Before we
proceed to consider more definitely the nature of that
‘new cruse’ of which we have been speaking, a
few further words on the relative aspect of this vessel
are needed. In the Scriptures, as we have pointed out, it
is clearly seen that all the reactionary instruments of
God are of a relative character; that is, that they are
related to and on behalf of a body larger than
themselves. This is an underlying principle in the
progressive activities of God. The point which needs to
have extra emphasis is that, in SECURING all the
elect territory, habitation and inheritance, whether as
His first choice or as of necessity by reason of so
general an apathy and worldliness on the part of His
people, the Lord uses what might be termed ‘advance
parties’. It is not necessary in this connection to
present or argue for any theory or teaching concerning
‘selectiveness’, or ‘partial’ or
‘first-fruits’ in the matter of
‘rapture’. The historical, literal and time
aspect is of secondary importance. What is of primary
account is the SPIRITUAL fact, and this, we
believe, is incontrovertible. It is a principle in every
realm of creation and Divine method. There are –
HARBINGERS
IN EVERY SPHERE.
Originally
a harbinger was one who went before to provide lodgings,
but the term has now come to be applied to any
forerunner. An adequate recognition of the SPIRITUAL
element in this universal fact, and especially in
relation to “the eternal purpose”, would
correct and adjust much on both sides - acceptance and
rejection - of a set teaching of ‘partial
rapture’. That is, if the vocational factor were
kept in view it would supply the motive and stimulus so
commonly lacking amongst many who reject that teaching;
which lack has very largely become the strength of the
teaching and its propagation. And, on the other hand, it
would both obviate the difficulty concerning ‘all
being of Grace’ and not of works, and remove any
‘selectiveness’ of spirit and temper - as
‘the elect of the elect’. Let us repeat
with strength: There is undoubtedly an advance party in
every movement of God. This is spiritual before anything
else, and it is vocational rather than meritorious. That
there will be special rewards for such seems quite clear
and beyond doubt, but rewards do not contradict grace.
When we
contemplate the churches in Asia as presented in the
Revelation, and admit the respective age application, it
is difficult, if not impossible, in respect of at least
five, to conclude that we are dealing with the unsaved
and ungodly - with assemblies of religious people without
any true spiritual history. It is undoubtedly a case of
declension, of failure to go on with the Lord. Are all
these to be eternally lost? And yet they represent the
majority in every age.
We know
that one answer to this is that all will be adjusted at
the Judgment Seat of Christ; but what concerns us is -
what about the others, the ‘overcomers’? Surely
more is involved than being different from the rest and
getting a better reward. Yes: the point is that the Lord
must and will have His testimony in the earth according
to His mind, and those who provide Him with the
instrument for this fulfil a special mission, not only in
the earth, but in the heavenlies - both now, and then.
Really, the
focal point of this whole matter is not the two or more
raptures. The fact is that the Lord has shown
unmistakably that He has made no provision for a
‘second-best’ in the life of a believer or of
the Church, but has called all His people to the fullest
degree of faithfulness and devotion. There IS a
second-best, as see 1 Corinthians 3:15, etc. Let us not
fasten upon unscriptural labels, such as ‘partial
rapture’ or ‘selective rapture’, but upon
the facts - that there ARE such people as
‘overcomers’ and also, evidently, those who are
NOT, and that there is a difference of no mean
importance between the two.
It is all
just an appeal to take no chances - “make no
provision for the flesh” - but to be utter for God,
whatever it costs.
We are now
able to come to the more definite consideration of the
nature and function of this peculiar vessel for God.
There is a
great difference between a people moved by mere
disaffection, discontent, ‘disgruntledness’,
difference of opinion, personal dislike or preference,
and one moved by the constraint of a great Divine vision
- by the inwrought reaction of God, registered with pain
in the heart.
This inward
heart-longing found expression long ago in classic words:
“By the rivers of Babylon
There we sat down, yea, we wept,
When we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in the midst thereof
We hanged up our harps...
How can we sing Jehovah’s song,
In a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her skill.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
If I remember not thee;
If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy.”
(Psalm 137:1, 2, 4-6)
The
implications of these great heart-yearnings represent the
crystallizing of the Divine purpose from before times
eternal. The ultimate thing in the heart of God, and that
into which all the interests of those in real oneness of
spirit with Him will be gathered, is presented in what is
known as –
THE
HOUSE OF GOD AND THE CITY OF GOD
When we
speak of the ‘ULTIMATE’ thing, we mean
that which is to be the eternal consummation of all the
Divine method and means. The thing which is primary and
final is the place, worship and glory of God in the
universe. This factor will be implicit in all that we
have to say. Were we asked what are the major lines and
subjects of Divine revelation throughout the whole
Scriptures, we should say with considerable conviction
that they are: -
1. The Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. His Cross - death, burial and resurrection.
3. The Church or House of God.
4. The Coming again of Christ.
5. The City of God.
There are
other phases, but these TAKEN RELATIVELY are the
primary themes, or aspects of one theme.
While the
Person of the Lord Jesus as God manifest in the flesh is
the sum of all revelations, it requires the Cross to give
the full MEANING and reveal the full VALUE
of that manifestation; it demands the Church to display
the full CONTENT of that manifestation
ultimately; and it calls for the City to define the NATURE
of that manifestation. In leading men on to the
appreciation of the Person, God begins with the Cross. If
the House is the House of the Divine Son, and if the City
is the City of the great King, then the House and the
City are based upon the Cross. Moreover, if the House and
the City are for the glory of God in Christ and His
universal worship, then the Cross represents the nature
of worship and the way of glory.
To put this
more precisely: If the Lord has in view a people for His
glory, by whom the content of the Son of Man is
ultimately displayed to the universe, then this people
will be fundamentally A PEOPLE OF THE ALTAR.
This we believe to be the all-inclusive theme of
Scripture. The Cross is the central recognition of
the eternal rights of God. At the Cross and in the
Cross all the rights of God from eternity to eternity are
recognised and acknowledged. That is central to
Calvary. God has rights. God’s rights are that the
whole universe should render Him undivided, unrivalled,
unreserved worship, acknowledging that all things are His
by right, and that no one else in the universe has a
right before Him. That great fact is here gathered up in
the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He brings to God
in His own Person His rights, offering Himself in the
greatness of who He is and what He is - the rights of
God.
God, by His
Son, created the world for His Glory. The Holy Spirit was
agent in the creation of the world for the Glory of God,
in order that the whole earth should be full of His
Glory. The Holy Spirit is likewise agent in the
redemption of the world for the Glory of God. It is of
perhaps deeper significance than we have recognised that
the great song of the redeemed at the end, when the work
of Calvary is consummated, is gathered up into one
sentence: “Hast redeemed... to God” (Rev.
5:9). Redemption is unto God: it is bringing back to
God His rights, and the Holy Spirit is the agent in this
redemptive work which has the Glory of God as its
objective, just as the Holy Spirit was the agent in
creation for the same end.
Worship,
then, with all its depth and fullness, is the key word.
In the great consummation when God is to be worshipped in
the whole universe, and the different songs of worship
break forth - the song of one company, “a hundred
and forty and four thousand”, worshipping God and
the Lamb (Rev. 7:4), and then the song of the ‘great
multitude which no man can number’ worshipping God
and the Lamb (7:9) - there is the unveiling of the
worship of the beast, and that is another consummation.
The consummations of worship are there unveiled.
The worship
of the beast is one which has been going on ever since
Lucifer secured a following, a reverence from angels in
high estate in heaven. When he found it in his own heart
to make a bid for the place of the Almighty – to
exalt his throne above the clouds, to ascend into the
heavens, to be equal with the Most High (Is. 14:13-14)
– he managed to gather to himself a company, all
with the intent of drawing heaven’s worship away
from God to himself; and ever since that lifting up of
his heart in that infamous ambition another worship has
been going on. He drew that company with him, the company
of angels “who kept not their own
principality”, and are “kept in everlasting
bonds under darkness” (Jude 6). Then he appeared on
the earth, and sought again to usurp the place of God in
the worship of His Creation here; and in this he
succeeded, and became, by reason of a conquest and the
consent of man, “the god of this age”,
“the prince of this world”.
THE
TWO WORSHIPS
From that
moment he set up a spiritual system of worship which is
perceivable behind the whole record of history. We have
the breaking in of this evil element all along the line
of worship, wherever and whenever the rights of God are
recognised by sacrifice. Immediately Abel recognised the
rights of God and erected his altar, slaying his
sacrifice and shedding sacrificial blood, in the
simplicity of the testimony of faith that here on the
earth God has sole rights, there broke in this very thing
against that testimony. The murderer came in to withstand
and destroy the testimony, with Cain as his instrument,
who also set up an altar and made a pretence in his
darkened understanding to worship God. But he never got
through to God, and that was the very ground upon which
the Satanic element of jealousy and pride was churned up
within him, and he became, because the Devil had got a
purchase upon him, the instrument against the worship of
God. The enemy’s scheme is deep laid; he knows what
he is doing. Through the other worship he breaks in
against the recognition of the Divine Rights, the worship
of God; and from Abel onward it is always so.
Noah set up
his altar upon the renewed earth, and in so doing
declared that “the earth is the Lord’s and the
fullness thereof”. But very quickly there broke in
the other thing again. Even in that representative one
the element of evil rises up to contradict the testimony,
and before long the worship of God becomes associated
with shame, and the glory is hidden again. We see the
testimony on the one hand and the breaking in to
contradict on the other.
Abram’s
life-story heads up to the incident in Genesis 15, where
that altar is finally set and the sacrifice is offered -
and then the battle begins. While Abram holds on to God
and waits and stands, the vultures descend, and a mighty
conflict ensues for the preservation of that testimony to
the rights of God, the worship of God; and then comes the
horror of great darkness. When Israel, in the fulfilment
of the vision which was then given to Abram in that very
hour of conflict, came out into the wilderness and the
worship of God was set up, there broke in this very same
element, and you find the golden calf.
And so the
story goes on. You come to Balaam seeking to curse
Israel, but not permitted, and then setting up by
insinuation the evil thing, fornication - a form of
idolatry - and the Lord’s glory obscured once more.
It was a beautiful picture that Balaam gave in his
prophecy, perhaps one of the most beautiful things in the
Old Testament. As Balaam stands, desiring for gain to
curse, but constrained by the Spirit of God to bless, and
as he speaks concerning this people dwelling alone,
wonderful things are said and the glory of the Lord is
presented concerning Israel; and then, as round by a back
door, for that gain he teaches Israel to commit
fornication. The glorious picture fades, and the glory of
God is again obscured in Israel, because of this other
worship. The rights of God are all the time disputed.
Then we
have the wonderful story of Solomon. On the one hand, his
building of the House, his setting up of the altar, and
the glory of God descending. Here you have the Cross and
the Church and the Spirit. On the other hand, the
after-story of Solomon. What a tragedy - what a ghastly
tragedy! The glory of God contradicted again by the very
man who had so beautifully set up the testimony in
Israel. The Devil is breaking in all the time to take
God’s rights from Him, to rob Him of His glory.
It is the
story of Elijah, fighting for the testimony in Israel in
a day when the glory of God was hidden. On Carmel the
great issue is the altar - the Cross, and the fire - the
Spirit. The testimony is once more established in Israel;
but the reaction of the powers of darkness is then
through Jezebel to destroy the man who has restored the
testimony. The issue in the word of Elijah is: “How
long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God,
follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him” (1 Kings
18:21). You cannot divide the issue - it is one thing or
the other. That is the testimony of God having His rights
utterly and no one else getting a look in. And let the
critics say what they like about Elijah destroying the
prophets of Baal, four hundred on the spot - there is a
very deep principle involved, a deep principle. The
destroying of the prophets of Baal is the outward
demonstration of the spiritual principle that there can
be no quarter given to that which is set against the
Throne of God. Whether it be Agag (1 Sam. 15) or the
prophets of Baal, the point at issue is God’s
rights. Is HE having the worship and the honour
and the glory in this universe?
That is a
very brief survey, through the Old Testament, of the
constant breaking in of this evil element along the line
of worship.
THE
DEPTH OF CALVARY
Now, the
Cross of the Lord Jesus gathered all this up, and
“through the eternal Spirit” Christ secured the
rights of God in His own Risen Person: so that
“through the eternal Spirit” Christ met the
whole of this thing in the universe at Calvary - He met
it all.
Let us get
behind Calvary, ever more and more behind, until we get
to the ultimate. The Lord has led us by degrees deeper
and deeper into the meaning of the Cross. There was a
time when we thought that we had fathomed the Cross, when
we saw the “old man” being dealt with, but we
find that there are still ranges that we have not before
seen. It was the Throne of God that Christ was standing
for at Calvary; it was the ultimate and universal glory
of God that He was fighting for in Calvary; and He met
all this that was set against the Throne, and met it
victoriously, and secured those eternal universal rights
of God in His own risen Person: which means that Christ
risen and ascended has secured in His own Person all the
rights of God for the glory of God for evermore. In the
Lord Jesus God has His rights secured.
I hope the
Lord enables you to enter into that. Jesus Christ,
“who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself” (Heb. 9:4), now standing in the Presence of
God, has secured in His own Person all God’s rights
for ever, and the ultimate filling of the universe with
the glory of God is secured in the Risen Person of
Christ. There is no longer any doubt about the issue. God
is going, without any question, to be universally
worshipped, and the glory of God is going to fill the
whole universe without any rival, because THE LORD JESUS
is in the presence of God, victorious over every other
thing that was against the Throne of God. This is
something immense. He said: “Lo, I am come... to do
thy will” (Heb. 10:7), and the will of God done
utterly is the recognition of the utter rights of God,
and God becoming possessed of them.
When we
talk about doing the will of God and wanting to know the
will of God, oh, let us get the immense range of such
words. The will of God means nothing else than that God
shall be universally glorified and that He shall be the
central object of worship in the universe. Read the
Revelation again with that thought, and the book will
become new. You will find then that the book of the
Revelation is the book of worship, and you will see that
that worship, which is there in ever widening circles to
the ultimate bounds of the universe - that worship is
brought about by the Lamb, “through the eternal
Spirit”: the Lamb in the midst of the Throne.
The Holy
Spirit is thus the minister of the glorified Christ, as
He was the agent and the dynamic for the accomplishment
of this great end in the Cross, and the securing of it in
the Person of Christ in the glory. He is now the minister
of the glorified Christ to work this out in the earth,
and in doing so He will bring us to certain very
important issues.
He will
bring us first of all to this: that those who enter
most fully into the meaning of the Cross - which is the
will of God wholly done - will encounter the supreme
assault of Satan.
Do you
wonder that Satan hates the Cross? Do you wonder that he
by any means will get the Cross set on one side? Do you
wonder that those who go into the meaning of the Cross
spiritually find that they have immediately come up
against the whole system of antagonism from the Devil? It
is so inevitably. We have seen Abel in the very earliest
and simplest form of the presentation of the meaning of
the Cross. When he enters into relationship with that
blood, that sacrifice, that altar, he immediately and
automatically comes up against the adversary. The Holy
Spirit, through John, says of Cain that he “was of
the evil one” (1 John 3:12).
So with
Abraham, so with Joseph, so with Moses; so even in what
might be thought to be the simple case of Esther. Let us
pause with Esther for a moment. The book of Esther has
been thought to be a commentary upon, an exposition of,
the providence and sovereignty of God. Well, it is that,
but there is a bigger background to the book. Here is one
who is “come to the kingdom for such a time...”
(Esth. 4:14). What time? A time when the testimony of God
in His people was so set against by the enemy that he
wanted the last Jew exterminated. You know the story of
Haman - “Haman the Agagite” - a remnant of that
Amalakite seed which had always been against God. Haman
the Agagite had become inspired with the further purpose,
utterly and finally to exterminate the Jews. Esther came
to the kingdom for such a time as that, and put her life
in the balances – “if I perish, I perish”
- and met that awful deep-laid scheme of Satan. It is
ever an illustration of the ultimate controversy of the
Cross. You meet with that when you stand for the
testimony of God in the earth. We will come back to
Esther presently.
The story
of Daniel is the same thing. Two gods: the god set up by
Nebuchadnezzar, and THE God. Who is going to be
worshipped? Daniel does not need to deliberate over his
decision that Jehovah alone, and no other god, is to be
worshipped in the universe; His rights alone are to be
recognised. He meets the power behind that world-system
and is called upon to pay the price. It is the same issue
with Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and
Abed-nego.
THE
SUPREME EFFORT OF SATAN
From the
very birth of the Lord Jesus, it is known to Satan who He
is and the scheme is put into operation to engulf Him in
the massacre of a whole multitude of infants. The cruelty
of the evil one to murder a mass to get ONE! He
is after One, he is not after the crowd.
We have no
record of any efforts of the enemy from that time until
the Lord steps across the line which runs between His
private life and His public life - and then He meets the
enemy immediately. And what is the question? “If
Thou wilt... worship me” (Matt. 4:9). That is what
he is after. It is right out - he is betrayed at once;
and it is that issue right up to the Cross. “If Thou
wilt worship me.” It comes in a multitude of
different ways. Satan only wants an acknowledgment, the
ascribing to him of some rights in the universe.
But, ah,
the Lord never recognised those rights - just as Mordecai
refused to recognise the right of Haman. This is one of
the most beautiful things in the book of Esther. Here is
Haman claiming to be somebody: he has gained eminence,
and everybody is bowing to him. But Mordecai refuses to
recognise any of his glory, and ignores it all. And you
remember Haman’s story to his family. ‘I am a
great man; I have much goods, many children: but what is
the good of it all if this one man will not recognise
me?’ (Esther 5:9-13). It is a foreshadowing. There
is One who counts more than all the rest, and until He
can be captured or got out of the war the enemy’s
fullness is divided. That One will not recognise
Satan’s and that One is destined to bring about his
doom.
The Lord
Jesus met that all the way through, refusing to attribute
to Satan one atom of right in this universe. He was out
to challenge that, to secure all the rights for God in
His own Person, and to come to the Throne Himself with
those rights. And when He has done it we see the same
thing going on with the Church. It is still the
Church’s great issue: the worshippers and the
worshipped, and the place or the no-place of the enemy.
We shall deal with that when we come to speak of the
Church.
Now, only
the Holy Spirit, in the power of the victorious Christ
and by virtue of His shed Blood, can meet that challenge.
We do not talk glibly, lightly, frivolously, about this
thing. We view the ultimate issue with joy and
exultation, but we recognise that it is “not by
might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of
Hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). And if the Lord Jesus
Himself needed that it should be through the Eternal
Spirit that this thing was wrought out, oh, how much more
we! How much more we today! We should not rush into this
battle; we recognise that nothing but the mighty
energizing of the Holy Spirit could meet this great issue
and challenge. But we recognise also with confidence that
the Holy Spirit is the minister of the victorious Christ,
and that His very advent is on the ground of that
victory, to work that victory out in the universe; and we
thank God for it. Why has the Holy Spirit come? Oh! not
that we might have blessings and what we call power and
influence and opportunity and service. No, He has come as
Representative and Agent of the Christ, who has secured
the rights of God in His own Person. To bring about the
recognition and realisation of the rights in this earth -
that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
The second
thing that comes out of this is that the Holy Spirit
always demands the ground of the Cross for His activity,
if the glory of God is in view. But then, the Cross
registers the removal of all that serves Satan. Now, it
would take a long time to cover that ground again to see
the things that served Satan. What was it that served
Satan in Cain? Covetousness, personal ambition, jealousy,
pride! That worked itself out in the murder of Abel - but
the murder of Abel as an expression of hatred for God
(although Cain may have been blind to the deeper nature
of the thing). What was it that served Satan in Balaam?
Greed, covetousness, world-gain. The Cross registers the
removal by destruction of all that served Satan, and for
us it is gathered up in one word: SELF.
What a wide
word that is - what a comprehensive word! The stronger
term is “the flesh”. Some people do not know
what you mean when you talk about the “flesh”.
They begin to think of positive vices and iniquities of
deep dye. But the “flesh” is only another term
for ”self”. Self is a very subtle thing, a
many-sided thing. It includes self-interest, self-glory,
self-preservation, self-realisation, self-advancement -
all those considerations of influence and good-standing
and prestige and following, and being understood and
spoken well of. The phases of “self” are
legion, and they, every one of them, serve Satan.
Moreover,
they serve him in this other sense, that they divide the
rights of God and usurp the place of God: and therefore,
wherever there is the slightest suggestion or insinuation
of self, the Glory of God is obscured and the Cross has
got to be applied there. The Cross is not applied in the
work of God just because God wants us out of it for the
sake of having us out of it, to humble, to crush, to
break us; no, it has this great end in view - HIS GLORY.
And our glory depends upon His glory. We cannot come to
glory until He receives His rights in the universe; and
the Cross is the way there. The Holy Spirit demands the
ground of the Cross in us, because the glory of God is in
view. The Cross, dear friend, means utter devotion to
God’s glory. The Holy Spirit only works on that
ground - He has only ever worked on that ground. A pure
work of the Holy Spirit, completely immune from
Satan’s touch requires the Cross, which means
complete separation from all of the old ground.
Perhaps you
have read the wonderful record of what God did in China
through His servant, Dr. Jonathan Goforth - a work of the
Spirit in mighty revival. I think I have read few things
which are more literal fulfilments of words which are
often mentioned amongst us: “Call unto me, and I
will answer thee, and will shew thee great things, and
difficult, which thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3).
When this true man of God arrived at a certain place, he
was told immediately that he must not expect anything
there such as he had had elsewhere, for there were
difficulties. But there the Holy Spirit came in, and
under His constraint different people got up and
confessed such things as were never suspected - confessed
them in public - in a mighty movement of God. But the
Spirit of the Lord kept very short accounts with His
servant, and every suggestion and insinuation of the
Devil through his “flesh” had to be met.