THE WILDERNESS ON THE WAY TO HEAVEN
Further meetings in Brighouse.
The first great point is that Israel were out of Egypt. Judgment we had before us this morning - that we cannot be out of Egypt - the judgment, until we pass through the Red Sea, figuratively the death and resurrection of Christ. Many Christians are not out of Egypt.
Would you call them Christians if they are not out of Egypt?
They are converted.
Do you think every believer is out of Egypt? It all depends on what he believes. We were dwelling long on the resurrection this morning, because if you have not believed in Christ risen you are not out of Egypt, you are not in the wilderness.
You are, then, afraid of the power of the enemy?
The Egyptian power is not gone until Christ is known in resurrection. It is by Christ's death and resurrection that you have been set free, and you will find that the one under the shelter of the blood is only occupied with escape from the power of the enemy - Pharaoh and the Egyptians oppress him. When you have walked through the Red Sea (see Exod 15: 1) it is God you have to do with everything comes out in a different way; you are in a new position before God; you are out of judgment; you have not changed your house nor your business, and yet you are in a new position before God; and that is the wilderness, where there is nothing for you but God. The question now is, how did you get out of judgment? You got out of judgment through the death and resurrection of Christ. You are in a new position, and everything is different to you; the wilderness is only a passage, not a place; our place is not in the wilderness but we have to go through it to our place. I speak feelingly - there is no part of the truth (if I may speak for others) that we have so feebly accepted as wilderness experience. I often say to myself, I should have been happier if I had accepted the wilderness. Read the 76th hymn -
Art thou weaned from Egypt's pleasures,
God in secret thee shall keep,
There unfold His hidden treasures –
There His love's exhaustless deep.
It is simple, that if you are saved out of judgment through the death and resurrection of Christ, you can expect nothing but death in order to be kept free from that from which you have been delivered, as in Romans 6, you are committed to death by Christ's death; you are severed from the man who exposed you to judgment, and you live the Man who delivered you. You may say it is Marah; it is a bitter path, and the only thing which can sweeten it is the tree thrown into the water, figuratively Christ's death, and this makes the water sweet. Israel would not accept the wilderness - we are like them.
How is it that the first thing that comes in is the circumstance of the bitter water? Is it because it is the water of the Red sea practically?
Yes, practically. You have got out of death and judgment by the death and resurrection of Christ. The support for the wilderness is all from God. Exodus 15, 16 and 17 describe the wilderness from God's side.
What do you understand the drinking of the bitter water to be?
Death; you are committed to it.
I thought it was more identified with the death of Christ?
So it is.
In Peter we get "Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind".
Peter is different from Romans 6, he refers to sins, transgression, and not only sin.
I thought that was the principle - "Arm yourselves with the same mind"?
Yes, exactly. What makes self-denial sweet to you is that Christ has suffered for your selfgratification; hence you shrink from that for which Christ died.
I had the idea that the bitter water was more the thought that death was on all here?
Yes, there is nothing to minister to you spiritually. I believe you get it in a simple way, as an illustration, in Acts 28. It was cold, and Paul in order to warm himself gathered a bundle of sticks, and a viper fastened on his hand - he was in the wilderness. I am sure no man has ever tried to find comfort here but he finds a viper with it. God is his only help now, the true character of things comes out.
If that were accepted really at the start it would prevent disappointment?
There would be no disappointment if there were no expectation. It is most lamentable to see persons week after week outwardly remembering Christ's death and yet they are looking for something in this world.
I should like to hear a little as to the manna? I should be happy to listen to anybody who will explain manna to me.
I should like to know something about it. Would you give us a little help in that direction?
I will listen to you.
We would all like to hear what the manna is.
My good fellow, no one will ever touch manna until he is ready for it. It is very clear none of us can touch it until we come to it. When we have consciously life in Him we are capable of being here as He was here.
Is the point that until we accept death we are not in a position to taste manna?
Yes. It is plain I am severed from Adam by the death of Christ and now I live in Him. I first touch life for my own relief, and then I have to learn how to live here, that is (as I understand) the life of Jesus referred to in 2 Corinthians 4: 10. Manna is God's resource for you in a sphere where there is nothing but death; but there, as in the case of Israel, God is for you. We got out of Egypt by death and we must keep out of it by death. You do not feed on Christ except through His death.
What is the meaning of the three days' journey to Marah?
I suppose they, like ourselves, were looking for something agreeable, and did not find it. Marah was the waters of the Red sea. In the wilderness they could get no other.
Do you not make a distinction between eating His flesh and drinking His blood and feeding on Him as the manna?
Yes, I do. There is no other way of feeding on Him but through His death to enter into life; then I receive grace from Him to be here as He was here. I think we have very little idea what it is to come out here as a new kind of man.
"Man must not live by bread alone": would that be the manna?
Answering to that would be manna, but you must get it from Christ. Some try to act up to the word of Scripture; that is often legal. If I live by the faith of the Son of God I am obtaining this grace of Christ. Anyone who answers to Romans 12 and 13 would present an entirely new style of man; he first presents his body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, is not conformed to this world but is transformed by the renewing of the mind. It is not that he has dropped a few bad habits, and, as it is sometimes said, "is greatly improved".
It is not the adaptation of the old thing to the new circumstances?
No. It is not merely improvement; it is far beyond that; he has put on the Lord Jesus Christ. His body is first presented as a living sacrifice to God, and next he is in true relation to the church; then he faithfully fulfils his responsibilities in the world, acknowledging the powers that be, submitting for the Lord's sake to every ordinance of man.
To carry out that we want manna?
Yes, exactly. Now I will listen to you if you will tell me what it is.
If we think of the will of God, we must see that it involves an entirely new set of interests; my thought as to the manna is, that it is daily grace for daily walk.
Yes, we would all go with that, but what is the character of the grace?
The only way I can explain it is, that as Christ walked here so does He enable me to walk here. He had everything and yet was as dependent on God as if He had nothing.
In our Lord's path here it is very striking that whilst He had everything yet He was always dependent. We find in Luke 4, after forty days' abstinence He hungered, then Satan said to Him, "If thou be the Son of God command this stone that it be made bread" - use your own means. His answer shews how perfect was His dependence on God. "It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God". He who had every resource at His command abides under the greatest human pressure, perfectly dependent on God.
It is certainly a wonderful thing to see the One who had all divine power at His disposal but would not use it in the most deeply trying circumstances. I must say the more I read Psalm 16 the more I marvel to see the path of obedience the Lord Jesus entered upon, and never left.
And yet it would be nothing but for the greatness of the Person. On the other hand it is only that Person who could undertake that path.
Quite so. You must feed on Him as your life, outside of yourself, in order that you may walk as He walked.
You do not confound the living bread with the manna?
No, certainly not.
You do not call eternal life and manna the same thing, do you?
Oh, no. The wonderful grace is that we are of Christ now, according to Hebrews 2, "all of one". The life of Jesus is now to be manifested in us, and this must precede the realisation of union with Christ. If you are not truly in the wilderness you will not understand that "both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one".
Union is not such a wonderful thing as that which precedes union; union follows as a matter of course?
Quite so. No one can enter into the priesthood of Christ until he realises the fact that he is one of the brethren of Christ. The one earnestly seeking to live Christ here "bears about in his body the dying of Jesus", learns more and more of Christ. The great contrast between the blessed Lord and man is, that man ever has himself as his centre and source, whilst He had ever God as His centre and source.
What a wonderful thing it is that we should be of Him!
Wonderful, indeed. In John 17 He first sets us as Himself in the presence of the Father and then sets us as Himself in this world.
Are you connecting all that with the manna?
No. I say you have to know Christ here as the manna. The manna is presented in the conclusion of Galatians 2: 20. First, you are crucified with Christ, and a new Person - Christ, liveth in you. Then "The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me". This is the manna.
Is that the force of that verse?
Yes, it is by Him I live here now, the One who gave Himself for me; it is by Him I live. I could not reach Christ on earth if I did not first reach Him where He is. I will give you a practical illustration. I remember a sister telling me she had been in a storm at sea. I asked, "What were you thinking of at the time? " She returned, "Of the Lord in the storm". "Well, then you were not like Him". You must be with Him where He is to be Iike Him where He was.
I think it is plain that the manna is the grace you get from Christ to enable you to be what He was here.
Yes, that is what I want; the question is, how to get it.
"My grace is sufficient for thee": would that be manna?
I should say it would. The question is, am I as dependent upon Him when I have everything as when I have nothing?
Must I feed upon Christ as the Bread of Life in order to learn what manna is?
I believe you must. There is nothing more wonderful than to be here simply for God.
The Lord Jesus one day rides into Jerusalem, and rightly receives the hosannas of the multitudes, as they own Him as the Son of David. The next day, as He returns to the city, He was hungry and seeing a fig tree afar off, having leaves, He came, if haply He might find anything thereon. He can be the servant in the lowest place as well as in the highest.
Is the manna connected with dependence?
Yes, of course, it is a life of dependence.
Is not the whole of John 6 more in contrast with the manna than the anti-type of it?
Yes. The prominent thing in John 6 is that we enter into Christ's grace through His death.
Is the "bread of God", in the thirty-third verse, the manna?
No. "The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world". We live to God here as Christ did as a man. You are supported by manna in this scene of death.
Does manna make the believer superior to circumstances here?
Of course it does; you depend on God as Christ did, and not on circumstances. The wilderness is simply a scene of death, but there is a path of life for you there; the blessed Lord made that path, and there you can sing hymn 76.
I do not think I feel very clear about the manna.
Tell us what it is.
I cannot go beyond what I know.
Unless you are set to live here as Jesus lived you will not understand it. When you are bearing about the dying of Jesus you will know it, you cannot understand it until you want it.
That looks as if none of us wanted it?
You want it when you are bearing about the dying of Jesus.
That is a sine qua non to getting the manna? Yes.
Is the manna a humbled Christ? Yes.
That is your food in the desert?
If we understand your illustration of the sister in the storm, you told her that she was not like Christ, because thinking of Christ in those circumstances did not help her in them.
Yes, many think that they can imitate Christ, and they read the gospels for that purpose.
What would help a person in those circumstances?
Feeding on Christ.
Is manna the character of the grace that came out in a humbled Christ?
Yes. The One who had all power was down here completely dependent on God, so that the grace which would enable us to be like Him here was perfectly expressed by Him here.
I live by the faith of the Son of God?
Yes, but unless you know first - "I am crucified with Christ", you will never get to the end of the verse. It is not only you have eternal life, but Christ lives in you. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me". One person is gone; another Person is come in.
That is a precedent?
Quite so. I have asked myself - what is "the faith of the Son of God"?
The faith of which He is the object, where He is?
Yes, quite so.
In what way do you bring in there the truth of Christ once humbled? I want to walk here even as He walked?
Yes, but it is the grace of the humbled Christ which will enable me to behave suitably and support me in the circumstances here, to live by Him in this waste howling wilderness.
Could you supply the link between the Son of God - the object where He is, and the humbled Christ?
Is it not connected with forming Christ in me, as my life here?
You could not get the latter part of the verse without the first part. I see many happy in the gospel who have not Christ formed in them. We must get grace from Him where He now is in order to express in any measure what He was here.
Would you put it in this way - the first thing is to accept the wilderness where I find nothing but death, and the second thing is to do the will of God as Christ did?
If I am here as He was, to do the will of God, nothing but His grace can support me.
Do we get Christ as the manna in Psalm 16? Yes.
The Son of God is the origin and fountain of faith, it is not merely as you get it in Hebrews - the beginner of faith.
"The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God" is a remarkable expression, and I think what helps to explain it is the latter portion of the verse - "He loved me, and gave himself for me". It is a man walking down here governed by the love of Christ; it is not a legal thing in any way, but on the contrary comes in in contrast with law.
It is interesting to notice that there were three things in the tabernacle, two of which were not in the temple - the pot of manna and Aaron's rod. The pot of manna represented a life here entirely suited to God. I think we have confined ourselves too much to the thought of Christ's having kept the law and magnified it. There was much more than that involved in His path and service here.
The standard of holiness with many does not go beyond not breaking the law. In the millennium the law will be written in their hearts. Christ not only magnified the law, but He was in every way suitable to God, and drew everything from God, and nothing from man.
According to Romans 8 He was the Man of God's pleasure; God was glorified in that Man, and in the future He will again be glorified in His body as the complement of Himself.
Do you make "bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus" preliminary to the manna?
Yes; manna is no use to a man who does not know what it is to be in a scene of death. Some are not ready for manna. I hear discussions as to what it is. You will understand it well enough when you are ready for it.
Do you get any idea of it in Hebrews 12? Oh, no.
He alone is the explanation of Himself?
Yes, and you will never understand it until you have it. Are you looking for it?