FULNESS

John 3: 1-21; Ezekiel 36: 33-38; Luke 7: 36-50

J.A.G. I was thinking a little this week about fulness, and of the good ground in Luke's gospel. There is neither increase nor decrease in Luke, as the brethren well know; the ground brings forth fruit one hundred fold. John 3 shows us how the good ground is prepared in new birth, preparing for the reception of the glad tidings, causing us to be impressionable to the word of God. In Genesis 2 the mist comes up and moistens the whole surface of the ground. The Lord says here, Ye, that is the whole person, must be born anew. Ezekiel perhaps would show us the fulness of what is in mind on the line of privilege as on this line we come into the fulness of the prime thoughts of God. The reference in Ezekiel to Eden is very choice - "the garden of Eden"; and then the flocks of men in the cities, as it says, "As the flock of Jerusalem in her set feasts", in type all the privileges of the assembly are entered into and enjoyed in fulness. Luke 7 is very precious to all our hearts and often used by us in the preaching. The woman, I think, shows the fulness of love and affection and response there is to be for the Lord's own heart in the sphere of testimony and rejection. Whilst externally He is invited into the house He is treated very coldly and without comfort. She has great appreciation in that sense of Christ as her Deliverer, the brazen serpent, the Son of man lifted up. She knows that the way into heaven is only by way of the cross. What love she has for Christ and what support and comfort He affords her as He approves of every single thing that she does, and she is able to go away in peace. That is a very blessed thing.

L.McF. That is very fine. The old having failed, Adam and those that are of him, God has begun with another Man. And in us this matter of what is new is involved, do you think?

J.A.G. Exactly. No matter who it is, to come to the knowledge of God begins with new birth. It is a vital necessity, to see the kingdom of God and to be born of water and Spirit in order that we should enter into it. The woman has entered into the kingdom of God; she has seen the kingdom of God in Jesus and she has entered into it. Nicodemus and those in Jerusalem had seen the signs which He wrought, but the Lord does not commit Himself to that line at all: He commits Himself to the woman, commits Himself to what develops out of the new birth, out of the Spirit's work.

L.McF. Perhaps you could develop for us this new source. It is entirely new, a new source of life.

J.A.G. Yes, it is a completely new concept, you might say. The old thing is completely broken down, it has collapsed. Did not F.E.R. say that it is like putting a pin in a balloon; it brings down the whole thing and then you become dependent like a new-born babe. You find instincts developing in you, that you desire earnestly, for instance, the pure mental milk of the word (1 Peter 2: 2). I think the Lord is very gracious and patient in the way that He goes over the teaching of the truth with Nicodemus.

L.McF. Well, the emphasis is on the fact that he is a very religious man.

J.A.G. Yes, and it must have shaken him to have this told to him. He thought he had it all and the Lord shows that he does not even have the Scriptures.

G.H. What do you understand by what Peter says, "the pure mental milk of the word" 1 Peter 2: 2?

J.A.G. I think it just means the scripture and the ministry as it comes. It is the pure mental milk of the word whereby you may grow up to salvation. Paul says to Timothy, for instance, that from a child he had known the sacred letters, which are able to make you wise unto salvation (2 Tim 3: 15). What do you say?

G.H. I was just asking about the expression "mental".

J.A.G. I think that is a fair question, because the result of new birth too is that the law is capable of being written in your mind and heart; your understanding is different. The Lord is going to do that. It says of the coming day that Israel will inquire of Him about it - "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it unto them".

J.A.P. Maybe you would say what is meant by fulness. I notice that it is used in chapter 1, "of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace". John 1: 16.

J.A.G. I think in the context in which we were using it earlier in the week - the assembly as His fulness - it is the complement of Christ. His fulness in chapter 1 I suppose is the limitless supply of grace that comes toward us in Christ. It has been said that it is like the waves of the sea, wave after wave of grace. The law came by Moses; there was no grace in that system. The Lord is seeking now to instruct Nicodemus and to impart to him something of the fulness of the grace that is in Himself.

S.E.H. There is a distinction between these two Pharisees that you read of in John and Luke. Here Nicodemus says, "Rabbi, we know that thou art come a teacher from God, for none can do these signs that thou doest unless God be with him"; he was positive in what he said about the Lord. As to the Pharisee in Luke 7, it says, "And the Pharisee who had invited him, seeing it, spoke with himself saying, This person if he were a prophet would have known who and what the woman is who touches him, for she is a sinner". Is there something working in Nicodemus here that relates to what the Lord says about new birth?

J.A.G. Yes, he is himself the subject of it, although he does not know it. But I think he went back to the same meeting as Simon, and so he did not get the gain of it. When he speaks in chapter 7 his motion is vetoed in that meeting. He comes out at the end of the book - thank God for that; he is called a secret disciple. But he is the subject of new birth and he does not really know it. Maybe we should ask ourselves if we are conscious that we have been born anew.

C.F.D. Would the place that the Spirit of God has in this help us? The ways of God begin with the Spirit, do they not, but then the Spirit is the One that gives us the realisation of what has transpired in us and what is transpiring.

J.A.G. Yes, I think so. In this section we are in the presence of the working out of divine love in the economy, the Father, and the Son and the Spirit. It begins with the Spirit, the sovereign action of the Spirit; it is God's work and He is going on with His work. It makes us receptive, pliable or amenable to the work of God. It causes us to be convicted by it. It is not the reception of the Spirit but it is the work of the Spirit in us, the sovereign action of the Spirit, a very blessed thing that we have been the subjects of the sovereign action of the Spirit of God so that we might receive the glad tidings and be brought to God. Our hearts should rise up in deep thanksgiving to the Holy Spirit for that wonderful service that He has rendered to us, and seek to get the gain of the fulness of that service.

L.McF. With most of us it took some time to realise that it was a work apart from ourselves.

J.A.G. Yes, because when we come to the gospel we are on responsible ground and when the word of God comes to us we feel convicted about it, and of the Lord's fulness we get grace to acknowledge that conviction. We are touching the great system of divine grace; it is very wonderful.

G.D.P. Would you mind helping me on the other side - the water and the Spirit.

J.A.G. I think the water is the cleansing agent that the glad tidings and the word of God would be. You are convicted and you submit to the word of God and the cleansing process takes place. What do you say? We all need to help one another because we are in a time when help is greatly needed.

G.D.P. It is getting rid of all the old material, is it not, washing that away and making way for the new?

J.A.G. Yes exactly. So you can see how Nicodemus' thinking faculty needs help. He is not equal at the moment to the pure mental milk of the word: he is saying natural things by way of natural reasoning. The Lord graciously goes over the thing with him.

C.F.D. Would the bent of the mind of the Spirit be to develop in us this line of fulness? It begins with new birth. It has been said new birth is like a new born child; it is all there, it is complete, but it needs to be developed. And while you come to the thought of eternal life in this chapter it requires the Spirit of God in the next chapter, to become in the person a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. It becomes a reality in the heart of the person.

J.A.G. I think so. I think it is light, the Lord is bringing light to bear upon the man's soul and the fulness of the teaching from this point of view is eternal life. I suppose in one sense that is the ultimate, you might say, of the earthly things. Would that be right?

J.A.P. Yes. I enjoyed the thought of the newborn baby because we have one here and it is illustrative that the whole thing is there. That is a great matter. When you are born again everything is there, the faculties, but they have to be developed in fulness. That is why I think we need help about this expression 'fulness'.

J.A.G. I think 'embryo' is the word, is it not? Everything is there in the baby, an embryo, it needs developing. So that the essential thing is food; at regular times it has to be fed and comforted and cared for. That needs motherhood, a wonderful feature in a local meeting that this is nurtured and brought on, because what is in mind is full grown men. There is a very fine reference to manhood in Ezekiel 36, is there not, "flocks of men", - "so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men". It is a great extension of Christ - manhood in the localities. It starts with a babe in Luke 2 and goes on to the twelve, it goes on to the seventy, and then to Paul; the dispensation starts with one hundred and twenty, then you get three thousand, then five thousand men. You see the great potentialities that are available in Christianity so that we should arrive at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ (Eph 4: 13).

L.McF. There has been reference to light, atmosphere and rule. Just going back to the thought of the new-born babe, how essential these things are to growth.

J.A.G. They are vital to it. Light - that is what the Lord is at here, so that you can see - light, atmosphere and rule. The next thing is redemption, then the kingdom of God. When our wills are subdued we will be able to imbibe the teaching, that is the new covenant. Maybe that is going too fast.

C.F.D. I think it is good to give us the idea of the way we work towards things: it is like steps in a sense, is it not? The embryonic idea is that something is developing all the time.

J.A.G. That is right; it develops. The seed is the word of God; it is a bare grain. That is what you sow, just a bare grain, and that is capable of tremendous production; it is going to develop into one hundred fold. In Matthew it is decrease, in Mark increase (which is a great comfort to us in these days of revival) but Luke is constant; just as Paul is constant.

G.H. I can see the great thought of light coming in first but maybe you have something to say as to atmosphere and rule.

J.A.G. I think the atmosphere is provided by the love of God, and the love of the brethren, brought up in a right atmosphere where you are not damaged by what goes on. You are able to breathe pure air. The hill country is a great place for atmosphere; there is a great atmosphere in Luke 2, a fine, buoyant, happy, healthy atmosphere.

G.H. How about rule?

J.A.G. That is what is in mind here - the kingdom of God - and the ultimate in that is that the Lord has the first place in all things. We are coming under the sway of heaven.

A.S.H. Nicodemus would be in a good atmosphere.

J.A.G. That is very good.

A.S.H. I was thinking too, as our brother spoke of the two Pharisees, that it would be right to say that Nicodemus was in the learning stage, he was seeking to take on things.

J.A.G. Yes. He is confused, as we all were at times, but he is in a great atmosphere in the Lord's presence. Why does he want to go back out of that atmosphere? The Lord is not going back with him to the Jewry, He is not going back to the Pharisees. I think he goes back to Simon's meeting, and he comes under that deadening atmosphere and influence. The woman has proved deliverance; she knows what the brazen serpent is all about, and in the pouring out of the myrrh I think she appreciates and answers to the suffering love of the Lord Jesus. She provides the atmosphere.

C.G. There is an interesting note on "anew" in chapter 3, it says, 'Not only 'again', but 'entirely afresh', as from a new source of life and point of departure; translated in Luke 1: 3, 'from the origin'. 'It is a new source and beginning of life'. Would you say a word on the significance of a new source and beginning of life.

J.A.G. I think the old is completely finished. The Lord Jesus going on to speak of the brazen serpent shows that the old is finished, and it is finished vicariously in Him. The life in us to which sin attached was judicially dealt with vicariously in Christ Himself. Imagine Jesus going that distance for us. Now the new birth makes us amenable to the teaching of the glad tidings, receptive to the light of them and to the wonderful display of God's love in them. That should draw out our hearts to Christ, and when our hearts are drawn out to the Spirit we are beginning to grow in our appreciation and understanding of the activities of divine love and divine Persons.

A.G.S. The hill-country was a healthy atmosphere, was it not? Those two sisters enjoyed it very much.

J.A.G. Yes, that was a beautiful atmosphere. One just needed to speak to the other and there is an immediate quickening touch; it was a great place of affection and much for God in it. You can understand it being linked with the Philippian epistle where the fulness of joy pervades the locality despite the adversity of circumstances and the poverty, you might almost say raging poverty, that was amongst the brethren. It is not related to that at all, it is completely new, it is out of heaven.

J.R.C. You were speaking about what is constant: verse 6 says "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit". That is another thing we have to come to, is it not?

J.A.G. Yes, it never changes. It is the same until you are gone, either the Lord comes or you are dead and buried; that is the end of the flesh. But that is kept in check in the believer by the power of the Spirit. Hence we become analytical in a right sense and make way for God's work in our souls. That is the truth of the glad tidings. We are touching Romans 7.

J.R.C. I was following what has been said about the hill-country and the atmosphere. This is the atmosphere, "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit"; it is appreciated in that atmosphere. Is that right?

J.A.G. Exactly. It is made way for and it develops in that atmosphere. Now Zacharias needed help, did he not? He was going on perhaps a little orthodoxly; he is out of communion. Gabriel shows him what communion is about; he stands on the right side of the altar and he brings in this wonderful news. You have been praying all your life for a son, now here it is. And Zacharias does not believe it. How can it be? he says. He has to learn through discipline. Then what comes out of his mouth is very wonderful. He comes to it that "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit". So he says, Get a writing-table; we are not going to call him Zacharias, we are calling him John. In that sense nobody that has been born of the flesh was ever called John because grace does not belong to that family. They say we will extend Zacharias and there will be another Zacharias, but John is of God that is the Spirit. I think that is a very fine 'thing. "John is his name"; he writes that and that is indelible. That is a man who has come back into communion. In Leviticus 4 when the priest that is anointed sins, the blood of the sin-offering is carried through to the altar of incense. God has in mind that the priest should be restored in communion; that is marvellous grace.

C.S.E. The Lord's word in verse 7 of our chapter is "It is needful that ye should be born anew". Should there be a point in all our histories where we have some sense that that has taken place?

J.A.G. Indeed.

C.S.E. We cannot assume that because we are in fellowship and breaking bread that that has taken place, but it has to be a real experience that there has been a beginning with God with us.

J.A.G. I think that is essential. What you say is vital, that we should be able, according to John, to take reckonings; go back in your soul to when there was first some desire after Christ, and you can follow the milestones, if you like, in your history. This was a milestone in Nicodemus's history. I suppose after the Spirit came he could see the whole thing clearly; he could see the kingdom of God and no doubt he entered into it. But here he is in a bit of a fog because he is thinking so religiously. His whole mind has been so inculcated with the law and that kind of teaching and yet he has neglected the Scriptures. I think the force of the new birth would cause us to pursue the truth in the Scriptures and in the ministries of the revival.

J.A.P. So we should perhaps look a bit more into Ezekiel.

J.A.G. There has been great help brought out of that book through readings I suppose in this very place. There were two or three sets of readings on Ezekiel and how it compares with the gospel we are reading now, John's gospel. It is a day of captivity and Ezekiel is amongst the captives; he goes through the experiences of captivity, yet he gets marvellous light as to the house and the city and the priesthood.

J.A.P. Ezekiel really confirms your thought about fulness because there you get, in the passage we read, a number of persons but you also get something collective; if it begins with one but the mind of God is that our thoughts should be extended in relation to this great vessel. In the world to come it will be seen. Israel shall be born in a day, it says in another place.

J.A.G. I think that is very good because in the type, I suppose, and by way of application, you can see at the close of Ezekiel, when he is speaking about flocks of men, that we arrive at the fact that there is one body and one Spirit and one hope of your calling (see Eph 4: 4). Now that is a marvellous circle amongst the brethren, is it not? That is a fortified city that cannot be broken into. And the beginning of it is the sovereign action of the Spirit in the soul of the believer.

T.E.D. I am still pondering in my mind why it takes me so long to get through. Nicodemus, at least he came, but do we need to see the Lord going into death if we are to reach the termination of the man that is the hindrance to us?

J.A.G. Yes, I think the food in John 6 would be very helpful on that line. Think of the Lord here as the brazen serpent lifted up - I think progress largely has to do with feeding, prayer and feeding. By nature you grow through feeding, but then there is the diet that brings about moral correspondence to Christ and develops room for the Spirit so that we are able to enter into the heavenly things. That is what is primarily in the Lord's mind.

C.F.D. We are touching on something that I also feel is very much needed. In the previous chapter you have a Nathanael; Nathanael was a very quick learner: he arrives at things almost immediately. Nicodemus has to go through the long process. Help us as to how we can get over to this side of learning more quickly so that we do not take forty years to learn anything.

J.A.G. In Nathanael we have a very searching word, I suppose, for all our hearts. Nathanael is commended in the fact that he had no guile. Now I do not know about Nicodemus; he has maybe a few options that he is considering. It needs a pure heart, for we are in the position because we are supposed to be calling on the Lord out of a pure heart. It says of Jesus "neither was guile found in his mouth", 1 Peter 2: 22. Well, I could not say that about myself.

C.F.D. So much depends on our state. You can sit down and read a reading and after you have finished you might say, What did I get out of it? Well, my state might not have been right, so that the Spirit of God was not free in me. Do you think that Nicodemus would set out a man who was burdened with a lot of things whereas Nathanael was a man who was free in his own spirit; he can get through very quickly to things as to the Person of Christ?

J.A.G. I think so; I think he sets that out. I think that is why the Lord goes over the teaching here as to the brazen serpent; Nicodemus has got to get free of that in himself.

L.McF. It says of Saul "behold, he is praying", Acts 9: 11. He too would be a quick learner. Maybe what is normal is seen in Paul.

J.A.G. Yes. The scales are still on Nicodemus' eyes. Saul was three days and three nights without seeing - he was really earnest in his exercises and in his concerns. The Lord then sent along help and He would still do that. You see persons who get a touch in the glad tidings, they are converted, they are committed to Christ and then they forge ahead. And you struggle along and you say, Look at that. It has nothing to do with intellect or natural ability; it is committal of heart to Christ.

S.E.H. Ananias came to Saul in view of the reception of the Holy Spirit. I was going to ask if you could help us as to being born of the Spirit and then reception of the Holy Spirit. Would you say something for us as to the difference, and as to whether these two matters should normally come very close together with us.

J.A.G. I think they should. I think your reference to Saul on that line would help very much; he was born of water and of Spirit. Immediately then he wants to be baptised, although he needed a little encouragement on that line.

C.F.D. Would it be right to think that, in between what our brother is referring to, is the gift of faith to receive the word of God? You can be born of the Spirit, new birth can have taken place but the believer needs to be receptive of the word of God. That involves the gift of faith, does it?

J.A.G. I suppose it does. I think the service of the Spirit makes us pliable; the mist moistened the whole surface of the ground. No matter where you drop the seed on that ground it is going to fructify.

K.O. Is it right to say that new birth is wholly from God, the Spirit's work? We cannot do anything to bring about new birth in our souls.

J.A.G. No you cannot do a thing about it, and yet the onus is put upon you, Ye must be born anew.

K.O. I was wondering if the responsibility then lies upon us in answering to the glad tidings: this work may take place and yet it needs the glad tidings to bring it to light.

J.A.G. Exactly. I once heard a brother say, You know the Spirit may just go right before the preacher, step by step. That is a marvellous experience if it happens. You might come into the room - God would order that - and then the Spirit of God acts like a wind and there might be a wind of change blow through your soul, blow through your mind.

K.O. I was thinking of the reference to Saul. It would seem that perhaps there was something going on with him in the way of new birth before the Lord struck him down. He said to Him, Why do you kick against the goads. We do not know how long that was, but apparently there was something working with him.

J.A.G. I think it would probably be right to say that he was affected by what he saw in Stephen - how the Lord honoured the death of His faithful martyr, and He used that to sow something in Saul's soul. So if somebody is going about on a very dangerous course as he was you are not to write him off, because Saul was in the sheet that Peter saw. That should greatly help us in the glad tidings; no matter how rough and tough they may seem, the word of God is equal for it.

D.B. I was wondering if Saul experienced something of the atmosphere in the testimony of Stephen and whether that is what we need to be exercised about, that that atmosphere is provided in which the work can grow.

J.A.G. I think so. I think there was marvellous incense, fragrance, at the death of Stephen; he exuded the Spirit of Christ. In one sense you might say the cloud of incense was there. When Aaron went in it covered the mercyseat, did it not? I think that is a very beautiful position at the close of Acts 7. It is not without point, I suppose, that it says that they laid their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul.

J.A.P. The third matter spoken about was rule. Would that answer perhaps the earlier inquiry as to growth? You find in yourself that if your will is broken you make progress, but will is often retained in some form in us and it hinders the Lord's developing things with us. There must be rule, there must be subjection to that rule.

J.A.G. Yes, there must be authority, the Lord's authority. You marvel at the depth of self-will that is in you. You go along and you know you should do something, and up it comes and you are almost unbendable. I think maybe as you go on, discipline helps you on that line. The Lord expects us to be able to humble ourselves and to be humble. Then we need to learn that He may humble us now and then, that we know what is in mind.

G.H. We spoke about being born again. It says, He that is born of God sinneth not, (1 John 5: 18). Would that be partaking of the divine nature?

J.A.G. Yes. I think there are different settings of it in Scripture. Born of God in John 1 is the complete mature idea, there is no development there.

A.G.S. We were speaking about fulness also. Do you think fulness is seen in Simeon and Anna: they spoke freely when the Babe was brought into the temple?

J.A.G. Yes, I think so. Simeon is the result. He fits very nicely into the end of Ezekiel 36 - "A man in Jerusalem" - and he is in the area of divine communications; officially, maybe, in the temple but then it was divinely communicated to him. You would like to be in that kind of state that the Lord can commit His mind to you, He can say things to you, tell you that you are not going to see death until you see the Lord's Christ. And immediately the enlightening of the whole gentile world opens up to him.

K.N.P. Can you help us about the reference here to entering into the kingdom of God. First of all it is seeing the kingdom of God and then entering into it. How do we do that?

J.A.G. I think the entering in involves our deliverance. The brazen serpent is the point of our deliverance, is it not? You wander about in the wilderness all these years but once you come to that chapter, you begin to make progress. The sun is risen, there is light, there are great regions beyond that are attractive to you. There are other things to see to, but never mind, let us go and journey. What do you think?

K.N.P. I think so. Sometimes we stop short. Nicodemus was like that, was he not? We need to foster what is there so that it can grow.

J.A.G. We do not write off Nicodemus, we do not write anybody off, because if the brethren had written anyone off we would have disappeared long ago, but they carried us along and helped us all. Nicodemus is not conscious that he needs deliverance, he is blind, there is darkness there, and light is needed to dispel that darkness to show the man exactly how things are in the sight of God. Now when you come into the kingdom everything is in divine order.

J.R.C. Ezekiel perhaps could be developed a little; "desolate and ruined cities are fortified". What is involved in that?

J.A.G. I think the whole side of what is military which Numbers brings out is in mind there. He that is of God keeps himself (1 John 5: 18), the work of God is prominent in your soul. So that the person is fortified, there is room for God. The flesh is not allowed; you are able to put it to death by the Spirit immediately it raises its head. Hence the Spirit of God has scope in these areas and so you can live in peace. It is a terrible thing if the whole of your life you are battling against the flesh.

L.McF. The Philippians seem to have been a fortified city.

J.A.G. That is very beautiful - exactly.

J.R.C. Would it have some bearing at all on local positions?

J.A.G. I think so. I think you can say the whole armour of God is there. It is a great defensive armour but then the sword of the Spirit is God's word and that is what prevails, the word of God.

S.E.H. Originally in the garden of Eden there was not the thought of a city but there is as it is recovered in these verses. Would you say something about that.

J.A.G. I think it is very beautiful. It was man's idea first - it appears from Scripture at least that it was man's idea - but God had that in His mind before the world was; He brings out His city. The garden of Eden is the paradise of God, the choicest place that man can be put in. I think the idea here is to impress our hearts with the fact that we come back to the choicest of divine thoughts, to prime divine thoughts in eternal life and then sonship.

T.E.D. You get, repeatedly, the expression here, I will do it, "I will also cause the cities to be inhabited". Is our struggle largely that the 'I' of Nicodemus comes in the way and hinders this simple readiness and receptiveness to allow God to do His work with us?

J.A.G. I think so. I think that helps because in Genesis 1 God says, Let things happen and they happen; there is no evidence of will or opposition. Well, God's word comes to us and I think if we submit to it it will happen. We go through these days - you come to rule on the fourth day, to an appreciation, it may be objective, of Christ and the assembly and the brethren. It goes on another two days before the thing takes substantial shape in the man and the woman, but you see the thing in all its clarity and beauty. God gives us that kind of vision.

T.E.D. In John 3 the Lord says, "If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not ..." If the belief is not there with me I hinder arrival at this fulness.

J.A.G. Exactly, we need faith. What was said about the gift of faith is interesting. God is giving Himself a clear right of way in the soul of a person. He sets the first order aside and then He is bringing in and establishing another order of man altogether. So that what is in mind, I suppose, is the heavenly ones, they are of the same character as the heavenly One.

Maybe we should go to Luke 7. It is a marvellous situation where the person is moving in the gain of deliverance in the sphere of testimony. I suppose we would all have to say we get scared of men at times - "The fear of man bringeth a snare", Prov 29: 25 - but there is nothing of that with her, the Lord is her object in this cold, Pharisaical, uninviting, situation.

J.A.P. Was your thought in connecting this with fulness that this woman is making great progress but the other man is going nowhere?

J.A.G. He is stopped. This woman manifests that her works have been wrought in God; the other man loves darkness rather than light. He does not like to be shown up. It is a great thing that the Lord comes in and exposes our motives to ourselves, and that is what He is doing to Simon, but Simon is not keen on it. Maybe he thinks, What will Nicodemus think of me? and Nicodemus might say, What will Simon think of me? They are all tied up in bondage with one another instead of being delivered from that kind of thing. So the brazen serpent is deliverance; he that looked lived. Is that right?

J.A.P. Yes. I was noticing your reference in John 7 during the reading: one of the Pharisees says, "Has any one of the rulers believed on him or of the Pharisees?" v 48. So from that scripture Nicodemus had never really made a confession to the others, but then he did say something, "Does our law judge a man before it have first heard from himself?".

J.A.G. He rendered some bit of testimony. But apart from that, Nicodemus misses out on the blessing for himself. He could have been with the Lord in all these chapters.

G.H. Say something more about the brazen serpent - he that looked lived.

J.A.G. I think you look intently, you keep your eye on that and that is the end of the man. You see how Christ has taken up the whole position vicariously. That serpent never bit anybody, that brazen serpent never did any damage. Jesus was here and there was no poison; He went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil and in that you see God's judgment on man from the doctrinal point of view. Up to Romans 5 - half way through, as well you know - sins are being dealt with but from then on it is sin, the root of the thing, the cause of all the problems, and you get clear of it in chapter 7.

A.S.H. The Pharisee thought he knew it all but here Jesus is calling his attention to the woman, "Seest thou this woman?".

J.A.G. There is the example, this is what I want you to come to, Simon.

L.McF. The single eye is a very important thing. "When thine eye is simple, thy whole body also is light", Luke 11: 34. I am thinking of looking at the brazen serpent.

J.A.G. Yes, that is very helpful. If the Lord fills your vision you are going to be full of light. Simon is very condescending, he will ask you along and sit you down and you might even get to sign his visitors' book, but there is no impartation with him; he does not impart, there is no spiritual impartation. The woman is imparting all the time: that is Romans. When you come into the gospel you are able to impart some spiritual gift and now there is mutual comfort one of another. Our brother referred on Lord's day to this: this is the lily among the thorns.

B.H. I am thinking about the previous portion where he who practises the truth comes to the light. I am trying to link that practice with what we have here in this woman; she goes in peace, she would come back to the light, she would remain with it.

J.A.G. Yes, I do not think she would ever go out of it. Her works are manifest that they have been wrought in God. She has had to do with God about it, she has found deliverance. That is very beautiful. So that the Beloved said in the Song, did he not, "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters", Song of Songs, 2: 1. There she is, she is grown up, she has come to this fulness in this kind of atmosphere. You do not blame things on the brethren, you blame them on yourself. Well, the Lord commends her emphatically, she has done this and she has done that, she has done the thing needed, and you Simon you have not done a thing. You have rightly judged and that is about as far as you can go.

T.E.D. That is the expression of the fulness, is it not?

J.A.G. I think so. She has a great resource, she has been with God, she has loved the light, she has followed up the teaching of John 3 and she has found deliverance. The men of this generation, He says, they are like children, (Luke 7: 32). That is a poor thing if men are like children. "To whom therefore shall I liken the men of this generation, and to whom are they like?" That is like Simon; they are like children, no matter what you do they are never pleased. So you do not cater exactly for that kind of thing, "He that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life", Gal 6: 8. That is what she has done.

G.H. You mean this woman arrives at fulness?

J.A.G. I think so. I think she arrives at fulness in an answer in love for Christ to what He has wrought out on the cross for her. She knows the love of God, God so loved the world. She is in that area. The myrrh, I suppose, is her appreciation of the sufferings of Christ that bore the guilt and judgment and all that was her due. So she goes in peace, her faith has saved her and she goes in peace. She is away into the kingdom now - that is the next chapter. We are going to have a local meeting set up in chapter 8. Immediately you get this woman, you get the government - the twelve were with Him and certain women, there you have the substance that is going to maintain the administration of grace. So He brings out the man and the woman and the child .

C.F.D. So her link with God gives her the strength to take the initiative. She is an uninvited guest but she breaks through all the formality of the Simon household and does things which show her own link with God and her appreciation of Christ. So she gets through to a settled state of things.

J.A.G. I think it is very beautiful that she knew - that was divine knowledge - that He was sitting at meat in the house of the Pharisee. If somebody were to ask you, Where is the Lord today, would you be able to say, Yes, I know where He is, sitting at meat in the house of the Pharisee. What grace it was that He did that, sat at meat; later on He took notice of the way they all wanted the first places and that sort of thing. He is really saying to this woman, Friend go up higher, is He not? It is a great exercise and it is a very blessed thing to be able to locate the Lord at any given moment; it is the knowledge of God.

J.R.C. Would it be right then to say, as having located the Lord in that area, she had the wherewithal that is for Him - it is an alabaster box here?

J.A.G. I think it is very beautiful to see that she maintains her contact with Christ through the whole time. We had a marvellous address back in 1958 in Inverurie from Mr McCallum about contact - Bethany. In the first chapter of the Song of Songs, it says "He shall pass the night between my breasts", v.13; the Lord is maintaining contact in that situation in Bethany right through. And Romans 5 is a great outline of the inheritance, but if we are not in contact with the Spirit, we do not get into it. To stay with the Lord in whatever exercise He is at and whatever He is doing is a marvellous thing.

T.E.D. That is a feature of wisdom's children is it not?

J.A.G. She is one of wisdom's children, she knows the Friend of tax gatherers and sinners. She knows the Creditor is there but He is not calling in His accounts. He is administering forgiveness, He is forgiving you the debt. Simon that is for you too, He says, the same as for this woman. And the whole issue, the great issue in the chapter, I think, is love for Christ.

B.H. Simon is introduced as the Pharisee; the woman is introduced as the sinner. He has a reputation problem: she has nothing before her except the One who can save her.

J.A.G. That is very beautiful. She has the Lord before her. In one sense it is like the camp of Judah; she must have heard the trumpet. The ark has moved and she has moved; she has taken up her position behind Him weeping. Those are holy emotions in the appreciation of the suffering love of Christ that was going on to die for her. That is the brazen serpent. When the Lord speaks of that then He speaks of God's love, He so loved the world. It is a marvellous thing that the heart of God is thus made known in the cross of Christ. In the Pharisaical system it is all demand. If you owe somebody something you have to pay the last farthing; that is the law, but grace is forgiveness. When He breathed into them that is what He said, You go and remit, you do what I have done, if they can be remitted remit and if not you have to retain them, but the Spirit of Christ, the breath of Christ is remission. He wants everybody to be free and in the enjoyment of eternal life.

 

BROOKLYN NY

25 October 1986

 

 

Key to initials

New York unless otherwise stated.

D.Bodman, Birmingham; J.R.Cumming, Edinburgh; C.F.Dadd, Plainfield; T.E.Druckenmiller, Plainfield; C.S.Elliott; C.Greenidge, Plainfield; J.A.Gardiner, Aberdeen; A.S.Hinkson; B.Hill, Toronto; G.Hesterman, Plainfield; S.E.Hesterman, Plainfield; L.McFarlane; Kevin Oberg, Villa Grove; G.D.Pfingst, Plainfield; J.A.Petersen, PPlainfiel; K.N.Pye; A.G.Spooner