It is undeniable that this day is one of sorrow to
any heart that is true to Christ. Around us in the world we can see
hostile forces deploying with energy and vigour. We find man’s will
rampant, sin gloried in and truth trampled in the street. How much
Satan seems to be master of the field! Yet in whatever way these
external causes work together to unsettle us, it is clear that the
real grief comes from a lukewarm Church rather than from the world.
What do I mean by this? I mean a Church that thinks she has much,
while in reality she has little. Why? Because she has so little of
Christ!
Nothing is more remarkable than the striking
contrast between the phraseology and the practical position and walk
of saints today. There is much “with word” and “with tongue”, but
very little “in deed and in truth” (1 John 3: 18). What a solemn
picture is presented when profession and practice are placed side by
side! With so much information on the Scriptures being readily
available, the unfortunate tendency is to adopt an advanced form of
expression of the truth without the corresponding practical walk.
Thus there never was a time when unknown and unfelt truth was more
traded upon than now. The sin of the day is that those who profess
the name of the Lord are not formed by that which comes so smoothly
from their tongues—they “say and do not” (Matt 23: 3). Thus you will
find solemn subjects such as the coming of the Lord upheld and
preached by those whose course down here is practically unaffected
by them. Their worldly condition merely tells how easy it is merely
to profess truth in these times. It is not truth in power, it is not
truth learned from God. This is very solemn. To have any value,
truth must be held in reality—and a matter like the coming of the
Lord can never be a
living hope before any heart that does not feel the absence of
Christ here. Indeed, all of us would have to admit how feebly His
own blessed words have seized our affections: “I sanctify myself for
them” (John 17: 19)—as if the Lord had said, ‘I set myself apart
from this scene so that I may detach you from it’. It is impossible
to enter into the truth of this in a vital way and be worldly.
Sadly, there has been so little presenting of
Christ in the Gospel that souls have lost the sense of the Person in
the overwhelming importance which has been attached to the benefit
derived from Him. In a word, modern evangelisation largely consists
in preaching salvation rather than Christ. The sinner occupies
centre stage and not the Saviour—this world is presented as the
place where the believer can be enabled to live life to the full
rather than where Christ was cast out, and heaven as the place where
the believer’s happiness will continue, rather than where Christ now
is. The end result is feebleness in the heart and affections as to
the Person and low thoughts of what is due to Him while we are left
here below. These things being so, is it really surprising that
other objects have taken Christ’s place in the hearts of His saved
people? Getting on in this world (as men speak), and living for
pleasure and the interests of self and family have flourished at the
expense of devotion to Christ Himself. His absence from this scene
is not felt, and consequently His corning again is but a poor, cold
doctrine, not a reality in the heart. When you turn to the
Thessalonian saints, what a contrast! Paul writes that they had
“turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to
await his Son from the heavens” (1 Thess. 1: 9, 10). The proof of
this was in that they not only “became models to all that believe”
but that their faith towards God had “gone abroad”—so much that Paul
had “no need to say anything” (vs 7, 8). Could this be written of
any company of Christians today? I doubt it. You only have to
converse with many of the Lord’s people on the subject of life and
death to see that the absence of Christ features little in their
thinking. They are grieved when death comes to them (or their loved
ones), not because the Lord has not come in their lifetime, but
because it is always before the time as they would see it. God’s
will is only grudgingly acknowledged because they were happy here.
They were not really looking for Christ to come. What a contrast
with Paul, the model believer (see 1 Cor. 11: 1; Phil. 3: 17)! The
apostle did not consider his life here as dear to himself as these
do (see Acts 20: 24), for he desired to depart and be with Christ
(see Phil. 1: 23). If he was to remain at all, it was to live for
Christ (see v21). Many Christians today secretly regard this as
fanaticism (or, certainly ‘not for them’), because, unlike the
apostle, they “live to themselves” (2 Cor. 5: 15). They might deny
it, but their lives speak otherwise. Such know little of the
practical force of what it means to be “strangers and sojourners”
(Heb. 11: 13). Like Lot, they are thoroughly settled here, and like
Lot, they do not want to leave (see Gen. 19: 16).
The key to the Church’s position as here in
this world is the Lord’s rejection. In simple terms, this means that
if Christ was refused here, then neither can His people seek
acceptance here. It is impossible to be truly in the Christian
pathway if this is not understood. Even the name
Church is a witness to
this, for in Greek it is an
ekklesia,,
or called–out company. How
extraordinary then to find Christians setting up what they call
community churches—which, by definition, are not only to be embedded
in the world, but seek to import worldly practices into the Church
to attract ‘converts’! What place have worldly principles of success
in the Church? None. The wisdom of the world has nothing to say to
the things of God: it does not know God (see 1 Cor. 1: 21), and it
is the very same wisdom that crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:
6–8). These things may seem obvious, but how can we expect believers
who are thoroughly settled in the world that
rejected Christ to understand this—to have any true conception of
what the Church is to be to Christ? The more I read my Bible, the
more I see that there is a state of soul which is capable of
entering into God’s mind and thoughts, and a state or condition to
which God will communicate His mind. I also see that the contrary is
true, namely, that there is a condition incapable of grasping the
mind of God and to which He does not communicate His thoughts. Sad
that the latter could ever be true of a saint of God! We see this
principle typified in Lev. 10: 8–10: “and Jehovah spoke to Aaron,
saying, Thou shalt not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, and thy
sons with thee, when ye go into the tent of meeting, lest ye die—[it
is] an everlasting statute throughout your generations, that ye may
put difference between the holy and the unholy, and between unclean
and clean”. Thus in the same way that a priest intoxicated by
alcohol would have no sense of what is due to God, neither can a
Christian who is under the influence of the world. That is why you
will find that it is those Christians who never really made a clean
break with the world that are unable to see what is suited to God
and what is not, and who lower the standard of divine purity and
holiness down to the level of what is around us. Sadly, others get
caught up in the vortex of the same downward current and thus almost
everywhere we see people building again the things that they had
once thrown down, and jettisoning principles they once held to be
vital. All this is accompanied by a loud and pretentious profession
of ‘love’ and ‘tolerance’ in flagrant contradiction of the divine
instruction that “hereby know we that we love the children of God,
when we love God
and keep his commandments”
(1 John 5: 2, my emphasis) and “he that loves his brother
abides in light, and there
is no occasion of stumbling in him” (1 John 2: 10, my emphasis).
So what is the remedy to all this failure and
sorrow? In a word—Christ. What is wanted in souls is a more
whole–hearted surrender of everything to Christ—an appreciation and
love for Him beyond all else. How blessed when the one object that
fills the heart, occupies the soul and commands the affections is
the Lord Himself! In the type, nothing can fill the blank in
Mephibosheth’s heart that David’s absence creates, and therefore he
deports himself in a manner that is consistent with his sorrow and
sense of loss. But when David returns, the king and the king alone
fills the blank in Mephibosheth’s heart. “Thou and Ziba divide the
land” (2 Sam. 19: 29) was the word from David. Mephibosheth’s reply
was “let him even take all, since my lord the king is come again in
peace to his own house” (v30). Mephibosheth wants no more than
David, but he can do with no less. As we have said, one object
satisfies his heart, and one object commands his affections. Reader,
pause and ponder these things—for all eternity will not supply this
little moment, this hour of Christ’s rejection. Once it is passed,
it is passed forever, along with the opportunity to be a true
servant of the Master. Let us see to it therefore, that while He is
absent we are found here as those who have kept His word, not denied
His name, and kept the word of His patience (see Rev. 3: 8, 10). God
give His beloved people, in these last times, to be more
whole–hearted, uncompromising, and devoted to His blessed Son Jesus
Christ our Lord!
