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)
Golden Nuggets are published by Saville Street Distribution, Venture, Princes Esplanade, Walton on the Naze, CO14 8QD UK
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.
Biblical history is divided by God into dispensations, defined periods or ages to which God has allotted distinctive administrative principles
J N Darby is sometimes referred to as the father of dispensational theology. Whilst the thought was not new, and it is clear from scripture, there was in his time (and still is) a lot on muddled thinking amongst believers. Many teach that we are part of a steady continuum, with for example the church replacing Israel, and that Christ’s kingdom is present, and that the interpretation of periods is purely spiritual or figurative – sometimes called ‘covenant theology’.
In view of this, A Day of Small Things is presenting a short outline of what we mean by the term ‘dispensation’, and where we fit in now.
J N Darby’s teaching, and also that of many servants of the Lord, has been based on the understanding that Biblical history is divided by God into dispensations, defined periods or ages to which God has allotted distinctive administrative principles. Dispensationalists’ presuppositions start with the harmony of history as focusing on the glory of God and put God at its centre – as opposed to a central focus on humanity and their need for salvation[*].
The Word ‘Dispensation’
The word, οἰκονομία/oikonomia/Strong 3622— (Eph. 1:10), and translated “dispensation” there — is a compound word “house” and “law – the rules or administration, of a household, as in our word “economy. In the phrase, “dispensational truth,” it looks at the world as a great household, in which God is dispensing, or administering, according to rule of His own establishing, and in whose order He has from time to time introduced certain changes, the understanding of which is consequently needful, both to the intelligent interpretation of His word and to intelligent action under Him[†]
List of Dispensations
There are several lists of dispensations, and to my knowledge, Darby did not produce a formal list, but the classic view lists the following, each associated with a covenant between God and man[‡]:
Innocence– Adam under probation prior to the Fall. Ends with expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Some refer to this period as the Adamic period or the dispensation of the Adamic covenant or Adamic law. (Gen 1:28)
Conscience– From the Fall to the Great Flood. Ends with the worldwide deluge. (Gen 3:7)
Human Government– After the Great Flood, humanity responsible to enact the death penalty. Ends with the dispersion at the Tower of Babel. Some use the term Noahide law in reference to this period of dispensation. (Gen 8:15)
Promise – From Abraham to Moses. Ends with the refusal to enter Canaan and the 40 years of unbelief in the wilderness. Some use the terms Abrahamic law or Abrahamic covenant in reference to this period of dispensation. (Gen 12:1)
Law– From Moses to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Ends with the scattering of Israel in AD70. Some use the term Mosaic law in reference to this period of dispensation. (Ex 19:1)
Grace– From the cross to the rapture of the church. The rapture is followed by the wrath of God comprising the Great Tribulation. Some use the term Age of Grace or the Church Age for this dispensation. (Acts 2:1)
Millennial Kingdom– The 1000 year reign of Christ on earth centred in Jerusalem. Ends with God’s judgment on the final rebellion. (Rev 20:4)
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)
Golden Nuggets are published by Saville Street Distribution, Venture, Princes Esplanade, Walton on the Naze, CO14 8QD UK
Thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, not comforted! Behold, I will set thy stones in antimony, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; and I will make thy battlements of rubies, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of precious stones. And all thy children shall be taught of Jehovah, and great shall be the peace of thy children, (Isaiah 54:11-13).
Spoken prayer is audible, and normally it is distinct, and generally, it is public. Unspoken prayer is inarticulate – it is too deep to be voiced in words, but it is heard– heard in secret by God.
When passing through seasons of trial and sorrow, when the waterfloods of grief and bereavement overflow the soul, when depressed by one’s moral state or circumstances, when the pressure seems well-nigh at breaking-point, and prayer seems torpid and dead, what a relief, what a comfort it is to know that the priestly eye of Jesus “searches the hearts” (Romans 8:27), eager, as it were, to detect, to decipher anything there that is for God, and that He interprets the groanings of the spirit and makes intercession accordingly.
Can He heed a groan? Yes, even a groan. He counts a groan as a prayer – not only the groanings of the Spirit, “which cannot be uttered,” but also the groanings of our own spirits. A groan may speak anguish or longing desire. We may “groan, being burdened” (2 Corinthians 5:4) – groan for deliverance. We may likewise groan because what is awaiting us up there is so enchanting that we yearn to enter into it (2 Corinthians 5:2). “The whole creation groans,” and Paul adds, “we also ourselves groan,” Romans 8:22,23. Sometimes that is all we can do. Sometimes we may even groan, “O wretched man that I am!” But we never add: “Who shall deliver me?” (Romans 7:24) if we know who He is. But every groan to God is heard. “Lord, … my groaning is not hid from thee,” Psalms 38:9 (KJV). Thank God, it never is.
But He can also heed a sigh. A sigh has not that intensive force which a groan has, it is softer. Yet how affecting it sometimes is. The weeping prophet was full of sighs: “I sigh” “her people sigh” – “her priests sigh” – “my sighs are many,” Lamentations 1:21, 11, 4, 22. The weeping Saviour, Jehovah’s servant-prophet, often sighed, yea, “He sighed deeply,” Mark 8:12 (KJV).
For ever on Thy burdened heart,
A weight of sorrow hung,
Yet no rebellious murmuring word
Escaped Thy silent tongue.
The Psalms breathe His sighs. They reveal what Jesus felt as He suffered. In the Pentateuch we have the figures; in the prophets, the forecasts; in the gospels, the facts; in the epistles, the fruits; but in the Psalms, we have the feelings of Christ as He suffered.
Every sigh He heaved was to God, and, like the frankincense of the meat-offering, it went up to God. Every divinely prompted sigh we utter to God is heard. Ay, and, poor weary soul, it may mean more to Him than ten thousand words, however eloquent – “For the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord,” Psalms 12:5 (A.V).
No faintest sigh His heart can miss,
E’en now His feet are on the way,
With richest counterweight of bliss
Heaped up for every hour’s delay.
He also heeds a tear. The great men of the Bible were often great weepers – Joseph, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Ezra, Nehemiah. “Jesus wept,” John 11:35. The Man of sorrows mingled His tears with those of His bereaved and beloved ones. He wept, too, over Jerusalem. He wept also in other ways – ways too mysterious and sublime for us to understand (Hebrews 5:7). Oh! let us ponder His tears well – ponder them till every fibre of our moral being pulsates with holy emotion.
Whilst guarding against what is natural sentiment, yet we should cultivate spiritual emotions. A tear in the eye of a child may be very appealing and do what words fail to do. God treasures the tears of His people. He has a bag for their transgression, a book for their thoughts and words, a bottle for their tears (Job 14:17; Malachi 3:16; Psalms 56:8). David was not satisfied with a divine record of his tears being kept – he wanted them preserved. “Put my tears into thy bottle.”
Even in public let us not check the tear when it starts. John Bunyan said he liked to see “Mr Wet-Eyes” among the saints. I once saw a brother in tears at a prayer meeting, though he spoke not a word. I murmured, “Amen,” to his unspoken prayer. The woman of Luke 7 said nothing with her lips, but her tears said a good deal. Paul speaks of his “many tears” (2 Corinthians 2:4); John wrote, “I wept much” (Revelation 5:4); Timothy was in tears about the testimony of our Lord (2 Timothy 1:4, 8). We need to steep the gospel seed in tears (Psalms 126:6). Who can estimate the worth and power of a tear shed before God in prayer?
Then there is a look. Solomon prayed, at the dedication of the temple, “When they shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house,” 1 Kings 8:38. What a mute appeal, yet how pathetic! How many a pious Israelite, in captivity or alienation from God’s house, feeling the plague of his own heart and otherwise oppressed, looked towards God’s house, like Daniel at his open window, and got blessing. We can look toward heaven to a Person. “They looked unto him, and were enlightened (Psalms 34:5) – that is the way of relief and happiness. Try it, dear troubled one. Perhaps you say, I have looked but have got no relief. Look again– look till your spiritual vision becomes calm and clear. Jonah said when down among “the weeds” and at “the bottoms of the mountains” and tempest-tossed by “the flood,” “breakers,” and “billows,” “I will look again toward thy holy temple,” and he did. Then he was able to add, “And my prayer came in unto thee,” Jonah 2:3-7.
Then there is a desire. How cheering and reviving it is that even a desire can cleave the mighty space between earth and heaven and be heard above. “Jehovah, thou hast heard the desire of the meek,” Psalms 10:17. Every desire born in the renewed affections after Him is cherished and fostered by Him. “Lord, all my desire is before thee,” Psalms 38:9.
Are we so overwhelmed that we cannot even groan or sigh; so low that we cannot give vent to even a tear or a look: so utterly cold, inert, and hopeless that the soul feels it is prayerless? Yet, surely there must be a desire after God if there is life! Beloved, that is prayer!“With my soul have I desired thee in the night,” Isaiah 26:9. Amid impenetrable gloom that may sometimes enshroud us, when the soul seems shut out from God, and the heavens seem like brass, when there is neither moon nor stars to lighten the darkness of our night – then, even then, we can rest in a quiet waiting, heaven-inwrought desire after God, and be encouraged by knowing that even the desire of the heart is graciously heeded and interpreted by Him as unspoken prayer.
Learn to entwine with your prayers the small cares, the trifling sorrows, the little wants of daily life.
Whatever it is that affects you, be it a changed look, an unkind word, a wrong, a wound, a demand you can’t meet, a sorrow you cannot disclose, turn it into a prayer and send it up to God.
Man may be too little for your great matters; God is not too great for your small ones. Golden Nugget Number 214
(J N Darby – original reference not found)
Golden Nuggets are published by Saville Street Distribution, Venture, Princes Esplanade, Walton on the Naze, CO14 8QD UK
I trust that you proved God’s mercies over the Christmas period (however you did, or did not, celebrate it), and hope that He will give you health and happiness in 2019, as you enjoy Christian fellowship.
As we start a new year, I thought it might be a good idea to remind one another of those things which motivated Darby and others in the early 1800’s, and their relevance to us now.
A reminder that the Lord’s coming even closer now. Paul wrote, ‘It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light’ (Rom 13:11-12). Paul was, I believe, looking forward to the rapture – the salvation of our bodies which will be changed. As we look around we see the darkness of the world, getting even darker as God’s honoured relationships are discounted. At the same time the public sphere is becoming more and more confused – in the UK, USA and in the Rome-backed EU, with oppressive regimes and wars elsewhere). The love of the many may have grown cold, but the light shines even brighter amongst Christians who have the hope of our Lord’s coming, and amongst those enduring persecution.
A reminder that the calling of the church’s mission is heavenly. It’s sad: so often we hear that striving to be better Christians we can make this world a better place. We cannot; we never will. Jesus said, ‘They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world’ (John 17:14), while Paul wrote, ‘For our conversation [or ‘commonwealth’ – Darby or ‘citizenship’ – NIV, ASV etc.] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself’ (Phil 3:21) .
A reminder that Christians are called to be apart from religious organisations which are based on the principles of the world – human organisation with one person in charge of an assembly be it a pastor, vicar, priest or whatever, and human performances with beautiful music and liturgical rituals on one hand emotional excitement on the other, all pandering to the flesh.
So, what do we see? Small Christian companies which are unattractive outwardly, and if we are honest somewhat struggling. You ask ‘How will they grow and spread, and what is the future?’ If the Lord’s coming is just round the corner, why be worried about the future? Maybe our faith is being tested – meanwhile let’s just obey the Lord – ‘This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you’ (John 15:12). ‘By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another’ (John 13:35).
God’s blessings in 2019.
Sosthenes
PS – A thought about Corinth
Thinking about the above, last week we had a meeting for ministry meeting and I was moved to give a word on what constitutes a good local assembly:
Not Corinth – Good numbers, gifted speakers but factions and politics
Not Ephesus – Absolutely correct teaching and well ordered – but no love
Just ’the poor of the flock’ – like Philadelphia – just a little power but as the city’s name implies – brotherly love
A brother followed speaking about Corinth and orderly meetings (1 Cor 14). You could imagine a large hall: I guess they didn’t have seats, but a several (men and women?) speaking simultaneously People gathered round the speaker they liked.
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)
Golden Nuggets are published by Saville Street Distribution, Venture, Princes Esplanade, Walton on the Naze, CO14 8QD UK
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.
‘And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.‘
J Revell (1852-1900)
In the Gospel of Luke our blessed Lord is presented to us as the perfectly dependent man. In full accord with this He is often spoken of as praying, for prayer is the expression of dependence. In the close of His life, we have this touching word: “He came out, and went, as He was wont, to the Mount of Olives.” The shadows which had surrounded Him during His perfect path of service were deepening into blackness. Man’s cruel rejection of Him was all but complete. The terrible burden of sin, with its abandonment of God, was before His spirit. He had given expression to His love for His disciples in gathering them together to eat with Him the Passover before He suffered. He had set before them also that which they should do for a remembrance of Himself. Now He retires. Even from His chosen disciples, He separates Himself that He may be alone. There He pours out His soul to the Father, divinely measuring all that was before Him, shrinking from it in perfect piety, yet desiring the Father’s will to be done. Deepest anguish was His, yet most absolute submission. Precious, Holy Saviour, who can gaze on Thee there without deepest reverence!
(J Revell. Nugget suggested by an American subscriber as a rare example of a doxology in ministry)
Golden Nuggets are published by Saville Street Distribution, Venture, Princes Esplanade, Walton on the Naze, CO14 8QD UK
Thinking about the above, last week we had a meeting for ministry meeting and I was moved to give a word on what constitutes a good local assembly:
