What we have read here this afternoon are Scriptures about three river crossings. Now, the Christian life, as we know, is a journey, an experience. There are stages of growth in the Christian life, and I thought we could firstly look at the meaning of these three river crossings, and then see something else about them.
This address covers some of the things that Scripture says cease not. Firstly, of God’s covenant with the creation, “Henceforth, all the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.” Then, about the living creatures who “cease not day and night saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” Thirdly, about a woman who, Jesus said, “has not ceased kissing my feet.” And, finally, about the apostles who “ceased not teaching and announcing the glad tidings that Jesus was the Christ.”
This is a Bible Reading based on Numbers 19, 20 and 20, and shows us how necessary the Holy Spirit is to our christian experience
Most of us have known something of our relationship with the Lord over a much longer period than the three years, or thereabouts, that Philip, the disciple, had accompanied the Lord! We have the advantage of the indwelling Spirit. But how well we know divine Persons – know the Lord; know the Father; and indeed know the Spirit of God? Soon, very soon, all or most of us here will be there in the eternal scene, dwelling with Them eternally. How well do we know Them now?
This Address helps us to get some impression of the glory of the vessel that is for the heart of Christ and for the heart of God. We do not want to make everything of the vessel itself, but of the One to Whom it belongs. The assembly belongs to Christ – the assembly is for God. The concept is His, and His alone.
Nothing is calculated to stir the heart of the lover of the Lord Jesus more than the consideration of His shed blood. The moment when His blood was poured out stands out in the history of time and eternity. What a moment!
The woman in Luke 7 had an alabaster box of myrrh. Myrrh generally speaks in Scripture of the suffering love of Christ. She took that myrrh and she anointed the feet of the Lord Jesus out of affection and appreciation for Him. I thought it would be good if, after our meeting today, each of us might be able, out of our appreciation of the suffering love of the Lord Jesus, just to take something out of our box of myrrh and anoint that blessed One.
There are many aspects to His sufferings – we cannot cover them all. We certainly cannot fathom them all.
I wondered if we might seek help from the Spirit of God in pondering “the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these.” I suggested reading from the Song of Songs, thinking particularly of those verses which refer to His head, His hands and His feet. I wondered, too, if we might speak of His head, and get impressions of the glory that attaches to Him in the realm of His headship; and enquire whether in very truth this One of Whom the beloved speaks is lifted up as a banner by all of us.
2 Kings 18: 6; Ruth 1: 14; Acts 17: 33-34;
2 Samuel 20:2; Genesis 2: 24
Revised Notes of an Address at Bournemouth, September 8, 1962
This article is from a pamphlet published by Philip Haddad.
Much help is needed in speaking of the sufferings of Christ, it is a holy and very affecting matter. Here is where we can all begin, that is, in relation to our sins. Peter says, “Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree.” How much that statement means to all of us who are forgiven, that our sins were borne in Christ’s body on the tree!