It is a great thing for us to know where we are, beloved—our place and condition in the sight of God; and then to know what God has declared concerning us, not only as to our condition at the present moment, but as to our whole past in the place wherein we find ourselves. It is not enough to know that God has visited us in grace, but also what is the actual result of the grace that has thus visited us; and while called upon to hold fast the great principles connected with the ground on which God at first set us, we may not be able to apply those principles to our present circumstances. Where the original ground has been departed from they are not applicable; still to the path of faith they have their application. We find this exemplified in the history of Israel. In Hezekiah’s time, when Jerusalem was threatened with destruction, the Lord said of the king of Assyria, “He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there... for I will defend it;” whereas afterward, with the certainty of judgment coming upon the city, the man that would save his life must go out of it. In the one case it was the place of safety. God was not dealing in judgment at the time. In the other there is wonderful difference, not that the relation and mind of God toward His people had altered in any way, or ever will alter— “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance;” but the condition of the people was entirely different. What I want you to notice is, that the conduct of the faithful was exactly opposite. They abode in Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time. To have done so when the Lord had given it up would have been certain judgment.
We have to know where we are so as to see what the bearing of the word of God is to us in the position we hold. Now suppose we take the beginning of the Acts, and read what is there said about the Church, we find the Lord adding to the assembly daily—the multitude of believers of one heart and soul—all things common, and so on. They went about in the power of the Holy Ghost, and when they came together the place was shaken where they were assembled. Do we find such a state of things now? If I take all the denominations of professing Christians—the Roman Catholic as well—I find none to correspond to it; all are mixed up with evil. Still God has His Church, and knows His Church; but we need spiritual discernment to see where we are, and to perceive the ways and will of God in the circumstances.
Another thing we have to take into account is, that wherever God sets up anything with which the responsibility of man is associated the first thing man does is to spoil it. Take, for instance, Adam in Eden. There we have man created innocent, and put under the test of obedience. He falls, and is driven out: that, in a moral sense, is a total end of him, though not of God’s dealing in patience with him. Take again. Noah after the flood. What is the first thing he does? The world had been put into his care, under his government, as we say, and one of the first things he did was to get drunk. Instead of influencing others for good he makes himself a disgrace, and brings a curse upon his children, upon Canaan and his posterity. Take again Israel in the wilderness. There I get the law—another of God’s dealings with man in responsibility—and Moses coming down from the mount to find the people already sunk in idolatry! But enough has been said to show that the whole merit upon man’s side is gone. The establishment of monarchy but confirmed this. When the house of David reigned, strange women took away their hearts; when Nebuchadnezzar reigned, the golden image was set up, the kingdom was taken from him, and the beast’s heart was given to him. So that while we find God uniform in faithfulness, in patient mercy sustaining His people in trial, we find also the constant, uniform way of man is to upset that which God has set up.
Nor, when we come to the Church, do we find it otherwise. Before the canon of Scripture closes the working of this principle is manifest. It is well to mark this. Without doing so it is impossible to walk with any knowledge of our position. The Church had already failed. Nevertheless God has gone on with it in faithfulness and longsuffering ever since. Just as with Israel. In the days of Isaiah we read, “The heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,” and so on; yet the predicted judgment was not fulfilled for eight hundred years. The Lord forbore with them, and even when there was no remedy He still went on with various testimonies to them by the prophets. The faithfulness of God is infallible; but if we apply this truth to existing circumstances, so as to sanction the evil man has brought in, the whole principle is gone, and we find ourselves exactly in the position of those who in Jeremiah’s time were found crying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.” They were counting upon the infallible faithfulness of God at the very moment He was dealing in judgment with them, and the end of it was ruin, just as it will be with us if we leave out the sense of our responsibility. Again, in Isaiah, the remnant were told to “look to the rock from whence they were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence they were digged” —thus reminded that Abraham was alone when God called him, and gave him the promise that his seed should be “as the stars of heaven for multitude.” So now, although they were alone, God was faithful, and, as He had blessed Abraham, would bless them; but in Ezekiel, when seeking to apply this principle, “Abraham was one,” they said, “and he inherited the land:but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance,” they misapprehended the condition in which God regarded them. If we leave out the sense and apprehension of our condition we utterly want spiritual intelligence.
Now I think we are in the “last days.” And I sometimes question if people weigh the full force of that. I could show you from Scripture that the Church, as a responsible system, was—even from the very outset—that which had got into the condition of judgment. A mistake that thousands are now slipping into is, that the Church judges, teaches, does this, does that; but if we take the word of God, we find that God has judged the Church. Yet His long-suffering and patience have borne with it as with Israel. What we have to look in the face is this. Man in responsibility is a uniform failure, and the Church has not escaped the effect of that principle. God, in His sovereign mercy, allowed evil to come up; so that before the closing of the Word He might give us His judgment upon it. Look at the epistle of Jude:“Beloved, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” There is the faith danger already. They were to contend for that which was slipping from them. “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Then, verse 14, “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these” —that is, those persons he speaks of— “saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all,” &c.; thus showing, that those “certain men,” who had then come in, were the persons God had spoken of executing judgment upon, and showing too, that, at the very starting-point of the Church’s history, sufficient evil was evinced to call for the revelation that the ground of judgment was already there. Take the first epistle of John, and you get further: “Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time.” Notice, that it is not the coming of Christ, but antichrist, and departure from the truth, that characterizes the last time. The Church of God hardly acknowledges that. In the following verses we read, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not of us. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” It is as if he would say, “Do not let these things discourage you; you have got that which enables you to be for God even in such circumstances.” And what was the practical state of the Church as we find it elsewhere in the Word? Paul, in the epistle to the Philippians, says, “I have no man likeminded who will naturally care for your state; for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” That is what the apostle says of the Church of God at the time he wrote; a sad testimony indeed. And again, in the second epistle to Timothy, “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not “be laid to their charge.” And Peter, in his first epistle, says, “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.”
I have quoted these passages to show that even then—what was quite true at the beginning, but more manifest at that time—the Spirit of God could, and did, discern and testify of that which was the ground of final judgment, and testify, too, that the Church was already in the place of judgment. Nothing shows this so exceeding strongly as the epistles to the seven churches in the Revelation. There we get the Church in its entire history. I do not refer to that now; but I wish to call your attention to the ever-recurring injunction, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” There is one thing—to my mind a very solemn thing—here. It is this. Christ is not looked at as the Head of the body. (That He is so is nevertheless true. It is His own blessed place forever and ever, thank God) But it is not in that character He is here seen; neither is it as the Father and the Son made known to us by the Holy Ghost, as in the epistles; nor yet in the character of a servant, as when “He took a towel and girded Himself, and began to wash His disciples’ feet.” But He is here seen walking in the midst of the candlesticks, judging their state, finding something to approve of and much to disapprove of; and consequently, we get that condition of the Church brought out which makes it subject to the judgment. Then our ear is called to listen to what He has said; that is, as an individual I have to consider the state of things in which I find myself, and judge of it according to Christ’s word. A very serious thing it is to find that, even at that time, the beautiful plant that God had just planted was impaired by man. Not that the blessings had been withdrawn; but the condition of the Church was not what it had been when the blessings were put into the hands of men. Now that they had got the blessings, they were responsible for the use they made of them. Look at Thessalonians. There you get their “work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope;” whereas here you get, “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience.” Where was their faith, their love, their hope? “Ah!” he says, “you have left your first love;” that is, the condition in which they were when He put them into this responsibility. He deals with them in view of the blessings He had given them. “You have left your first love,” He says; “now, if you do not repent, I will come and take your candlestick away; “so executing the judgment which Peter said must begin at the house of God. In this the apostle alluded to Ezekiel: “Slay utterly old and young, and begin at my sanctuary.” It was only the beginning of judgment; for—not the Church merely, but—the whole world has been judged.
The Church of God was set to be the epistle of Christ in the world, and as such utterly failed. Not but that individuals may be found in the path of faith, and walking blessedly, like Elijah. In his day the whole land was given to idolatry; nevertheless God could find seven thousand in Israel whose knees had not bowed unto Baal, and) whose mouths had not kissed him. It is not that individuals are not to be found walking in obedience; but that the state of things in which they walk is totally depraved. Such was the state of things in which Elijah found himself. And God sustained him, and greatly blessed him; and we think of him as one of those two who were taken up to heaven without dying. And such is the state of things in which we find ourselves. Surely, beloved, our hearts ought to be thoroughly bowed with the thought that what was so blessed, so beautiful, so perfect, should have been so marred at the very outset. How much more when we see what it has all come to, and why such failure? The strength of God was there, but they did not count upon it, and they constantly gave way; just like the ten spies, when they saw the walled cities and the children of Anak. But it is very important for us to know that, although the Church has utterly failed, the strength of God does not fail. Christ is quite as sufficient as at first; and though the first condition of the Church be lost, all the strength, all the blessing, is as sure to the grasp of faith as ever.
Now mark another thing—a most striking principle in the ways of God—that is, power in the midst of evil. Earth is its sphere of action, not heaven. In heaven there will be no evil, but all will be blessedness and brightness; nothing to overcome, nothing to watch against, nothing to do with evil. But it is now that we have the power of the Spirit, when evil and darkness are on every hand. Take the Acts again. Read the whole beginning of the Church. See how every difficulty brings out the power of the Spirit, as it brings out the need of the saints. They suffered persecution, and had power to endure it. “And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (Notice that it is not said, “Every Christian shall suffer,” but, “All that will live godly.”) There we get also the power of the Spirit in miracles, as we have it in the person of Christ before His death. He had power in Himself, doubtless; but, as the dependent One, He received power for His walk. We are told that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” A display of God like this could not fail to draw out the hostility of the carnal mind. As He said, “They have both seen and hated both me and my Father.” And the end was—they crucified Him. When He comes again it will be the coming of good in power—power to overcome the evil, to confine Satan. Then “they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree.” But now we have good in the midst of evil; and so long as Satan is the prince of this world, if the two things get mixed up, the evil swamps the good. You see this in the parable of the virgins. The wise and the foolish go together, and the consequence is, they all sleep; and the moment they awake, and trim their lamps, they go together again.
Still linked with evil, they fall under the power of evil. Yet the apostle says, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” For an illustration of this, take Israel in the time of Joshua. Joshua’s time is a time of power. Jericho is taken; but evil is allowed to come in, and before Ai they fail. Then, going back to Gilgal, they get fresh power. Their enemies are subdued; the walled cities, the children of Anak, are as nothing before them—they overcome all. There we have good in the midst of evil, with power carrying on the good, and putting down the evil. In Judges it is the converse. They are still God’s people; but the power is on the side of the evil. How was this? They had gone up from Gilgal (1e. “Rolling away “) to Bochim (1e. “Weeping”). Formerly Joshua and all Israel had gone back to the death of the flesh; for that is what we have in figure in Gilgal. There they received power. It just means this: they had crossed Jordan; had come into Canaan, the place of power; and the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. But in Bochim we get another thing. They were still God’s people. His power was there, His angel was there; but it was a time of weakness. There is a lesson for us here, beloved. If we do not go back to the true annihilation of self in the Lord’s presence, we cannot come out with power. Take the case of any ministering saint. He will break down, he will fail; he must renew his strength. This indeed is the great secret of the Christian’s life. If my intercourse with God be broken, I am utterly empty.
How blessed it is to see that Israel’s God did not give them up! They built an altar in Bochim; yet they were constantly tried in judgment. How was this? The people had lost their place. We have to look to that in the consideration of our present condition. The Church has lost its place, and in the same way the Church is under judgment. We read, “All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” Is not that losing their place? And losing their place, they lose their power, and must remain in weakness, or else get to Bochim. What is peculiar about Bochim is, that they had to say to God there. In the Church of God, we find a like relationship with God. Israel is a picture of it. In the beginning of the Church we have good, and power on the side of the good. In one day three thousand, and in another five thousand, are added to it. Alongside of this I get the power of evil. Yet God was showing His power in another way; and I doubt not that if we were more faithful, our experience would be more similar. They were filled with the Spirit. When they came together, the place was shaken where they were assembled. As they lived in the Spirit, they also walked in the Spirit, and they went about manifesting the power of the Spirit. All that was going on with the power of evil; and we do not leave this scene till we have the evil brought to light in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. Still the Spirit of power is there. The sin is instantly judged; they are cut off, and the result is that great fear comes upon all the Church. There we have the display of it all—the power of the good in the disciples testifying to Jesus; the power of the evil opposing, and putting them in prison. And then, before the history closes, “the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God;” that is, the last of all times till Christ comes in glory, when His power puts down the evil.
J. N. D.
(To be continued, D. V)