Now what has taken place during these last years, since God has gathered a feeble remnant to Christ? Have not the Scriptures had a similar place and effect to that described in our chapter? Has not the effect been the same? The blessed long-lost hope of the church has been restored, and an attitude answering to the feast of tabernacles has been once more taken. The gathered remnant have been led, by the Spirit of God, to wait for the Son from heaven; and there is very great gladness. The blessed certainty, that as it is appointed to men to die, and after death the judgment, so Christ was once offered for our sins; and we. are now looking for Him without sin unto salvation. Yea, “we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (see Heb. 9:27-28; 1 John 3:2), contrasted with the awful gloom of looking for a day of judgment, and the bar of God, about our sins. There is very great gladness; because we know that He has loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood; and it is our happy privilege now to be waiting for Him from heaven: O the untold joy of that triumphant moment! “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
And as Israel were to publish and proclaim in all their cities what they found written; so surely would the Lord have us make known, with holy boldness, what we have found written. Intelligent communion with God and with one another, understanding the words of God which are written, making all this known to the blood-bought church of God, and waiting for His Son from heaven – what could we have more?
Thus the wall was built. And all this great gladness more than made up for the hatred of men, and charges of exclusivism. I do not pursue this study much beyond the wall, but there is one thing I must notice.
Some of my readers may say, “Surely the result of all this would be self-complacency, conceit, pride. What, you, the only handful of people on the face of the earth on true ground – within God’s sacred enclosure – around the only true Center? This must produce narrow-minded self-satisfaction.”
You are wrong; it does not. Read Nehemiah 9. What a contrast to all human thought! “Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth upon them.” It might be thought that separation from others would produce a feeling of self-superiority. But no; it did not. The seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, “and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.” And then there is reading, confession, and worship. Ah, this is of God: it is the divine order. Separation from evil brings us into self-abhorrence before God. And the more we read His Word, the more we have to confess; and, wondrous to tell, the more we confess, the more we worship. And then you find the Levites cry to God. Self-judgment produces dependence on God, and faith in God. “Stand up, and bless the Lord your God forever and ever; and blessed be Thy glorious name; which is exalted above all blessing and praise.” Thus the Lord Jehovah is before their souls; while owning their utter failure, and the failure of their fathers, yet throughout this chapter, God, in all that He had done and was to them, shines out in every verse.
All this is so true in every case where a soul is truly gathered to Christ. “Mine eye seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” I am sure, the nearer we to God, the more the flesh will be crushed, whether as individuals, or as saints gathered to the Lord. It is not what we are no, we have sinned; but it is what God is, and what He has done for us. Surely deep, real humility becomes those who can say there is nothing between our souls and the lake of fire, but the blood of Christ. To Him be all glory and praise. He is worthy to bring His redeemed, without spot or wrinkle, to His own place prepared for them. “Let us,” then, “go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.”
All this is surely truth for present guidance, and for testing. Where are you, reader? in the religious Babylon, afar off from God’s true ground of gathering? or have you, like the remnant, been brought back to the ground of what the church was in the beginning? Have you been exercised before the Lord about the present condition of Christendom, as Nehemiah was about the holy city? Have you found any seeking alone the good of the church of God? Do you know anything of that sevenfold opposition to the present work of God? The grief, the laughter, wrath, mocking, fighting, subtlety without and within, of those who are in the professing church? Have you the certainty that your name is written in heaven? or have you searched, and cannot find your register? Do you know whether you are a child of God, or not? This being settled, have you been led to search the book – to understand the book – to eat the fat, and drink the sweet?
Is it your joy to send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared? Has the searching the Word led you to wait for Christ from heaven? Are you charged with exclusivism, because of that hated wall of separation? And has all this brought you lowly before the Lord in confession, and then worship? And, finally, is God before your soul, as He was before the remnant in chapter 9? Has your soul found the sabbath of rest within the sacred wall, even Christ Himself?
Then beware of the men of Tyre, who will offer their tempting wares before the wall. Keep the gates shut – O, keep the gates closed. Let nothing come in to break your rest in Christ – your joy in God. We need much the lesson of the last chapter to keep the gates shut; it will be most offensive to men of Tyre, but most pleasing to our God. He alone could have given us such a picture of the day in which we live, and He alone could give us such a light for our feet. May He sanctify us by His Word – His Word is truth!
(Continued from page 163).
(Concluded).