UNSELFISH SERVICE QUALIFYING FOR A NAME
[p. 427] UNSELFISH SERVICE QUALIFYING FOR A NAME
Matthew 28:19; Exodus 23:20 - 25; Revelation 3:8,12
I had in mind to dwell on the idea of name. As christians we properly begin with the idea of name, and so I read the verse in Matthew 28. It is more than a formula, it implies in a very distinct and special way the idea of name, for christianity involves it — the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It also entered into the Jewish system. You all remember the great disclosure to Moses as he is found in mount Horeb, after long years of service — patient, humble, obscure service — to his father-in-law. The service for which he evidently sought no recompense, and so qualified to serve and to take the care of God’s people.
This service must be unselfish, otherwise it is not suitable to God. Selfishness is not compatible with the service of God. Those who enter on it for wages are not pleasing to God, and Moses stands out as the great prototype of unselfish service and contentment in that service in obscurity, so that he becomes qualified to be the recipient of the great idea of name. He had been in the court of Pharaoh and was conversant with the idea of name in this world, for it has its rolls of honour, its names stand out from earliest records down to the present time, and every man and woman naturally desires a name. So that Moses would be conversant with the idea of name as entering into man’s world. The court of Pharaoh had its distinguished names. Moses had part in Pharaoh’s house and had a name there; one which he renounced. What a thing it is to renounce what gives honour in this world with a view to what gives honour in that world! He was called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, but he renounced it, and became identified with God’s people as in reproach. In Midian he took up a lowly position of unselfish service, and led the sheep which he kept to the back-side of the desert, to Horeb, the mount of God — a spot whence all true distinction issues.
Think of the opening up of God’s mind at that mount! What distinctions are involved in that, as we think of the names that follow in the history of the testimony, beginning with Moses and Aaron and a multitude of others! The first name to be distinguished there was God’s, no name is of any account that does not give precedence to God. So Jehovah opened up His name there. It included all in this respect that preceded. He was “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6); all that entered into the name now made known. A living world characterized by distinguished names was in God’s mind. It was not a question of dead worthies but living worthies, for all live unto Him. The great worthies of this world have died, but not so the worthies of that world. A name in that world is an undying one. He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; He is not a God of the dead, but of the living, it is a living system that He has in mind. A name that perishes in the grave is not that. A name that lives beyond the grave is the name to recognize, God is the God of those whose names are there.
The Lord adds to the thought in saying, “rejoice not, that the spirits are subjected to you, but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”, (Luke 10:20). They shine there, but shine to reflect the glory of the Name. You may inquire what that means, well it is a scriptural term. John says to Gaius, “for the name have they gone forth” (3 John 7), as if there were no other. A glorious name is set out in Jesus. In one sense there is no other. So in Leviticus 24:11, where [p. 429] strife in the camp is mentioned, it says one “blasphemed the Name”, without saying whose it was. Whose could it be but that glorious name disclosed to Moses: what wickedness to blaspheme it! Jehovah says, “This is my name for ever” (Exodus 3:15). How much there is in the camp now today, that is blasphemy of that Name! James 2:7 says of it, “the excellent name which has been called upon you”. If we are true to our baptism, and to the Name to which we are baptised we shall resent all indignities to that Name, with holy resentment.
I want to show you how in this Name, set out as it was to Moses, there is the idea of One sent to the people called an Angel in whom that Name was. It was not merely a record, though Moses has recorded the occurrence at Horeb. We have the holy Scriptures, but that is not all, dear brethren, but let no one think I undervalue them; one marvels at their accuracy and profoundness. The Scriptures are, of course, most essential as divinely authoritative, and they stand this test always — thank God! But we also have One with us in whom the Name is. There is a divine Person here to accompany us through this world, through this wilderness, greater than the Angel spoken of in Exodus. The passage foreshadows clearly the blessed Spirit, the Comforter that has come down. The Lord spoke of Him in a personal way, as “another Comforter” (John 14:16) whom He would send, and for whom He would beg the Father — a divine Person, not merely an Angel, the Spirit of God, One in whom the Name is. How true He is to it! He is most sensitive as to any shade cast upon it, and hence the importance of understanding the baptismal formula, or rather I would say the holy words in the inspired record: “baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. Doubtless “the name” attaches to each of the three glorious Persons; each has “the name”; the word “and” links the three Persons together under “the name” and infinite blessing for us lies in our entering into the secrets of the Name as presented in each of the Persons.
Think of the Father — of being baptised to that Name: will He not make it good? The Lord says, “the Father judgeth no man” (John 5:22). Will He not make that true in His relations with us? As we place ourselves in His hands He would make that Name good to us, He will deal with us according to it. He is the Father of our spirits, and He takes care of them accordingly. He disciplines us — that is not judgment, it is love, so as to purge us from all that is contrary to that Name. We cannot be unnecessarily severe with our brethren if we know that Name. We shall speak to them and of them in faithfulness to that Name. And then there is the Name of the Son: we are baptised to that. We have been called into the fellowship of God’s Son: what a fellowship that is! There are fellowships of this world, some of which are adorned with names distinguished in this world, but what are they compared with the Name of the Son? We are introduced into this wonderful economy, worked out in the Name. As we think of the Son our souls are filled with holy dignity. If the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed. We are brought into the glorious liberty that belongs to sons as we apprehend the Name of the Son.
Then there is the Name of the Holy Spirit. His personal dignity is maintained. We are baptised to His Name, but it implies such a feature of God as can take the humblest place of service in this world. In His gracious, patient, tender way He accompanies us. The Holy Spirit is here in the sense of a Companion to the saints. He is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-feeling — all these entering into the communion of the Holy Spirit. He will never let this cease. Alas, if we drop out of the ranks where He is maintaining the holy fellowship into which He has brought us! We have,
[p. 431] too, the love of the Spirit with us here all the time. How we feel it in our meetings! The love of the Spirit is introduced in Romans 15, a passage marked by energy; it speaks of Paul’s great energy of service. The extent of his service is depicted and the power of it, and he beseeches the brethren “by the love of the Spirit” (verse 30), that patient, ever-present love.
How needful to have to say to the Persons of the Godhead as we are thus introduced into this holy economy, marked by the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! You can understand how Jehovah says in Exodus, “my name is in him”. Will He suffer it to be impugned? No; we are told here, “Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him”. Let us face this scripture, dear brethren, there is no trifling with the Spirit, the Name is in Him. It is not simply what He is called, but it is what is in Him. He will brook no rebellion, no disobedience.
It is a most serious thing to trifle with the Spirit. We can understand the Lord’s remark in Matthew 12:32, “whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming one”. The Lord’s word to each of the assemblies in Revelation 2 and 3 is, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies”; disregard of this is most serious. Disregard of the Holy Spirit is the great sin of christendom and the question comes down to every one of us, How do we regard the Spirit as here in the world?
The point in the Lord’s word to the assemblies is to stress what the Holy Spirit may say at any given time. It is what He says in each case. As we submit to Him and attend to what the Spirit says we shall reach the divine purpose for us — in principle now, and actually presently. The end is certain to us, as said in the passage read in Exodus: “to bring thee to the place that I have prepared”. The Holy Spirit remains with us in all His power and faithfulness, and if we are true to Him and hear His voice, we shall be brought to the desired haven, the land of promise. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. That implies that the bride is with Him, having obeyed His voice. We must not fail to enter into the consciousness of the companionship of the Spirit, and be in accord with His mind, He makes much of Christ. He glorifies the Father and the Son. Any ministry that does not maintain the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is not of the Spirit.
Now I want to show from the verses read in Revelation how all this fits in with the remnant in the last days. Philadelphia represents the remnant not as a fag-end, but as equal in quality to the assembly in its normal condition. Its pristine glory was hardly shining, but the Lord in His commendation of Philadelphia owns that it was there. She had kept His word and had not denied His Name. As to the latter, the Lord does not say Philadelphia confessed His Name, it is a negative thought. He would have said more if He could. The Lord says all that He can that is commendatory. He says also, “thou hast a little power”. I would like to challenge all here, as to whether you take on any other name than His religiously; you are, if so, denying the Name of the Lord, and you are thus not included in those to whom those precious promises to Philadelphia are made. You want to be amongst those who have not denied His Name. It is very searching. If one had the opportunity, one would like to challenge every heart that professes to love Christ in the whole of christendom, as to His Name. It is a time of names, the world is full of the idea of names, political, commercial, religious, etc., but what about the name of Jesus? His Name is what is set out in the Person.
[p. 433] Brethren is a designation that comports with Christ’s Name. Every true christian in the world belongs to the brethren. The Lord says, “All ye are brethren” (Matthew 23:8). You can understand that all the Lord says to the assemblies carries the idea of His Name. He never leaves out the idea of Name. It is the great dominating principle of the dispensation, involving the economy into which we are brought. The Lord understands how the overcomer in Philadelphia would value what implies His Name; not only His own Name, but the Name of His God would be written upon him. Think of it. How affectingly He spoke of His Father while down here! One of the disciples says, “Lord, teach us to pray”, and He said, “When ye pray, say ‘Father’”, (Luke 11:1 - 2). We can never really understand God but as we see Him in relation to Jesus; nor can we understand man as in the mind of God save as we see Jesus in relation to Him. Think of having the Name of His God written upon you! And then, “the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem”. I love that scripture. I belong to the city of God, but then the name of it is to be written by Christ on the overcomer. Think of the renown of it, of all the great and holy thoughts bound up in it; also the names — God and the Lamb are there. All this brought in beforehand helps us to spurn all that has the character of name according to man. Then the Lord says, “my new name”. Not the one of which I have spoken, not the one that has not been denied by the overcomers, but a new one, the new Name is one of the secrets.
In Revelation 19 John sees the Lord coming out of heaven, having a name written, which no one knows but Himself; only He knows that. It is inscrutable, it is well for us to observe the word inscrutable. Jesus coming down out of heaven, His armies following Him, has a Name written which is inscrutable; but then His Name is “called the Word of God” (verse 13); that is a public name; and He has [p. 434] also a name written on His thigh, “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (verse 16), that is a public name, too. But He says, of the overcomer in Philadelphia, “I will write upon him ... my new name”.
All this should appeal to our hearts, and we should cherish the holy Name by which we are called, and not in any way discredit it. The Holy Spirit is in the saints and as ungrieved He maintains the Name there until the end.