Reading: Rev. 4:8-11; 5:1-14; 7:9-17.
Without
attempting to go back over the ground which we have
covered in these studies, I want to try, for a few
moments, to indicate to you what it is that I feel the
Lord has brought for our attention at this time. I think
it can be best gathered up in this way. We have been
occupied with the great fact that everything is set in
relation to a great spiritual drama, which God is working
out in the Unseen. By certain Scriptures, we were taken
back and shown the commencement of that drama; in some
place unspecified, some time unmentioned, a big issue
arose between loyal and disloyal intelligences, involving
the great question, the ultimate question of the supreme
and unrivaled Lordship of this universe. Then we followed
out from that initiation of the question and contest into
this world, its repercussions in this creation, the
crisis which made it a part of everything here in this
world. Then we saw how all through the spiritual history
of the universe, and of this world in particular, that
issue has been to the fore, and has been governing
everything. Who is going to be worshiped without question
and reserve? So we saw that THE issue which bounds
the universe, and governs everything in it, is the issue
of worship, that worship is something which comes down to
the very minutiae, the smallest details of life. Who is
going to have the supreme place, who is going to be Lord,
who is going to have the worth-ship? We have seen this
whole question set in the super-earthly realm; and we
have seen that, with the very commencement of Christ's
spiritual ministry, it was set there. "If thou wilt
fall down and worship me," said the Adversary to our
Lord in the wilderness. The thing is unveiled, uncovered,
exposed, again and again, in the Word of God. In the book
of the Revelation, it stands stark naked. The end, as
revealed in that book, is - "And I saw no temple
therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are
the temple thereof." "And there shall be no
curse any more." The issue is settled, the matter of
worship is finished, summed up in God and the Lamb.
In some few practical ways in our previous
meditation, we sought to see that everything with which
we have to do is set in that realm, that unseen but most
real of all realms. We saw what it means to be a
Christian - not just that we come to believe certain
doctrines or truths, assent to them, and are marked as
those who believe these stated things; not just that we
have decided, even by the grace of God, to live a good
life, to refrain from a lot of things that are wrong, and
do a lot of things that are right; that we change our
form of behavior, conduct and procedure. No, not these
things. But the Christian life means that we have entered
actively, directly, immediately into that realm where the
ultimate issue of this universe becomes the primary thing
in our very existence. We are a part of something
immense, going on out of sight. Everything that belongs
to our Christian life has to be seen in that light. We
are at a loss, altogether at a loss, until we are fully
aware of that - that things are not just happenings.
There is a background of immense spiritual significance
and meaning to everything; when we become livingly
related to the Lord, we then become livingly related to
the thing which He is doing. The thing that He is doing
is answering that challenge, and securing its full and
final answer for eternity, and that IN us first,
and then THROUGH us. "Now unto the
principalities and the powers in the heavenly places
might be made known through the church the manifold
wisdom of God." We are set in a very large realm
with a very large meaning. That has been the import of
our previous meditations.
I want now to bring that down to one or
two more very practical matters, the first of which is
the significance or meaning of the Incarnation.
The Significance of the Incarnation
Firstly, the Incarnation, of course, of
God in Christ. The question is, why the Incarnation? Why
God manifest in the flesh? Why Jesus Christ, Son of God,
Son of Man? In other words. why sonship? - for it is with
Him that the whole principle and meaning of sonship is
introduced. Why all this in the Gospels about Father and
Son, Son and Father? The question will be transferred to
ourselves later. Why the Incarnation?
"When all things have been subjected
unto him" - that is, the Son - "then shall the
Son also himself be subjected to him that did subject all
things unto him, that God may be all in all" (I Cor.
15:28). That is a word of finality, and that is also a
word of transition. It sees a purpose fulfilled, an end
reached. In a word, it says that sonship had a purpose,
and that purpose would be fulfilled. I am saying that
this passage of Scripture indicates an object achieved by
a certain means, and therefore that means changing its
place from fulfilling to fulfilled purpose; and the end
is "God... all in all." Sonship, therefore, or
the Incarnation, was and is with a view to securing all
God's universal rights unto Himself. It throws a lot of
light, beautiful light I think, upon the whole matter of
sonship, the relationship of son and father, father and
son. It lifts the earthly, human conception on to a very
high level, as one of the things of which we were
speaking in our previous meditation, all the things in
the Bible, which have back of them something so much
greater than themselves, something of God. Human
relationships are intended to be indications of Divine
things. Oh, that they were more truly that! - human
relationships real indications, representations, of
Divine things. That is what they were intended for, and
here amongst the human relationships is father and son,
son and father, and it shows why the firstborn in Israel
was of such consequence, such value, import,
significance, honor; the firstborn in whom all sonship
was summed up. The father might say. These are my sons,
but this is my son, my firstborn. And why, when God
ordered the family life of His people as in Israel, why
did the firstborn son have such a place of honor and
importance? Because bound up with him were all the
father's rights and honor and glory and purpose. The
father, with all the meaning of his fatherhood as a true
father, was gathered up into that son. If that son
failed, the dishonor fell upon the father. If he went
wrong, the father came under that shadow. If that son
died, the father's heart went with that son. The father
was wrapped up in his firstborn. He was the heir; the
best that the father had was his. Vested in him was
everything of value and concern to the father. He was
supposed to stand for the absolute honor, glory,
satisfaction of his father. We know the principle holds
good throughout. As we said in our previous meditation,
pick up Scripture anywhere at random, if you look close
enough you will find behind it something of God that is
immense, endowed with the measure of God.
"Honour thy father" (Ex. 20:12).
What is that? - just something to govern social conduct,
make us behave ourselves? Oh no, it involves this immense
thing. God the Father is wrapped up in the Son, and the
Son has no less than all His Father's rights, honor,
influence, in His hands. That is a Divine truth. That
lies behind the Incarnation. Something has happened.
God's place has been challenged, God's rights have been
challenged, God's honor has been challenged. Something
has happened in this universe affecting God, and has been
taken up by the Son. The Son will answer that, the Son
will meet that, the Son will finally settle that issue.
Sonship is that which brings everything back to God. It
is the very meaning of the Incarnation to bring
everything back to God, to answer all disputes.
Do you see this challenge affecting God's
creation, and in the creation, man? Man is one; a race, a
son-race. God's rights in man have been disputed and
challenged, and it is in man that God's rights have to be
secured so it requires Incarnation and Sonship. Why
Incarnation, why Sonship? That! and when He shall have
subjected all things unto the Son, then the Son Himself
shall be subject, that God may be all in all. Sonship has
done its work, brought everything back to God.
That is perfectly clear so far as the Lord
Jesus is concerned, though there is a great deal more in
it than that. I simply state the fact, the principle, the
law. You will have to look it up, to think about it, to
bring the Scriptures in. You will understand then why the
Son says, "Lo, I am come... to do thy will, O
God" (Heb. 10:7). "Thy will, O God" - that
is the essence of worship. And when He draws His
disciples to prayer, He gives them the principle of
worship - "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in
heaven." That is answering the great universal
challenge. It is not just a prayer to be recited every so
often. It is an immense thing. The Lord Jesus was not
concerned with ritual; He was concerned with the immense
principles which govern this universe. Thy will, O My
God, Thy will! That is worship. We get to the place of
most utter worship when at last, after some conflict,
some battle over some issue, we go down before the Lord
and say, Thy will, Lord; not resignedly, but, Thy will
shall be done! It shall be Thy will! That is worship, the
Lord is getting His rights. The will of God in this
universe is worship.
There is so much more as to the Son's
relationship with the Father. You read John's Gospel,
anew perhaps, in the light of this. Our space does not
allow of the detail.
The Spirit of Sonship in Us
We are chosen unto the adoption of sons.
"Foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus
Christ" (Eph. 1:5). "... in bringing many sons
unto glory" (Heb. 2:10). So the Scriptures could be
gathered. I am only trying to show that you and I, in the
thought and intent of God, are bound up with this
tremendous question of sonship, and the same object
governs, and is at work. The incarnation principle is
pursued when Christ, by the Holy Spirit, takes up
residence within; our bodies become the temple of the
Holy Ghost, the sanctuary of God; that is the individual:
then the Church. The spirit of sonship has entered in, we
have received the Spirit of sonship, the Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15). I am
not saying that we, in the same full sense as Jesus
Christ, are sons of God, but we come into this
relationship by receiving the Spirit of His Son; we are
sons with the same object; the same process at once
begins. The issue is now bound up - with the Church of
the firstborn sons, to bring everything back to God. The
honor, and the glory, and the rights of God now become
bound up with believers and with the Church. The battle
is carried out into the heavenlies, our lives are set in
this great spiritual background and the one issue all the
time for us, day by day, year in and year out, is, Who is
going to get the worship from our lives? How far, by
means of us, is this great question going to be furthered
toward its consummation, when God shall be all in all? It
is a practical one, not a doctrinal one, not a
theoretical one. It is a practical one - we know it every
day of our lives. There is hardly an hour in the life of
any of us when this great, eternal question may not be
the very basis and issue of the situation. Who is going
to have the worth-ship? Who is going to get glory out of
that, the good from this? Satan or God? You see why it is
that at length the Church is to come into oneness with
Him in His glory. "Now unto him that is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be
the glory IN THE CHURCH and in Christ
Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever (Eph. 3:20).
You only need those hints. Sonship is our point at the
moment. We are called to sonship, which means we are
called into the fellowship of God's Son, for the settling
of this issue in a practical way. God is not a God of
theories; He is a God of practicalities: and what I want
you to realize, especially the younger ones, is that your
lives, when you have come into a vital oneness with Jesus
Christ, are not just things of hap or chance. Everything
in your life has a spiritual setting, a background which
is so vast as to involve this great question of the
Incarnation, why God was manifest in the flesh, why
sonship.
Take it
into your business life, all the difficulties, the
adversities, the trials, the testings; your home life;
anywhere. Do not take things as natural things that
happen. There are two kingdoms looking on and very
interested in the life of every one of us; two whole
hierarchies of intelligences are watching and actively
connected with the life of every one, each seeking to get
from our lives and through our lives the good, the
worth-ship. Sonship is a tremendous thing; to be sons of
God is a glorious thing, but what a vocation is bound up
with it, what a calling, and what an issue! I leave that
there because of space, and pass on. My difficulty is to
keep all sorts of matter out; we should be overwhelmed if
I let it in. We could have seen what we might call this
super-earthly interest in the Incarnation. What does
Bethlehem represent really? Does not the birth of the
Lord Jesus uncover the other world's interest in this?
Heaven is interested, coming in, most evidently coming
in. All earth is represented; and hell is there, watching
with sinister purpose; to destroy that life and that Man.
That Son of man has not gone this earthly road without
much attention from the spiritual realm. I leave you to
follow that.
The Significance of the Cross
Come to
the Cross. We have asked, Why the Incarnation? Now, Why
the Cross? The answer is found in the same spiritual
realm, set there ultimately. Historic, and in a certain
place on this earth, on a certain date? On "a green
hill far away, outside a city wall"? Yes, true, but
that is as nothing in comparison. Set it in its right
place. "Now shall the prince of this world be cast
out. And I, if I be lifted up..." (John 12:31-32).
"Now shall the prince of this world be cast
out"; and when He died, all creation registered it,
and responded. "Darkness came over the whole land
until the ninth hour" (Luke 23:44). The tombs were
rent, and there was a great earthquake (Matt. 27:51-52).
Paul tells us more: Paul tells us what was going on.
"Having put off from himself the principalities and
the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it" (His Cross) (Col. 2:15). That is
the setting. That is where the Cross touches the greatest
range and the greatest depth. It is set amongst the great
forces of this universe, the ultimate things. It touches
us here, but if it had not touched there, it could not
help us here: it is out there.
Why the Cross? Because this challenge of
God's place and God's rights had brought in pollution,
and corruption, and a false reign, and a false order and
nature of things. The whole realm had been touched by
that uncleanness, which was first in the heavens, and
then came to the earth, corrupting, distorting, and
twisting, and making things altogether different, and no
longer acceptable to God. Now both source and river must
be dealt with; the spring and its outflow had to be
destroyed. Christ crucified goes to the very spring, the
Evil One himself, and judicially deals with the situation
there, and then touches the consequence of the Evil One,
our sin, our sinfulness, our state, our nature, our
twisted, distorted humanity, morally and spiritually. His
resurrection is a triumph over two things, firstly over
Satan, arch-adversary, and then, over the humanity which
he has touched to corruption and distortion; add in His
risen Self, you have One Who is absolutely Lord of Satan
and Lord of righteousness. Why the Cross? Well, that,
briefly, comprehensively!
We must remember - it is just a little
technical point - we must keep a line between the
judicial and the actual work of Christ on His Cross.
Satan still is, sin still is, a distorted humanity still
is. In many ways, things are just as they were before
Calvary; but judicially they are no longer that. He has
entered into judgment, into the state of judgment. He has
borne the judgment, He has died under the judgment, and
He has judicially removed the ground from Satan. The
judicial side is finished, the practical side is being
carried out. That is Christian experience; that is where
the Cross comes in, has abiding efficacy for us. What is
happening? He has come to dwell within, and now He begins
at the center, at our spirit, bringing it to new birth
with His own indestructible and incorruptible life. We
have eternal life; A KIND of life, not
only of duration. We have it in Christ in our spirit.
From our spirit, He works out to our soul, our mind. The
Holy Spirit is dealing with our minds; and, praise God,
the day is coming when it will work out to the body.
"When this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality.... Death is swallowed up in victory" (I
Cor. 15:54). He has started that. From the judicial He is
moving to the practical. Why the Cross? To remove Satan's
rights in us, Satan's ground in us, to make the judicial
the actual where we are concerned. It is the process of
the Cross. Do not despise or reject the subjective side
of the Cross. Do not become too subjective yourself, but
remember that the Lord is doing something inside, on the
ground of what He has done by His Cross. That is the
answer. Why the Cross? To deal with this ultimate thing
in His universe. He is not just going to take us as we
are, and, in a moment, make us like Himself. He takes us,
and He begins to work in us, and He works and He works,
by every means, Satan himself and Satan's work so often
being employed. He is following on the trail of the
Serpent, and making seeming misfortunes, mishaps,
everything that seems so commonplace and ordinary, to
turn to spiritual account, all to remove the ground of
this other one, this Evil One, to remove his ground from
us, and get His own ground in us. Herein is one of the
wonders of grace, one of the great triumphs of the Lord.
Is it not true that, very often, those who have suffered
most for their Lord, have been the most worshipping
people the Lord ever had? Is that not true, and is that
not strange? Those who really love the Lord, and know the
Lord, and worship the Lord most fully, are those who have
suffered most with their Lord. That is the triumph.
Well, I am not going to pursue this matter
any further. What I have said is indicative of many other
things. We are enunciating a great truth. We are set in a
great spiritual background, with an immense question
being answered. We know, as we have already seen, that is
just what the book of Job means, why it is in the Bible.
It is set there by Divine order, and it is set there with
this object - to sum up this whole drama of the ages, and
show God working out an answer to an antagonist, in the
very soul and body of a man. "Doth Job serve God for
nought?" That is not human nature! No man ever does
that, no man serves anybody for nought. You may take it
if Job serves God, it is to his advantage to do so! All
right, says God, I will answer that question in the very
soul and body of this man; all that makes up a man's
life, what a man lives for, works for, take everything
from him, strip him! If a man loses his health and is in
perfect physical misery, he has not much more to lose.
God answers Satan in that man's soul and body, and
Satan's ground of argument is simply wiped out. That is
Job. I am saying, while we are not Jobs, we are not going
to claim to be Jobs, we are to some little extent in the
succession. That is why we read Rev. 4, 5, and 7. Is it
not a glorious picture and prospect? They are
worshipping, they are bringing all back to Him that
sitteth on the Throne, and to the Lamb. Satan is not
getting a look in there.
I would like you to read again the story
of Daniel in the light of this - I merely mention it in
closing - and you see the working out of all the
principles that I have enunciated, and more. Daniel
purposes in his heart that he will not defile himself
with the kings meat. He is having none of it. Why? Turn
to Chapter 3 and put your pencil underneath one word, and
you find your answer. That word is worship. The king sets
up an image which all must fall down and worship. When it
comes to these other friends of Daniel - Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego - what is the thing said about
them? These men "yielded their bodies, that they
might not serve nor worship any god, except their own
God." "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
sacrifice" (Rom 12:1). Sanctification means having
no contact with that other realm of worship, keeping
ourselves wholly for the Lord. "I saw... one like
unto a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of
days, and they brought him near before him. And there was
given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all
the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed" (Daniel 7:13,14). You see the way to the
Throne. It is the way of the Cross, the way of the
yielding to God rather than to Satan, at any cost,
presenting your bodies living sacrifices. At the end, a
Kingdom, a Throne, and it is said to Daniel, "And
thou... shalt stand in thy lot, at the end of the
days" (Dan. 12:13). The book of Revelation shows us
what it means to stand in our lot at the end; a great
multitude, worshipping the Lamb, standing at the end in
our lot.
If it is true that all the distress,
disruption, discord, and misery through the ages is to be
attributed to this divided worship, then the new
creation, the new and joyous order prophesied in the
Scriptures, will come about, or will be realized, on the
sole basis of God being "all in all." This has
its rise in every individual in whom divided allegiance
is ended. It takes its larger and corporate form in the
Church "which he purchased [for this purpose] with
his own blood." This, again, is the motive and
dynamic of every Holy Spirit-initiated and energized
movement of the Evangel and it gives meaning to all His
urges to holy living, loving fellowship, patient
enduring, and spiritual warfare.
All that we have said is but a hint at
very great realities. May the Lord find in us those who
are utter and of an undivided heart.