Thirty-First Meeting
(February 28, 1964 A.M.)
This
morning we come to what I feel to be one of the most
important messages that we have been giving. We have been
seeing that the Letter to the Galatians is a
concentration of the great change which took place with
the coming of the Lord Jesus. That is, that the coming of
Christ into this world changed the dispensations, and
changed the whole nature of things. So that Christ stands
as the dividing of two whole systems. The whole system of
Judaism which had existed up to the time of His coming
was set aside when He came. From that time, as He said, a
new order was introduced, and that is represented by His
repeated phrase, "The hour cometh and now is."
Now this morning, we are going to consider the essential
nature of that great divide. How the new dispensation and
the new order differs from the old. This is a matter of
supreme importance for us here this morning, and for all
Christians if only they would accept it, because
Christianity as we know it has been largely constituted
on the old dispensation. The great difference between the
old and the new has not been fully recognized. So let us
get to business and try to understand the difference
between the old and the new.
The
obvious nature of the old Jewish dispensation was that it
was all in the realm of the natural senses. Firstly, it
was in the realm of physical senses. Everything was a
matter of seeing with the physical eye, of hearing with
the physical ear, of feeling with the physical hand. It
was something that could be touched, something that was
tangible, something that you could put your hand upon.
And then it was a matter of physical smelling. You see,
the offering and the incense were a matter of physical
smelling. They could smell the sweet incense. And then it
was a matter of physical tasting. All the feasts of the
Jews were a matter of tasting. That needs no argument;
that is perfectly clear and simple. To begin with, their
whole system rests upon the physical senses.
But it
did not stay there, it also went into the realm of the
soul. We understand the soul to be composed of three
things, reason and emotion and will, that which appeals
to the natural reason, and that which appeals to the
natural feeling, and that which appeals to the natural
will. So you see that body and soul governed everything.
God gave them a tabernacle that they could see and
handle; God gave them the incense that they could smell;
God gave them the feasts that they could taste; however,
they were blind to the meaning of these things. In brief,
that was the nature of everything in the old Jewish
system.
We pass
over to see the difference in the new spiritual order.
What is the essential nature of that which has come in
with Jesus Christ? It is a spiritual order. It is no
longer a matter of the natural senses. This whole new
order begins at another point. Now we are keeping very
close to the Letter to the Galatians. I suppose it would
not be fair if I were to ask you how many have read the
Letter to the Galatians right through this week. One of
the advantages of knowing the Word of God is that you are
able to see what is right. There are many other
advantages. But in this Letter to the Galatians, the word
"Spirit" occurs twelve times, and that is very
largely the key to the letter. It is no longer after the
flesh, it is now after the Spirit. This is essentially a
spiritual dispensation that has come in.
You will
remember our message on the words of the Lord Jesus to
the woman of Samaria. She had said, 'Men ought to worship
in this mountain, and you Jews said, men ought to worship
in Jerusalem.' "Jesus said, 'Woman, believe Me, the
hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in
Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father... God is Spirit:
and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and
truth."' That is the nature of what has come in with
Jesus Christ. We know from the Word of God, and I trust
from our own experience, that men are not born of the
flesh in relation to God: But they are born of the
Spirit. Not of a man but of the Spirit, that which is
born of the Spirit, said, Jesus, "is SPIRIT."
In the
Letter to the Hebrews, chapter twelve, the writer speaks
of the Father of our spirits. He is not the Father of our
bodies. He is not the Father of our natural souls. He is
the Father of our spirits. We are going to come back to
that later on. But what is it that happens when we are
born of the Spirit? What really is the nature of the new
birth? This is, of course, the very meaning of the advent
of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came especially for
the purpose of creating a spiritual order of things. And
He begins with the individual. The word to each
individual is, "You must be born again," and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. What then
happens when we are born of the Spirit? When we are truly
born of the Spirit, we receive a new set of spiritual
senses. They correspond in purpose to the old senses. But
they are spiritual and not physical.
We, by
the Holy Spirit, receive a new faculty of sight. You know
how much there is in the New Testament about having our
eyes opened. Jesus pointed to this principle by opening
the eyes of the blind. He was illustrating the great
spiritual truth that in the new creation, we get a new
faculty of sight. And every truly born again child of God
ought to be able to say, "Whereas I was blind, now I
see." The truth about a child of God is that their
first thing is, "Now I see." They have received
the faculty of spiritual sight. It goes by different
names in the New Testament. Sometimes it is called
spiritual discernment. Sometimes it is spiritual
understanding. Sometimes it is spiritual perception. But
whatever the name is, it means the same thing. I now see
what I was never able to see before as to the true
meaning of Divine things. I was born blind, but the Holy
Spirit has performed the great miracle of giving me new
eyes.
This
spiritual faculty of sight has introduced us to a new
world altogether, not the material world, but the
spiritual world. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says
about this, he says, 'Things which eye did not see,
things which ear did not hear, things which entered not
into the heart of man, these things God has revealed to
us by His Spirit.'
The
first faculty of new birth is spiritual sight. Can you
see the difference between the old dispensation and the
new? You see, Israel had all these things which they
could see with their natural eyes. They could see the
tabernacle or the temple. They could see the priests and
the sacrifices. They could see the feasts. But they were
totally blind to the meaning of those things. And because
they were blind to the meaning, they crucified the One
Who fulfilled them all. With all their power of natural
sight, they were spiritually blind. So the first work of
the Holy Spirit in new birth is to give us new spiritual
eyes.
Not only
is this true of seeing, it is also true of hearing. In
the old dispensation, they heard everything with their
natural ears; but they were quite deaf to the Voice of
God. It did not go any further than the drums of their
ears. Now in the new order of the Spirit, we are given a
new faculty of hearing. We Christians have a way of
saying, 'The Lord has spoken to me.' We do not mean that
we have heard something with our natural ears. We know
what we mean, 'The Lord has spoken to me. I have heard
the Lord speaking in my heart;' that means we have
received a new faculty. And this new dispensation is
built upon this principle. When Jesus spoke His parables,
He finished by saying this, "He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear" (Matt. 11:15). And you know that
was His Own Word to the seven churches in Asia. After He
had spoken to those seven churches, He repeated seven
times, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith" (Rev. 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22).
But you
must remember that speaking to the churches was not with
an audible voice. Those churches did not hear a voice
from heaven with their natural ears. It was what
"The Spirit saith to the churches." And
spiritual speaking is spiritual. It is not physical. We
could illustrate this in many ways. We speak of spirit to
spirit speaking. We meet some other child of God, and we
do not have to say much with our lips, but we know that
is a child of God. Their spirit speaks to our spirit. We
have a spiritual language. We know that we belong to the
same family. We can discern the Spirit in one another. We
have got this new faculty of spiritual hearing. It is not
outward hearing, but it is inward hearing. And what is
true of seeing and of hearing is true of all the other
senses.
What
shall we say about spiritual smelling? Do you know what
spiritual smelling is? Well, you have only got to go into
some atmospheres, no one has to say anything to you, but
you sense that something is wrong; you sense that it is
not life here, it is death. This is not the Lord, this is
man. This is not the Spirit, this is the flesh. You sense
this with your spiritual faculty of smell. You may meet
another person. You do not have to speak, or they do not
have to speak, but you know that there is suspicion in
that person. There is prejudice in that person. There is
a closed heart in that person. They are not open to you,
they are trying to deceive you, they are holding
something back from you. How do you know it? You smell
it. It is a spiritual sense. But it is a very important
faculty. By this faculty we sense what is of the Lord and
what is not of the Lord. You see, the incense in the old
dispensation was a sweet fragrance. It was something very
pleasant. The corresponding spiritual faculty of smell
is, this is very pleasant. This is something very
pleasing to the Lord. This is an atmosphere of life.
Therefore,
it is a guiding principle. When naturally you go into a
place where there is a bad smell, you hold your nose and
you say, let me out of this. This is unhealthy. Your nose
may save your life from a fever. Your nose may save your
life from one of the bad diseases. And that is very true
in the spiritual life. If this spiritual sense of smell,
or this faculty for spiritually discerning were really
keen and alive, we would know what is life and what is
death. We would know what is spiritually healthy and what
is spiritually unhealthy. I am not going to follow this
further. I am just saying that when we are born again, we
are given a new set of spiritual faculties. And just as
the physical faculties governed in the old dispensation,
it is the spiritual faculties which are to govern in the
new dispensation.
If you
will read the First Letter to the Corinthians, you will
see that that letter is built upon this very difference.
The Corinthian Christians were living on the basis of
natural things, and they were not living on the basis of
spiritual discernment. So Paul said to them, "The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God." The natural man cannot receive those things,
because those things are only spiritually discerned. And
then he adds, "He that is spiritual discerneth all
things, yet he himself is discerned by no man." He
is the mystery of the world. A spiritual man and woman is
a mystery to the world, they just do not understand. Paul
illustrates it in this way, "What man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in
him?" If you and I are going to understand one
another as human beings, we have got to be human beings
and have human nature. Other orders of creation do not
understand the human order. Men understand one another
simply because they are men. Now Paul says in the same
way, "No one understandeth the things of God except
the Spirit of God that is in him."
Now I
must get to perhaps the most difficult part of it all. If
you will look at the Letter to the Hebrews, we will come
to it. Chapter four and verse twelve begins in this way,
"For the Word of God is living, and active, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to
the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and
marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of
the heart" (ASV). We can leave the second half of
the verse for the present, and just note this, "The
Word of God is quick, and powerful, piercing even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit." You notice how
that statement begins. It begins with a conjunction. It
relates to something. It connects with what the writer
has just been saying. What has he been saying? He has
been speaking about Israel in the wilderness, and
Israel's failure to enter into the promise land. And it
says, "If Joshua had given them rest, he would not
have spoken afterward of another rest." He is saying
that Israel after the flesh failed to enter into God's
rest. They failed to enter into that for which God had
brought them out of Egypt. That whole generation with the
exception of two men died in the wilderness. And they
never did come into the purpose of God in their
redemption. Now that is the statement, that is the
background, and then you have this conjunction. For, or
because, the Word of God is living and powerful, piercing
to dividing asunder of soul and spirit. What does that
mean? The Old Israel lived entirely upon the basis of the
natural soul. They lived entirely upon the basis of these
natural senses. Everything for them was a matter of what
they could see and handle down here on this earth. Theirs
was an entirely soul life. And the writer says, because
of that they failed to enter in.
The Word
of God cuts clear in between the soul and the spirit. The
new dispensation and the new people who are going to
enter into all the purposes of God must be a spiritual
people, not a soulish people. They must be constituted on
the basis of what is spiritual and not what is natural.
This whole letter to the Hebrews is built upon the
difference between the old and the new. It takes a lot of
space to show how the old fails. The old law fails, the
old priesthood fails, the old sacrifices fail, the old
tabernacle fails, the old temple fails. It was complete
failure, because it was built upon natural ground. The
ground of the soul.
Now the
new is not going to fail, the letter brings in the new
order. A High Priest is in Heaven. The One Sacrifice has
been offered forever, and so on. It is all a spiritual
order. And the Word of God divides between those two.
When you get to the end of that letter to the Hebrews, to
chapter twelve, the writer is saying this, 'We have had
fathers after the flesh, they chastened us as it seemed
right to them. And we gave them reverence.' I wonder if
that is true of all of us. When our fathers after the
flesh gave us a good thrashing, did we revere them? We
did not say, thank you, we felt very bad about our
fathers after the flesh. When we grew up to be men, we
said, 'Father was right, that chastening was the best
thing for us.'
However,
the apostle says, 'We had fathers after the flesh, who
chastened us as they thought was right and good. And we
gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of our spirits?' The natural
is down on that level. The spiritual is so much higher,
the Father of our spirits! Is that what happens when we
are born again? Not our souls born again, but our
spirits. That innermost part of our being which died with
Adam, was separated from God in Adam's sin. So that by
nature all the children of Adam are dead in that
spiritual sense. Our spirits died with Adam.
In
Christ they are made alive again. The new birth is not
the new birth of our body. It is not the new birth of our
soul, because we have got a soul. It is the new birth of
our spirits. And God is the Father of our spirits. That
is why I pointed out in the Letter to the Galatians -
which marks the great divide - the word Spirit occurs
twelve times. The Father of our spirits, then we are not
the children of Abraham, we are children of God, and that
is a very big difference. You see, this is what Paul is
arguing in the Letter to the Galatians. He is saying to
these Galatians, "Oh! foolish Galatians, how foolish
you are! You began in the Spirit, and now you are going
back to the flesh, you came out of the old dispensation
and out of the old order, you came into the new life of
the Spirit, and now you are going back, you are going to
forfeit your rest, the very purpose of your redemption.
Oh! foolish Galatians, how foolish a thing it is to live
in the old dispensation!"
But note
this, dear friends, the Christianity with which we are
familiar is very largely constituted on the old
dispensation. It would take another hour to show that in
any fullness. But do you see how Christianity goes to
work now? It begins by building religious buildings. They
are called churches, of course, a false name entirely.
The Church is not a building made with hands. And then
they set up a certain order in it. And then they appoint
certain officers to do the work. When they've got the
building, and when they've got the officers, the minister
and all the others, and when they have got their order of
service, then they ask the Lord if He will come into it.
The organization comes first. The outward thing comes
first. It all builds upon the principle of the soul. It
is all a matter of reason and emotion and doing. That is
Judaistic Christianity.
It is
just the reverse with God's method. Where does God begin?
God does not begin with churches even if they are
companies of people. He certainly does not begin with
buildings. And He does not begin with ritual, or with a
system of things. And He does not begin by calling a
congregation together. A congregation is not God's
beginning. God begins by a work of the Holy Spirit in
individual lives. It may just be one to begin with, and
then another and then another. And if those two or three
find themselves in one city, they are joined, not because
they have accepted Christianity, but because they have
the one Spirit in them. That is the beginning of the
Church in that place.
And what
is true of the beginning, has got to be true of
everything afterwards. Man's hands must be kept off the
things of the Spirit. Man must not try to form something
that is of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, Who began this,
is perfectly capable of forming what He wants. Hence our
responsibility is to be led by the Spirit, to always seek
the guidance of the Spirit. And until we are sure that
the Holy Spirit is really guiding us, we keep our hands
off. We will do nothing about it. This thing must be of
the Spirit. This is the order of this dispensation.
Do you
see the difference between the beginning and what we have
today? In the first thirty years of Christianity, the
Gospel spread all over the world that then was. There
were churches in almost every country of the world.
Thousands and thousands were joined to the Lord. It was a
mighty thing. It only took thirty years to do that. We
have had two thousand years since then. We have put
multitudes of missionaries into the world. We have spent
millions of dollars upon this. We have worked
tremendously. In two thousand years, there is nothing to
compare with those thirty years.
Why has
it not continued? Because they brought it all back again
unto a soul basis and not unto a spiritual basis. When
things are out of the hands of men, and in the hands of
the Holy Spirit, things happen. My great concern is that
there should be something like that here. That is what I
have come to say to you. If things are wholly of the
Spirit, you will see something happen, the enemy will be
stirred up against it. And that is always a good sign. If
the devil feels that there is something that he has got
to fight, he knows that means something against his
kingdom.
So I
must stop now. I have not finished this part yet, we have
another morning, but do not leave it till tomorrow
morning. This is the word for us today. If I were to go
away tomorrow, and never see you again on this earth, I
feel that I have spoken to you the most vital word that
could be spoken. This represents the complete change from
the old to the NEW, from the natural to the
spiritual in the things of God, from the things which are
of men to the THINGS which are of God.