LOVABILITY
Daniel 9: 20-23 (to “beloved”);
I want to speak as the Lord helps as to what is lovable—lovability, as seen in these persons one has ventured to select, and to bring out something that is exceedingly attractive, surely, to all of us, because we would all seek to develop in features of lovability. It is not that we are speaking of something that we do not know a little about, dear brethren; thank God we have learned to love one another. Everyone in the family of God is loved, and we could go further back, God loves the sinner. He commends His love in that while we were yet sinners Christ has died for us. What a wonderful testimony in the glad tidings to the love of God! Wonderful that His nature shines in all His movements, His actions, and His ways. What lies behind all is His nature. Ah, beloved, there is nothing to equal growing in the knowledge of God, growing by the true knowledge of God, as we get in Colossians. We need to value the brief moments that remain, and use them wisely. The time is near. We cannot afford to waste time.
There will be no growth up there, the growth is now, and what will go through is formation in the divine nature. We need to learn Him in all the experiences, sorrows and vicissitudes of the wilderness. It is there that thy God is beside thee; let us learn that.
What I want to bring out in these scriptures is what is lovable. “One greatly beloved” would indicate there could be some more lovable than others; that would search us I suppose, and quicken holy desires to be more like Christ and judge every inconsistency. If we are sensitive we would discern what hinders our growth. What humbles us will help us. Every experience, particularly in our gatherings, is to deepen and further our knowledge of God. Heaven will be full of lovable people. As we said, love is the life of heaven, and it will be wonderful to meet such persons as Daniel. He will not be the only one, all will be loved there. Oh, what a scene!
Beloved brethren, we are not yet equal, because of the condition we are in, to really understand it. Paul was caught up there, he did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body; and what he heard he could not utter, it was unutterable. Oh, what is before every Christian is the glory! Let us be alert and quickened in our affections. But he does say that it was paradise, if we know what that is. Heaven will be filled with lovable persons, and because lovable, near to one another. There will be no distances, love will not brook distance. We know that there will be no occasion for distance in heaven; alas for the distances down here! We should feel that, but love would not allow any distance. Ah, our Saviour has met the distance by going into the distance for us.
He went to the lowest point, in wonderful and ineffable love to redeem us. How therefore we should be concerned to be near to one another, in the closeness of that bond of affection, because of our respect for the work of God in each one of us.
Now I want to speak of Jedidiah. As far as I know, this name Jedidiah only appears once. It is Solomon, of course, but it is what you might call his secret name, and I want to suggest that we each ought to have that kind of secret link with the Lord. He is born between the two great calamities of David’s life. A remarkable thing that such a person, beloved of Jehovah, should come in as a kind of spoil—mercy glories over judgment. Not that we would put any value or excuse for calamities, but in the ways of God, which are inscrutable and beyond our understanding, we learn that God is over all that takes place. Let us then keep restful and dependent, cleaving to Him. The storm will not overwhelm us; it should not, and it need not. Of course David was lovable too; a man after God’s own heart, and he was said to be of beautiful appearance and he was ruddy and besides of a lovely countenance. I suppose he was that physically, still more spiritually. The physical now means nothing—perhaps that is a bit severe—but it is our spiritual links that make us attractive. Dear brethren, what we love in one another is Christ. Let that develop, and maybe other features that belong to the natural may not become so prominent. It is a wonderful thing to be lovable in your local meeting, and generally, and by men.
I think Christianity should be attractive testimonially here in this world. That does not mean that we do not suffer reproach and suffering, we must go through that, but in it there is something being formed that is rightly representing God, in His image and His likeness. For us I think likeness comes first before there is a representation. We need to be in the presence of God to come out like Him, to represent Him and maintain the dispensation.
This remarkable man, Jedidiah, comes in between the great moral failures of David, and I suppose we might say his ecclesiastical failure in regard to Absalom. These things are very near to us, and what we have been touching in the reading, as to the awfulness of what is coming in like a flood on Christendom around us, should alert us that we are in the presence of these things, including the great moral breakdown among men.
Brethren, that is to sober us, and alert us to see that God is working out His plan. The iniquity of the Amorite will soon be full, and He will judge it. He will judge our judgment on it. Oh, how sensitive we need to be as to the moment in which we live, but in the midst of it something is being formed in lovability. Well, let us encourage one another to have secret history with God, involving the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Seek their company, get into the presence of God, the Holiest, the way in is made, at any time, through the veil, through Jesus. Through Him, by one Spirit, access to the Father at any time, at all times, as I understand it, would be equally open to the individual as in the moment of privilege as convened in the service of God. So something emerges here in manhood, and he is lovable. It is the secret side of Solomon, and never was there a man of such wisdom. He was being formed morally in view of the administration, typically, of the world to come, bringing in the reign of peace.
Dear brethren, do we realise that our formation now is in view of our reigning with Christ? And it will be in the moral features formed by the Spirit, lovability and trustworthiness and faithfulness that will give us a place in that kingdom. There will be no envyings that someone has got more cities than somebody else. Oh, what a harmony love produces! And it should be now among us, dear brethren, in all our local meetings. The harmony of love, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves. We really, may I say, anticipate the world to come. I am convinced that that is how the testimony will close, even if it be reduced to two, but it will not be, thank God, because He will maintain His testimony universally.
As to Israel, He brought through His promises in two men, Joshua and Caleb. If there is failure He falls back on His promises, and He will bring it through. Oh let us be concerned that we are kept and maintained in the testimony.
Now regarding Daniel, he was in the captivity. Think of it; there is no record of his return to Jerusalem. When they went back in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah it would appear that he remained in captivity in Babylon. But his heart was not in Babylon, and be sure your heart is not in Babylon.
What is Babylon? It is the great world’s system which is about to come down under judgment. Do not let your interests be there. Let us earnestly appeal to fellow-men, to fellow-Christians, “Come out of her my people”, do not be a partaker of her sins. But it would not seem that Daniel ever got back to Jerusalem. His heart never left it, and, three times a day on his knees he prayed, with his outlook towards Jerusalem. Let us learn to be assembly-minded persons, known to heaven, because of Daniel it is said, “Thy words were heard”. His links with God were intimate, and he kept himself. He did not let himself be defiled with the king’s delicate food, nor with the wine which he drank.
He did not engage in the things of Babylon. His life, his interests, and his affections were elsewhere, and what is the result? He gets divine disclosures. Beloved, I am assured there are those in the secret of the divine mind, and so there will be. I do not mean to point up dates, or events, I do not think that is the prime thought of prophecy. We need to have an outline of it, and both Daniel and John give us that outline.
But I do not think too much of this attempt by some to try to determine dates. Events will happen in any case. It is in the Father’s hand, and not even the Son knows the day or the hour. I believe the spirit of a Daniel keeps us steady amidst the public disorder of captive days, of prison days. Paul finished in prison with a chain, but I do not think Daniel had a chain. I think his ability was made way for, it was recognised, he knew secrets. What was his secret? He was known in heaven as a man greatly beloved. What a powerful appeal this should be to us all. Someone spoke in the reading of spiritual desires; Oh let them be quickened! Dear young brother, and young sister, let that desire be quickened with you—the desire to be someone known in heaven. This one was greatly beloved. Think of it, how he kept himself. His link with God was such that he would be sensitive to any element of defilement, and he kept himself. And what was formed in that beloved man brought him into the secret of divine operations; but more than that, he was a man who was praying, and what our brother said was very apropos, let us persevere in prayer. We need to pray more, but do not read less, but pray more.
Seek out the presence of God. There is wonderful compensation as you get into the presence of divine Persons. Daniel is humble, he confesses his sins, though we are not told of any; in fact, is he not the only one, save the Lord Jesus, of whom no sin is recorded? But he confesses them, and the sins of the people. How much can we take on of the sins of the people? Take it home to yourself. The secret of power in the local meeting is to charge yourself with the whole matter, and go down and confess your sins and the sins of the people. You take it on yourself, that is what our Master did, took it all on. Oh, for that spirit! Oh, for that lowliness! So feebly known, we would have to confess that. But let spiritual desires be quickened with us; that the spirit of a Daniel may hold the position in difficult days.
We are forewarned, and we are in these very days, troublous and difficult times shall be there, but not difficult for a Daniel. Not difficult for one in the secret of the divine mind. Let us cultivate, beloved brethren, intimacy with the Father and the Son and with the Holy Spirit.
Now John, in character, continues to the end. The Lord did not mean what Peter thought He meant, and we do not want to look over our shoulders either, and say, “what of this man?”. You remember what I am referring to, when the Lord probed Peter those three times, and then He refers to John. He says to Peter, “Follow thou me”. That is a word for us too—follow the Lord Jesus. If we are following Him we shall have no troubles with one another, We shall just go arm in arm following the same Master. Now Peter says, “what of this man?”. The Lord answers, “If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee?”. How we need to get our eyes off persons and keep them on Jesus. He did not mean that he would not die, it is that character of man, who knows the bosom and breast of Jesus, that is going through to the close of the dispensation. How attractive it is, “Follow thou me”. We have a bond as followers of Jesus—a common objective, and the same Lord and Master, “Follow thou me”. And Peter gets his commission—you look after My lambs and My sheep. Never let us forget whom the beloved brethren belong to.
They are His, “my lambs”, “my sheep”. He died for them. The weak brother for whom Christ died, but then you say, ‘Well, I am the weak brother but Christ died for me’. Oh, for the spirit of lowliness among us! Lowliness is not weakness, meekness is not weakness, it is moral power; it is the spirit of Christ. Our dear brother was saying that it was seven ewe lambs that disarmed the Philistine mind. It nonplussed him, he did not understand what they would mean. Abraham says, “that they may be a witness to me that I have dug this well”, Gen 21: 30. So it makes way for the indwelling Spirit in power to help us through in these difficult days of testimony here below. Well, I need not say more; this was a difficult time, and it says, “Jesus was troubled in spirit”—troubled in spirit. Oh, to share those feelings with Him! As we said, if He wept over Jerusalem, how much more over Christendom. Let us catch on that spirit, of feeling things. You remember He groaned when that man could not hear or speak right. He groaned in His spirit, that is in Mark’s gospel; and the blind man, His feelings come out. It is the Levitical gospel that draws out the groans of the Master; and yet He takes that man by the hand and leads him out of the village, and he sees finally all things clearly. He did not at first, he was still looking at men as trees walking. I am being diverted, but you will see all things clearly as you slip your hand into His, and let Him lead you His way, and not your way. So John is the characteristic man for the end of the dispensation; not commissioned as was Peter, but fully supportive, may we say, as furnishing the essential background, in family affections for Paul’s ministry. Of course, Peter’s ministry underlies Paul’s too, all leading up to the word being completed, because the very kernel of Christianity is in Paul’s ministry.
Well, I trust that something may have been promoted among us today. Beloved brethren, let us set ourselves for these things; the end is near, the time left is short; we can never repay the debt, but we can do something. Let us be doing it, and develop in features of lovability like Jesus. When all is manifested we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. May He bless these words to us all.
COLCHESTER
29th September 1984
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