PE 11:5-9{IT is of great importance that we should understand what is due to God and to man; I might say" what it is to be responsible to God and responsible to man. Some do not like the word, as being too legal, but I do not object to it. There is a holy priesthood, that is to God; and there is a royal priesthood; that is to man.
'Peter never speaks of the body; it is the house; and in Hebrews we get the same side of truth: fellows of the Holy Ghost, and tasting of the heavenly gift. We have greatly lost the fact of the wondrous power and manifestation of the Holy Ghost present in the house. Have you a grave sense in. your soul that the Holy Ghost is here? I do not mean Christ in the midst. It is brought out very definitely in 1 Cor. 14:24,2524But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 25And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. (1 Corinthians 14:24‑25). It is not the Holy Ghost Himself there; it is the activity of the Holy Ghost. The word there translated "unlearned" is layman, thus proving that all the rest are priests. The man comes in, is convinced, it does not say converted. And this explains that very difficult passage in Heb. 6 He is judged, the secrets of his heart are made manifest by the power of the Holy Ghost, and he falls down ' and acknowledges that " God is in you," not in himself. The Holy Ghost is acting on the man. We sometimes lose this fat in the gathered company; I do not say the assembly, because I wish- to distinguish between the house and the body. All who profess form the house, those who join the table the body. At first all professing came up to the table. Satan's great effort is to keep saints from getting to the right place. The place is everything with a good churchman.; he is always trying to get a man to church. On the other hand a dissenter proper has no thought of the place: he has a vague thought of the body; membership is his aim; but it is membership of a congregation.
But whilst, on one hand there is a forgetting of the presence of the Holy Ghost, there is sometimes, I fear, on the other hand, a kind of superstitious feeling, a certain sense when entering a meeting room such as you find in Christendom generally; a sort, of feeling that the place itself is sacred, even when there is no activity going on. I need. not say that none of us hold this in theory, though sometimes it may be dropped into a little. Getting in early so as to collect oneself is very nice, but sometimes people overstep that. However there should be the sense that the presence of the Holy Ghost is there.
And now a plain question: What do you go to the meeting for? I find in Peter that the saints are " a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." "
Now if I turn to the Old Testament I find there a very simple thing: that no person was to appear empty before the Lord. It would not have done for anyone coming before the temple to be asked, Well, have you not a lamb? No.. Not even a pigeon? No. They were not to come empty handed, neither were they to offer to the Lord that which cost them /- nothing. Now what is this to me? It is that I am to bring up something of the preciousness of Christ to offer to God. I am not doing anything visible, but I have, as it were, one or more senses of Christ in what He is before God in my heart. Instead of this the thought generally is that I am to hear something which will stir me up to worship, which is right in its place, but that is not meant here.
Look at Lev. 7 The priest's part of the sin offering is so great that I have not come up fully to its meaning. I pass on to 5:8. " The priest that offereth any man's burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered." Here we have both the holy and the royal priesthood. He is first so occupied with the burnt offering, with Christ in the presence of God as wholly offered up to Him, that he can come out in a new style to Man. I go to a meeting, and what do I dwell on? My heart is delighting in what Christ is to God. And what have I as the result of this? I have. the skin. What is that? Well, it is the outside color, the beauty, if you like, of the animal. Just as Moses came down from the mountain and' his face shone, so I have got near God, delighting in what Christ is to Him, and now I come down to man and I have the skin.
It is not because of my devotedness. There is a reward for devotedness, and I am not_ making little of it, would -to God there were more; but people-do not get on, and the reason is that they will not give up. There are two ways of getting: the one is being a poor widow; I have nothing, and so I get: the other is giving up what I have; then I get," manifold more." It is not by service that I acquire the skin, though service has its own reward. "If any man serve me him shall my Father honor." But this is not either reward for devotedness or for service. It is priesthood; it is because of being occupied with Christ before God; it is that blessed- thing which is only known to the soul when it is entranced with the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he gets some of it; he does not get it all; he gets the skin-the beauty of the precious One that he delights in. I am not only captivated with that beauty, but I get a part-of it myself. Just as children who love their parents get to do things like them, thus I have got so near to that blessed One that I have Caught something of His likeness and now I can come out from Win to show forth the virtues of Him who hath called me out of darkness into His marvelous light. How different! would our meetings be did We thus come together as a holy priesthood and a royal priesthood!, Then in 5:33: " He that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part." How do I get it? By looking; by drawing near: ".Set your affection km things above; " and that not only on things' there, but " where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." I am priestly in my action, and now what is the effect? I have the right shoulder, I am participating in that which Christ is; and, having participated in Him,. I now come down to be an expression of what He Himself was here.
The apostle says " That Christ may be my gain." It is not that I want to be an amiable man, but that-I want to be Christ. He says, I had once a great many things here to boast of, but I do not want them now: I have suffered' the loss of all things; it is not only giving up certain things in themselves, but I count all things but rubbish that Christ may be my gain. Surely such words should touch every heart! There is nothing delights the heart more than love; there is nothing so dignifies the heart as loving an object worthy of itself; what then can so dignify me as loving this blessed Object of God Himself? I do not believe there is ever progress where there is not personal affection to Christ. It is not merely the Jonathan character: a Jonathan loves David for what he has done for him; but Ruth loves Naomi for what she is.
If I really love Him I shall be like Him: I never admire anything without desiring to be like it. But here I am not an imitation merely; I get a part; yet I am not in power like Him. When Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus he never did it with the equanimity that Christ did; so, when it comes to be the consecration, I find that I do not get the right shoulder; it is heaved up, and I feed upon the left; for I never can be like Him, though I do get here the right as my part. Is there a heart present that does not say, Would that I had more of it!
I turn now to Phil. 4 I do not know anything that spoils our prayer meetings more than people coming to them burdened- with their own needs. I sometimes go saying to myself," I cannot pray to-night; I am too much pressed; I must wait till I am clear." If my interests interest' the saints, that is another thing. I may have a sick child that I may ask the assembly to pray for, but I myself should not be the individual to do it, for I must lose my individuality in the assembly.
" Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. ". Here it is put (in the simplest way. Though I am clear with God in chap. 3., I am not always clear with man in my own circumstances. God says to me, You are clear of everything this way; now go down and make all clear that way. As to man, be yielding: "Let your moderation be known unto all men." If a man wishes to push me off the flags, I say, Very well, 'push me off. I do not proclaim it, but this is the character of my action; I make no secret of it. In the next verse I do make known unto God; I studiously; pertinaciously, do it, until I know that I have told Him.
Now if I am not priestly I cannot do this. If I am not in the full sense of acceptance with God,' I cannot get near at all. I believe there is nothing in the present day like prayer. Nine tenths of the troubles in the assemblies come from there not being prayer. There has been effort, and that is not prayer. When -Samuel cried to the Lord he offered up a sucking lamb; that is he was accepted; and, as soon as he has done it, the Philistines are upon him. Then God interferes. He thunders. He may not use me in answering my prayers; ask Him to convert my child,-and He gets some one else to be the channel of it. Prayer is the great thing-. 'Whatever the difficulty, you will be carried through, if you have started there with God. It would take away a wonderful deal of distraction, if saints looked to be provided with the needful grace before the emergency came.
As I have touched on the subject of prayer' I must just turn to one passage before leaving it. It is Ps. evil, which is for the remnant, but it includes- every class of trial that man can be in. And what is the one remedy? Cry Look at this Psalm. The first we read of is hungry and thirsty, his soul fainting in hind. There is no sin there. And what does he do " They cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses." How- does he get the deliverance? By fretting? By roaming up and down? No, but by crying.. The second has done his own will, and he-is reaping the fruits of it. There is a difference between a perverse person and a careless one. The careless person gets into depression; he will not go on, so he slips, out of the activities of life. But here there is despising the counsel of God, and you get down to the depths; it is exposure, What is to be done? Cry? The third is transgression. You cannot be worse than this. And what can I do? Wonderful! I never can sink so low in the mire and sin of this -wretched world but that God will deliver me from I cry! The fourth is a man who has got entangled with things 'here. Have you gone into business, have you done anything without God? Then you will come to your wits end. But what am I to do when I do? Cry! and He will bring you to the desired haven. " Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving -kindness of the Lord." And which of us has not tasted this loving kindness?
However, to return to Philippians. None of us need ever be discouraged about what we pray for. It is just when we least expect it that God comes in: " The darkest hour is the hour before dawn." And why? To prove to us that it is all of God. The great point in our education as we go on is: " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." " Let your requests be made known unto God." I want to know that T have told Him. He may say, as we.
do to our children, I will see to it. But very often He will do the desired thing and you may not know that he has done it; for it is not your words that He acts by, but the intention of. the Spirit in the words that you say. I believe that He gives us everything that we value, not in this world's things, but in divine things. If He did not, you would be better than He, and your aspirations greater than His. So I go, a poor heartstricken, woe begone one, into His presence, to tell out the groans of a broken heart. Truly poor -things to hear! But it is not the hearing, it is. the telling of it out to Him that is the point. And the result is, I come out from Him with the peace of God Himself. My circumstances are no better than they were, but I can now be unperturbed, unruffled in the midst of all the trouble: thus I show forth the virtues of Him, who hath called me out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Again, as " we behold the -glory of the Lord with unveiled face, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory." If there is any one thing that strikes me more than all-other in the present day, it is the amount of spiritual information that there is without formation. If I really come to Him I -get the mark of Himself upon me. Like a mirror held up to Him I get Hi's reflection, and thus am formed into the likeness of His glory. When the Lord walked to Emmaus with the two disciples, what wonderful information He gave them. Have you not often longed to have been there? But see how little it formed them. You always discover a man's power in his act. If you want to find out what a man is, ask him to do something. I have felt at times afraid to act; I have felt that if I did I should make a blunder. I believe that acting at such times accounts for many of the mistakes a man makes, even in his business, because " the backslider, in heart shall be filled with his own devices"; a man who is away from God is off the line about everything. But, with these two, when the Lord is known of them in breaking of bread, immediately they are formed; action comes out. They go the same way that He does. As they were communicating to the others the instruction they had received from Him, He comes into their midst.
But many a one reads the word without connecting it with the One who is the model. Many saints are like branches torn from a beautiful hawthorn tree; they look all fair for the moment, but they soon fade away. I say, Leave the branch on the tree. " Abide in me," then there will be growth and power. As you behold Him you are transformed. Many a saint has the metal, but has not the mold in which it is to be cast. Of course every figure falls short, but I account for the state of many who have got much scriptural knowledge but who yet make no progress, that they have. never got near to the model after which they are to be fashioned-not yet got the mold in which to cast the metal. I am confident that, if you do not connect your knowledge of Scripture with the One who is the impersonation of it, you never can be an exponent of Him here.
For instance, how many are well acquainted with Scripture who have never yet even found the spot where Christ meets His people on earth. To such I say, It is not too late to go to Jerusalem. The two disciples are a pattern to us. Having learned of Christ they go direct to the very spot where He would have them be; they bring with them, a fresh supply. of knowledge; and, as they are telling it out, as Luke beautifully says, " Jesus stood in the midst of them." Down on this very earth where Christ was crucified, Christ the Son of the Father, I get the presence of that blessed One, get Him standing in the midst of His own, telling out to them all the blessedness in which He puts them before His God and Father.
The' Lord grant that we know more distinctly what it is to meet together as the holy priesthood; then we shall better know what it is to show forth the royal priesthood upon earth. (J. B. S.)