GREATNESS

A.A.Bellamy

1 Chronicles 29: 10 -12; Luke 9: 37-43 (to 'God'); Acts 2: 4-11; Nehemiah 4: 15-23

The simple impression, dear brethren, upon one's mind is as to greatness. When God displays the fruit of His work in the aggregate to a wondering universe there will be no need to stress this thought of greatness but we need it now in the time in which conditions in the world are depressing; and the saints, I believe, would be fortified in the sense of the greatness of God Himself. David comes to this thought of the greatness of God at the close of his ministry; to other features too which he brings in besides. What we have read from Chronicles is a doxology, a man addressing God in the sense of what is His - "Thine", he says, "is the greatness". Man's greatness is a poor thing at the best; we could not look for greatness there. It is a great thing, dear brethren, to look away from man, to be fixed - as David says, "my heart is fixed" (Ps 108: 1) - fixed in the sense of God's greatness, that what He has undertaken in the purpose of His love He will accomplish because, as David says, Thine is the power - the greatness and the power. He purposed in Himself, He had not to rely upon anyone. His is the power; and then, in the working out of His purpose, there is the glory. It is the glory that we are brought into touch with, the glory of His grace. Thine is the glory, David says. God has not operated in obscurity; He has come out in the revelation of Him self and that has involved His glory, the glory of His grace. These are great matters to stabilise us in a scene which has every feature of breakdown. There is nothing of the character of breakdown as you take account of the blessed God – His infiniteness, His greatness. How far above us He is! He is able to make us feel how far away He is from us as God. God is a spirit, He dwells in light unapproachable, inaccessible to the creature, and yet how near He can be; as Paul said to those to whom he preached, "he is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17: 27) - the same God. The God whose is the greatness and the power and the glory is not far from each one of us. Wherever you may be, in whatever circumstances of extremity, He is near. David goes on to speak of the heavens and the earth being "thine". God is a great owner of property: what property He has as Creator! - "Lord of the heaven and of the earth" (Matt 11: 25) and "possessor of heavens and earth", Gen 14 : 19. Thus Abraham was blessed by Melchisedec - "Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heavens and earth". He could have made His people the richest, in a material sense, upon the earth, but He has not. He possesses those things, they belong to Him, that God whom David is blessing here, the same God whom Jesus praised when He was here in manhood. "At that time, Jesus answering said, I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth". Think of the sway of God! Do you know it in your soul dear young brethren? David says here "thine, Jehovah, is the kingdom". It is His kingdom. We have spoken of His King, of the exaltation of God's King upon the hill of His holiness (see Ps 2: 6); God's King is God's Son, and the word is "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry", Ps 2: 12. We cannot trifle with God. Some have attempted it alas! with dire consequences. The anger of God has been borne witness to once in the history of time when Jesus died upon the cross, and it will be borne witness to again in regard of the wicked. Let us be sobered by these things in the sense of the greatness of God. Then it is in His hand to make all great. I do not know what the estimate of each person in this company is of himself or herself but I would draw the attention of each to the fact that God has in His hand to make all great and strong. That is His thought - every man and every woman, every brother and every sister, young and old. Many of us look back upon a very chequered history. There have been times of very great weakness when we have faltered - or, as the scripture says, "stumbled". The prophet says "he that stumbleth among them at that day shall be as David", Zech 12 : 8. Have you ever thought of being like David? "In thy hand it is to make all great and strong".

I turn to this remarkable passage in Luke which brings out wonderment in people at the things which Jesus did and their astonishment at the greatness of God. I think we need to be affected as these persons were affected - "astonished" not simply at the great ness of God but the glorious greatness of God. How He has come into His own creation, how He has come into the time that He made and has used in order to lift the fallen creature out of that condition and to return him, as this child here, to his father. That is the cause of the wonderment. Here is a child under demoniacal power, a case beyond the ability of the disciples at this time but not beyond the ability of Christ. Did He rebuke the man? No, this is Luke's gospel; it is the glory of His grace, it is the power of the Saviour to rebuke the unclean spirit and deliver the child from its power and to give him back to his father. There is a touch in it, I believe, of the fulfilment of the purpose of God, man secured in sonship eternally for the Father's glory and praise. Do you wonder at it? Are you astonished? I can say I am. It bows my heart to think of the power and the greatness that Jesus has. Earlier in the chapter we see His greatness on the holy mount, the Man who is incomparable with all others; even Moses, even Elias, great as they were, marvellous in the accomplishment of the mission that God gave them, yet neither was as great as Christ. "This is my beloved Son" (v 35) - that is His greatness - "hear him". Think of God saying that to us, dear brethren, when He might have had Christ just for Himself. When Jesus came to the days of His receiving up and could have gone back into heaven as a man to be alone eternally, at that point He set His face to go to Jerusalem, in the determination of divine love, to the securing of the lost sinner, yes indeed of degraded man, but the securing of those purposes of love divine that were going to have men for Himself in the liberty of sonship.

In Acts it is not the glorious greatness of God but "the great things of God". They are here, and persons filled with the Holy Spirit are speaking about them. The power of communication was the Holy Spirit. It is a remarkable point in the history of God's ways. It is the reversal of the confusion of Babel when men decided that they would become great and centralise everything. The divine comment is that they will be "hindered in nothing that they meditate doing", Gen 11: 6. Is it not like the world and its goings on at the present time? Men are virtually saying, We will not be hindered in anything that we meditate doing, we will have a system built up and energised by our own will. Now God brought in confusion governmentally upon that state of affairs. Centralisation was defeated so far as men's objectives were concerned. It will yet be achieved under one man, spoken of as the man of sin. Meantime there is He who hinders and there is that which hinders (see 2 Thess 2: 6,7), but the forces at work today are the forces that were at work at the time when they proposed to build the tower of Babel - "a city and a tower, the top" or head (see footnote) "of which may reach to the heavens", Gen 11: 4. Thank God for the glorious light of the Head of the assembly; He is the Head of the body, the assembly. Well, in this passage they were speaking of the great things of God. Paul had not yet come on to the scene. He is in reserve: "an elect vessel", the Lord says, "to me", Acts 9: 15. Is not that precious - "to me"? not simply "an elect vessel" but "to me". The prophet Micah says of Jesus, speaking to a locality, "And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he come forth unto me... ", Mic 5: 2. "Unto me" - I think we would get an impression afresh at this moment of that: "a people for a possession", 1 Pet 2: 9. It is unto Him that there is to be a people for a possession at this present time. That was the great objective in Paul's ministry. As I say, he had not appeared yet, he was in reserve. Having completed his service he says "I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God", Acts 20: 27. What communications there have been, and remain, concerning the mystery! "This mystery is great, but I speak as to Christ, and as to the assembly", Eph 5: 32. There have been communications - and there still are, thank God - concerning these great things of God. So let us be encouraged. It is not a question of numbers at all; it may be among a handful that there is much food - as it says, "Much food is in the tillage of the poor" (Prov 13: 23) - a handful meeting in dependence on the Lord and the Spirit in the light of the assembly: "where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them", Matt 18: 20.

Finally, in Nehemiah, it is a great work. He says in chapter 6 "I am doing a great work" (v 3); he would not go down to those who were harassing the work and meet them in the plain of Ono. In the passage read we see the work distributed; the word is "every one to his work". The Lord says in Mark "it is as a man gone out of the country, having left his house and given to his bondmen the authority, and to each one his work", chap 13: 34. Are you one of His workers? You say, I am young, I do not have any ability. The Lord would enlist every one of us as a worker. You have to find what your work is, find your place in the body, what your function is; then you will not be in anyone's way, you will be able to fulfil what is required in regard of the work: "to each one his work". Here they are building, they are active in difficult times. "Difficult times shall be there", 2 Tim 3: 1. We do not quite say that; we say, Difficult times are here. We are in those times now, and the work is going on, building and burden-bearing and loading, and both hands committed to the work, defensively and constructively. Let us have our hands full in this sense in regard of the work. It is not a matter of what is going to pass away in its results but of what is going to lead to more for God, because the two great choirs were yet to walk upon the wall that they built. We are moving on to the Lord's day and the service of God, and the work is going on, "to each one his work", and people have their hands full with their work here. God says through the prophet "I work a work in your days", Hab 1: 5. He is doing that. What is being brought through the critical times through which we are passing is evidence that the work is going on. It is divine in its source and character, and involves persons who are intelligent and understand that it is a great work - noble persons; and rulers too, persons who have learnt the principle of rule in regard of themselves and are yielded as bondmen to God, persons who understand the sway of God through Christ in their souls. So Nehemiah speaks to them and the rest of the people; he says "The work is great and extended, and we are scattered... one far from another". Then there is the trumpet, and there is the ability to assemble; a fine word this - assemble. It is one of the words that the Holy Spirit teaches, a choice thought in a day of breakdown. "Thither" , it says, "shall ye assemble to us; our God will fight for us". The Lord says "Fear not". It is a matter of God's greatness, not ours. The time will surely come for display. What magnificence will be seen! - the holy city coming down out of heaven having the glory of God. That will be the time of display. Meantime it is the time of work, and it calls for all that we have. There is no time for sleeping, they did not even put their garments off; it is a full-time matter. Oh let us be energised again! David said "I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, Until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob" , Ps 132: 4,5. It bears upon each of our localities; whether we would give a little more time, even though we may be tired, to the defence of the testimony in a military way, and a little more time to the edification of the body of Christ, to promote the upbuilding of itself in love; that is the great end in view. The workmen will be discharged finally, they will not be needed any longer. "Well, good and faithful bondman", Matt 25: 21. May we, dear brethren, have such an appraisal as that. The Lord would say "What she could she has done", Mark 14: 8. What we can do let us do. For His Name's sake!

EDINBURGH

7 September 1974