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The four-and-twenty elders sang the new song that all those who are redeemed may now join in singing. If we take part with all our hearts in the Song of the Lamb, we shall realize that we are priests of the Throne of Grace. As priests we worship God and the Lamb, and with hearts full of adoration may approach the Throne of the Lamb for ourselves and others. As kings we receive the abundance of grace that we may reign in life, over sin and the power of the world, so that we may bring liberty to the captives. Such an overcoming life on earth will form and pre¬pare us for sitting with Christ on His throne (Rev. iii. 21).Let all who read this take to heart the great thought : I come to the Throne of Grace, not only to receive the abundant grace for my own needs, but to be strengthened and fitted for taking that grace to others. How can God, how can the Lamb, make known the glory of the Throne of Grace to those who sit in darkness? By means of those who know the Throne of Grace, and will offer themselves wholly to the service of that Throne, and are willing to share their experience with others. The Throne of Grace will become more precious to us, as we understand that abundant grace will work within us in greater power, when we give our lives to make this salvation known to others.
Then the Song of the Lamb will acquire a new meaning for us : "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath -made us kings and priests unto God; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever" (Rev. i. 5, 6). We shall realize that it is worth while living as men ready to fulfil a heavenly calling.
O my brother, the Lamb on the Throne has chosen you to see Him upon the Throne, and to make Him and His love known to others. Grace demands this of you ; grace will strengthen you with heavenly power and joy. Let this grace for yourself and others be sufficient for your daily fellowship with the Lamb on the Throne.
It is a surprise that it should be so; for all things threaten that at evening time it shall be dark. God is wont to work in a way so much above our fears and beyond our hopes that we are greatly amazed and are led to praise His sovereign grace. No, it shall not be with us as our hearts are prophesying: the dark will not deepen into midnight, but it will, of a sudden, brighten into day. Never let us despair. In the worst times let us trust in the LORD who turneth the darkness of the shadow of death into the morning. When the tale of bricks is doubled Moses appears, and when tribulation abounds it is nearest its end.
Salt was used in every offering made by fire unto the Lord, and from its preserving and purifying properties it was the grateful emblem of divine grace in the soul. It is worthy of our attentive regard that, when Artaxerxes gave salt to Ezra the priest, he set no limit to the quantity, and we may be quite certain that when the King of kings distributes grace among his royal priesthood, the supply is not cut short by him. Often are we straitened in ourselves, but never in the Lord. He who chooses to gather much manna will find that he may have as much as he desires. There is no such famine in Jerusalem that the citizens should eat their bread by weight and drink their water by measure. Some things in the economy of grace are measured; for instance our vinegar and gall are given us with such exactness that we never have a single drop too much, but of the salt of grace no stint is made, “Ask what thou wilt and it shall be given unto thee.” Parents need to lock up the fruit cupboard, and the sweet jars, but there is no need to keep the salt-box under lock and key, for few children will eat too greedily from that. A man may have too much money, or too much honour, but he cannot have too much grace. When Jeshurun waxed fat in the flesh, he kicked against God, but there is no fear of a mans becoming too full of grace: a plethora of grace is impossible. More wealth brings more care, but more grace brings more joy. Increased wisdom is increased sorrow, but abundance of the Spirit is fulness of joy. Believer, go to the throne for a large supply of heavenly salt. It will season thine afflictions, which are unsavoury without salt; it will preserve thy heart which corrupts if salt be absent, and it will kill thy sins even as salt kills reptiles. Thou needest much; seek much, and have much.
The church is most instructively symbolized by a building erected by heavenly power, and designed by divine skill. Such a spiritual house must not be dark, for the Israelites had light in their dwellings; there must therefore be windows to let the light in and to allow the inhabitants to gaze abroad. These windows are precious as agates: the ways in which the church beholds her Lord and heaven, and spiritual truth in general, are to be had in the highest esteem. Agates are not the most transparent of gems, they are but semi-pellucid at the best:
In the famous lace shops of Brussels, there are certain rooms devoted to the spinning of the finest and most delicate patterns. These rooms are altogether darkened, save for a light from one very small window, which falls directly upon the pattern. There is only one spinner in the room, and he sits where the narrow stream of light falls upon the threads of his weaving. "Thus," we are told by the guide, "do we secure our choicest products. Lace is always more delicately and beautifully woven when the worker himself is in the dark and only his pattern is in the light."
Does the Lord remember me? Am I known and loved? These are amongst the fundamental questions of life. They seem to echo the loudest in a ‘day of trouble’. Being moved in his heart on behalf of the people, King David prayed, ‘May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high!’. There is no greater ‘security’ than the knowledge that we are raised with Christ in the heavenly places. Our life is hidden with Christ in God, and our name is known and remembered by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In all the seasons of life, in seedtime and harvest, in joy and weeping, in peace and days of trouble, this is the assurance we long for.
How do we gain this assurance? How can we be certain that God remembers us? The answer is ‘firstfruits’. The giving of firstfruits is one of the most prevalent themes in the Scriptures. From the very beginning, the Lord established the way of the seed as ‘bearing fruit after its kind’. The Lord sows seed-life into us for the express purpose of bringing forth the fruit of His life in us. We are brought forth a ‘kind of firstfruits’, able to give and participate in an offering economy in seedtime and harvest. By participation in the firstfruits we can be assured of our remembrance before the Lord.
This explains why David cried out, ‘May the Lord remember all your meal offerings’. With respect to grain, the nation of Israel participated in this economy by presenting their firstfruits as meal offerings.
How great is the love that the Father has given and bestowed upon us? The Father’s love gives His only Son as an offering. The most quoted of all verses in the Bible is, ‘God so loved that He gave’. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. The Father offers the grace of His life to us in the foreknowledge that we might grow up into full sonship and maturity. Not only does the Father give us His love, but He also raises the dead and gives them life. The love of the Father is love which desires and brings forth sons.
Concerning the Son, the apostle declared, ‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ?’ The love of the Son is a love which pours out redeeming and sanctifying blood. His love brings forth His own offering, and from this offering the blood of the Eternal Covenant is brought forth. By this love we are redeemed to the position of sons. Paul spoke of the Son of God, ‘who loved me and gave Himself up for me’.
And finally, Paul asked the Romans, ‘By the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers’. The love of the Holy Spirit is a sanctifying and preserving love. His love guards the sanctity and dignity of every person. He overshadows the Eternal Covenant and everything that springs forth from it. He is the Spirit of grace and the Spirit of truth. The
love of the Spirit is like a fire which watches, guards and purifies. The love
of God is the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit poured out through the Holy Spirit. When life is laid down for another, the seal of love is as strong as death.
The outcome of a trespass offering is that we no longer have consciousness of sin. If you have recovered in the area of your trespass, and you know you have made restitution and been forgiven, you are not living daily with the consciousness of sin. That would be condemnation. The apostle Paul said, ‘I am not aware of anything against myself but by this I am not absolved’. If you are conscious of sin, conscious of guilt, conscious of having offended, then you are aware of something against yourself. Regardless of the causes or extenuating circumstances, you are still aware of something against yourself. The apostle Peter speaks of the man who is blind and short-sighted, having forgotten his cleansing from former sins. We must not forget our former cleansing. But the trespass offering brings us to the place where we have no more consciousness of sin in that area of our previous offence or deviation. We have evidently been recovered and restored by those who are spiritual. They have restored us to identity. This is the real meaning of freedom. You are not free because you are no longer a slave. You are either a slave of sin or a slave of righteousness. You are free because you have been delivered from the consciousness of sin. If you are to progress confidently and comfortably forward in the grace that is yours, then you need to attain by offering, a place before the Lord where you are not aware of anything against yourself. This is the meaning of, ‘No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’. If you are aware of something against yourself, then you can’t move forward until you begin to attend to the matter by taking a trespass offering for yourself.
The prophet Isaiah says that the fruit of His chastening would be seen. The ‘Servant’ would see the fruit of obedience perfected as righteousness in many. He declared, ‘By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many’. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is His ‘learned obedience’. Paul had this ‘knowledge’ in mind when he wrote to the Philippians. He desired to ‘know’ Christ, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings and conformity to His death. This was the ‘means’ by which he would be raised from the death that he had died because of sin, and finally attain the resurrection to eternal life. Paul spoke of the ‘fellowship of His sufferings’ into which we are drawn. Peter also taught us to accept suffering in the flesh. He wrote, ‘Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God’. The apostles teach extensively on the subject of suffering: our infirmities, necessities, reproaches, and manifold trials. We suffer punishment as evildoers, we suffer for our faults, and we also suffer as a ‘calling’, where we follow Christ’s example. Overall, there are three kinds of suffering. The first is the suffering of wrath, caused by breaking God’s law. This suffering has no merit and leads to death. The second is the suffering of trial and temptation, where Christ comes to our aid. And the third is suffering ‘for discipline’. It is ‘for discipline’ that we endure chastening, because God deals with us as sons and produces the fruit of righteousness in us.
