The subject of this chapter is simply, as pointed out last week, the state of soul suitable to meet the Lord on His return; and we see in detail, I think, how the Lord sought to prepare His disciples, and to impart to them the state of soul which He requires.
I might just, perhaps, go back, and state the points of the chapter, in order to connect them with what I have before me tonight.
We saw, in the first place, that the Lord Jesus sought to deliver His disciples from the fear of man, in order that there might be a bold confession of His name while they were passing through this scene. Then, in the second place, He sought to deliver them from anxiety as to the things of this life, that they might seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that all needful things might be added to them. Then we saw that He sought to establish them in grace, as we read in Luke 12:32: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”; and He sought, not only to establish them in grace, but also to make them the representatives of grace as they passed through this world. Thus He says to them, “Sell that ye have, and give alms.” Then there is another point to which I call attention, as it connects itself with what is before me this evening. It is this. If we represent God in grace in this world, we lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. It is a wonderful thing, but you cannot get away from it; if we are givers in this world, and thus represent God as a giver, we lay up treasure in heaven for ourselves. But then remember, when we speak of treasure in heaven, that everything is centered in Christ, and, therefore, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. I understand, therefore, that Christ is our treasure, and so, beloved, the way to be heavenly-minded is to have our hearts set upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I am sure every one here tonight realizes this, that the dearest object we have upon earth is the one that commands our attention, our thoughts, and our affections. It is always true that where our treasure is our hearts will be also, and the Lord applies the figure, I think, without doubt to Himself, and so He tells us that if we have Him as our treasure, then our thoughts will be with Him. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). There is a distinct connection between that statement and what follows, which is the subject of this evening. The Lord immediately says, consequent upon that statement, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning” (Luke 12:35). I may say at once that if you have your treasure upon earth you will not have your loins girded, or your lights burning; it is impossible. There is the absolute necessity of having your treasure in heaven if you would be found waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What I feel myself in regard to the coining of the Lord Jesus Christ is that, as we pointed out in the last address, it is too much of a doctrine, and too little practical as affecting us in our daily lives. We shall never wait for the Lord unless He possesses our hearts; He must possess our hearts if we are to be found waiting for Him. “But,” you will say to me, “every one of us has the Lord Jesus Christ in his heart.” Are you sure of that? Are you sure that the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in the hearts of all His people? If He does, nothing but Christ will come out from them. No, if He is in our hearts He must be expressed, and the only way to express Christ in passing through this world is to have Him enshrined in our affections. If He is not, He will never be expressed; and this, let me say, illustrates a principle of great importance: that is, we only express as much of Christ as we are like Him; we could not express more if we tried. It is only in the proportion as He is formed within us that He can be expressed by us. If we have only a little of Christ, we cannot express much of Him, and thus you will see the importance of pressing this, that the Lord Jesus can only come out of us in our daily walk and conduct in proportion as we are like Him. A little of Christ—alas, how little some of us possess! We all know it; but then, beloved, we can only present Christ in proportion as we are like Him, and that is why He presses this scripture, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Now He tells us to let our loins be girded about and our lights burning, and then He says, “And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when He will return from the wedding” (Luke 12:36). Now let us look at this statement in detail. “Let your loins be girded about.” Now I think it is only three times in Scripture that reference is made to the loins being girded. In Ephesians 6:14, “Having your loins girt about with truth”; and in 1 Peter 1:13, “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.” Now put these three together, and we get this, that it is inwardly we are to be girt; it is in the spiritual mind; and then our loins are to be girt about with the truth. What is the truth? The truth, beloved, is the revelation of God in Christ Jesus; and it is with this that we are to be girded. The Lord says plainly, “Let your loins be girded about “; that is, as I understand it, girt about with the truth in its application to us in the power of the Spirit, so that inwardly under the influence of the truth we may be girded about, so that we may be prepared for conflict or service, or whatever we are called to do. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that we should understand this expression, “Let your loins be girt about with truth.”
Then there is another thing—“And your lights burning.” Now let me say one word about that. Does the light of every Christian shine out? Well now, the Apostle Paul speaks in Philippians in this way, “Among whom you appear as lights in the world.” The word “appear” here is really the same word as would apply to the rising of the luminaries in the heavens. For example, the moon shines tonight, for it is set there to shine. Every believer in like manner is set to shine, but then, alas! we don’t often shine, and so the Lord Jesus says, “And your lights burning.” In the first place, we have to ascertain what the light is. As far as I understand Scripture, the light is always Christ in the New Testament. It is the only light in the midst of the darkness, and so He speaks in this scripture of the lights burning; it is the light coming out in the daily life, there is no other light for men: “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” That received into the heart should flow out of us in our walk, our ways, and our conduct.
I think every one of you will see the necessity of this in regard to the Christian life, that the light should be burning; but why don’t our lights burn always, let me ask? Well, you will find in the tabernacle that Aaron had to use the snuffers. And why? In order that the light might be pure, that it might shine without obstruction. We all know what it is to see a candle with a long wick, and the light dim in consequence. It needs to be snuffed, in order that the light may shine clearly. Do you say, “How does that apply to you and me?” I will tell you. Some of us Christians may have bad habits—they will obscure the light. Suppose I were hasty in temper—that would obscure the light. If I were worldly —that would obscure the light; so would evil associations. Thus you will see you have to judge yourselves. There must be self-judgment, in order that everything that is inconsistent with Christ may have no place with us. How many of us have been the causes of stumbling to our fellow-Christians because our lights have not shone clearly! If we were living and walking in the power of the Holy Spirit there would be a manifest testimony to the Lord Jesus shining out of every one of us. The light cannot be hid; we read of the Lord Himself that He could not be hid. And why not? Because of the light that shone so perfectly from Him. You have this statement in John 1: “The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” The darkness sought to put the light out, and so they crucified our blessed Lord and Saviour.
You will now say to me, “What is the condition for the outshining of the light?” I know of only one; the Apostle Paul gives it to us in the statement about himself: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:10). Now what is the dying of Jesus? Simply, it is the application of the truth of the cross to what I am. What the apostle meant is this, always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that nothing of Paul might come out, only Christ in all he said and did. Let me give you a simple illustration. Suppose I am a witty man, and I meet you, and we have a conversation together. If not held by the power of the Spirit of God, I might be tempted to display my wit. That would not be Christ, but self; and so it is, in order for the light to shine, there must be the application of death to all that I am, that only Christ may be displayed. This, I apprehend, is what the Lord means in this scripture, “Your lights burning.”
Now, before I go further, let me just make one or two applications, because it is one thing to see the meaning of Scripture, but quite another thing to be in the power of it. May I ask you, and myself too, Are our loins girded? Are our lights burning? Do you say, you don’t know? We do know! I am sure of this, if you will allow me to say it, that where the light shines out of a Christian distinctly and clearly, the man of the world will hate it. “Will it go as far as that?” you say. Yes! It was so in the case of the blessed Lord, and men could not bear the fierceness of the light, therefore they sought to quench it by crucifying Him upon the cross. Let us, then, bear in mind that if you and I would be ready to Meet the Lord Jesus when He returns, there must be the girded loins and there must be the burning lights.
Now we come to the attitude that has to be maintained, and then we will speak of the blessed recompense which the Lord will give to those who are waiting for His return. You will see the attitude is this, “And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately” (vs. 36). Now we are to understand that this figure which the Lord uses is given to indicate what the attitude is to be. We are to be like unto men that wait for their lord; he has gone to the wedding, and he is coming back. The figure, then, is this (to make a modern application). The servants are in the hall, they have their hands upon the door, waiting for the first sign of their lord’s return, and, on his first knock, they throw the door open wide in order to receive him. There are two things: they are wanting their lord to return, and, consequently, they are waiting for him. The two things will go together. Now let me make an application of these two things. Do you and I desire the Lord to return? I know we sometimes sing a line of a verse—
Take Thy poor, waiting pilgrims home.
Do we mean it when we sing it? Because it means that while we are singing we are asking the Lord to take us home. Is that our desire? No, beloved, often times it is not our desire. Hence what the Lord presses upon us here is that we are to be in the condition suited to His return, and in the attitude of always expecting Him.
If you remember, I asked last week how many of us really from day to day have thought of the Lord’s return. How many have said from day to day the Lord may be here before the close of the day? Yet the attitude the Lord enjoins in this scripture amounts to that, always waiting, always expecting, and always longing that you may see Him face to face. I know how easy it is to swim down the stream of time, and to forget the possibility of a sudden change, that while we are passing along day by day, and while the course of business flows on, there may be a sudden catching away of the people of God, caught up to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever with Him. The question, therefore, comes to each one of us, Are we ready to see the Lord face to face? Let me give an illustration. Let me suppose a true wife whose husband has gone to Australia or one of the distant dependencies of the British Empire. She does not know when he will return, and let me say, in order to complete the illustration, that during his absence she has not ceased to love him, but she has gathered about her some few things he would not like on his return. She receives a letter to say he is coming, and coming soon. What is her first thought? She looks round the house, and says, “My husband would not like to see that.” She is a true wife, and so she puts it away, and not only does she do that, but she says, “He would like to see this and that,” and so she collects everything that will please him when he returns home.
I apprehend this illustration will have its application to us here tonight. Is the Lord returning? If He is, I want to get rid of everything that will not please Him, and that is the meaning, I apprehend, of the passage in 1 John 3:3, “Every one that hath this hope in Him [that is, in Christ] purifies himself, even as He is pure.” Now purifying oneself is this—getting rid of all that is unsuited to Christ, and the acquisition of everything that is suited to Him, and that is the only possible way of being ready to meet Him when He does return. Let us not pass by a scripture like this, but let it lay hold of our hearts in living power, when the Lord says, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.”
I was reading a little book lately; it was not according to the truth in all its aspects, but still there was one thing in it which struck me very much. A rich merchant returned home to his family from his business in the evening. His wife noticed he was very depressed. “What is the matter, dear?” she said. He answered, “I have heard today that the Lord Jesus is likely to return very soon.” “What of that?” “Oh” he said, “I am not prepared to meet Him,” and he began to mourn over the fact. “There will be an end to all my plans, all my gain and profit will pass away if the Lord does really come.” And yet that man was a Christian! Well now, I want you to make the application to ourselves, so that we may not be occupied with anything whatsoever on which the Lord cannot smile when He returns. It shows us how practical the whole thing is, and that is the object of the whole chapter, to build us up in a state of suitability to meet the Lord. The Lord has that end in view through the whole chapter.
Well, now let me pass to the other side: the Lord’s recompense for those who are found in this way, watching and waiting. He says, “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching; verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them” (Luke 12:37). The first thing is, “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord shall find watching.” Now you all know what watching is. If you had a dear friend returning from a distance to you, and suppose you could see the way from the window, you would be watching and waiting there expecting him. Well, the Lord pronounces blessing upon those who are so watching, and thus I ask myself, as I ask you here tonight, Are you really watching?
How many of us attend to the signs of the times, to political movements, and all that kind of thing, the confusion and agitations that go on around us, worldly schemes and plans. But of what value is all that? Why, it will all end for every child of God the moment the Lord comes. In that very day our thoughts and imaginations will all end, as we all know, just as they end when we come to die. The blessing is reserved for those who are found watching. And so, beloved, the conclusion I press upon you is this, Are we watching? We must be watching if we would please the Lord. I have sometimes said, and I quite believe it, that even domestic happiness is sometimes a great barrier for waiting for the Lord. You say, “Is it not a good thing?” It is, beloved; I was about to say it is one of the flowers of the Garden of Eden. But still, domestic happiness may come between the soul and Christ, and it does sometimes; and thus the Lord strips some of us, and we wait, and are solitary while waiting, because He cannot trust us with too much affection in this world. He loves us so much, that He is jealous over us, and wants us for Himself. Do you ever read that expression in the Canticles, “Jealousy is cruel as the grave “? What is the meaning? I will tell you how it presents itself to me. When a body is committed to the ground the grave closes in over it and shuts out every other object; it possesses that body absolutely. Well, the Lord’s jealousy is like that. Do you suppose the Lord could contemplate with indifference our hearts going after this thing, and that thing, and the other thing, which are contrary to Himself? No; if He loves us, and He does love us, He wants our whole hearts. Nothing less than our whole hearts will ever satisfy Him. “Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching.”
Now see the wonderful recompense! “Verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” You will see there are two things. “He shall gird Himself” as the servant. The Lord was the servant down here; you remember He said to His disciples, “I am among you as He that serveth.” The blessed Lord, entitled to everything, the One who created everything, and the One who died upon the cross, yet took the place of a servant amongst His disciples. Ah! what imperfect disciples they were. Christians sometimes say to me, “It is impossible to love So-and-so, their conduct is so strange.” Well, was not the Lord surrounded by those whose conduct was very strange? Was there not a Judas, and Peter who denied Him? Did the Lord cease to love them? Nay! He says, “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you.” No; the only way to love the people of God is to see them as God sees them, accepted in Christ, and then you can love them. The Lord will gird Himself, He will take the lowest place amongst His people. This is in the glory itself after He has come. “He will gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat.” You will say, “What is the meaning of that?” Well, I will tell you, the thought in the statement which satisfies my own heart. It is this. He will cause us to feast on His own delights; what delights His own heart will delight yours and mine. “He shall make them to sit down to meat.” He will cause us, I repeat, to feast upon His own delights. Is not that wonderful? Sharing His own joys with His beloved people, and not only sharing His own joys with His people, but, coming forth to serve them, He will minister these delights to us Himself, beloved, and He will take the lowest place, the servant of His people, and He will make them rejoice in the sense of His presence and the enjoyment of His love; and so they will not have a single object that He has not. Then remember that we have often been taught that there is not a single future blessing which may not be enjoyed now in measure, at any rate. If we are going to feast with the Lord on His own delights by and by, may we not do so now? There is a line of a verse—I always challenge my own heart when I sing it—which reads:
His joys our deepest joys afford.
How feebly it is true of us, and yet it may be so. Thus you see in the glory itself the Lord Jesus will come, and will cause His people to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them; and so it is that He holds out all this blessed prospect to encourage our hearts, and to keep them upon Himself in the place where He is.
Then the Lord says this: “And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through” (vs. 39); and then He adds, “Be ye therefore ready also” (that is, on the watch): “for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:40). I don’t go now into the distinction between the public coming of Christ and His coming to receive His people. I speak in a general way; next week I shall hope to take up the distinction. Here it is the Son of Man coming, and that always applies to the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the prospect of which we live day by day, as the apostle says, “those who love His appearing.” The point of this additional figure which the Lord uses is this, that we are always to be ready, “Be ye therefore ready also.” Now you will say, “How can we be ready?” It is not state of soul only; it is mainly that, but there are many things to be settled. I was dining one day with a lady in London, and I said to her at the table, “Would you like the Lord Jesus to return today?” “No,” she said, “I would not.” “And why not?” “Well,” she said, “I have many things to settle up first, there are many things I would not like Him to see; I would rather He did not come today.” Well, the Lord says, “Be ye ready,” that is, everything settled up, and we as real pilgrims and strangers passing through this world with nothing to detain us. And why? Because our hearts are upon Him where He is now. It all resolves itself into that.
I will just press these few last words upon you. Does the Lord Jesus possess your hearts? If He does, then your hearts will be in the place where He is, and that will be the means of the readiness for His return of which He speaks. What I gather is this, that all depends upon the state of soul, our state, so that I cannot conceive of anything tending to greater edification than to sit down quietly in the presence of the Lord, and to put this question to oneself, “Am I ready to meet Him? Would He find in me and round about me all that would delight His own heart?” If I can say, “Yes, He would,” then I am in the state which He desires.
Let me just recapitulate the chapter. In the first place, He would deliver us from the fear of man. This is a snare to many of us. I have known many young Christians who have made shipwreck as to their profession because of the fear of man round about them.
Then He would deliver us from anxiety. Many of us have cares. “No,” the Lord says, “you need not have a single care, God will take care of you.” So leave yourselves in His hands; He points to the birds and flowers in order to convince us that God does care for us. “Ye are of more value than many sparrows.” God’s care may always be trusted in. “I have been young, and now am old,” says the Psalmist, “yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread” (Psa. 37:25).
Then He wants to establish our hearts in grace. It is a wonderful thing! “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” You can’t earn it, He will give it to you. So if our hearts are established in grace now, we can go out in grace, and we can give because God is a giver. Then, as I pointed out at the outset, when we represent God in grace we will lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven, and then our hearts will be there, and that will lead to preparedness to meet the Lord—the loins will be girded, and the lights burning.
Well, I believe it is of all importance to have the Lord continually before our hearts. May He grant that our meditation tonight may lead many of us to judge ourselves as to anything that is not suitable to Him, and lead us at the same time to acquire everything that would please His eye and delight His heart. May He grant it to us for His name’s sake.