Twenty-Eighth Meeting
(February 26, 1964 A.M.)
Read:
Galatians
We
covered so much ground in more than an hour yesterday
morning that it is quite impossible to go over it all
again. All we can do is just remind you of the great
matter which is engaging us at this time. We have said
that this matter is one which had been the most vital
question in the history of Christianity. It is no other
question than "What is true Christianity?" In
other words, "What was it that invaded this world
with the coming into it of Jesus Christ?" Around
that question, an immense battle raged in the time of the
apostles, and in the nature of that question, the battle
still goes on! It took a peculiar form in the days of the
apostles; then, it was a matter of Judaism or
Christianity. Since that time it has not been a question
of Judaism and Christianity. But all along, and today, in
principle it remains the same. The question is, "Is
Christianity a legal system or spiritual movement from
heaven?"
We saw
that battle and that question was concentrated by the
Apostle Paul into his brief letter to the Galatians. And
the Letter to the Galatians is concentrated into one
phrase, a phrase with which the apostle begins the
letter, that is, "The Gospel which we
preached." And we saw that phrase, "The
Gospel," is not something
just for unsaved people, but comprehends everything that
is in the New Testament. That is the first basic thing to
be taken account of. It is the comprehensive meaning of
the Gospel. Not only Good News for the world and the
unsaved, but the Good News of God concerning His Son for
the people of God. So we spent some time on the nature of
the Gospel.
And then we said there
was a second basic thing before we could consider the
content of this letter. Because this letter is very
largely based upon this particular thing - that is, Paul
himself, and the basis of his apostleship. I would like
to think that this letter is fresh in your minds. I would
like to think that since yesterday, you have read it
right through again, and I would like to suggest that
every day this week you read this letter. That will help
me a lot in what I have to say.
Now, if you are familiar
with this letter, you will know what a large place the
Apostle Paul himself takes in the letter. He speaks very
much about himself, and about his apostleship. There is a
sense in which it is the man behind the letter. And that
means, the man behind the Gospel. There is such a large
place occupied by the apostle himself personally, but
that is for a purpose. And the purpose is certainly not
that Paul is seeking to glorify himself. It is not to
magnify Paul; but it is to MAGNIFY JESUS CHRIST. That is
proved by the fact that in what is quite a short letter,
the name "Christ" occurs forty-three times. We
shall refer to that again.
Now the reason for the
prominence of the apostle in this letter is the whole
question of the great change which was made in his time.
This immense historic and spiritual change in the ages
was very largely turning upon this man, Paul. It was not
his desire that it should be so. Certainly Paul would
have wished it otherwise. He did not want to be the
prominent figure in this controversy. But it was his
opponents that were making him the central figure. They
were opposing Paul's right to teach what he was teaching.
They were setting Paul over against Moses, or Moses over
against Paul. In effect, they were saying, God always
referred to Moses as "My servant." So by the
Scriptures, Moses was the accredited servant of the Lord,
and as the accredited servant of the Lord, Moses gave the
whole Old Testament system. Moses gave the system of the
law. And Moses wrote the Scripture at God's dictation.
God verbally told Moses what to write. So that the Old
Testament was verbally inspired by God. That means that
the Jewish system was inspired by God. It was through
Moses that God gave the great system of worship which we
have in the Book of Leviticus.
Now you see how it
seemed that these opponents of Paul had a very strong
case against him. They said, Paul denies all that. And
Paul says, all that is finished with. For instance: They
concentrate upon the question of circumcision. They say,
now in the inspired Old Testament, circumcision is a very
important thing appointed by God. The Bible, as they had
it, said circumcision is something. This man Paul,
deliberately says, circumcision is nothing. Therefore,
Paul is contradicting the Scriptures; Paul does not
believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures. They went
further than that. Not only did they attack his teaching,
but they attacked him. You know, that is always a bad
weapon of a bad cause, wherever there is a people who
attack persons. They turn from what the person teaches to
the person himself; and they try to discredit the person.
And that is what these enemies of Paul did. They said,
Paul is not a true apostle, at most, he is inferior to
the other apostles. He is a false teacher. He is unsound
in his doctrine. And he is a dangerous man. So they
sought to undercut the ministry of Paul.
You will see by this,
how prominent the place was that Paul occupied in this
great issue - the great historic and spiritual issue as
to the true nature of Christianity. And because these
powerful enemies focus their attention upon Paul himself,
it all drew from Paul a personal testimony; and it is in
that testimony that we have the very essence of true
Christianity. It is in that testimony that we have the
new wine which will burst the old bottles, and we have
the new garment which Paul will not try to patch up. In
this testimony, we have the thing which constitutes the
new heavenly order in which we live. By the way, we have
to thank the enemies of Paul for a lot. We have to thank
these enemies for the great light which emerged from his
sufferings. We have to thank these enemies for the great
emancipation of Christianity from a dead legal system.
God turned the persecution of Paul into a wonderful
advantage for this whole dispensation. It is very often
like that. God gets out of the winepress, the pure wine.
But that which goes into the winepress has to be crushed
and broken; and then the pure wine of the Kingdom flows
out. And that is how it was in this case.
Now it must be clearly
understood, that the battle was not between Paul and
Jews, but it was between tradition and spirituality. Paul
only comes into it because he has seen the difference,
and is speaking that which he has seen. So we come to
understand Paul's personal answer.
Before we pass on, let
me add this: it is very important in this great matter
for us to settle this same issue: was the Apostle Paul a
peculiarly chosen vessel for this purpose? Does the
Apostle Paul stand in a particular relationship to this
whole dispensation? Ever since those days, Paul has been
a subject of violent attack. The liberal and modernistic
theologians have attacked Paul. And the thing which they
have said is this, 'Paul is not a true interpreter of
Christ.' Of all the men in the Bible, there is no more
controversial personality than the Apostle Paul. Even
those who will accept Jesus, with limitations, will not
accept Paul at all. And we have to settle this question.
What relation does this man Paul stand to the whole
dispensation? Until we are clearly able to answer that
question, we cannot understand his ministry. Because all
of Paul's ministry focuses down upon this one issue. That
is, the spiritual and the heavenly nature of the
dispensation, which came in with Jesus Christ.
So we must spend the
rest of our time this morning in considering Paul's
apostleship. But do remember that in all we say, we are
really thinking of this particular issue: THE SPIRITUAL
AND THE HEAVENLY NATURE OF THIS DISPENSATION. The
principles of Paul's apostleship lie at the very
foundation of this dispensation. Well, let us look at it
in just two fragments. The Letter to the Galatians,
chapter one, and verses eleven and twelve: "For
I make known to you, brethren, as touching the Gospel
which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For
neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it,
but it came to me through revelation of Jesus
Christ."
Chapter two, and verse
six: "But from those who were reputed to be
somewhat (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to
me: God accepteth not man's person) - they, I say, who
were of repute imparted nothing to me."
All right then, these
two fragments settle the question. The source of Paul's
apostleship, 'not from men, neither through a man. I
received nothing from men, it came to me by revelation of
Jesus Christ.' What does that amount to?
I must pause here to put
in parenthesis just this request. We are having these
morning meetings, and perhaps you are looking upon them
as meetings for teaching, and you will perhaps remember
them in the future as some special meetings in which a
special subject was considered. Well, of course, there is
teaching, and it is focused upon a special matter. But I
do want to say this to you earnestly, that what I am
saying is not only a statement of truth, it is a
'testimony' of your foundation. It is a test as to the
ground upon which you individually stand. So that this is
not just a series of special meetings for teaching, this
is a vital challenge to our spiritual position. If what
we have said is true, that the whole dispensation in a
sense focuses upon the spiritual experience of the
Apostle Paul, that is, in a fuller way than in any other
case except the Lord Jesus Himself, then what we have
said about Paul's apostleship is basic to our own
spiritual lives.
So what does this source
of Paul's apostleship mean for us? It means that the
basic reality of this dispensation is a personal, direct
encounter with Jesus Christ. I want to repeat that. It is
perhaps the most important thing out of which everything
else will come. The basic reality of the dispensation in
which we live is a personal direct encounter with Jesus
Christ. It is personal between Christ and ourselves
personally. It is direct because it is not through man.
It is not through a priest or any other kind of
intermediary. It is not through a ritual; it is not
through a system; and it is not through man. It is
directly between Christ and ourselves. We shall fail in
the very purpose of this dispensation, unless we can say,
'that is how it is with us.' The method in which it
happens may differ between Paul's experience and ours,
but every one of us individually must be able to say: 'I
have met Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ has met me
directly. Men may have helped, but I did not receive it
from men. I did not even receive it from those great men
in Jerusalem. I did not receive it from the great
representatives of Christianity. I received it personally
and directly from the Lord.'
What a searching thing
that is! How that will find us out. It just raises some
questions. How did we get what we have got? Are you
prepared to go home with that question? How did I get my
Christianity? How did I get what I have got? How did it
come to me? Did it come to me by thinking it out? I
reasoned out this matter of Christian life, and I came to
certain intellectual conclusions, in comparing it with
all other things I saw that this was the best thing, so
that in my mind I decided that this thing is right. Is it
just an intellectual conclusion? Is that how I got it? Is
that the ground on which I stand? Or, did it come to me
by the impact of some strong personality? Some teacher,
or some leader, with a very forceful personality and I
came under the impact of that personality. So I received
it through a man's strong personality. Is that the ground
on which you stand? Was it through the persuasion of
other people? They said you ought to come to Christ, and
they kept on saying that, and at last I yielded to them,
I gave way to their persuasion, and so I profess
Christianity, and I got baptized, and that is the ground
on which I stand.
How did we get what we
got? That is going to decide everything for the future.
Sooner or later the stresses of life will come upon our
position. The Lord will allow our position to be tried in
the fires. And His object in so doing will be to find out
exactly what we are resting upon. So Paul said, "I
received it not from men, nor from a man. Peter may have
been a very important man, but I did not get it from
Peter. James may have been the Lord's Own brother in the
flesh, and he ought to know, but I did not receive it
from James. John was a very loving devoted disciple, he
was one of the first three, but I did not get it from
John. These men gave me nothing. I RECEIVED IT BY DIRECT
REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. That is the basis of this
dispensation. That is the basis of true spiritual
Christianity. And that is the great distinguishing mark
between a legal system and a spiritual life.
Now in the next place,
for a few minutes, we have to consider the crises behind
Paul's apostleship. You see, we are keeping close to this
letter. And for the time being, we are keeping close to
Paul's testimony, which testimony is the basis of things.
Behind the apostleship of Paul was a tremendous crisis.
Chapter one, and verse thirteen, "Ye have heard
of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God,
and made havoc of it" (ASV). You must say that
with very strong emphasis, because that is how Paul said
it. "My life in the Jews' religion," fancy Paul
saying a thing like that; a man who was a Jew by birth
and upbringing, a man who was just kept in Judaism, I
would have liked to see the look on his face when he said
this - "In the Jews' religion. In the Jews'
religion," that is how I lived in time past. I
persecuted the Church of God, and I made havoc of the
Church of God. And I advanced in the Jews' religion,
beyond many of mine own age among my countrymen, being
more exceedingly zealous for the tradition of my fathers.
Unless you put sufficient emphasis upon all that, and
realize what all that meant to Paul or to Saul of Tarsus
as he was called before, you cannot appreciate the
tremendous crisis in his life; the immense crisis behind
his apostleship.
Note, it was a crisis,
not a development. It was a crisis, not an evolution. It
was a clear-cut thing that happened at a certain time.
There was a crisis in this man's life. And that crisis
meant the dividing of his whole life between what was in
the past and what was in the future. For him it was the
finishing of a whole system and the beginning of an
altogether new heavenly order of things.
The next thing to note
is this: That while it was the Sovereign Act of God, as
we said yesterday, Jesus Christ rose from His throne in
glory and came right down to this man. It was therefore A
SOVEREIGN ACT FROM HEAVEN. Yet at the same time there was
something upon which God could act. There was something
in this man which gave the Lord the ground for acting. It
was not merit, but there was something there. What was
that something? Now I ask every one of you here to take
note of this, God had ground on which to act in this man
because he was a man who meant business with God. You
must remember that although Saul of Tarsus was doing the
wrong thing, he was doing it according to the light of
his conscience. He afterward said that he did it in
ignorance, that he thought that he was doing God's
service. And however darkened his mind was, and however
wrong his conduct was, he was a man who meant business
with God. In his ignorance, he was doing it for God. He
thought that this was what God wanted. There is a sense
in which he had a heart for God. And there was no mistake
in that. His zeal, as he calls it, was very great for
what he believed to be for the Lord. That was a ground
upon which God could work.
Listen to this,
brethren, those who are indifferent, and do not care very
much, will never get very far with the Lord. If things do
not matter very much, then the Lord does not matter very
much. There is an Old Testament word which says, "To
the upright Thou will show Thyself upright; to the pure
Thou will show Thyself pure; but to the froward Thou will
show Thyself froward." God is going to be to us what
we are to Him. If we are indifferent, if we are careless,
if we do not care very much, the Lord will not come to us
in this way. If you look at the men and the women who had
counted most for God, you will know that at the beginning
there was a very serious crisis. What was the Lord doing?
He was getting this ground of reality. He was testing
them as to whether they wanted Him just for their own
good and pleasure or whether they wanted Him for Himself.
A young man who had
great wealth came to Jesus, and he said, "Good
Master, what must I do that I may inherit eternal
life?" And it looks as though Jesus played with him,
first of all, He said, 'Why do you call Me good? There is
only One that is good, and that is God.' There is a real
test in that. Well, you know what is written in the law,
'Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself." Still the
Lord is drawing him out. And the young man said,
"All this have I kept from my youth." All right
then, we will bring it right to the test. "Go, sell
all that you have, give to the poor and come follow Me,
come and follow Me without anything. Follow Me without a
penny, follow Me without a reputation." Is eternal
life more important to you than all that you can have in
this world? And you see, the Lord had found the spot,
"What must I do that I may inherit eternal
life?" Why do you want eternal life? Is it more
important to you than all things in this world? Are you
prepared to let go of everything in this world for
eternal life? The young man dropped his head, dropped his
hands, turned quietly round and walked away. You see the
point?
The Lord wants to know
whether we really mean business. We shall get nothing
unless we really do mean business with God. We may be
wrong in our way of life. Our minds may be very blind and
darkened, but even so we can mean business with God. And
although it was a Sovereign Act, yet the Lord had ground
upon which He could work. That zeal, although it was
misdirected, meant something to God. What is our attitude
toward the Lord and the things of the Lord? Are we only
half alive to this matter? Are we asleep? Or are we on
full stretch, saying, "What the Lord wants for me I
am going to have, if it can be had. No matter what it
costs me, my heart is set upon what the Lord wants for my
life." So we have considered the crisis behind this
man, and we must leave it there this morning. And if the
Lord wills, take it up from there tomorrow morning.