We are in the midst of a Christendom divided into a thousand fragments, in some of which, most, alas! Christ is dishonoured. It is not that one wishes to speak against any, but everything in Christendom is my responsibility, from Rome down.
James Taylor
Sometimes as we move along, we think of our meetings as…everything being orderly – right hymns chosen, right words used in the giving of thanks, and so forth, and we almost assume that we belong to a system of things by ourselves that God can own.But that is an entire mistake.We are in circumstances that are most humiliating, and we cannot get out of them.We are in the midst of a Christendom divided into a thousand fragments, in some of which, most, alas! Christ is dishonoured.It is not that one wishes to speak against any, but everything in Christendom ismy responsibility, from Rome down.
Can I get out of it? I cannot. I may get out of it in spirit, as we see here, (2 Samuel 15) by ascending…But how ascend? With tears and head covered, and barefoot…Was not God delighted with (David)? He was…He was acting suitably, humbly; he was owning things as they were, but he was finding an outlet. What is the outlet? The outlet is in heaven… It was spiritual power in secret; spiritual power in the full acknowledgement of the position.
The word ‘Salvation’ is often misused, for it is looked at generally as only what I am saved from, while in Scripture it is also what I am saved to.
There is a significant difference between the two: If I am occupied only with what I am saved from, all I enjoy is relief from misery and judgment. However, if I am occupied only with I am saved to, I have the hope of the gospel and the full joy of the Father’s house.
The Thief on the Cross
In 1 Thessalonians 5:10 it says of the Lord, ‘Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him’. Salvation places me in glory with Him. We see this from the thief on the cross. His eyes were opened, and he saw the just One suffering for the unjust. He saw Jesus as King and said, ‘Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom’, but the Lord said to him, ‘Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise(Luke 23:42-43).
Christ’s work transferred the thief from the lowest, deepest, darkest place of misery ever known to man – crucifixion for crimes for which he was condemned, into the brightest, holiest, most blessed place of unimaginable happiness with the Lord. His death did not entitle him to enter Paradise; Christ’s death obtained it for him. That is the completeness of transition – and Christ has done it!
God’s Presence and Heaven Experienced Now
Two great spheres of blessing are shown in type in Exodus. They are:
The Tabernacle
Canaan
We can say that hat the death of Christ procured them both, and they converge in the Father’s house. In the tabernacle we have a travelling companion (the presence of God) in the wilderness. This means that and we can approach Him now, accepted in Christ. This is the true tabernacle in Hebrews 9:24 – the Lord Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, has passed into ‘heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us’. I have entrance into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, and I get there in all the perfection of the One who brought me there.
The other sphere of blessing is Canaan – heaven: that is the very brightest place. I am ‘seated in the heavenlies in Christ’, ‘accepted in the beloved’(Ephesians 2:6 and 1:6 ).
Approach to God Now
Every Christian expects to go to heaven when they die, but many Christians do not understand that they have the right to God’s presence now[iii]. I can enter the holiest of all, where all is suited to the holiness and righteousness of God, a scene of spotless purity and light. I can enjoy all this blessedness while on the way to heaven because I am among those seated in the heavenlies in Christ (see Ephesians 2:6).
There are four aspects of the death of Christ from Egypt to Canaan.
The Blood on the lintel – shelter from judgement.
The Red Sea – the death and resurrection of Christ.
The Brazen Serpent – freedom from the law of sin and death
The Jordan – our death and resurrection with Christ
The death of Christ secured all of these at the same time. However, like the Children of Israel who learned them over a period of 40 years, I do not learn them together. The Holy Spirit makes my heart know what Christ has done one step at a time.
Paul’s Reception
The thief on the cross entered into Paradise, and his own death had divested him of the encumbrance of the old man in a moment: he was free because he died that day. We may have years to live, so are not free of the encumbrance as the thief was.
It is not necessary to have died though, to be free from such an encumbrance. Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 12:2 of a ‘man in Christ’. The Holy Spirit led him to the third heaven to show him what the work of Christ had accomplished. It was in a greater place than Paradise, and he was received there.
A man dreamed that he went to a great palace and was received well at the door; then he went in, and at each successive room he was better received. At last he entered the presence-chamber, and there he was admitted with acclamation. It is more than that with the man in Christ! The apostle Paul was taken at once into the very highest place, received in the most amazing way, and treated most intimately. However, could not tell anybody about it, because words could not describe it, they were forbidden to utter. Here was a man walking about this world with the secrets of God in his heart which he could not disclose to anyone.
The progress through these rooms is like ‘the light of the glorious gospel of Christ’( 2 Corinthians 4:4 ). The light shines from the place I am going to, though I see it from where I am: it leads me to the finish. My income for the journey comes from there; the Holy Spirit comes from there.
In this life we are outside of death, and while passing through this evil world, we are superior to it through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has been sent down from our glorified Saviour, making us superior to the power of evil, and filling our hearts with joy, the joys of heaven to which we belong.
The Prodigal’s Reception
The prodigal son would have been content with being a hired servant. Covered by the blood of Christ, but without the full appreciation of the Father’s heart and the Father’s house I become satisfied with human joys and relationships – an earthly Christianity. But this often disappoints. However, the Father’s thoughts were far greater. From the way he was received, I learn the full nature of my salvation: my presence in the Father’s house is not simply for my own benefit. It is to satisfy God’s desire: His delight is in having me there. We see the Father’s pleasure in the reception of the prodigal: ‘It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.’ (Luke 15:32). As the One who loves delights to have the one who is loved in His company, so the Father delights to have me, and His love is divine.
This salvation has been secured in the death of Christ. I have heaven even if I am not there yet. Christ’s work has placed me in two great blessings: the presence of God, heavenly joys. ‘They began to be merry’, (Luke 15:24)) – they began but did not cease[iv].
That is why the reception of the man in Christ was so cordial and so full. If it was the characteristic of the apostle Paul and the prodigal, it could be true of every believer. Every believer now has a home in the Father’s house[v].
The Christian’s Hope
Luke’s gospel shows me that I am not saved for earth but for heaven. The natural man connects joy with temporal things; even Christians are often disappointed because they look for joys in the wrong place: they are trying to derive their happiness from the earth. However, I am to derive everything from the place where joy never ends: I get my joy from heaven! I am not alone: we live together with Him (see 1 Thessalonians 5:10), as Peter says, ‘Joy unspeakable, and full of glory’. (1 Peter 1:8).
In John 7:37-38 I learn, not what I am saved from, but what I am saved to. ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water’. I have something in His life that is beyond death even though I am still in this scene of death. We have these joys in the power of the Holy Spirit, who has come down from the glorified Christ to acquaint us with the joys of the place from which He came.
There were for Israel three feasts in the year:
The Passover – for us this represents the death of Christ
The feast of Pentecost – the descent of the Holy Spirit, and
The feast of Tabernacles – the millennium (not yet fulfilled).
What we have is even more than what the saints will have in the millennium. The presence and power of the Holy Spirit make us rejoice more than the earthly feast of Tabernacles. He enriches our hearts with Christ, causing us to know all the joys of the Father’s house. That is the great supper: I am not there yet, but I get my joys from there. I get jyy67home comforts before I get home; my income comes from there. God does not have an earthly people now[vi]; we are a heavenly people, with heavenly joys.
Christ has accomplished our salvation. He has obtained great blessedness for us, and we know it now.
Sosthenes
March 2019
[i]Obtainable from Kingston Bible Trust, Lancing, England or from Bibles etc. Wheaton IL, USA. Downloadable from Ministry Search Engine
[ii]Commentators have tried to put the comma after ‘today’, to make out that the blessing was future; but he received the blessing that day.
[iv]It is not simply for my benefit that I am there, but God has a delight in having me there. The Lord here was working out the will of the Father; He says after his conversation with the woman in John 4, ‘I have meat to eat that ye know not of’, and ‘My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work’. (John 4:32-34)
[v]We have a great supper in Luke 14:16-24. That was in the Father’s house (as in chapter 15), not in the land of Israel. The feast is Wisdom’s feast, and that is in the Father’s house. How wonderful the present enjoyment that I derive from that which has been obtained for me by the death of Christ!
[vi]Jewish believers are in the assembly and are amongst the heavenly people.
God at the first came down to create; and then when the serpent presumed to meddle with creation God came down to save. This is brought out in the first words uttered by the Lord God after man’s fall.
James Butler Stoney (1814-1897)
Creation never could have brought out what God was. There was infinitely more in Him than power and wisdom. There was love, mercy, holiness, righteousness, goodness, tenderness, long-suffering. Where could all these be displayed but in a world of sinners? God at the first came down to create; and then when the serpent presumed to meddle with creation God came down to save. This is brought out in the first words uttered by the Lord God after man’s fall. “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” This question proved two things. It proved that man was lost and that God had come to seek. It proved man’s sin and God’s grace
Golden Nugget Number 220
(J B Stoney New Series vol.1 p27)
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Much is involved in these three words, “walked with God.
C H MCKINTOSH
And, oh! How much is involved in these three words, “walked with God.” What separation and self-denial! What holiness and moral purity! What grace and gentleness! What humility and tenderness! And yet what zeal and energy! What patience and long-suffering! And yet what faithfulness and uncompromising decision! To walk with God comprehends everything within the range of the divine life, whether active or passive. It involves the knowledge of God’s character as He has revealed it. It involves, too, the intelligence of the relationship in which we stand to Him. It is not a mere living by rules and regulations, nor laying down plans of action, nor in resolutions to go hither and thither, to do this or that. To walk with God is far more than any or all of these things.
The Christian should regard himself as the channel through which the manifold grace of Christ may flow out to a needy world;[through Christian giving] and the more freely he communicates, the more freely will he receive, ‘for there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.’ (Prov 11:24) This places the believer in a place of sweetest privilege and at the same time of the most solemn responsibility. He is called to be the constant witness and exhibitor of the grace of Him on whom he believes
.Golden Nugget Number 217
(Notes on Genesis C.H.Mackintosh. p25)
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The Lord selects lowly material for the testimony. The testimony of the rights of Christ is an important subject and derives its character very much from the kind of material that is taken up to carry it. The blessed God
Charles Coates
is looking for the sort of material that will glorify Him, so He does not call the great, the wise, or the noble, but the calling is marked by a calling of persons of no account. Not that the wise and noble are excluded, because Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:26, “not many mighty, not many noble.” Lady Huntingdon said that she was saved by the letter M. But it is not the character of the testimony, for God chooses the poor of this world. He is looking for persons of broken spirit, of humble and contrite heart – those are the ones who are attractive to Him. That character of persons lends itself to the testimony; what is great and pretentious and proud does not suit the testimony.
Golden Nugget Number 212
(C.A.C. Outline of Luke p239)
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And if Paul has to speak of the enemies of the cross of Christ, he does it weeping. We often become hard in speaking of enemies. We may know a great deal and understand the times of the dispensation and tell people very earnestly that judgment is just about to fall, but it needs nearness to Christ to be able to tell them so with tears. When we see things wrong, we become indignant, and that is right at times, but it is easier to be indignant than it is to weep.
While many were claiming to have the Lord with them, I just longed for the experience through contrition and repentance, of being with Him in what He is doing currently.
Frederick Raven
The position that confronts each one of us now is what are we to do as involved in the sorrowful scattering and breakdown of a testimony we had so learned to value and love. To find a way out of it, I cannot. I am part of it and contributed to it. But to find a way through it is my whole concern and that Christ may be my object and motive. While not wishing to speak of myself, my experience found me quite alone and cut off from my brethren – my beloved wife and family…I had nothing. But, thank God, in His sovereign mercy and exceeding grace I had Christ – my Lord and Saviour. It is easy to say it, but it has to be proved that therein lies the precious inward secret that alone can make one superior to the most testing of circumstances. It is just, “Thou remainest when all else is gone”…I then remembered that from the divine side there is no failure – the unity of the Spirit remains. Does not F E Raven say that God never rebuilds what has failed but rather falls back on His promises? While many were claiming to have the Lord with them, I just longed for the experience through contrition and repentance, of being with Him in what He is doing currently.
(Extracted from a letter by Brian Deck, NZ 1979) Golden Nugget Number 19
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February 2018 – A Day of Small Things has been going almost five years. It is time to take stock, see what the Lord has prospered and what He has not, see what Christians have shown interest in. It is also time to brighten things up. I hope you like the changes. Please email me, sosthenes@adoss.co.uk , to suggest improvements.
I’ve changed the template. I hope the new one is cleaner, brighter and easier to follow.
I’ve added a drop down menu at the top, like many other similar sites.
I’ve made some changes to improve ‘SEO’ so more find the site. However the best way of increasing is introduction. I’ve made it easier to do this. Here it is.
I’ve switched from Bible Hub to Ministry Search Engine for the scriptures. This shows the KJV and Darby versions in columns, like the 1890 Parallel Edition. I will still use Bible Hub for the Greek original etc. I will also use Ministry Search Engine for the ministry of JND and others.
Instead of ‘For Christians in Perilous (or Dangerous) Times, I’ve added, ‘Who are waiting for Jesus’ Call at the Rapture.’ This reflects a change of outlook – from the negative side (still necessary) of judging the errors of ‘systematised Christianity’ to the positive enjoyment of gathering simply, as at the start of the dispensation, as they turned ‘to serve the living and true God; and to await his Son from the heavens, whom he raised from among the dead, Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath’ (1 Thess 1:9-10). Those who moved out of ‘system’ in the early 1800’s, experienced the same. What gripped them was the Head in heaven (Eph 1:22) and His body here (Eph 5:30), and the imminence of His coming to rapture His own (1 Thess 4:16), shortly thereafter to return to reign with us, His saints (1 Thess 3:13). His coming is much nearer now!
Whilst I will continue with simplified summaries, I have embarked on a new approach – J N Darby by Subject – looking at a subject, finding everything he had to say about it, then selecting portions, grouped in a logical way. The first subject was ‘The Passover’; the second ‘The Red Sea’. With each subject I plan, with the Lord’s help, to write a single document covering Darby’s teaching on it. I trust readers will find these useful and helpful
This process will take time – you will see the changes.
You will remember my letter last month: ‘The Lord’s Coming – Is that REALLY our Expectation?’ This was following an address in December on the Lord’s return. How much better it is to be occupied with this, than with all the problems which beset Christians.
As J N Darby, who had his share of battles for the Lord, wrote in his poem ‘Fulness of Joy’
1. O, bright and blessed hope!
When shall it be
That we His face, long loved,
Revealed shall see?2. Oh! when, without a cloud,
His features trace,
Whose faithful love so long
We’ve known in grace;3. That love itself enjoy,
Which, ever true,
Did in our feeble path
Its work pursue?
4. O Jesus, not unknown,
Thy love shall fill
The heart in which Thou dwell’st,
And shalt dwell still.
5. Still, Lord, to see Thy face,
Thy voice to hear;
To know Thy present love
For ever near;
6. To gaze upon Thyself,
So faithful known,
Long proved in secret help
With Thee alone;7. To see that love, content,
On me flow forth,
For ever Thy delight,
Clothed with Thy worth!8. O Lord, ’twas sweet the thought
That Thou wast mine;
But brighter still the joy
That I am Thine!
9. Thine own, O Lord, the fruit,
The cherished fruit,
Of Thine all perfect love!
No passing root
10. Of evil e’er will dim
Thy cloudless rays;
But a full heart pour forth
Thine endless praise!
11. Nor what is next Thy heart
Can we forget –
Thy saints, O Lord, with Thee
In glory met,12. (Perfect in comeliness
Before Thy face –
Th’eternal witness all
Of Thine own grace),13. Together then their songs
Of endless praise,
With one harmonious voice,
In joy shall raise!
14. O joy supreme and full,
Where sunless day
Sheds forth, with light divine,
Its cloudless ray!
PS We heard today of the home-going of the renowned evangelist Billy Graham. Some may have criticised his methods, but we can be thankful for the thousands who have come to know the Lord through his ministry. Let’s not forget to do the work of an evangelist.
Easy Darby Synopsis, the 34 Volume Collected Writings, Notes & Comments, Notes and Jottings and his Letters simplified – J N Darby Simplified, Easy J N Darby
JN Darby made easy? Easy JND?
John Nelson Darby
Are you like me until recently (I have more time now I am retired). You value the teaching of John Nelson Darby, but would like ‘Easy J N Darby’
The imminent coming of our Lord at the Rapture (See 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18), prior to the tribulation and His millennial appearing with His saints (‘pre-trib’ as they say).
The heavenly character of the Church or Assembly – ‘raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2:6)
The recognition of the ruin of the church publicly, with national and sectarian divisions, clergy, human organisation, and much faulty teaching, and the call for a true Christian to ‘depart from iniquity . . . but follow righteousness, faith, charity [love], peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart‘ (2 Timothy 2:19-22)
You have seen (not necessarily read) his Synopsis, the 34 Volume Collected Writings, Notes & Comments, Notes and Jottings and his Letters. Indeed you find it heavy going. Darby wrote so much, so fast that he admitted he did not try to make it readable – unlike C H Mackintosh for example,
Easy Darby
So to help you – and it has been a help to me too – I’ve taken a lot of Darby’s writings and produced ‘Easy Darby or Darby Simplified’ – a more concise, and I trust, easier-to-read versions of some of them. With the help of the Holy Spirit, I have sought to be faithful to the original, omitting nothing salient, and conveying what that dear servant wanted.
Condensed from a series of addresses by James Butler Stoney given in 1887. See 
PS We heard today of the home-going of the renowned evangelist Billy Graham. Some may have criticised his methods, but we can be thankful for the thousands who have come to know the Lord through his ministry. Let’s not forget to do the work of an evangelist.