A NAIL IN A SURE PLACE
T.Munro
Isaiah 22: 22-24; John 10: 9; Revelation 3: 7, 8, 14, 15, 19, 20; 1 Kings 6: 31-34
I would like to speak from this verse in Isaiah first of all as I think it is suggestive of the position that the Lord Jesus is in at the moment, "I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place". We live in a world where things are very uncertain and unsure – the older you get the more you find that wherever you look in connection with this world things are very uncertain. Governments are having to cope with problems that they have never had to face before, for instance terrorist threats and so on, but in the gospel, the preacher can speak convictingly and convincingly that what is offered is absolute, it is certain. What is connected with Christ is sure, you can trust it, you can trust Him and I want to speak about what God has done, "I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place". It is a direct reference to the position the Lord Jesus is in at the moment and I would like to speak about the place that the Lord is in.
You know, men will accept the Lord Jesus, His pathway down here and moving through the streets of Palestine, they will admit that, but when it comes to believing where the Lord Jesus is and the position that He has been given and holds, that is another question. We all need to arrive at that – the place that the Lord has now. We sang a hymn this morning to Him as the Son of God. He has been the lowly Jesus, and we will speak about that maybe in the course of the preaching, but the Lord Jesus now is a living Man, in heaven. He knows what is going on in this room, He knows about every preaching which is proceeding today, He knows the make up of every audience – how many men and woman there are and how many boys and girls. You say, well that is impossible! Oh no, dear friend, we are dealing with the Son of God, we are dealing with a Man who has been crowned with glory and honour. There is a Man in heaven now! “A nail in a sure place“.
We all know what a nail is – there is a nail up there on that wall and it is carrying a thermometer. This scripture goes on to speak about the nail; there are things to be hung on it, it can hold things. The thought of a nail, from one point of view, is not a very sensible piece of ironmongery to hold things. I mean if I came into your house and stuck a nail into the wall and said, ’you hang your coat up there’, you would not be very pleased – I certainly would not be very pleased if it was my house. We would prefer something nicer and more presentable, would we not? But this is just a nail, nothing very attractive about a nail, is there? I just have a simple impression about it, that the Person who has been exalted has been here, to the outward eye, as a very ordinary man. The Lord Jesus Christ came into this earth, came into this world in which you are living now, two thousand years ago, and outwardly He was no different from any other man. But there was a big difference, a huge difference, there had never been a man like Him on the earth and there never has been since. From an outward point of view He was just ordinary, He did not have any official garb on or anything like that, He appeared as an ordinary man, moving amongst men, but what He did, what He was, was totally different. This Man was no ordinary Man, He was the King of Glory, He was the Prince of Peace, He was the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, but He was not in that capacity when He came here. He will be that. He will be the King of Kings and He will be the Lord of Lords, that day is to come, and we do not know when it will be, but you can be absolutely sure of this, dear friend, that God has already given Him a position of pre-eminence, and He is going to give Him a position of public pre-eminence. That is that the whole earth, the whole universe is going to acknowledge that He is the only worthy one to reign. God is going to do that, He is going to do it publicly, but that day has to come. Now is not that time; if you mention the Name of the Lord Jesus publicly, you will be derided. We know that from our own experience that you sometimes do not want to be connected with that Name, and that is a shame for a Christian. But what a privilege to have a fresh opportunity to put our full trust in Him, because this nail is what this speaks of. God has given Him a position of power and pre-eminence and everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus, and there have been countless millions, from the first time the first preaching went out around two thousand years ago, when three thousand souls were converted in one preaching, all these personages have trusted that nail in that sure place.
He is no longer here, He is in glory, and I want you to believe in that, dear friend, you must believe in it. You say I cannot accept it. Well, God has put Him there, that is the situation as it is at the present time and He says, "I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place". That is the Person who is in the glory, the Person who is in that place – it is a sure place. The Lord Jesus when He was here, allowed Himself to be scorned, to be mocked, He allowed Himself to be spat upon. Think of the awfulness of that, that men spat in His face. How would you like that? How would you react if someone did that to you? I would want to retaliate, but that is not right. The Christian way is a different way. The Lord Jesus has shown a different character of manhood and it is a manhood that is pleasing to God. The Lord Jesus showed a suffering way, He suffered rejection, He suffered humiliation. Why did the Lord take up that position? Because He was going to prove His moral suitability, to take on the universal reign that God was going to give Him. This Man is fitted to rule! Men get positions of power in politics and all the rest of it, and they are not fit for their position, but God has brought in a Man who has been thoroughly tried and tested. He passed through all the temptations, He endured all the dishonour that men could heap upon Him. He endured the wrath of God, He did that. Why did he do it? Because you and I, dear friend, needed salvation. We needed to be saved from our sins. Sin was an issue, before the sight of God from Adam onwards. Man had failed totally, time and time and time again. Man had proved his incapability of not sinning. Bringing in the law only proved that man was incapable of keeping the law. The whole human race is affected by the issue of sin. But dear friends, God has resolved the issue, He has resolved it completely to His satisfaction and His glory. God has done that, He has done it in the Lord Jesus, not by a great miracle, although as our brother said this morning, ’it was a miracle’. A miracle that the Lord Jesus should die. It was a miracle but it involved His suffering, it involved the One who was prepared to take on the ignominy and the shame, bear the matter of the cross, bear the issue of sin, it was dealt with in the three hours of darkness.
I want to turn to John 10 because these other scriptures refer to the door. You might say the door is not a very important part of the structure of a house but it is quite an important part. It is useful for keeping draughts out and keeping the heat in, keeping criminals out and keeping a safe place for young people to be. The Lord speaks of Himself as a door here. Think of the Lord saying that about Himself, "I am the door". I want to speak about this just for a minute, "I am the door: if any one enter in by me". You know there is only one way to salvation, and that is through the Lord Jesus. Some think if I do good, if I behave myself and try and lead a good life and do not murder anybody and just get by and try to please God as much as I can and be kind and compassionate, I will get to heaven. No, dear friends, there is only one way to blessing, to be saved. It is very simple what I have read here, "I am the door: if any one enter in by me, he shall be saved". I will tell you one thing that I am coming more and more to appreciate, that is that everything hinges on the coming in of Christ, everything. Our eternal blessing, our current blessing and joy and satisfaction. Everything hinges on the coming in of Christ. If He had not come in, the gospel preaching could not go out tonight, or for the last two thousand years. The coming in of Christ is crucial, it is crucial to your blessing and my blessing, to your joy and my joy; it is crucial. Without Him we are nowhere. Man was and is in a lost condition. God could do nothing for man. It all awaited the coming in of Christ.
One feature of a door is that it has hinges. Tell me, young people, how does a door operate? It operates on the fact that there are hinges. A door is no use if you cannot open it. You could not open a door if it did not have hinges. Another not very attractive piece of ironmongery, a hinge, but it is necessary to open and shut the door. These hinges are secured. What are they secured to? They are secured to doorposts. When you put a door in a house you do not just knock a hole through and then put the hinges on the wall that is left. You have to put doorposts in and put a lintel in. If you do not put a lintel in, the brick work would fall down on top of your head when you went in through the door! That would be no use, would it? The doorposts, what the hinges are attached to, and the lintel gives the strength that keeps the thing from falling in. These doorposts are very important. I know that some of you younger ones could tell me the importance of some doorposts and lintels in Exodus 12. They had to be smeared with blood – the blood of the lamb that had to be taken into each household and kept for four days. You can understand the children being attracted to the lamb as it was among them, so tender and harmless. It speaks quite clearly, I believe, of the way the Lord Jesus was down here moving among men, holy, harmless, undefiled. But then that little lamb in the household in Exodus had to be killed, in order that the firstborn of that household might be protected from the destroying angel. This no doubt speaks of the Lord Jesus when He was taken and crucified and His precious blood was shed. The basis, dear friend, of your being forgiven, is the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; nothing else.
Peter and these great men spoke of the blood. In the old dispensation, in Israel, bulls and goats and all these sacrifices had to be slain to satisfy a holy and righteous God, but it all pointed forward to the time when Jesus came in, the Lord Jesus Christ: everything hinged on that. His life was perfect, that wonderful life of His, going about doing good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil. Think of the labours of the Lord Jesus from morning till night, then spending a night of prayer and starting all over again. Healing, bringing in blessing, blessing to soul after soul, no situation that He could not cope with, these are all very wonderful and precious things.
But beloved friends, what was necessary was that that Man should die. When men thought that they had Him on that cross, pinned there, mocking, saying, If thou be the Christ come down, come off that cross, show us if you are the Christ. What mockery, what provocation (see Matt 27: 42). The Lord Jesus, nothing could bring him down from there, He was held there. It was not the nails that held Him there, it was love that held Him there, love for you, love for the sinner. God does not love sin, He hates sin but He loves the sinner. You wonder how that is possible. That is the heart of God, reaching out to you, appealing to people in their sinful condition to repent and to come to Him on the basis of the great work of the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who atoned for sin, met the issue of sin, cleared it from the sight of God, for ever, on the cross in the three hours of darkness. Nobody could look upon that scene. That was something that was worked out between God and Man the Mediator, the One who stood between God and man – God on one side and sinful man on the other. Who was going to intervene? “For God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all“, 1 Tim 2: 5,6. Think of that. You love the Lord Jesus, He loves you. This door, "if anyone enter in by me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and shall go out and shall find pasture“. Think of that! Not just being saved. There is that wonderful matter of being saved, a saved sinner. Wonderful matter, joyful! Oh that we might enjoy our salvation more! There is more than that, “he shall go in and shall go out and shall find pasture".
I was thinking of Psalm 23, the psalmist, David. I had an impression this morning as to what Psalm 23 envisages, the suggestion there that David is going in, "Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside still waters“ (vv 1,2). That is going in. That is the restful, peaceful conditions to enjoy. "He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness" (v 3). That is a man going in and enjoying the company of his Saviour, his Shepherd. Then he goes out, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil“ (v 4), that is the outside position. We are all susceptible to disease and death in the world, indeed in our own person because death lies on us. Why has death come in? Because of the disobedience of one man and through the obedience of the Other we can know life. He goes out, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies" (v 5), that is the outside position and yet God is a shepherd. The Lord is a shepherd, He looks after you, cares for you in every situation. Then he goes in again, "Surely, goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of Jehovah for the length of the days“ (v 6). That is a man going in and going out, finding pasture, finding solace, finding food, finding refreshment. That is what you get from the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh that we might know him in that way, not just as a Saviour for sinners, great as that is, but to know him as a friend, a companion. He wants you. That is what we will come to in Revelation. He wants your companionship, a wonderful matter!
Revelation is a very interesting book. In chapter 4, it says, "After these things I saw, and behold, a door opened in heaven" (v 1). A door open – you think of John, the vision that he had. You read through this book – it is frightening the things that are written in this book, and most of them have still to take place. When God takes up His dealings of judgment against this world, He will take issue with the whole system of it, the religious world, the business world, all that uncertain condition, God will deal with that and this book of Revelation tells us how. But before that John has a word for all these assemblies and they all have significant meanings.
I have read from the address to Philadelphia. Here we have the same scripture as in Isaiah, "These things saith the holy, the true; he that has the key of David, he who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open“. This is the Lord Jesus and He is Head of the church and He is in control of this door. He has the key of David and He has set before this assembly an opened door. This is an opened door; no-one can interfere with that opened door and that is a great comfort, amid all the exercises that we may have to pass through. It may be that in some exercises, it is thought the door is closed. Well, I would think again, and be careful about that, because this Man has control of this door and things will happen in His time. Oh that we may be among those who keep His word and not deny His Name. These are very important features in the day that we live in, keeping the word of the Lord. How precious these things are. He is going to come, He is going to bring these persons out, the enemies and they are going to bow before the feet of these saints, "and shall know that I have loved thee", Rev 3: 9. That is the great feature of Philadelphia, overcomers, and that is what we need in the present time, we need to be helped to overcome. Going through assembly exercises, and all that enters into them, we may get disheartened by some of these things, but this door, this Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has the key of David, He is the Holy and the True. A wonderful thing that the Saviour, the Shepherd, the Saviour of sinners, is also the One who is true. Anything that is false will not be allowed to pass, anything that is of a lie will not be allowed to pass, because we have the one who is the Holy and the True and He will maintain these things. But if we slip away from that, and it is very easy to slip from Philadelphian conditions to Laodicea, and I want to be very careful when we speak about Philadelphian conditions, because we can so easily slide – I am speaking for myself – into this Laodicean condition. The Lord Jesus has a word for them – think of the grace of the Lord Jesus. The lukewarm condition was apparently a reference to the hot water supply to the city, which came from a distance, but the Lord is pointing to a moral state, and we can find this in our own heart, we are neither one thing or the other. The Lord is very strong in what He says, "I am about to spue thee out of my mouth" (v 16), it is distasteful to Him.
These are solemn things and it is an exercise for me not to be found in this state and yet the Lord in His grace tells us about another door. This is a door over which you have control of because it has been suggested that there is only one handle and it is on your side. It says, "Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking", the Lord patiently knocking. Wonderful grace of the Lord Jesus. The Lord will not impose Himself on you, He will not do that. He may bring in discipline, He can do that, He says, "I rebuke and discipline as many as I love". He may do that, He has been bringing in discipline, severe discipline amongst the saints for a long time now. This is Him appealing in His love to each of us, "Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking; if any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him“. Think of that, He wants our company, He wants to enjoy this fellowship with you and me! Yes, the Lord of glory wants you to open this door so that you can enjoy communion and companionship, enjoy all His things, because this Man is living in heaven and He is administering a great system of wealth and treasure. He has the whole of heaven, glorious condition, and He wants to impart something of that to the likes of you and me, who go through difficult times, who go through a barren scene, a world that knows Him not, and He wants to be available for you. You need to open the door. It has only a handle on one side, and He just knocks, He knocks patiently. How long has He had to knock with some of us? Well, we can all answer that for ourselves. It is a very attractive result when we do open the door, very attractive, the Lord is an attractive Person. There is nothing in you or in me that would be attractive to the Lord Jesus naturally. That is a solemn thing. But God having begun a good work in you, He will bring about something in your heart, something in your life, something in your make-up, that will be drawn to Christ. That is the work of the Spirit.
That is what I wanted to refer to in Kings, in closing. I think it has been said, but again I am open for correction, that these doors were made of olive wood which is suggestive, I think, of the service of the Holy Spirit. Another wonderful matter! God`s giving has been remarkable and it has been unstinting. He gave the gift of His beloved Son and it was a gift. We have all been recipients of various gifts, but God has given, not just once a year or at your birthday time, but given of His best. He could not give anything better than His beloved Son. “Who gave himself a ransom for all“ (1 Tim 2: 6), but He has given something else, the Holy Spirit. A divine Person down here, come from heaven, and He takes up His dwelling place in believers. Think of that! Your body, not your own, you are bought with a price; your body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. How great these things are! A temple of the Holy Spirit: the Holy Spirit dwells in us and He helps us to overcome and He brings what is of heaven down to us down here in all our weakness and maybe frailty, but here is a strengthening powe, “greater is he that is in you than he that is the world“ (1 John 4:4); there are other forces at work in the world, and you and I are open to them. The power of Satan, the power of the devil is specially active when persons set themselves to follow the Lord, to become disciples. The power of Satan is aroused, because he wants to turn us aside, but the gift of God`s Spirit is a more powerful thing than the power of Satan. It is a great thing that, and may we be helped to prove it.
So, at this entrance into the oracle, he made doors of olive wood, folding doors, not hinged doors, and I believe it is suggestive of the service of the Holy Spirit to open things up to us. The Lord Jesus said that, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit... he shall teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all the things which I have said to you“, John 14: 26. These disciples had known the company of the Lord Jesus, witnessed these wonderful miracles, watched Him, listened to Him, taken account of His walk, everything they took account of. What a thing it was, just for a short time, three and a half years! Think of the time when He said, I am going to leave this scene. Thirty three and a half years old, how young, it must have been a great wrench for them that He said, No, it is necessary that I go away, but I am going to send another Comforter (see John 16:7). Sent from the Father and sent by the Lord Jesus, this Comforter will open the door, this oracle. That is the entrance into the holiest where divine speaking is to be known. The oracle is the innermost part of the temple, I think, and the Holy Spirit is available to open up to us the great treasures of what is contained in this wonderful area. The Holy Spirit has come and He is able to help us to overcome too, overcome the wicked one. This power is great, but “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world“, 1 John 4: 4.
So, these folding doors are suggestive that things are opened up in a gradual way to us in the temple. We prove these things, but may we be helped to give more room to the Holy Spirit, value who this great divine Person is as a gift, a gift of God, indwelling us, helping us forward, helping us in the testimony, helping us with one another. May we not be negligent of these wonderful gifts that have come from God Himself. May we all be helped to be true believers in the Lord Jesus. The Son of God is that Man, that nail is in another area, it is in a sure place. Nothing can touch Him. He is in a settled place. What a wonderful area heaven is, glorious conditions there and no-one can touch that! He waits there in patience. All these enemies are going to be put under his feet; He awaits that, He awaits the call from his Father – what a wonderful day that is going to be when the Lord is going to come out in kingly glory. This earth, these towns, these cities that have known so much corruption and confusion and awful conditions are going to be transformed by the rule of Christ. May we be helped to know something of these things in our personal lives now, for His Name’s sake.
PULHEIM, GERMANY
1 January 2006