05.10. Notes

Note A. The babes or young converts of 1 John 2:13; 1 John 2:18-27, are an example of instinct by the Holy Spirit. They have an unction from the Holy One and know all things. In this way they are fitted to meet the apostasy whether of Judaism or Christianity. The intuition of the Spirit is seen in Mary when she broke her box of ointment and anointed her Lord for His burial. The inspiration of the Spirit is seen in the recording of Holy Scriptures; in the addresses of the Apostles to their persecutors; and in their words of salvation to the multitudes. Revelation must be distinguished from inspiration though both are by the Holy Spirit. In the former we have what is positive and from God; in the latter the Spirit’s record of history which includes both good and evil in recording the words and works of nature and the doings of evil men. Illumination is a beautiful word, describing how the Spirit enlightens our souls by His communications, so that the believer in His hands, becomes a reflex of Christ here among men. Luke 11:35-36, Php 2:15, 1 John 2:6.

Nature in its different departments of order and beauty is the work of the Holy Spirit. The seasons come and go; suitable food is provided for all; time for labour and for rest; strength and energy expended — rest and recuperation in return, but all in view of the moral realm, God, Christ and new creation and eternity. His control of the moral and physical realms in combination, is a theme for reflection and profound thanksgiving. In our natural conditions it is said, "In Him we live and move and have our being." He controls the heart, the circulation of the blood, the lungs to breathe and the brain to think. Here we pass from the physical to the mental and moral. Thought, with its flights in a fraction of a second to the ends of the earth and even to heaven or to hell, is a mysterious continuance. The Spirit is the power of our thoughts but we are responsible for reactions. Here we must distinguish carefully, for He who searches the depth of God, penetrates in us to the dividing of the soul and spirit, of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. He is the power of speech but we must guard the tongue. One man may rob or kill another and he is indebted to the Holy Spirit for strength to do it but the deed is from a motive, springing from an evil source, which calls into action the pangs of a guilty conscience.

Note B. The Kingdom. The kingdom of God and of Heaven is a sphere on earth where the rule of God is maintained. It is not heaven nor in heaven as some have thought. Since it had to be set up here by the Spirit, it must be different from the rule of the heavens spoken of by the prophet, Daniel 4:26, which is true from the beginning of time. Romans 14:17 explains it. Negatively — it is not meat and drink, i.e., not concerned with temporal things. Positively — it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is a sphere of good and blessing where grace reigns through righteousness in contrast with the world where sin reigns. Three things mark it. The Lordship of Christ; the will of God which is salvation, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Thus the whole Trinity is at work on behalf of guilty man. The saints are subjects of divine grace and fitted to stand as good soldiers of Jesus Christ in the conflict which rages with the fallen hosts who have their head-quarters in the heavenlies. They are also consistent with the testimony of God’s grace which is the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God. In fidelity to their Lord, the rejected King, they stand for His inheritance during His absence and are provided with the whole armour of God, in a power that is not carnal but mighty through God. It is true that this kingdom is spoken of as a lodging place for mere christian profession, and by the working of man’s mind, to the exclusion of the Spirit, it has become an inflated mass. Luke 13:18-21. But it must be remembered that, though people get much of the light and beneficence of heaven in this land by a nominal profession of christianity, the real entrance into the kingdom of God is by being born again. John 3:5. "Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3. It began at Pentecost and goes on till all things are brought into subjection to God by the Man of His purpose; all enemies put down and even death itself destroyed. 1 Corinthians 15:2-28. The kingdom is confined to the Assembly during the reign of grace but when that company is summoned to be at home with the Lord, the testimony will pass into other hands by the resumption of divine dealings with Israel the covenant people. Judgments of various kinds both providential and governmental shall then be executed, in view of the kingdom being established on the earth in full regal display. Matthew 13:30; Matthew 13:41; Matthew 13:48. Matthew 25:31-46. The kingdom today is a bulwark for the House of God and all the treasures that are there — the precious things of heaven. As the warriors in Israel stood for the protection of the Tabernacle, the Priests, the Levites and the wives and children, so the church militant stands in the conflict for the maintenance of all that is of God. The place of the Holy Spirit in all this can be gathered from the place where the conflict is described and the way He is mentioned there twice. "And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel." Ephesians 6:17-19.

Note C. The House of God.

It is important to see that the House of God is presented in a twofold way. First, as God’s own workmanship by which He prepares a dwelling place for Himself by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 2:22, This is seen in such scriptures as Matthew 16:18. 1 Peter 2:5. "This is my rest, here will I dwell, for I have desired it." Psalms 132:14. Secondly, it is seen here in relation to man’s responsibility and his workmanship where failure has come in. 1 Corinthians 3:9-17. This, like the wheat and tares of the kingdom, shows the way man has intruded into the holy things of God, ignoring the Spirit with the result that all is lowered and debased. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. 1 Corinthians 3:17. Judgment must begin at the House of God. 1 Peter 4:17. We are dealing however with the dwelling place of God as composed of all within the baptism of the Spirit, built of living stone, and instinct with life — the life of the family of God. It is protected by the kingdom as a bulwark and within its compartments or chambers are installed the precious things of heaven. We have looked at these heavenly treasures in Ephesians 2:1-22, Ephesians 3:1-21, as wrought into the souls of the saints by the Spirit, for the pleasure of God. The beauty and felicity of typical language greatly helps us here, for the Palace is not for man but for the LORD God. Note the men who had charge of the treasure and what the treasures are as combining together to express the assemblage of glories that combine and shine in the Person of Christ. There were chief men among the brethren. One was a wise counsellor, others were princes of the sanctuary and others again, princes of God. 1 Chronicles 24:5; 1 Chronicles 26:14. New Tran. Such men would be entrusted with the manifold mysteries of God. cf. 1 Corinthians 4:1. They had charge of the chambers or storehouses and all the treasures of the House of God. These consisted of the vessels of service; the fine flour; the wine; the oil; the frankincense with the spices. Then above all this there were the dedicated things 1 Chronicles 27:27-30; 1 Chronicles 26:24-28. These dedicated things were the evidences of past victories, the spoils won in battle and set apart for God and the glory of His dwelling place. But if the pattern of heavenly things was set up in a panorama of splendour and glory, what shall be said of the things themselves that are set up in a glory that excels? The new order of things we are brought into today is heavenly and eternal. It is a faith system, and no one can read the Epistles of the New Testament intelligently without coming into contact with the princes of God to whom were entrusted the instruments of the sanctuary, and the fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense, and the spices. Nor can one fail to see as taught of God, that these things bespeak the features of the Man, Christ Jesus, in a scene of undecaying and incorruptible splendour, permeated by the Spirit of God and where Christ is ALL and in ALL. And, by the Holy Spirit, these features are inwrought in the saints today.

Note D. The Body of Christ. The truth of the Body of Christ leads into the innermost treasures of the House and heart of God. Unlike the Kingdom and the House, it does not admit on the part of man either responsibility or break-down. Both the Kingdom and the House form part of the time ways of God and will go on in this world after the Church is taken to her home in heaven, but the mystery hid in God throughout the ages — fruit of God’s eternal purpose — the Church, the Body of Christ, is unique and stands alone. It is of Himself in such a way as to be substantially and organically, Christ. "So also is the Christ." 1 Corinthians 12:12. New Tran. The Church as the Bride of Christ is a further thought and nothing inferior to Him can be united to Him. How then is this grand conception of our God brought into effect? and how can those who were far from God and living in sin be brought near, so near as to be part of Christ Himself ? The answer is, that as Eve was taken out of Adam when he was in a deep sleep, so the Church is taken out of Christ in death by the Holy Spirit, who undertakes the subjective work of God. As we have seen, this blessed Person formed the body prepared for the Son in which He glorified God in Redemption. The same blessed Spirit also forms His Body the Church. This is done by forming in the believer a new moral being which, in the language of Scripture is "Christ formed in you." Galatians 4:19; Galatians 1:15-16; Galatians 2:20. From this is developed the truth that the Church is the Bride of Christ. It is not as members of His Body that we, His saints are united to Him. As such we are in Him, part of Himself. It was as taken out of Adam that Eve was united to him. So, to be united to Christ supposes the nuptial bond which unites the Bride to the Bridegroom as the fulness or complement of Him who fills all in all. Hence it is that when we come to Ephesians 5, where marriage is spoken of, the Spirit passes from what the Church is as His Body, to what she is as His bride — the object of His heart.

Note E. The Rainbow.

It is interesting and instructive to note the connection of the Rainbow with the rain drops, as seen in the waterworks of nature. It illustrates the various glories of Christ as reflected by His saints on earth. Jehovah said to His servant Job, "Hath the rain a father?" as if to show that the mighty God fathers even a drop of rain. Millions of tons of water rise from the oceans each day by evaporation and are held in vapours in the clouds, till nature’s ruler has need for them to water His garden. These clouds carry it as vapour, till it is transformed to liquid again, to be poured out on the earth as from God’s bottles in view of combining with the sunshine to bring forth bread for the sower. The result is that countless myriads of drops of water are held in the clouds in such a way that when the sun shines forth, they become reflectors of His substance. It is not that one drop sparkles with one colour of the sun and other drops with other colours but that each drop becomes a microscopic picture of the whole so that all the colours of the great governing centre are reflected, that we who cannot look into the sun with the naked eye, may behold his beauty on the principle of reflection. Here then we have the beauty of moral design. As the saints share in the light of the Son of God holding the Head, His life circulates through their souls in such a way as to constitute them reflectors of His glory, so that the aggregate becomes like a beautiful Rainbow expression of the Heavenly One. See how this is put before us by the Spirit, in Colossians 3:1-25, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." Colossians 3:12-13. The source of these seven graces is Christ and if we put them on, they are bound to make their presence seen and felt, so that like the rain drops reflecting the sun’s colours, we are reflectors of Him. But such things might be more or less imitated by an amiable disposition, so it is added. "To all these (add) LOVE which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also you have been called in one body, and be thankful." Colossians 3:14-15. New Trans. In this way the saints are brought into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s Love, and decorated by the Spirit with inwrought tapestry of skilful work as forming the House of God; the beauties and graces of Christ so wrought in them by the Spirit, that they reflect Him here. Thus they are the actual possessors of the precious things of heaven. May the Lord Himself graciously help us to value them rightly, for His Name’s Sake.