“STAND FIRM, AND HOLD FAST”
I want, dear brethren, to say a very simple—and, I trust, brief—word that may leave upon all our hearts a sense of encouragement so that we may go forward from these meetings with a sense of being encouraged of the Lord. I have specially in mind the two exhortations at the end of this chapter: “stand firm, and hold fast”. This chapter has been engaging some of us over recent weeks, particularly in view of the current conditions among men and among nations. We need to be intelligent as to them and yet not overoccupied with them. The Lord will deal with everything that comes in. There is no need to be too occupied with the prophetic side, yet we need to understand certain things. Daniel understood by the books. Our occupation is with Christ, and His chief interest here is in His beloved assembly. These two remarkable letters to the Thessalonians bring out the depth of His feelings. They are not addressed formally; they are addressed as “in God the Father”, suggesting, I would think, that there is an inward formation there in the knowledge of God as Father. Where we read it is “our Lord Jesus Christ” and “our God and Father”, as if there had been an inward appropriation that brought about a formation in love, an answer in that beloved assembly to what was about to be. It is not exactly a letter of commandment. We get that to the Corinthians because it was needed. Paul says, “the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, 1 Cor 14: 37. I would not weaken that. We need the commandments of the Lord. They are protective and necessary for us. But in this letter and particularly in this chapter, it is exhortation. In fact, he begins it by begging them: “Now we beg you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him”. You can sense the intense feelings of the writer as he sees what is about to come about and is begging the brethren to do certain things. He had often told them; he had gone over the around many times; but the tendency is to be shaken by certain events. What I wish to convey now is that we should not be shaken. We need to keep steady. None of us would presume to know just what lies ahead, but we know the One who does know. Heaven is in control and everything has been given into the hands of Christ, the Father loving the Son. What we need to pray for is more faith and to cling to Him. The great need for all of us is to cleave to the Lord. Barnabas at Antioch exhorted them “to abide with the Lord”, Acts 11: 23. It is the secret of everything.
Now what I want to come to is these two very simple exhortations: the first is “stand firm”, and the second is “hold fast”. The first would involve our feet; we need to know where we stand. The second, holding fast, would involve more than our feet. It would involve at least our hands. I suppose it would involve the whole body. Oh, what a heritage we have come into! As the Lord may help, I want to illustrate this from Naboth and the two witnesses who certainly—at least, Naboth—stood firm. He did not give way. He did not sell his inheritance or barter it. He stood by the inheritance of his fathers. He stood firm. Beloved brethren, we need to be sure that our feet are on safe ground, on the rock. You have to dig deep, as the Lord says in that passage in Luke (see chap 6: 48); get your feet on the rock and when the storm comes it does not shift you. If we are on the sand we are swept away. Oh how many casualties there have been! Go back over the whole history—“strewed in the desert” (1 Cor 10: 5), whereas what followed them was the rock: it says “now the rock was the Christ”, v 4. Beloved brethren, He is no different; He “is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come”, Heb 13: 8. I believe the Spirit of God would bring us back constantly to the basic, precious link we have with Jesus. The foundation is there. It cannot be moved: “Yet the firm foundation of God stands”, 2 Tim 2: 19. Make sure you have your feet on it! I am not predicting a storm. We do not know; the Lord knows. As was said in the reading, we need to be watchful. We see those dark, dreadful clouds of apostasy rising, sweeping across Christendom. How watchful we need to be to keep ourselves in the sunshine of the love of Jesus, the love of God. It is there and there alone we see things clearly. Deborah speaks of “the rising of the sun in its might”, Judg 5: 31. The enemies are scattered. You watch the rising of the sun in its might. Those that love Him see the sun rising in its might. I believe it is the first allusion in the Scriptures to those that love God. (You can look it up.) That is how it is—like the rising of the sun in its might. How watchful we need to be! How the Lord as coming into every situation will see us through!
I just want to allude to this: “Yet the firm foundation of God stands”. And what is the foundation? “Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne”, Ps 97: 2. The first basic feature is righteousness. We pursue it, and faith, and love, and peace “with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”, 2 Tim 2: 22. Oh let the word search us, beloved! Let it search us! See if there be anything within me that is inconsistent with purity of love for Him! Call on Him out of a pure heart! It is very searching. It is meant to be, so that we know consciously that we have a firm foundation. It stands. Who can describe it? I doubt if we could. We can just say what scripture says: “Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne”. Beloved, it comes back to the fact that God is who He is. God is His own Object in everything. God “works all things according to the counsel of his own will” Eph 1: 11. Who of His creatures can say to God? Job says that. Who can answer to God? It is the more wonderful that He has revealed Himself in the Person of Jesus, come so near, and we should be growing in the knowledge of God.
So stand firm; stand in the truth. Be lovers of the truth! The “love of the truth” is what we have been at. Let us be formed in the affections proper to the revelation of God in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Whatever storms may come we do not know; He knows. Let us be watchful and see that we have our feet firmly established in the knowledge of Himself.
Then it says, “hold fast”. That was the word to Philadelphia. It was said also to Thyatira (see Rev 2: 25), but to Philadelphia there is something added: “Hold fast what thou hast that no one take thy crown”, Rev 3: 11: Beloved, we are so near the end. The new day is about to break. It is not the crown yet. Do not look for a crown now. There are no medals in this war. The crown is His and His alone. Those twenty-four elders cast their crowns at His feet. That is where they belong. Let the glory ever be His! But when He comes, we shall come with Him and we shall share His glory then. Now it is to “hold fast the instructions” it says, “which ye have been taught, whether by word or by our letter”. What a heritage has come down to us! I sometimes wonder if we value it as we could value it, what has come down through “faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also”, 2 Tim 2: 2. Let us value what has come down to us, beloved, in these days of recovery and hold fast to it, not weaken it maintain the precious truths in practice, and that can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So we remember the instructions, the commandments of the Lord—that would be the Scriptures. They are infallible. Their authority is beyond dispute. Thank God for the ministry of the word. That is not inspired. Its authority lies as it is supported by the Scriptures, and you value it, thank God for it. But we want more than the books. Dear brethren, we have said it before, more than ministry is needed. It is God who is able to make it effective and form us in it, and when the storm comes we are not “tossed and carried about by every wind” that comes; we stay steady. How needed it is! As long as we are here I suppose inevitably things will come up and have to be faced in the light of the principles of God’s house. Let us be formed in them and in the feelings they would produce in us. We do not go by the letter; we maintain the letter in the spirit of it. That is what Paul says, the spirit of the new covenant. If we go by the letter it tends to law; if we go by the spirit of the new covenant it tends to liberty and happiness and encouragement among the brethren.
Well Naboth did not give way. He did not barter his inheritance. He would not give it; he would not sell it; he was prepared to die for it, which he did. The opposition came from a religious source, Ahab and Jezebel. Now we know—we need not go into the detail of that—it is still current. Do you understand what I mean? The opposition from that source is still current in its ruthlessness, its injustice. There was no charge against Naboth, yet he was destroyed. He suffered because he valued the inheritance of his fathers. The three things I fear, dear brethren, are that source, the infiltration of the world which is idolatry, and the third is the intrusion of my natural mind. As Paul says, “But we have the mind of Christ”, 1 Cor 2: 16 . That is not claiming anything. It means the state is such that we think as Christ thinks. If something comes up in the local meeting or in ministry, how do you approach it? As He does. How restful we need to be, not pushed about our feet on the rock, holding fast to the truth, valuing the inheritance, prepared to suffer for it. “Be thou faithful unto death”, it says, “and I will give to thee the crown of life”, Rev 2: 10. How needed this is, dear brethren. Naboth suffers unjustly from that religious element, and he accepts death rather than compromise his valuation of the inheritance of his fathers.
Now I want to come to the two witnesses. I know it does not refer directly to this time. It is yet future in its literality. But the principle of the witness is with us. You know, as I do the word witness means martyr. This dispensation began with one: it began with Stephen. He was a witness; he was faithful unto death. He did not compromise the inheritance of his fathers. What a wonderful thing: the first time a man on earth saw a Man in heaven! He says, “Lo I behold the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”, Acts 7: 56. Think of what that meant to that beloved man! How did he get it? Why was he privileged to be a martyr? Do you know why? He accepted deacon service. Dear young man, dear young sister, start doing something for the brethren. Start serving others! You will be amazed at the reward. The Lord is no-one’s debtor and what is done for Him will have a reward if not here, then there. Stephen will stand out: “thy witness Stephen”, Paul says, Acts 22: 20. What ground he took. He says, ‘I held their clothes; I gave my consent’. What humility would mark that beloved servant, and, beloved, we share that humility. More and more we come back to the fact that the present moment calls for a deepening spirit of humbleness. It is easy to say it, not so easy to be in the reality of how the Lord feels about the breakdown to which we, I, have contributed. And what is next to His heart? Let us be prepared to give our lives for Him. Jonathan loved David “as his own soul”, 1 Sam 18: 3. That was not enough. You must love Jesus more than yourself and be prepared to give your life if necessary. I do not know how the dispensation will finish; maybe with martyrdom. I doubt if the devil would risk that. Never was Christianity brighter than in the days of the martyrs. There may be some suffering in China and other areas of the world where Christianity is persecuted. The Lord knows every one of them and is able for it. We need to be expanding in our affections and outgoing in our feelings that what God is doing is one whole matter and that is the assembly. The distinctive family of this dispensation is the assembly and she is almost complete. Most have gone; just a few of us are left; maybe far more than we realise—just think of them! I think the Lord has widened our vision during these days to see the extensiveness and the glory of His sovereign operations. Naboth gave his life rather than surrender or barter or compromise the inheritance of his fathers.
So these two witnesses are the same, clothed in sackcloth. That is the becoming clothing of a witness. I doubt if you would find it in the stores in Westfield. I do not know. I think they might wonder what you are asking for. We have to find it from the divine abode. It is through thorough self-judgment we become an effective witness here in the world where our Lord was crucified. Dear young brother, dear young sister, all of us, when you walk down those streets out there, do not forget it is “where also their Lord was crucified”. Separation from the world works from within, not from outward commandments, valuable as they are. It stems from inward devotedness to the One who was crucified and slain.
These witnesses remained firm. They were not buried. That means that the witness to their death remained. What a wonderful thing—one body! I suppose there is a certain witness typically, not literally, to the fact that there is still a testimony here to the one body: “so also is the Christ”, 1 Cor 12: 12. Christ is here in testimony. Oh let us value what has come down to us in the light of the assembly as the mystery of the body of Christ and be true to it and be prepared to lay down our lives. “And after the three days and a half the spirit of life from God came into them”: what a witness, what evidence of life is coming in. That is John’s line of things. It came into the very end of the journey in Genesis 24: “she sprang off the camel”, v 64. That is life coming into evidence. She is now ready, completely ready for the heavenly Man.
How near we are to it! Let us be a witness to it until He comes! So the word is “Come up here; and they went up to the heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them”; not that they will do that at the rapture. They will behold the appearing, it would seem; the rapture will be secret. How near it is, beloved. The next thing to happen is the raising of the sleeping saints; these bodies will be changed, together caught up. That is the word to the witnesses. They represent that: “Come up here; and they went up to the heaven in the cloud and their enemies beheld them”.
I just want to leave this sense of encouragement—two things: stand firm—remember that—and hold fast. For His Name’s sake.
PLAINFIELD
27th May 1991
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