Thirty-Second Meeting
(February 29, 1964 A.M.)
We come
to this last morning of our consideration of this great
question. That is, the great question as to the true
nature of the dispensation which came in with the Lord
Jesus. We have this morning therefore to gather up all
that we have been saying into one matter. We have covered
a lot of ground, but it all amounts to one issue. It is
not a matter of one system over against another. That is,
it is not a question of Judaism over against
Christianity. It is not a question of legalism over
against spirituality. It is not a question of the Old
Testament over against the New Testament. And it is not a
question of Paul over against his enemies. All these
things have come into our consideration, but they are not
the special issue. The great battle which began with the
coming of the Lord Jesus, and for which the Apostle Paul
was a chosen instrument, is not the battle for a special
interpretation of Scripture. It is not the battle for a
particular form of doctrine. And it is not the battle for
a particular form of worship. It is a much bigger battle
than all those things.
And so
we have this whole letter to the Galatians which touches
all these things gathered into one word. The whole
letter, and all that has to do with it is gathered into
one verse. It is, so far as words are concerned, a very
short verse. But you see that it is a very big verse. It
is in chapter four, verse nineteen, "My little
children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be
formed in you." One slight alteration or
correction ought to be made in the translation. The word
"formed" ought to be translated "fully
formed." So that the verse should read, "My
little children, of whom I am again in travail until
Christ be fully formed in you."
So you
will see that this whole battle with all its aspects is
gathered into this matter of Christ being fully formed.
It is nothing other, nothing less, and nothing more, than
the question of the formation of Christ in fullness, the
formation of Christ fully in individual believers, and
the formation of Christ fully in the Church. So you see,
that brings the whole matter down unto one question.
Christ is the test of every man and of everything. Christ
is the test of the Church and the churches. Christ is the
test of every teaching.
Whether
a thing is right or whether it is wrong is decided on
this one point. How much of Christ is there in it? How
much of the Spirit of Christ do you find in it? You can
reduce all your questions and all your problems to that
one thing. It is always a matter of how much of the
Spirit of Christ do I find either in this people or in
this teaching or in these things? I do want you to take
special notice of that, because it is the deciding
factor. It was the deciding factor in the churches in
Galatia.
In this
verse which we have read, the apostle does not say that I
am travailing for one system over against another. He
does not say I am travailing for one teaching against
another. He does not say I am travailing for one form of
worship against another. He does not say I am travailing
for one meaning of the Church and the churches against
another. He does not say I am travailing for Christianity
against Judaism. He does not say I am travailing for
spirituality against legalism. Paul did not say any of
these things or all of those things put together. It was
a very much greater concern than all those things. He
says, "I am again in travail until
Christ be fully formed in you" (Gal
4:19, ASV). You remember that on more than one
occasion we pointed out that the name, "CHRIST"
occurs forty-three times in this short letter. Therefore,
that is the key to everything. We have just been singing
a hymn which we sing very often here, "Christ only
Christ." And that was Paul's concern.
Now that
brings us to the greatest thing that has ever been
revealed by God to man. And it is centered in one word in
this letter. Six times the word, "Son" or
"sons" occurs, and that which is meant by
sonship is the greatest thing that God has ever revealed
to man. Paul began with that. In chapter one, he laid the
foundation for the whole letter. And he says, "It
pleased God to reveal His Son in me." That was
the thing that upset the whole life of Paul. That was the
thing that made the great change in him as in the
dispensation.
The
revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the
foundation of everything. So Paul laid the foundation by
saying, "God revealed His Son in me." Presently
in the letter he will say this, "Because ye are
sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our
hearts" (Gal. 4:6). The Holy Spirit is the
Spirit of sonship in the believer. The Holy Spirit is the
Spirit of the Son of God. And so the Holy Spirit coming
within constitutes the believer a son of God potentially.
Now do
you notice the word that the apostle uses, "My
little children." If you were able to
read the Greek, you would notice something about that.
The apostle does not say, my great big son. He does not
even say, my sons. He says, "My little
children." And there are two different Greek words
used. Children means someone or something that is born,
but has not grown up, something that is still very small
and immature. Another Greek word is used for son, and it
relates to those who have grown up. Now you can see how
this whole letter turns upon that difference. He says,
"O foolish Galatians!" He meant - you are like
silly little children. You have been born but you have
not grown up. You have made the beginning but the full
formation of Christ has been arrested. And so he says the
Holy Spirit is given to us with the intention of bringing
about the full formation of sons.
So in
this letter, the apostle contrasts the old dispensation
with the new on this one point. He says that in the old
dispensation Israel was just a nation of little children.
And the mark of little children is this: First of all you
have to teach them by illustrations and by pictures and
by models. And you have to teach them by everything
outside of themselves. You teach them by presenting
things to them as objects. And you teach little children
by saying, now you must do this and you must not do that.
If you want to be a good boy, or good girl, you would do
what I tell you.
That is
how you treat a little child. The difference between a
little child and a grown up person is just the opposite.
A grown up son does not always need to be told what he
ought to do. A truly grown up son is not one to whom his
father has to say, 'You must do this, and you must not do
that.' A truly grown up son knows inside himself what he
ought to do, and what he ought not to do. It does not
have to be presented to him in pictures and
illustrations. In himself he knows. A son who is really a
true son knows in himself what his father would like and
what his father would not like. The father does not have
to keep on day after day saying, 'Look my boy, this is
what I want.' A true son knows in his own heart what his
father would have.
It is
intuition, not command, and that is the difference. And
the difference, therefore, between the old dispensation
and the new is one of spiritual intelligence. Because
that is the difference between a child and a son. The
child does not have the intelligence in himself. The
intelligence is outside of himself in other people. But a
grown up man has the intelligence in himself. And that is
the big contrast that Paul is making in this letter. He
says to these Galatians, 'My little children, you are
lacking in intelligence. The true mark of maturity, which
is spiritual intelligence, is not found in you yet.'
Then
another difference between the child and the son is this:
A little child has to have everything done for it by
someone else. You have to do everything for the little
child, whatever that child needs you provide it and you
do it. You provide the food. You provide the clothes. You
provide the family. You provide the home. You provide
everything for the little child. The little child
provides nothing for himself. The grown up son is
different. The grown up son takes responsibility. The
father knows that he can have confidence in that son. He
does not have to be worrying all the time as to whether
that son will do the right thing or the wrong thing. He
is at rest about the son, and he says, 'I know I can
trust him. I can put the responsibility on him, he is
capable of taking the responsibility.'
Do you
see from the history of Israel in the Old Testament, how
irresponsible they were? Just look again over their
history in the wilderness, and their history after the
wilderness. They are having to have everything done and
provided for them. They are having to be told everything
that they ought to do. It is the law, and the law is
written on tables of stone. It is not written on their
hearts. They are a very irresponsible people, and neither
the servant of God nor God Himself could trust them.
Leave them by themselves for one day and they go all
wrong. They are like horses. You have to put a bit and
bridle on to keep them straight.
You know
that is one of the illustrations used in the Scripture.
Now growing up in Christ is just altogether different
from that. SONSHIP MEANS SPIRITUAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Because the Holy Spirit is inside, you are able to say,
'I know that they can be trusted, I know that the Lord is
in them. I know that they know that the Lord is in them.
And I can trust the Lord in them.' Do not you wish that
all these people were like that? This is the difference
between little children and sons. When the apostle says
here, that because ye are sons, the Spirit has been given
you as the Spirit of sonship. "God hath sent forth
the Spirit of His Son into our hearts." He was not
contradicting this truth of the difference between
children and sons. He says when you received the Holy
Spirit you received sonship potentially. That is, the
Holy Spirit makes the fullness of Christ possible. All
the fullness of Christ is in the Holy Spirit in you. But
the question is: Are you going to continue as children,
or are you going to live in the Spirit and grow up to be
full grown sons?
Now the
Apostle Paul makes another contrast in this letter. He
contrasts sons with servants. And here he is not so much
in the first place teaching of Israel and Christianity.
He is taking an illustration from Greek life. In the
Greek system a servant is one who took the little child
of the family by the hand. And took him to the school
master. He steered him down the road through all the
traffic. He took him across the road and all the
dangerous points. He took care of the little child, and
did everything for him. And then he delivered him to the
one who would educate him. He delivered him into the
hands of the principle of spiritual education.
Now Paul
says, the law was the servant - intended to take us by
the hand and lead us to Christ. As you see, the law has
to do with little children. The law does everything for
the little child. The law was intended to hand us over to
the Holy Spirit, and then the Holy Spirit would bring us
to sonship. So Paul makes the difference between the
servant and the son. The servant does everything for us
on the outside. But the Spirit does everything for us on
the inside. So Paul put his emphasis on this, "Until
Christ be fully formed in you."
The whole character of this new dispensation is Christ in
us.
So we
are back to chapter two, verse twenty again: "It
is no longer I, but Christ liveth in me." The
Holy Spirit in us, is with us, in order to make us
capable of understanding the things of the Lord. The
Spirit is bringing into us spiritual intelligence about
the things of the Lord. In another place the apostle will
say, "Let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all
wisdom and spiritual understanding." Before you can
have the wisdom and the spiritual understanding, you have
got to have the Word dwelling in you richly. It is the
foundation of the Holy Spirit's work that the Word of the
Lord should be in us richly. We must have a good and
thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. It is the
foundation of the Holy Spirit's work. The Holy Spirit is
never going to do anything apart from the Word of God.
I cannot
tell you how glad I am, that before I ever had a great
spiritual crisis, I had very thoroughly studied the
Bible. I had studied the Bible systematically right
through. I could put on a big blackboard the outline and
analysis of every book in the Bible. And I could give
Bible lectures, but it was not until I had a real
spiritual crisis, that I came to understand the Bible
which I knew so well in my head. Then the Bible that I
knew became a living Book.
You see
that is what happened to the apostles on the day of
Pentecost. They were Jews and they knew Jewish Scripture
very thoroughly. That is, they knew what was written in
the Old Testament. They could have told you all that
Moses had written. They could have told you all that
David had written. And they could have told you all the
prophets had written. But on the day of Pentecost their
Bible became alive. They inherited, in a spiritual way,
all that they knew in only a mental way. But the Holy
Spirit could not have done His work, had they not had the
foundation in the Word of God. Do you remember that? Are
you reading your Bible thoroughly? Are you really
studying the Word of God? Can it be said of you that the
Word of God dwells in you richly? (Col. 3:16). If it is
dwelling in you, then you have the foundation for
spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Do you
notice that was the difference between Jesus and the
scribes? Now the scribes were the authority on the Bible.
They were the people who had committed the Bible to
memory. They knew everything that was in the Bible, which
was the Old Testament. And if anybody wanted to have an
explanation of any part of the Old Testament, they went
to the scribes, because the scribe was supposed to know
all about it. Now when Jesus spoke to the multitudes, the
verdict upon His teaching was this: "He talked as
One having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matt.
7:29). And yet, the people thought the scribes were the
authority. But they said of Jesus, "He taught as One
having authority and not as the scribes." What was
the difference between Jesus and the scribes? He had the
spiritual understanding of the Scripture. And they only
had the letter of the Scripture. The apostle says,
"The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth
life" (2 Cor. 3:6).
Now we
have to hurry to a close. We come back to Galatians four,
and verse nineteen, because this gathers up everything.
What was it that Paul was working for? What had he given
his life for? What was he suffering for? What was he so
troubled about with these Galatians? You can rule out a
whole number of things, and you can say it was not that,
and it was not that. He said, "I am again in
travail until Christ be fully formed in you."
When he uses the word "again," that is, a
second time. He means that I was in travail for your new
birth. It cost me a great deal of suffering and pain to
see you truly born again. It meant a great deal to me to
see that Christ was really planted in you. Your new birth
was a travail to me. But now I am having to go through it
all again. My real object was not just to get Christ into
you, my real object was that Christ should be fully
formed in you, that Christ should grow up in you and you
should grow up in Christ. And so I am today in travail
again because you stopped. You are putting other things
in the place of Christ. You are putting form in the place
of Christ. You are putting mere teaching in the place of
Christ. You are putting law in the place of Christ. You
are putting a legal system in the place of Christ. Paul
says that just throws me into agony.
I am
going to apply that to ourselves. If we are suffering at
all, what are we suffering for? If as in the case of Paul
we have enemies, those who are against us, and who are
working against us, why are we suffering? What is the
nature of our suffering? Is it because of something
personal? Are they working against us? Is it because of
some piece of work for which we are jealous? Is it for
some place in which we are interested? And against our
way of going on? Is it any of these things? Is that why
we are suffering? I say, The Lord deliver us from all of
that. The only real and true reason for any spiritual
suffering is that Christ is being hindered. We see that
these things limit the Lord. They dishonor the Lord. And
they will cause spiritual limitation. They are against
the enlargement of Christ in us. All our suffering ought
to be for the sake of the Lord Jesus, and not for
anything else, "Until Christ be fully formed."
That is the last word I am going to leave with you for
this time.
I know
something about your troubles. And I know something about
the cause of your troubles. But I am going to bring it
back here. Are you and I in travail over things, or for
the full formation of Christ? Is all our suffering in our
hearts related to the increase of the Lord Jesus? Is it
that He may have His fullest place? Is it that He shall
be fully formed in us? Have we, therefore, got this true
kind of travail - not travail for something, but travail
for Christ? I ask you the question, if you are suffering
at all, and you ought to be suffering, what are you
suffering for? Is it your genuine concern for the honor
and glory of the Lord Jesus? Is it that in every one of
these believers, from the children, to the young men and
women, to the grown up people, that in every one of them,
Christ should have a full place? Are we travailing in
pain for that?
So all
that we have said this week about these contrasts:
Legalism and spirituality, Judaism and Christianity, and
all these other differences, they focus down upon this
one question: THE FULL FORMATION OF CHRIST. How far does
legalism limit the growth of Christ in us? How far does
our technique get in the way of Christ? It is all a
matter of Christ.
So I
leave that question with you. I leave that emphasis with
you. Now when I go away from you, the one thing that I
want to be sure of is that I preached Christ to you, that
I was not just giving you Bible teaching. And I was not
trying to put you right on the technique of the Church,
or the churches. But I was keeping Christ always in full
view, and telling you that the matter which is of supreme
importance is: "Christ fully formed in you -
Christ fully formed in us!"