1 Corinthians 8: 11

The Wanderers Restored

The Wanderers Restored (click here)

The Wanderers Restored

Selected Writings of Charles Stanley: Volume 1, p. 45.
 
There can be no doubt that the last days of difficulty and perplexity are present realities. You meet a friend, and almost the first word is, “What a state of confusion everything is in!” His face as well as words seem to say, Everything is gone. Some have been expecting the universal spread of Christianity, and the conversion of the world; others, who have long seen the unscripturalness of such a thought, have been expecting there may be some great display of the Church in its unity on earth. Instead, they find division and sorrow, through the perversity and obstinacy of men. Such become greatly discouraged, and have real sadness of heart.
Thus, if we turn to Luke 24, we shall find a picture of the things that are happening in our very days. We know the Church, or Assembly, was not yet formed, for the Holy Ghost had not yet come to form it. But the company then gathered at Jerusalem was the very company which was afterward baptized by the Holy Ghost when the Church began.
We find, then, two of them with their backs on Jerusalem — on the Assembly there, and their faces toward Emmaus. They were not going far away — about six miles. Now what was their condition, or state of mind? They were occupied with the things that had happened. Intellect was at work, and they reasoned. There does not appear to be any wilfulness or stubbornness in their conduct; but they were very sad of heart, and sorely perplexed.
Let us remember they were of the company at Jerusalem, but not in their place. They were walking away, as if all were over and lost. Things had turned out very different from what they had expected, and they were sadly disappointed. Is not this a picture of many in this day? They are of the Church of God, the Assembly; they are members of the body of Christ, but as to their position, they are so sad, by reasoning about the things that have happened, that, though of it, “two of them,” yet they are walking with their backs to the Assembly, and their faces toward Emmaus. Did the Lord forget these two wanderers, as they talked together of all these things which had happened? No; it was while they thus communed and reasoned Jesus Himself drew near, and went with them. Now what is really the matter with souls in this state is just as it was with them — “Their eyes were holden that they should not know Him.”
How tenderly He inquires of their sadness! Does He not feel the same now? Is His love changed? May we not say, “O teach me more of Thy blest ways”? There was little intelligence in them, and their faith in His resurrection was very weak. How tenderly He listens to every word! One thing He did rebuke was their slowness of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken! “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” And may not the wandering, sad hearts be rebuked in this matter now? Oh, for the tender love of Christ to open up the Scriptures, and show that not a single thing is now happening that has not been foretold in Scripture. Yes, all our disappointment and sadness of heart arise from not knowing the Scriptures. They were ignorant of the Scriptures, and they knew not Him.
And now they want to turn in, and settle down for the night; a little independent company, or if you please, individuals away from the Assembly. Oh, the love that could not give them up! Though He showed His disapproval of their step, He opened to them the Scriptures, and their hearts did burn, though as yet their eyes were closed. But what a change when their eyes were opened, and they knew Him! “They rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them.” What a picture! While our souls are in that moral state not to know the Lord in the midst of the Assembly, our backs are sure to be turned to Jerusalem. And the moment we truly know Him, the face is immediately turned toward the Assembly. Wonderfully does this picture illustrate the condition of many of the children of God at this time. Doubtless many are sad of heart, and sorely perplexed with all the things that have happened, who never yet knew the sanctuary of deliverance revealed in this scripture. They reason in vain; their thoughts turn to convocations, alterations in ecclesiastical law, questions of so-called church and state. They are distracted with discord, jarrings, and divisions on every hand, but are as blind to the true deliverance from these tumults, as these two sad hearts were blind to the One who so gently opened unto them the Scriptures.
Others who have walked with Him have been turned aside; not only those who, in wilfulness, have sought to lead disciples after them (Acts 20: 30), but such as have, like these two sad hearts, been so occupied with men and things, that they have lost the power of discerning the Person and mind of the Lord. Oh, that such might dwell on the love of the Lord to these two wanderers! Would He not take you to the Scriptures, and show you that all that has happened was foretold? Ah, He would not merely make our hearts burn by His own precious ministry, but He would open our eyes to know Himself. And we cannot know Him without becoming attracted to the Assembly, His Body. Is there anything on this earth so dear to the heart of Christ as His Church? Does not the Spirit of God move the heart of the reader to arise, and go back to the Assembly?
O meditate on that infinite love to the Church, and you will soon find yourselves on the way back. We cannot know Him without loving that which He loves. There may be little intelligence, yet we shall soon find ourselves where He delights to reveal Himself.
And soon they arrive at Jerusalem; weariness, and sadness, and disappointment are all left at Emmaus — all uncertainty is now gone. The Lord is risen indeed, is the certainty they find in the company gathered together. And the two returned ones are ready to tell their story of deliverance from sadness and disappointment, “how He was known of them in breaking of bread.” Is it not sweet also in our day to have returning ones tell the story of restoring love? This touched the heart of Jesus; “And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” Surely this was as superior to the earthly sanctuary, the worldly temple, with its priesthood and ritual, as heaven is to earth.
Have we been gathered to Christ, the Holy and the True? And are those who had wandered in sadness, a little way from the assembly ground of the twos or threes gathered together unto His name, being now restored by Him? Is it still true that, apart from all worldly sanctuaries, human priesthoods, and carnal ordinances, set up of man, Jesus Himself is in the midst of those gathered to Him? And does He still speak those precious words to those so gathered, “Peace be unto you”? Can we not hear, above the roaring tempest of human discord, those tender words, the very voice we know — “It is I, be not afraid”? Mark 6: 50.
It is indeed very blessed when He first speaks peace to the conscience through His precious blood — “It is finished” — “Peace unto you.” Eternity will never unfold the infinite debt of love we owe to Him for this character of peace.
But let us see Him, and hear Him in the midst of the company gathered in the upper room. Ah, they were even afraid of the religious world outside, so the doors were shut. What a contrast with that religious world! It had antiquity, and everything to please the ear and the eye. Shall we say they, the little company, had nothing but Jesus? The fullness of the Godhead stood bodily in their midst risen from the dead — the Head, and the beginning of the new creation. Where are you, reader? with the religious world, or with Jesus Himself? He speaks in the midst of those gathered to Himself. Truly He is not now present in body. But is He not as really present in Spirit? They were afraid. Yes, though it is unspeakably blessed, yet it is an awful moment when the soul is first separated from earthly religion and brought into the very presence of the risen Lord. He says, “Peace unto you.” What pen, or tongue, can tell the wondrous peace His presence and His words give, in the midst of those truly gathered to Himself? Peace in every sense, both to conscience and heart.
Now since He is risen, since He is present, since He says, “Peace,” how searching the question He put to them, and to us! “Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” Troubled ones, what do you answer to the Lord? Why are ye troubled? Do you say, we are troubled about our sins? He has borne them on the cross; He shows you His hands and His side. Do you say, we are troubled about the confusions and divisions in the professing church? But, He says “peace” in the midst of those...

Genesis 4: 6

Should it be "sin" or "sin-offering" lieth at the door? I am disposed to think it a sin-offering: only that the sin-offering is never mentioned historically until we come to Leviticus under Moses. It is in this kind of way, " If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and unto thee shall the desire of thy younger brother be, and thou shalt rule over him; but if you fail to do well, there is a remedy, and therefore you ought not to be wroth." "Lieth at the door" means crouching. It is not the expression, "It is at your door," as we say; and therefore I was inclined to take it, " If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?" ("and if thou doest not well," there is a remedy)-in parenthesis-" and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him." I have no quarrel with the other, because sin did lie at his door. "And Jehovah said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? and he said, I know not: am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done?" It is not only now the testimony of sin against us, to say what have we done as sinners. But we bear from God, " Where is Christ?" The Holy Ghost is come and convinces the world of sin, but more than this. He comes and says to the whole world, on God's part, " Where is my Son?" Then there is haughtiness too in Cain's reply, "Ami my brother's keeper?" as though why should God ask? Besides this and more, another important principle comes out-the practically self-righteous man rejecting Christ is then turned out; he leaves the presence of the Lord, and dwells in the land of Nod, that is, " vagabond," where his son is called Enoch, and he builds a city calling it Enoch, too, after his son. Thus he stretches himself in the world, and gives a family name to the town, and the history shows us artisans and arts, and sciences all in the train. He goes out from God and settles himself in the place of judgment, to do his best with it, in open defiance of God. God neglects nothing, and Cain cannot get out of the reach of His hand, of course; but in his own will he was entirely outside. Cain sets to work to make the earth as comfortable as he can without God; Adam did not want all that in paradise. As to lake dwellings, and caves with stones, hatchets, and many similar things, we have to remember that in New Guinea people are doing the same thing now: how would London like to do so? In Switzerland and Italy they have been finding, covered with bog, and in the lakes, a hundred villages and all kinds of remains-what the people were eating, and what clothes they wore, as round the Lake of Geneva and elsewhere. And they have learned the natural history of those times. There was a stone in a hole that they could not make out, and at last found it was what they wove with. Occasionally they have discovered a thing that came from Phenicia which was civilized at the very time these villages appear to have flourished. In North America, lying under some magnificent trees seven hundred years old, was a piece of native copper or a square cradle put ready to be carried away, with other distinct marks of an earlier civilization than the present. Civilization does die away in places; but I know of no case of light from God going away and bringing in barbarism. It was God's providential government when Satan made the Chaldeans go and take Job's goods. If we refer to the sentence on Cain, there was no direct government at all in that, it did not kill him. Man is now left to himself until we come to the second world. God protects him, putting a mark on him lest any finding him should kill him. This I believe to be a figure of the Jews unto this day. Cain is " I have gotten," Abel is " vanity," because he went to nothing. Eve fancied she had gotten this man from the Lord—that this was the promise, while it was only from nature, Cain means " gotten," Seth means "appointed," and Abel means "the dying man." Eve thinks she has the man that can inherit the blessing. It was not so, as we well know. If you take flesh, the Jews were the men from the Lord, and it only resulted in their killing the Lord; first that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. Chapter 4:23 may be taken historically and it is true; but typically it refers to the Jews at the end. There is self-will in it every way. Typically it is the remnant of Israel in the last day; but we must not dogmatize about that. Cain is a figure of Israel having killed Christ, and made a vagabond on the earth. At the end the remnant of Israel will own, like Lamech, they have killed this man to their wounding. In the historical sense he kills somebody and says, "I have been touched and I will be avenged." If one disputes, I do not. A man once took me to task about a parable and said, " What proof do you give me of its meaning so-and-so?" My answer was, It is like honey which is given you, and you ask me to prove that it is sweet! If you cannot taste, I cannot prove it. Seth is the man appointed instead of both Abel and Cain. God hath appointed, in contrast with J have gotten, as Eve said of Cain. So now, Seth from God. Calling "on the name of the Lord" (ver. 25) was dependence; but Cain's family would not own the Lord at all, the appointed man and his family would. In short it is the same dreadful truth as to Cain there as in 2 Thess. 2 Only it will be final by and by. And what is noticeable is that Cain was settling himself in that place without God; it was not so much resistance as independence. After Seth, the appointed man, comes in, they began to own Jehovah specifically. This is the meaning of "then began men to call on the name of Jehovah." As to the discrepancy between the Hebrew and the Septuagint as to the years in chapter 5 I say nothing, save that there is a curious fact in this, that in each of these lives the Septuagint adds a hundred years. Thus "Adam lived 230 years and begat," instead of 130. This so adds fourteen hundred years to the time of the world, the Samaritan Pentateuch more still. It is not a casual mistake, but done on purpose, for it is to each, and it is only carried down to the point where, if they had gone one more, they would have pushed it over the flood. But there it stops. In Matthew the genealogy is a copy of Jewish records. I do not doubt myself, though it has been disputed since the second century, that Luke is Mary's genealogy. Luke takes it back up to man, but Matthew from David and Abraham, because his reference is to promises. In the Talmud they have got Mary the daughter of Eli. Then we get afterward the length of years pretty much the same, except Enoch, where stands the important fact that heaven is brought in for anybody that has faith to look at it. God had men for heaven in the midst of all the confusion; as with Elijah, He had seven thousand left that had not bowed the knee to Baal. Enoch is figure of those caught up, Noah of the remnant of the Jews that go through the tribulation. In Noah the world is comforted, the figure of the millennium. "He careth for you." 1 Peter 5:7

Romans 5, Darby

198 Chapter 5: 15. We see that the grace must have an aspect as large as the sin. The presentation of grace is to the whole world, but its application is only to those who receive the gift. Verse 18: "As by one offence towards all unto condemnation, so by one righteousness towards all unto justification of life." The one righteousness, as God's gift, is unto all, but it is only upon all them that believe; chap. 3: 22. The contrast here (v. 18) is not between the persons, but the one offence and the one righteousness. The gift of righteousness is unto all: just as the sin of Adam addresses itself to the whole race, so does the one righteousness. "Justification of life?" Here I get justification connected with life (not only from my sins), but I have got life; v. 20. "The law" comes in by the bye. The law required man to make out a righteousness. "The law entered that the offence might abound." It is not that sin might abound, but "the offence." God never made sin abound. Sin abounded over the whole race, and there grace much more abounds. The law not only made sin more manifest, but also aggravated its character. The authority of God has been brought in, and despised. A child might do wrong without knowing it; but when the father gives him a command about it, it becomes disobedience. In chapter 2: 12, what is translated sinned "without law," is the same word as in 1 John 3: 4 (sin is the "transgression of the law"), which should be, "sin is lawlessness."
What is the meaning of Hebrews 9: 26, "Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of himself?" I believe it extends to the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. So also "the Lamb of God which beareth away the sin of the world." The work that accomplishes it is done, but the power is not yet put forth; 1 John 2: 2. "Propitiation for the whole world." That is, atonement has been made, and the blood is on the mercy-seat, so that all hindrance is removed. In Hebrews 9: 26, 28 we get the two things, to put away sin," and "sins borne"; just as we get the sin-offering and the scape-goat on the day of atonement. The blood of the sin-offering was first sprinkled on and before the mercy-seat, then the sins of Israel were confessed over the head of the scape-goat; Lev. 16. The blood on the mercy-seat now is the ground of invitation to the sinner. I say now to the sinner, Christ has died, and the blood is on the mercy-seat, and you will be received if you come. If he accepts the invitation, I can tell him more.

...sinner that repenteth..

The question, however, is often asked, whether repentance must always precede faith. The very form of the question, as a few words will show, is misleading. If the true nature of repentance has been apprehended, the reader will see that it cannot be dissociated from faith. For what produces repentance? It is God's testimony, received in power, concerning me as a sinner. Somehow or other light has entered into my soul, and convicted me before God; I bow to all He says of me, as a lost sinner, in His Word. This faith -faith in God's Word as to the truth of my condition—must always be connected with repentance. The two things are indissolubly united. But the soul may remain in a state of repentance, if it may be so described, a long time before accepting God's further testimony as to His beloved Son; and it need scarcely be said that, as long as it thus continues, there will be no peace or liberty. Hence repentance in such a case precedes faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is undoubtedly the general order of the soul's experience.

We say the general order, for it cannot be denied that there would seem to be many exceptions. Repentance is so little preached, and the forgiveness of sins, or, in other cases, eternal life, without even raising the question of sin, is so often pressed upon souls especially in so-called revival preaching—that many appear to be converted with scarcely any exercise as to the state of their souls before God, almost without ever having had the burden of sin upon their conscience. Fully granting that there are genuine cases of this kind, it yet must be said that all such will have conscience work as to sin sooner or later. With them, what answers to repentance will undoubtedly follow after their conversion. But the divine order is repentance toward God first, and then faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ; and wherever the truth of the gospel is proclaimed according to God, this order will be maintained in the experience of souls. Take, for example, the epistle to the Romans, which in an especial manner presents the gospel. In the first place, after unfolding his theme, the Apostle proves that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; then—but not till then—he expounds the provisions of God's grace for the sinner's guilt, and thereon he proceeds to explain how God has met also the sinner's state as well as the sinner's guilt. We do not here enter into this, beyond calling attention to the fact that the demonstration of our guilt precedes his description of how God has set forth Christ Jesus as a propitiation through faith in His blood.