A Fourfold Purpose In The Call Of The Believer

by T.W. Fullerton, Melbourne | Category: General | Feb 1953

In the New Testament Scriptures we see a fourfold purpose in the call of the believer; a four-fold purpose to be realized here on earth. We do not lose sight of the fact that there is a wondrous eternal purpose in that call, and at our birth from above we are begotten again " unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven" (1 Peter 1. 3, 4), and one day every child of God will enter into that inheritance; when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15.53). This will be that moment when we see Him, for" when we see Him we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is" (1 John 3.2). Then these bodies of our humiliation shall be conformed to the body of His glory (Philippians 3.21).

In the divine arrangement of things, the believer is contemplated as being not only an independent unit, but also as working and acting in association with others; the individual child of God is viewed as becoming associated with the people of God, one of a holy nation (1 Peter 2.9), and following after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Timothy 2.22).

In this fourfold purpose we see first in order,

A SUBJECT PEOPLE.

A people rendering heart subjection to divine claims. The kingdom of God on earth was seen in Israel. They only, of all the nations of the earth, had been called to be subject to divine rule and government. When however they rejected the King who was presented to them, that Blessed One was compelled to say sorrowfully, "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21. 23). After the resurrection of the Lord, and during those 40 days when He appeared unto His loved disciples, He spake to them "the things concerning the kingdom of God" (Acts 1.8), not concerning something in the heavens, but a sphere of divine rule and government here on earth. The nucleus of that kingdom was seen in the 120 gathered together (verse 15) while to that number, on the day of Pentecost, were added about 3,000 others who bowed to divine claims, being submissive to the principles of Acts 2. 41, 42.

Here was a people replacing that people who had rejected God's King and His authority. Here was seen the beginning of the new dispensation kingdom of God on earth. In the Gospel preached by the apostle Paul, the kingdom of God occupies a prominent place. (See Acts 19.8; 20. 25; 28.28; 28.31, etc.). John, as he reveals the Lord's message to the seven churches of God in Asia, wrote, "And He made us to be a Kingdom" (Revelation 1.0).

We submit, therefore, that as the Gospel was proclaimed in Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, the preaching was not confined to teaching men and women how they might be saved from judgement, and unfolding all the blessings that the Gospel brings, but embraced the whole counsel of God, in making known how saved sinners might be found within the kingdom of God, dwelling together in subjection to divine rule. For consideration of this subject we call attention to the following scriptures, not referred to above: Matthew 6.33; Luke 9. 62; Acts 14.22; Romans 14.17; 1 Corinthians 4.20; 6.9; Galatians 5.21; Colossians 4.11.

A WORSHIPPING PEOPLE.

We submit that apart from being a subject people, no people can be a worshipping people. Israel was such a people, and their worship was associated with the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 25.40); and later with the Temple (2 Chronicles chapter 3-7., etc.). Over the centuries, worship had been rendered to the God of Israel in His dwelling place amongst His people on earth; but, as it was in the case of the kingdom of God, so it was in the case of the house of God, the place of worship: with the rejection of God's Christ, who had come to His own things, and His own people received Him not, the divine sentence was pronounced upon that which had been God's house, "Your house is left unto you desolate " (Matthew 23.38). The glory had departed! The sacrifice was still offered for a period; the voices of the Temple Singers were still heard; but subjection to Him who had dwelt in that Holy Place had ceased and true worship had ceased.

But though Israel had failed, yet the God of heaven still longed for the worship of men, He desired a worshipping people. To the woman at the well the Lord Jesus, who knew the mind of the Father, could say, "The hour cometh ... when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers"(John 4.28, 24). Again we repeat that a worshipping people must be a subject people, for no true worship, no true bowing of the spirit in the presence of a holy God can be forthcoming from a people who, though saved by grace, are determined to have their own way: and now we find the old and material house giving way to the new, "a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2.5, etc.).

As with the old dispensation, the worship of God's people was associated with His earthly house, so with the new dispensation, the worship of God's people is associated with a spiritual house, the churches of God, fitly framed together (Ephesians 2.21, 22). To be acceptable worshippers demands both a right position and a right condition, "Whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of the hope firm unto the end "(Hebrews 3.6). We commend for consideration the following scriptures: 1 Corinthians 3.; 2 Corinthians 6; Ephesians 2. 21, 22; Hebrews 3. 6; 1 Peter 2. 1-5; 1 Timothy 3.15; 1 Peter 4.17.

A UNITED PEOPLE.

As Baalam looked upon the tents of Israel in orderly array (Numbers 24.5), pitched around the Tabernacle, he had to say, "How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob." Twelve tribes were united as one before the eye of God; but, alas, as we read the divinely given history of Israel, we learn how that divine unity ceased. At a later date we find the ten tribes, because of sin, carried away from their land by the king of Assyria (2 Kings 17.); and when the Son of God appeared Judah was in a sorry plight. How sadly they had failed in presenting a picture of divine unity to men! Rent by schism and the traditions of men, each sect was intent in propagating its own traditions.

Again He turns from them in sorrow. He would fain have seen them together as of old, "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that arc sent unto her; how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her own brood under her wings, and ye would not" (Luke 13.34).

Still He desires to have a united people on earth. He has gathered around Him a nucleus for such a people, and we hear His earnest prayer ere He leaves them; prayer not only for those who had followed Him, but for those who should believe on Him through their word, "that they may be one, even as We are one" (John 17.22). Carrying into effect the expressed desire of the Lord, we find in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, the record of a united people, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4 3 etc) Churches of God in some cases far removed from one another by distance, yet were all brought together by the same teaching - "the Faith once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 8 etc) as the apostle could say "even as I teach everywhere in every church" (1 Corinthians 4. 17) each church of God being part of the "Fellowship of God's Son Jesus Christ our Lord " (1 Corinthians 1. 9) There were elders or overseers amongst the churches of God the Flock (1 Peter 6.), conferring together and submitting one to another in order to preserve divine unity (Acts 15.).

We commend for consideration the following scriptures : 1 Corinthians 1.10 (Unity in the church); John 10.16 (one Flock); Acts 15. (Unity in oversight) ; 1 Peter 5.2, 3 (One oversight, and the Flock).

A SERVING PEOPLE.

When the God of Israel sent His servant Moses to the king of Egypt, seeking the release of His people Israel, we hear the oft repeated words, "Let My people go that they may serve Me" (Exodus 8.1-20, etc.). He had the service of the hosts of heaven, but He longed for the service of a people on earth; a willing hearted service in contrast to the utter ungodliness of the nations of earth who knew Him not. Such service involved the doing of the revealed will of God, and not something of their own choosing; as that will was unfolded we find that service was associated with His dwelling place on earth, first the Tabernacle, and later, the Temple. Such service was firstly Godward, and found expression in sacrifice and offering (Leviticus, chapters 1-7.), in the service and care of the Sanctuary (Numbers, chapters 1-8.), in the tithe of all their increase (Leviticus 27.30-33), in the observing of statutes and judgements and laws (Leviticus, chapters 11-27.). In its secondary aspect service was manward, as Israel was responsible and privileged to make known to all, of whatever nation that sought it, the knowledge of the true God. In Acts 8. we have an example of one such from amongst the nations who had travelled to the city of the Great King, to learn more of the God of whom he had heard in the land of Ethiopia; while in the coming day of millennial blessing many nations shall seek unto the house of the God of Jacob (see Isaiah 60.1-7; Micah 4.1, 2; Isaiah 19.24), and Israel shall be a blessing in the midst of the earth.

With the rejection of the One whom they had been called upon to serve, now manifest amongst them in human flesh, Israel ceased to be a serving people, but now we see another people, a holy nation taking their place as a serving people under the New Covenant. Again we find service both Godward and manward, and as in the past, such service is associated with God's house, the spiritual house of the new dispensation. The epistle to the Hebrews deals specially with the Godward service (see Hebrews 9.1-14; 12.28, etc.), while its manward aspect is seen in the service and proclamation of the Gospel (Romans 1.9; 1 Thessalonians 1.8, 9, etc.), and in behaviour and manner of life in such scriptures as Romans 14.18; Galatians 5.18; Colossians 3.24, etc.

In this day in which we live there is much shallow thinking about these matters; and it is generally held that subjection to divine claims is entirely the responsibility of the individual believer, apart from any collective association: that the believer as an individual can worship God anywhere: that the only unity possible is that of which Galatians 3.28 speaks, "all one in Christ Jesus": and that service is a matter of individual exercise irrespective of collective position.

We humbly submit that this is false reasoning, and in the foregoing have sought to appeal to the Word of God as making provision for collective subjection, worship, unity and service; and while it is God's desire that all His children should be thus together in His house, this is not fulfilled and therefore He has made provision through His Word whereby even a remnant of His children can know the joy of being together as His people-a holy nation.

Dear reader, is not our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, worthy of a deeper exercise concerning these things, in those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and who all one day will unitedly join in that eternal anthem, "Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins in His own blood"?

T.W. Fullerton, Melbourne | Feb 1953
General