STANDING BY THE CROSS OF JESUS

STANDING BY THE CROSS OF JESUS

1 Peter 2: 21 - 25; John 19: 25 - 27; Galatians 6: 14 - 18

The thought of the cross is on one’s mind and heart to speak about tonight, and to draw attention to the outlook of three persons like ourselves in relation to it; Peter, John and Paul. These were great men in testimony, princes amongst the people of God, men who were ennobled in the testimony and rightly so, men divinely selected, selected by the Lord Jesus Christ. He always reserves the right, dear brethren, to set forward whom He will in whatever capacity it may be, whether in suffering or in glory or otherwise; and these men are remarkable examples of it. They are men who have served the saints well in their day, they are models for the flock, and we can be thankful that we have such models. And yet they were like ourselves, men of like passions; one a most learned man, and the others, according to public opinion, unlettered and uninstructed, as was said of them in the book of the Acts. But what enters into the testimony of these men, and what substantially lies at the back of their part in the testimony, is what they were through divine workmanship. We have always to allow room for divine workmanship to express itself. There may be many features in every one of us that do not appeal to some of us, but we have to learn to make room for divine Persons in Their operations and what They may make of any one of us. You remember that the word to some of them was, “I will make you fishers of men.” As we read the second chapter of the Acts and see the spiritual boldness and dignity of Peter standing up with the eleven and preaching the word of God, we cannot but be impressed with the wonderful result in a man like Peter of being under the hand of Christ. I would specially encourage the younger men and women in this regard, because oftentimes there is an enquiry, along with the desire, how can we get on better in the things of God? I know of no better way to prosper in the things of God than to submit ourselves to Christ, come under His hand, giving Him the right-of-way to take us as we are and to form us as He pleases, and to make us what He pleases, suiting us for our part in the testimony into which we have been called through grace. We cannot limit a divine Person as to what He may do, or what He can do. The material may be difficult, the material may be hard to work with, for Peter did not represent the easiest kind of person to take on and to operate in and with; and yet how successful divine operations were. I would say to any of us, that we do not need to be hindered by mistakes, although we may be ashamed and humbled by them; but let none of us, as it were, seek an excuse in the mistakes to hinder our usefulness in the things of God. Let us get the gain from them, as Peter got the gain from every mistake he made and became useful in the divine hand, under Christ, for the promulgation of the testimony; not that we would put any premium upon mistakes, but Peter is a case that is an encouragement, and one is encouraged to refer to him, lest there might be any, especially among the younger ones, that might think that things are a little beyond them. The Lord took Peter tenderly in hand and formed him and made him, as He can form and make any one of us, suitable for the testimony, to fill out a dignified part in it as having the Spirit. And he is the one who writes the letter from which we have read first; and while we make every room for what the Lord Jesus may take in hand with us and what He may make of us, I want to stress the bearing of the truth upon ourselves responsibly, especially as to the cross; because I think we need to understand and appreciate the truth of the cross better.

The cross becomes a great dividing line, a great point of severance in regard to man after the flesh, and in regard to the world around us. Peter alludes to the cross in the language that he uses in this chapter. He calls it the tree, being Jewish, but nevertheless the cross is in mind, for Peter would aim in the ministry to help us as to the suffering position. We need to be helped in regard to the suffering position: we need to know, as Peter would help us to know, the value of suffering at the present time; so he says, “For to this have ye been called.” That is, it is not coincidence in circumstances, but divine intent enters into the suffering. As Peter says, “To this have ye been called.” He is alluding to the importance of doing good and suffering, bearing it as acceptable with God, and he says, “For to this have ye been called; for Christ also has suffered for you, leaving you a model that ye should follow in his steps.” I think we would all have to own freely that the steps of suffering are not the steps that we would naturally choose; they are the steps that we naturally would avoid in every way possible, but we are to understand suffering from Peter’s viewpoint, that we have been called to this position. I think it would help us to be more restful in the position. It would help us to take on the sufferings in a more peaceful way, especially desirous as we would be in this light, of going through things acceptably with God. You remember that Enoch had the testimony before he was translated that he pleased God. What a wonderful thing it is to be pleasing to God in suffering, to be acceptable to God in suffering, for Peter’s letter is dealing with the scene of suffering;

the saints are in a scene and environment where suffering is the order of the day, where the government of God is operating, and the saints, the beloved people of God, are not immune from what transpires. If it be the government of God in relation to sin, sin having come into the world through man, the saints are not immune from all that has come in in the wake of sin’s entrance through man - disease, sickness, illness, all the working out of government in relation to man. But what is to men in the flesh, merely the operation of God’s government in relation to sin, becomes to the children of God the divinely appointed process of discipline in suffering for the reaching of the divine end; so that being called to this position, dear brethren, involving suffering, it is not that we are called to it without being equipped in an essential way to meet it, and we need to understand suffering more from the standpoint from which one is referring to it.

Then we may think of the government of God operating nationally and internationally, nation against nation. What came in in Genesis 11 in regard to the dividing of the nations. We suffer on account of that, but we can thank God for His government operating in these matters, because we can see the impetus that lawlessness would have been given had God not come in in His government and brought about international boundaries. Sometimes they trouble us, sometimes they may occasion difficulty with us, but the hand of God has entered into the matter governmentally in regard to international boundaries so that the testimony might go through. Then take another feature that stands related to the government of God in our time and day, what is linked with the ruin and break up of things publicly in the assembly. How we have to suffer on that account! The young believer goes into the town and tells his fellow man as it may be, that he belongs to God, he belongs to Christ, he is linked with the people of God, and immediately he is ridiculed and taunted, because of the awful conditions of evil that exist in the public profession around us. How we have to suffer on that account, dear brethren, but we have been called to it, and Christ has suffered for us, leaving us a Model; so that we have to take full advantage of the Model, that we should follow in His steps. Then Peter says, “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who when reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not; but gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously.”

I would just allude for a moment to what Peter speaks of, what is more in mind in these verses: the moral glory of Jesus. We have been speaking a good deal today about divine affections and their radiation amongst men, and now we have here in Peter another feature which is to affect us, which is to affect men, and that is, the moral glory of Jesus. It is important that we should understand what is linked with the moral glory of Christ, because of our getting the full gain of the model that He has left. It is a great thing, dear brethren, that we understand moral glory so that the testimony that we have part in through grace may be enhanced. We can understand the Lord Jesus moving here as the anointed Vessel, as Luke presents Him. How He adorned the position! He not only taught but He adorned the teaching, and I think, dear brethren, we need help on the side of what is moral, on the line of what is linked with moral glory. It says, “Who did no sin.” Of course, He was the sinless One. There was no sin in Him; He knew no sin. But Peter specifically says, “who did no sin.” We know He could not sin, for in Him sin was not. But why does Peter say He did no sin, if it was not to throw into relief the moral glory of this blessed and glorious Man, in a world and a scene where every man was accustomed to doing sin, as the Preacher says in. Ecclesiastes, “There is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not.” But think of Jesus, think of this way of moral glory; Who did no sin. Oh, the sin that we have done, it may be time and again; how we have sinned with our feet, sinned with our hands, sinned with our mouths, it may be, sinned in our thoughts; but here there is projected on to our view in this glorious Model, One who did no sin, as Peter says, “Neither was guile found in his mouth.” Oh, the mouth of Jesus! I am “altogether that which I also say to you.” How important it is that we should substantially support the truth by what we are in moral glory. I know that Jesus was unique; I know there was no other man like Jesus in the condition into which He came; but then Peter is impressing us with the Model that He has left us so that we should cease from sin. That is a word for the younger brethren, that we should cease from sin. Indeed the word is used later, that we should have done with sin. It says, “Neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not.” Let us measure ourselves with these great features of moral glory in Jesus. How often have we threatened when suffering; how often have we turned again when reviled, and thus have failed in reflecting the moral glory of the One who has left us a Model. It is not just in regard to teaching, but a Model in regard to this scope of moral glory that I am referring to, especially in regard to speaking. In His mouth there was found no guile, and when others sinned with their mouths, He did not reply. It says, “When reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not; but gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously.” What a word that is, the moral glory of Jesus as Man.

It is not that He gave what was being done against Him over into the hands of God. Oftentimes when oppressed and persecuted and suffering, we may give these things over into the hand of God and ask God to take care of them. But it says of Jesus, He gave Himself over. Not the reviling nor the threatening, but it says, “gave himself over into the hands of him who judges righteously.” He left Himself in the hands of Him of whom it is said, “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” How often we assert our own rights in matters; we try to defend ourselves, we try to save our faces and our reputations, asking God to come in and vindicate us in relation to these matters; but not Jesus, dear brethren. What a Model He is for us. We need to give ourselves over into the hand of God in this light, for God is infinitely fair. If He allows matters to come into our minds that search us to the very roots of our moral beings, is His hand not over matters? Does He not allow matters? Will He not be fair? Will He not do what is right? Has He not done what is right in the history of time in His ways with men? If we knew God, we would say He has, but we are more concerned about our circumstances being given over, and the things that persecute us given over for God to take up, whereas we should give ourselves over into the hands of God. You remember how David in the critical juncture in Samuel, when usurped as to his kingly place on the throne, was fleeing from Jerusalem, and there were those that carried the ark out with David, but David tells them to go back and carry the ark of God back into the city, as he says, “If I shall find favour in the eyes of Jehovah he will bring me again and show me it, and its habitation.” 2 Samuel 15: 25. That is, God will bring David again; but if not, he says, “let him do to me as seemeth good to him.” David was giving himself over into the hands of God, and we need to do that, dear brethren. We are quite prepared to give our circumstances over, and the things that try us, and ask God to take care of them; but we need to give ourselves over, that God may be free to do whatever He wants with us. And God brought David back again, as He will bring us again, as He brought Jesus, I might reverently say, again. The scripture says, “Who brought again from among the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, in the power of the blood of the eternal covenant.” Hebrews 13: 20. What does that expression mean? That God was true to His own thoughts in regard to man, in regard to His people, in bringing Jesus again from among the dead.

Now it says, “Who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.” That is what I want to come to. How Peter views the cross, how it affects a minister like Peter! How it should affect all of us, this pathway of moral glory! You might say, Well, surely God would vindicate Jesus, surely God would save Jesus from going the whole length; but oh, let it touch our hearts afresh that Jesus had to go all the way. We marvel at the lengths to which we may be allowed to go, but think of where Jesus went in order that He might take care of what was linked with us on our side, as it says, “Who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, in order that, being dead to sins, we may live to righteousness.” Peter views the cross in this light as the great means of separation from our sins, that we might live to righteousness. What a wonderful thought that is, dear brethren, living to righteousness. You might say, Well, it says, Living to God. Yes it does, but this is living to righteousness. We measure sins in the light of what they cost Christ.

The practising of my will and the practices of the flesh in me, the practices of an impure state brought Jesus this way; and the great thought in Peter’s mind is that we should be affected by it, “In order that, being dead to sins, we may live to righteousness” - that we should live to what is right. And what is right is the rights of God, His right to do with us what He pleases. His right to bring what He chooses, for righteousness would allude to what is right. It is a great thing that we should live to righteousness in this way. Then it says, “By whose stripes ye have been healed.” Oh, this thought of healing, the way of the cross leading into healing, as we think of all that Jesus suffered. It had in mind healing on our side, as it says, “By whose stripes ye have been healed.” Then it says, “For ye were going astray as sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.” Think of what Peter refers to here, not only the fact that the Lord has taken care of things on the cross, but the balance to that in what we have come to in Jesus as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.

Now I want to speak a word on John, the writer that we have been considering today, the one who tells us so much about divine love, the one who lay in the bosom and on the breast of Jesus. He is presented to us here, as the Spirit of God is using him to write this gospel, as standing by the cross of Jesus. It says; “And by the cross of Jesus stood his mother, and the sister of his mother, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Jesus therefore, seeing his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved.” I suppose never was John more attractive to Jesus than at that moment, as He saw his preparedness to stand by in the face of the most unutterable sufferings that Jesus was passing through. Then the reference to the women in relation to the cross. They have often been alluded to, and I believe the Lord would help the sisters more and more to understand what it means to stand by the cross, to stand by the principle of suffering and reproach that the cross sets out, to surmount every natural feeling, every natural desire, every social inclination and leaning, to surmount it all in view of being effective in the testimony on the basis of standing by the cross. Nothing gives us moral power in the testimony like standing by the cross of Jesus, because it means the utter refusal of all that expressed itself there without reserve in the man of sin and shame. As I stand by the cross of Jesus, I weigh over in my soul the teaching that is linked with the cross, and come to a judgment of all that brought Jesus there, and as coming to a judgment of it, utterly repudiating it. Thus standing by the cross, I am identified with the reproach linked with Jesus in that setting. It says, “Jesus therefore, seeing his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved.” It was one thing for the Lord Jesus to take account of John on His bosom and in His breast, but here he is in the most testing circumstances, at the most testing point. It is one thing to be near the Lord and with the Lord in the meetings, in a gathering like this where we are surrounded by all the protection that the realm affords, but in the public position how important it is that we should stand by the cross of Jesus, prepared for all that the reproach linked with the cross might mean to us. Jesus saw the disciple standing by, whom He loved, and says to His mother, “Behold thy son.” Then He says unto the disciple, “Behold thy mother. “Now notice this. The Lord does not speak to John first; He does not ask John whether he would take the matter on. We are to be reminded in this position, of the Lord’s rights to dispose of things as He will, to dispose of us as He will. He does not have to follow the pattern of our thinking; we may well thank God that He does not, for the pattern of our thinking often leads us far astray from the truth. The Lord even in these circumstances where suffering is so acute, where reproach marks the position publicly, is reserving the right, with everyone of us, to do what He will.

Now these features of the truth lie at the basis of spiritual prosperity. Many of us are not prepared to give the Lord full room in our lives, to allow Him to do what He likes with any one of us, to put upon us what He likes, what He has in mind to put upon us. He says, “Woman, behold thy son.” Had He asked John about the matter? He had not. The Lord commits things into our hands. He has a right to commit things into our hands, and the question is whether we are going to take on matters; because the woman here, the Lord’s mother, would represent for the moment a feature of the truth that has a place in His thoughts. Are we going to take it on? How often we let our own likes and dislikes rise up in these matters, and prefer the pattern of our own thinking, where the Lord is wanting to bring us into His way of thinking. He says, “Woman, behold thy son. Then he says unto the disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” No wonder, if I might say, speaking soberly, we have such a gospel written by a vessel like this. John the evangelist - one who was prepared, as standing by the cross of Jesus, to take on whatever the Lord put his way. Now we all need to come into that in the local gatherings where we are. Many of us may be prepared for others to take on things, prepared for others to do things, but what are we doing? What is the Lord putting my way?

Let every brother and sister face that in their souls. What is the Lord putting my way? What feature of the truth is He stressing to me? What should I take on? It is not a question of my personal likes or dislikes. As aligning myself with Christ in the light of His cross in reproach and shame, I am to allow Him the full right to dispose of me as He will, to use me as He will, and to use what I have as He will. It is a matter of John taking her to his home. A remarkable thing, dear brethren, how the divine right is exerted in this hour of crisis! Often we desert the position in an hour of crisis, but the disciple whom Jesus loved, who lay in His bosom and on His breast at supper in chapter 13, is standing by the truth, cost what it may from the hands of men, and cost what it may in whatever the Lord may lay upon him. What is the Lord laying upon me? What is He committing to me? Let me take it on. Let not our business matters, our work, our homes, come in to interfere with this matter of what the Lord would commit to us in the way of a particular feature of the truth at any moment. And it says, “from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” Not to somebody else’s home. It is easy to take things to somebody else, easy to put the responsibility on to somebody else. We are very good at that. But the whole point in this passage is that the lover of Christ, one who knows intimacy with Christ, is prepared to take on the truth, cost what it may, involving the readjustment of his circumstances, and perhaps of his outlook in regard to his home. It is now to be regulated by the truth, and the divine right in the testimony to dispose of what we are and what we have, as the divine will may be. We can well understand spiritual prosperity as it is set out in John from that viewpoint.

Now I just finish with a word as to Paul, the great minister of the assembly. He says, “Far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” What a lover of Christ Paul is! How he stands for the truth, in this letter, come what may! He knows where he is in the truth; he knows where his feet are in the truth; he knows what he has from God. We are to benefit from such as Paul and others, and the model that they have left us. Paul speaks of himself and others as models; we have the Model in Jesus, and we have the model in Paul; and what a place the cross had in his life, how it coloured his ministry. How he refused anything and everything that would give him distinction after the flesh; because the cross had not only entered his mind, it had entered his soul, dear brethren, and that is what we want. We want the truth of the cross to enter our souls, to affect our moral beings throughout, so that the world is completely judged. You can well understand the Judaiser saying, ‘Paul, if you insist on liberty and refuse circumcision it will lead to looseness; it will lead to worldliness.’ Think of them in their outlook in regard to a man like this. What is his attitude in regard to the world: “Far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” If he was instrumental in bringing down the strongholds of Judaism, was he going to boast in his exploits in that regard? Far be the thought. He says here, “Far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We have nothing to boast in if we are employed in the testimony and if we come out on the side of victory, we have nothing to boast in but the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ puts every man out of court, and we want to boast in it more. It puts the world out of court. He says, “Through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” Then he says, “For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision; but new creation.”

Now I want to finish with that word, dear brethren. They were making everything of circumcision, everything of what the law could do, what the law would do, but Paul says, “Neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision; but new creation.” He would bring before us an extended view in regard to the whole realm of new creation. “And as many as shall walk by this rule.” What a rule it is, the rule of new creation! As we think of new creation which has begun now in the saints of the assembly, how it dignifies the saints in our minds, as it says, “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation.” Have we ever thought of that, the reference to the fact of one person being in Christ “there is a new creation?” Think of the dignity of the saints in the light of new creation, that the saints are the first fruits of new creation. Wonderful thing to take account of! It will soon extend, involving the heaven and the earth, but think of the glory of it now in the assembly, where there is no Jew nor Gentile, bondman nor freeman. What a wonderful realm we have in the assembly in new creation! It says, “As many as shall walk by this rule.” May we be helped, dear brethren, in accepting the truth of the cross in the light of Peter’s and John’s and Paul’s ministry, and be helped to walk by the rule of new creation, and to know what peace and mercy is on that line. May the Lord bless the word.