OH 17:11-26{I HAVE read this Scripture that, in considering it, we may look a little at what really becomes us in the last days.
Let me first says word as to the church, the body of Christ. It is " the mystery " of which Paul tells us in the Ephesians; it is the secret of God which could not be divulged until after the rejection of Christ from the earth. When the Lord said to His disciples that He would build a new structure, His church, there was nothing in that about the body. It would have been premature to have spoken of it before His rejection. And even immediately on His ascension we get nothing as to it. In Acts 1 The disciples are distinctly told not to look up into heaven, where the Head of the body was gone. It is only when we get to chapter vii., when the nation has rejected the testimony of the Holy Ghost come down from heaven to witness to an ascended and glorified Christ, that we find a man led by the Spirit to look up there, and who sees, as he does so, Jesus in the glory of God. It is after that He says to Saul of Tarsus, " Why persecutest thou me?" The truth comes out that He regards the saints here as Himself.
Satan brought all his forces to bear against the Lord Jesus when He was here; his one object was to remove the Son of God from the scene. It was not now merely the sin of the garden of Eden; it was not simple disobedience; there was now no cloak for man's sin; the Son of God had come down to earth, and done among men works which none other had done, and they had both seen and hated both Him and His Father. The most marvelous expression of God's counsels, Satan has been always most unwearied in opposing.
But after the Son of God was thus rejected by man and taken up into heaven, there came out this secret that His body was still upon earth to represent Him. What, through the dark ages? Yes, then just as truly as in the present moment_ Souls do not believe it. They do not believe that united by this bond they are as close to a brother in Australia as to one in their own town in England. Of course I am not so responsible for the brother at a distance as the one beside me; so in Romans and Ephesians a brother is called a "neighbor "-" Love work eth no ill to his neighbor,"-" speak every man truth with his neighbor." But we are all brought into this new bond, " members one of another," a bond which overrides every other; and I will add, that I never saw a man defective in the higher bond who was not also defective in the lower ones.
Though the expression of this wonderful body has so failed in the hands of man, yet in the mind of the Lord, in the heart of the Lord, it is as bright as ever. And each one of us individually has to do with it; we each have to do with the testimony here on earth; we each have our duty connected with it. If one only sits down to think a little; to say to oneself, I am a member of Christ! what a marvelous thing! I hear people speak of the future, but, for myself, I have never yet been able to grasp the present. Besides which, I get the light of the future to bear on the present," while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
I have said thus much as to the body, to show that it exists always as a perfect and complete whole, while we own the disorder. Each is bound to avail himself of the resources which are in Christ unto the end, and, as he does, he is an example and help to all the rest, for he can never lose sight of the body.
We have all been brought up in the ecclesiastical idea of a great profession. The church is -" the pillar and ground of the truth," as we read in Timothy. It has kept the Bible for us, and even that it has not done over well. And these Scriptures which have been thus kept for us are what we have to turn back to in "perilous times," which, I suppose, none of us doubt we are now in. Paul says to Timothy, you have the Scriptures, and they are " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
I have, then, turned to this chapter in John, not to interpret it, but to get a few thoughts from it in connection with our present resources and responsibility. I find here, that I have Christ's heart, and that it remains unchanged whatever the state of things may be in the church. Thank God, on this side it is as bright to-day as it ever was! There is this wonderful thing in Scripture that, as you are in communion and read it, you can actually feel yourself in company with the Lord, and hear Him speak; you can say, I have heard His words. John's Gospel and the Epistles to Timothy are just what are attacked by the enemy in the present day, because they are the very Scriptures suited to help us in it. The Gospel was written after 2 Timothy.
In this chapter His disciples are overhearing Him pray to His Father. He, as it were, says to them: I will let you hear me speak of you to my Father; just as a mother sometimes lets her child hear her pray for it. I feel that we do not pray enough for the saints. We speak too much of Ephesian truth, but we do not pray enough that souls may understand it and get hold of it. There is not enough of Paul's way: " Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers." What makes an evangelist so interesting is that he is the communicator of light for the first time to a dark soul, but souls need light communicated to them after that: saints need light.
But my present thought is our responsibility, and what characterizes it in the present days. And first, what are the resources or the provisions that are made and ready for us? I run down the chapter, part of which we have read, and I find four things which are given: " Life eternal;" " The words;" " Thy word;" and " The glory." Next what He has done or is doing: " My joy fulfilled in them;" and the Father's love. These are still our portion. And then come His desires': that they should be kept from the evil of the world; that they should be sanctified; and " that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them and thou in me, that we may be made perfect in one." This is His chief desire. There is no such thing as isolation here; it is not a unit that is spoken of; it is " they" and " them." It is not Elijah: " They have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left." No such thing. Even then the answer of God is: " Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal." I have thus partially enumerated our resources, and turn now to the consideration of what should characterize us.
I find, as stated, that there are three characteristics which are to mark us as answering to the Lord's desires: 1. To be separate from the world.
2. To be sanctified.
3. To be one.
In this chapter we do not get any service properly so called; we are set here as representing Christ; it is the representative character. The true thought in the word " charity " is that of one ready to serve. There are four grades in service: they are the lover, the witness, the servant, and the soldier. If you lose the first of these you lose all the energy of service.
It may be asked what is the practical use of the body? I answer, the house was always in existence from the time that redemption came in. We find the delivered people rejoicing on the other side of the Red Sea, and singing, " The Lord is my strength and my song, and he is become my salvation; he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation." And the apostle speaks to Timothy of behaving himself in the house of God. But I am only the more careful to do my duty, if I know myself united to the glorified Head in heaven, a member "of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Every step that we get in truth it adds to the foundation; so knowing this wondrous truth, I do not dwell upon the fact that I am saved, blessed though it be, but rather that I am set in His body, and that He has " loved me and given himself for me." And thus loving Him because He has first loved me, I find that the first qualification for service is that of being a lover.
The second is a witness. The witness is one who is really 'maintaining the truth in his life. You cannot be the third, the servant, unless you are these two, for the true servant must be a witness. And, lastly, if you are a servant you are sure to be a soldier. To this I shall allude presently.
Now the great aim of the faithful is unity. But separation from the world and sanctification cannot be overlooked. You say, " Oh, how. little we agree!" I answer, The more sanctified we are, the more agreement we shall have. Everything here turns on the word "holy." It is the "holy Father " who keeps His people, it is the Holy Ghost who is their Comforter. If you are defective in holiness you are defective in everything. Take the ease of a man in a wrong partnership; he may not feel the evil of it himself, but all the same that man is not walking in holiness; he is not led by the Spirit of God. He may say, I do not see any harm in it myself; I am going on with a quiet conscience; and so he may be, but the Holy Ghost is not going on with him. He is not what we read of in Luke: " The whole body full of light, having no part dark."
Therefore to your objection, " We have not oneness," I answer, Well, then let us have all the more of the other characteristics, let us be sanctified; thus also shall we increase in unity.
The Lord says: " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou halt sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth."
I turn for a moment to this passage. I understand by it that there are two things which sanctify us. One, " the truth." This puts us into a new origin altogether. So much so, that I can say to a believer, You are not in Adam; you are not of this race now; you do not belong to this world; you are in a new condition. The second thing is, that the One to whom the believer belongs, and on whom his heart is set, is nowhere in this world; He has " sanctified" Himself, has gone away from it, so that positionally I am out of it. Seeing this is an immense help to us as we go on our way.
Let us see now what characterizes the faithful in an evil day all through Scripture. It is maintaining what was the great characteristic of the original thing, that which marked it when it was in order. The remnant properly is not the fag end of the thing. It is part of the original thing, but it is not a faded bit; it is a bit that shows the original nature of it. As we might say of a regiment much cut up, It has not lost its colors. An officer has been known to strip the colors off the pole and thrust them into his breast, denoting, You must take my life, before you can deprive me of the colors!
Now the question for us is, What are the colors? And before answering it I will say that those who are carrying them are getting brighter and brighter, though I do not say that they go on without interruptions.
What, then, are the colors? They have varied in character with the times according to the call of God. An Enoch stood for them as he "walked with God " three hundred years, until " he was not, for God took him." So did an Abram as he left his " country, and kindred, and father's house," to go to a land that God would shew him, and then sojourned in that land a stranger " dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob." Joseph, too, when he came to die, said, " God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham;.... and ye shall carry up my bones from hence." There was a remnant. That is what I call the colors. I shall come presently to what are our colors, which of course are not the same thing.
But it is said, Why contend at all? what is the use of contention? "Discretion is the better part of valor." Is not such discretion of value in the church? why contend about things? I answer, No. If we enjoy the resources which are in Christ, we shall be opposed, and we must contend for them; but with these resources, as I have glanced at them, we are well off.
I pass on to 1 Sam. 7 I lay great stress on this chapter because it is distinctive of a period that answers to ours. Samuel's colors are very much what ours are; the period when he was the remnant finds its parallel in our day.
How different the state of Israel in Samuel's time to what it was in the time of Joshua! What power there was in the way the ark went round the city of Jericho and the walls fell down flat! Such was the power of that day a power that was invisible. It was a moment when what they were aiming at seemed impossible, as it has done many a time since; a moment such as many of us have doubtless seen, when there was no way out, and everything seemed hopeless. And then what happened? As at Jericho, God's hand came in, and the walls fell down flat.
But then in the moment of success one individual takes a goodly Babylonish garment and a wedge of gold, and hides them under his tent, and God cannot go vn with the people. It is wonderful how much harm one man can do. In Achan the innate corruption of the race broke out. I say " of the race," because we find that the door of escape opened for Israel in the latter day is this very valley of Achor where Achan was stoned.
In a time of difficulty men of faith will get the sense of what should be done to meet it. They get light from God at the moment that it is needed, and in the power of it go forth like a forlorn hope to meet the enemy. I say a forlorn hope, though I do not think the simile a perfect one, for in this case, the forlorn hope is sure to win. I never see a man who is set for victory in God's things but he is sure to win. It is one of the characteristics of Philadelphia: " I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." Here Samuel and the people were in the right standing; they were in the land; but the Philistines came in and interfered with them. You ask, Who are the Philistines now? I answer, I do not know; but this much I see, that they are intruders amongst God's people who hinder them on the very ground of testimony, a direct evil influence.
The first thing, then, that the remnant must have is holiness. I repeat, we must have separation. We must if we are coming to pray; we must be able to lift up "holy hands." We positively come to God sometimes as if He did not see what we were about. It is a great blessing and a great happiness to see the ground God has set us on. It is that of separation from evil; that is the first characteristic, as we have seen. Samuel says to the people: " If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only."
And the next thing is dependence: he says, " I will pray for you unto the Lord."
Then thirdly comes defending: " The Philistines drew near to battle against Israel." You ask, Do you like fighting? No, I say, I do not; but the most timid animal makes a great fighter when what is most dear to it is assailed. See a hen when a dog attacks her chickens, how she will defend then! And why? Because there is love there. It is the greatest lover who makes the best defender.
So I say, separation, dependence, defending, and success mark the remnant. In Luke 2 we find another picture of the remnant. I find two people here who mark the remnant when the Lord first comes into the temple; Simeon sets forth one aspect of it, and Anna the other. To the one it was revealed that " he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ," and the other " departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day." Thus we get in the two the remnant adhering to the thing that marked the period.
And the Lord Jesus is found in the same path; He goes into the temple and drives out thence the sheep and the oxen and the changers of money, saying, " Make not my Father's house an house of merchandise." He says, I must look after the temple-after what belongs to God upon earth. And this is just what characterizes the remnant: it always adheres to what belongs to God upon earth.
Then, when the Lord goes out of the temple for the last time, " he saw a certain poor widow, casting into the treasury two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all. For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living she had." The poor widow gives all that she has for God's interests here; for what belongs to Him on the earth. Now let us turn to the second Epistle to Timothy to see how the remnant comes out in the present day.
I believe a great defect in our thoughts of the remnant lies in the fact that we do not take into consideration what the original thing was. We shall never understand the characteristics of the remnant if we do not see clearly what the church was at the first. Do not think that I mean we shall have the original thing back again; I do not; but I do say that we must return to beginnings.
In 2 Tim. 1 find that the church has got into a very corrupt state. Corruption has come into the house. And finding things thus in such corruption, the duty of faithful ones purging themselves from it comes out. " If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." The word "purge " only occurs twice in Scripture: once in this passage; the other in 1 Cor. 5 There it consists in purging out of leaven from the assembly; here, in purging out yourself. It is interesting to see the word only occurs twice; little things of this sort help us in the understanding of God's word.
Now what calls for this purging out of the individual? For myself I do not see at present that I should ever separate from a meeting on account of leaven; but when the maintenance of the leaven is insisted on, then it becomes canker and must be separated from. Canker can be kept out of companies gathered on the ground of the church of God, and if any such refuse to purge out the evil, then one must purge out oneself for they cease to be on that ground. But I maintain that the place I am in is God's house, and because I believe in the presence of the Holy Ghost in it, I do not suffer a bit of evil in the house.
And, in thus caring for the holiness of it, I shall not find myself in a place of isolation; I shall never be without company. This is an immense comfort. The Lord has not left the house. So here the apostle does not say to Timothy, You are all alone, there is no one left so good as you arc; no, but there are others who " call on the Lord out of a pure heart," and you must " follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace" with them, and thus help the whole church of God.
Now what are our " colors"? The first thing that Christendom did was to give up the colors. Rome deputed a man to represent Christ on the earth, whilst Christ had sent the Holy Ghost from the Father to testify of Himself through His body, the church. So numbers who instinctively seek Christ's rule on earth, and do not know where to find it, go over to Romanism, and are deceived by this counterfeit. On the other hand, Protestantism has rejected the wrong one, but has not apprehended the right One; and many who have accepted as a fact the truth of the presence of the Holy Ghost on earth, make infidels of themselves in not acting up to what they believe. T)o you think if I really believed the Holy Ghost were here, I should not look to Him instead of to human means of one kind and another in preaching the gospel, for instance? How could I accept Revivalism if I believed in the presence of the Holy Ghost? How could I trust to boards outside preaching rooms to bring in hearers, instead of to His leading?
You may answer, But the Holy Ghost is here to corn us during the absence of Christ; very true, He is here sent by the Father in the name of Christ to be the Comforter of His people, which we see in chapter 14:26; but in chapter 15:26 He is sent from the Father, expressly for the testimony; we read, "He shall testify of me." And again, in chapter 16:14, " He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."
I say, then, that the colors and the responsibility of the remnant is, that the Holy Ghost is here to maintain for Christ. But, even amongst those who believe it as an article of faith, there is such looseness in carrying it into practice, that the consequence is, numbers are found on the ground of the remnant who are there with very little conscience as to their position.
As to evangelizing, I believe the real thing, that which is most owned of God, is to go from house to house. It might be more laborious, but it would certainly be more effective. Of course there is the public thing as well, that is proclamation, and I wish there were more of it. But I insist upon the presence of the Holy Ghost in carrying it out.
I now turn for another thing that characterizes the remnant, to a passage that is in the mouth of you all: " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst." Remark they are to be "gathered." Each one must be led to His name by the Holy Ghost-must be gathered; and that to the name of Christ. We have to learn what a real thing His presence is in our midst. Do you think if people really knew the Lord were there, that they would give out any hymn that was merely in their mind? I am sure I speak timidly on such a subject, but I always ask Him if He would like me to give out such a one, and, if He does not countenance me, I do not.
It is one of the defects of brethren that they think they know everything, but I believe that very little is known of the Lord's presence in the midst of His gathered ones. When we are around Him it is not a question of what ministry there will be, of what I shall hear, but of whether the Lord Himself will speak to me. There is an old adage that "a crooked loaf will feed a man." We have accepted the fact that Christ is in the midst of His church, and I do not know any greater favor that God has ever shown me than that of bringing me into His place upon earth; but as in the days of Nehemiah, " there is much rubbish" with the truth we have. As our Epistle tells us, we are in "perilous times," and there is no apostle for perilous times. The second Epistle of Peter, and Jude, give us descriptions of these same times; but there is always left to us " the holy scriptures," which are sufficient to make " the man of God perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."
But whilst, on the one hand, God has provided power for His people even in " perilous times," there are those who, like Jannes and Jambres, in the days of Moses, withstand the truth by imitating power. A person once, speaking of the lawfulness of any means to reach souls, asked me, " Do you not think it is right to weep in preaching the gospel?" " Never," I answered, " if it is to make others weep." And this imitation never succeeds in reaching the real thing; when it came to be a question of life, the magicians had to stop.
Now in this third chapter we find a different thing to what is in the second. There it is purging oneself from evil which has become canker. And saints generally have stopped at the end of that chapter without going on to the third and fourth. A state of things comes in amongst those who have purged themselves in which the apostle says, " reprove, rebuke, exhort." The first five verses of chapter 4. are his words to us. 1 am sure I do not say it valiantly, but still I am convinced that it has now come to what Moses said to Levi, " Who is on the Lord's side? Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor." It is not that what has gone before in the previous part of the Epistle is to be neglected, it is not that you are not to separate from evil when it has assumed the character spoken of by the apostle, but that you are also to cleave fast to God's word, and to " reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." If I find a person ignorant, I am to teach him with all patience.
One word in conclusion. What is my present gain if I, in a moral condition, fight God's battles -stand for Christ's interests here on earth? I might enjoy God's mercies, I might go down on my knees to the water like Gideon's soldiers. They were fearless men though they did it, and I am fearless too; why should I not enjoy what I find of His mercies in my path? Simply because I will not turn aside to anything, however lawful, that may distract me from my one object-standing for Him here where He is not. And, meanwhile, in all the conflict, I know the heart of the One I am standing for; I have that infallible comfort, Christ's " joy." Are you turning aside? Are you looking for something to amuse you by the way? Some pleasant book it may be, no matter what. I know as well as any what a little thing can turn the soul aside, and " A burnt child dreads the fire." But if I am to take the place of the lover, there must be no turning aside; there must be the character suited to it.
There never was such a time as this, never such opportunities for giving up for Christ. You need not talk to me of what you have given up, for it is more than made up to you; it is sure to be " manifold more in this present time." But we need the warning. How many a fearless man is turned aside by a mercy here! Satan says, Here is a nice little spring; stop to have a drink at it. There is always such danger in a novelty. A thing you possess is not nearly so dangerous to you as the offer of one you have not, but desire. Give it up for Christ and there will be " manifold more" for you. Oh, we little think of the honor there is in standing a valiant one for Christ! People think the honor and glory are all coming by-and-by. I say it is now " The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." Do you say, It is not a reality? I answer, That is your own fault; it is you who have not suffered. Look at Abraham after the victory. Melchisedec, the priest of the most high God, comes out to meet him and to bless him. Lot never met Melchisedec that I know of.
The Lord grant that our hearts may be so enlarged by the knowledge of His heart up there, that we may be persuaded that there is no greater joy than that of being allowed to stand for His name in this world, and thus going on in company with His heart, and in association with those who follow Him here. if all saints, all the church, are not on our hearts, we are defective. No member is really helpful who forgets the body. But, at the same time, the best way to help others is by being faithful ourselves. Barnabas could say: I own you helped me, Paul; I was offended with you at the time, but I have come back again, for I see that you were valiant for the truth, which I was not.
Give up for the Lord; be valiant for the truth; and what I have said will be yours: " manifold more in this present time."
(J. B. S.)