READING:
Eze. 43:1-2,4-5,7; Eph. 1:12, 3:21; 5:25-27; Col. 1:27; 1
Pet. 4:14; Heb. 10:37-39; 11:1. In these
meditations, we have been looking at some of the major
features of God's spiritual house in which we who are the
Lord's are living stones. We have been seeking to see
what our being living parts of a spiritual house means,
and there are two things which remain for this present
time, which we trust the Lord will enable us to say. One
is something which governs all these matters, and the
other is the final feature of this spiritual house. I put
it in that way because I think it will be most helpful to
deal with these remaining matters in that order, and the
one will lead quite naturally to the other, as you will
see.
This
thing which governs all the features, the spiritual
features, of this spiritual house of God is faith.
Faith in Relation to
(1) The exaltation of the Lord Jesus
The
first feature which we considered was that this spiritual
house, of which we are a living part if we are in Christ,
stands for the setting forth in a living way of the
exaltation of the Lord Jesus. We saw how that was the
first great note in the Church's history on the day of
Pentecost.
"God
hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye
crucified" (Acts 2:36).
"Being at the right hand of God exalted... he hath
poured forth this, which ye see and hear" (Acts
2:33).
It was a
glorious expression of, and testimony to, the exaltation
of the Lord Jesus, and the Church is constituted for that
purpose, to maintain that, not firstly as a part of its
doctrine, but as being in itself the living exhibit
thereof throughout the dispensation and to hold that
testimony in a living way right to the end.
But we
shall find that, in that matter, as in all the others, it
very soon becomes a question of a living faith. It was
not that so much on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit
came, and filled them that had believed, baptized them
within and without, and in that mighty tidal-wave of the
Spirit it was not difficult for them to proclaim and give
expression to the exaltation of the Lord Jesus. And that
is true in principle, although perhaps not in the same
outward way, in the case of every child of God,
when they first come into a living union with the Lord
Jesus. It is not difficult at that time for us to
proclaim, and by our very faces to announce, that Jesus
is exalted, Jesus is Lord, Jesus lives. That is our first
note of testimony when we receive the Spirit. It is the
first thing which expresses itself in a believer. But we
all have lived to know that it is not always as easy as
that. It does not always come as spontaneously as that.
We move into a time when, while the fact remains, we have
to hold on to the fact in sheer and grim faith. We have
to answer to apparent contradictions to the fact with an
attestation of faith; for things rise up and there is a
mighty reaction of the enemy to our testimony and to our
position, and we have to hold the position in blind
faith; not in feeling faith, not in seeing faith, but in
cold, blind faith we have to maintain our position that
Jesus is Lord, Jesus is exalted, Jesus is on the throne;
and it is only by faith being put forth in the fact that
we win through, and that testimony becomes a powerful
thing in our deliverance, in our very life.
So faith
governs this matter, and we shall find that, as we get
nearer to the end, the challenge to the Lordship, the
exaltation, the Kingship, the enthronement of the Lord
Jesus will become intensely severe. It will be a bitter
challenge and there will be a situation in which nothing
but just faith, naked faith, on the part of God's elect,
will keep them standing in the good of that truth, that
Jesus Christ, after all, has the reins of government in
His hands. If one thing is true about overcomers who do
overcome, it is that they overcome by reason of faith;
and faith is faith. So let us not, after all that we have
heard and all that in which we have gloried, expect that
this is going to be anything other than a testimony in
faith. It is not going to be a life of knowing by every
evidence, by every proof, by every sign, by every
sensation, that Jesus is reigning without any question at
all. It is not going to be like that. Do not expect that
it is going to be like that. The Word of God makes it
very clear that it is not the case. Mark the context, for
example, of the verses we read from Hebrews 10.
"For
yet a very little while, He that cometh shall come, and
shall not tarry. But my righteous one shall live by FAITH."
(2) Ministering Unto the Lord
Then we
spoke about another feature of this spiritual house, that
it is in existence to minister to God's satisfaction and
pleasure. That is a very nice idea! It is a very pleasant
thought, a very beautiful thing, to think of being in
existence to minister to God's pleasure, to God's
satisfaction, to God's glory, and perhaps again at the
outset we feel it is not such a big proposition. When we
are in those first days of the blossom of spiritual
experience, we think that the Lord is very well pleased
and happy about us, and we are very happy with the Lord,
and it is all right, the Lord is getting something. It is
not so difficult to think about this matter of
ministering to the Lord's good pleasure. But we discover
again that, as the Lord's, we are led out into the
wilderness. There is a side of our being which has to be
dealt with, that side which has been in the habit of
having the upper hand, of having the preeminence, of
doing all the dictating and the governing, and that has
to be put down and another side, namely, that which is of
the Lord, has to be brought up, and we come into that
realm of which the Apostle speaks - "The flesh
lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the
flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other"
(Gal. 5:17). There is something going on in us and when
we get out there in that wilderness and are in the deep
realities of trial, the demand on faith is no light
thing. I am thinking of Israel's forty years in the
wilderness while the Lord was dealing with them along the
line of discipline, to bring them to that aspect of the
Cross as represented by the Jordan, where it is no longer
just a matter of their being justified by faith, but of
being delivered from themselves by faith: and that
required a great exercise of faith when the Jordan
overflowed all its banks. But it was in the wilderness,
and it is in the wilderness that we, under the hand of
the Lord, are brought to understand that no flesh can
glory in His presence; that in us, that is, in our flesh,
no good thing dwelleth, and we have to have that brought
home to us so that it is not just a theory, but a
desperate and awful reality. So we cry, "Oh wretched
man that I am!"
At such
a time you have great questions as to whether there is
any ministry to the glory and pleasure of God. It seems
anything but that! And yet, beloved, when we are going
through all that under the hand of God, out there in the
wilderness, the very fact that we repose faith in the
Lord to perfect that which concerneth us, to carry
through that which He has commenced unto the day of Jesus
Christ, is something which very much ministers to God's
pleasure and satisfaction. Just picture it in its
figurative setting with Israel in the wilderness. There
was the Tabernacle in the midst, and there was God right
in that Tabernacle in the Most Holy Place in the Shekinah
glory. He was there all the time in the Shekinah glory
inside, but on the outside, well, it was a wilderness all
right, and there were those horribly ugly covers of the
Tabernacle and the glory was hidden. All the beauty was
concealed and the outer covers were anything but
beautiful and glorious, and the Lord's people were having
a very trying time. But at any moment, in the darkest
day, the most difficult hour, when things seemed to be
most hopeless, at any moment had you looked inside, the
glory was to be found there, and it was just a matter of
their faith. If they took the appearances as the
criterion, they could say, Oh, we cannot see the Lord;
everything looks very uninteresting and anything but
glorious, and the situation is a very deplorable one and
all this that we are going through and all this lack of
sight with regard to the Lord's presence - well, there is
nothing in it! We give it up! Again and again in the New
Testament, the Lord comes back upon that to warn the
Church against such an attitude. "They could not
enter in because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:19). And their
unbelief worked in this way, "Is the Lord among us
or not?" That was the thing that upset the Lord so
much that He refused to allow that generation to go into
the land. They asked the ultimate question, Is the Lord
among us or not?
Why did
they ask that? Because of appearances and difficulties.
The glory was veiled, and it was only at rare intervals
that the glory was displayed. For the greater part, the
glory was not seen. Ah, what then of that word, Christ in
you, the hope of glory! Now, that is the word the Apostle
by the Spirit addresses to the Church, in the Church's
time of difficulty, adversity, discipline, trial, of
going through things, and he says, in effect, "Ah,
yes, that is how it is on the outside, that is how it is
in the matter of circumstances, but Christ in you is the
hope of glory": and hope that is seen is not hope.
Even this is a matter of faith. We do not always feel
Christ in us. We do not live every moment in the
consciousness that the Lord is inside: but He is, as
truly as the Shekinah glory was there within the Most
Holy Place when there was nothing on the outside to
evidence it. At any moment you would have been able to
prove it could you have looked within. So is it with the
Lord's spiritual house, whose house are we. He is there
and you have to take an attitude towards this outside
situation by which the Lord is bringing us into a new
realm, a new position, that, after all, it is not the
ultimate thing, the pre-eminent thing: the Lord Himself
has said, "I will never leave thee." Faith
laying hold of that when it seems there is nothing
whatever that contributes to the Lord's glory and
satisfaction in us, faith laying hold of the faithfulness
of God and trusting Him to carry His work in us through
to perfection, is itself a ministration to God's
pleasure.
You see
that by the contrary. How displeased God was with that
generation. Of them He said, They shall not enter into My
rest. Why was He displeased? Because they did not trust
Him to get them through. They surrendered to the
appearances of things in their own lives.
(3) Ministering to the Life of Others
Then the
third thing we spoke about was that the Church is here as
a spiritual house for the purpose of ministering to the
life of others, of the Lord's people, and here the same
principle holds good. It is such a good idea, it is such
a fine thought: ministering to the life of others, that
is splendid! If only that can be, well, it is a great
thing to minister to the life of others, and the very
suggestion makes us rise up and feel better. But you
remember what the Apostle Paul said: "Death worketh
in us, but life in you" (2 Cor. 4:12). You see, it
is Gideon's fleece all over again, wrung out, dried, and
all around wet, and our ministering to the life of others
is like that very often. We are just as dry as dry bones,
wrung out. We are not conscious of being full of life and
ministering life to others, and yet it is often just then
that others do receive something, and that is to the
glory of God. Oh, we said, we never thought there could
be any blessing in it! Well, the Lord was not letting our
flesh glory in the giving of life to others, but they
were getting it.
You see,
it is again a matter of faith. Do not think that this
ministering to the life of others is always going to be
something of which we are conscious, that we are just
full and overflowing with life, and people are getting
it. I think more often than not it is the other way
round. For us it is a grim holding on to God in faith and
others are getting the blessing and we are amazed. It can
be so. Have faith then: fulfil your ministry in faith.
"He
that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaves with him." (Psa. 126:6)
Weeping,
but in faith. The reward of faith is a great
"doubtless."
(4) A Local Corporate
Representation of Christ
Then our
fourth feature of the spiritual house was that it is here
to be a local corporate representation of the Lord Jesus.
We meditated upon that word of His, "Where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them" (Matt. 18:20), and dwelt upon it as a
statement pointing on to the great truth of the Body of
Christ, that, wherever there are two or three members of
His Body, that is a representation and expression of
Christ in that place.
But I
again see that so often this is only made good by faith.
"Where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst" - but faith has to
rise up very strongly and very deliberately and lay hold
of that. You see, you may be two or three gathered
somewhere, but there may be nothing whatever of an
expression and manifestation of the presence of Christ.
You have to come together in faith. You have to stand
together in faith. You have to put your feet squarely
upon His assurance and declare yourself as resting upon
that assurance, and as we take hold of the truth that
where the Body is the Lord is, it is then that the thing
becomes a reality. We do not make it a reality by faith,
but we bring out the reality by faith. The Lord looks for
a definite standing upon these things and an assertion of
faith. We are here; yes, but we are not here just as two
or three gathered in the name of Jesus in a passive way.
There will be no expression of the Lord's presence when
things are like that. We come together in faith and we
stand in faith that there is going to be an expression of
the Lord by our very being here; and, unless we come
together like that, it will be but a congregation, a
service, a coming and going. When we come together in a
living way with a living faith, it is not an address we
have come to listen to, but we have come definitely to
meet with the Lord, and the Lord has assured us that, as
we are gathered together in His name, we shall meet Him.
If that is our spirit, our attitude, there will be
something of a living expression of the Lord. Faith is a
great factor in the matter of corporate life to make its
values real. I cannot go further than that.
(5) Testimony to the Overthrow of Satan
The
fifth feature was that this spiritual house is here to
testify in a living way to the overthrow of Satan. Well,
that is a fact; Satan has been overthrown by Christ. So
far as the Lord Jesus is concerned, the overthrow of
Satan has been accomplished and established, and on the
day of Pentecost there was no difficulty in their
believing it, enjoying it and proclaiming it. But they
lived to see other days when it was not just like that.
They lived to see days when it seemed that Satan was
anything but overthrown, anything but disposed. They saw
him apparently doing just as he wanted to do, having it
all his own way. They saw him bringing to death their
fellow-believers and colleagues in ministry. They saw the
ravages of the Devil on the right hand and on the left.
Does this mean that the thing they once said so strongly
and with such conviction is no longer true and they were
mistaken even then? Not at all! This matter has to become
a matter of the faith of the Lord's people. The overthrow
of Satan, so far as this world is concerned, is a matter
of the militant faith of the Church.
I simply
draw from Ephesians this. When the Apostle has told us of
all the armour that we are to put on in this spiritual
warfare against the wiles of the Devil, he says, Now
above all take the shield of faith. Our English language
is poor in expressing what Paul said. Paul did not say
"above all" in the sense in which we should
mean it. He said, Now over all take the big shield of
faith. As you know, the Roman legions had more than one
kind of shield. They had the little round shield, which
was only for the protection of the face and head against
arrows and darts. But then they had the big shield, which
could shield them completely, and often an army marched
into battle with it over them. As they put the big
shields side by side, it was like forming a solid mail
roof. They marched under it, the big shield being over
everything, covering everything. All else requires this
one thing. All else may yield, prove insufficient. With
everything, over and above everything - faith! It
requires the militant faith of the Church to bring about
here what Christ has brought about in heaven, namely, the
overthrow of the Evil One. It is by faith now that Satan
is overthrown, so far as the Church is concerned, and so
far as things here are concerned. But of course, our
faith is not in something which is going to be, it is in
something which already is, namely, Christ's victory.
(6) Present Testimony
to the Coming Day of Glory
Now I
come to the last thing, which has not been mentioned. The
final feature of this spiritual house, which comes up
with the passages we have read, is that the spiritual
house, the Church, is here in the light of the coming day
of the fullness of Glory, to stand in the light of that,
to receive upon itself the light of that, and to reflect
the light of that day that is coming.
In
Ezekiel's Temple, you notice how we read that, after all
those goings in and out and round about and through and
up and down, at last the man led him by the way of the
gate which is toward the east and toward the glory. The
east is the sunrise, the new day, and it is by that way
that the fullness of the glory comes in. The house, you
see, stands right in the way of the coming glory. It is
there with its face toward the sunrise, toward the glory.
That is the type in Ezekiel, but we have many other
passages.
"We
should be unto the praise of his glory." That is the
Church in Ephesians. But there is this passage in
Hebrews.
"For
yet a very little while, He that cometh shall come, and
shall not tarry. But my righteous one shall live by
faith... Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a
conviction of things not seen."
Here,
you see, is a standing by faith in the light of that
glorious hope, that blessed hope, and knowing in the
heart the assurance of that unseen glory. We are here as
the Lord's house to be a present testimony to the coming
day of glory. But that is not testimony in word, in
doctrine: it is to be in life, in reality. But that can
only be in a spiritual way, and therefore it can only be
along the line of faith. We have to apprehend the day of
the Lord, the day of glory, the coming of the Lord in
glory; we have to apprehend that in a spiritual way.
There are a lot of people who are apprehending it in a
prophetical way, but I do not always find that the study
of prophecy results in glory. I find very often that it
results in a good deal of death and confusion, and it is
not all prophetical students who are living in the glory
of the coming day. They are living in the belief of it,
in the argument about it, but not in the glory of it. It
is no mere doctrinal or mental apprehension of that great
truth that will bring the glory of it into our lives, but
a spiritual apprehension.
I used
to study prophecy a good deal, and the book of the
Revelation had a very prominent place in it. But the more
I studied it, the more confused I got, the more
difficulties I found. It did not get me through very far
to glory. But then the Lord gave me a clue, and showed me
the spiritual principles lying behind the book of the
Revelation, and I was able to apprehend that book in a
spiritual way. I do not mean that I spiritualized
everything, but I was able to apprehend it in a spiritual
way. The cloud was lifted and there was life.
Take
this matter of the coming of the Lord; and, of course,
that is the coming of the Lord in glory, when He shall
come in the clouds of glory, when He shall come to be
glorified in His saints - the coming in by the east of
the glory of the Lord. Have you noticed that in any time
in the dispensation, when spiritual people have been
gathered together, and in their gathering together have
been speaking or singing of the coming of the Lord, how
spontaneously the glory rises and comes in? Have you
noticed that? Now, I do not believe that is merely
psychological, and I do not believe it is because we are
all thinking of ourselves, and of how great a day it will
be when we are delivered from all our bonds. I believe
rather this rising of glory is in spite of a very great
deal. We have lived long enough, most of us, to know many
people who believed fervently and said with emphasis that
the Lord was coming in their lifetime and they would be
raptured, and they have been in their graves for years.
That is enough to turn you away from the whole subject
and say, We have heard that before! It is enough to put
you among those scoffers of whom Peter writes, who say,
"Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the
day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as
they were from the beginning of the creation" (2
Pet. 3:4). You may take that attitude, if you like; but
it is in spite of all that that, when you contemplate the
coming of the Lord, something gets the better of your
mentality, your arguments, and all that bad history, and
you find the glory rising. It is so, in spite of it all.
Why is it? It was so at the beginning of the Church
dispensation, and it has been so in every age: yet the
Holy Spirit knew at the beginning that the Lord's coming
would not be for a couple of thousand years, at any rate.
But nevertheless there has been this spontaneous breaking
out of real joy and glory at any moment when spiritual
people have been dwelling upon the coming of the Lord.
Why is it? Because the Holy Spirit does not live in time
at all, He does not belong to time. The Holy Spirit is
outside of time and He already has the end with Him and
He is the Spirit of the end, and when we really get into
the Spirit we are in the Holy Spirit's end. If we dwell
in the mind - oh, this reasoning line of things! - out of
the Spirit, there is no joy. But when we let go and we
are in the Spirit, we find ourselves with the Holy Spirit
right at the end. We are outside of time, we are in the
glory already in foreshadowing. The Holy Spirit is
timeless and you get outside of time and you have
everything; you have your finality, your fullness. Thus,
when John was in the Spirit in the isle of Patmos, he got
right through to the end of things very quickly, the
thing which we in time have not reached yet. That is what
I mean by apprehending this matter spiritually. Beware of
apprehending prophecy as a mental thing. The Holy Spirit
in you in a living way will bring you into the good of
things. Thus by the Spirit today we should stand with the
light of the glorious fullness of the day of the Lord. We
should be here as a testimony, not to prophetic things,
not to teaching or doctrine about the Second Advent and
all the problems connected therewith, but to the
spiritual meaning of that. What is it? Why, that is the
end to which God has been working right through the
centuries, the one thing upon which His heart is set, in
which He has His satisfaction, His glory, His praise, His
fullness, and the Holy spirit is always there to make
good something of that when we dwell upon it. He is there
to be to us "the earnest of our inheritance,"
and to make us know it is a matter of faith, after all.
We do
not always feel the glory of the coming of the Lord, we
are not always living in the bright shining of that day,
but "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the
proving of things not seen," and when we let go our
arguments and get into the Spirit, that is, get really
into fellowship with the Holy Spirit, the weight of those
arguments disappears, all the seeming contradictions in
history go out. The glory of the Lord comes in by the
gate which is toward the east.
"Yet
a very little while, He that cometh shall come, and shall
not tarry. But my righteous one shall live by
faith."
The Lord
then strengthen our faith and keep our hearts in faith.