Guidance for a Day of Ruin: January 2012
Table of Contents
Guidance for a Day of Ruin
For us God has laid as a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Man cannot move or destroy that foundation. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).
No matter what the state of ruin may be, the foundation remains. And on that foundation we may rest and upon it we may continue to build with gold and silver and precious stones until the day is done.
To us our Lord says, “Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth My sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built a house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great” (Luke 6:46-49).
His Unchanging Faithfulness
In the address to Philadelphia it says, “I have set before thee an open door” (Rev. 3:8). The spirit of the world, and especially in religious arrangement, wants to shut the door against God; hence the need of the open door, for He has the right of way to every soul: “My sheep hear My voice.”
The Philadelphian state and that of the poor widow who cast into the treasury her two last mites are somewhat similar. This act of devotedness is found at the end of Jewish failure and ruin. There is this one that gives her all. Her gift, though little, draws forth the Lord’s approval.
Philadelphia presents a phase of the church found at the end of its history here. First love left in Ephesus ends in Laodicea spewed out, disowned as God’s witness. The last four churches go on together to the end. Philadelphia and Laodicea are very opposite states. In Philadelphia, Christ is everything to them. In Laodicea, Christ is nothing to them; there is inside a big, self-complacent “I” and Christ is outside. This shows how things are today.
I want to speak a little of the foundation of the hope of the church, that is, the Lord’s coming. In the writings of Luther and many other Christian writers, we find no mention of it. But in the last two hundred years it has been taught and brought into great prominence. God has worked to revive the hope which had been lost.
God’s Interests:
the Widow (Luke 21:1-4)
“He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.” (Luke and Philadelphia occupy a somewhat similar position.) The widow has at heart God’s interests at that time. Her whole soul is bound up in the temple. She has before her what the temple is in God’s unchanging thoughts for Israel’s blessing. They made it “a house of merchandise”; she had it before her according to faith’s estimate of it, and she cast in all her living. The Lord saw the value of her act, and at such a moment of failure and ruin that shortly after this He says, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” “As some spake of the temple” (vs. 5), the Lord said it should all be thrown down. They were looking at the outward thing — the “goodly stones and gifts.” Are we trying to keep up the outward thing? The temple, as the widow apprehended it in faith, was to stand. The inner state seen by the Lord in the widow and the outward and visible thing seen by the disciples were in great contrast. Philadelphia is something the same as the widow. The widow is seen at the end of Jewish apostasy and ruin — Philadelphia at the end of the church’s ruin.
God’s Grace
Have we understood the total ruin the church has become in man’s responsibility? But God is active in grace above all the failure and directs the hearts of His people to Christ who is all and who is coming. “Hold that fast which thou hast.” The encouragement for this is, “I come quickly.” You will see the value of “that which thou hast” when you notice the state in which Philadelphia was found: “Thou hast not denied My name.” This marks attachment to Christ. “My patience” is association with Him in His patience in waiting. Philadelphia thus did not need the word “behold.” “I come quickly” expresses His heart’s desire to have His people with Him, and “quickly” is as fresh and true today as ever.
Devotedness
“That which thou hast” is having Christ and having devotedness which carries one on against a Christ-rejecting world. What the widow did would be of little value before men, but of great value “in the sight of God and our Father” (1 Thess. 1:3). “Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father” (1 Thess. 1:3). What she did would not be found in a newspaper or made much of in the world, but it drew forth His appreciation.
Every bit of truth we have, we may well ask, has it been taught to us of God? We live in a day of intellectuality, and nothing so tends to destroy spirituality as that. We must possess truth in spiritual power. May the Lord encourage us today by our seeing His unchanging faithfulness. Philadelphia had a little strength, but it was positive strength, though little. Let us take home the words “I come quickly” and “hold fast.” The very fact of our being told to hold fast shows the power of the world, the flesh and the devil at work to rob us of it. He says, “Hold fast,” showing it can be done. The power is with Him.
Christian Truth, Vol. 24
Ruin and the Presence of the Lord
What I felt from the beginning and began with was this: The Holy Spirit remains, and therefore the essential principle of unity with His presence, for “where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). When this is really sought, there will certainly be blessing by His presence. However, whenever there is an attempt at displaying the position and the unity, there will always be a mess and a failure. God will not take such a place with us. We must get into the place of His mind to get His strength, and that is now the recognition of the failure of the church. But there He will be with us. We do not limit what the blessed Spirit can do for us in this low estate, but we must take the place where He can do it.
Where two or three are gathered in His name, Christ will be. The Spirit of God is necessarily the only source of power, and what He does will be blessing through the lordship of Christ. But there is a most important point that comes in — we cannot supply the lack by human arrangement or wisdom; we must be dependent. The Holy Spirit is always competent to act in the circumstances in which God’s people are. The secret is not to pretend to get beyond it. Life and divine power are always there, but we must confess that we are in an imperfect state. But then the unity of the body necessarily continues, whatever its scattered condition, because it depends on the existence of the Head and its union with it. In this the Holy Spirit is necessarily supreme.
J. N. Darby, adapted
Guidance in a Day of Ruin
The books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Esther and Malachi deal with the time period following the seventy years of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah the prophet. During this time period God dealt with a remnant of the people in grace, calling back to the land those that had a heart to go. The few who returned did not see the mighty power of God working openly on their behalf, as had been seen when they came out of Egypt. But the Lord cared for them: “The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek Him; but His power and His wrath is against all them that forsake Him. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and He was entreated of us” (Ezra 8:22-23). There was no great outward display of the power of God, but there were the providential ways of God in preserving them from the enemy.
A Day of Small Things
There are those who would say, “It is a day of small things because we don’t think big.” Yet blessing came to those who carried on in obedience in spite of conditions. In Ezra we see how the revival began and then ceased. It began by King Cyrus commanding to “build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (He is the God,) which is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:3). Stirred up by this opportunity, a small remnant of 42,360 plus 7,337 servants return with Zerubbabel. They begin well, for “they set the altar upon his bases” (Ezra 3:3), and there is great comfort in these words. The city had been razed many years before, yet the enemy had not been able to destroy the bases of that altar. In 2 Timothy, a book written for a similar day of ruin, it says, “Yet the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those that are His; and, Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity” (ch. 2:19 JND). The power of God to maintain the foundation is greater than the acknowledged ruin of the testimony.
Rejoicing and Weeping
The work of rebuilding the house of the Lord proceeded with considerable vigor at the first, though not without a recognition of its weakness in comparison to the temple of Solomon. “All the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy” (Ezra 3:11-12). “Which group was right?” I would suggest that both were right; sorrow was appropriate as to the ruin that their disobedience had brought in, as was joy that the foundation, while in feebleness, was once again established. Surely, no less of an attitude becomes us who seek to be faithful to the Lord in a similar day of ruin.
The Work Stopped
But, as we read on in the Book of Ezra, we find that what had begun with such enthusiasm was soon abandoned in the face of great opposition. “When the copy of king Artaxerxes’ letter was read before Rehum, and Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem unto the Jews, and made them to cease by force and power. Then ceased the work of the house of God which is at Jerusalem” (Ezra 4:23-24).
What should the returned remnant then do following this edict? Haggai shows that the answer lay in the spiritual state of the people, apart from the opposition of the Gentile power. “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?” (Hag. 1:2-4). Notice that Haggai never mentions the opposition of the people of the land or the Gentile power — only the careless and indifferent state of the returned remnant to Jehovah’s house. The real problem was in their hearts as they invested many hours improving their own houses, an activity that raised no opposition from the heathen. Has this any word of warning for us in this day of weakness? I trust that we would be stirred up to meditate on the parallels between this remnant and our day.
Consider Your Ways
In the face of such a condition, what is the word of Jehovah to His people? “Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord” (Hag. 1:7-8). Wood, perhaps, speaks of human weakness, in contrast to the “great stones and costly” that distinguished Solomon’s temple. In Solomon’s day these stones were a picture of the preeminence of the nation of Israel in the millennial day, and such a display of power would have been inconsistent with the feebleness in the days of Zerubbabel and Jeshua. Yet what a profound word of encouragement comes through the prophet Haggai! Even when weakness is displayed today, we can be comforted with the Lord’s words: “Bring wood ... and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified.”
Be Strong — I Am With You
Haggai recognizes the sorrow of those who wept over the feeble condition of things: “Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong ... and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts” (Hag. 2:3-4). Haggai then looks on to a future day, by way of encouragement to the feeble remnant. “I will fill this house with glory, saith Jehovah of hosts. ... The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah of hosts; and in this place will I give peace, saith Jehovah of hosts” (Hag. 2:7-9 JND). The latter glory of this house will be greater, not because of the glory of the millennial temple, but because of the physical presence of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. We can have the same encouragement in our day: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20).
Don’t Despise Rebuilding
From the Book of Ezra, we find that Haggai’s words had the desired effect on the lethargic and self-interested remnant. “Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them” (Ezra 5:2). The individual exercise of these two men affected the rest. I take the liberty to translate the following verses from the Spanish Bible: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For those that despised the day of small things shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven” (Zech. 4:9-10). There were those who wept over the laying of the foundation, but apparently there were also those who considered it a waste of time and despised it. Yet, it seems that those who despised the feeble work saw the strange sight of one of King David’s descendants working amid the rubble with a plummet! And the other man helping him out there, Shealtiel, was the son of the high priest! These two realized there was work to be done, and in obedience they did it. When others saw them working, the hearts of those that had despised rejoiced, and they set about to help out. “The elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia” (Ezra 6:14).
These four men, Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Haggai and Zechariah undertook to carry on a work long since abandoned; they did not seek to establish a group effort or engage others; they simply began to do it. They did not really have a special gift to do what needed to be done, and yet they set about to do it in obedience to the word of the Lord. Today some tend to despise the day of small things. There are complaints of the lack of effort in the gospel, the lack of blessing in ministry, or the prayer meeting. How much more profitable to “rise up and build” instead of lamenting the sad state of things! Then perhaps there will be others that “see the plummet” in our hand and rise up to help.
Confession and Confidence
As soon as they began again to rebuild the temple, the opposition began. But how did those faithful men counter the opposition? By confessing the bad behavior and poor state that brought them to that point! “Thus they returned us answer, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and set up. But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon” (Ezra 5:11-12). Their confession and reference to “the God of heaven and earth” is very striking. They recognized God’s control over the Gentile rulers to allow them to labor in their small sphere. We too ought to recognize these two things — that we are a part of the ruin that has reduced the testimony to feebleness and that God is over all, working among all believers for His glory. Only in humility can we hope to represent the principle here on earth that, in spite of all the ruin, “there is one body.”
P. Fournier
Overcoming in the Last Days
There is encouragement for us right to the last book in the Bible! It is generally accepted (and this has been alluded to elsewhere in this issue) that the seven assemblies mentioned in Revelation, chapters 2-3, are not merely random descriptions of assemblies that existed in that day. Taken in consecutive order, they give us a panoramic history of the various epochs of the professing church, from the time that the apostles were taken home until the Lord’s coming.
Christ As Overcomer
The last assembly mentioned is Laodicea, showing us the condition of things that will exist among much of Christendom just before the Lord comes. It is a rather dismal commentary on man’s pride — a pride that shuts out Christ and exalts self. Yet, as with the other assemblies, there is a word of encouragement to the overcomer, for there is always the opportunity for those who wish to be faithful to rise above the surrounding conditions. However, there is a peculiarly touching character to the appeal to the overcomer here, for Christ is brought in as an overcomer — something that is not done in the addresses to the other six assemblies. This gives a very poignant quality to the call, for there is One who has walked the pathway before us and who has been victorious. Having once walked through this same world as we, He overcame and is now on the Father’s throne. What an encouragement for those who seek to be faithful in these last days!
But in what way was the Lord Jesus an overcomer? In the other six assemblies mentioned, overcoming is connected with the professing church and its condition at that particular time. Doubtless this type of overcoming was needed in Laodicea too, but we must remember that the path of the Lord Jesus on earth is in view, and at that time the formation of the church was still future. His overcoming was in an area more fundamental and which transcends any particular era in the church’s history. Here His overcoming has a direct and practical voice for us today.
If we turn to the Gospels, we find two direct references to the Lord Jesus as an overcomer. In Luke 11:21-22, we read, “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, He taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.” The reference clearly is to the temptations of the Lord Jesus by Satan, before He began His earthly ministry. At that time Satan assaulted the Lord Jesus with all of the means which he had used on fallen man so successfully — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Rather than using His power as God to deal with Satan, the Lord Jesus overcame him simply by quoting the Word of God, and Satan was compelled to depart from Him for a season.
Implicit Trust in God’s Word
This has a real lesson for us today, when man’s wisdom is exalted and the Laodicean spirit of boastfulness and pride is so rampant. As we find the world, and especially Christendom, going tangentially farther and farther from God’s Word, it is important for believers to be more and more familiar with Scripture and to use it unswervingly as their guide. We note that when the Lord Jesus was presented with the various temptations, He did not discuss them with Satan or seek to reason with him; the Word of God was enough. An old brother, now with the Lord, used to remind us, “We are never wiser than Scripture.” Another brother, also with the Lord, used to exhort us, “Read the Word of God until you become so saturated with it that you think in the language of Scripture.” Just as the Lord would not leave the path of dependence, so we must trust implicitly in the wisdom of God’s Word and not rely on human wisdom.
New Armor
In saying this, we realize that the world is constantly changing and that new challenges continually present themselves. This was the case in David’s time. As a young man he had killed Goliath, but in his later life, one of the sons of the giant was “girded with new armor” (2 Sam. 21:16 JND), and David was evidently not familiar with it. As a result, David’s nephew Abishai had to come to his aid and kill the giant for him. So each generation must meet new difficulties, and we need fresh wisdom and grace from the Lord to do so. However, all this only emphasizes the need for God’s Word, for it is always fresh, living and up-to-date.
As morality declines in these last days, worldliness may insidiously creep into our thoughts and lives, and we can easily adopt attitudes and practices that are in keeping with the Laodicean spirit. There is no doubt that many of the problems that face believers collectively today have their roots in a lifestyle that is characterized by giving in to the temptations of Satan, instead of resisting them. Many of the difficulties in which believers find themselves today are directly related to a lack of obedience to God’s Word, rather than a lack of knowledge of the truth of the church. Familiarity with and obedience to God’s Word will be our safeguard against this.
A Better World
We find the Lord Jesus speaking of Himself as an overcomer once again, just before He went to the cross. In John’s Gospel, in the so-called “upper room ministry,” the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” The Lord Jesus was about to suffer, die, rise again and ascend back to heaven, and the disciples would be left in this world. He had promised them “the Comforter,” the Holy Spirit, who would come down, but then He uses the example of Himself to encourage them even more.
What does He mean by saying that He had overcome the world? Satan attacks us in two ways. Sometimes it is by temptations, as He used on the Lord Jesus in the wilderness. He will use whatever is needed, all the way to “all the kingdoms of the world” (Luke 4:5), if necessary, to seek to turn us aside. This might be referred to as his seduction of the believer. But if seduction is not effective, he also works by direct attack — by tribulation — and this may take various forms. In some cases there is savage persecution of believers — imprisonment, loss of property, physical suffering, and even martyrdom. This has been the lot of many believers down through the ages, and even today, many thousands give up their lives every year for the name of Christ. All this is calculated to cause the believer to give up, or at least to compromise his faith.
Grace for Tribulation
However, there are other forms of tribulation. In James 1:12, we read that the man who endures temptation “shall receive the crown of life” — the same crown as is promised to the martyr in Revelation 2:10. Some must endure constant problems in their secular work in this world, and Satan uses all this to seek to discourage the believer. He tempts us to seek an easier path by compromise, to avoid the tribulation. Others are perhaps beset by family difficulties, and it is a constant exercise to cope with them in a godly way, for the pressure to conform to this world is very strong. Then, too, Satan brings in difficulties among the people of God collectively, and these sometimes seem to follow one another, like waves of the sea. The constant barrage of such things can “wear out the saints” (Dan. 7:25), as Satan will seek to do to the godly ones in Israel in a future day.
How did the Lord Jesus overcome the world? He did so by accepting everything from His Father and by taking everything to His Father. If we resent our circumstances or chafe under them, we will be hindered in taking them to the Lord. But if we humble ourselves “under the mighty hand of God” (1 Peter 5:6), we will be able to cast all our care upon Him, as we find in the next verse. The tribulation may not be taken away, but we will find the needed grace, not only to bear it, but to be like Paul, who could say, “We glory in tribulations also” (Rom. 5:3). God will give us the grace, not only to accept the tribulation, but to learn from it, to be overcomers, and to glorify Him in it. We have His assurance that the affliction that seems so hard is really “light affliction” and that it works for us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17).
The Lord Jesus has already overcome and is now on His Father’s throne. Shortly He will take His rightful place and sit on His own throne. But He will not take that place until He takes us to be with Himself, and then we shall sit on that throne with Him. As the hymn reminds us, “It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus.”
W. J. Prost
A Word of Exhortation
“The coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:8), and one of the greatest proofs of this is the general lukewarm state among believers — lukewarmness to Christ Himself, manifested in so many ways. Most “seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ,” that is, He has not His proper place in our hearts. Our own things are taking His place. These things may not be wrong in themselves, yet the heart is unduly occupied with them, and the Lord Jesus as the object to live for and serve is lost. We slip away from His presence, and the soul is, perhaps unconsciously, at a distance from Him. Spiritual discernment is dimmed, and spiritual power almost gone.
Allow me, then, dear brethren, to urge upon you, and upon myself too, the truth that “we are not our own,” but “bought with a price.” And what a price! He gave Himself for us! Himself! We are not left down here merely to live decent, moral and respectable lives, attend to our business and families, and try to get on in the world till the Lord comes. We are here to live unto Him, in our families and businesses, as witnesses for Him, and in some little way to serve one another and souls around us, presenting our bodies a living sacrifice unto God. It should be an all-day, everyday sacrifice unto Him — our reasonable service, not being “conformed to this world: but ... transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
How are we thus to have Christ as an object for our hearts, as He ought to be? It is in seeing that we are an object to His heart — that His heart is always thinking of and caring for us. It is as true of Him as it is of us that where His treasure is, there His heart is also. Oh, to take it in more! Let us ask God to enable our poor, dull hearts to take in Christ’s great, wonderful and unceasing love to us, as really His treasure, and we shall find Him becoming an object to our hearts. This is what draws out spiritual affection towards Him, to whom we owe so much.
Do not let anything take you from the written Word of God. If you have little time for reading and find yourself reading periodicals or ministry and not your Bible, rather read your Bible. Always read the Word of God with the periodicals; honor God’s Word first. I am more and more persuaded of the importance of searching God’s own pure Word for one’s self, though thankful for and not despising any written ministry. And if in our reading we get any light or help or stirring up or have things brought to our remembrance, let us pray God to enable us to live out what we get from Him, that He may be glorified and our own souls really and truly blessed during the “little while” that we may still be left in this scene.
J. B. Dunlop, from an address
Are We a Remnant?
“We” are not a remnant, except in the sense in which the character of a “remnant” morally ought to characterize each one of us individually. But it is the truth we are to witness to, and God will allow us to do that in grace until Christ comes. Our place is that of Daniel in Babylon, praying with his window open towards Jerusalem. We can’t get out of the ruin, but we have to testify in heart and life to that which is not ruined, and the power for that is being occupied with things above where Christ sits. I feel more and more that what Satan has been attacking is the presence of the Lord Himself, in the midst of “two or three,” and the effect which His presence should have upon our souls. It is His presence that makes the gathering to be real. But, then, if He is there, every heart who owns Him must be subject, and consequently also subject one to another “in the fear of Christ.” It enlarges the affections and produces an exercise of conscience, which nothing else can in the same way, and a respect for the conscience of others, which is inseparable from a walk in the fear of God. That keeps the soul in peace and quiet, too, in the presence of all the troubles that arise, for our trust is in the “living God.”
I was very much struck the other day with the contrast in 2 Kings 6 — the prophet and the king, Dothan and Samaria. Externally who was the mourner? People talk a good deal now about humiliation. But here we see that the man who wore sackcloth was in enmity against God and showed the depth of his moral degradation in seeking the prophet’s life. That was really to deprive himself of the only existing link between himself and God in grace, for God was acting in grace, through Elisha, and had been doing so all along. But what made the king a mourner was God’s action towards the people. This is deeply solemn and explains, I believe, much that we find in these days.
It is not surely a time for exuberant joy, but we are to rejoice in the Lord and to walk with God in the sense of His grace, expecting to see good from His hand. That is what Elisha always did, and he was not disappointed. God used the occasion of weakness, sorrow and distress to show forth to His own glory the resources of His grace, and Elisha was made the blessed instrument of it. What made the king wear sackcloth only raised the eyes of Elisha to where he knew the chariots of fire and horses of fire were always to be found: “They that be with us are more than they that be with them.” It will be found the same in these days. Satan’s darkness settles down morally on those who forget to think of those things which are above, where Christ sits. Had the king’s mourning been true, he would have thought first of getting rid of his false gods and of turning in heart to the Lord. But he did not believe in God’s power or will to help, and he was obliged to confess, in despair, his own powerlessness. It is a sad picture of man away from God.
W. J. Lowe, extract from a letter
Christ or the World
The day of apostasy is hastening on with rapid strides, and the day is approaching when the Lord will snatch His own away. Godly men everywhere, who watch the signs of the times, see the moment approaching which shall terminate the present day of God’s grace. There has never been in the world’s history such a time as the present, and Satan is occupied as never before with believers who seek to be faithful. His occupation is the more to be feared because of the subtlety of his operations. His object is to withdraw our attention from Christ, while we suppose we are on safe ground and have nothing to fear. He would destroy us with the very truth itself, for we are on safe ground only while Christ is our all in all. If anything is interposed between our souls and Christ, our Philadelphia becomes Laodicea. Our safe ground becomes unsafe, our strength is gone, and we become weak, like any ordinary mortal.
Satan has his eye on us for the purpose of interposing the world in some form between our souls and Christ. He does not care how little or in what form. If we knew how little answers his purpose, we would be alarmed. It is not by anything glaring that he seeks to ruin us, but by small and seemingly harmless trifles that would not shock or offend anyone, yet these constitute the insidious poison that is destined to ruin our testimony. It must be Christ or the world; it cannot be Christ and the world.
J. N. Darby, adapted
The Walk of Saints According to the Spirit
I would like to examine from Scripture the path of the Christian at the present time and our responsibility in connection with the Holy Spirit’s presence on earth and as members of the body of Christ. We know that the professing church has fallen into ruin, in which we ourselves are involved. But God permitted the roots of all this state to come out in apostolic days, so that we might have direction from His Word as to it all and His guidance in the scene of confusion which exists around us. We cannot leave the profession of Christianity to go outside, nor does God force us to abide in a path where the conscience is outraged and the Word of God discarded.
The Epistle of 2 Timothy was not written in a day when everything was in order and the church of God walking in the first freshness of power and blessing. Rather, it was written just when the days were darkest in apostolic times. The gradual but sure decay had begun at once in the early church. Tares were sown among the wheat, false persons were introduced from without, and the enemy had begun to sow discord within. Some of this is evident in Paul’s earlier epistles, but when we come to 2 Timothy, these things were current, and all those of Asia had turned away from Paul. It is then that the Holy Spirit forecasts the state of the “last days,” which was then coming in. “Perilous times” would come, and the state of nominal Christians would become like that of the heathen, but with the difference of “a form of godliness” while they denied the power of it. The professing church, which had been established on earth as the “pillar and ground of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:15), was now the sphere where error and evil existed unchallenged.
Separation and Largeness
What were God’s principles when the sphere set up by Him at any time in the earth became corrupted? We may notice that these principles were His before evil entered the scene and were unchanged by any circumstances which ensued. They were “separation” and “largeness” — separation to God because He is holy and largeness of heart because He is gracious! We see this many times in man’s history.
The Garden of Eden was separate from the rest of the scene, for the man to dwell in, yet from it flowed four rivers to carry its blessings to the rest of the earth. When God divided the world into nations at Babel, God called Abraham out of it, separating him to Himself, because He was holy; yet, because He was gracious, He promised that “in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” So also in Israel: They were to be holy unto the Lord, yet they were to be the center from which blessing should flow forth to the nations.
When Israel, under Aaron, made the golden calf, Moses then prayed to the Lord to spare the people, or to blot him out of the book He had written. But Moses also “took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation” (Ex. 33:7). Here again was separation to God, yet largeness of heart for His people and for their true blessing.
When we turn to 2 Timothy, we find this same principle applied to our path. The Apostle’s heart is burdened with the sin in which the people of God were now involved, yet bright in the freshness of the courage needed to lift one above it all. Often the soul gets under the power and sense of the evil to such a degree that it becomes occupied with it, thus losing sight of God. But while conscious of the evil, the heart can turn to God and find Him superior to the evil; we are called to separate ourselves to Him.
Individual Recovery
This character of things occupies the greater part of the epistle. The Spirit of God recognizes that there is no ecclesiastical recovery for the church of God as a whole, but there is always individual recovery by the truth. He had been treating of the false teaching of Hymenaeus and Philetus, and such like, when he adds, “Yet the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those that are His; and, Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19 JND). How refreshing to think that no amount of corruption had destroyed that sure foundation of God! But those hidden ones of the Lord must be separate from evil to Him. Let the evil be moral, doctrinal, intellectual, or religious, the path is the same — to “depart from iniquity” is the responsibility of the saint who names the name of the Lord. Only in this way will he “be a vessel unto honor, sanctified [or, separated], and meet for the Master’s use” (2 Tim. 2:21).
The word “purge” is found only twice in the original tongue of the New Testament Scriptures. The first place is in 1 Corinthians 5:7: “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” This marked the responsibility of the whole church of God, but she did not, as a whole, do this. Now comes the second use of the word. The individual, finding himself in the midst of “a great house,” filled with vessels to honor and dishonor, was to “purge himself” from such by standing apart from them, in order to be a vessel unto honor for the Master’s use.
But when a soul has taken this step, it might foster a Pharisaic spirit in him, and so we have next, “Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22 JND). He would find others who, like himself, had grace given to be separate to the Lord, and he was to walk with such, in holiness of conduct and a pure heart.
Negative and Positive
But this separation to the Lord has, so far, only a negative character. We want something more; we need a positive ground of action for our souls in the midst of the scene. Here, then, comes in the never-changing truth of the unity of the body of Christ, for it is within the sphere of Christendom that the Holy Spirit maintains this unity. Outwardly it is broken to fragments, and it is utterly impossible to restore it to its original state, but I am always responsible to set myself to rights before God. If, as a member of Christ, I separate from evil, I find others also; we meet as His members to worship the Father and to remember our Lord. But it is as members of Christ and as acting in the truth of that one body and on no other ground! We are thus in a breadth of truth which embraces every member of Christ on earth!
The Unity of the Body
We can neither keep nor break the unity of the body — that is kept by the Spirit Himself, in spite of every failure of man. But we are to be “using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3 JND). What, then, is this unity? It is the power and principle by which the saints are enabled to walk together in their proper relations in the body and as members of Christ. I can enjoy with every true soul all that he enjoys in the unity of the Spirit. If fresh light reaches his soul and he refuses it, I must never compromise the truth with him. All this involves the body of Christ; it is the ground of action, because the Spirit of God maintains it.
This unity, too, excludes individuality most fully; no one can take an isolated place. If he is called to stand alone in some locality, he is still on common ground, all over the world, with all who are walking in such a truth. It excludes individuality, too, when together with others, for one might be tempted to act in independency of other members of Christ. This precious truth throws us outside every system of man, too, but keeps us in that unity which is according to God!
Now here is the divine and positive foundation under our feet for this day of ruin. This is not merely a negative path. It is wide enough for all, because it embraces all in its breadth, whether they are there or not. It is exclusive of evil from its midst, for to admit it would cause it to cease to be the unity of the Spirit. It is not merely a unity of Christians, which man seeks to effect, sometimes at the expense of the truth of the body of Christ. God attaches unity to Christ, not Christ to unity! Then it must be true in nature to Him whose body it is; it must be practically holy and true (Rev. 3:7).
F. G. Patterson, adapted
The Truth Restored and Our Responsibility
The weakness of which you speak is, I believe, very general; at least it is so in this country. And in going about among gatherings, we find our work is largely seeking to “strengthen the things which remain.” It is very different now from what it was when I first came among those gathered to the Lord’s name. God raised up a special testimony in the early part and middle of the century, and He wrought in and through vessels which He had specially fitted for the work, keeping them in touch with Himself and opening up to them from the Scriptures, by the Spirit, a vast range of precious truth which had long been practically lost. And He did this in such a way as to bring before the whole church this precious truth. In this, the Spirit of God wrought powerfully in restoring to us what we had so long been without.
This work has been done; the truth has been clearly placed before the people of God, and many have received it. This testimony, as it seems to me, has been finished. It is no longer a question of a powerful work to put the people of God in possession of what they had lost, but a question of holding fast what we have. The special danger is in letting it slip, and we know we have an ever watchful foe, who never wearies in his efforts to rob the people of God and dishonor Christ, so that we need to be especially watchful on this point.
Our Responsibility
Of course, our responsibility is to go on with the truth, witnessing to it as we have opportunity, and in this sense the testimony still goes on, but this is a very different thing from the special testimony from God which puts us in possession of the truth, so that we might hold it fast and live in the power of it. Now that God has wrought and put the truth in our hands, there is a special responsibility to hold it fast and to make a right use of it, and here is where we see failure coming in. We have not valued the truth according to its real worth, and so we have not walked in it as we ought. The result is decline in the soul of one and another, and general declension sets in, and the masses go with the current. This is what makes it so difficult at the present moment. Attacks are made upon the truth, and souls are not in a state to resist these with energy, and thus the enemy gains ground, and souls become powerless, except as God comes in in sovereign mercy to deliver them.
Well, how much we need to seek God’s face in such a day! Thank God, the conflict will soon be over. The Lord is coming quickly, and we are thus encouraged to “hold fast.” But one does not expect it to become easier as the end draws near. The efforts of Satan are more desperate to swamp the truth as the end of his career approaches, and God permits this for the testing of His people. We need to be cast upon God, who is our resource at all times and who will not fail those who with integrity of heart seek His face.
A. H. Rule, from a letter
In Days of Ruin
There is great instruction in the conduct of Zerubbabel related in Ezra 3. The son and heir of David takes his place with a remnant returning from captivity. He is content to labor in Jerusalem without a throne and without a crown. In building the altar of the Lord and the house of God, he simply served God in his own generation. Heir of the place that Solomon had formerly occupied in the days of prosperity and glory, he speaks neither of his birth nor of his own rights, yet is he faithful in all the path of separation, grief and struggles he is obliged to pass through. May the Lord render us more and more peaceful and confiding in Himself in these days of trial. “When I am weak, then am I strong” is a lesson Paul had to learn by a very humbling process.
From Christian Truth
Look up; Hold Fast
“Look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh”
(Luke 21:28).
Above the skies are dark;
Around the trees bend low;
A frightening storm about us;
Where can we go?
Shattered Christianity;
A restless world around;
Must we collapse and flounder,
Eyes on the ground?
We’re helpless on our own!
Take hold His nail-pierced hand
For ever-wise direction through
The darkening land.
Look up; look on; hold fast;
His promises are true:
“Behold I quickly come,” my child —
I come for you!
The streaks in stormy skies
Herald the morning star;
That final step to heaven and home
Cannot be far!
Selected
Theme of the Next Issue