UK 11:29-36{THERE are three, experiences necessary for full saintship; that is, for the saint to be really in his true place upon the earth. First, that his conscience should be relieved; second, that his heart should be satisfied; and third, that his body should be full of light. These are the three things that constitute a man really for God upon this earth.
It is not that a man may not have grace: that is not the point. The moment' he believes that " Jesus is the Christ " he is " born of God," however feeble he may be; but it is another thing if that person is here for Christ on the earth. It is not a question now of knowing Jesus is the Christ; it is, " Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" He may be saved, but he is not victorious over the organization here unless he know Jesus as the Son of God-unless he know the dignity of the Person who has done this blessed work for him We get here Christ presented to us first, as greater then Jonah; second, as greater than Solomon; and third, that He is the light when the eye is single-the body then is full, of light.
Now the first every believer knows something about: that is, Christ the ransom for our sins. We all know something of the Jonah aspect Jonah, was the type of the Lord entering into death for us. He went down into the deep; the floods compassed him about; all God's billows and waves passed over Him; the weeds were wrapped about His head; the bars of the grave were about Him. A soul never really gets the sense of remission of sins unless it see that Christ, entered into death for it. He said: "Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour." We know as sinners that, the judgment of God is upon us, and the conscience never gets relief, though there may be a work of grace in the heart, until it sees the blood of Christ. " Without shedding of blood there is no remission." This is so elementary that it is almost unnecessary to speak of it, but this, is our first point-the Jonah aspect of Christ. " There shall no sign be given but the sign of the prophet Jonas; " that is Christ in humiliation. It is the first thing for the soul.
Many a person thus having got the first, tries to get to the third without knowing the second. A soul says: I am relieved from my sins, and now 'I am seeking (though he may not say it in so many words) that I may glorify God in my life-that my body may be full of light. The candle is lighted within, and I want to let it shine out.
The conscience being relieved, the first thing the person begins to think of, and properly, is his walk. And I am not objecting to this, but I do not think he gets it in this way, though he may desire it; and a great many, by seeking it thus, become legal. It is not difficult to see that a relieved conscience says, What am I to do now to please Him who has chosen me? But I want to show you that, though the desire be right in itself, you must be prepared for the carrying of it out, and that, if you skip the second you will never be in the third rightly. And this is very important, for I have me people who would have the third but who would not accept the second; and, if you act thus, you will find you will fail. It is no use trying to walk in order to get a satisfied heart; you must have your heart satisfied first, and then the walk will come in its right place.
I am left on this dark earth to set forth Christ where He is not. That is the seventeenth of John: " I am glorified in them." He has left us down here to show forth His light and beauty to: be the real representatives of Him here. Now, to Saul of Tarsus it was said: "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee 'what thou must do." Many a one has a right idea, but he does not know how to carry it out. He feels he ought to do something-take off this, or reduce that. But then you may be doing it all legally; you may be doing the right thing, but you have not got the right way of doing it. It is only as I carry about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus that my body becomes the practical- vessel for carrying out His life here. " I beseech you by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God." It is the body that is to be the vessel, and not anything that is in the body in itself; it is to be the earthen vessel to carry out the grace of Christ; it is' not a self-acting machine, but the machinery itself is placed at the disposal of Christ. So we have the relieved conscience; the satisfied heart; and the body full of light; and the main point for us will be, what the satisfying of the heart is. But let me premise this. It is a very great snare when a person who has got hold of the truth of Jesus as Solomon, does not bring in upon himself that which would cause his body to be full of light. The Corinthians failed in this; they got hold of the truth of a Savior in 'glory, but they did not use the cross practically. When I find that I have a Savior there, than I turn back to the cross to set aside everything in myself which would hinder the outshining of that glory which I have received from above. Hence the apostle, though he had brought out before them the glory, had to say to them, You have neglected the cross. He had to write the epistles to the Corinthians because they did not reckon as dead all that would hinder the outshining of the grace they had received.
Having thus dwelt a little on the first point, I now come to the second, which the Lord brings out here; even that Christ is a greater than Solomon.
When I look at the death of Christ, and ask the question, What was the necessity for it? the answer of course is that sin was the necessity. But supposing you were cleared of that altogether, what would you have to guard against then 2 I do not believe that any saint stands up for what is really evil; there is a much more difficult thing for the heart to be proof to than what is evil, and that is what man calls good. How do you get clear of that? That is what really puzzles the heart; it is not able to stand against what is good. Thus the 'things that are good in themselves are the things that are the greatest difficulties here; and about which we must have exercise of heart.
The Lord, when He told His disciples about the great supper, said that the two hindrances to souls getting to it were what you would all say were good things: mercies, and natural ties. There is, no harm in them, and yet they are the difficulty. Is there evil in mercies? Is there evil in a bit of land? in oxen? Of course: not; and yet they are the difficulties! And, " If a man hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters "-Hate what God Himself has given him?—Without that " he cannot be my disciple."
No one stands up for bad things. 'We have a bad nature and we are prone to evil, but we do not stand up for these; but where is the person who does not stand up for good things?
The fact is you want to get your, heart satisfied; and if it were satisfied with the higher order of things then it would not be satisfied with the lower. It would then be proof against the lower order Many a one who knows Christ as Jonah, does not know Him as Solomon. Of course' if you do not, know Him as Jonah-as the Substitute—you do, not get relief for your conscience.; but you may know this, and at the same time the good things here have power over you, because you do not know Him as Solomon. And besides this I do not believe that a man's conscience is really at rest until 'he knows Christ as the One who satisfies his heart. He is not a man of divine power until he can say: My conscience is relieved and my heart is satisfied, and now take my body and make it full of light: Therefore if is an immense thing for the soul, to understand Christ in the Solomon aspect. I turn to the eighth and ninth of John. to show you this in doctrine.
The eighth chapter of John is- a case of. sin. Well, says the Lord, He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life-; " clear all the sin away. And He closes with saying: " If a man keep my saying he shall never see death." That is, that- in Christ's work, that side of. the question is entirely answered; the evil is cleared away, and death, the penalty; gone.
And now, in the ninth chapter, quite another thing comes out. There is nothing in this world that can compete with Christ—not the bad part` of the world, but the good part of it the eighth chapter is the bad side, and Christ clears it all away. He says," Neither do I condemn you;" and then comes a man who, having got his eyesight learns that there is-not a single thing, in man that will stand for Christ in the good part of the world. All classes of society are brought forward, with, nothing: morally bad. First his neighbors, those best acquainted with the man; they pass him on to the Pharisees. These own the fact of the work having been done, but pass, him on to 'his parents. The parents say he must answer for himself; and then the nation casts him out.
Then the Lord finds him, and says to him "Dolt thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both' seen' him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him." What has he got? He has got the. Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, outside of all men;. in Him he has found an object to delight and detain his heart outside the good of men-not the bad. The bad all cleared away by Christ's own work, " he shall never see death;! and now, on the other hand, having got light, what do you find? Why, that there is nothing in man in sympathy with Christ, and that you have in Him what is superior to man, and to every class of men.
Now, I say, have I lost in all this? No, I have gained immensely; my heart is detained by an object that controls it, and that is worship. It is not the mere eyesight-many a one delights in that-but it is delight in the One who has given me the eyesight, and who, in giving it, has dimmed everything on earth to me. It was nothing to him to tell him to give up his neighbors; he could say, I have got the Lord Jesus Christ. It was nothing to him to tell him to give up his parents; he could say, I have got the Lord Jesus Christ. What was it to him to give up the Pharisees? to give up his nation?
There is nothing that enriches the heart like giving it an object worthy of it. And do you pity him for all that he has lost? He can say: Why, miserable man that I was! I searched all society, and found in it nothing that was worthy of God-nothing that Would satisfy my heart; but now, instead of that, I have something that fills me, and satisfies me; and, having that, I have seen the end of all here; I have found out, not only what the bad 'ones are, but what the best ones are, and they 'are all cast into the shade; I have got One so vastly superior to them all that He detains my heart. So far for the doctrine. I now turn for the practical side to Phil. 3
I say it advisedly, that I do not think a person has full relief in his conscience about his sins who does not see Christ in glory, though I believe he may have his sills forgiven, and have assurance too. Do you think assurance never gets a shake? When it does, the reason is that you have never yet seen Christ in resurrection. For instance, a friend may have settled some matter for me with my father, but on hearing it a question, arises: How does my father feel about me? I do not believe any soul is fully established until it knows that the Father finds pleasure and full satisfaction in the way in which the work has been accomplished. And the glory in which Christ, is, expresses the satisfaction of the Father in the mode and, manner in which my debt has been discharged. You, never get, your conscience thoroughly settled until you see Christ in glory, because. until then you have never been at Gods side of resurrection. It is a weak way off expressing it to say that Christ's- resurrection is the receipt for our debt, as is generally said, and; of course, in measures true; the receipt is only applicable to the debtor whereas the question is, what is, God's, thought, about it:?- His feeling towards me is that of, a tender Father who says to me, You see. your Savior in glory.
I was a short time ago visiting a sailor who was dying, and who had doubts as to his salvation. After a little conversation I said to him: " If you have a Savior in glory all must be straight with you." When I went out of the room he said to his mother: "Mother, you never told, me that I, had a Savior glory'! I am not a bit afraid to go now that I know that!"
The testimony is that I see Christ raised from the dead, and not only raised, but raised by the glory of the Father; and, as thus raised, I speak of Him as the One who is able to make your hearts superior to all the good things of the world.
First, the apostle asserts in the seventh verse,: " What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." Now, what. is gain here, does not mean temporal things-it means character; as he says: " Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless "-a perfectly amiable person. Can you say that you do not value your amiability, but count it loss for Christ? It is a fact that it is harder to correct a man with what is called a nice nature, than a man with a very bad one; an amiable person is the most difficult to move, because he is so satisfied with himself.
Paul never knew Him anywhere but in glory, and he says, " I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of him." See what an object He was to eclipse everything. There is no question about Christ having put away all the bad things, but can you say Christ eclipses the best, and the brightest, and the most beautiful things on earth to me, because He has so satisfied my heart? That is knowing Him as Solomon! and that alone is what will really satisfy the heart of any.
Do you say: What heart-breaking work it is! I must give up this thing-not have that thing! what miserable work it is!-No; but, I count them but rubbish! I give them up, not because they are wrong, but because " I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of, Christ Jesus my Lord 1"
There is no way of getting a person out of the good things here but by showing him what is superior to them.- So, if you say to me, That is a beautiful- view", quite admit it; but if it is to satisfy my heart; it cannot, for it will pass away; the only thing that can satisfy my heart is the Christ of God—" the excellency of the knowledge of Christ " no of salvation—but "that I may win' Christ." I might illustrate it by supposing two portraits. In the first I- have all that is good in man-Adam: all the most beautiful tints that you could put upon canvas. For instance, the young man in the gospel whom Jesus loved,' and who had " kept all these things from his youth." Mind, the Lord never asked him about anything but what was in relation to his fellows; there was not one word as to God. And that is what self-culture is; we find many who have that, and call it holiness-the being suitable to your fellows; but that is not being suitable to God. You may have a man outwardly everything that is right. This is the first portrait. The other is a picture of Christ as He was on earth. The first may be lovely in the eyes of man, but this is lovely in the eyes of God; and this is the one for me. What the apostle sets forth is that he prefers Christ to man at his best.
But there is still one more step: I am going on. " Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." I have the goal before me, and I am pressing on; so the word "mark " is used, which shows that I have seen something towards which I am pressing, for how can I go on to a mark unless I have seen it? Just as a marksman could not aim straight at an object unless he saw it, so it is impossible for any one to go on straight through this world unless he has seen Christ, his mark. Then I can afford to leave anything here behind, for I have an object before me, and I am going on to it.
I have now given you both the doctrine and the practical side of my subject. We will now look at the experience of a soul reaching it, to show you how you are to get it if you have not yet got it. How then do I get it? Evidently before you can bring Christ out you must get Christ in. You say, I have got relief for my conscience; but I hope you agree with me that, besides this, you must have an object for your heart.
I turn to 1 Kings 10 to show you how it is attained. Here we get the story of the visit of the queen of Sheba-who we know is " the queen of the south "-to Solomon. She had heard of his fame.
Now the first thing is, do you desire to see Solomon? That is what the queen of Sheba did. And what is more, she said, I will not rest until I have seen him. She had very far to go to get to him': she came to Jerusalem ".from the utmost parts of the earth." You have not got this long. Journey to go, but you will certainly have to go through the exercise that it represents. It is very easy for a soul to say, I should like to know Christ in glory; but it is a very "humbling fact that every soul possesses what it values. The queen of Sheba's ministers may have said to her, You surely are never going to take all this long journey merely to see a man whom you have only heard of,! But she said: Solomon I have heard of, and Solomon I 'must see. I can never rest until I get to him!
I know I can say that the first effect on me of finding Him was, that the things that I had been in vain trying to get rid of just dropped off without my giving them a thought; they dropped off without my knowing it. Some have one kind of attraction here, some another. Things lost their hold that I had thought I never could give up or do without. Some things, of course, are uncomely, and those we are told are evil and we must drop off; but it is the things that fare not evil I mean. Why should I not be able to say, like the apostle, The things that were gain to me," those I count loss for Christ? I have seen something that puts everything here in the shade.
Thus I am clear of the badness by the blood of Christ, hut I am clear of the goodness by Him in glory. It is not the sin of this world; it is what man calls goodness that most balks the saint in his progress. But what are good things here to what I see in the glory? The day is coming when all here will be burnt to ashes, but I have seen that which will never fade away; I have seen that which will endure in all its brightness forever; and though I can see the beauty of this, it does not hold my heart a bit.
Well, the beginning is the battle! Is there any one here to-night who says, am determined to go? Is there any single one who, like the queen of Sheba, says, I will never rest until I have seen Him? Like her set off to seek Him, for " he that seeketh findeth."
Now when she got to Jerusalem She might still have stopped short of the full thing. There is a still further test as to whether a soul is in earnest. If you have not true desire of heart you will stop short of the second thing that she did. Having at last reached Solomon, she communes with him ".of all that was in her heart."
I have known a believer who said, I would not let Christ have the key of my heart. Now would you give Him the key? As I say, I have known a person honestly say, I would not. How can you expect to have your heart satisfied when there is something there that you will not let Him see?-perhaps some earthly idol there and You will not make Him your confidant. If you tell a person your secrets you give him power over you. This is the difference between love and wisdom. Love begets dove, but wisdom makes me confide. Do you know Christ as " the wisdom of God "? Can you say, I- talk everything over. with Him-all my motives, and thoughts, and wishes.- I know 'He has such perfect wisdom that I tell 'Him everything?
And lastly, the third thing that we find in the queen of Sheba. -All the things that concern Solomon are now before her heart. " When she had seen all Solomon's wisdom; and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her." Let me notice one very interesting thing as ' to this. It was not any future things as to him that occupied her; it was present things. It is now that we are let into the interests of Christ. Supposing I got a little glimpse of what He is now doing, became, so to say, a cabinet minister of His in -; understood what He was doing, and how He was working out things here-what a sense it would give me of my position; how it would alter everything here to me! So—she never thought of her Camels or her gold; there was nothing wrong in them, but her heart was full of his things, and she never thought of her own. And so of any one of you who has ever been in the presence of the Lord; it was not that you were occupied in giving up this thing and that thing, but that your heart was full, and they all vanished. You were not thinking of the bereavement you had gone through, of the lack of things around you; of the distracting circumstances in your home. No; all had vanished, and you were entranced! " There was no more spirit in her; " or, as the apostle puts it, to God he was beside himself; or, as the real force of the word is, outside of himself.
Now is this an impossibility? It was once said to me that it was-that it was " a splendid impossibility." The person who said it lived to know that it was not. It is splendid, but it is not impossible. The person who has it is the only one who can be occupied with the third experience. I am so entranced with the beauty of this One whose perfection I have seen, that I am seeking to get rid of everything in me that hinders it shining out of me-that hinders my body being " full of light." Be it society, love of painting, music, scenery, all the nice things here on earth, no matter what, take them all away from me, so that I may have the outshining of Jesus in my life.
The Lord give us to understand these three things that constitute real pilgrimage, that we may be to His glory as we walk through this evil world for His name's sake. Amen. (J. B. S.)
The world always throws out its 'baits according to our intelligence of God's mind and corresponding walk. What was a bait for Lot was not for Abraham. A saint must give up the mind of the Lord before he can be sensibly affected by the world. Lot got 'below the mind of God as to what a pilgrim was before Sodom could have any attraction for him. Abraham, who had the same flesh in him, kept the mind of God, and Sodom failed to tempt him.
(C. E. SH.)