A New Year's Message

by SEDDON, J. W. | Category: N/a | Jan 2005

(Please read Malachi 3:16; Hebrews 3:6)

In the Scriptures God often marks important events. For example, in Exodus 12:1-2, God said to Moses and Aaron concerning His deliverance of His people from the land of Egypt: 'This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you'. It was the month Abib which means, 'sprouting or budding', the evidence of the winter past and the summer at hand. What appears to be dead, now springs to life and this was about to be true of the children of Israel. They were to be brought out of the winter of their experience as slaves in Egypt, and brought into the summer of their freedom to serve their God as His separated people. God marked it as the beginning of months, the first month of each year and they were not to forget it.

As we stand on the threshold of a new year, we draw attention to an important date in the history of the Churches of God: the year 1893. 112 years ago 'golden lampstands' were emerging in various parts of the world as Churches of God were planted, to be linked together in a collective testimony, referred to by Paul as, 'the Fellowship of [God's] Son, Jesus Christ our Lord' (1 Cor.1:9).

God was again giving a vision of a 'spiritual house' answering to the Tabernacle of old which was but 'a shadow of the good things to come' (Heb.10:1). It was to our spiritual forebears at that time that God revealed the significance of such scriptures as Acts 2:41,42, Ephesians 2:19-22, and 1 Peter 2:5. Thus was given to them the pattern for God's spiritual house on earth in which He could dwell among a separated, sanctified people. They heard the call of God and, in loving obedience to Him, they separated from all they saw was contrary to the revealed will of God. They were willing to 'buy the truth' and not to 'sell it' (Prov.23:23).

We have before us two dates: January 1893 and January 2005, between them a period of time now passed into the annals of history. We have so much to thank our God for in the preservation of His testimony over the past 112 years. But what of the future? The Lord Jesus asked the question that is so relevant to us in our day, '"When the Son of man comes, will He really find (the) faith on the earth?"' (Luke 18:8). We long to be able to say with full confidence, "Of course He will," but what if He should not come within the next 20 or 30 years? Will there still be churches of God in existence?

We believe there are two prominent lines of truth in both the Old and the New Testaments, which underlie the unity the Lord Jesus prayed for in John 17: a unity that binds God's people together. They are (a) positional truth which finds its expression in a people separated from all that is ecclesiastically outside the divine pattern of worship and service; and (b) conditional truth, that finds its expression in a people who are sanctified from the world, its pleasures and its politics - a people following our Lord Jesus outside the camp, sharing in His reproach, as separated from a world that hated Christ.

Hebrews 3:6 reminds us that God's spiritual house is essentially conditional, 'whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end'. The 'if' here is one of condition and the confidence is (a) because we are conditionally right with God so that our hearts do not condemn us (1 John 3:21) and (b) because we are rejoicing in the hope: the Lord Jesus in the presence of God as the representative of His people to plead our cause there. All this depends upon us holding fast, positionally and conditionally.

The Malachi scripture (3:16) is an encouragement to all who respond to the call of God into the Fellowship of His Son for there is such a similarity between the days in which they lived and those in which we live. So much to discourage, but so much to encourage. So many pressures, but so much power to overcome. So much to weaken, but so much to give us strength. There is now another year stretching before us unless the Lord's coming is imminent. A year that will have its trials and tribulations, its joys and its sorrows, and we all long, (whatever the future may hold) to walk in step with Him and with each other, but how do we do this? The same way God's remnant did in Malachi's day: 'Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another'.

We suggest that they were speaking about their God and His love in bringing them back to rebuild His house. The Lord was thrilled with their testimony on earth before men so He recorded that testimony in heaven before His angels. Is there a book of remembrance written in heaven concerning His remnant today? We are sure there is.

SEDDON, J. W. | Jan 2005
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