Instead of reading one passage of
Scripture, we are going to bring together a number of short
passages; it will test your dexterity with the Word, it's
scattered all over the place. But we, first of all, take the
passage which has been like
a banner over this season, under which we have been gathering
everything else, that is in the prophecies of Jeremiah chapter 17
and verse 12: "A glorious throne, set on high
from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary".
A glorious throne... set on high... from the beginning... is the
place of our sanctuary.
Now, a long way on to the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 1 and
verse 8: "But of the Son He
saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; and the sceptre
of uprightness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved
righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows".
A glorious throne set on high from
the beginning... Of the Son, He saith, Thy throne, O God, is
for ever and ever!"
Then back to the Psalms, to the second Psalm, verse 8: "Ask of
Me, and I
will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession", and you notice
the context relates
that to the Son.
Now another flight into the New Testament to the book of the
Acts, chapter 1, verse 8: "Ye shall receive power, when
the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of the earth".
'Ask of Me, and I will give thee the
nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of
the earth for thy possession... ye shall be witnesses... My
witnesses, unto the uttermost part of the earth.'
In the letter to the Ephesians, and what conference would be
complete without Ephesians? Chapter 1, the first part of verse 4:
"as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world". He chose us in Him, before
the foundation of the world. Verse 9: "Having made known to us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He
purposed in Him unto a dispensation of the fulness of the
times, to sum up all things in Christ; the things in the
heavens, and the things upon the earth; in Him, I say".
He chose us... In Him... before
the foundation of the world... He made known unto us the secret
of His will... to sum up all things in Christ.
And now back to our prophet Jeremiah to re-read the words in
chapter 1, at verse 4: "Now the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Before I formed thee, I knew thee, and
before thou camest forth I sanctified thee; I have
appointed thee a prophet unto the nations".
Ask of Me, and I will give thee the
nations for thine inheritance... I have appointed thee a
prophet to the nations... Ye shall be My witnesses unto the
uttermost part of the earth... and so on.
I wonder if you have noticed a very
obvious thing in the Bible, that most of the great things were
connected with:
Mountains.
You only have to have that said, and
your memory will take a flight through the Bible, and light upon
many a mountain, in which some great thing took place which was
indeed a point in which heaven and earth met.
Now, the value of a
mountain is that it helps perspective; it gives a command of the
whole situation; it brings all details and particular things
into a right relationship, so that everything can be seen as
not just something in itself, but as a part of a whole. And
there you get a sense of proportion and balance. These are some
of the values of a mountain.
(And, by way of parenthesis, don't you think that that is just
what the value of such gatherings as
these, which we call conference times, should be. For we all
feel the need to have our sense of proportion maintained,
preserved. We are right up against things too closely; the
details press upon us. The immediate situations take possession
of us. Things immediately before our eyes, and in our
experiences, tend to become everything and exclude so much
more. And they get on top of us, just because we are so close to
them. And the perspective is upset, and there is a good deal of
confusion for this very reason.)
These passages which we have read
are themselves mountain peaks, and together they constitute one
great and glorious mountain, which could deliver us from all
this obsession of the oppressive, immediate, too-close touch
with just what we ourselves are going through. And so we have to
leave our spiritual insulation and isolation, and climb to some
vantage ground of the heavenlies. That word took its great place
in our New Testament at a time when the near view could have
brought complete despair. The immediate happenings in
Christianity, amongst believers, in the churches, could have
produced in the apostle a hopelessness that would have cast him
deep down in the valley of despair. He climbed to the heights.
And you and I, dear friends, and the church ever since, to the
end of the age, will owe a vast debt to that man's climb up the
mountain in spirit, from his prison cell, and repeatedly used
that very word, that mountain word: "the heavenlies... in
Christ Jesus".
Then we need to get up there again.
May the Lord give us mountain energy today, to rise up as on
wings, to see anew what we are called unto and what we are
called into. That is the saving vision; that is the
redeeming
view - what it really is that we are called into and unto; what
we are in if we are really in full fellowship with God;
what it
is all about. What is all the conflict about? What is all the
pressure about? What is all the discipline about? What is all
the suffering about? Is there some, one thing that can and
does answer all such enquiries and cries? For I am quite sure
that sometimes, sometimes you ask that question: What does it all
mean?
What is it all about? Why this and that? If the Lord will
answer
that cry, it will have been worth our coming here. So we climb
the mountain!
We are all familiar with a line of
a well-known, and I think greatly loved, hymn by George Matheson:
'O Love that will not
let me go', and I remind you that, after his
death, when the poem was found and the thought was to publish
it, those who found it and were about to publish it, came upon
one line in it that perplexed them. They couldn't quite grasp
it, understand it; it seemed mysterious, abstract, and so they
decided to change it. And we have in our version the line: 'I
trace the rainbow through the
rain', but George Matheson had written: 'I climb the
rainbow
through the rain'!
That is quite a difference: 'trace'
- well, that is all right; that's an artistic contemplation,
a poetic way of speaking, but when George Matheson wrote that
poem, he was in the grip of a tremendous spiritual conflict. For
him everything in life was rocking, and there was a perfect
deluge on his soul. He did not sit back in poetic contemplation
and say, 'I trace the rainbow through the rain'; he girded
himself, and said, 'I climb the rainbow through the rain'!
We have got to take hold of things,
and discover what lies there behind, and get hold of that;
bestir ourselves to find out what does it all mean? What is it
all about? What is the explanation? And there is one. And it
does lie right at the heart of this that I have just said: what
we are called into and unto - that explains it
all.
These
difficulties, trials, adversities, sufferings and conflicts are
very real! Very real. For the saints they are sometimes
terrible. And if
that is true, the explanation must be one that is at least
commensurate with them. The answer must at least be adequate
to
all this. Think of all the suffering of the saints... Why, we have
some, but is it comparable to what some of the Lord's people are
going through while we are sitting here in, if not absolute,
comparative comfort?
What justifies all this? What is an adequate answer? We are
driven, we are forced to seek that answer. Again I say, the only
answer that is sufficient is that of what we are
called into,
and called unto.
Now, in order to get that, we are
going to take three cycles. The Scriptures which we have read,
which are only a selection from many more of the same kind, bring
these four things into view.
Firstly,
All That Which is Comprehended by a Repeated Clause:
'All Things'.
All things - you can't get
outside of that; that comprehends everything.
[1.] All things were
created by God for His Son, whom we now know as Jesus
Christ.
That's the beginning of everything. They were created for
Him, through Him, unto Him. He (we are distinctly told) was
appointed Heir of all things. That's where we begin. All
things, these Scriptures show, were integrated in Him,
consistent in Him, held together as one whole by His Person -
not only by His power, but by His Person. There was a wonderful,
beautiful, harmonious unity in the creation, all centred in
God's Son; held to Him. While He was there everything was
harmonious and in accord. While He was in His place, there was a
beautiful oneness running through everything.
Of the great
harmony of creation, He was the keynote, and everything came
back to Him, and moved from Him; and the explanation of the
music was God's Son. God's Son.
[2.] All things were integrated, and consisted
in Him.
[3.] All things were disrupted by
putting Him out of His
place, or refusing to recognise Him in that place. That's, of
course, the great story of heaven's disruption; that to which an
apostle refers when he says: "The angels which kept
not their first estate". Their first estate... what a lot there is
in that! - "are
reserved in chains unto everlasting destruction". Well, I
am not dwelling at length upon any one of these things. But
there was discord in heaven to begin with, and it had to be cast
out: and there came into this world that disputing of the
creation rights and place of the Son of God, And by that, we
know, everything here was disrupted and became disconnected.
The
first picture of creation is a beautiful picture, but that
changed, and we see all things now with something working like
an evil leaven, a power which is all the time breaking up, never
ending in its breaking up work, leaving nothing whole,
complete.
It is a terrible story in history, all through the ages, of this
evil thing working, so that the last bit of unity is destroyed, the
last bit of harmony is spoiled.
It is an evil spirit about, which is not going to allow anything
to remain integrated in Christ. And, dear friends, does that not
explain perhaps a lot, that where Christ is the more given
His place,
the enemy is the more concerned to break up, to divide? It's a
sad history, isn't it? Do you see it? Will anything survive
this? Will anything escape this? And the most beautiful thing
will be the object of the most vehement attempt to break up;
disruption and disconnection.
[4.] Fourthly we have things all in
chaos, in confusion, because He, the unifying,
integrating
Centre of all things, is not in His place. That is the answer,
the explanation - because He is not in His place. That may be a
terrible indictment on some situations, but we have got to face it
quite honestly and frankly.
That is the first cycle. The second
cycle which the Scriptures before us present is, firstly, the
Son Himself, the Heir and Centre of all things, undertakes:
The Work of Recovery.
Viewing the chaos from heaven, He, voluntarily
stripping Himself of heavenly glory, undertakes to come down
into it, and recover that which has been lost. He
undertakes the
great work of recovery. Now that word 'recovery' is
a favourite
word with us, isn't it? The 'recovery' of this and that,
which was God's mind, and thought. The first one who engaged in
that work and that ministry was God's Son Himself. And He has
committed Himself to that work of recovery. Having undertaken
it, He comes down and enters into this kingdom of
disruption, He
comes right into this chaos, and disorder, and discord and ruin
- right into it Himself. And by His very Presence, as we see
Him in the pages of the record - by His very Presence, shows
what a disrupted and discordant scene this is. There is only one
Person in the whole picture, who, in Himself, is integrated, is
harmonious, is balanced, is a whole.
It is one of the impressive
things about the Lord Jesus, that He Himself moved in this
scene, so harmoniously in His own Person. It is not an easy
thing to do in this world, as you know, but He did it. But, on the
other hand, how that Presence annoyed - and that is a
very, very
weak word - it perfectly roused these chaotic forces, so
that
there grew and grew and grew, through that brief period of His
earthly sojourn, an atmosphere of conflict, of hatred, of
discord, until at last it breaks out in an awful storm, tearing
the very creation, tearing the very atmosphere, and no one, no
one has any kind of control and mastery; the very elements are
disrupted. This, this evil thing - and it is all focussed upon Him
-
He has entered into it, to witness against it, in the first
place; in His own Person and Presence, to witness against it; to
be an offset to it. And to speak the words, the words which are
in the strongest contrast to men's state, and condition. What are
His words? "I will give you rest"; "You shall find rest
unto
your souls". "Peace I leave with you, My peace l
give unto you". How such words clash with the conditions! He is
here, right in the midst of it, testifying against it,
manifesting what it ought to be, and intensifying
the condition
that really is, to show how evil it is. You never know how wrong
or evil a thing is until you get the absolutely right and good
right in the heart of it. He became, by His Presence, the Example
and the Witness, the personal testimony to what was
intended,
and against what is.
Probably your minds are running
ahead of what I am saying - mine is - because you can see what
the next cycle will be. Let's go on.
Having come in - and the
explanation of being here long enough, (and it proved to be long
enough, though it was only three and a half years or so, it
proved to be long enough to show the contrast, and to bring out
the contrast, and to testify against it) having brought it all
out, and shown in word, in word, in word... what is that word on
His lips? "Blessed... Happy... are the peacemakers..." ,
and so on, in word,
in deed - all His works testifying against this wrong state, and
mending it. Having been here long enough to be a witness in the
midst of it, He then, and this is our third point in the second
cycle, He then took it all on Himself.
Took it all on
Himself
Took on
Himself the evil and the consequences of the evil that had come
in. He drew it on to Himself, yes, verily drew it on to Himself.
He sought not to ward it off, sought not to argue Himself out of
it, though He knew what it meant. The marvel of His
silence when
such as He could have made a case for Himself...
He, who again and
again, had sent wise men, scribes and Pharisees, with all their
trickery and subtlety and all their attempted snares to ensnare
Him, sent them away like dogs with their tails between their
legs, without a word! Without a word. See Him! "All right - let
him who is
without sin first cast a stone". And they went
out one by one from the least to the greatest! "Master, is it
right to give tribute to Caesar, to pay tribute to Caesar?" You
can see the trap that they have laid for Him... "Show
Me a coin. Whose inscription is this? Caesar's? Render unto
Caesar the things that belong to Caesar". Now then, your whole
honesty, conscientiousness, integrity, is at
stake: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and
unto God the things that are God's". You notice the effect
of that? They are completely defeated, and had to confess
that no
man spoke like this Man.
The Man who can do that sort of thing
with the rulers, could, in the day of His ordeal and trial, have
put them all out of court. But the marvel, "He opened not His
mouth". He opened not His mouth! Not a word! Not a word! "As a
sheep before her shearers
is dumb, He opened not His mouth". He is not
putting it off; He is not keeping it at bay; He is letting it come
on, even drawing it on! And so He "became sin", says
the Word, "that He might destroy sin", He is drawing it on
to its own destruction. He became broken - "This is My
body,
broken" - He became broken in order that He might unite.
This is
the great testimony of the Lord's table - one loaf, one Body -
through brokenness. He became broken that He might unite.
He became
defeated in order that He might triumph. He became dead
in order
that He might destroy death for ever. He emptied Himself
and
became empty in order that He might be filled with all things
-
all things. That is the second cycle. But now we come to the
third.
Having done it, accomplished all
that in His cross, and having received the great approbation,
seal of heaven, of His Father: "Thou art My Son; this day have I
begotten Thee", referring to His resurrection; all that is
scattered - and what a scattering has taken place! They're all
scattered: "All ye shall be offended because of Me this
night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the
sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad" - all
scattered. Then He begins to gather these fragments, these
broken, scattered fragments, together, and:
The Son Brings in His Sons and Fellow-heirs.
We need to read again that first chapter of the letter to the
Hebrews: "Of
the Son he saith...", and then it goes on about His
brethren, 'I and the children which God hath given Me", and later,
"bringing many sons to glory".
In the third cycle, the Son brings
in His sons as His fellow-heirs; and it is in that letter that
the phrase occurs, "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus
Christ". These sons are a family matter; we call that
family the 'church'; the New Testament calls it the church. But
in this third cycle, this is what comes so clearly into view with
the passages read - this family, this church, this body was
eternally known by God, foreknown and chosen by God in
Him, the
Son, before the foundation of the world. That, that's very
wonderful - chosen in Him. "Whom He appointed heir of all things",
He also
chose and appointed the heirs with Him of all things. "Even as He
chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world, and hath made known unto us
the secret of His will" (in so doing) "to gather together all
things in Christ".
This church, foreknown,
eternally chosen, elected, elected to this one great
all-comprehending, all-inclusive purpose - now here is the point
where you and I must be very clear and very positive: this matter
of election, predestination, and so on, does not relate to
salvation; only insofar as salvation is the way, this
election (if
the letter to the Ephesians means anything, and all that is in harmony with it) this relates to the purpose of God concerning His
Son. We come to it through the Cross; we come to it through
being
born from above; but that is not the object and that is not
the
end. That for which you and I are born from above, chosen
in
Christ, and in time, called into the fellowship of God's
Son. That, dear friends,
is this purpose of God concerning His Son: to gather up into Him
all things; to (and this is the real word in the original) re-unite,
re-unite all things in Christ.
The church (you see where we have arrived) the church is seen by
God through
the ages, through all the disruption, through all the cost, all
the consequences, all the cross and its agony - the church has
been seen before it all, and through it all, as the vehicle, the
vessel, the instrument of the Son, to bring back that original
pristine harmony, unity, centred in the Son of God. The
church is
called for that - that's the heavenly vocation, the purpose.
Perhaps it is too big for little people like you and me to grasp
that and to believe it, but we are a part of a great thing. It is
not
all in us, thank God. We haven't got to take the full burden and
responsibility of this individually, but we are related
to
something that is elected of God, called of God, for no lesser
thing than this, than this! What a lot that explains if it's
true! What a lot it explains. What an answer! Isn't it? To all our
suffering and our discipline. If only we could see it,
and we don't... it is not present with us in our hours of anguish
as
it was with the apostle who, knowing perhaps more of
sufferings and sorrows than any other man of his time in
Christianity; because he climbed the mountain, because
he was
seeing from the heavenlies, could say: "Our light affliction which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal
weight of glory while we look not at the things that are seen..."
these things right on top of us, these close-up
things of present experience, but from the mountain-top where we
look
not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not
seen; for these things that are seen are transient, temporal,
passing, but the things that are not seen are eternal. You need to
get on a high mountain to view it like that; to
get that balance in life.
Well, friends, I said that answers a lot of
enquiries and questions; if that were true, if that
is true, if
that could come really to us, and we knew it... Oh, to be
delivered
from our familiarity with the Bible... and this teaching might
break
upon us with its own real impact! My brother, my sister, you
are
called of God in relation to a vocation which He
fore-determined
in which you should have a part, and it is no less a thing
than
this: that in union with His Son you should answer this
whole
challenge to His Son's place, and right this whole wrong that
His Son has suffered, and be with Him at last in the
righting, in
the adjustment, in the recovery - sons in glory. I say, if
that's
true, it's a great gospel! It's a great gospel. No wonder the
apostle felt it
necessary, in the midst of saying these things, to fall on his
knees, and say: "I pray, I pray to the Father of glory, that He would
grant
unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened that you may know..."
It is a prayer that we ought to pray continually,
because only so shall we be saved in the hour, in the day of
travail and suffering. This church is the sovereign act of God,
the sovereign act of God - it is God's act, it is God's
thing.
Before ever it existed in time God has acted about it, it is God's
act. We are brought into something that we never thought of, or
thought out, or planned, or intended, or meant, or understood. We
are brought into something that is God's own thought, and
God's
own act, "Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you".
But this church... and it is
important, as a part of the whole, to really understand the
nature of this church. Again, we need delivering from well-nigh
two thousand years of distortion on this matter! That word
'church' - what a lot has been put on it! What a lot it carries!
What a lot has to be stripped off of it to get to its real
meaning! This is a spiritual thing; this is not a
temporal
thing. This is not a temporal thing this church; this is a
spiritual thing. This is comprised
at the very beginning of such as have been born of the Spirit,
and are indwelt by the Spirit, and the measure of their
churchmanship (may I use that phrase?) is only the measure
of
their spirituality, the measure of their spiritual life. That
is in its effect, in its outworking, in its value, this is a
spiritual thing. This does
not belong to this earth at all: it belongs to heaven. Its roots
are in heaven, its life is in heaven, its Lord is in heaven. Its
everything is in heaven! All its government is from heaven. But
when we have said all that, we have to come back to this, and
re-emphasising this we must close for the moment: this church,
This Church is
an Essentially Vocational Thing.
I do want you to get a hold of
that these days - an essentially vocational thing. Of
course the
vocation can never be fulfilled as the conduct is right,
so the
apostle says in this very connection; "I beseech you to walk
worthily of the calling (the vocation) to which you are
called, in all lowliness and meekness..." and
so on. Character must be there, or there can be no vocation,
because with God and with heaven, vocation rests upon character,
"that we should be holy and without blemish before
Him..." that is His mind. The Holy Spirit, because
of the greatness of the vocation, dear friends, is very
meticulous and particular over details of conduct. You see,
you
cannot lift this great heavenly vocation out of the affairs of
daily life here. You cannot put your 'church' position, and
your
'church' doctrine, and your 'church' mentality
outside of your
accounts, your money matters, your family life, and so we could go
on. You can't do it. All that is a part of the whole - "Walk
worthily of the vocation", because that basis affects your
vocation. But, seeing how the Holy Spirit is particular, very
particular, and sooner or later will bring us all up sharp on
this, "Look here, you've got a great idea of church teaching and
truth about the church, but you're not consistent with it; there
is that which is inconsistent with it." Oh, what a challenge this
is, that you and I here this morning might almost shudder to face,
tremble to look at!
Let me put my finger upon this one point at
once: if what I have been saying as from the Word of God
is true,
that in Him, the Son, when all things were created and for whom
all things were created, there was (and we know not for how long)
a beautiful harmony, complete integration and co-ordination, all
moving together as one whole, and then that was all shattered like
a beautiful vase broken to pieces, and this terrible discord was
shot through and through the creation, touching everything, as we
know well. If it is true that God had already determined
by His
Son and with His Son, that the church should be the vessel and
instrument of recovering that, bringing into effect the re-uniting
of
all things in Christ, where are we over this matter of unity, of
oneness, of
harmony? Or all to the contrary? What are we doing about that?
The
vocation is that! Oh, the Lord help us not to play into the hands
of, and work together with, this great adversary of the harmony of
God!
It's a vocational fellowship with
God and with His Son. It's all related to the Son and His
appointed place in the counsels of the Father. It's all related
to the throne, the throne, because it is in that
throne, and by that throne
into which He is exalted, that glorious throne, on high from the
beginning. It is in that and by that that this is made
effective, and (as we were hearing last night) the absolute
Lordship of Jesus Christ in everything and over everything
is
affected by the state of the church, it's related to the
throne. And being related to the Son and to the throne, you see
it's related to the nations, "the uttermost part of the earth".
The message of the gospel to the nations is not only the
message
of salvation and redeeming love, and redeeming grace; but over
and above all that, it is the message of the Crown Rights of
God's Son - that's the message. He is Lord of all -
of all! We are
not called to offer Him as Lord, but to declare that He is Lord!
But the Lordship, the throne, has its seat and centre in the
church and it must be here in ourselves, in our own hearts.
I wonder if I have failed... have you
really grasped, dear friends, that however you may feel about it
yourselves, you may feel you are too young, or too inexperienced,
or too
something or other to be in such a thing. No, if God has called
you in Christ, that calling contains all that I have said for
you in relation to a whole. In relation to a whole.
Perhaps this afternoon we will be
able to get nearer to this thing in that way, but for the moment
the object
that the Lord is bringing before us at this time is this: we
are
called with a great calling. And that word calling
can be
rightly changed for 'vocation'. Vocation - "we are
called according to
His purpose". And you ask, what is that purpose? To save?
Oh, infinitely more than to save! To have a body, a body of people
saved
and glorified at the centre of His coming new creation, what
the letter to the Hebrews calls "the inhabited earth to come"; through
which
He will express this perfect harmony; maintain the government of
this glorious integration; be the co-ordinating centre - Christ
in the midst. This Church, this City - there is the metropolis
of His creation. Because of that everything, everything in
peace; everything in rest, when He gets it. We are called
unto that - to serve Him in that matter. But, let us remind
ourselves that
this is not going to begin when we get there; the
beginning of
this is now.
We in ourselves have got to be one person, not two
or three persons. Do you understand what I mean by that? That is,
"This one
thing I do..." I am completely one in my whole being
set upon a single object; there is one thing in God's
universe
that unites my whole being. Unites my whole being. My spirit, soul
and body are
concentrated and focused and united upon this purpose of God
concerning His Son - I am not a divided person. We have
got to
be harmonised in that way by the interests of the Lord Jesus.
Together it must be so. Our personal, divided interests
must go; must go! Our ambitions must go; all
secondary considerations must go. We
must be one people, for the sake of the Lord Jesus and His
rights.
And we must go out to be His witnesses and, like it was
with Himself, it will be with us. Oh, if only there is the right
thing there as the example, the witness - if it's there, hell
will be stirred from beneath - and that is a good sign if it is.
It's no compliment to any Christian, or any church, or any body of
Christians in this
world, for the world to be able to go on without feeling its
presence, the Presence of Christ; no compliment at all to have
an easy time like that. Well,
that is not a pleasant thing to say, and we shall probably have to
face that in practical ways. But there it is; so it was with Him,
but
we have this: "be of good cheer, I have overcome the world". We
have
His victory upon which to count. The Lord help us.