"Why
do the nations rage, and the peoples meditate a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the
rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah, and
against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds
asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that
sitteth in the heavens will laugh: The Lord will have
them in derision. Then will he speak unto them in his
wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure: Yet I have
set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will tell of the
decree: Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my son; this day
have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the
nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of
the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with
a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a
potter's vessel. Now therefore be wise, O ye kings: Be
instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with
fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he
be angry, and ye perish in the way, for his wrath will
soon be kindled. Blessed are all they that take refuge in
him." Psalm 2:1-12.
"And
they, when they heard it, lifted up their voice to God
with one accord, and said, O Lord, thou that didst make
the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in
them is: who by the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our
father David thy servant, didst say, Why did the Gentiles
rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of
the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were
gathered together, against the Lord, and against his
Anointed: for of a truth in this city against thy holy
Servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint..." Acts 4:24-27.
We are taking account
of the new nature and order of things, which came in for
the age with the advent of the Holy Spirit on the day of
Pentecost - a new spiritual order, the setting up and the
establishing of the Lordship of the Spirit, the supremacy
of that which is spiritual; the heart and the sum of the
whole matter proving to be a revelation and a knowing of
the Lord Jesus in a spiritual way. The initiative was
with the Lord in heaven - "the Holy Ghost sent forth
from heaven"; it was a movement on the part of God
Himself.
But we do not proceed
very far in "The Acts" before we can detect the
rumblings of a counter-movement from another quarter -
the challenging answer to heaven on the part of the
forces of evil and darkness. That storm gathers force and
breaks with all its might in the seventh chapter, where
we have the account of Stephen's testimony and death. The
thing of which to take note is that in that chapter, at
that point, everything is gathered up and focused upon a
two-fold issue. We may say that all that has been
implied, all that has been in the Divine thought up to
that moment, is there crystallised and brought up as the
double issue of the whole matter - heaven's object and
hell's counter-attack.
We have earlier
indicated how comprehensive was Stephen's survey,
starting with Abraham, tracing history down through
Joseph, Moses and Israel and the prophets, right up to
the end of that dispensation, and finding its heading-up
point in the murder of the Lord Jesus; and in that survey
two things come out, or two aspects of one inclusive
thing. One is that everything points toward the Lord
Jesus and His absolute sovereignty, in the purpose of
God. The other is the house of God, the sanctuary: it is
the place of God's dwelling, where He is to be found. It
is very remarkable how those two things are here in
Stephen's summing up, and they are the two things which
really provoked the trouble in that moment, or caused the
storm to burst. In view of the way in which Stephen
speaks firstly about the Lord Jesus and then about the
temple, you can quite understand that his hearers would
be very deeply provoked, and embittered.
The
Conflict as to Christ's Lordship
Well, as to the Lord
Jesus, what Stephen does is this. He goes right back and
says that God in sovereignty moved to secure that which
would lead right up to His Son, and in sovereignty He
appeared as the God of glory to Abraham. Then it is not
long before Stephen comes to Joseph, and what has he to
say about him? Well, he tells very briefly the story of
Joseph and the famine and Egypt, but what he is underlining is this, that Joseph's
brethren were jealous. Then having said it, having
touched the thing that he is after, he passes on and soon
arrives at Moses, and then speaks of his going to his
brethren in Egypt, being turned against and rejected,
flying into the wilderness, being met by God in the bush,
commissioned, and going back supposing his brethren would
receive him. Says Stephen - "our fathers... thrust
him from them." They rejected him, repudiated him.
Again there rose up this inward antagonism and Moses
suffered at the hand of his brethren what Joseph had
suffered at the hand of his brethren. So Stephen goes on,
and all the time he is underscoring this particular
thing, the antagonism of the Lord's people to this and
that and that which pointed to Christ. Joseph and Moses
pointed to Christ. Stephen quotes a passage from the Old
Testament, "A prophet shall God raise up unto you
from among your brethren, like unto me" - words used
by Moses pointing to Christ; and they cast him out, they
would have none of that. Then Stephen goes on and brings
into review the rest of that history - Israel in the
wilderness - and he says some extraordinary things. I
confess that I do not understand some of the things that
he says in this address. We will come to them in a
minute, not by way of explaining, but because there is
something there that is very startling.
But he comes to the
prophets - "Which of the prophets did not your
fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed
before of the coming of the Righteous One." These
prophets, as he indicates, were all pointing to Christ
and what Stephen is saying comprehensively is this - that
right from the beginning in the history of Israel there
has been something inside Israel which was ground for the
Devil to work against Christ and all God's purpose
concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus: something there all
the time, constantly cropping up, and the forces of evil
using it and causing it to work in this way, that
wherever the evil powers saw an inference, a suggestion
concerning the Lord Jesus, they made their hatred
manifest, it came out in expression. That is the awful
spiritual history back of religious nature. You can be
intensely religious, as religious as the most rabid Jew
and Pharisee, and yet when it comes to the real issue of
the absolute sovereign Lordship of Jesus Christ there is
something that is positively antagonistic. You see the
issue in that matter is the issue between the flesh and
the Spirit, seeing that this is now the day of the Spirit
that has come; and when the day of the Spirit really
comes in, then the flesh is dragged out and manifested
and shown to be what it really is as something energised
and actuated by the very powers of evil, although it may
be most religious flesh. It is a most impressive thing
that we never know what is in us until we are challenged
on some point of the application of the absolute Lordship
of Jesus Christ; if you like to put it the other way, of
the absolute government of the Holy Spirit.
The
Spiritual Nature of the House of God
Then Stephen touches
this other thing - the sanctuary. It is there that he
says these extraordinary things which I confess I do not
understand. He quotes from Amos 5 - "Ye took up the
tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of the god
Rephan," and the question is asked, "Did ye
offer unto me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in
the wilderness, O house of Israel?" Then Stephen
adds: "Our fathers, had the tabernacle of the
testimony in the wilderness." Is he implying that,
while they offered sacrifices outwardly and ostensibly to
Jehovah, in their hearts they were alienated and were
really worshipping some other god? A terrible suggestion;
but I do not know how you are going to explain this,
otherwise than that Stephen is saying in connection with
the main theme - 'You people, although you appear
outwardly, supposedly, as the people of God, in your
hearts you are really antagonistic to the Lord, and you
always have been.' He sums it all up when he says,
"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
ye do always resist the Holy Spirit." 'Even back
there in the wilderness when you were supposed to be
worshipping God, deep down it was not the worship of
Jehovah; some foreign thing was in you all the time.' It
was a terrific charge to lay against them. You can
understand their gnashing their teeth. He passes
immediately from the tabernacle to the temple. "But
Solomon built him a house" - and that is all Stephen
has to say about it, and dismisses the whole thing,
seeming to say, 'Yes, but it did not matter, it was not
the real thing.' "Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not
in houses made with hands; as saith the prophet, The
heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my
feet; what manner of house will ye build me? saith the
Lord." It is remarkable with what brevity Stephen
dismisses that great mass of the Old Testament which
circles round the temple. What is he saying? 'Because God
discerned inside of the people something which was so
contrary to His mind, all the outside did not really
count with Him; He is after something more than that.' We
know quite well that the temple did mean something in the
thought of God as a type, but that is another line.
Stephen is showing that all that history really deep down
was not spiritual history; it was in the realm of men's
souls and natural life, and therefore it was not what God
was after.
Now he brings the two
things out. He brings Christ right out in absolute
Lordship, affirms so positively that in spite of all that
they had done: in spite of everything, right through
their history, of antagonism to God's Son: in spite of all
Satan's fury against God's Christ: He is on the Throne,
He is exalted; and then by implication he says, 'God has
another kind of house, the house He has been after, not
made with hands, not the tabernacle in the wilderness nor
the temple. But He has something now in which He is
worshipped in spirit and in truth, where there really is
that which He is after. "God is (a) spirit: and they
that worship him must worship in spirit and truth"
(John 4:24), and this house has now been brought in with
Pentecost.' That is the implication. It is a mighty
twofold issue that comes out with Stephen, and it is a
marvellous turning point in the course of things.
Everything has been heading up to this. Something is
going to happen; you can see that from hell's side things
will not be allowed to go on like this much longer, but
in the sovereignty of God the bursting of the storm only
serves to bring out with clearer and fuller view the two
things upon which all is hanging - the Lordship of Christ
and the spiritual nature of God's house. I love to see
the Holy Spirit's sequence. Well, there are so many
details that are fascinating and tremendously inspiring,
but we cannot dwell upon them.
Sovereign
Outcome of Satanic Activity
(a)
Paul the Issue of Stephen's death
Stephen was one of the
seven deacons chosen to deal with money matters. The Holy
Spirit has other thoughts. When He gets things in hand,
He is not finally concerned with money and serving
tables. He has the Lord Jesus in view in the fullest
possible way. The Holy Spirit lifts Stephen right out of
the realm to which he was appointed, because He has
bigger thoughts for him. Stephen is slain, with a
testimony on his face, and on his lips the cry "I
see... the Son of man standing on the right hand of
God." The storm breaks, terrific persecution
follows. They have tasted blood, and they are going to
satiate themselves. The sovereignty of the Lord Jesus is
riding upon this furious tempest of hell's outbreak, and
in very simple and wonderful ways that sovereignty
operates. We know one of the immediate results. That
sovereignty of the Lord Jesus came with full impact upon
Saul of Tarsus, who was standing by and giving consent to
the death of Stephen. "Why do the nations rage, and
the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the
earth... and the rulers take counsel together...."
All that is taken up here in this movement of hell. But,
Jesus is Lord! "I have set my king upon my holy hill
of Zion." That is not the natural Zion, that is the
heavenly, spiritual Zion. "My king." "The
Lord shall have them in derision." Here it is
working out. Paul is brought in as the immediate issue of
Stephen and he is the one who, more than anyone else,
brings into view two things - the Lordship of Christ and
the spiritual nature of God's dwelling, the Church.
(b)
National Enmity Destroyed in Christ
But then in other ways
the sovereignty of the Spirit is seen. The next chapter
brings into view another of the seven deacons - Philip.
Oh, the counter-movement of the Spirit to the movement of
hell is now setting in. There is persecution, yes; and by
the persecution, the believers have been scattered
everywhere. Philip goes down to Samaria, and preaches
unto them Jesus; and yet Jews have no dealings with the
Samaritans (John 4:9). That was never intended by man,
but God is getting His spiritual house in which there is
not Jew or Gentile exclusively - nor either of them as
such. It is a spiritual house, it is a heavenly house.
And so the Spirit moves down to Samaria in this
connection, and the Lordship of Jesus is proclaimed and
is triumphant; and out from Samaria - think of the
history of Ahab, of Jezebel! - out of Samaria members
are gathered into the Body of Christ.
(c)
Incapacity Removed by the Spirit
Then when things are
going on tremendously in Samaria, the Lord tells Philip
to go down to the desert. You know the story of the
Ethiopian eunuch. Oh, I think it is grand! It is the
underlying thing here that is so fascinating - to see
this sovereignty of the Spirit underneath everything.
Down to the desert; and then this man of Ethiopia, a
eunuch. We are touching a delicate thing, but we are
going to be sensible, and we are not going to pass it by
because it is delicate. It holds something precious if
you keep to the spiritual and leave the natural out. He
is a eunuch, an Ethiopian eunuch, and he has been up to
Jerusalem to worship God. Evidently he is a proselyte.
When he got to Jerusalem, what would happen? He would
find the door of the temple shut to him. A eunuch was not
allowed to enter the house of the Lord, by the Old
Testament command so, having got as far as he could get,
a disappointed and dissatisfied man, a man after all still
seeking, he has to turn back and go away home to his
distant country. And the Lord takes Philip across his
path. Why was not a eunuch allowed to enter the house of
the Lord? Because there is a spiritual principle
involved. A eunuch is an end in himself, a dead tree, one
who cannot be fruitful. You cannot have that in the house
of God. God's principle says, 'Nothing which is an end in
itself has a place in My house; nothing which is
unfruitful can have a place before Me. My house is the
place of life, continuous life.' You have only to look at
Isaiah 56 and you will see there the Lord's promise to
the eunuch, "...neither let the eunuch say, I am a
dry tree." You see the point. Leave the natural and
come to the spiritual. Here was this man who was ruled
out, incapacitated, forbidden, having no place in the
house of God because of his condition. The Lord Jesus
came across his path through His servant Philip. Philip
took up Isaiah 53 and preached unto him Jesus.
Then the eunuch said, "Behold, here is water; what
doth hinder me to be baptized? ...and they both went down
into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he
baptized him" (Acts 8:36-37). He died to his death
in the death of Christ; he died to all that he was by
nature in the death of Christ, and, rising in the
resurrection of Christ, he would be a fruitful branch
with a new life, a resurrection life. There is something
very precious there.
Why that story? Oh, we
are occupied with this movement of the Spirit; the Spirit
is saying something here all the time. He is stressing
the way of spiritual fruitfulness. "First... that
which is natural" - barren, unfruitful, impossible;
"then that which, is spiritual," with all the
tremendous possibilities of the new life in Christ. That
is the inner history of the Ethiopian. "He went on
his way rejoicing." Up to that moment he was a
disappointed man, feeling his handicap. Is there anyone
reading this who knows quite well and is feeling only too
deeply that, because of what he is by nature, there is
little hope or prospect for him, little chance of
spiritual fruitfulness? This story is the story of a
great hope for a man who was shut out of the inheritance,
shut out of the house of God, for whom there was nothing
because of natural condition, but who entered into all
the blessed fulness and prospect of a new life, a new
world, by identification with the Lord Jesus in death and
burial and resurrection. He died to what he was by
nature, and he rose to what he was in Christ. It is the
story of how the Holy Spirit is making everything
fruitful, turning the wilderness and the solitary place
into a garden. That is the prospect here.
That is the new age.
You are saying, 'Yes, that is very good; that is grand;
it is there right enough at the beginning, but we do not
see much of that now; why?' And that is the point - why?
Why does Satan hold things up? Because he has got ground.
Why do people not make spiritual progress? Why is there
such limited fruitfulness? Why is there so much
barrenness? Because there is ground for arrest. It is the
ground of nature, and "the flesh warreth against the
Spirit" (Gal. 5:17). "Ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost" (Acts 7:51). Now, what Stephen was
really saying was this - 'You may not be conscious of it,
you may not be deliberately meaning to war against the
Spirit of God, but that uncrucified nature is there, at
enmity with the Spirit of God, and that is the cause of
everything.' We must come to the place where the Spirit
really gets the upper hand, where that life of nature is
truly subjected to the Spirit of God. Oh, I press this
because I know so many people who believe in the Holy
Spirit, who have all the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and
they can work it all out systematically - the baptism and
the filling and all the rest of it - but there is an
immense amount of carnality, even in those realms. The
point which arises is this, that if there is really going
to be this life, this fruitfulness, this enlargement,
this progress, this ascendancy over the power of the
enemy, it is not going to be merely official and
automatic, it is not going to be simply because we
believe certain truths, and use certain phraseology and
shout certain slogans about Satan being a defeated foe.
It is going to be, and only so, as the Holy Spirit
transcends our natural life - as our natural life is
brought into obedience and subjection to the Spirit of
God.
We have all got a
strong natural life in some way. It may be in a negative
strength, or it may be in a positive strength - and very
often the negative is just as powerful as the positive.
It may be a feigned kind of humility, an assumed
meekness, but it is natural and it is self all the time -
self-pity, always wanting to be taken note of because you
are such a sorry creature: drawing attention in some way
to yourself. That is a negative strength of nature, and
it gets in God's way. We have to get this self, whatever
it is, out of the way. We have to be occupied with the
Lord Jesus Christ and not with ourselves - occupied
entirely with Him. The Lord cannot do His work in us
until we have a fixed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and
an eye riveted upon Him. Immediately the enemy succeeds
in turning us in upon ourselves he has broken our
strength, he has the ground that he wants for our undoing
and our barrenness. Whatever the form of self-life, it
must go. First the Lord Jesus has to come in as Lord;
then He can get on with what He is after.
A
People Living in the Value of Divine Sovereignty
I have left a lot
unsaid, but you will gather from what has been said what
is in view - a people who are not merely believers
objectively in the Holy Ghost, but who are subjectively
under His government, in whose being His Lordship is
established; in whom He can have His mind over their
minds, His will over their wills, and His desires and
feelings over theirs. But even then we may not see what
is in the book of the Acts as we read it, because, after
all, there we have the cumulative thing in a few chapters
of vivid history, and we are impressed. If we had lived
in those days we should have been far more continuously
conscious of the forces that were against us than we were
of the mighty sovereign triumph of the Lord Jesus, we
should have had to wait till afterward to see that. And
it will be like that with us; we shall be conscious of
the enemy at work, difficulties arising, all kinds of
sufferings abounding, but in due time we shall see the
Lord triumph; we shall go into a deep experience but
after a time come out and say, 'The Lord has triumphed in
that, He has got something out of it.' That is the story
- seeing the Lord getting His end through the very works
of the enemy and the sufferings of His children. That is
a life in the Spirit. The Lord give us to know more of it
in experience.