I trust that it will not be a weariness to the friends who were
with us earlier if I go right through those passages
of the Word which we had as our foundation, but it seems necessary
in view of there being quite a number here who have not been
earlier. And, in any case, we must have a good foundation in the
Word, and I think in bringing these portions together they
themselves constitute a vision of Divine purpose
and thought.
So we'll get on with it and turn to our overall fragment in the
prophecies of Jeremiah, chapter 17 at verse 12: "A glorious
throne, set on high
from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary".
And then in the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 8: "Of
the Son, he saith, Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever, and the sceptre of
uprightness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom".
The second Psalm, the second Psalm, at verse 8: "Ask of Me, and I
will give thee
the nations for thine inheritance, arid the uttermost parts of
the earth for thy possession".
The book of the Acts, chapter 1 and verse 8: "Ye shall receive
power, when
the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses
unto the uttermost part of the earth".
Back to Jeremiah, to chapter 1 at verse 4: "The word of the Lord
came unto
me, saying, Before I formed thee I knew thee, and before
thou camest forth I sanctified thee; I have appointed
thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God!
Behold, I cannot speak for I am a child. But the Lord said
unto me, Say not, I am a child, for to whomsoever I shall send
thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee thou
shalt speak. Be not afraid because of them: for I am with thee
to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His
hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold,
I have put My words in thy mouth; see, I have this day set
thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and
to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow; to build, and
to plant".
And finally, in the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1, first part
of verse 4: "He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world..." verse 9: "having made known unto us
the mystery
of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed
in Him unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum
up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the
things upon the earth; in Him, I say".
Now this afternoon, we are going to
move from the wider circumference to the more inward
application. What is before us (we believe by the Lord's
appointing) is the great, wonderful truth and reality that the
call which has come to us and to the people of God, contains a
very great purpose.
It would not be surprising if a failure to
know and to apprehend the great purpose of God through salvation
resulted in a number of disappointing conditions. Because, as I
think we shall see as we go on, the real fulness of the
meaning
of Christ to the believer lies right there in the purpose for
which He has brought them into fellowship with Himself. It does
not lie in their just (and this is not, of course,
minimising, or
undervaluing salvation in its initial and elementary phases) but
it does not at all lie there, only potentially and
intentionally. You, as you know, perhaps very well, perhaps too
well, that
you can be saved and stay there for the rest of your
life rejoicing in the fact of what that means, but knowing
painfully little of all the great inheritance that is in
Christ.
And that ignorance resulting in such limitation in life is due
to this, not to ignorance of the way of salvation, but to
ignorance as to the purpose of salvation, and the purpose
now,
as well as in the ages to come. So that the emphasis at this
time is upon that for which we are saved, unto which we
have
been called in Christ Jesus.
And although it will be said again
and again, let us say it here now: that purpose is not only
to have, and not only to be, but it is:-
To Fulfil A Vocation.
All
the having, and all the being, is into a great service to the
Lord. Now, we spent the whole morning on that, and sorry as we
may be for those who didn't get it, we have to go on; we want
to get, as I have said, right on the inside of this matter this
afternoon as the Lord will help us.
You will have probably been aware
that so much of what we read in other places, is very much, if
not altogether of a piece with what we read in Jeremiah. There
you have the throne on high from the beginning - a glorious
throne - "Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever", and of the
Son He said it. The throne, as something relating to the nations,
to the uttermost part of the earth. Jeremiah was told that he
was appointed a prophet to the nations, to the nations, not only
to the nation,
but to the nations; and the fulfilment of his tremendous -
tremendous in range and tremendous in cost - his tremendous
ministry and vocation, was only possible with that throne in
view as his place of refuge and appeal and resource.
To the Lord Jesus, the Father is
heard saying: "Thou art My Son. This day have I begotten Thee.
Ask of Me and I will give Thee the nations for Thine Inheritance
and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession". That
Son later said, to the nucleus of the church, with the whole
church in view: "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me unto the
uttermost part of the earth". In other words, "You are
related to the Father's intention to give Me the nations for My
inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for My
possession - that's your business; that's your commission; that's
your vocation." "Having made known unto us the mystery, the
secret of His will, to re-gather all things into
Christ". He has made that known to us. Why? Because He has
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. You see, in
piecing it all together, it makes one picture, and comes right
up to this: the purpose for which we have been brought into
fellowship with God's Son, it is, to repeat a phrase we've used
many times - a vocational fellowship with God's Son.
Now then, to come to this matter,
and to allow Jeremiah in his experience, in his function, to
interpret for us, because it's all one thing, whether it is Old
Testament or New, it is one purpose, and it is one way of God.
Jeremiah can help us a lot as a focus of all that we have said.
As we take up, then, these verses right at the beginning of his
life and work, we are in the presence of God acting sovereignly
in relation to His purpose. What a tremendous thing this book of
Jeremiah discloses as to the:
Sovereign Activities of God.
It is
God acting in His own right. God acting on His own initiative.
God Himself, the originator and projector of everything; it is
God taking things in hand personally, and bringing them out
of
His own counsels - the counsel of His own will. And this book of
Jeremiah is full of the fact, and then of the features, of this
sovereign movement and action of God in relation to purpose.
Dear friends, the language may
sound technical and even theological. If you can get through the
language, the very word 'sovereignty' is a word that has been
taken up and made a basis of tremendous controversy. If you
can get through the words and the phrases, to the truth that
lies behind, you have, we have, an impregnable rock; an
unshakeable rock of confidence.
The Lord is many times, in the
Scriptures, called the Rock. The Psalmist found that as a
favourite title for the Lord, and we need something rock-like
upon which to stand and to rest. And Jeremiah needed a rock
under his feet. I don't know how many of you are familiar with
the prophecies of Jeremiah. Perhaps you have not studied them
very much. Perhaps you think that they are not particularly
interesting or inspiring, perhaps a bit depressing, but those
of you who know, know this: that if ever a man needed a rock
under his feet, Jeremiah did. Oh, the forces that he encountered,
that broke upon him. Jeremiah would not have survived at all,
let alone at last triumphed with his ministry, but for a rock
under his feet. And that which was of the nature of a rock was
this, this: it is all in one word repeated how many times?
Underline it in your Bible: "I, I, I... before, before
thou camest forth I knew thee; I formed thee; I
have made thee a
prophet to the nations; I have put My word in
thy mouth. I knew
thee; I formed thee; I chose thee; I appointed thee. I
equipped thee. I put My word in thy
mouth - I..."
If Jeremiah had
started this business, he wouldn't have got very far. If
someone else had put him into it, he would have had good reason
for a controversy with them, and to retire very early in
life. But he went through, and for forty, forty-five years of
unceasing
and ever-growing antagonism and hostility... sufferings that few
men have known or surpassed, he went through. And I believe that
it
was because of this, that underneath him and behind him, was
this which remained: "I did not put myself into this; I
did not
take this work on; this was not my idea for my life; I
really
had nothing to do with it. Indeed, if I could have escaped it I
would, but I came under a Divine compulsion. I am where I am, I
am doing what I am, I am what I am, because God said, 'I
knew
thee, formed thee, appointed thee, sent thee' - God!" The Divine
sovereignty in action. You say, "That's alright, it's quite obvious for
Jeremiah, we accept it for him." Now, does the letter to the
Ephesians apply to Jeremiah, to the apostle Paul, or to some
special servants of the Lord, or is it the message to the
church? If it is the message to the church, as it surely
is, it
almost begins with this:
He Chose Us.
He chose us in Him before the
foundation of the world! I wonder how, how you define and explain
your conversion? How do you put it when you refer to your whatever
it was: coming
to the Lord, coming to know the Lord? 'I was saved on such and
such a date'. 'I came to know the Lord at such at such and such a
time'.
'I was born again'. Oh, we have many ways of putting it. I
wonder how you put it? Do you know, dear friends, that the true
way (all these, of course, are true in their way), but the truly
adequate way to explain it is this. Right back from eternity
past, before this world was, a hand reached out to my lifetime
and took hold of me! And in so doing, brought me right into
something that was in the mind of God before the world was
created. That's the meaning of our salvation. It was not just
something that happened some day in our lifetime.
There is
concentrated into every true new birth from above all
the meaning
and intention of God's great purpose concerning His Son,
that He
shall give to His Son the nations for His inheritance, the
uttermost part of the earth for His possession. That's in our
being Christians, our being the Lord's - it's all there. And if
all who are born again, or saved (call it what you may) could
only get something, something of that into their hearts and into
their understanding early on at the beginning, don't you think
that their spiritual progress would be much more rapid? That their
measure as Christians would be much greater? There it is. Saved...
well, saved, and saved so long ago, and today, not much
more than when it happened. Why? For this very reason: an
insufficient apprehension of the greatness of the purpose
bound up with salvation. That's it.
Here, our being here this afternoon, in
this room, as born from above children of God, has right in it
this, and no lesser meaning than this, that we have been
reached
unto from eternity, to be brought into that fellowship
with
God's Son for the ultimate possession of the nations and the
re-gathering of all things into Him.
Now, of course, we must ever keep
in view the relative factor in this. All that cannot in
the
very nature of it, quite obviously, all that cannot be gathered
into any one
individual, or into any number of individuals as separate
individuals
and entities. We are a part of a great whole: it is the church
that is the elect, the chosen vessel for that purpose. But
having said that, we can go on.
Now you see, there are a number of
things, a large number of things and great things, that go with
that, to which we
have no right, to which we can make no claim, only as we get
right into line with God's purpose concerning His Son in
fulness, and stay there. Now, what do we mean? Well, look again
at Jeremiah as instancing this.
When God becomes possessed of a
vessel, an instrument for this purpose of His heart, this
counsel of His will, this secret (what is translated "this
mystery") among the nations - when God gets hold of a people in
line with that, to that vessel and instrument He commits
Himself. That is the next thing: God acts, and then getting the
response to His sovereign action,
He Commits Himself to That Vessel, to That Instrument.
And Jeremiah is a wonderful example
of an instrument, or a vessel, to which God committed Himself.
Go away and read through again (I am sure you will want to, but
you will have to!) read through again and see how many times it
looked as though
Jeremiah was finished! Finished by the designs, and the cruelty,
the hostility, and the wickedness of men. Finished by the
weariness, the awful weariness of his own hard way.
Finished by
the drooping of his own soul: 'I said, I will no more speak' -
finished! Go through... again and again, for reasons within
himself and outside of himself, it looks as though Jeremiah is
finished. Until at last you reach that terrible time when the
vehement wrath and fury against him has taken him and dropped
him down into a deep, dark, muddy pit, into which he sinks up to
his arms, to be left to starve and die. Finished? Well, he is
finished now! Who can survive all this, the accumulation of
things - and this. But he survived! He survived, he came up out of
the pit,
and went on for quite a long time with his work.
And even when
his prophecies, being fulfilled, they came and destroyed
Jerusalem, and carried away all who had opposed, the very, very
king himself who was doing it all, marked out Jeremiah to be
saved. Set him free! Told him that he could go where he liked!
God, in committing Himself to this vessel, saw to it that he
continued as long as He wanted him to continue. Let all
the
forces, in men and devils, and all the human weaknesses and
readiness to give up, seem to say that it is impossible to go on
- he will never get through - when God commits Himself, there is
continuance until God says: "I have finished!" That is what it
means. Oh, it is a tremendous thing dear friends, to be right in
line with
God's purpose! God will commit Himself to that, and there will
be continuance until God writes the day of Finish on that
story. That is the sovereign continuance of God. Well, you have
that so much in the Bible, in many ways.
Of course that is the explanation
of that symbol in the life of Moses - the bush that did not burn,
and was not consumed, it did burn and was not consumed - the Lord
knew what He was doing when He
made that the medium of his call and commission of Moses. If
ever a man, if ever a man found within himself, and in those about
him, reason to
again and again give it all up, and say, "I just can't go on any
longer..." - indeed he did cry out sometimes, "O Lord, I cannot
bear
this people - I cannot..." but he did, until God buried him,
until
God fixed the day for his going. He went through all the
weariness, and all the welter, and all the trouble, because God
was in the bush, had committed Himself, the unquenchable Fire,
until God's work is done. Well, I dare not take up the Bible
along that line, but you can see - here it is.
But what am I saying? I'm saying
to you that if you, if you come right into line with God's
purpose,
wholly committed to God's purpose concerning His Son, and keep
there, you'll go through. You may have all that Jeremiah had,
if not literally, spiritually, but you will go through. It is a
wonderful, wonderful story of the continuance, the continuance
of a vessel to
which God has committed Himself. Get out of line with God's full
purpose on to some subsidiary line, some bypass, some other
track, some alternative, and this will not obtain, it will not
obtain.
Here is God's
sovereignty, then, seen in Jeremiah, in the matter of his
continuance, and in the manner of many particular deliverances.
Many particular deliverances. Again and again God stepped right in
at the critical moment and
cut short the course that was threatening the life of this man.
And then, when all was done: the final vindication of Jeremiah.
Much has been made, and it is a gloomy side, a side that none
of us like to contemplate - much has been made of the fact that
Jeremiah was called to a ministry that was never going to
succeed - to call the people of God back to Him, and it was
destined to failure, in a sense. They never did, they never did
come back. In a
sense it looked as though he was giving his whole life to a lost
cause. Oh well, for the time being that is how it appears;
and perhaps that is how it is! But don't forget, the return of the
remnant from the judgment in captivity was definitely put on
record written in the Chronicles of the history of Israel,
written most probably by a man who was in it, Ezra - who wrote
Chronicles, the books of the Chronicles - Ezra the scribe. It was
put there,
right at the beginning of the Chronicles of Israel, that "the
word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be
fulfilled,
the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus" (2 Chron. 36:22).
Oh Cyrus, pagan king, great, good, noble, but ignorant of God
(for Isaiah says: "I have surnamed thee though thou hast not
known Me"), one day felt himself strangely moved within to think
about these people that he had got in his dominion - these
Hebrews - and to look into their history and their case; not to
just let this thing drag on, but to see if something shouldn't
be done about it. And this came on him; this came on him. He
couldn't get away from it; perhaps it became almost an
obsession. Day and night, this matter was disturbing his rest,
engaging his attention, and causing him to look into it. "The
spirit of God..." was doing what? Was taking up the ministry
of Jeremiah, and making Cyrus fulfil it; vindicating
Jeremiah.
If you want to know what lies behind that remnant coming back
and rebuilding the House and of the wall, and all of those final
activities of recovery, the answer is Jeremiah, Jeremiah! Isn't
this sovereignty? Jeremiah wasn't on the scene here on
earth to see it - I don't know whether he was watching it all
from heaven! Whether or not he will know all about it, but his
labour was not in vain in the Lord! God was committed to him
and there was an ultimate vindication of Jeremiah.
Well, there may be a good deal of
adversity, may be a lot of time taken, may be much suffering and
cost, but a vessel that is right in line with God's purpose
concerning His Son will stand vindicated at last - at last
vindicated. God Almighty has committed Himself to that, and will
see to it. Isn't that a rock to stand upon? It is, isn't it?
The sovereignty of God - committed!
Well, what is the essential basis of this
whole thing, this position? You see, it is just this:
Fellowship
with God in a Purpose Much Larger than Just a Personal Ministry,
or a Personal bit of Work for God.
It is to see everything in
the light of the whole, and to be committed, as Jeremiah was,
without consideration of what is personal; committed to
what God
wants, to what is nearest to the heart of God. It is fellowship
with
God in that which He has projected and is pursuing,
and is
set upon realising; fellowship with God! Oh, our silly, silly
little "Christian" interests! How foolish and paltry so
much of it is!
You look at people strutting about, calling themselves by
important names, and... well I'd better stop. Playing at
churches and chapels... it's all so silly! Get some conception of
the greatness of what God is after, and all that is so small and
little. Our bit is only, at most, a fragment. Get right
into the
whole thing, right into the whole thing: firstly fellowship
with the purpose of God, and then, and then fellowship with the
burden and
suffering of God.
These sufferings of Jeremiah seemed
to be very personal, very much because of himself. But nay, they
were the sufferings of God. It was like that with the prophets,
wasn't it? With the prophets, they had been baptised into the
passion of God
concerning His great purpose in the nations. And oh, how they
were baptised into that passion! So many of their experiences,
the happenings in their lives, were just sovereignly brought
about. Call them tragedies if you like - brought about in order
to be vivid, all such vivid illustrations of what God was
suffering.
A week or so ago we spent an
evening here on the 'thirty pieces of silver' for which Judas
bargained with the high priests the life of the Lord Jesus. And
we allowed that to take us back to the Old Testament where in
three places 'thirty pieces of silver' are mentioned. And one of
them was the prophecies of Hosea. Let me recount this
in order to make this point particularly.
Hosea, a young man, married a young
and beautiful woman. They set up home; they lived together
happily and in fellowship, blessed fellowship. He went about his
work, and she kept the home. But after a time she tired of that
life, and tired of him, for some reason - perhaps, as we said,
she got tired of his ministry; she didn't like the kind of
ministry - it wasn't very popular; it didn't bring many
friends; indeed, it alienated quite a lot of people. Well, for
some reason, or reasons, she tired of him, and in so doing,
became opened to other approaches to which she succumbed. Other
lovers came her way, and she yielded, and left the home, and
left Hosea, and went. How long she was away we don't know, but
long enough to have her whole life wrecked and ruined, leaving
this broken-hearted man behind, alone.
One day he went out, sad,
heavy at heart; perhaps for some business. He took with him a bag
with some meal in it. As he went through the city he had to pass
the place where slaves were bought and sold, and a sale of
slaves was going on. He heard the noise and the bidding and the
asking, and he looked up, and he saw someone being offered for
sale - a woman. There was something about her that made him look
again, and as he looked, it was his former wife - emaciated,
almost out of recognition, in shame and degradation.
Was it
revulsion that welled up in his soul? No, the old love, the old
love came up and overcame everything. And he asked; "What price
are
you asking for her?" They said, "Thirty pieces of silver!" As he
looked in his wallet, and only had fifteen, he gave them the
fifteen, he said: "Here's fifteen, and fifteen worth
of meal; will that do to make up the thirty pieces of silver?"
They said, "All right, we will accept that!" He took her home,
restored her to her old place of honour and respect and love, and
cherished
her again.
Why must that come into a prophet's
life? The sovereignty of God! You say it's cruel, hard, bitter -
ah,
but you see, a vessel committed to the purpose of God has got to
enter into the very heart feelings of God, because the prophet
had to become the very embodiment of his message. And the
message of the prophet is this: "Israel, whom I betrothed
unto Me, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love
of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me!" Israel, betrothed
to the Lord, married to the Lord, His
Spouse, had forsaken Him, had gone after other lovers, and been
wrecked and ruined - in the market, the price, the price of a
harlot. And God comes out to an Israel like that with a new
embrace, to bring that Israel back, and to love as before; to
restore and honour as before; to pass it over in great
forgiveness as though it had never been. That's the grace of
God, and the messenger had to embody that message in his own
experience.
Now, that is a very vivid instance,
but it is sufficient to carry this point, I am sure. Ours is not
a work and a ministry that is something objective; we are not
just tape-recorders to reproduce something mechanically. The
thing has to be wrought into us, and come right out of the
brokenness of our own souls. We have to share the passion
of
God's heart. That is Jeremiah! Are you going to turn your back
on that, and say, "No, that's not for me"? But, dear friends, if
only we could get a glimpse, I feel, of what that grace will
result in - for here in this letter to the Ephesians you know, "that
we should be to the glory of His grace" the glory of His
grace - what that grace
will issue in in glory; probably more than compensate
for all the cost.
I have only got half-way through my
message for this afternoon. It's so full, this matter of being
in fellowship with God.
This last emphasis is upon:
The Constituting of a Vessel.
Note: the constituting of a vessel, Jeremiah might well
have complained along one line - perhaps you
have, I have! Along this line: I was never made for this. No, I
was never made for this, my whole constitution and make-up is
such that, well... another kind is necessary for this job, for
this work. Have you ever said that? Well, I have quarrelled
with
the Lord on that many times: "Lord, you have got the wrong man;
you have got the wrong kind; it is another type that You need
for this job; I am out of my place. I could do a lot of things
very much better, naturally, than I can do this job. Lord, you
have made a mistake." Jeremiah might well have said that, and
might have said it, not only about his constitution, but about
much in his early history. We pointed out, you see, he was a
member of a priesthood that had been entirely set aside. His
ancestor, the high priest, Abiathar. Abiathar had been caught in
complicity with the conspiracy of Adonijah, to take
the throne from Solomon. And when Solomon was established on the
throne, he banished Abiathar the high priest, to Anathoth -
miles and miles from Jerusalem.
It was a priesthood banished,
under a ban, and had never been restored. Jeremiah belonged to
that ancestry, and to that order - banished! He might have
quarrelled with God over that - the advantages of birth, of
ancestry, of heredity and so on, all against him. "Now, if, if You
really wanted the right kind of man, Lord, You ought to have got
somebody who had better standing than I have!" You see? And yet,
in the
sovereignty of God, this was the man that was chosen, and it
says definitely, "I formed thee" - I formed thee! The
mystery of God's ways, but it becomes quite clear, as you go on
through his life, that, difficult as it was for him naturally,
he is the man, he is the man. God can write in this man His own
heart. God can come through this man as He might not come
through, be able to
come through, many others. The point is, the man was constituted
not as he thought he ought to be, but as God chose that he
should be; and being constituted by God he
fulfilled his
ministry, because God was behind it. God was in it.
Dear
friends, if you and I are really in line with God and in
the
hands of God, with everything against us in ourselves and
outside of ourselves (as we think it, as we interpret it) the
thing is done sovereignly, the thing is done spontaneously. Let
me put it this way: If you or I were to assume a position,
to
assume it, to take it on ourselves, and to do it out from
ourselves, by our own make-up, and our own natural equipment - if
we get into a position that God has not Himself
sovereignly put us into, the whole
thing becomes artificial, unreal. And the evidence to all is
God's not in that, God didn't do that, that didn't come from God
- that's the man himself. That is the man! He has taken that
position; he's trying to do that. The Lord is not supporting
him - it is patent to everybody.
When we are in that for which
God has called us, and Himself (in all the mystery of it)
constituted us, the thing is in a right sense quite natural. It
just does go on, just does happen, you don't have to 'put on'
anything, make-believe anything; you don't have to adopt a
special kind of voice or dress or anything else, it just
spontaneously flows - perfectly natural, it just happens.
You are, in a right
sense, yourself, and not aping someone else. God made you for
that; He knew what He was doing; you need not worry, just get on
with it with Him.
I wonder if that helps you, because
you know, there is a lot of unnecessary trouble to ourselves and
to other people by our getting into something for which the Lord
has neither called us, nor fitted us. Not according to our ideas
of fitness, but His own. To Moses He said, when Moses argued I
cannot speak, I am not eloquent: "Who made man's tongue? Did you
make your tongue, or did I?" Jeremiah... I am a child, I cannot
speak: "Say not, I am a child; thou shalt go to all that I
send you; say all that I tell you to say."
Yes, you're looking at the clock, I'll close. If, the
point is, if we are with God, God takes the responsibility
to see
us through. And I bid you, as I have to break off and not
continue to finish this, I bid you to go to this book again, and
see if you can mark these evidences of God sovereignly at work.
There are many of them, but particularly note the tremendous
values, resources, that there are available when we really are
wholly in line with God's purpose. Oh, the resources! The
resources... it is a
hopelessly inexhaustible realm! We will leave it shall we, for the
time.