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THE HOUSE OF GOD

R. Taylor

THE LORD JESUS CALLING PERSONS

J. Renton

THE MAINTENANCE OF THE TESTIMONY

W. Dickson

EXTRACTS

R. Taylor

Psalm 122: 1–9; Hebrews 3: 3–6; 10: 19–25

I trust there may be help to say a word as to the house of God. It is something I find very difficult to speak about without being misunderstood, because on the one hand we have today what would claim to be the house of God, in which is housed what is corrupt, and even what is infidel finds a place; on the other hand, we have persons who say that everything is broken down, that the house does not exist, that everything today is on an individual basis. Both these are wrong, and yet they are propounded quite widely. In the midst of it all there is what is to be experienced, although not claimed, as being the place where God dwells, where He is loved, and where He is served. May we all have grace to find our happy and blessed part in it.

The epistles to the Corinthians and Timothy particularly give us instruction, so that in spite of all that has come in by what men have done, “Yet the firm foundation of God stands”, 2

Timothy 2: 19. What a comfort for faith! Whatever men may do or have done and are doing, the firm foundation of God stands. God’s house is His building where, as I said already, He is loved and where He is served. Every exercised soul would seek to find their place in it. There is a place for you in God’s house. The psalmist speaks about the swallow and the sparrow finding a place there, the most restless and the most worthless of birds, and yet they find a place in God’s house (Psalm 84: 3). What a blessed privilege it is to find a place where God has made the arrangements; where God has things according to His thoughts. I only say again, Have you found it? Have you found your place where God is loved and where He is served?

We could hardly speak about the house of God without speaking about Jacob. His history and exercises

show us how we may come into it; and how we may find our lives transformed from labouring under the bondage of a master that would change our wages ten times and give us nothing, to find our place in the house of God where He gives us everything. Perhaps, like Jacob, you have gone your own way till now, with your own ideas and your own standards, yet God may in His ways bring you to a point where He speaks to you about His house. Jacob says at first that it was a dreadful place, that exposes his heart; it exposes your heart and mine if we do not want to come into God’s arrangements. You say that surely it is much happier, much easier for us to make our own arrangements and find our own ways, in a system where man’s will and man’s ways find free expression. Jacob was like that, he says, This is a dreadful place: I do not want to be restrained; I do not want to be always hearing about Christ, I would like to make my way myself. So he went on his way. I suppose most of us have had some of these thoughts; maybe some of us still have them. Perhaps you would like to be in an area where self can be expressed, and the things you want can be found. The sad thing is that there is all around us that which bears the name of Christ, and yet man’s will and thoughts are given full expression there.

Jacob goes on his way and something happens in his life when he says, I cannot go on with this any longer. You know what happened to change Jacob’s life? What began to change Jacob’s life was the birth of Joseph. If it has not happened before, may it come into your heart tonight that God has another Man before Him, and that Man is Christ. If you read those chapters in Genesis, you will find that after Joseph was born, Jacob’s life began to change.

When you see Christ as the Man of God’s choice, and that His thoughts are centred in Him, the arrangements of your life must become different. So Jacob says in effect, I cannot stay here where there is a semblance of Christianity, I must come into God’s arrangements. He began to be concerned to make some

Move into an area where God’s will prevailed. He found in those exercises very much what Paul brings up in Timothy, that in the midst of this great profession in which we are, there is a need to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. Jacob came to pursue some of these features. You come to examine the path that you are on—Is it righteous? Is it right that you should live to yourself? Is it right that you should be pursuing your own will and your own ways and your own arrangements? Is it righteous that you should accept Christ as your Saviour, and the benefits that have come from that precious blood having been shed on the cross to atone for your sins, and still pursue your own ways, and your own will and your own ideas? It is not. Righteousness would involve that I make room for the claims of God and the claims of Christ. I know it is much more, but I give it that touch at this moment. Jacob began to see that it was not right that he should have tasted something of these benefits without making room for Christ, in type, to become supreme in his heart.

Later the word of God leads him to go up to Bethel, to the house of God, no longer a dreadful place, but a place where he can enjoy liberty. But on the way he is made fit to find his place there. It says that a man wrestled with him (see Genesis 32: 24), and his name was changed,

“Thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel”, Genesis 32: 28. God would like to give you a sense of changing your name. If you take up some of these exercises, as you seek to make room for Christ in your life, God would change your name. What for? To make you suitable to live in His house. What a place it is, a house of first-born ones. What a history was removed in that wrestling; it says in that chapter, a most beautiful word, “the sun rose upon him; and he limped upon his hip”. He is saying, No longer do I want to please myself, no longer do I want my things, but I want to serve God. He is a limping man but a blessed man, no longer a scheming man, but a prince with God. God was making him fit for His house. God’s house is

where God dwells; it is where His arrangements prevail; not man’s arrangements as in the great house; but the house of God, as I am speaking of it, is where God’s arrangements prevail. I do not want to be misunderstood; because we know that the house of God in its widest sense includes every believer, that is the wide scope of it, but we can hardly identify that today in the breakdown. What I am speaking about now is the vital side of it, that is not only to be identified, it is to be experienced. I do not say where it is, but I say it can be found and Jacob found it; he found a place where God was honoured, where God was served, and he found a place where he could be at home in the presence of God. What a wonderful thing it is to be at home in the presence of God. God has made these arrangements, they are all centred in Christ. When the disciples of John saw Him here, they said, “where abidest thou?”

(John 1: 38), they saw something there that must have a home; He said, “Come and see”. I believe God would say to you as having begun a work in your soul, Come and see; find the place where My arrangements prevail; where there is to be found something in which I find My joy; where there is praise and glory to God in the assembly.

The psalmist says, “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah”.

May I just make an application of that to the announcements that are made on Lord’s day morning of the meetings in the week. They bring a sense of joy. The prayer meeting would be an expression of the house of God. It says that about it indeed, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”, Matthew 21: 13. We get that too in Timothy that there is to be intercession and prayer for all men, for nations and kings. So the prayer meeting would be an experience of being in the house of God. In what I say I would seek to elevate the assemblings of the saints. There is a danger of them becoming common, ordinary in our thoughts; but in the gathering together of the saints on right principles, there is an expression of the house of

God. The prayer meeting would be that; not that a few people come together and some pray, but the prayers are to God in His house. What an elevation that would give to the prayer meeting. Solomon speaks about it when he says, “when they shall pray toward this place, and hear thou in thy dwelling-place in the heavens, and when thou hearest, forgive”, 1 Kings 8: 30. In the prayer meeting there is a sense of God’s ear being reached. I do not say that to weaken our individual prayers which have a great place in our experience and exercises.

The psalmist says, “I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah”, the collective position is to be valued and esteemed, and the announcements on Lord’s day are to give a touch of dignity to the meetings. It has been spoken of as the anointing; there is something dignified that on the first day of the week these announcements are made that we will be gathered together for prayer and thanksgiving, for ministry, and for the reading of the Scriptures, which is another feature of God’s house, to enquire in His temple. What a matter to come together with that in our minds! You say we come together to read the Scripture, we are reading in Matthew or Mark or whatever it may be, but we come together to an area of things, which in its vitality is the house of God. David speaks about that, coming into His temple to enquire of Him in it, yea more he says, “that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah”, Psalm 27: 4. That is where God is known, in His house; He is displayed in creation unmistakably, but where do you expect to find an expression of God? Where do you expect to get the best impressions of Christ? It would be when the saints are gathered together on the principles and in the way in which I am speaking of it. As coming together, let us leave our own arrangements and what claims they have upon us. So as the announcements are made we commit ourselves to being there, with a sense of joy as we look forward to the

reading of the Scriptures.

Another great matter is the gospel. There can be no real preaching of the glad tidings save as the house of God is known and enjoyed. It has been well said no slave can be an evangelist. It is only as you enjoy the liberty and blessedness and fulness of God’s house that you can come out towards men in all the fulness of the blessing of God’s heart. In order to come out in the wealth of the glad tidings we must know the heart of God; we must know the kind of God that He is—ready to forgive, rich in mercy, abounding in goodness towards the sinner.

All these things are learned in the house; so the glad tidings go out from the house, from persons who have been dwelling in His courts, who know something of His heart and the wealth of His love. I think that all enters into what David is rejoicing in here. Jerusalem was the place of God’s dwelling, “Jerusalem, which art built as a city that is compact together”.

There was a Jerusalem that men had their hand in, but David is speaking here about what God had done, what He had built, the city of the great King; where God found His dwelling and His rest. I say again, from that sphere of things the gospel goes out to bring men in. The gospel does not go out just to relieve men of their sins, it goes out to relieve you of your sins surely, but also to bring you into the house of God as a son, as illustrated in what that young man experienced in Luke’s gospel (Luke 15). It is to bring you into all the wealth and blessings that are to be enjoyed in the house. These are available for every believer surely, but how few come into it. May you and I be among them.

So David here goes on to speak about the thrones of judgment. There is judgment expressed among the saints. The brethren may speak about some things and you may think they are hard; and maybe you maintain your own judgments; you think, Well, that is what I think about things. These things you know are not permissible in the house of God; it is where God’s judgments are

known, where His standards are upheld; it says, “For there are set thrones for judgement, the thrones of the house of David”. They are always protective, not punitive in that sense, they are there that the divine mind may be known. It is a great matter to find the meeting proceeding and God’s mind becomes known about exercises; it may not be my mind or my thoughts, or the thoughts that I have held heretofore. In the house of God there will be God’s judgments expressed, and, dear brethren, they need to be honoured; they need to be accepted, indeed, but they need to be honoured, and they need to be embraced, and they become our standards. The standards of judgment as expressed in the house of God become the standards for my pathway, because my life, as Jacob’s was, is to be lived in relation to God’s house, and not in relation to my sphere of things. These things are testing but very blessed as we see that in the house is where Christ is enthroned.

David goes on to speak about these thrones, and he speaks about prayer as we have said, and he speaks about peace. The normal thing that pervades in God’s house is a great sense of peace. In the type in the tabernacle, as Aaron went into the holy places, how calm it must have been; he must have been slow to come out because outside there were all kinds of troubles; but inside the whole thing was shut out, he was shut in to God. He was shut in there where there was the ark, the table, the lamp, divine light shining in all its blessed fulness and peace. Aaron must have proved it as he went inside. May we know more of it in our gatherings. It is foreign to the house of God that there should be unrest; it is foreign to God’s dwelling place that there should be any feeling of bitterness or strife. Let us remember, dear brethren, that in our gatherings together, in our local meetings, there is to be an expression and experience that we are in the house of God. We are not just there to air our views but we are there to listen. The main Speaker in the house of God is Christ. He is Son over it;

His standard, His character, His features are to prevail.

In Hebrews 3, the writer says that He who has built it has more honour than the house. The house of God as I am speaking about it is all divine work, “he who has built all things is God”. Much could be said, if we were able, of the material He is using in the building; the boards of the tabernacle set up on those bases of silver speaking of the great redemptive work of Christ—all entering into the building and the forming of the material. So it says, “Christ, as Son over his house, whose house are we”. He is Son over it. He gives character to it in dignity and liberty. He is the same One who has shed His blood that we should be no longer strangers and foreigners, but should be of the household of God. How right that He should be Son over God’s house! What a place He has in the house, none shall move without Him, but when He moves everything will move. He gives the dignity to it and He gives the liberty in it, leading us into this area of things where we see Him in the glory of His Person; nothing needing to be done, but as Son over the house enjoying the company of His own; every one of them bearing His features; every one of them ready to respond, every eye fixed upon Him in His movements.

Well, it says, “whose house are we”—not will be then, but we are that now. So does Christ have His full way of liberty as Son over the house? Is He the point of reference, or is there some projection of man that would spoil the features and character of what is normal to the house of God? Let us ever seek to touch what is normal; however abnormal things may have been and are around us, the Spirit’s grace is here, the Spirit’s power is here, that we may touch something of what is normal in an area where Christ is known as Son over God’s house. In the types it is not the military man that is Son over the house, it is the Beloved, Solomon, who is Son over the house. David was restricted somewhat, I do not speak about that, but the one who was over the house was Solomon, typical of Christ the Beloved of God, and beloved of the saints. There will not be an eye there in that day to come but will behold Him and rejoice in His every movement. How about in the local gathering now? Do we come in faith? Do we come in expectancy that in the occasion of gathering, be it prayer or gospel preaching, or enquiry into the Scriptures, there will be some sense of the movements of the Son in the house. He is ready to move; He would be ever moving us inward and upward in relation to the great thoughts of God.

Well, it speaks too about His being a Priest over the house of God; it is to encourage us to approach now. It says, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness”—because we have a great Priest. It is not the high priest here, but it says “a great priest”, there is only One. He is distinguished in all His glory, and He is distinguished in making full provision for us that we may approach and enjoy the most blessed things. It says, “let us approach”, having boldness for entering by the blood of Jesus—may that never be historical! The power of it, the blessedness of it should be there in every meeting. We need it in every meeting as we come together; a sense of the blood of Jesus that would touch me maybe in my conscience as to anything that may have happened in the day that may bring in defilement. There is the blood and the water; these things would affect us as we come to the meeting. If you look into the Old Testament and the types you would find them all there. There is the laver, the priest had to wash as he went in; and the further in he went the more holy and the more he had to be affected by the work of Christ in type. So as we come to the meetings we need to be affected by the blood of Jesus; that He has made the way at such cost. Can I project my thoughts and my way of thinking? Have I liberty to say what I think, when it has cost Christ so much to end the man that is so obnoxious to God? That is all in this new and living way.

Then it says, “and having a great priest over the

house of God”. He is there to make you feel at home. What a blessed thing to be at home in the presence of God. Beloved, unless we are, we shall not enjoy our portion nor will God have His. But you know God has made a way; Christ, as Priest over the house of God is there dispensing what you need, that we may be at home in the dignity and blessedness of being in God’s house, finding our true place there. It goes on, he makes it very practical, approaching, sprinkled, washed. He is not speaking here about sin in its grossness, but about things that may just spoil our enjoyment of the house of God. The great Priest is there to help us to get rid of these things; even our worries, even right exercises that we may be carrying. I think the great Priest is there to help us that we may be in relation to God and His things. What a system we have been brought into, and that, as I am speaking about it, is the house of God. I trust that we see it as being practical; not something that is unreal, not something that is unrealisable. I am sure there will be a cord struck in every true heart that has touched something of it, and may we through grace, as exercised know more of it, that God’s name may be praised.

So it goes on to say, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”. That shows it is a present matter; it shows that it applies to our weekly gatherings, not forsaking them, but

“encouraging one another, and by so much the more as ye see the day drawing near”. Soon we shall be there in all its blessedness. The Lord says, “In my Father’s house there are many abodes”, John 14: 2. Meantime publicly, there is great admixture all around; in the midst of it all there is what is true, to be known for our blessing and for God’s glory and praise. It is where He is praised. The psalmist says again, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be constantly praising thee”, Psalm 84: 4. May our hearts be led into that great note of praise that the Son would lead to God in the midst of all the confusion and breakdown.

When Aaron went in he was there in the presence of the Ark, typical of Christ, in all His blessedness; the table of shewbread, the saints in all their glory; the candlestick, the light shining. What a place it must have been! Aaron must have been slow to come out, but he came out with all the blessing of that place resting upon him. May we come out from the inside place to face what is false in the great house, as having been inside, knowing that there is a great Priest over the house of God who is able to sustain us, and knowing that Christ is there as Son over God’s house setting its standards and maintaining its glory. These things are going on, soon to issue in the Father’s house above; soon to issue where every feature of God’s work will be housed; where every family will find their eternal rest and God will be praised for all eternity. May we be exercised, amidst all the public confusion, to find our present living part in what is for God’s glory and praise. For His name’s sake.

Address at Aberdeen, Scotland, 15 August 1992

THE LORD JESUS CALLING PERSONS

J. Renton *

Mark 1: 4–8, 14–20; Matthew 18: 1–4; Luke 13: 10–13

I have a desire to speak about the Lord calling persons. That is the Lord’s attitude today—He is calling persons. Many persons called upon the Lord and He answered every one. He never turned any away—any exercise, any need, the Lord Jesus answered every one—“whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”, Acts 2: 21. The Lord is available for every one

* Departed to be with Christ, 17 January 1994

who calls upon Him. That is one side of the glad tidings, a very important side. Now I want to speak about the Lord Himself calling, and He is calling here today. He has a call for every one; He has something in mind for every one of us. It is a very wonderful thing that we live in a day when the Lord is calling us; it will not be always so. A gospel preaching is a very happy occasion, yet a very solemn and very serious one. It is an occasion when we have the word of God before us; it is not an ordinary occasion; it is an occasion when God makes His presence known by His word.

I speak first of all about these four men whom the Lord called, that is Simon and Andrew and James and John. We learn from the first chapter of John’s gospel that, if not all, at least Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. That is why I read what John preached. John preached the baptism of repentance for remission of sins. That looked forward to the righteous basis for sins being remitted which was the work accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ, it could only be on the basis of that righteous transaction on the cross. We sang—

‘On the cross He once has suffered,

There by Him the work was done’. (Hymn 154)

That is the basis on which God can righteously remit the sins of repentant sinners. John preached it here, and Andrew was a sample of a disciple of John, that is, he had obeyed his glad tidings, had repented, and therefore was in the light of remission of sins. It says, “the baptism of repentance for remission of sins”. Repentance is a very deep work, not a superficial thing, it is not only an act of mind; we repent from the heart. Repentance means that we come to the same judgment of ourselves as God has, and God has shown His judgment of us in the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is how seriously God views sins. His own beloved Son has suffered on the cross, suffered three hours of darkness, suffered the forsaking; He undertook a work that no other could undertake. Only He was qualified to do it for only He was the sinless One

but He suffered as if He had been the sinner. He took the sinner’s place. Think of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that He undertook this work at infinite cost to Himself. Scripture tells us He was made sin. What that means we cannot really fathom, but He was made the thing that He righteously hated. What an awful thing it was for the Lord Jesus to be made sin. He took the sinner’s place. He suffered as if He had been the sinner, in the sinner’s stead, so that there might be a righteous basis for God to forgive, to remit, the sins of those who repent.

That work is so great that God, being as righteous and holy as ever He was, can forgive repentant sinners. It is a tribute to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered the three hours of forsaking, He sustained the penalty of death, He poured out His precious blood. He was buried in our stead. Instead of the sinner being put out of God’s sight, the Lord Jesus was buried three days and three nights in the heart of the earth to be the end of that order of man that sinned.

Think of all that the Lord undertook and completed for God’s satisfaction; so much so that God was so pleased with that work that He raised Him from the dead and highly exalted Him; the highest office in the universe is occupied by our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the position, so that righteously there is remission of sins based on the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, but based on repentance on the part of the sinner. The sinner owns his sinnership; he calls for mercy which is readily available because the work has been finished; there is nothing left of that work to do, that work is completed. What is called for on our part is repentance, so that we may come into the full result of what that finished work has in view in blessings that God has for us. It says here, “remission of sins”, it is not only God’s attitude of forgiveness, but it is remission, that is, there is a transaction that is complete, so that our sins will never rise again in our life down here and will never rise hereafter. That is the remission of sins on the basis of

repentance, the Lord calls for repentance.

Then he goes on to say, “and were baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins”—confessing their sinnership. The woman in John 4 said, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done” (John 4: 29). Her whole history was settled once and for all, not only for her satisfaction but for God’s satisfaction. It goes on to speak about the gift of the Holy Spirit, “I indeed have baptised you with water, but he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit”. The gospel presented in these few verses that John preached anticipated the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit are two blessings available in the glad tidings to repentant sinners. I hope all here have repented and know their sins remitted. If not, that blessing can be yours today. If there is one here who is not assured of the remission of sins, do not hesitate, be exercised, be concerned, have that transaction this very day, and have it settled once and for all.

Now it is such persons the Lord calls here. He called these two, Simon and Andrew. He says,

“Come after me”. He is calling them to be disciples. He calls believers today, believers who are real, who know their sins forgiven, He is calling them to be disciples, He is calling for committal to Him; for submission to Him as Lord and Master, and submission to His teaching; He is calling persons to be disciples, “Come after me”. He says, “and I will make you”. If we commit ourselves as disciples the Lord will make something of us for His own pleasure, for His service, for the promotion of His kingdom; He made something of these persons. He tells these first two what He would make them. He says, “and I will make you become fishers of men”, and so He did. Then He called these other two, it says, “and straightway he called them”. He did not say what He would make of them, but He made something of them because they committed themselves as disciples.

I would like to appeal to every one here, to answer the call that the Lord makes now. Having your sins settled you should become one of the disciples of Jesus, be available for Him for His purpose, to learn from Him and follow Him. Have Him before you as your ideal, that is what the disciples did, they followed Him wherever He went and listened to His instruction.

Then in the absence of the Lord these four disciples cared for His interests, and represented the Lord in the time of His absence. The call is, “Come after me”. He called them to become disciples of His. I would appeal to every one here. First of all these two great blessings are available this very day, the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is calling those who have received these blessings, “Come after me”, He says. He calls us to follow; He calls us to be His disciples, and He will make something of us. The disciples often failed, they often said the wrong thing; read the gospels and you will find that, but the Lord was very patient. In fact, Peter denied Jesus three times, but did the Lord give him up? No, the Lord made something of him. Even a disciple denied Him three times, you might say a hopeless case. No, he had committed himself as a disciple and the Lord saw him through.

You could never commit yourself to a more blessed Master than the Lord Jesus. The Lord became a Master to these disciples. I think the idea of Master is individual, Jesus, Master. Is He your Master? Are you under His authority? Are you here for Him, and for His pleasure, and for the will of God? That is the call, friend, that is the call to you. It is a call to be a disciple of Jesus.

The next we read of is in Matthew 18. It says very attractively, “And Jesus having called a little child to him”. We have had three days of meetings, and it might appear the little ones have been neglected. We have been speaking about the wonderful reality of abiding in God’s love which is not beyond the little ones. It says here, “Jesus having called a little child”. He would call little children. I would appeal to the little ones here,

Jesus is interested in you. The brethren are interested in you, and it may appear in our readings that it was not so; we do not have Sunday schools, the truth is for all, young and old.

When I was young I did not understand all that was being said, but I felt there was something worthwhile going in for. I think that is what young people ought to feel. If the older brethren speak about abiding in love and abiding in God, it is a very blessed thing, something worth going in for. The Lord is calling—the Lord called a little child, and He would call every little child here today. He called this little child, not only for the blessing of the little child, but for the older ones to learn from that little child. The Lord was pleased with the simplicity and the reality of that little child. It was not an ordinary little child, the Lord says, “this little child”. It says, “Jesus having called a little child to him, set it in their midst”. He says, “Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child”—“this little child”—would you, dear young child, be a child that the Lord would call and you would simply answer the call of Jesus? ‘Come!—‘tis Jesus gently calling’, the hymn says. He gently called this little child and this little child answered. May every little child be like that here today. The disciples were saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of the heavens?” That is far removed from a little child’s spirit. Believers need to maintain, as long as we are here, the little child attitude, the simple reality of the little child. In the world to come it says that a little child shall lead them (Isaiah 11: 6). The Lord set the little child in the midst of the disciples as an example to them. May we be kept in the simplicity and reality of a little child. When we grow to manhood we become complicated, but a little child is simple and real, just itself, just as we ought to be. Jesus called a little child to Him, and the child responded. May every one such here today do so too.

Now in the gospel of Luke the Lord called this woman. She was a believer, she was a child of Abraham. Think of the potential of being a child of

Abraham, but it says, “there was a woman having a spirit of infirmity eighteen years”. It is not called an unclean spirit, it is a spirit of infirmity, some weakness, and Satan bound her.

She had this spirit of infirmity eighteen years, “and she was bent together and wholly unable to lift her head up”. Dear believer, we can all get into that state. If Satan had his way with us he would have us all bound down and not able to lift our heads up; in depression or some such thing he would have us bound. He is a very mean foe, he would take advantage of every weakness we have. We all have weaknesses and he would take advantage of them, so she was bound for eighteen years. Then it says, “And Jesus, seeing her, called to her, and said to her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands upon her”. He identified Himself with her; identified Himself with the weak condition she was in, it says, “And he laid his hands upon her; and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God”. Then He speaks about her as “a daughter of Abraham”, there was potential there. There is potential with every believer, but Satan, if he had his way, would bind us and keep us in bondage, as he did with this woman for eighteen years. It was not an evil spirit; it is not called an unclean spirit, but a spirit of infirmity which Satan took advantage of; he will take advantage of every weakness we have. The Lord Jesus laid His hands upon her, He strengthened her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. It says later, “And as he said these things, all who were opposed to him were ashamed; and all the crowd rejoiced at all the glorious things which were being done by him” (Luke 13: 17). The Lord Jesus would call anyone who is bound; anyone who is depressed; anyone who has any kind of weakness, and give them strength.

Before closing I want to refer to Matthew 11 where the Lord calls certain persons. He says,

“Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”, Matthew 11: 28.

In this incident the Lord reviews His service in

Galilee—He reviews the cities in which most of His mighty works were done, chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and there was little result. He was rejected. It would not be right to say the Lord was disappointed, but He felt the lack of result. Think of the Lord of glory, of God being here in Manhood in the Lord Jesus serving these cities, and being rejected! But He found resource in His Father. He said, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth” (Matthew 11: 25). He had resource in His Father to whom He turned. He said prophetically, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; nevertheless my judgment is with Jehovah, and my work with my God”, Isaiah 49: 4. He turned to the Father. Now He says, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened”. We may see little result, but He says in effect, I know what it is to labour and be burdened and see little result, I had a resource in My Father. He says, I know how you feel, come to Me, and I will be your resource. As Priest He understands this kind of feeling which many may have, but He says, “Come to me”. He had a resource in His Father. He says, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest”. There is rest there; it is a call to persons who have laboured and have been burdened and see little results of it all. Then He says, “Take my yoke upon you”. That yoke was the will of God, that is the yoke we take upon us, the yoke He took upon Himself we come into; “and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls”. Not only, “I will give you rest”, which is the Lord’s attitude, but “ye shall find rest”, that is experience, “ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.

The Lord is calling every one of us. I wonder if every one of us will answer His call to repent, His call to discipleship; would there be anyone here? He is calling each little child. He is calling anyone who is depressed, who has an infirmity of which Satan has taken advantage. I would say again, Satan is a mean foe, he

would take advantage of any weakness we have and have us cast down as he did with this woman for eighteen years. He would take advantage of any weakness we have, but the Lord would put His hands upon us, identify Himself with us, give us strength, give us power, no doubt by means of the Holy Spirit. He is able to do that, to strengthen us to overcome any spirit of infirmity and move forward in the pathway of faith pleasing to God. Then there is the call to anyone who has laboured and is burdened and seen little result; the Lord calls, He will give rest and you will find rest. May it be so for His name’s sake!

Preaching at Sydney, Australia, 11 October 1992

THE MAINTENANCE OF THE TESTIMONY

W. Dickson *

Hebrews 6: 19, 20; 1 Kings 17: 7–9

I have been wondering a little as to the maintenance of the testimony to the end. As the day gets darker, it is obvious that the testimony should be brighter, become more vigorous, become more living. It was never the divine mind that the dispensation should finish in weakness. It may finish in weakness in a public sense, but Philadelphia involves that the testimony is maintained in power right to the end.

The scripture in Hebrews is to assure our hearts that the Lord Jesus will maintain the testimony from His side right to the end, of that there can be no question. He was the great Inaugurator of Christianity but, so different from men naturally, what He inaugurated He maintains.

* Departed to be with Christ, 2 February 1994

Men inaugurate great undertakings in politics, in nations, but they are not able to maintain them through weakness. The Lord Jesus inaugurated Christianity, and in inaugurating it He has committed Himself to maintaining it right to the end. From His side the testimony will be maintained until the rapture. “Jesus is entered as forerunner for us, become for ever a high priest according to the order of Melchisedec”. There is a blessed Man on high and His service at the present time is to maintain the testimony. That is what He is there for, to maintain the testimony and the service of God. The heart of love of that glorious Man never ceases to beat in regard to the testimony. Every movement of the testimony the Lord takes account of, and He gives grace and help to meet it. Let us remember that it is a great thing to be in the testimony, not on our own charges but maintained and supported by the great Priest on high.

You say, ‘Things are going to die out; if things go on like this there will be nothing left shortly’. Do not think that, beloved. The great High Priest up there will maintain it to the very end in life and power. That is His side of it.

Now, what about our side of it? Ahab was a wicked king and a testimony was required, and Elijah was the vessel of the testimony at this point. He represents the testimony against the apostate side of things which Ahab represents. Here he is, the vessel of testimony, and he is to be maintained and God tells him where to go. He says, “I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”. Now, what does that mean? It means that in widowhood conditions, in weakness publicly, there is the power to maintain the testimony. Some may say, ‘There is not much testimony amongst brethren, there are no Sunday schools, no whist drives or dances and all these things to keep the testimony going. It will die if you do not have these things’. Beloved brethren, it will not die. If believers adhere to the principles of 2

Timothy 2, the testimony will not die, but if they dispense with them, it will die. If they resort to

the world for support, it will die, but if they keep to the principle of the widow woman, it will not die. It is the widowed spirit that counts, beloved brethren, entire dependence on the High Priest to supply all that is needed for the continuance of the testimony.

So Elijah went down to her and she had a little meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse.

Unbelief says, ‘That will not go very far’. The testimony in this dispensation has been maintained for nearly two thousand years on handfuls of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse. For nearly two thousand years these things have kept the testimony going and they are available still. A handful of meal in a barrel, it is Christ, Christ known in a certain environment. I think it is a reference to the gatherings of God’s people, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”, Hebrews 10: 25. So that the meal in a barrel is a type of Christ, and a little oil in a cruse is a reference to the Spirit, and these maintain the testimony to the end. We do not need to resort to what professing Christendom regards as necessary.

People say, ‘What can be in that little meeting-room? Has it got a choir and all these things that make up religion today?’ There are none of these things, but “a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse” will maintain the testimony till the end. Beloved brethren, are we in the testimony? If I am in the testimony at all through grace, it would be because from the divine side the Lord has maintained me, and from my side I have learned to value that handful of meal in a barrel and that little oil in a cruse. May we prove it! For His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Edinburgh, 5 October 1993

EXTRACTS

Chapter 10 indicates the public boundaries, that is,

Christians persevered in such and such things. The apostle says, “the cup of blessing which we bless”; that is what we are doing. What we are doing means the fellowship of the blood of Christ. He begins by saying, “flee from idolatry”. Down there in that street, so to speak, at No. 10, is the heathen temple; No. 20 the Jewish synagogue; No. 40 the Christian assembly.

What does a man see when he goes into the Christian assembly? Is he at liberty to go to the Jewish synagogue and the heathen temple, too? He is to judge judaism; it is grown old, about to pass away. The new covenant displaces the old. Heathendom is idolatrous. If a man goes into these three places and says, I enjoy them all, that man is not a Christian. If I enjoy all fellowships, it shows I have no part in true fellowship at all. Are we spiritually intelligent? “I speak as to intelligent persons” (1 Corinthians 10: 15), that is persons who ought to be able to say what is what; that is idolatry, that is judaism, that is of God. We are going on with one thing, the death of Christ, and we cannot go on with anything else. This enters into our business and social relations, too. In the earlier part of the tenth chapter the allusion is to Exodus 32. It is what is going on in christendom in the absence of Christ—“as for this Moses

... we wot not what is become of him”, and they ask Aaron to make them a god, and he did.

They were worshipping Jehovah, but they were also worshipping that calf. Christendom has become a mongrel thing where people assume that one thing is as good as another, putting things together that are positively opposed to one another. Think of the golden calf and Jehovah—the priest of Jehovah administering that!

The word now is, “Who is on the Lord’s side? ... Put every man his sword by his side ... slay every man his brother”, that is, natural relationship of the closest kind, then his companion and his neighbour—the social side. The slaying figuratively is separation, as in 2 Timothy

2: 19—“The Lord knows those that are his; and, Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”—a true Levite. You have the thought of persons, vessels to honour and to dishonour. Vessels to honour are such as you value. You not only have the Lord before you, but you have the vessels to honour. These have to be considered, and hence,

“pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those ... ”—that brings in the persons, so that, although we are in remnant times, we come back to the persons.

J. Taylor (Vol. 52, pp.412, 413)

There are believers who are of a missionary mind, and if there is any likelihood of a convert, they pray for such. In this they serve well, but in Scripture, prayers for saints are enjoined more than those for sinners, and this is confirmed by example. The most active and most efficient servant of God is the man who needs prayer most; so, while praying for a likely convert, let us not forget those who serve God, indeed all saints. The names on the breastplate are not sinners as such, but saints; so, if we love God we shall pray for what is nearest to His heart, and of chief importance to Him. Not that we omit “all men”, for we are enjoined to pray for them, but let us remember that the great urgency of prayer according to Scripture is in relation to those in the testimony.

J. Taylor (Vol. 45, pp.117, 118)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The verses on pages 19 and 20 of the February 1994 issue were mistakenly attributed to John Macdonald. They were found among his papers after his death in 1926 but were actually written by a friend of his, Alexander Stevenson.

Edited and Published by J. Strachan, 59 Frederick Street, Dundee, DD3 9DE, Scotland Printed by Crystal Stationery, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ, (T) (0277) 650661

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