THE life of Christians is summed up in these two things: worship and conflict, which, though they may be looked at separately, are nevertheless intimately connected. We have a very decided example of this in the taking possession of the land of Canaan, under the guidance of Joshua. The people realized the presence of God at Gilgal in the camp, and then sallied forth to meet its enemies. There you got worship and conflict in the unity of the people of God.
In this book of Judges, which is the history of Israel's failure, worship and conflict are no more found in the same unity. We see God's actions in favor of his people after another manner: it is no longer God realizing His blessings in the unity and by the unity of His people, although all may be the partakers. Those, then, raised up of God, have not the thought of acting on this principle. God directs them differently according to the ways of His wisdom towards a fallen people. It is impossible, in unbelief, to realize worship and good conflict; in such a case, God fights with us, but against us. In the wilderness, God acts by all manner of chastening, to teach a carnal people, and thus to bring them into the position of worship and good conflict. This is also true of the Church in its fallen state, or of an individual soul. The Church would have been in a magnificent position here below, had she not failed in her dependence on the Holy Spirit: worship and conflict would then have been in the unity of the body, and thus a full blessing. Instead of this, all is in misery, and will be more and more so, until God accomplishes His purpose in bringing in perfection for the Church, by the coming of the Lord Jesus.
We have to distinguish between worship which is the soul's rest in God, and service which is essentially conflict. In the service of God we meet the power of the adversary; in worship, we joy in the rest of God, sheltered from our enemies. Worship is never individual, even though it were realized but by one single worshipper on earth; worship identifies us with Jesus in the presence of the Father, and with the whole priestly family; there we realize the communion of the saints, because we are, in the communion of Jesus and of the Father, one with them all. If but one Christian were in a state to realize the worship, (for all are so in their Head,) that would be the Christian whom God would use for conflict in favor of His people, of His Church in her wretchedness, under the power of her enemies. Although the state of God's people might be such, that only one should be used of God for conflict, it would be none the less for unity that he would be so. For God acts in sight of all His own, for the blessing of all. He does not change in his purpose though our sin necessitates His different actings. The greater the evil, the more is God obliged to confound strong things by weak, in order that man may not be in a position to glorify himself before Him.
In a faithful walk there is, then, the repose of the soul in God; in unfaithfulness, God fights against us, destroys the flesh, and that, to bring us into the blessing of which we deprive ourselves by the activity of the carnal mind, which, being un-judged, drags into the things of this world and distances us from the Father's love.
When the people of Israel, under the guidance of Joshua, took possession of Canaan, God made Himself to be admired in the midst of His people, terrible and formidable toward all His enemies. Such will also be the case when Jesus shall exercise judgment against His enemies. “He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe." (2 Thess. 1:1010When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. (2 Thessalonians 1:10).)
God should have been glorified in His people Israel by the presentation of His righteousness, and His holiness according to this law, in the midst of His people, and through His people, before the nations. Now, this is what has completely failed. Israel have dishonored God by their conduct. (Rom. 2:2424For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written. (Romans 2:24).) The Church should be the expression of the Father's love according to the riches of His grace. She also has failed in her testimony as a body. (Rev. 2., 3.)
The consequence of these things (in those who are near enough to God to judge the evil that is introduced, and to be humbled in the thought of God when all is in misery, and when His glory is trampled underfoot,) is identification with the sufferings of Christ. This is essentially the position of faithfulness wherever it actually exists. If the truth in this particular be but a little understood, somewhat also of the immense difference will be felt (as to worship and the conflict resulting from it) of being in the unity and fidelity of the body, or of remaining in a fallen state of things. If Christians can gather together in the true sense of that now is, they will deeply feel the evil, they will suffer from it as identified with Christ, and the Lord will proportionately comfort and strengthen them.
The knowledge of God is needed for a little strength in our actual condition, in order that we may submit to God in the midst of so many miseries, that we may judge and feel; a soul, which in worship fails of intelligence as to the consequences of our fall before God, such a soul will not be prepared to suffer and to endure, as a just thing, the lack of this worship, the failure of response to its wants according to God. This is the case with the greater part of Christians—indeed, people generally content themselves in a state of spiritual sleep, with that which suits the dead and not the living.
When all is fallen and in misery, the faith which recognizes God and His rights, accepts the chastening which results from the infidelity of the people of God, with whom it identifies us in this position: we see this in the prophet. (Dan. 9.; Jer. 10:1919Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. (Jeremiah 10:19); Neh. 9:32, 3732Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy, let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that hath come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all thy people, since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day. (Nehemiah 9:32)
37And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. (Nehemiah 9:37).) The refusal to submit in this case proves that one has not accepted for one's self the consequences of the infidelity of God's people. If not humbled and submissive, there is no intelligence, the heart is not touched, the flesh is alive, and God cannot, in this state of soul, comfort and bless.
When there is a fall, (and that is our case,) worship can no longer be realized in the same blessing; let us not forget it: there will be many things that will be painfully felt by those who are but ever so little spiritual. In the realization of suffering for evils to which the Spirit of God has made us alive, and which have been manifested to us in the body, let us remember the greatness of the grace which makes us sensible of what Jesus Himself deeply felt, and according to all the perfectness of God. And as He has borne the weight of it, and thus destroyed the consequences as to His own, those who feel the effects of the evil are chosen of God to realize the sufferings of Christ, to feel with Christ something of His sufferings in this sense, and bear the weight of it before thin, to claim the efficacy of His grace in victory over this evil, this power that the adversary exercises against the saints, because of their infidelities. It is in the point of view of responsibility that I speak here, and I repeat it, a single Christian may be chosen of God as the instrument of blessing to the Church in many cases. I believe this to be a principle of the actings of Christ in mercy and blessing for the Church.
The consequence of the unfaithfulness of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, in his league with Ahab, king of Israel, was the occasion of introducing faithfulness into suffering. The faithful Micaiah was called to a testimony which led him to prison. (1 Kings 22:26-2826And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son; 27And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. 28And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you. (1 Kings 22:26‑28).) There is again a consequence of the bond that unites the people of God. The unfaithfulness of Jehoshaphat, on this occasion, made Inns incur the risk of losing his life. Jehoshaphat was humbled for having failed in his duty: Micaiah was humbled for having been faithful to his God; so that the sufferings which Ire had to endure shall turn to him for honor and glory in the day of Christ.
When God shall have no more testimony by means of His saints, He will then bear witness to Himself by judgments. At the time of the taking of the ark by the Philistines, we see the judgment of God on Israel by means of their enemies, as well as on their enemies who had not been afraid of making themselves masters of the ark, the visible sign of the presence of the God of Israel. They should have been taught by this fact the value for them of the presence of the holy God. When God takes cognizance of the inhabitants of the earth, it will be in judgment; but as long as there shall be here below a worship owned of God, whatever be the feeble estate of His children, God will act in grace toward the inhabitants of the earth, but also in judgment toward His house. These are the circumstances to remind us of the words of Jesus: “Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." (Matt. 5:1313Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. (Matthew 5:13).) The ark had fallen into the hands of the Philistines, because of the complete corruption of the priesthood, which was the principle whereby worship took place.
Worship is not regulated in the New Testament as to the form, and we understand that it neither could nor ought to be so; it depends entirely on the spiritual state of those who offer it; and if there were a form whereby to fix it, this form might exist without life. This may be the case as to doctrine, but not as to worship. In the old dispensation all was regulated as to worship, and there was an attachment to form which stood instead of all to the children of Israel, and which gave than a blind confidence, notwithstanding their state of entire corruption. It is the same in Christianity for those who do not distinguish between the form and the substance of religion. But here the blindness is still greater, because, for the most part, the forms which have arisen in Christianity, cannot be legitimized by Scripture.
Satan was conquered by Christ; but he has not accepted his defeat: he has hidden himself behind the curtain in the forms which has introduced into Christianity; he has seduced Christians in causing the wisdom of men to prevail over the wisdom of God. Thus has man put himself in the place of the Holy Spirit in the Church, where he has displayed his intellectual faculties, taking revelation for the sphere of their activity. Such a religion may well accommodate itself to the taste of men; for they can profess it while resting in all their pretensions, and even while giving them increased extension. The world has poured in a great flood into the Church.
In measure as true piety declines, form takes place of spirituality, and if great vigilance be not exercised, we find ourselves on an easy slope which draws Christians down this road without their ever doubting that they are on the verge of it. Moreover, as to what concerns spiritual worship, the spiritual alone can understand it; Christians who are less advanced remain in ignorance on this subject, and even take occasion, from the fact that the Word does not determine it, to oppose themselves to those who are more initiated in the intelligence of the blessing of worship.
In the call of Gideon we have very precious instruction concerning the ways of God, acting in favor of His people in failure. (Judges 6.) He says to him: (verse 12 :) “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour." In his answer, (verse 13,) Gideon objects to God his lack of intelligence; this answer shows, in fact, Gideon's ignorance as to the ways of God; he understood not wherefore all these things came to pass. God does not stay to instruct him, but He will act, and answers him: " Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?” Here Gideon objects his personal weakness and that of his house. (Verse 15.) And the Lord says to him: "SURELY I will be with thee; and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man." After this, again the weakness of Gideon is manifested; be asks a sign; God condescends to his infirmity and does all that Gideon asks Him. But after that Gideon manifests his fear afresh; and the Lord reassures. (Verse 23.) Then he builds an altar to the LORD and called it JEHOVAH-SHALOM. (The Lord send peace.) Here we get an important principle; first of all peace must be established; that was the needed thing, for there had been failure and distance from God. The people were guilty; peace must be found with God: this was the first altar to be raised as the witness of accomplished peace. The call of the shiner is not the question here, but the ways of God towards his fallen people. It is as when the Lord said to the Churches: “I have somewhat against thee." Afterwards, God commands him to pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to his father. God will do nothing in those in whom He chooses to act, until idolatry disappears from before Him. "And build an altar unto the Loup thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down." (Verse 26.)
We see here that the first act of obedience, required by God after peace is concluded, is worship, and it is important to observe that this act of worship was a testimony from God by Gideon against the idolatrous condition of His people. The result also of this act of obedience, such as God required, is the intervention of Joash to deliver Gideon from his enemies, and that of the Spirit of God, who clothes with power for the accomplishment; of the deliverance that God would work in favor of His people. We have evidently here: first, worship, then conflict; but both accomplished by the call of one single man, chosen of God, established and sent according to His grace, in favor of a fallen people.
The priesthood, or principle of God's unity with His people, is not brought out in the history of the Judges; a striking proof that God does not act by this principle when his people is fallen. I think this contains much instruction for us, as to the state of the Church. Those who act to realize this unity when it is broken, and who will act on this principle, are not in the thoughts of God; it is one thing to be led of the Lord and according to His thoughts, and quite another thing to will to accomplish certain truths, as it seems good in our own eyes.
Under Samuel, the ark and the priesthood are in the scene, but it is for judgment. God would have done with this altogether corrupt order of things, and introduce another principle of government in the midst of Israel; that is, government by means of the prophet. But Jehovah is rejected also in this; the people ask a king. Under the government of royalty, priesthood remained the principle for offering worship; but there was a change as to the persons who performed the service of the temple. Later on, when Jerusalem has become the final object of the judgment of God, all is rejected, which may furnish us with a new proof of this truth,—that when there is no further possibility of accomplishing worship, God comes in to make an end by judgment; there is no more remedy. Then God rejects what He had instituted for His glory and for the blessing of This people, and He establishes something else. When God shall judge and reject what is called the Church here below, He will introduce the glory of His Son, and the worship at Jerusalem will be in far higher perfection than under Solomon.
Worship is always the principle whereby God can be approached; we see it from Abel's time to the end. It is the principle of the relations of God with man through Christ: therefore, if worship ceases, there remains nothing but the judgments of God to expect.
The worship of Christians surpasses by far, both in position and elevation of character, all that was presented in types and symbols in the Old Testament; Jesus, who was the substance of the shadows, can make us understand it; and although we can distinguish in His life between worship and service, in Him these things are not the less intimately united and dependant on one another; of Him one may say that His whole life was a perfect worship; (John 15:10; 17:110If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. (John 15:10)
1These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: (John 17:1);) a truth which has its application for the Christian, placed in the position of Jesus, one with Him. If we consider worship in its perfection in Jesus, and our position in Him, whether in our acceptance before God the Father, or in our mission upon earth, it will only contribute to our better judgment of the importance attached thereto for us before Him who has given us a value so great and so perfect. In this case, if we confound the collective enjoyment of the divine joys of the family of God, with the service, the complete offering of ourselves to God, that would suppose that the joy of the service of God is become as great as the joy which is to be found in the calm of the soul in His presence, (which I do not admit, as will further on be shown.) But to suppose a perfect state in this respect, spiritual intelligence must do the part of each of these two things.
I can understand that, looking at the extent of the favor of God, in placing us in the position of realizing the service wherein Jesus found. Himself, this thought, by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit, may make us walk in the accomplishment of the Lord's will, with a spirit of adoration towards Him who has designed to honor us to such a high degree, by placing us in every way in the same relation as His beloved Son. In fact, a Christian preserving the remembrance of his former state, and being truly humbled before God, will adore for all that God condescends to accomplish by him; it is a happy position, trite and very desirable for all; all should run toward this end of perfection, and all will attain to it; for these worshippers whom the Father sought, Jesus has found and formed them for God His Father; and this will be accomplished in them when He shall have set them near God in resurrection. But, in the meantime, those called to this grace and glory begin to be developed for these things before perfection is come.
The fact that Jesus "loves us, and has washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made its kings and priests to God and This Fat her," is something infinitely great; He reveals in a way as admirable as it is deep, the love of God, and His grace so perfect., to those who are the objects of it, and who will be able to measure this love when they shall have attained to perfection. This perfection of God will place them in the realization of worship in Spirit and in truth, and that for all eternity. Even from here below, this knowledge is also the principle of all true worship and true service, of all true adoration of God.
In the perfection of adoration, individuality is lost, being merged in the thought and enjoyment of God who fills it with Himself. In the perfection of service, one no longer sees one's self, one reckons ones' self as belonging to God, one sees only Jesus fulfilling This good pleasure for His body and through Nis body, which is the Church. Such is the point of view we ought always to aim at; as it is the work of God in His own, viz. in all those who have the Son.
A crown of life is promised to him that endureth temptation, (James 1:1212Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. (James 1:12),) that is, who is faithful in service. He who abides in Jesus and meets with trials, manifests the powerful efficacy of the life of Jesus, who has won the victory over him who had the power of death. Therefore, I think, it is said: "He shall receive a crown of life."
A crown of righteousness is reserved for all those who shall have loved the appearing of Jesus. (Tim. 4:8.)
The expectation of Jesus is a demonstration of the love of the Bride who expects the Bridegroom; it is this which causes those who realize such a hope to walk in the principle of heavenly righteousness, which is quite a different thing from the righteousness that pertains to the earth; therefore, the crown of righteousness is a glory that relates to the expectation of Jesus, the fruit of the faithful love of the Bride.
Jesus had said to Peter: “Lovest thou me more than these?" “Feed my lambs." "Feed my sheep." These words show us the principle required by the Lord, that a man be occupied with His flock as caring for it. The capability for this depends on a love much beyond what can generally exist in this respect. This crown is one of glory, because those who work out of love to Christ in the care for His body, care for the interests of their Master's glory.
The crowns of gold, wherewith the elders seen by John (Rev.) are crowned, have no relation with the crowns that may be acquired by fidelity in the Christian course. Gold is the symbol of holiness and of perfect purity before God. These crowns present us, I think, with the perfect holiness of God, wherewith He has clothed those who are placed on thrones before Him; thus their adoration is in the capacity of the most exalted holiness. What they present to God in their worship is the very purity of God. God has thus placed them before Him, clothed with the perfection of the Lamb in the most exalted degree, in the fullness of the Lamb. And they also worship the Lamb; their adoration has relation to this fullness.
It is only on this principle that worship can be offered to God; that is, that the worshippers present to God what God has clothed them with by grace; what Christ has acquired for them;—in no wise what they might have produced as fruits agreeable to God by Jesus Christ.
The heavenly High Priest may present the fruits that He recognizes of His own, and God accepts them at the hand of Jesus, but in their place.
The redeemed neither can nor ought to accomplish this worship, save in presenting themselves to God with the things which Jesus, His Beloved, has acquired for them, and wherewith he has clothed them. We can only enjoy God in our souls, we can only have a perfect peace in the realization of worship, so far as no trace is found in our hearts of what can proceed from ourselves, even as fruits of the Spirit of Christ; but only of what, in grace, we have from God, of the perfections of Christ wherewith we have been clothed. To present one's self before God with any thought whatsoever, save the sole thought of the perfections of Jesus, establishes an insurmountable separation between the soul and the holiness of God. But the one only thought of the perfection of Jesus establishes us in full assurance before Him, in full confidence, in full enjoyment of His perfect love in ourselves, in the communion of Jesus and of the Father.
It is the thought of what God has made us to be in Christ, realized by the faith which seizes and appropriates to itself what God has given to us, that places the soul in peace and in the enjoyment of God.
God, our kind Father, well knew that thus it must be, that we might be perfectly happy in Him; therefore also His perfect grace and love have fulfilled it on our behalf! Why then are His blessed children always wandering from the love of their Father, seeking anything except in the bosom of Jesus, where this grace so perfect and so sweet to the sinner's heart always abides this grace which renders bins infinitely more happy in the bosom of God than if he could have attained it in any other way?
What folly that our hearts should wander but ever so little from the perfection with which God has clothed us! “For all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," according as it is written (Isaiah 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6).) And as to the fruit that Christ may produce in us, we should only stop at them to consider Him who bears the iniquity of our holy things, (Exod. 28:58,) and thus see a fresh motive for adoring Jesus. Therefore, however humbling it may be to see the iniquity which cleaves to our good works and defiles them, that even may be for us the subject of perfect joy, showing to us that we cannot look one moment at ourselves, but can contemplate Jesus only, which keeps us in the perfection of God, and in true happiness. And if it is said: "Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at soy gates, waiting at the ports of my door;” (Prey. 8:31;) what must be the happiness of those who can enter into the holy of holies!.... having been clothed with His own holiness' This is what the understanding needs perfectly to penetrate, this is what the soul needs to be filled with in order to be filled with the peace of the sanctuary. Therefore Jesus says: “I have preached thy righteousness in the great congregation." (Ps. 40:9.) And again; "My tongue shall speak continually of thy righteousness." (PS. 35:28.)
When Jesus comes out of heaven with His armies, the righteousnesses of the saints are made mention of; the Lord conies to glorify Himself in His saints. This relates to the service of the faithful in battle.
In worship, the saints enter into God, and all is eclipsed; His righteousness and His glory are alone manifest. 'This relates to the happiness of the saints in worship it is our glory in God, or His glory in us. And When the time shall have come in which. God shall be all in all, there will be eternity of joy, and peace, for all, its God: ETERNAL WORSHIP!