2CO 5:14-212CO 6:12CO 6:2THERE is much done for perishing sinners: and surely there cannot be too much, for the time is short, the need is great, the redemption of the soul is precious, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
1. But shall we not also remember that there are perishing saints as well as perishing sinners? What! you say, perishing saints? I never heard of such a thing before. Well it may be for you that you should now hear of it, for it is a sad fact. Does not " the sanctification of the Spirit " make a saint? Assuredly even before he knows himself as such or has pardon and peace through the blood of sprinkling. But he is not in his true place of liberty and sonship until sealed with the Holy Ghost. It was “when he came to himself “that the lost son said,” How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish for hunger." And is not “I perish for hunger," the language of many a quickened but unsettled and uninstructed. soul? Yet there is a work of grace to bring out this cry (for dead souls speak not), and the quickened soul looks God-ward in a sense of His love, in expectancy, and then his word is, “I will arise and go to ray father.".. And he arose and came to his father," and when he met him he found a father indeed; and instead of merely finding bread to appease his hunger and save him from perishing, he found the kiss of reconciliation, the best robe, the shoes, the ring, and a feast on the best the father's table could furnish. What a blessed thing when the perishing saint gets picked up by grace and gets that in the Father's presence which all these things set forth and symbolize! What a contrast from " perish with hunger," which is, at present, the condition of so many who have life but not deliverance, when instead of continuing under legal exercise of soul like the man in the end of the seventh of Romans, there is such a knowledge of Christ given in life, death, resurrection and glory by the Holy Ghost as assures forgiveness, acceptance, meetness, and fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Ala! beloved, is it not a laudable enterprise to seek the rescue of the perishing saint as well as the salvation of the perishing sinner? And are there not "servants” mentioned in the parable to whop the father gives instructions, and who are to carry them out? And does this not tell of the ministry of reconciliation which God has put into the hearts and hands of his trusted servants, that all that is found in and around the Christ of glory may be given to bring saints into the Father's presence, consciously blessed with all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, and children of adoption to the Father to the praise of His glory-accepted in the Beloved, in whom they have redemption in His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.
2. Fallen saints. There is much done for our fallen world, and there cannot be too much. God has so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And still we read of “the reconciling of the world," for through Christ's grace the righteousness of God is unto all. The philanthropy of God toward man has appeared-of God our Savior who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. The fallen world claims our deepest sympathy and most fervent energy. Seventy out of every hundred of its thirteen or fourteen hundred millions have never heard the gospel of the grace of God. But if God loved the world and gave His Son: Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might have it as His own, suitable to Him, and with Him in glory, glorious like Himself. And is the blessed Head of His body, the Church, unconcerned about His fallen assembly? And is it not permitted to such as feel for the state of this assembly to have sympathies in common with Christ's as to caring for the blessing of it, or if it be impossible to reach the whole, to have a, desire that there should be such a holiness, unworldliness, spirituality and heavenly-mindedness pervading those who have purged themselves from vessels to dishonor, and are gathered together to His name as He may be graciously pleased to use and turn it for a testimony to the glory of God, who has given Him as Head over all things to the Church which is His. body? While one must have deepest sympathy with the ministry of reconciliation to a fallen world, and while prayers and efforts are all too few for the salvation of the lost, yet surely it would be pleasing to the Lord if some few gave their thoughts, prayers, and efforts a little more intensely to a fallen assembly.
But some might object that this is hopeless work, and work to which the Lord does not set us; but our work is to depart from iniquity, purge ourselves from vessels to dishonor, the teachers of error, who overthrow faith, in the great house of Christian profession. All true. But when gathered to Christ's name on the basis of owning one body and one Spirit, surely we have morally the character, if not the complement, of God's assembly. And it is just in this we may find not a few of the fallen saints of God. And this, too, even where there may be much that even the Lord Himself would commend. There may be much labor, patience, rejection of evil, and devoted unfainting labor for Christ's name's sake, and all the time there may be a worm at the root that makes the whole assembly droop, wither and decay. Let us not think that the word fallen is inappropriate as applied to assemblies; for the Lord Himself makes use of it. Are we better than the assembly of Ephesus, so fully taught of Paul for such a long period, and having such a spiritual condition that a letter full of the highest spiritual truth could be addressed to them, the epistle to the Ephesians? The Lord sends them afterward a letter from heaven with these words: " I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil; and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars; and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted." This is a remarkable commendation. What could the Lord want more?
Yet with all this abundance of service there is the most serious flaw,—the spring of devotedness is gone, first love is left, and the reproach of unchanged love is " Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." The Lord cares for our service, but it cannot gratify his heart when He does not have our love. The work done in the past from love to Him is owned, but if our labor now want the motive, spring, and energy of love to Himself, it cannot be accepted. What love has He shown for the Church when He gave Himself for her? And love can be satisfied with nothing but love. He wants herself, not her work. Faith worketh by love. What would a husband think of a wife if fully occupied both in the house and outside, and yet had no love for her husband. He would not be blind to her good qualities, but he wants herself. All the activity a wife could show would not please a husband if love had grown cold. And if he would not accept a loveless service do you think Christ will? The fall of saints from first love is the heaviest and most disastrous fall they could have. Anything may be expected after this. Christ threatens to remove the candlestick, for it gives a wrong testimony to Christ's love.
The prayer of the 3rd of Ephesians may have been answered-that Christ may dwell in your hearts that ye may be rooted and grounded in love; but though Paul's converts may have been bright with enjoyment of Christ's love, and full of love to Him in the Church's infancy, yet now a long time has elapsed, and a new generation has arisen, and, as no community enjoys the blessing in its original power beyond the generation on which it comes, so now in John's day there is decline in love, and the Lord has to address them as a fallen assembly. And if the cooling down of first love to Christ be the fall, how many may now be similarly addressed! There has been a great awakening of the Spirit during this century, and many have been brought out to Christ with the freshness of first love and in real exercise of soul; but a new generation has come, and saints who have fallen from first love to Christ need the Lord's word as truly as did the fallen Church of Ephesus. Is it not, then, a necessary work to think of a fallen assembly that has left its first love to Christ, and is in danger of having its candlestick removed? It is not unneedful for us to lay this word of grieved affection to heart. Are we better than others 2 Nay, but if there is a difference, it is that we have had the Ephesian truth and the full enjoyment of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and while others are regarded according to their own privileges, we shall have to answer for the highest privileges enjoyed by any people since the days of the apostles.
It is evident that we greatly need to have our minds and hearts turned afresh to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, and no longer lie where we have fallen: and for this we require to sit less in our own house, i.e., he rejoicing in a vaunting way in our privileges and saying, like Laodicea " I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;" and to get into the Lord's presence, and sitting before the Lord, hear what He, in His love, will do for us. He has made provision for having us with Him, and like Him in the glory of heaven, and for giving us to enjoy His love in the Spirit even now, when passing through the wilderness on to the many mansions in the Father's house. Is it not for Christ's honor that fallen saints should be ministered to as well as fallen sinners? And why not seek to have the fallen state of the assembly laid upon our consciences with a view to the recovery of souls? It is a work that is much in the mind and on the heart of the Lord, and for this the ministry is given for the perfecting of the saints for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and the full knowledge of the Son of God. The word fallen, referring not to outward falls, but to the state of the affections towards Christ, addresses itself to most part of saints, for how many have fallen from first love? how much they need the ministry of Christ's love to them to fill their souls and hearts afresh with Himself who gave Himself for them, lives now in glory to care for them and bless them, saving them to the uttermost, and who has said, " I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." Fallen Ephesians need afresh the ministry of the Epistle to Ephesians in the living power of the Holy Ghost.
3. Dead saints. Much effort is used for souls who are " dead in trespasses and sins; " and it is most praiseworthy, for now is the time when the dead hear the voice of the Son of God and live, and the Spirit quickeneth whom He will, and God, who is rich in mercy, hath quickened us together with Christ raised in us, and saved us by grace through faith and made us a new creation, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. We who believe pass from death unto life. All this is a settled thing before God for eternity, when it is real, and we are dead and risen with Christ, and as such can be addressed and called upon to set our affection on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. But as those who are set up as the house of God and a testimony to Christ in this world, we, as well as others, may be as good as dead, and require the rousing word, " I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead," &c. "Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light—shall shine upon thee, and having Him in His holy life before you, and now shining in glory in the highest heavens; if we listen still to the word, we will hear it say, Be filled with the Spirit, and thus we shall morally have Christ living in us and expressed by us, while the singing joy of happy spiritual life feeding itself on Christ will express itself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, while we make melody in our hearts to the Lord. The ministry that would thus waken sleeping saints and get dead ones to " be watchful and strengthen the things that are ready to die," and fill the saints with such enjoyment of life in Christ that the character of Christ should be put on, and the new life in Christ expressed in the saint's life and walk, is surely as necessary as preaching to dead sinners of God's love in giving Christ up to death for us, and raising Him again for our justification that we might have life and peace.
4. Unconverted Saints there are, too, in the sense of the term as applied by our Lord to Peter when he said: “When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren." The Apostle's self-confidence was greater than his courage. We all know the history of his denial of his Lord, and his repentance, recovery, and restoration. He loved his Lord vehemently, yet he denied Him shamefully. He put himself among the wrong company, at their fire of coals while Christ was being arraigned before the high priest. His eye was off Christ and on himself, and, being in difficult circumstances, Satan tempted him to save his life rather than lose it; and he denied his Master with oaths and curses. Christ turned and looked upon Peter: and what a look it must have been, for on receiving it Peter went out immediately and wept bitterly. But he was not yet converted, although he was now on the way to it. Although it could be said, “The Lord is risen indeed and path appeared unto Simon," neither did this convert him. Nor did the Lord's message by Mary, nor His presence in their midst on the first day of the week. A saint's conversion is more difficult work than most of us think, and needs special dealing. But when Christ appeared upon the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and Peter threw his fisher's coat around him to swim to Him, surely the ardent apostle must now be converted? No, not yet; but the grace of our Lord Jesus will now accomplish the work. " A fire of coals " led him to deny His Lord, a fire of coals is used by the Lord as he is advancing with the work of his conversion; but there is fish thereon. They had toiled all, night, and had caught nothing. But after the miraculous draft of fishes Jesus invites them to the feast He had prepared for them. He feasts him before He probes him. “Come and dine” is before His testing word to Peter, “Lovest thou me more than these?" Our Lord does not trust the conversions which consist in touched affections and gushing fervor. He thrice said to Peter, “Lovest thou me?" Peter had thrice denied him, and thrice He asks him, “Lovest thou me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Lovest thou me," and replied humbly, “Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." The conversion of a Christ-denying disciple is a solemn process. The conscience has to be dealt with until self-judgment fills the soul with poignant sorrow and self-abhorring grief. He deserved to feel thoroughly miserable in the presence of Christ, whose love had led Him to die for him, and he was most miserable. How few in their repentance are willing to go down to the misery-point. “These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes." The depth of Christ's love necessitates the thoroughness of his work. "As many as I love I reprove and chasten; be zealous, therefore, and repent." He effects the backsliding saint's conversion by means of the work of a thorough repentance.
O my blessed Lord, if this be what Thou callest a lapsed saint's conversion, how many of Thy dear saints and servants still need to experience the sub-soil plowing of Thine inexorable grace!
LEVITICUS. 21; 22
FROM laws which concerned the children of Israel at large, we pass on to some which had special reference to the priests (21. 22.). Holiness and the maintenance of the revelation of the unity of God (Deut. 6.4) having been pressed on the people, the Lord now directs Moses to speak unto Aaron, and to his sons. Hitherto, with the exception of the revelations given us in 6:25; 16:2, Moses was commanded to speak unto the people, or to the people conjointly with Aaron and his sons (17:2). But the priests being separated unto God, there were restrictions placed on their actions, from which the rest of the people were free. To be a priest unto Jehovah was a high honor, and none could share in it but those specially chosen for it by God. The Lord had caused the house of Aaron to come near to Him (Ex. 28:1). To be one of God's earthly people was a great privilege, but even that involved the observance of restrictions, as we have seen (17.-20.), from which others were exempt. To be God's priests, members of the holy priesthood, was a greater privilege, hence it would be no wonder, nor cause for complaint, if the Lord laid down rules for them to which the rest of Israel were not called to submit. These, which affected them in their family relationships and in their households, we have set forth in the revelations given by the Lord to Moses on their behalf. The first (21:1-15) treats of their defilement by the dead, and the range within which they could marry. The second (21:16-24) gives regulations concerning those priests who were blemished in their persons. The third (22:1-16) provides against profanation of the holy things which the children of Israel would offer to the Lord. Such, then, being their purport, their introduction in this part of the book is orderly and natural, appearing as they do in close proximity to those regulations which concern the holy people. A holy people all Israel were. A holy priesthood Aaron and his house were.
In common with the rest of Israel, a priest might defile himself for the dead, though in his case it was only permitted for those near of kin to him, viz., for his mother, his father, his son, his brother, or his sister who had never been married. For other relations, or for friends, he was not to be defiled. How defilement for the dead might be contracted Num. 19:11-14 declares. It might be by contact with the dead body, or only by the person's presence in the house, or tent, at the time of death, or after it had taken place. Natural feeling might have prompted on the priest's part the doing that which God's Word here forbade him. He might have desired to be present at his friend's death, or to soothe the grief of those bereaved by expressing his sympathy in person. All this would be natural and right for one of the redeemed people, but not for one of God's consecrated priests. They were not to be thus defiled, nor profaned. The separation to God was never to be forgotten. To profane himself, being a chief man among his people, was here forbidden him.
Others of Israel's seed could do what he could not. He was not to pollute himself, because he had been set apart for God's service. Further, no mark of mourning was to be seen on his person (compare with verse 5, Isa. 22:12; Amos 8:10; Mic. 1:16); for he was to be holy unto his God, and was not to profane the name of his God, for the offerings of the Lord made by fire, the bread of his God he offered, therefore he was to be holy (6).
In connection with these directions about mourning, come those about marriage. With whom any one of Israel might not marry we have already had before us, Here the marriage law, as it especially affected a priest, is brought in. Neither one guilty of whoredom, nor a profane woman, i.e., one who had been guilty of fornication (see v. 9), nor one divorced, was to become the wife of a priest, for he was holy to his God. How his condition as sanctified to God was to govern his actions in times of mourning, and in the matter of marriage. He was a priest. He could not help it. He was such by virtue of his birth. He was, therefore, never to forget it, and conduct only such as became a priest was to be exhibited by him. Nor that only. Israel were to remember what he was, and to help, as far as it lay in their power, to maintain that separation to God which became every male of the house of Aaron.
But there was one of that house who, by virtue of his office, was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. We refer to the high priest. For him, therefore, no defilement for the nearest or dearest of his relations was to be permitted, and no one could he wed, but a virgin of his people. Perfect separation in the matter of, mourning and of marriage became him who filled that office. And one can see the propriety of this, as we know of whom as high priest he was the type. Under all circumstances does God teach us of the holiness of the person of His Son. If He rode on the ass's colt, He rode on that on which no man had before Him sat. If His body was laid in the grave, it was laid in a new tomb, never till then tenanted; and though He died, He saw no corruption. So here, the high priest was to be defiled for the dead, and he could not wed as his wife one who had been married to another man. A widow any of the priests might marry. But even a widow was barred to the high priest (v. 14), The person of the Lord was ever, we see, present to the eye of God.
A second revelation given to Moses for Aaron and his sons regulated the position of a blemished priest. Between a blemished priest and a defiled one there was a great difference. A defiled one became defiled by contact with uncleanness, by disease working in his body, or by his presence in a house or tent where death had recently taken place. A blemished priest was one in whose person there was some defect, or abnormal growth. Such an one could not minister at the altar. A priest he was, and always would be.
The priest's portion of the holy and most holy things belonged to him equally with all the other priests, but service at the altar was forbidden him, for he who served there, whether the high priest or a common priest, was a type in his service of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom there was no blemish.
Here, again, we see that the person of the Lord Jesus Christ was ever present to God's eye. Of Him we read in the New Testament that He was without blemish (amōmos) (Heb. 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19). Of Christians we read that it was God's counsels to have them such before Him in Christ (Eph. 1:4); and the Church Christ will present to Himself holy and without blemish (amōmos) (Eph. 5:27) and the saints seen with the Lamb on Mount Zion, are described in the same way (amomoi) without blemish (Rev. 14:5). Besides this God desires that we should be without blame (Phil. 2:15; 1 Thess. 2:10; 3:13; 5:23, (amemptōs) and unimpeachable (anegklectous) likewise (1 Cor. 1:8; Col. 1:22; 1 Tim. 3:10; Titus 1:6, 7) terms never applied in the New Testament to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amōmos is predicated of Him and of saints; amemptos and anegkleetos only of saints.
As blemished, then, the priest could not minister at the altar, nor serve in the sanctuary, yet he was not to be deprived of his birthright. The distinction here made is interesting. God's nature never alters, so no one could approach him in priestly service who was blemished in his person, lest he should profane God's sanctuary. The Aaronic service of the priest at the altar, and in the holy place was thus guarded most jealously till He came, the true priest, who has done all that had to be done of the Aaronic character of priestly work in connection with the sacrifice and the sanctuary. But the portion of a priest, God's provision for a priest, the blemished one of Aaron's house shared in equally with those in whom there was nothing lacking nor superfluous. Perfect in his person the officiating priest had to be. That we all understand. But as priesthood flowed from birth, nothing could make a man of Aaron's house cease to be a priest. Thus on the one hand God's unchangeableness as to His nature was declared, and on the other the unchangeableness of His purpose. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. By birth the sons of Aaron were reckoned amongst the priests. By right of birth believers now are priests unto God, a holy priesthood, privileged to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).
Defilement, however, was a very different matter. Though blemished, the priest as we have seen, shared in the portion provided for Aaron's house. If defiled he could not have part in that, until he had been duly cleansed, and what that cleansing was to be Jehovah determined. Defilement then might happen to any of Aaron's house, and where it existed, it incapacitated the one unclean from eating the holy things. This is next treated of in the revelation contained in 22:1-16, addressed to Aaron and to his sons, " Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things which the children of Israel hallow unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from my presence: I am the Lord " (3) Various ways in which defilement might be contracted are then enumerated (4-8), illustrating most plainly the difference between a blemish and uncleanness, followed by directions for the cleansing of the defiled priest. But why this difference? The answer is obvious. To eat of the holy things typified communion with God. So none defiled could have fellowship with Him, that is clear. From defilement, however, a person might get free, if he acted as by the law he was directed. From the blemish he might never get free. Had the blemish barred the right of eating of the holy things, who could ever have had communion with God but one-the Lamb without blemish and without spot? We are without blemish, but as chosen in Christ. (Eph. 1:4).
Further, who in the priest's house might eat of the holy thing is also set forth. Nothing of this was left to mar, to Aaron, or even to Moses, to decide. Jehovah alone determined such questions, and declared, too, what any one who had eaten of the holy thing inadvertently was to do (10-16). Thus carefully did God guard the privilege of having communion with Him, and defined by the law, mho those were who shared in such a favor. The priest's family, and his daughter, if after marriage she was a widow, and living under his roof; all those born in his house, or bought with his money—these could eat of the holy things. But neither servants not born under his roof, nor bought with his money, nor a stranger, nor a sojourner with him, could partake of them. Birth or purchase gave the right, but nothing else could, to eat with him of the holy things.
In close connection with the law regarding this privileged class, is the revelation addressed to Aaron, to his sons, and to all Israel regarding the blemishes, which, if found in any animal, would hinder its being offered in sacrifice (22:18-33). For a burnt offering it had to be a male without blemish. For a peace offering the animal had to be perfect, though the law allowed a bullock or a lamb that had anything superfluous, or was lacking (lit. lessened) to be offered for a freewill offering. Remembering of whom this sacrifice was a type, we understand these provisions of the law; and bearing in mind the fact that the law was given to an earthly people, we can apprehend the grace which provided a relaxation of the stringent regulation, if they were moved to draw nigh with a sacrifice for a freewill offering. But, whilst Jehovah thus provided for the freewill offering, He reminded them that they must eat it only on the day that it was offered. He had already declared this in 7:15. He here reminded them of it, lest they should forget it. How often have we need to remember that communion with Him to be acceptable must be real. It is not to become a form, it is to be a reality.