Fragments

Luke 8
This chapter commences by connecting the Lord's actings, in the cities and villages He went through, with His acting in the Pharisee's house; which involved the owning of worthless ones, blessed in Him, He presenting Himself as their help, and accepting of their services, as the expressions of blessing realized in Him. The three companions whose names are recorded, seem to imply, First: manifest evil in the flesh, because of seven devils in-dwelling. Second, evil connection in the world because of relationship in the flesh to the enemies of the Lord. Third, names of obscurity as to the flesh, about whom little could be gathered,-as Susanna. Such were found of Christ and blessed in Him. The devil being cast out, a new relationship is set up. The name of obscurity is brought to light, because owned of Him. All the old things are worthless and evil, but all done away in Him, and all things become new.
In this parable a new thing is introduced--nothing of the flesh is owned, but the seed is sown-the word of God.
This word is subject to three great hindrances to fruitfulness-to be trodden down-to be taken in without any depth -to be received amongst other principles, -as those of nature. Each cause of unfruitfulness soon develops itself. If trodden down, the devil takes it away. If it is not valued, it will soon be taken away. This treading down is open undervaluing, and the expression of supposed worthlessness. The devil is seen in this by Him, who knows the mysteries of these things. Many do not know them.
If it be received without sustaining power, the time of temptation will be the time of falling away. The temptation is not the cause, but the absence of power to preserve the word in growth under circumstances that would blight it. Blessed are they that endure the trial. If the trial is against the word, there is that within to sustain in it.
If the word is received amongst principles of nature, to let all grow up together,-cares, riches, and pleasures of this life,-the result will be that the word will be choked. In the preceding case there was the absence of that which would sustain in the lack of moisture-in this the presence of what would choke, cares, &c., and no fruit is brought to perfection. But blessed are they who, in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. The thing of value with such is the word. The devil cannot take it away, because it is not slighted. The hour of temptation is endured, because of its known blessedness, above and beyond all trial in the flesh. The things of the flesh cannot choke it, because the unholy association between it and them is not allowed. Such have their trials, but they are sustained in patience. If there are trials still fruitfulness is there, because of the deep abiding of the living nurtured word. And if cares, riches, and pleasures of this life come in competition, they are of the flesh, and such can be mortified; but the word is held in the Spirit, and is this paramount to them all, because of the power of God..
The intelligence of these mysteries is given to discipleship--blindness about them and want of intelligence is the state of others.
You find men maintaining philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Such is not the labor of discipleship, and therefore beware of such. The faithful laborer will sow the seed; and the seed is the word of God.
The obedient ear and heart will hear the word and keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. " As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in • him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving."
Fragments
"He that gathereth not with me scattereth."
There may be gathering, as we see, in looking round at what is called the church; but if it is not WITH Christ, the whole thing, vast as it is, is but scattering. One may be very ignorant about Christ, but it must be Himself around whom we gather.
But, on the other side, so sectarian are our hearts, that we have need to watch, lest, when Christ is owned as the center, we be like the disciples, who said, " we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us." Here self had sprung up; for the man whom they forbad was glorifying God in casting out devils in Christ's name. There is no possibility of detecting the subtlety of self, except as Christ is the center of the soul. And it is certain that Christ will not be the center of my efforts if He is not the center of my thoughts. And it is equally certain that I shall not make Christ the center of all around me, if he is not practically the center of my own heart.
It is a great thing for a man to say, I have no object but Christ; that He is everything to me. And everything in me is so judged by this one object, that the whole activity of my heart is for Christ, and only for Christ. It is not enough to have Christ only at bottom as our object-every Christian has that; for if Christ be not at the bottom of the heart, the man is no Christian at all.
The truth is simply this, that between Christ, who is the root at the bottom of the heart, and that which comes out, there are ordinarily a great quantity of middle things that are not judged, and which certainly are not Christ, nor like Christ; for only touch them, and nature is directly up in arms. Besides love to Christ, there is often love of money, love of worldly company, love of power, love of influence, under the pretext of using it for Christ: all of which, if unjudged, must hinder communion, and will prevent Christ being the simple and only object and center of the soul.
There is nothing that the hearts of God's children should more sedulously cultivate than the thought that we have to do with God. " Jesus has suffered for sins once, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." It is with God " we have to do," And if this truth be not practically maintained in the soul, our strength will be weakness, our walk our disgrace, and our worship but form.
This is the thought we are to cherish, that through redemption " we are brought nigh to God," " we have to do with God."
I need hardly say that in every age the whole power and blessing to man has arisen from his having to do with God. God is the source of all life and blessing. But the way in which the displays of God's presence, and power, and help are manifested, are modified by the relations in which He is manifesting Himself to His people, and according to His purposes in dealing with His people.
In a former dispensation, and in the present, there is a contrast in the mode in which God's presence and power are manifested. God's presence with Israel was for a manifestation of His power and goodness upon earth before the nations, and hence the discomfiture of outward enemies, and the enjoyment of earthly blessings. In the church God's presence is for the manifestations of His power in sustaining upon heavenly principles a people whom He has gathered to Himself. And hence His power will be mainly displayed to faith, in the victory over spiritual enemies in a triumph over the world, and in the enjoyment of spiritual blessings.
Fragments
2 Samuel 22
It is evident here, while the occasion was David's deliverances from Saul, yet the Spirit who spoke by the mouth of David goes far beyond the circumstances of David, and brings in Christ; therefore seeing what it is the Spirit speaks of here, it draws our attention to the position Christ took, and what the circumstances of His death and resurrection were, and what His deliverances out of them. Christ came down into the very depth of the ruin in which His people were lying. And such were the intolerant aboundings of iniquity, that they had assumed the character of a rod upon Christ, when the cry of Christ brought out God in the fullest power of deliverance. When God came out of His place, He delivered Christ and set Him at His right hand. And here I would notice that God did come out of His place: for it was impossible for Him to keep in His place any longer. God rode upon the Cherubim. The Cherub here marks the circumstances of that throne of God in judgment, as the Cherub kept the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. When He rides on the Cherub, He comes to judge everything evil. God could no longer keep His place, for He could no longer leave His blessed One to the consequences attendant on iniquity. The Cherub that kept man out of Eden now brought God in. Mark the extent of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, for He was subject to the whole power of evil and man's wretchedness. The sorrows of death compassed Him about, the pains of hell gat hold on Him, and it was out of these deep waters God drew Him when He raised Him from the dead. The darkness and power of Satan was not in the least relieved by the coming in of God. The sanction of God's judgment was upon it. Yes, the power of darkness in His soul had the sanction of God's judgment upon it, and why? Because of our sins, and then see the place in which He sets us. God comes out of His place intolerant when iniquity is at its height. All men acted on by Satan rising up against God's Son, God must therefore come out of His place to relieve His Son. He comes forth unable to hear the great power of wickedness any longer. He comes out as the destroying angel, intolerant because of the great power of evil. But if God rides upon the Cherub that guards the tree of life, where shall any appear? But, blessed be God, when He comes in glorious power, when He rides upon the Cherubim to execute judgment, He finds His people under the protection of the blood. When the destroying angel went forth in the land of Egypt, the blood was upon the doorposts of Israel's houses before He came out, and therefore when God came out to judge, He found Israel -under the protection of His righteousness, for God must have judged Israel when He did the Egyptians, if the blood had not been there; but God said, "when I see the blood, I will pass over." Therefore the blood being upon the door-posts, Israel was perfectly safe, in virtue of the holiness of that judgment which was going forth to destroy the Egyptians. And here mark the reality of the place in which Jesus put Himself for 'us; for if Jesus had not been under the wrath for our sins, when God came out of His place and rode upon the Cherubim, we must be judged there and then. But when the bitter cry of Jesus upon the cross (for us) entered into the ear of God, He had then drained the cup to the very last dreg for us, that our souls might find safety, and not only safety, but that when God came out of His place, riding upon the Cherubim, intolerant of the evil which He could no longer bear, our souls might rejoice in the power of that holiness which had made Christ " SIN FOR US."
Consider, then, the reality of the sufferings Christ endured for us-going down into the very depths of sin, and under all the power of evil that Satan himself was master of: and then think of what a character our sins must be to call for such judgment as this, for it was truly a RIGHTEOUS judgment.
The possibility of God ever standing before him otherwise than as an exactor cannot enter into the heart of a well-instructed Papist; the moment, therefore, he sees God's love towards him in having Himself provided the sacrifice His own holiness needed; and that the sacrifice has been offered and continues its efficacy unto this very moment; and that there remaineth no more offering for sin, because that by the will of God those who believe are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, he is set free. He can come near to God in full assurance of faith.
Now everything is slipping from its place. Everything that is not founded on Christ and His word, and to the exclusion of everything else, will soon be in the enemy's camp. Take with you a single eye, and your whole body will be full of light; otherwise you will slip away into the dominion of evil, and at last of Satan. Do not be deceived by the name of religion. The weak, the crucified One, is the power of God unto salvation. It is matter of faith and of holding fast. Disbelieve the false prophets. Believe God, and the devil will flee from you, and you will be left to the rejoicing of hope, and rest will be recompensed to you when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels.
We ought to know that this is a time when allegiance to the Lord Jesus will be put to the test.
Fragments
Note how the moment one's heart has got resurrection as a home, all mere earthly ties and associations lose their hold. We are freed so as to walk with God in the consciousness of the love of Christ wherever He leads. And then it is a small thing where the body lies, if our friends or ourselves should die, though our dust is precious in His sight. Heaven is our home, and our gathering together is unto Him.
The Shepherd sought His sheep from the earnest care of His own heart for it.
As Jesus came from God and went to God, so does the Book that divinely reveals Him come from and elevate to -Him. If received, it has brought the soul to God; for He has revealed Himself in it.
Holiness is not merely separation from evil, but separation to God from evil. The new nature has not merely a nature or intrinsic character, as being of God; it has an object, for it cannot live on itself-a positive object, and that is God. Now this changes everything; because it separates from evil, which it abhors therefore when it sees it, because it is filled with good. We are occupied with good, and hence holy, for that is holiness; and therefore easily and discerningly abhorrent of evil, without occupying ourselves with it. Sanctification is resting (by the enlightening of the Holy Ghost) on an object which by its nature purifies the affections by being their object.
We cannot walk out of darkness but by walking in the light, that is, with God; and God is love, and were He not, we could not walk there.
The Lord knows how to deliver the godly, and to reserve the unjust for judgment: till then! patience and godliness.
We have to pass through the wilderness as belonging to God. Separated to God as sons in the midst of this evil age, we have God's rest set before us; we rest in the atmosphere of death, when we rest anywhere else.
Present failure unfits for present sympathy with God and His people; and present sympathy with God and His people preserves from individual failure.