We
have seen that, with chapter 54 of Isaiah's prophecies, there
commences a movement of God toward recovery and rebuilding. The
Cross has cleared the way for this new prospect. From chapter 54
onwards, a number of bright, hopeful notes are struck. For
instance, at the beginning of chapter 60:
"Arise,
shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee."
The
way having been opened, the ground cleared, and the foundation
laid by the Cross, the Lord is facing the whole matter of the
recovery, restoration, and rebuilding of His people. There is a
new prospect, a new hope, a new message of encouragement. But,
with it, a new note is struck. In these later chapters of Isaiah,
there are both lights and shades in this new prospect. The sun
shines: "Thy light is come... the glory of the Lord is
risen" - it is like the sun rising on an early summer day;
and then it is as if a heavy cloud comes over the face of the
sun. It may be only passing over, it may be only temporary, but
you wonder whether the whole prospect is going to change; whether
the bright time is passing, if that is the end.
It
is just like that in these later chapters of Isaiah. The sun -
the glory of the Lord - has risen; there is a bright prospect;
but then, here and there, you come on darker things, such as
chapter 58, beginning:
"Cry
aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare
unto my people their transgression..."
From
time to time there are these dark clouds, that seem to pass over
the face of the sun, even in the presence of this new prospect;
and they bring to the heart a feeling of uncertainty. Is this
'radiant morn' too soon to pass away? We are conscious of mixed
feelings: we do not yet feel assured that all is going to follow
through on this new prospect, to work out according to the
seeming promise.
From
the Lord's side, of course, there is no question: the Lord has
for Himself His new ground, and He shows Himself as One who means
to be positive. He is not of two minds , there is no
shadow cast by His turning or changing. Everything from the
Lord's side shows Him to be One who is out for something - really
after a new day, a new situation. Yes: for His part, the Lord is
positive.
A Check on the Arm of the Lord
But
it would seem that He is having to go carefully. He wants to go
right out, to have no reserves, but... but... there seems to be
something that is still holding His Arm in check; He just cannot
go right ahead, as He indicates He would do. The old ground has
suffered a fiery purging in the Cross; all that stubble, all that
tangle and network of thorns and briars, has been dealt with by
the fires. He has come in and got His foundation: but... there
seems still to be a question. You cannot read through these
chapters without feeling: 'We are not through this business yet;
we are not right out on the other side; we are not sure how it is
going to work out yet.' The Lord is pretty sure; the Lord is
encouraging; the Lord is saying that, as for Himself, He is
not holding back for any reason from His side; but there
is something that He is encountering.
Let
me put it like this. The ground has been cleared, and the
foundation has been laid; but now comes the question: What is
going to be built upon that foundation? And that is just where
the uncertainty comes in, not as to the foundation, for that is
settled in the Cross - but as to the superstructure: what is
going to be imposed upon the foundation? The Lord is not
sure what His people are going to put upon His
foundation.
So
far as the Old Testament is concerned, the more immediate answer
to the question as to the new building on that new ground is
found in what we call the post-exilic prophets, the prophets
after the Exile - Zechariah, Haggai and Malachi. We see there
what the people would put upon the foundation; the new building,
'of what sort it was'. But if you should raise the objection,
again, that that is 'Old Testament', let me remind you that I
said in the previous chapter that the counterpart of this can be
found in the New Testament, in our very own dispensation. We saw
that Isaiah 53 finds its parallel in the letter to the Romans,
where the Cross encounters all the rubbish and evil and tangle,
deals with it in fiery judgment, and clears the ground for a new
prospect. That new prospect is brought into view in chapter 8 of
Romans; God has now got His foundation. But what is the
counterpart of these later chapters of Isaiah?
Right and Wrong Building Illustrated
in 1 Corinthians
The
counterpart - so patent as you look at it - is in Paul's first
letter to the Corinthians. Writing of his first arrival in
Corinth, the Apostle said: "When I came unto you... I
determined" - the language is: 'I deliberately made up my
mind' "not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified" (1 Cor.
2:1,2). The foundation has been laid: "As a wise
masterbuilder I laid a foundation" (3:10), and the
foundation is Christ crucified. The Cross, as Paul so clearly
sets forth in his letter to the Romans, has provided the
foundation; and that foundation has been laid in Corinth. But as
you read on in this verse (3:10), your heart almost stands still.
You hear Paul saying: "I laid a foundation; and another
buildeth thereon." He shows that it is possible to build on
this, either "wood, hay, stubble", or "gold,
silver, costly stones"; and that every man's work is going
to be tried by fire, to discover what sort it is. If any man's
work is burnt up - what happens? Well, "he himself shall be
saved" - he will just get in - "yet so as through
fire"; he will have lost everything.
So
there comes this very big question: What are you going to put
upon that foundation? what are you going to superimpose upon that
ground of the Cross? Are you going to bring back things that are
absolutely contradictory to the Cross? If so, you see what
happens.
Now
in this first letter to the Corinthians there is much about
building, in many connections. It is perhaps a little unfortunate
that, in a number of passages in the New Testament, and
consistently throughout the letters to the Corinthians, the
original words for 'build' and 'building' have been rendered
'edify' and 'edification' - although the Revised Version often
gives 'build' or 'build up' in the margin, and the compound verb,
'build upon', is usually - for example in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 -
translated thus. But during the 300 years since our Authorised
Version was made, the word 'edify' has lost some of its force, and
present-day usage might tend to give us the idea of the
acquisition of head-knowledge, which of course is not Paul's
meaning at all. The root meaning of the word survives in our word
'edifice', and Paul is all the time talking about spiritual building
- the building up of true spiritual character.
I
would suggest to you that you should follow through the nine
occasions in this first letter where the words 'edify' or
'edification' are used. The whole matter of spiritual gifts, for
instance, is summed up in that one word - Do they build up? If
they do not, they are of no value in the purpose of God; they can
be ruled out; they have missed their point - for even Divine
gifts can miss the point or be side-tracked; we shall have to
touch on that again. It is the spiritually constructive side of
things which receives such emphasis in this first letter to the
Corinthians. The foundation - Christ crucified - is laid. Now for
the building!
What God Will Not
Allow on His Foundation
And,
when you come to the building, a real battle starts up. The
question is: What is God going to allow to be put on His
foundation? For right through this letter we find a long series
of 'No's' - things to which God says: 'No, not that on
My foundation, please; I have no place for that. You may spend
your whole life on that, but it will all go up in smoke. It is
not suitable to My foundation; it is not according to the Cross
of the Lord Jesus.'
Now,
it would take a long time to consider all the things in this
letter to which God says: 'No'. We will just touch on two or
three, as representative of much more. As we read the letter,
with this in mind - Will God allow anything like that to be put
on His foundation? - and as we see the answer, surely our
reaction must be: Very well, let us have the Cross deal with that
immediately. We don't want that to be held over until it is too
late, and we just scramble into Heaven, without anything that we
can take with us of a lifework - for that is the issue. We don't
want to postpone or refuse the operation of the Cross until it is
too late to save our life-work, to save the fruit of all our
energies.
(1) Carnality
We
begin with chapter 3: "And I, brethren, could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in
Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet
able to bear it: nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet
carnal: FOR" - this is the description of
carnality - "for whereas there is among you
JEALOUSY..." Let us weigh it, even if it be to our own
judgment and condemnation; it is better that the Cross come right
in now. 'There is jealousy among you'? God says 'No' to that: 'I
cannot have that on My foundation. My foundation is the Cross,
and it says No to that.'
Paul
continues: "There is among you jealousy AND
STRIFE..." Strife! We must think this through and face
it honestly. It may seem very elementary, but we are not facing
the world, the unconverted, here; we are right in the Church,
amongst believers; we are dealing with those amongst whom God's
foundation has been laid; with those who are "called to be
saints" (1 Cor. 1:2); that is, who are regarded by God as
His own people. Strife? God says 'No' to that on His foundation.
Is that found among us? You know what is going to happen? Sooner
or later, it is going to be exposed as wood, hay and stubble -
that is the value of it - and it is going up in smoke.
"Are
ye not carnal, and walk after the manner of men?" You
are not allowed to walk after the manner of men on God's
foundation - you are just not allowed. God says 'No' to "the
manner of men" on His foundation. "For when one
saith, I am of... and another, I am of..." Here we must
fill in the appropriate names ourselves: names that are right up
to date; names right in our own circle, in our own assembly;
names of our own Christian world, or historic religious names.
'One says, I am of... and another, I am of...; and yet another, I
am of...' They all express human partialities, human preferences,
human likes and human dislikes, which produce divisions. God
says: 'No, not on My foundation; that is not My Church, not My
building. I never build with material like that, and neither may
you. You may have a wonderful set-up - of your own making - with
stuff of that kind: but it is all going up in smoke. However much
you may have seemed to have, in the end you will have nothing.'
(2) Worldly Wisdom
And
how much there is here in this early section about "the
wisdom of the world" (1:20) - the wisdom of man, man's mind
about things. God says: 'None of that on My foundation; there is
no place at all for your mind on My foundation, there is only
place for the mind of the Spirit.' If we have not got the mind of
the Spirit, we have no right to be doing anything on God's
foundation. But after all, are not these the very things, the
very troubles, that are blighting Christianity today? They are!
And do not let us think of Christianity in a detached, objective
way. This comes very close to home. These very things may be
causing mischief, even amongst ourselves: we may be bringing on
to God's foundation a mind, a mentality, which is not the
mentality of the Spirit. For that is what it amounts to - a
mentality. "Who among men knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the things
of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God" (2:11).
These are two different mentalities, you see - the natural
mind and the spiritual mind. God says: 'None of the natural mind
or mentality at all on My foundation.'
Paul
here calls this the 'world' coming in, and constructing something
upon God's foundation; and God says: 'There is no place for the
world in any form on My foundation.' If you look at it closely,
you find that this searches out so much: the world's standards or
judgments or values - how the world thinks, how the world does
things. These Corinthians were trying to make an impression, and
moreover by natural means. The Cross of Isaiah 53 is not a very
'impressive' thing, judged by worldly standards, is it? There is
nothing there that would popularise the Gospel - rather does it
cause offence.
(3) Soulish Appeal
Are
you trying to make the work of God sucessful by an appeal to the
natural man? Now, I hold no brief for ugliness or for crudeness;
I believe that God is a God of beauty. But if we think we are
going to make God's work successful or acceptable by display, by
appeal to the soul of man - artistically, aesthetically, and so
on - we are on wrong lines. Let me put it another way: the source
of any 'appeal', any 'impression', any 'grip', any
'overwhelming', must lie essentially and only in
spiritual values, of an inward kind, not in what captivates or
gratifies the natural fancies of people. The Arm of the Lord will
not be revealed to the 'natural man' or to the 'world' in any way for
its good; only against it.
As
we move on in this letter, we find that the Cross touches so many
other things. It touches our feelings - our natural emotions, our
natural passions, there is much about that here. And, as with
our mentality, so also with our emotions, the Lord says: 'None of
that on My foundation, none whatever.' There is so much here to
which the Cross says 'No', as to building. I invite you to look
at it more closely; it is not my purpose to give an exposition of
the letter to the Corinthians. I want to come to the positive
side.
For
there is a positive side to this letter. What is it that God says
may be put on His foundation? It would be very pathetic,
would it not, if the letter were all negative, all: No, no!
never! Take note of that, because you may recall that I said,
earlier, that you can never come into God's 'Yes' until you have
accepted God's 'No'. But there is a very mighty 'Yes', in this
letter. What is it? Perhaps we think we know it. Well, maybe we
do know it, as to the words; but I suggest that we know
practically nothing of the thing itself.
Misapplied Spiritual Gifts
Let
us look, then, at Chapter 13. Here the Apostle writes off
everything that is not spiritually constructive. It may have been
something that God gave, but it has been taken hold of by man and
used for man's satisfaction, gratification, pleasure, or even
glory. The mentality and emotion of the natural man have been
brought to bear upon Divine things - spiritual gifts, such as
tongues, and so on - and have robbed them of their value to build
up, and made them just occasions for display. There has been
glorying in these spiritual gifts. The Apostle here writes that
all off, and says that they were never given for that; even
though given of God, they amount to 'nothing' - that is the very
word he uses here - when it comes to building. "If I... have
not love, I am nothing." Paul dismisses these things; but
notice that he is all the time reaching after the positive
through the negative.
"If
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,
I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal." Exeunt spiritual
gifts which have failed to fulfil their purpose in building the
House of God. Let us not cling to anything that does not serve
that purpose.
"And
if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains..." That is quite scriptural - that is
what the Lord Jesus said: "if ye have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to
yonder place; and it shall remove" (Matt. 17:20). That is
perfectly scriptural; and yet you can be perfectly scriptural and
have faith like that, and it can mean nothing. If it fails to
build up the House of God, if it does not result in this
scriptural structure, it becomes negative. Exit all
knowledge of mysteries, and secret lore, and faith that removes
mountains. 'Out you go if you do not build up! That is the value
of you - nothing!' "If I have all faith... but have not
love, I am nothing". With all that, I am nothing!
"And
if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body
to be burned..." If I am a philanthropist, and am most
charitable, even sacrificial, in my giving; even if I am a
martyr, and give my body to be burned; that can all be done
without any constructive value in the building of the House of
God. If I do all these things, "but have not love, it
profiteth me nothing".
That,
then, is the showing out of court of things - wonderful things in
themselves - but which have failed to serve the purpose for which
they were given, namely, 'spiritual building'.
What God Will
Allow on His Foundation: Love
Now
for the positive. Let us bring in that to which God says: Yes! He
says 'No' to that, and to that, and to that; but now, where does
His 'Yes' lie? Here it is - Love!
"Love
suffereth long..." There were some who, because their
rights were injured or taken from them, dragged their brethren
before the magistrate, right away. "Love suffereth long,
and is kind..." You may put that on the
foundation; that is something constructive, is it not? "Love
envieth not..." When you quietly work your way,
like this, into and through every clause, do you not want to stop
and say: 'Say no more - that finds me out too much'? But we must
go on, for, after all, it is what God is calling for.
"Love
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up..." Go back to the
beginning of chapter 8, and you will read this: "Knowledge
puffeth up, but love buildeth up". There is a great deal of
difference between 'puffing up' and 'building up'. 'Love is not
puffed up': there is nothing false, artificial, make-believe,
pretend, about love. The false thing is like a rubber balloon:
you can blow it up pretty big, but you have only to put the
tiniest point of a needle in it - and where is it? It is gone.
Paul says it is no use putting that on God's foundation.
"Love...
doth not behave itself unseemly..." Unseemly behaviour:
we could spend much time on that, could we not? Is this seemly?
does it become a Christian? does it become the Lord Jesus? does
it become that holy House of God? does it become the Cross of the
Lord Jesus? Love is seemly; it does not behave itself unseemly. "Love...
seeketh not its own" - does not want its own way, does
not work to its own ends; does not draw to itself; "is
not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in
unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things. Love never faileth..."
You
may think that I am not saying very much, but I am saying a great
deal. I would like to give you that passage in a translation
which I think a classic:
"I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but if I have
no love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal; I may prophesy,
fathom all mysteries and secret lore, I may have such absolute
faith that I can move hills from their place, but if I have no
love, I count for nothing; I may distribute all I possess in
charity, I may give up my body to be burnt, but if I have no
love, I make nothing of it. Love is very patient, very kind. Love
knows no jealousy; love makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is
never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful; love
is never glad when others go wrong, love is gladdened by
goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the
best, always hopeful, always patient. Love never
disappears."
You
may put that on the foundation, for God says Yes to all
that. To whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed? To that; just to
that.
There
is a most pressing need that we should face this matter of what
the Cross sets aside, and what the Cross brings in; what may be
put on God's foundation, and what may not. It concerns every one
of us quite seriously, as to what there will be at the end: not
what there is now, however showy and popular, and however
enjoying of man's approval and applause it may be. God is moving
to build up: He shows what He cannot and will not use in His
building, and then He says: 'This is what I will
use; this is the material for the building of My Church.
This is what really builds: "Love buildeth up".'
May
the Lord smite our hearts, if need be, to enlighten us as to what
the real values are. Not even spiritual gifts are the real
values, unless the effect of them is real spiritual
increase amongst the believers. That is the test. It is not the
things themselves, not their presence, not even the fact that the
Lord gave them. The test of every gift is: Does it really build
the Church? does it really build the House? is it really
resulting in a larger measure of Christ?
For
these things may be an obstruction to Christ. This letter to the
Corinthians makes it so clear that the possession of spiritual
gifts is no guarantee of spiritual maturity. Here you have the
most immature of the churches - Paul says: 'I have fed you with
milk; you are still babes' - and yet characterized by all these
gifts. It is not that the gifts are wrong, but that they have
been sidetracked; they have not served the purpose for which they
were given - that is, bringing to the full measure of Christ.
That is the object, and that object is only achieved by love.
May
the Lord give us that kind of love! This is not natural love;
this love springs out of the Cross. It is the love which comes
right out of the work of the Cross within us. We cannot
get it by striving after it; but, as the Cross does its work in
our hearts and in our natures, it will rise and grow. The Lord
increase our love!