The Believer Established
Stand Fast
I CORINTHIANS 16: 13 ; GALATIANS 5: 1 ; PHILIPPIANS 1: 27
; 4: 1
We need to take it to heart, beloved brethren, that there is an
immense power continually at work to move our souls away from the great
fundamental realities of Christianity. All our natural tendencies are to drift
away from what is of God. Hence we have in the Holy Scriptures these repeated
exhortations to "Stand fast." Such exhortations would have no place or point if
there was not a danger of our being moved away from our true position and the
proper joy of our blessings.
I hope that no one here will think that I
mean to say that a believer may be finally lost. The Lord's word has settled
that. He has plainly said, "I give unto them [My sheep] eternal life; and they
shall never perish." But in our Christian life and course on earth we shall
lose our spiritual joy, the present purpose of God in saving us will not be
carried out, His Spirit's work in us will be hindered and enfeebled, and
consequently we shall be lean and poor in our souls, if we do not "stand fast."
"STAND FAST IN THE FAITH."
I
CORINTHIANS 16:13
It seems to me that at Corinth, where so many grievous
things called for rebuke and correction from the Lord, the root of all the evil
was that the believers there had failed to "stand fast in the faith." Neither
the sectarian divisions, the legality, nor the carnality, which had come into
that assembly, would have had a place there if the saints had been, in the
power of the Spirit of God, standing fast in the faith.
I will read
two portions from this epistle, to bring before you two prominent parts of the
Christian faith. Of course many other scriptures might be cited in connection
with such an important subject, but these two will suffice for the present. "I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the scriptures," 1 Cor. 15: 3, 4. "But
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is
written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord," I Cor. 1: 30, 31.
The first article in the Christian faith is that "Christ died for our
sins." Other scriptures tell us that He was delivered for our offences, that He
bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that He by Himself purged our sins,
entirely and eternally settling the question of our sins by His "one
sacrifice." But here the fact on which special emphasis is laid is that "HE
DIED for our sins." It was necessary, in order to His bearing sins, that He
should become a Man, and take part in flesh and blood. Though there was in Him
no taint of sin and no liability to death, in perfect grace He took part in a
life in which He could bear sins and be made sin for us - a life which He could
lay down. He has fully glorified God about our sins, and has laid down the life
in which He bore them. "Without shedding of blood is no remission." There is no
removal of sins apart from death. The very life in which alone He could bear
sins is ended; there is a complete removal of the whole thing. "Christ DIED for
our sins."
And, further, He was buried, and rose again the third day.
After bearing sins and dying for them He is risen from the dead. He lives now
in a condition in which He can never bear sins, or come under death and
judgment. After enduring and exhausting the full desert of our sins He has
entered as the Risen One without spot into the unclouded light of God's
presence, and God holds every believer to be as clear of sins as He is. This is
justification. He was "raised again for our justification," Rom. 4:25. There is
a Man before God upon whom no spot can ever come, against whom no charge can
ever be laid, a Man in unclouded and eternal acceptance, who is there as having
dealt with and removed "our sins" to the perfect satisfaction of God. We are
before God as clear of sins as He is. The knowledge of this gives cloudless and
changeless peace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God THROUGH OUR
LORD JESUS CHRIST."
But the verses I have read from chapter I give us
another and a most important part of the Christian faith. Many souls are not at
perfect rest before God because they have not yet seen that CHRIST must be
everything for them, and that it is only as being" IN CHRIST JESUS "that they
can have any place in God's presence. Some believers that I know remind me of a
dissolving view - one picture is beginning to fade and another is beginning to
come, but for the present all is confused and indistinct. They have begun to
distrust, and to be dissatisfied with themselves, but they have not yet
altogether given themselves up. Christ has yet a certain place in the faith and
the affections of their hearts, but they do not know what it is to be" IN
CHRIST JESUS,"and to have Him as their wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption." You will never have true Christian experience
and joy until you learn in your soul that there is nothing about you as in the
flesh-but material for the judgment of God. You may think this is a hard
saying, but I press it as the indispensable precursor of perfect rest and full
joy in Christ.
There are two things which go to make up a man; i.e.,
Wisdom and Power. Deprive a man of these two things and he is reduced to a
nonentity. Now if you read this chapter you will see that God has completely
set aside man in the flesh as to both his wisdom and his power. See verses
17-29. No flesh can glory in His presence. And this is fully proved by the
cross.
I see three things in THE CROSS OF
CHRIST.
1. That man in the flesh has been fully exposed to the
very roots of his moral being. The character of that man has come out
perfectly. There were two great parts of God's claim upon man; first, that he
should love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength; and
second, that he should love his neighbour as himself. It might have been
possible in Old Testament times for men to say to God, `We cannot love Thee,
because we do not know Thee: Thou has hidden Thyself in clouds and thick
darkness.' But God has taken every argument of this kind out of man's mouth. He
has sent His own beloved Son into the world to perfectly express His nature and
character. What reception did He get? The world did not know Him, and His
chosen people would not receive Him. Instead of loving God when He made Himself
known, the cross was man's insulting answer to God's reconciling love.
Then as to man's duty to his neighbour. It might have been possible in
Old Testament times for men to say 'Our neighbours are all so imperfect that we
cannot find one who is worthy of our love' But this excuse will not answer now,
for God has given man a Neighbour in whom the most exacting scrutiny could not
detect a flaw. Did man love his perfect Neighbour? Ah no! Hear that fierce
shout from frenzied throats -"Not this man, but Barabbas! Away with him!
Crucify him!"
Man is fully exposed: he hates both God and his
neighbour, when both are manifested in divine perfection. The cross is what the
wisdom and power of man in the flesh led to, when he was allowed to take his
own course. Could there be anything but judgment for such a creature?
2. I not only see man in the flesh fully exposed at the cross, but I see that
exposed man dealt with according to the holiness Of God. The One who hung upon
that cross was there "for sin." He who knew no sin was there made sin for us.
As I see Him drinking the cup from which every sensibility of His holy soul
recoiled--as I hear Him cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"- as I
see Him brought into the dust of death - and know that it was for me, I have to
own with an adoring heart that all that I am has been dealt with according to
the holiness of God, and before God my history as in Adam has been closed in
judgment and death.
3. There is a third thing, too, in that wondrous
cross. I see there divine love bursting every barrier that man's sin had
raised, that it might flow out and delight itself in the perfect blessing of
its objects. By that cross the heart of God is righteously free to take its own
wondrous course, and let out all its wealth of love upon sinners. The "river of
God" can now flow out in floods of blessing, and in vast and widening streams
of grace and glory through everlasting days. The old monk Suso might well say:
"Wouldst thou know the wisdom and wonders, Of
God's everlasting plan?
Behold, on the cross of dishonour A cursed and a
dying Man!"
The cross of Christ has closed our history before
God as children of Adam, and God has now put us in a new position in Him who is
raised from the dead. So that these words are true of all believers - "Of him
are ye IN CHRIST JESUS." No longer involved in the ruin and condemnation of
Adam--no longer identified with the "flesh " which God cannot allow to glory in
His presence - they are in the standing and acceptance of the One in whom every
attribute of God finds its perfect satisfaction and its glorious display. This
is the Christian faith!
Now, let me ask, what is the gain of being IN
CHRIST JESUS? In other words, what are the revenues of this new and exalted
position? If the Queen gave some poor man a high position, everybody would
expect her to furnish him with means to stand in that position with comfort to
himself and credit to her. It is not less so with God, and when you take this
new position you find that there are wonderful revenues connected with it. What
vast stores of spiritual wealth are unfolded to our gaze in the words, "But of
him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is
written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
I fear that
many of us are like the Indian spy who received from George Washington, for
services rendered during the American War, a parchment entitling him to a
considerable pension. He hung it round his neck as a charm, and many years
after, when he was dying in great poverty, it was found there - the written
authority for him to have so many dollars a year until his death. He had never
drawn a cent of the money, and though nobody could question his title to it, he
had been no better off than if he had been without it. Would it not have been
well for that man to have had some good friend to make him acquainted with the
real value of his parchment, and to see that he got the good of it?
If
we miss the enjoyment and use of the spiritual revenues to which we are
entitled, it is not for want of a Friend to tell us what they are, or to see
that we get the good of them. It is because we grieve that Friend, and hinder
Him in all His efforts to help us. The HOLY SPIRIT has been given to us, as the
next chapter of this epistle tells us "that we might know the things that are
freely given to us of God," not simply that we might know about them, but know
the things themselves.
Christ Jesus is of God made unto us Wisdom. The
wisdom of men, or of this world, is no help to our souls. In some quarters it
is considered essential that a Christian should be well read in "modern
thought," and up to date in all the discoveries and speculations of science!
God has said that He will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent; and that He has made foolish the
wisdom of this world. See 1 Cor. 1: 19, 20, 27. The outlook of this world's
wisdom is bounded by the grave. Death comes in, and in that very day man's
thoughts perish. "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
the grave." That is, death deprives man of every single thing in which he can
boast, or on which he can pride himself. Death strips man of everything but his
responsibility to God, the full reality of which the unconverted man only then
begins to know.
But the Christian anticipated all this. He sees the
true character of man's wisdom, and recognises that it must all wither under
the blight of death; and he turns to One who is risen from the dead, to find in
Him the unfolding of divine thoughts, and wisdom of an imperishable order,
connected with scenes where death can never come. The knowledge of God is true
wisdom (see Proverbs 2:2-5), and while man is professing to seek after God,
only to prove that by wisdom he cannot know Him, the Christian sees the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Moreover CHRIST becomes the touchstone and test for everything. For example,
there were some at Corinth who had drifted so far away from the faith as to say
that there was no resurrection. This seemed to involve a peculiarly difficult
subject, but spiritual wisdom brought in CHRIST, and the whole matter was
settled at once. See I Corinthians 15:12, 20. Again, at Colosse the Christians
were in danger of being drawn away by "philisophy and vain deceit, after the
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world." How does Paul expose the
true character of all this? By adding, "and not after Christ." That risen and
glorified One is our Wisdom, and everything that is not of Him, or that turns
us from Him, is folly.
Then there are often practical questions and
difficulties in Christian life that call for wisdom. The true test and measure
for everything is CHRIST. He is the true Solomon - the Solver of hard
questions. It is astonishing how many perplexities disappear when our hearts
are simple enough to bring in Christ. May we know more of what it is to have
Him thus as our Wisdom!
Christ Jesus is of God made unto us
Righteousness. How many are going about at this day, as of old, to establish
their own righteousness! Some even who are truly converted are not free from
legal thoughts as to this matter, and think that they must be, or do, something
to improve, or maintain, their title to be in God's favour. My brother, if you
had Elijah's faith, and Peter's fervency, and Paul's devotedness and energy,
and John's love, you would not be one bit better off as to righteousness than
you are now. We have a righteousness that is divinely perfect; we never did,
and never could, contribute a fraction to it, and nothing can ever dim its
brightness, or take from its excellence. "Not having mine own righteousness,"
says Paul, "which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith," Phil. 3:9. Now, my brethren, God
would have our hearts to be maintained in the wonderful joy of this from day to
day. I dare say most of us hold it as a doctrine, but to what extent are our
hearts in the real good and present joy of the glorious fact that Christ Jesus
is of God made unto us Righteousness?
Christ Jesus is of God made unto
us Sanctification. No one truly knows what sanctification is until he learns
this. A very common idea that people have of santification is that it consists
of giving up things that one has a conscience about; i.e., things that are felt
to be wrong. An unconverted man might do this, and there would be nothing of
divine sanctification in it. But the moment we see that a risen and glorified
Man is made unto us Sanctification, it carries us altogether away from the
world and from what is of the flesh--both bad and good. Many a person would be
quite happy to go to a Temperance Gala who would not think of going to a low
Music Hall. But the one is as much of the flesh as the other, however great the
difference may be morally and socially. Christ risen and glorified has nothing
to do with either: He is outside everything that is of the world and of the
flesh: He has sanctified Himself that we also might be sanctified through the
truth. He is the measure of our sanctification, and the standard of our
practical purification also; for it is written, "We know that, when he shall
appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that
hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure," 1 John 3: 2, 3.
Christ Jesus is of God made unto us redemption. If we want to know
what redemption is, according to God's thoughts, we must learn it in Christ
Jesus. God makes Him the glorious Object Lesson, if I may so say, in whom we
learn the divine fulness and perfectness of redemption. We see a man risen and
ascended in a glorified spiritual body, and seated in unclouded acceptance at
the right hand of God. He is the First-fruits of the resurrection harvest, in
which the full display and triumph of redemption will be seen. He is the
First-born among many brethren, who will all be conformed to His image in
heavenly glory. Our salvation will not be entirely complete in result until He
shall change our body of humiliation, and fashion it like unto His glorious
body. Redemption in its full result and power cannot yet be seen in us ; we are
still in mortal bodies, and subject to disease and death. But Christ Jesus is
of God made unto us redemption, and all that is true in Him, even as to bodily
condition, will very shortly be true in us. His glory is the pledge and measure
of ours.
Now, beloved brethren, are you living upon the revenues of
your new position in Christ Jesus? God would have you to be supported and
sustained by these things from day to day. The Holy Spirit dwells in you that
you may know these things, and have the conscious enjoyment of them now.
Whether as to wisdom, or righteousness, or sanctification, or redemption, are
you finding all in Christ Jesus, and thus glorying in the Lord-rejoicing in
Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh? This is the Christian
faith. The man after the flesh has gone, for God and for faith, and the
Christian, by the Spirit, now finds everything in Christ Jesus-the Second Man.
May we have grace in these evil days to "stand fast in the faithl"
"STAND FAST...IN THE LIBERTY."
GALATIANS 5: 1
The epistle to the Galatians is most solemn, because it
shows how soon we may be drawn away from Christian liberty. The Galatians had
heard a clear and full gospel from the apostle Paul, had been soundly converted
to God, and had received the Holy Spirit. They had "begun in the Spirit," Gal.
3:3. I beg you to notice that expression. The man who is in the joy and
blessing of the position and revenues we have spoken of in I Corinthians 1 is
"in the Spirit." The Holy Spirit has brought him to renounce all confidence in
the flesh, and has led him to find everything in Christ Jesus. The Galatians
had known something of this, but had failed to "stand fast" in it, and it is
most important that we should be warned against the beginnings of such an awful
retrogression.
Mark the subtle way in which the enemy went to work in
Galatia! We may imagine him speaking on this wise. `Now you have made a good
start, and have got wonderful blessings, and you will have to be very different
men from what you have been in the past. You must now carry out all the word of
God. Abraham and his descendants were circumcised by the command of God, and
you must be so likewise. Then you may plainly see that God gave the law by
Moses, and therefore that must be your rule of life. Further, you would be a
better Christian if you were to fast once or twice a week ; and at any rate you
will observe the day on which your Saviour was born, and that on which He
died.' Thus the enemy and troubler of God's people speaks. Does it not sound
very nice? Who would suspect any harm in such good words?
The fatal
flaw in all this is that it turns the believer back to himself. It is all you
must do this; you must do that; you must be thus; and so on. The mark of a man
walking in the Spirit is that, he is maintained in constant distrust of
himself, and in constant satisfaction with Christ. We are then in happiness and
liberty. But if Satan can succeed in turning us back to ourselves, though we
may for a time think we are getting on splendidly and be very well satisfied
with ourselves, the result will be darkness and bondage. The exhortation of
Paul by the Spirit is, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."
In the old days of slavery, when a slave ran away from his master it
was his great desire to reach British soil. On that ground, British law made
him a free man. Our land of liberty is "IN Christ JESUS," and the law of that
land makes free; as Paul says, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and death," Rom. 8:2. The Holy Spirit is
indissolubly connected with "life in Christ Jesus." So that the Christian has
not only a new position and new revenues, but also a new Power - a Power that
acts to maintain him in the holy liberty of "life in Christ Jesus." I believe
the first step on the way to weakness and bondage is to grieve the Spirit of
God. If we do so we grieve the Person who is our only Power, and the One by
whom alone we can "stand fast" in the liberty. And does it not grieve Him when
we turn back from Christ to be self-occupied and legal? It is going back to a
man for whom God has nothing but judgment - a man whom He cannot support in any
way.
There is real danger that those who have escaped to the free
country may go back to the land of slavery. The Galatians had gone back. Well
may Paul say, "0 foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" They did not know
that in going back to the law and ordinances they were returning to man in the
flesh, and glorying in flesh of which God had said that it should not "glory in
his presence." They had got off the ground of being "IN CHRIST JESUS," and
therefore had got out of touch with the Spirit of God, and were in legal
bondage. Paul recalls them to their true position and privilege, and exhorts
them to "stand fast" in it.
"STAND FAST IN
ONE SPIRIT",
with one mind striving together with the faith of
the gospel," Phil. 1: 27. The gospel was in great conflict; both Jews and
heathen were opposed to it; but Paul was, as he tells us in verse 17, "set for
the defence of the gospel." He was in prison for it again, as before at
Philippi, and he was assured that the saints at Philippi were partakers of the
grace that made him willing to be in prison for "the defence and confirmation
of the gospel." See verse 7. He was not terrified but triumphant, and was
anxious that the brethren should understand that the things which had happened
to him had "fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel" (verse 12) ;
and he was willing either to live, or to die, for that holy cause. Now he longs
that the Philippian saints should "stand fast" in this spirit, "striving
together with the faith of the gospel"--that is, thoroughly identified with it
in heart and interest - and in nothing terrified by their adversaries.
There is a danger of being selfishly occupied with our individual blessings,
and forgetting that we are identified with a great and holy cause. The
testimony and cause of God and of Christ is committed to us, and the
maintenance of the whole depends upon each individual being true to his post.
The strength of a British regiment depends upon every man that is in it, and
every man feels in measure that he is responsible for the whole. Every man must
stand heart to heart, and shoulder to shoulder; and it is something like that
the apostle means when he says, "Stand fast in one spirit...striving together
with the faith of the gospel." It is not so much preaching as suffering that is
in question here. Are we prepared to be true to divine colours whatever it
costs us? It was prison for Paul. It was suffering for Christ's sake at
Philippi. They were waging the same warfare in which they had seen the apostle
engaged, and in which he was still suffering. See verses 29, 30. He was not
terrified, and he did not want them to be so. He says, as it were, There is no
fear; we are on the winning side; but let every man do his duty.
Humanly speaking, Paul had enough to dishearten him. He was in the
hands of a bloodthirsty tyrant. The saints at Rome had turned their backs on
him, and neither stood by him publicly, nor cared for his necessities
privately. And yet he is as bold as a lion, and says, "I am set for the defence
of the gospel." Is it not magnificent? He would face the combined power of the
whole world single-handed for God's interests. True, he might be slain! Well,
he had counted the cost, and it was his earnest expectation and hope that
CHRIST should be magnified in his body whether by life or by death. God's cause
might seem to be a hopeless one, but he was set for it. Like the noble captain
of the London, who refused to save his life, but said, `I will go down with the
passengers,' he would stick to his post, whatever it cost. Do we know anything
of this spirit, my brethren?
You may say, and if you are like me you
will say, `I am such a poor weak thing I can do little or nothing.' It may be
so, but do you bless God that He has called a poor heart like yours to the
honour and joy of being identified with what He is doing for Christ in this
world? There is no honour like it, and no favour from God so great as to be
allowed "in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to
suffer for his sake." It is not so much the outward service of the hands, and
feet, and lips, though this is important in its place, but the loyal spirit of
hearts that seek not their own things, but the things which are Jesus Christ's.
"STAND FAST IN THE LORD"
PHILIPPIANS 4: 1
In saying this, Paul was not telling them to do something
that he knew nothing of himself. He says, "I trust in the Lord that I also
myself shall come shortly," Phil. 2:24. He had no human reason to expect that
he would see them again, but when he looked at it in connection with the Lord,
he had faith that he would see them. When the Lord is brought in what are all
the powers either of Jerusalem, or of Rome? Then the Philippians were to
receive Epaphroditus "in the Lord" (verse 29) ; he had gone through a most
trying service to bring their gift to Paul, and now he was coming back, and was
to be received - not merely in the way of human friendship - but "in the Lord."
Further, the apostle says, "Rejoice in the Lord...Rejoice in the Lord alway";
(chap. 1: 3, 4) - in circumstances, however bright, but in the Lord. If
circumstances were dark the joy would not suffer if it was "in the Lord." Again
he says, when receiving the help they sent him, he "rejoiced in the Lord
greatly," chap. 4: 10. In every circumstance, and at every moment, the Lord was
the first Person before his heart. He was looking at everything, and holding
everything, in connection with the Lord. I think that is standing fast in the
Lord.
If we were thus standing fast in the Lord do you not think it
would often make a great difference? Perhaps half of our lives would have to
drop out of existence, and the other half he strangely altered! Everything that
could not be connected with THE LORD would have to go, if we were truly
standing fast in the Lord.
It seems that two sisters at Philippi had
some little difference. How does Paul put them right? "I beseech Euodia, and
beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord," chap. 4: 2. If
things were not right between you and me, and both of us were to get into the
presence of the Lord, and give Him His right place in our hearts, we should be
of one mind. Not simply one giving in to the other, but both giving in to THE
LORD. Have you never fancied that you had some great grievance, and got so
under it that you felt you must go to the Lord about it? It was a mountain when
you began, but somehow as you told Him about it, it grew less and less, until
at last you were heartily ashamed that you had ever mentioned it to Him, or
allowed it a place in your heart?
May the affectionate words of the
beloved apostle be treasured, and heeded, in all our hearts! "Therefore, my
brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the
Lord, my dearly beloved."
Next: The Lost
Hope