by. His love could not allow Him to pass it by, nor His righteousness could allow Him to pass it by. He faced it in One who was precious to Him—in His Son, “Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath”, 1 Thess 1: 10. God judged that judgment in His Son, so we escape from the wrath by coming to Christ. God will deal with that if man refuses it. So that this scripture enlightens us to see that for our day it is not necessary to go along with evil, morally or ecclesiastically, to maintain public unity. A believer, of a necessity as understanding this scripture, must move in accordance with divine holiness and divine righteousness. Is that what you had in mind?
J.McK. So the assembly is said to be clothed in fine linen, which is the righteousnesses of the saints. That is the great result of this is it?
J.D.G. Yes, that is right. One of the acts of righteousness is purifying themselves from these, separating themselves from them. That is one of the acts of righteousness that heaven takes account of in Jeremiah, separating the precious from the vile; there is what is precious to God in the systems of men that is still there. Thank God that we have been helped to 194
move, and been instructed in it. We have come into something, most of us, that was established before our day, but we have to come to the moral understanding of it as part of the moral road. We have to travel from Babylon to Jerusalem to use the type.
N.J.H. The first thing is that the person who separates is a vessel to honour. That is by the One, the Master who had the direct application of the fire at the cross. Is that right?
J.D.G. That is right. The Master who had the direct application of the fire is the Lord. “Names the name of the Lord”, it has to be in accord with that Name. But he moves.
So every vessel that belongs to Christ is a precious vessel. We feel for many of our brethren who are trapped, you might say, in the systems of men. All they are doing is tormenting their righteous soul, like Lot, day after day, on account of the evil that is there. But there is a way out and we have found that way out. God takes account of the value of persons who are seeking to help one another to separate the precious from the vile.
G.A.B. The believer has to attend to himself if he is going to be serviceable to the Master. It says, “purified himself from these”. Would not the implication be that if he does not make that move then he becomes partaker of what he is associated with?
J.D.G. Yes, that is right. If you stay amongst them you are contaminated with the evil that is there. You are morally contaminated there. You are in fellowship with them. But “in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master”, and that is the great objective. It is not just an ecclesiastical position but it is a place where the service of God can take place. That is the great acme of the fellowship that we have together in the Lord’s supper and in the service of God; to be able to function in a spiritual way apart from liturgy.
J.A.B. Could you say more then about what is not just positional? Some young people here might say, Well these men of the nineteenth century made their stand, and we have come into the benefit of that, and we are in fellowship with what is 195
right. But this is more than positional. Say more about what you mean by that.
J.D.G. Well, they took a stand in celebrating the Lord’s supper apart from the church and the clergy, celebrating it together as we do now. They were not setting up another sect or another church, but were operating in accordance with the truth, considering for the Lord’s rights. Paul says, “in the way which they call sect” (Acts 24: 14), but we do not take sectarian ground. Publicly we may be known as that but we do not take sectarian ground. Positional would mean that I am just nominal. I am amongst the brethren because I was brought up amongst the brethren; my parents were, and I have accepted the Lord as my Saviour. I have not always had a full understanding of why I am where I am. However, I am here, now, not just because I have been brought up in fellowship, but because I have arrived, by the Spirit’s help in my soul, that I must act according to the light given in the scripture in 2 Tim 2: 19–22. I am breaking bread with you and others here, having in view the service of God, and the fellowship of the Lord’s supper. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1: 7), so I have to maintain the standard personally or it just becomes nominal, such as belonging to Plymouth Brethren, for example.
R.G.
Are these vessels that are “to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”, persons who are now morally suited to be filled by the Holy Spirit, and therefore, serviceable to the Master?
J.D.G. Yes, I think a person who becomes a Christian, who knows the forgiveness of sins, and who becomes exercised, because he is concerned about the Lord’s rights, is one who has received the Spirit. That is what is in your mind.
R.G.
Yes. I have just been thinking about what we have been saying about what is positional. This is far far outside what is positional publicly is it not? This is a moral process that has proceeded, and the Spirit then can fill the emptied vessel, you might say, so that it is full to be serviceable to the Master. Is that right?
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J.D.G. Yes. The Spirit of God is in the matter. We spoke already that it is in the divine plan that the dispensation has continued until now. That is not an afterthought. The divine plan that the Spirit has in mind, in the situation that exists publicly in the world, with Christendom with all its branches, and other religions, and paganism that still exists, is to separate vessels to honour in order to be morally apart. We cannot get out of the great house, which is a description of the systems of Christendom. But you can separate morally and that is what we have sought to do in order to be persons who are righteous and maintain righteousness. “Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. Now how do I know, how do you know, that I have a pure heart? What do you say?
R.T.
This seems to establish naming the name of the Lord.
Does that involve the matter of holiness? So if the name of the Lord cannot be attached to the circumstances, I have to make myself clear of them.
J.D.G. Yes, there is righteousness—it says “righteousness, faith, love, peace”, but I think holiness is an essential matter.
“Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet 1: 16), God says. He is no respecter of persons, so holiness attaches to the name of the Lord Jesus and to the name of God, does it not? So we could not attach to that blessed Name or to that blessed Person, anything that was evil or sinful or unholy. Holiness is a practical matter is it not? Would you say so?
R.T.
It is a fruit of love is it not? What we had in the last reading, I think, underlies all this. It is love operating. Love is operating here, is it not, in order that love may be enjoyed unhindered?
J.D.G. That is good. It is the fruit of love considering for the reverence of God, respectful of the divine Name. It is a divine attribute, holiness, so we could never associate Himself or His name with what is unholy.
E.J.M. Is Matthew 25 really an appeal of the Spirit? “Behold, the bridegroom; go forth to meet him”, Matt 25: 6.
J.D.G. Yes, say a little more please.
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E.J.M. I was just thinking the yearning is really what is answering to Christ do you think?
J.D.G. Yes, the persons that go forth to meet Him had to have their lamps trimmed and oil in their vessels, which is in line with what we are speaking about. Vessels to honour would have oil in their vessels. They would be sensitive to the fact that the Holy Spirit was indwelling them, and was exercising them in regard to holiness, and what was suitable for the divine presence.
J.M.
Here it says that, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. That is our responsibility is it not? Could you say something about that—withdrawing from iniquity?
J.D.G. Well, what you have mentioned recalls to my mind of a sister who married a brother and they came into fellowship.
She could not understand what it was to withdraw from iniquity, because in the church in which she had been there were very many precious souls who belonged to Christ, just as precious as she was, and just as earnest as she was in the light they had. But then she said, I had to learn that it was the system that I was attached to that was iniquitous. And that is the clerical system is it not?
J.M.