STABILITY
W.Dickson
Hebrews 6: 17-20; Isaiah 22: 20-24; 28: 14-middle of 17; 32: 1,2
I desire, beloved brethren, to speak simply at this time of the stability of the divine system, of which Christ is the centre, as meeting the challenge of apostasy. Why I desire to make it simple is on account of, amongst other things, the presence of younger brethren; some it would appear to me are still at school or college where apostate elements are already encroaching. In the teachings and educational curricula of men these elements can be observed. In John 13 it says of Judas that "he went out...: and it was night" (v.30). That, beloved brethren, covers the dispensation – night. That remains. On account of the rejection of Christ it is night. So the testimony of God is the great bulwark against the challenge of apostasy at the present time.
I want to speak of four stable features – the anchor, the nail in a sure place, the foundation stone and then the great rock. These four stable features lie in Christ and, apprehended by the Spirit of God in the saints, they act as the great bulwark against apostasy. I want to speak very soberly. It is evident apostasy when the leaders of religious hierarchy openly proclaim doctrines which undermine the very foundations of Christianity. It could not be anything else but apostasy. Then there is the introduction of these strange doctrines and cults from the East, and allied to them this horrible traffic in drugs. I am painting a sober picture because there is no believer who loves the Lord but carries these things in their responsibility towards mankind and as having the truth of the gospel in their hearts.
Along with apostasy there is atheism, agnosticism and infidelity. The atheist is a person who maintains that there is no such being as God. How prevalent! The agnostic says there is such a Being as God, but it is outside of man's range to know Him. The infidel will agree there is a God but will not accept that the revelation of God is in Christ. Now, beloved brethren, it is essential that the people of God should be stable in the presence of these terrible currents which are sweeping over the area which once had, and still has in measure, the light of Christianity. I say all that in a preliminary way because I want to bring Christ before you, the great stable centre of God's universe. Once you grasp by faith, in the power of the Spirit, that blessed Man, that Rock, nothing will shift you, no matter how they try to permeate your mind with false teaching. You will stand firm because you have a link with that Person.
In Hebrews it speaks of the anchor of the soul. A wonderful simile – anchor! We saw it in the days when the big liners were more in use than today, huge liners held by an anchor. But we have an anchor. You may know that old hymn, 'We have an anchor... steadfast and sure'. So it says here: "Wherein God, willing to shew more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, intervened by an oath". If you read the beginning of this chapter you will see that it speaks of apostate conditions. It speaks of those who fall away and how it is impossible to renew them again to repentance as they have no work of God in them. Now, let me say for the comfort of the young people, that once you are the Lord's, nothing can take Him from you. Be assured of that. That precious blood of Jesus shed at Calvary secures your eternal security and peace. No matter what men may say to you, no matter what the enemy may do to disturb your peace, look at that blood, that precious blood of Jesus, and be assured that nothing will ever take- away the efficacy of that blood. These persons in the earlier part of this chapter had no work of God in them, none at all. They had made a profession. In the face of that the writer speaks about two unchangeable things. What are these two unchangeable things? One is the purpose of God, nothing can change that – two immutable things that stand out in the moral universe, God's purpose and God's word. Where are they? You look round in the confusion and you say, Where are they? In Christ. He is gone within the veil. Think of that, an anchor for the soul. He has gone in as a Forerunner, and as we go in following our Forerunner within the veil we can take account of these two changeless, immutable things, God's purpose and God's word. What a stable position in the shifting sands of man's thoughts! Jude, \he writer who deals with the apostasy, speaks of "spots in your love-feasts, feasting together with you without fear, pasturing themselves; clouds without water, carried along by the winds; autumnal trees, without fruit, twice dead, rooted up; raging waves of the sea" (v 12) – no stability there. Oh! how much more blessed to have an anchor for the soul in that Man who is in the presence of God, our Forerunner, and to go in there and see fixed in Him these two things that can never change, the purpose of God and the word of God.
In Isaiah 22 we come to the matter of "a nail in a sure place". There again it is in the background of apostasy. In verse 15 there is reference to the steward Shebna who opposed Isaiah and was sympathetic to an alliance with Egypt, and God was going to deal with. him; and then against that he brings forth this beautiful type of the Lord Jesus in Eliakim the son of Hilkijah. "And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand". That is Christ in resurrection honoured by God, honoured by the Father up there. It says: "And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem". A reference to the Lord's fatherhood was made in the reading – a very touching thought, the Lord as Father. It is worthy of a little consideration. When the Lord was here with His disciples, with His own, He was a father to them. Every need they had, every care, every sorrow, they took to Jesus. It is a fine thing to have fathers in a lo al me ting that young people can go to with their cares, with their soul exercises with their struggles and temptations. It is one of the great features of stability in God's moral universe. Further it says; "And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open". Now that shows how the challenge of apostasy is come, the challenge of apostasy in regard to the distinctive privileges of the church. We have had that in our own time. The clerical system would take from God's people the distinctive privileges that belong to the church, but the key of the house of David is laid upon the Lord's shoulder; in other words, that blessed Person will maintain to the end of the dispensation these privileges of the church and this relates to the recovery of the truth in our time. I think it is right to call attention to Mr Darby's tract, 'The notion of a clergyman: Dispensationally the sin against the Holy Ghost' (Collected Writings Vol. 1, p.36). The whole clerical system – and you can bring it historically as near as you like – will endeavour by the apostasy to rob the church of its privileges. A nail in a sure place is Christ, and all the vessels hang upon that nail. That is wonderful. You and I, sinners saved by grace, do not need to go to any earthly priest, we do not need any accredited religious authority, to have part in the privileges of the house of God. We can go in, we can take up our service, we can approach God, we can sing to the Spirit, we can rejoice in sonship, we can say we are of the brethren of Christ. Why? Because we are hanging, small vessels as well as the vessels of cups and vessels of flagons, on that nail in a sure place. I would encourage you, young brethren, to learn to function as one of the vessels in God's house, a little vessel it may be, but do not be deterred if some of the flagons are in use and you feel your capacity is small. The Lord Jesus will be as delighted to see you empty your little cup as He would be to see that older brother empty his flagon. Where would we have been today without the nail in a sure place? To ensure that these wonderful privileges which we enjoy, which the enemy would take away from us, God has established that great stable point, that nail in a sure place.
In chapter 28 it is again the background of apostasy. The men that rule in Jerusalem say: "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol have we made an agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us". Think of that! That is what men say today. They say the judgment shall never reach us. They defy God. So in verse 16: "Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I lay for foundation in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that trusteth shall not make haste". Now, beloved, that corner-stone is a reference to the establishment of God's house down here upon earth. In our time it relates to the preaching of the glad tidings. That is what Paul tells us in the second chapter of 1 Timothy, one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. That is the tried stone, the sure foundation. Stability in Christ and His finished work and His place in glory is the assurance that the gospel will go out to the end. Let us cling to the truth of the gospel. Let nothing dim our mind as to the pure grace of God involved in the gospel. It has been secured for us at wondrous cost, by the precious work of Jesus, and God has established His house down here upon earth as a place where men can hear the gospel and come into blessing. The Lord said that the gates of hades shall not prevail against the assembly. Be assured of that. People say that Paul's gospel is old-fashioned; the school teachers will tell you that the Old Testament is largely mythical; the religious leaders even will tell you the resurrection of Christ is not factual. Jesus in resurrection is the tried stone and the precious corner-stone, a sure foundation the theme of the gospel. How could anybody who had the light of God’s house close the door of the gospel to enquirers in the light of the fact of this foundation in Zion? Zion speaks of God's sovereign mercy. "He that trusteth shall not make haste". "Not make haste" has a note: 'shall not hasten with fear'. Do not lose courage in the presence of the apostasy. Let us withstand it. Let us maintain the truth, no matter the cost. Let us maintain the truth of the glad tidings. It has been often said that Paul grieved more over the Galatians.in regard to the introduction of the legal principle than he mourned over the Corinthians in their looseness. The gospel, beloved hearers, will be maintained to the end of the dispensation.
In chapter 31 it says: "A king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment". It is a fine link with what we had earlier. You may say that that refers to the world to come. Well, it is the world to come, but your little local meeting should be a foretaste of the world to come. Have you ever thought of that, that your local meeting should be like the world to come, where every moral principle is upheld and princes rule in judgment? That does not mean arbitrary judgment; it means that the prince sits on his throne and ministers judgment in grace. In righteousness and grace judgment is administered. The assembly is no place for harshness, but divine rights must be maintained, and will be maintained. They can be maintained in righteousness and judgment. Then it says: "And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the storm; as brooks of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land". That great rock would be Christ: "they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them: (now the rock was the Christ)", 1 Cor 10: 4. Christ is the rock. The reference to the brooks of water in a dry place could be an allusion to the Spirit here – Christ risen glorious on high, and down here the reflection of that blessed Man and the Spirit of God furnishing us with spiritual refreshment, spiritual life and spiritual joy. It is a thirsty land around, outside the sphere of the Spirit, but we can dwell under the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. So when a meeting night comes you say, I must be there; I am going to get my thirst quenched. We drink of these brooks of water in a dry place. The shadow of a great rock is over the companies of God's people. Oh, what stability in an apostate world! Let us stand. Ephesians tells us: "Having accomplished all things, to stand", chap. 6: 13. Let us stand and give nothing up of the inheritance we have received from God at the present time. May you young ones have your part in it, because we depend on you carrying on the testimony in freshness and vigour and power to the end of the dispensation.
May the Lord help us for His Name's sake.
Amen.
MELBOURNE
23 November 1985