In the second epistle to Timothy we get a testimony to the growth of the evil where the good ought to be. We find it positively stated that “in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,” and so on. “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” Then follows the exhortation, “From such turn away.” But first we have the positive declaration, that they turn back to evil. Then he goes on to say, “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of; knowing of whom thou hast learned them.” Notice, that he does not refer him to the Church as a teacher, but to those of whom he had learned these things. Who were they? Paul and Peter and the other apostles. Now, as one who has received the gospel of God’s grace, I know from whom I have learned it, and from them I get the declaration that evil had come in, and would wax worse and worse until the perilous times. Then as Timothy is cast upon the certainty of the words of those from whom he had received the truth, in like manner I get the word of God, as that on which my soul is cast when the Church has become a judged thing, “waxing worse and worse,” “having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” Nor can it be denied that this is the character of the Church at the present time. It is an astounding fact that we have on every side persons named Christians turning infidels in thousands. There is not, I dare say, one young man in forty that flee from the rationalistic teaching of the present day. I do not know how you find it here, but it is so in England. Mere formality is turning to open infidelity on the one hand, or to superstition on the other. It is notorious that such is the case. Christendom, even in the sense of outward submission to Christ, is an impossibility. But what we want is Christianity as it is in the word of God.
(Concluded from page 151)
One very blessed thing through it all is the presence of the Spirit in power, sustaining the Lord’s people in the midst of that which is just ripening for judgment. We have something like this in the case of Nicodemus among the children of Israel, and that most blessed testimony in the first two chapters of Luke—Simeon and Anna, and the others who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem. They knew each other, and were found coming together and exhorting one another, just as we ought to be. I felt led to speak thus as to the state of things in which we find ourselves. Whenever we take man’s responsibility into account, we find his principle of action is to depart from what God has set up; then growing corruption manifests itself, and goes on till judgment is necessary. This we find in the days of the apostles, but more obviously in the last days. And mark, they were to know that it was the last time, because antichrist was there, not because Christ was come again. Even then the antichristian spirit was evident; but God’s patience has gone on with them ever since, as with Israel.
What I desire to bring before the conscience of brethren is the direction given as to how we are to walk in the midst of such a state of things— “Continue in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of;” that is, we are referred directly to the word of God. It is quite true we are to use ministry. Such is God’s will and His way, as we read, “He gave some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” But the reference here to the word of God is a very different thing from that. As an individual I must come directly to it, and let the authority of God determine everything. “Oh, but,” someone may say, “I may be mistaken as to the teaching of the Word!” “So much the worse for you,” I say; “but that is quite a different thing from denying the operation of the Spirit.” Not but that God is pleased to use some as instruments to bring His word to bear on others, as in the case of a mother with a child, where it may be only the activity of nature, or a school teacher with a scholar, or a friend with his friend. But while knowing that, still we must go to the word of God, and that directly. We have to insist on that in these days. God speaks to us directly in the inspired Word. The mother is not inspired. Those who have the place of teachers in the Church are not inspired in the sense that we are ruled and judged by them, but the word of God is, and we must go directly to the Word, not to the Church. I do not get the Church as teaching at all; I deny it totally. What I find is that the Church is taught, and that it is the province of certain individuals to teach. When you get the Church of God at first, one of the apostles, or some inspired person, was there to communicate directly to the saints. The saints were taught, but not by the Church; the Pauls and Peters and Johns were their teachers. God’s word is the inspired teacher now. “I charge you,” the apostle says to the Thessalonians, “that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.” The principle we get there is of all importance. It is no less than God’s title to speak to souls directly by His word. This in no way sets aside the exercise of gift in the body. We cannot say of any member, we have no need of thee.” But all service must be in obedience. Take for illustration a servant who is sent by his master with a letter, and knowing the contents of the letter, instead of delivering it, gives the message verbally. It is the master he is setting aside. What we have to insist upon is God’s title to speak to His people in His own way, and so to judge them. I don’t talk of providential judgment, but of reproving, correcting, and instructing by His word. I must bow to the word of God, not sit in judgment upon it. Judgment is to be exercised in other matters; but the moment I get to divine things I must not think of judging them. Judge the word of God! That is what the rationalist claims to do. The natural man thinks he can judge the word of God; but our place is to hear what God has to say, just as we are all here today to hear what God has to say. Far from judging the Word it judges me, in being brought to my heart and conscience. Judge it and you are all wrong. It is true that God’s Spirit is needful to convince me as to what the word of God is; but the moment I know it as the word of God my heart is drawn, and my conscience judged.
Now the Scripture says, “Let that abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning.” What is it that we have from the beginning? In the beginning I get that which God has set up to be a witness for Himself on the earth. I get the unity of the body of Christ, and I get the inspired word of God with the doctrines in it which were received from the beginning. Again we read, “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” There is an immense principle here. Nobody who knows ecclesiastical history but is aware of the wretchedness and misery that befell the Church in consequence of failure in this respect. I get now, not that which God set up at the beginning, but what man has made of it. At the beginning I get the unity of the body of Christ manifest upon earth; but do I get it so now? Is it not a fact, that instead of unity there is a constant war going on amongst professing Christians? As far as man’s exhibition of it is concerned the unity is gone. The apostle says, “As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon; but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon;” and elsewhere he speaks of grievous wolves coming in. It is thus put on the footing of man’s responsibility and judged accordingly; but where it is viewed as the work of God and His testimony it is a matter of faith. Suppose I find, “Upon this rock I will build my Church”—there I get the thought of the Church, not yet built, but Christ building it. “And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Then Peter says, “To whom coming, as unto a living stone... ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house;” and in Ephesians we read of “Jesus Christ the chief corner-stone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” Here I get divine workmanship.
On the other hand I get, what I was quoting already, God’s building put into the hands of men, and every man warned to take heed how he buildeth. The two things are quite distinct. Why do men confound them, teaching to professed Christianity that which belongs only to the saints, and so adding the wood, hay, and stubble? Simply because they do not give heed to the word of God. We must test everything by the word of God. This is God’s own principle. It is quite true that we have the power of the Spirit for our walk; but if I be called upon to hear what the Spirit says unto the churches I must discover where the churches are. And if I am warned not to build with wood, hay, or stubble I must find out what that means, so as to be obedient to the word of God; but I do not dwell upon that. You will perceive that I am dealing with great principles merely. The grand secret of power in these days is faith in the presence of the Spirit of God; and while using the word makes us take notice of the state of things in which we find ourselves, we must see that we are not confounding God’s faithfulness with man’s responsibility; that is what Israel did. But the great thing is to know that there is a living God, and that that living God is amongst us in the person and power of the Holy Ghost. Not that we lose sight of the cross. It is all founded on the cross surely; but what we have to get hold of is this: the Comforter did come. By Him we are all baptized into one body; and, whether it be in the individual or in the Church, the secret of the power of good in the midst of evil, outside or inside, the Word being our guide, is the presence of God by the Spirit. “Know ye not,” is written to the Corinthians, who were going on badly, “that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” There they are spoken to as individuals. “Do you believe your bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost? Then what kind of persons ought you to be?” You get it again in the second epistle to the same Church— “Ye are the temple of the living God.” There they are spoken of collectively; but in both cases we learn that the present practical power of living is faith in the presence of the Spirit of God, Alone I can do nothing whatever for blessing.
“Ye are the temple of the living God.” I go back a little on this. We do not find God dwelling with man but on the ground of redemption. Not with Adam: He came down and walked in the garden, but did not dwell with him, nor yet with Abraham, although he visited him, and ate with him. But when the Israelites get out of Egypt God comes to dwell among them. Indeed we are told in Exodus 29 that for this the Lord brought them out of Egypt. As soon as they are come out of the Red Sea we find God dwelling in the midst of them. The Red Sea gives the thought of redemption, we find the same thing now, but more fully. “If I go not away,” the Lord said to His disciples, “the Comforter will not come unto you.” Christ was here, but He was alone; like the corn of wheat except it fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. At His baptism the Holy Ghost came down and abode upon Him; still He was alone. It was not until redemption was accomplished, and He had ascended, a Man in the glory, that the Holy Ghost came down to dwell in us, that we might be the expression of what He is down here. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God;” and, “Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” When we speak of redemption it does not mean merely that a man is quickened, or that he has got life, but that he is washed, and that the Holy Ghost dwells in him, that he is a new man. I only ask you, beloved, if you believe all this. Then what subjection of spirit there ought to be! What manner of persons ought ye to be! What carefulness not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption!
There is one word in 1 Corinthians 2. In these days it is well to give heed to it. In verse 9 we read, “It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” The things of the world are always put in contrast with the things of God; but that is not the special teaching here. Nor is it that the things which are the subject of revelation, when put in contrast with our present state, are so great that we cannot conceive them. “For God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit.” But the apostle is contrasting the state of the Old Testament saints with that of the saints in the present dispensation. In the time of Isaiah their hearts could not enter into the things that God had prepared for them that love Him; but we are in a different condition. In verse 13 he says: “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” This is commonly called inspiration. When the Spirit of God teaches, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit, because they are spiritually discerned. There are what may be called three steps in the process of inspiration. First there is the revelation of the things; then there is the word the Spirit teaches; and then the condition of mind in which it is received. We have the living power of the Spirit of God on the one hand, and the word of God on the other, to keep and guide us in our path here. If I take the word of God by itself, and say I can judge of it, and understand its teaching, I am a rationalist. I would be entirely wrong in thinking man’s mind capable of judging God’s revelation. But when I seek to judge it spiritually, I am right at once. And having the Spirit of God in me to discern it, I have God’s own guidance in everything. That is how we are to walk in our present circumstances. And while God has set forth the ruin of the church, as connected with man’s responsibility, He has shown us that there is, for the path of faith, just as much wisdom and power as at first.
J. N. D.