“KNOWING THE TIME”
These words, dear brethren, “knowing the time”, may be common enough as we use them ordinarily, but in the mind of this beloved writer a good deal would be involved. It says, “It is already time that we should be aroused out of sleep”. The position publicly generally is that all ten virgins slept. When the cry came, “Behold, the bridegroom” (Matt 25: 6), they were awakened to the glory of the Person who was coming. We in our generation are exceedingly favoured. We might say that there has never been a generation of faith more favoured than ourselves. By that I mean every Christian; we can only speak on behalf of the whole assembly; we are just a very few relatively. It has never been more important that we should be intelligent as to the time.
There were those under David who had an understanding of the times, see 1 Chron 12: 32. How they got it would be a question. How we get it would also be a question. They knew what Israel ought to do—not that they would be going around telling persons what to do. I do not think they would be doing that, but it does add, “All their brethren were at their bidding”. Oh how wonderful to have such a subject state in the local meeting that would immediately answer to leadership, intelligent leadership that gives us to know where we are and why we are there.
Paul is writing this and he says, “The night is far spent, and the day is near”. He gives certain warnings, not by way of commandment (not that we would weaken commandment; far be the thought). Three times he says, “Let us ...”. It is on the line of exhortation. Can we not stimulate one another, quicken one another? Indeed our gatherings would be occasions for sharpening one another, as the proverb says, see Prov 27: 17. We need to do that, dear brethren, and to get caught up in the urgency of the brevity of the time left.
We speak a good deal of the coming of the Lord, indeed Christians everywhere are speaking of the Lord’s coming and we would not disregard that, far from it. My feeling is that as we are truly convicted as to the imminence of the rapture our whole course and how we comport ourselves would be changed. Brethren, we are on the very eve of eternal conditions, spiritual conditions—a change. The next great matter to take place is the waking of the sleeping saints. Then we shall be changed. The Spirit will change these very bodies into bodies of glory like Christ’s—that will be immediate—in the twinkling of an eye. I think Paul would bring home the urgency of the time we are in so that we comport, ourselves becomingly, and stimulate and quicken one another in the holy expectation of seeing the Lord.
We know very well how that cry, “Behold, the bridegroom”, quickened the beloved saints at the beginning of this remarkable time of recovery, but as we review it we have to hang our heads and humble ourselves! How the times that have passed over us have searched us out. However, we are not to be discouraged by that. We are to learn the lessons of the way humbly, repentingly, and quicken one another in view of the final moments of the testimony ere we hear that assembling shout. The whole assembly will be together then as it was at the beginning, “All together in one place”, Acts 2: 1. That will not be again until the Lord comes. Oh, beloved, I think the writer here is gathering us up. This paragraph I have read is like something additional to what he has said before. What he said before was, “Love therefore is the whole law” (Rom 13: 10); not just the ten words, not that we would weaken that. All the ten commandments taught us was that we could not keep them; but Jesus did, and made it honourable, see Isa 42: 21.
Where therefore is the practical working out of things amongst ourselves if it is not in “love amongst yourselves”, John 13: 35? I have a feeling that as the time gets nearer, and it is very, very near, we will learn a little more, through the experience of eternal life, of what love amongst ourselves really means. I think we learn what the assembly is as we experience it—not just from books (not that we would in any way weaken the value of books)—but it is formation in the divine nature, beloved brethren, that gives us the experience of what it is that the time is near. Here it is not, as we get elsewhere, that “The Lord is near”, Phil 4: 5. Of course, that is always true; how we need to look for Him! At the Supper and at all our assembly occasions we need to get some glimpse of the glory of the Lord. Let us look for Him now! As we are sensitively together, each indwelt by the same Spirit, what bonds, what affinities, we enjoy together and the Lord manifests Himself, makes Himself known to us. He would give us some sense of urgency.
So I thought of John because he gives us the soundings; he helps us to locate things. It is very important to take soundings. We need to know where we are and why we are there, and to be intelligently in the present position of testimony. So he says in Revelation 1, “For the time is near”.
The prophecy will be unfolded—“Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things written in it; for the time is near”. There is no question, the great matter of prophecy will open up afresh when the church is gone. In this remarkable time of the Spirit, the longest of the dispensations, God is working out His prime thoughts as to the assembly as the mystery. Let us be intelligent about it and be with Him about it and keep the words of the prophecy. Why? Because the time is near!
Now I read at the end of the book because the same words are used, “The time is near”. Now this brings out what is exceedingly solemn, yet exceedingly precious. In a way it is like a prophetic view of the whole public profession of Christendom in which, alas, in some settings, things are becoming fixed, judicially fixed. Dreadful clouds of apostasy are gathering so rapidly, beloved, and we need to be solemnised by it, sobered by it. Not that we would venture to fix things, we would not want to do that; but God does it—“and let the filthy make himself filthy still”. How solemn! We would not do that! Our business is the gospel, the glad tidings. In some sense there is an increase at the end of the book to “whosoever will”, see Rev 22: 17 KJV. Let us maintain that spirit but along with it recognise that God’s judicial government is proceeding unerringly. In the midst of the public departure and the going back, which is in character apostate, there is something precious “He that is, holy, let him be sanctified still”. Oh, let us value it!—“Holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord”, see Heb 12: 14. To think that it is possible, in the midst of the general departure, for a circle of the lovers of Christ, the lovers of God, to be a sanctified company. That means that each one of us needs to maintain holiness, to keep our bodies right. How important it is, especially for our younger brethren, and for all of us, to keep our bodies right, keep our minds right, keep our households right; and we are to pursue righteousness. That means, simply, doing what is right.
“He that is holy, let him be sanctified still”, then immediately the Lord says, “I come quickly”. What does He come to? A sanctified company. It is the greatest comfort, amidst the departure (you have a goodly number here; thank God for it; many of us have to work things out in small numbers), that the Lord comes to where love is. I am assured that His testimony will be maintained to the end in those that love Him. “I come quickly, and my reward with me to render to every one ...”. Then He says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega”—the whole shining out of the mind of God in the Person of Jesus. These are the words of Jesus. It is remarkable that it is the angel that begins to speak and somewhere in these verses the Lord takes over. How He loves to do that! There is a certain mystery about it. I think it would help us, dear brethren, to be sensitive in a meeting where the Lord takes over. Only He could say, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end”. Everything is bound up in the glorious Person of Jesus the One whom we love. May He help us to be sensitive—“The time is near”. Beloved brethren, let the urgency of it affect us, that we may comport ourselves becomingly until He comes. Amen.
GRANGEMOUTH
12th April 1988
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