UNDIVIDED AFFECTION FOR CHRIST
UNDIVIDED AFFECTION FOR CHRIST
Genesis 24:15-18; Genesis 24:57-61; 2 Corinthians 11:1-3; Ephesians 6:23,24
I have before me tonight, beloved brethren, the thought of undivided affection for Christ, having particularly in mind Christ and the assembly, what the assembly is to Him, and you will notice that in all these passages there is the thought of an uncorrupted state in mind, and I want to stress that side of the truth, because the enemy of Christ and the assembly, for he is that, is seeking by every means possible to corrupt the affections of the saints, and to divide the affections of the saints, whereas the Holy Spirit who has come from heaven - “sent from heaven” as it is said in 1 Peter 1: 12, here in the assembly in such lowly obscuring grace, is constantly working and operating to keep the affections of the assembly undividedly for Christ.
The chapter we have read from (although we did not read the section that alludes to it) stresses the thought of conflict, of warfare particularly linked with the heavenly position. We have a wily foe to deal with and to contend with. J.N.D. says in his Synopsis in regard to him that the enemy is very subtle and we need to withstand his stratagems more than his power - a very interesting remark. He is a wily foe and we need the whole armour of God to withstand the devil and the votaries and agencies of his power, and all their darkening and corrupting influences. Reference is made in this chapter to the whole armour of God, the whole panoply of God, and we want to see to it that there is no weak spot, that there is no avenue afforded to the enemy to move through to corrupt and divert affection for Christ. It is a real matter, it is a solemn matter, and the Spirit of God is alluded to in this chapter in a way that He is not alluded to in any other part of the Scriptures. We are to take note of it, because the great thesis of this epistle is Christ and the assembly, and the Spirit is brought before us in this chapter in a militant way. Notice the allusion in verse 17 to the “sword of the Spirit” - a remarkable allusion referring to what relates to militant action. Perhaps we are not inclined to think of the blessed Spirit in this light enough. Surely He has come in in lowly grace into a subordinate position in the economy, serving in such a hidden obscure way. He is called the Spirit of grace in Hebrews, and He is the Spirit of grace, but yet we have the allusion made to the militancy of the Spirit in this chapter. The sword of the Spirit. What a weapon that is! God’s word, there is nothing like it. David said of the sword that overthrew Goliath, with which he took off his head, you will remember, “There is none like that; give it me,” 1 Samuel 21: 9. There is nothing like God’s word. The sword was hidden when David asked for it, it was not being used. How many places there are like that - the word of God is not being used and used effectively, but David knew there was none like it. The sword of the Spirit which is God’s word, and it is a wonderful thing to see the sword of the Spirit in the hands of a godly man or a godly woman.
Isaiah refers to the drunkards of Ephraim in chapter 28, “Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim,” verse 1. A drunkard or intoxicated person does not really know what he is doing. J.N.D. once said in referring to divine principles that divine principles in the hands of an unspiritual man is like a sword in the hands of a drunkard. It is a great thing for us to make use of the Spirit in the way here indicated, the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word, and for that we need to be in communion with God, and be near to God. There is nothing that weakens the position more than a bad conscience or being out of communion with God, and if we have a bad conscience we will have little power to face the ever wily, unrelenting foe who is bent on hindering us from going all the way into the blessing, and into the choice realm of blessing that God in Christ has marked out for us.
This letter is a wonderful letter opening up the wealth and glory of the heavenly domain, and presents to us Christ the exalted Man as the very centre of that domain, and also we, the saints of the assembly are with Him in the very centre of the heavenly domain, for we are not united to Him here, but united to Christ there, the heavenly Man in the heavenly realm. What that introduces, dear brethren, should have a saving and delivering effect on us. Are there any of us who take the place of belonging to the assembly who may be espousing secretly some feature of the world? Do you know that it will lead to divided affection as to Christ? The enemy knows what he is doing. We may trifle with the truth of separation, and keep as near to the world as we can, but the damage will be shown, the results will come out in our conversation, in our activities; it will manifest itself, and we want to see that the light, which is our light, in this letter is laid hold upon and cherished and held in the power of separation from the world, and all that constitutes that system of things that has been built up and would interfere with pure uncorrupted love for Christ on the part of His own.
I want you to notice this closing verse - Paul says, “Peace to the brethren.” We were referring to how like his Master he was. I suppose in suffering, outside of Christ, there was no one like Paul, and you remember the Lord Jesus, when He came amongst His own, said “Peace.” Paul has that in his soul, he has got the drift of the Lord’s intentions and thoughts for His own, and it is a wonderful thing that he closes this letter, with a word like this “peace to the brethren.” You may say, “surely that may be better for the believers in the epistle to the Romans or to the Corinthians,” but dear brethren, it is not a question of peace of conscience, but of peace of mind and of heart, and in Philippians, which is the counterpart of Ephesians. Philippians dealing with the experiences of the heavenly man here below. Paul says, “the peace of God which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus,” Philippians 4: 7. It is a wonderful thing this matter of peace in relation to the heavenly side of the truth because it is very essential for the enjoyment of the heavenly side of the truth, and then he says, “love with faith.” A remarkable expression, you do not find it in any other epistle in the same way, “love with faith.” “Peace to the brethren, and love with faith.” As if Paul is saying to the Ephesian brethren that in relation to this matter of peace and love in the heavenly environment of things, and our entrance upon it, and holding the ground in relation to it in our souls, we will need faith. You know what caused the perishing in the wilderness of old of many, was that when the gospel of the glory, in figure, was brought to them by Caleb and Joshua, and the spies, they did not accept it as it says in Hebrews 4: 2, “the word of the report did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard.” We need faith, dear brethren, for the heavenly position. We often think of needing faith to keep our jobs and keep our families going, but we need faith for the heavenly position, faith to lay hold of the heavenly truth, and to hold it against the wily artifices of the devil. Love with faith. Faith is an accessory matter to love here. Galatians speaks of “faith working through love,” (Galatians 5: 6), showing how closely they are linked together, but in Ephesians in these closing verses faith is an accessory feature to love - “love with faith.”
People speak of having a lot of love, and the great thing in Christianity is love; it has a great place in Christianity, but Paul reminds us that we need faith with it in this verse. What is the use of speaking about love in relation to the heavenly position if we are settling down in our businesses, in our work, or in our families, and going on with earthly things? No, dear brethren, we need faith to go forward. Barzillai, when David asked him to cross over the Jordan with him, thought it was too much for him because he had got so old, but none of us are too old. We need faith with love to hold the heavenly position. And then he says “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.” Grace with, not grace to, but grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. Now, that is a word for all of us, as to whether we love the Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption as we might refer to it. Whether our affections are undivided, because that is what incorruption means, that there is nothing to corrupt, nothing to impair the pure unsullied flow of undivided affection and love for Christ that is produced by the Spirit. That is assembly love as we might refer to it, which is a great matter.
This letter unfolds to us what the assembly is to Christ as we were alluding to it in prayer, “No one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as also the Christ the assembly”; we want to get the assembly into our minds, and into our hearts. It is one thing to have our sins forgiven, and to have the knowledge of deliverance from the thraldom of sin and Satan, emancipation from all his power, but to enter in and to be in the current and flow of assembly love and affection for Christ involves separation from the world, and all that constitutes it, and goes to make it up. Let us consider the word. We cannot carry out in obedience the heavenly calling without leaving the world - not physically, for we are still here. We shall leave it physically, glorious hope, when “the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord,” 1 Thessalonians 4: 16, 17. What a moment, dear brethren, when a wave of divine power will bring us with those who have fallen asleep through Jesus into the air to meet the blessed and glorious and incomparable Object of our love and affection! Another has said just another wave of power and up we will go, dear brethren, to be with Him forever. We know what these waves of power mean as in the power of the Spirit we go from glory to glory, and just another application of that power as the Lord Jesus comes in and will take us out of this scene altogether.
May I, in passing, ask, Is there a person in this room who does not know the One we are referring to who is coming for His own? Is there one in this room who has no vital link with Christ even in the enjoyment of the matters we are referring to? We who believe, as belonging to the assembly, our hearts yearn over you tonight that you may “come with us and we will do you good,” as Moses said of old; Numbers 10: 29. Not that there is any good in us, far be the thought, there is only one good and that is God, but we are journeying on to the heavenly land with all its promised inexhaustible store of unbounded wealth. Will you come with us? We have something you have not got, something that is real, intangible as it may be, but so real. As the moment of the rapture draws near, young men, young women, brothers and sisters, look into your lives, look into your history, what is there that is hindering the full unreserved flow of undivided affection for Christ in your soul? What means the loss of spiritual power and joy? Where is the joy you once knew so well and which sent a thrill through your whole being spiritually? Where is it tonight? You have allowed, may be espoused secretly some feature of the world with all its corrupting influences. Oh, let us see to it tonight that the Spirit has His way, that the sword of the Spirit is brought to bear on every hindering influence that would stand athwart the free and unreserved flow of pure incorrupt love for Christ. Let us come into the stream and current of assembly flow in love for Christ. Let us get the assembly into our minds. That is what this letter would do. We should think of it all the time, Christ and the assembly; think of it in the morning, think of it during the day, thing of it at night, think of it during the night. Let it permeate our beings.
Heaven is full of interest, care, and concern in regard of this great vessel, and our minds should be filled with it. The assembly is God’s chief interest on earth, and if I am in the enjoyment of union with Christ in the heavenly domain as this epistle sets out, then His interest must be paramountly my interest; not my business, not my work; we have to carry on with business and work and do it righteously and diligently, for a person who is slovenly in business or work is not much of a testimony to Christianity and to God’s saving grace and power, and you will always find that a true assembly man or woman is diligent in business, but they do not allow their business to dwarf them, or overshadow everything else. A great servant has said, “I find that in looking after God’s interests He looks after mine, and I feel it is much better to leave mine in His hands.” Oh, dear brethren, the wasted time that flits away, that slips through our hands, as it were. What have we been spending our time on, and expending our energy upon? Is it on what we shall have to leave? Giving too much time altogether to that it may be when we should give more time to Christ and the assembly. Young brothers, young sisters, you who are starting out in Christian life in the testimony, put Christ and the assembly first and foremost, If you are getting married, put Christ and the assembly first; if you are getting a house established, put Christ and the assembly first; let Christ and the assembly be supreme in our thoughts, so that our households are set for the interests of Christ and the assembly, and to care for His saints; it is a wonderful thing, and you will find that there is infinite blessing on that line.
Now a brief word on 2 Corinthians 11. Paul says there, and what feelings in the heart of this beloved, servant, “Would that ye would bear with me in a little folly; but indeed bear with me. For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ.” Now we are not in the epistle to the Ephesians here, we are in the epistle to the Corinthians where the enemy seems to have succeeded in corrupting the affections of some of the saints, but Paul never lost sight of what they were abstractly. The first letter is filled with thoughts as to what the brethren in Corinth were abstractly. He speaks of them as “the assembly of God which is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints,” 1 Corinthians 1: 2. He keeps before him as he has to deal with matters among them the great truth of the anointed vessel, and in all his service and ministry he has in mind that there should be amongst the saints in Corinth a vessel in sanctification answering to the light within. We must always keep in mind that we cannot go on with the things of God loosely, we cannot go on with the things of the assembly loosely, and there is nothing more damaging to spiritual joy and spiritual power than a loose way of living, and a careless way of moving. It may be getting as near to the world as we can, but yet not far enough that the brethren can take matters up and deal with us, but we will never know the joy of being in the full flow of assembly affections for Christ if we are on that line. It is a great thing to be in that stream and current. Paul is concerned about it in his letters to the Corinthians. He does not have liberty to unfold the truth of union in his letters to the Corinthians as he did to the Ephesians but he has called to their attention his commission and the authority of his commission that “I have espoused you unto one man to present you a chaste virgin to Christ.” And while they scurrilously attacked him, and slandered him, and spoke evil of him, Christ and the assembly had such a place in that man’s heart that he could say to them as he loved them in the light of the assembly and what they were to Christ, “Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved,” 2 Corinthians 12: 15.
What a pattern Paul is to us in all our localities in serving the brethren; however little we may be thought of, however much we may be made little of, let us think of the brethren in the light of what they are to Christ, as belonging to the assembly, and serve them in the constancy and abiding character of the love that historically went all the way into death for them. Let us remember the constancy of that love, “This is my body which is for you,” 1 Corinthians 11: 24. He said to Paul in relation to the loaf at the Supper, and as we partake of the loaf, Lord’s day after Lord’s day, first day of the week after first day of the week, there is to be inculcated into our minds and thoughts all that is linked with that loaf and our affections are to be impregnated with the feelings of love that went so far for the assembly. We shall only serve the brethren rightly as in the devotedness of that love, and Paul is serving here in the light of it, as he says, “But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, so your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ,” 2 Corinthians 11: 3. Oh, dear brethren, let us watch out for this enemy and all the varied means and sources of subtlety and craft he would employ to divert the free unreserved flow of virgin love for Christ. “But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, so your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ.” Notice how he gives full force to the enemy’s activities - as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft. What love Paul had for them! Think of what lies behind these letters, the tears and the feelings, because he wrote his first letter with tears, as he says, “For out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you, with many tears,” 2 Corinthians 2: 4. He had to deal with them in the power and authority of his apostolic commission, but bathed in the feelings of a man to whom Christ and the assembly were supreme, and foremost in his outlook.
Brethren, I ask you all, as my own heart would be challenged as to whether Christ and the assembly have the place in our hearts and affections they should have? Is everything in our lives regulated by Christ and the assembly? You know what a touch of glory the meetings take on as we sit down in the localities in which we are as Christ and the assembly inundates our thoughts, what a place the brethren acquire in our affections as we sit down in temple character and light, and that is the way that the enemy’s force will be stalled and thwarted, and it is a great matter that the brethren should be united, that there should be no breach for the enemy to break through and attack the position, because what he has in mind is to overthrow Christ and the assembly. Let there be no breach in the wall as it were, let the wall be intact, and let the brethren stand together, so that there may be this free unhindered, unimpaired flow of virgin love for Christ. Oh, for pure unsullied affection for Christ in a world where many are going on with corruption, even believers, and there may be some here tonight going on with the world, and with wrong defiling associations, with their affections corrupted. Well, the whole bearing of the Lord Jesus Christ’s service, and the Spirit’s service is towards you tonight to help you in the chastity that is referred to here - “a chaste virgin to Christ.”
Now, a word as to Rebecca in Genesis 24. Genesis 24 is a wonderful chapter. It reminds you of the expression and language of 2 Corinthians 3, “from glory to glory.” There seems to be no end to the wealth in this wonderful chapter in its typical suggestions and unfoldings. Its teaching seems to be inexhaustible, a veritable mine of spiritual wealth, and rightly so, because its theme typically is Christ and the assembly. You will always find, dear brethren, that where Christ and the assembly have their proper place in the minds of the brethren in any locality you will have spiritual wealth and substance there. “The gold of that land is good.” This chapter has served us well, and it may just serve a little bit more tonight to bring before us all what is towards us, because if there is one thing that marks this chapter it is redundancy, yet not redundancy in the sense that it is not necessary or that there is too much, but it is to impress us with the wealth and the glory that enters into this path of moving on to Isaac, to Christ, the heavenly Man, with the blessed Spirit companying with you, because the servant of Abraham is a type of the Spirit. I just want briefly to say that reference is made to Rebecca’s virginity. What an apt type of the assembly she is, not as delivered from the world, and a history of sin and shame, there are other types that bear on the members of the assembly in that relation, but this type is a reference to the assembly as suitable to be united to Christ, as beloved Mr. Stoney said, “Only what is out of Christ can be united to Christ, and only what is out of heaven will go into heaven.”
That is our position, dear brethren, we are out of Christ and we are out of heaven, because “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones,” 1 Corinthians 15: 48. The origin of the assembly is heavenly, she is a celestial vessel, and why should we trifle with earthly things to the extent that we become engrossed with them and overcome by them when we belong to a vessel whose destiny not only is heaven, but whose origin is heaven? She is indigenous to heaven, she belongs to heaven. Such is Rebecca, a suitable type, she is moving in concert with the Spirit, and when the challenge comes as to whether she is prepared to go with the Spirit, “Wilt thou go with this man”? verse 48, ‘man’ alluding to the Spirit, and they enquire at her mouth, she says, “I will go.” The mouth of the sisterhood in Genesis is interesting, Sarah’s mouth, Rebecca’s mouth, and the mouth of Rachel and Leah. The challenge is put to her, “Wilt thou go with this man?” And in clear, simple, unbeclouded language she says, “I will go,” and that is the word I finish with, dear brethren.
The blessed Spirit would raise the challenge with all of us tonight as to whether we are prepared to go all the way with Him to move in that path of communion with Him, where He would bring to us all that is heavenly, and bring into our souls the lustre and glory of the heavenly Man, the true Isaac, our Lord Jesus Christ. Rebecca leaves all her relatives, family, kindred, and country to go with the servant to meet the heavenly Man, Isaac. Certainly it is a test, but it is a wonderful path to enter upon and to go forward in, for the ultimate goal is the supreme joy of Christ as man in having His saints with Him united to Him, the object of His constant, abiding, and active love. It says of Rebecca, “she became his wife and he loved her.” May the Lord bless the word.
Address by S. McCallum, Kingston. Jamaica.