CHAPTER 12
[p. 475] CHAPTER 12
This all follows on and is connected with the life of faith. There is a tendency in souls when under pressure to be discouraged, to droop; but we could not do without discipline. No intelligent Christian would think so for a moment. The effect of discipline is to teach me my contrariety. If all were smooth we should not learn this: there would also be a great lack in knowing what is of God. Discipline paves the way for divine communications: you hear the voice of the One who speaks now from heaven.
God is speaking now from heaven, not on earth as on mount Sinai, and what He speaks of is His counsels and purposes. I question if any one would learn this without discipline. We have to learn to distrust ourselves. We cannot be depended on. If we believed Him we should distrust ourselves more. God makes what is in us known to us to do us good at our latter end. The effect of discipline is to expose all that is in your heart to yourself, and this has to go on. A newly converted soul could hardly bear this exposure. Such generally trust themselves in measure; they have often faith and energy and zeal, but they know very little of themselves, and do not much distrust themselves.
Verse 10 is God’s holiness. Verse 14 is holiness in the sense of sanctification. We have to learn to judge of things according to the holiness of God. The standard of holiness for a Christian is God’s holiness. Holiness by faith really makes law the standard; but if I look at things in the light of divine purpose, the standard is God’s holiness. There is no moment when this is attained by faith, for God’s holiness is immeasurable. A Jew in the millennium with the law written in his heart is holy, but it is not according to the standard of Christian holiness. God’s purpose is that we should be holy and without blame; we [p. 476] become partakers of the divine nature, the new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth, and the measure in which the new man is true in me is the measure in which I am a partaker of God’s holiness. People who go on the line of holiness by faith mistake righteousness for holiness. In their thoughts of holiness they do not go beyond righteousness: this latter refers to conduct, but holiness carries the thought of spirit — it repels, shrinks from evil. A person may walk in self-judgment, and this is righteousness, and this leads to holiness, which is properly instinctive as to what is not according to God. To the Lord evil was simply repulsive: He never needed to walk in self-judgment. He was holy. With us it is “righteousness unto holiness”.
Verse 14. If there is not sanctification you will not see the Lord. You must be set apart from evil and the course of things here before you see the Lord. Many a one believes in the Lord who has not reached the Lord: and it is really this on which Christian fellowship depends. At the outset men believed in Christ and then they confessed Him as Lord, and that drew them to one another. It was their bond. It is on the same principle that we have been drawn together, purging ourselves from vessels to dishonour.
The titles “Son of David”, “Son of man”, and “Son of God”, are covered by the name of “Lord”, and none of these titles is connected with any order of things now existing here. As Son of David Christ’s rights are in abeyance — as Son of man He is connected with the world to come.
The obligation on everyone who names the name of the Lord is to depart from iniquity. So many Christians have only reached Him savingly, they are not in the intelligence of what He is as Lord. To confess Him you must have some sense of who He is as Lord. Paul says to Timothy, “be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord”. You cannot connect the Church of England as a system with “the Lord”. Christ has been rejected, and how then can there be a state church owning Him? All the systems are alike, they do not know the Lord. In the eye of God all the systems of men here are unrighteousness. Many do not feel them to be so, but if they would reach the Lord they must break away. Many of us have been brought out by some point of detail, such as objection to one-man ministry — but when once out it is a great thing to get hold of principles, it is a help to yourself, and you can thus help others.
Later on in the chapter there is a good deal introduced of the world to come. Mount Sinai is of the world that is past. Mount Zion is the principle of the world to come, and it is in connection with this that the three titles which cover what is connected with Him as “Lord” have their force. They come out in John 11 and 12 — Son of God, Son of David, Son of man — and so, too, they characterise the first three gospels. Matthew gives us the Son of David; Mark, the Son of God; Luke, the Son of man. There is one point of difference between the first three gospels and John; it is this: in the first three, He (Jesus) goes up the mount of Transfiguration and there receives glory and honour from God the Father. But in John we have the truth of His Person, and there is no mount of Transfiguration. He comes down from heaven.
Nothing subdues the flesh but grace; a root of bitterness springs from one who does not enjoy grace. We ought to make it apparent that we are all bent on one another’s good and blessing. If this were so there would not be roots of bitterness springing up. It is not enough to be bent on our own good, but on that of other people. First, “take heed unto thyself”, and then thou shalt “both save thyself, and them that hear thee”. We should ourselves be expanded if we were bent on others’ good. The nearer we get to the Lord the nearer we get to one another. The administration of [p. 478] all that is of divine goodness, of all that is in the purpose of God to effect for man, is through Christ as Lord.
A profane person is one who has no sense of the sanctity of things; this is a danger which besets such bodies as the Salvation Army — making divine things common. Profanity is treating divine things as if they were common. If Esau had had any sense of the value of the birthright, it would have been his secret. We see the same in Samson; the secret of his power was his Nazariteship, and he made it known to a Philistine woman — it was profaning it. Esau did not seek a place of repentance: He sought the blessing when he had lost it, but the blessing went with the birthright. If God gives you a secret, you must never play fast and loose with God. If God gives you something between Himself and you, it is profanity to treat it lightly. The birthright was the gift to Esau; it was his glory. Paul kept the revelation and vision a secret with God for fourteen years. He cherished it, and he kept it with God. In the gospel preaching, what is to be presented is the grace of God, and I should not parade in it what constitutes my own place and blessing with God. I should present the grace of God to man in regard to his responsibility and state. Now of course the work of an evangelist has to be done among professed Christians, because they are not established in grace.
The idea in mount Zion is not material, therefore there is no use speaking about it to flesh. Mount Sinai was material, could be touched, the natural man could take it in; but mount Zion cannot be taken in by the natural man. This is brought in in connection with profanity. It would be profane to present mount Zion to the mere natural man. Mount Zion is the sovereign grace of God when all has failed on man’s side. The ark was brought to mount Zion after Ichabod had been written upon Israel. Mount Zion is now the great principle of God’s dealings with the [p. 479] Jew. We have all to come in on the ground of mercy. God is rich in mercy; Ephesians 2. We had no hope, but God comes in in sovereign grace. Love is the spring; grace is what He displays; mercy is the first thing we get: “I obtained mercy”.
The thought of mount Zion is wonderful. I rejoice in it. One of the most beautiful Psalms is the 78th. All had failed on the side of Israel, his glory had been given into the enemy’s hands; then God awoke and smote His enemies, and chose David and mount Zion — that is God. Mount Zion is the joy of the whole earth — the city of the Great King. Mount Sinai represents what is material and awe-inspiring, and mount Zion the spiritual. For the apprehension of that we need the Spirit.
Then we come to what is interesting, viz., Peter’s aspect and Paul’s aspect of the church. The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem is that which was built up by the twelve, the church of the firstborn ones written in heaven is more Paul’s aspect. He establishes the church in its proper relationships; but none of these thoughts could be taken up except by faith, for all are spiritual. Then we are led up to God as the Judge of all; then we come down to look at things in relation to the earth — the spirits of just men made perfect. This is through redemption; they are perfected now. Their place before God is clear. God waited, as it were, in view of what was to be accomplished.
Then we come to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, etc. It is God placing Himself in relation to man mediatorially. Jesus is the Mediator, and we have come to Him; and He is to us the Minister of the holy places, and leads us in with Himself. We are in association with Himself in the holiest of all. We get the principle of the new covenant, the good of it, the Spirit and righteousness as we find in 2 Corinthians 3 and in Hebrews 8 — divine teaching and forgiveness. The expression “judge of all” refers to God’s relation to things in the world to come. He will be judge then. What marks the present is grace reigning through righteousness, but in the millennium it will be righteousness reigning.