PART  VI  –     Transitional Aspects of the Lamp-Stand Model

Subpart E  –  Messiah-Body; Trumpets unto the Day of Atonement

Article 4  –  Times & Seasons

Section (c)   –  The Return of Those Distant, and Those Near

By Daniel Irving

i.     The Call to Return unto God via the Cross of His Son

ii.    Return from a Place Distant

iii.   Return from a Place Near

iv.   Returning to Our Place of Rest; The New Testament Principle of Patience

v.    The Church’s Rock as the Founding Strength of Deliverance

Section (c)  –  THE RETURN OF THOSE DISTANT, AND THOSE NEAR

i.  The Call to Return unto God via the Cross of His Son

As related in the previous section, salvation may be stated as a returning, as the Spirit of God beckons us back to Himself.  This was true in the walk of our forefather, Abraham, and was true in the lifetimes of Isaac and of Jacob as well.  Each new response to the call of God carries with it a revelation of His eternal Person.  In this way, the elect are called out of the world, and onto a Way.  Salvation operates through the Spirit beckoning the sinner, “return.”  Whether we are speaking of the deepest backslider, or whether we are speaking of the most steadfast of saints, it is this dynamic which applies to our redemption.  All have fallen short of the glory of God.

The prophecy of Malachi declares what will be the effect of God revealing Himself in sanctification to His people.  The effect will be true, spiritual discernment:

Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.                         Mal. 3:18

More on this prophecy later; but first let us address the principle of “returning,” represented in the first phrase.  The Hebrew-word translated; “return” is; shoob,[1] which means, literally, to return.  This word is commonly employed in reference to the return of the Lord’s redeemed unto Himself.[2]  And, as related in a previous section of this article, the salvation of the elect involves the principle of returning unto their Maker, through their Redeemer, through the means of His Spirit.  Salvation is their response to God’s eternal Word, ever calling His elect to return unto Himself.  Only through the agency of the Holy Ghost may those deeply backslidden and defiled, offer repentance unto God.  Likewise, only through the mercies of God ministered through the Holy Ghost, may those near unto Him through faith, maintain their path.  For God moves.  These follow God and keep Truth through no other means than the Cross of Jesus Christ.  For this is the place God may minister of Himself to the needy soul.  Therefore all men are brought by Christ through the means of that prophetic call of the Spirit of God, saying, “Return.”

Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:        Jer. 3:14

The means through which these may “return,” and through which they may walk in God’s way, is  the atonement which God has provided through His eternal Son, continually justifying the heart that turns to Him.  The revelation of God’s redemption upon the heart, provides the soul with that confidence in God which will stand the testing which must come.  Therefore, these are told:

But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formeth thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.                                          Is. 43:1

Although we will pass through a period of doubt, rising even to the level of panic and acute distress, God will ultimately leave no doubt in the mind of those that be in Christ as to their status as belonging to Him, as this is simply not a matter to be left to doubt or to controversy.  Our Maker is establishing His eternal abode within us, and He says to us, “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee.”

While in the beginning, we experienced our Maker’s call as little more than an empty feeling in the heart; a hunger after God, His call will gain in its imperative until it cannot be denied by our doubting.  The beginning of God’s call was a gentle teaching of our heart, drawing us into that place where God could reveal Himself to fuller extent.  Jesus spoke of this when He said:

Is it not written in the prophets; ‘& THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD’?  Everyone who has heard & learned from the Father, comes to Me.”                 John 6:45

Although this sounds unusual to conventional thought, the elect have an experience with the Father before they even come into the knowledge of Christ.  This experience with the Father is His call.  The Lord expresses this operation of the Spirit, as being “taught of God;” a teaching which ultimately leads to resurrection:

“No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him;  and I will raise him up on the last day.                                     John 6:44

God draws His elect to His Son that He may reveal Himself in a fuller way to them.  The place of that revelation, is at His Son’s Cross.  Therefore Jesus said:

“And if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”  But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die.              John 12:32-33

Lifted up as an object of scorn and derision, God revealed Himself as the sin offering for humanity.  The elect are drawn to this place, that their Maker may speak a clearer message, and make a deeper revelation of Himself to the man.

ii.  Return from a Place Distant

Some must repent from a place far away from God. There is a returning which is very pronounced and dramatic; often accompanied by the sudden deliverance from sin’s bondage.  While the fallen sinner whose corruption has removed him from a mouth’s confession, might sense better than most the disparity between his own life and what is God’s true righteous standard, through backsliding, he has placed himself within the grasp of Hell.  Even so, the revelation of Jesus Christ and His work on the Cross will break free that bondage.  How so?  Jesus assured us that we may repent when we hear the voice of His Spirit, even though our sins be so profound and reprehensible as to have brought us into Satanic bondage.  The Lord says:

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen;  and have the keys of hell and of death.                   Rev. 1:18 

What does it mean that Christ holds the key of “Death?”  The first time this Greek-word appears where the reference is not to literal death, is the Lord’s words to the Jews:

  Verily, verily I say unto you, He that hears My word, and believes on him that sent Me,  has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation;  but is passed from death unto life.                                        John 5:24

Death, is the spiritual state of unbelief.  Thus it is self-evident that belief in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ should constitute our release from the spiritual state of Death.  And the very power to believe is in the hands of Christ, to give life to whom He will.

What does it mean that Christ holds the key of “Hades?”  This Greek word is hah’-dace,[3] meaning “Hades” or “Hell;” a place of torment.  This place holds those who witnessed the great works of God, and yet did not repent, or else have not repented.  These have maintained their sinful ways even against Light.  We find all other uses of the word to be as follows:

Mat 11:23  And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works which have been done in thee, had been done in  Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

Mat 16:18 . . . upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Luk 16:23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, & seeing Abraham afar off . . 

Act 2:27   Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.

1Co 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Rev 6:8     . . . his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.

To understand this declaration, and to understand the relationship between Death and Hell, we might consider the apostle Paul’s warning to those skeptics at Pisidion-Antioch, that by unbelief in the wake of the Spirit’s witness, something tragic would come upon them of which the prophets had spoken:

Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you; “Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you.”         Acts 13:40-41

Those events in the region of Lycaonia were marked by miracles as Paul and Barnabas traveled through the cities of; Derbe, Iconium, Lystra, and Pisidion-Antioch.  Their mission was similar to the miraculous events in Capernaum under the ministry of Christ.  Recall that the Lord said:

And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell:  For if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom,  it would have remained until this day.  But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.     Matt 11:23-24 

The city of Lystra was visited by the Holy Spirit, and, as such, held a precious opportunity to become part of the eternal work of God preparing men for eternal life and preparing a bride for Christ.  The arrival of Paul and Barnabas represented, for them, a fork-in-the-road; one path leading to something too wonderful for their comprehension; the other path, leading to something too horrific for comprehension, ie. the rejection of the Spirit of God.

Something truly miraculous had occurred in that region; God was intervening in the natural creation in order to bear a witness to the brutish things of this world that they must stop, and consider the declaration that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”[4]  For upon this issue would hang either the revelation of life, or the darkness of antichrist and the “gates of hell.”  Recall the Lord’s words upon Peter receiving the revelation that “Jesus is the Christ;” the Lord contrasted that revelation with reference to its direct opposite; the “gates of hell.”

The world abides in Death through unbelief in the Person of the Son of God.  But the affirmative condition of Life, is found in the revelation “Jesus is the Christ.”  The peril, is that by missing their appointed Day of Salvation, via a casting off of this witness, Hades follows close behind.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse:  and his name that sat on him was Death; and Hell followed with him.  And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.                                                Rev 6:8 

Therefore, we are not to fear those having power over only the body.  The greater issue by far, is the life the soul.  And while the world around us is separated from that life through sin, and through ignorance, and through unbelief, and through the antichristian philosophy and influences of men, the Church, as the “Israel of God,”[5] has been appointed special season of the Spirit, whereunto God has appointed them, and granted unto them, to believe that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”[6]  For this is the revelation that shall prevent the destruction of those called out of the world by Faith:

. . .  upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.                                  Matt. 16:18

Gates, hold men within a rejection of Jesus Christ.  They also lock them away from the truth of Christ.  And yet, we are told that Jesus Christ holds the very “keys to “Hell!”  How is this so?  This is so, because Christ went there Himself to destroy its power over men.  This is so, because God the Father raised Him up from that place of rejection; hidden away from the face of God:

Because thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.                             Acts 2:27 

Therefore, just as Death constitutes no hiding place from the judgment of God, neither does Hell constitute a hiding place from the judgment of God.  Both must give up their dead unto God:

. . . and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them;  and they were judged every man according to their works.                                 Rev. 20:13

For the Lord Jesus Christ has been there. He has exposed Hell as having its authority in a Lie.  And the resurrection of Jesus Christ exposed that Lie.  Thus, be we so far from God as to have our soul in Hell, yet God will hear us on the day we truly call upon Him.  Jesus Christ has the keys to minister faith to the heart.  And God will not leave the believing soul in a distress that is due the unbelieving.  God will break the captivity of even Hell, because of the purchase of His elect through the blood of the Cross.

iii.  Return from a Place Near

Again, whether we are speaking of the deepest backslider or the most faithful saint, both require a continual returning to the Cross of Jesus Christ as the process for their redemption.  All have fallen short of the glory of God, requiring the Spirit’s revelation of the Cross to draw them back to their first love.  Thus even those of Ephesus, although acknowledged to be faithful sentinels of pure doctrine, are told by Christ:

Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works;                                                                                     Rev. 2:5

Until we have attained to the perfection of our Master; a day which even the apostle Paul had not counted he had attained unto,[7] there shall be a day for repentance ahead of us, that God may reveal His holy nature to us in greater strength.  Until that day, we are counseled:

  Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule,  let us mind the same thing.                                        Phil. 3:16 

Through experiences of Faith, we hold firm to the righteous standard God has revealed to us heretofore, allowing us to walk in that Way.  But only through repentance, is that righteous standard manifested to the heart by the Spirit.  Hence, the path of our redemption, as Isaiah prophesies:

For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved;   in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.                                  Is. 30:15

We normally think of repentance as a grand and dramatic returning to the Lord out from a condition of sin and living in the world.  However, we find in this prophecy, allusion to a returning that does not occur merely once or twice in a lifetime, but a returning that occurs continuously throughout the walk of the regenerate believer in Christ.  This represents a deeper entering in upon the covenant of God wherein those principles accepted in concept at initial conversion, now become a living reality and a day-to-day ministration as they wait upon God.   The word of God becomes a process  effectuating a real and living way upon the heart and upon the mind.  These begin to daily interact with the Spirit of God through His Word.  We find this particular application of the witness [8] expressed via the text of the 116^th Psalm, which begins in profound fear and trouble:

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me.  I found trouble and sorrow.  Then I called upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.                                     Ps. 116:3-4

The troubled soul thereupon realizes the mercies of God in Christ.  Therefore we read in the next verses:

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous.  Yea, our God is merciful.  The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low and He helped me.                        Ps. 116:5-6

This calling upon the Lord in the midst of the troubling of the soul, has resulted in the operation of which the prophet Isaiah speaks, and as the Psalm expresses:

Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with thee.  Ps. 116:7

Therefore we have allusion to the soul entering into trouble.  Having awakened to the things of God, and having had its hopes in this world under law put away, the soul would be left destitute between two places if not for the Person and the presence of Christ.  As the regenerate believer walks in the world, as yet struggling to maintain the way of truth, complete, but as yet unperfected, the power of the law still serves to unsettle a state of rest in Christ.  However, they learn that the Spirit of God is very ready to reestablish their soul in a condition of rest.  As the Spirit of Grace meets them, they begin to build a relationship of quiet confidence and of trust in Jesus Christ.  They continuously return in their hearts because they remember the goodness of the Lord.  This is the abiding; this is continual communion with the Spirit of God.

Recall the Lord’s words the night before His death on the cross:

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying,  “This is My body which is given for you: This do in remembrance of me.      Luke 22:19

We do not “remember” the Lord by a volitional act of the mind.  The Lord is to be ascertained and apprehended spiritually through the means of His Holy Spirit interacting and communing with our spirit, which is thereby regenerated.  This is the process of abiding in Christ.  The elect are continuously  brought into the remembrance of the Lord by communion with the Spirit of Grace.  Recall that the Lord said that the work of the Holy Spirit would be a work of “remembrance:”

  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things,  and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.                            John 14:26

As those near unto God, allow the Spirit of God to bring His remembrance, this facilitates their returning.  This communion with Christ is the perfecting of holiness.

Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.                                              Ps. 97:12

These return from a place near.  Those who hold fast to what they know, doing according what they know so as not to hold the truth hypocritically, although falling short in their heart, bear a wonderful promise from the mouth of Christ:

Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”                                 John 8:31-32

The Lord’s context was the freedom from the bondage to sin.  Therefore the Lord made a correlation between continuance in His word, and God’s promise of freedom from sin and the walking in liberty as Sons of God.  Faithfulness has the reward of a deeper revelation of God, which comes in its time; in its season; and that, without the specter of eternal reprobation which stalks the backslider.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.                                                                                      John 8:51 

The only proper condition of the natural man before God is one of deep repentance and abasement.  On the other hand, the estate of Christ is a place of glory.  The glory of Christ is the reciprocal or counterweight to the lowliness of men.   Until we have attained to our lowly condition through faith; until we have attained to that spiritual condition bereft of our own confidences, and so undone of our own worth that we must “hide ourselves in the dust,”[9] we have yet to see as we ought; we have yet to clearly gain our vision of the glory of Christ which shines brilliantly.  The occasion of a man being brought into deep repentance is an occasion for the revealing of Jesus Christ as constituting everything to the soul.  This is the revelation of the kingdom of God.  In our repentance He shows us His own sufficiency.

For the soul who places her hope in Jesus Christ, the place of her abasement is the place of glory.  This is why the Lord tells the church at Ephesus to, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen.”  Where have they fallen from?  From that very lowly place they need to revisit in their heart.  Where they fell to, was a place of high-mindedness; a sense of completion and attainment.  The Holy Spirit causes us to remember that lower place, that God may give us a deeper glimpse of the true glory.

iv.  Returning to Our Place of Rest; The New Testament Principle of Patience

Recall again the prophecy of Isaiah:

For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved;  in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.                                                                                      Is. 30:15

The Hebrew word translated “quietness”[10] also appears as follows:

Josh 14:15 And the land had rest from war.

Jdg 3:11     And the land had rest forty years.

Rth 3:18 for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.

Ps 94:13     That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be        digged for the wicked.

Pro 15:18 A wrathful man stirs up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeases strife.

Is 57:20    But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest,

There is a word offered to us in the New Testament which stands as a fundamental principle to our standing in the evil day.  That word is “patience,” which means a quiet trust; a confidence in the sufficiency of the Person and the work of Jesus Christ.  Indeed, this seems precisely what the Lord was speaking of as the governing principle of our salvation, when He said:

“In your patience posses ye your souls.”  –                Luke 21:19

While we normally think of patience as a quality we either innately possess, or do not possess, this is not true according to Scripture.  If we look to the writings of the apostles, we find patience is something divinely formed within us through the means of divinely-ordained affliction.[11]

The second word of Isaiah’s phrase is “confidence”; “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.”  We know that trust in the Lord is a component of salvation.[12] Therefore, prophecy tells us that these shall be “our strength.”  What is this new “strength?”  The strength of Christ is a strength which runs in contradiction to the strength of this world, under Law.  An explanation of what is the Lord’s strength is provided to us by the apostle Paul.  Because of the presumption which was occurring within the Corinthian church in terms of their regard for men who exalted themselves in the glory of their own flesh, Paul wrote at length regarding what is the true strength of Christ.  In one place Paul writes concerning the Lord’s response to his prayers for healing:

And He said unto me, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then am I strong.       II Cor. 12:9-10

Therefore the strength that is Christ runs inversely to the strength of this world.[13]  His strength is great, because it is the strength of our Creator, who made all things.  It is not of a kind which shall perish with the world.  It is the strength of the Lord.[14]

v.   The Church’s Rock as the Founding Strength in the Season of Our Deliverance

Therefore, it is through the good profession of faith in Jesus Christ, God is able to bring us to the Cross; the place where He can reveal His all-sufficiency in Christ:  His all-sufficiency to answer for sin; His all-sufficiency as our provision for righteousness; His all-sufficiency as our source and sustenance; His all-sufficiency as our source of knowledge and light.  Therefore Isaiah prophesies:

I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.                   Is. 57:19

What is this message of “Peace?”  This is the Gospel, brought in power; the declaration of the coming of God’s kingdom to rule within the man; the true peace that rules the heart and the mind; peace from a spiritual source that is God’s own Person.  The Lord is declaring that He will effectuate His covenant with two entities, ie. with those “far off”, and with those “near.”  Who does this leave out?  Only those that are neither.  Recall the word’s of the Lord’s angel to the church of the Laodiceans:

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.                  Rev 3:15-16

This concept runs counterintuitive to our natural sensibilities.  Whether in the world of business, politics, or any social interaction, would not we much rather receive individuals allied with us in our cause, even if mildly so, or lukewarm in their support?  Apparently this sort of worldly sensibility is not the mind of God.  The mind of God is; “be here” or “be there,” be abiding in Me, or be estranged, but whatever you do, be one or the other!  Somehow, the Lord would rather us be severed and estranged from the abiding consciousness of Himself than for us to exist in a condition of continually approaching upon holy things while our heart continues to be fed by the spirit of this world, striving under Law.  For God can save the faithful doer, and God can save the far off outcast, but there is nothing said about His salvation upon the lukewarm and half-hearted:

Recall the words of Moses concerning God’s mercy to the disbursed of Israel:

So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.  If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth,  from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.             Deut. 30:1-4

For the outcasts of Israel, there is a tremendous potential for the demonstration of God’s mercies in Christ!  Just as the prodigal-son had little capacity to recognize the benefits of his father’s house until he was divested of a wrongly-based hope, so do those that came to Christ for the forgiveness of their sins now see the tremendous value of that forgiveness.  They apprehend having been plucked from the fires of damnation.

Only now can they appreciate the deliverance from sin’s bondage and thrive under a new Spirit ie. the “perfect law of liberty”.[15]  Until this occurs, we cannot benefit from a rest we do not value.  Amidst God’s holy things, we would only persist in the filth of our flesh.  Therefore only the Holy Spirit’s agency of returning men unto their Maker through the Cross, works salvation for the wicked.  Absent the agency of the Holy Spirit, effectuating the Cross, men cannot but transgress through the flesh.  Therefore Isaiah states:

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.  There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.                 Is. 57:20-21

The sea constitutes an allusion to the unstable condition of faithless humanity, which casts up the mire of sin from its waves.  What, specifically, is the root cause of sin?  Unbelief.  But the work of God is founded upon belief in the Son of God, sent into the world to die for sinners, and to be raised again for their justification.  Jesus made it very clear, what constituted the “work of God” in redemption.

“This is the work of God; that you believe on Him Whom He hath sent.”                                                                                       John 6:29

Absent this terra firma, there is no ground upon which God can deliver the soul from sin and maintain that soul in a state of sanctification.  For the deliverance from sin is not the end of the work.  The believing soul, having been delivered by a work of the Spirit through the means of faith, must thereafter abide within that work lest his latter end be worse than had he never believed. But notice what the promise of God entails for that soul healed of its backsliding.  God says; “I will lead him:”

I have seen his ways, and will heal him.  I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him . .                          Is. 57:18

Faith is the essential element to the deliverance of God and the healing of the soul of man.  Faith allows the soul to be thereafter led in the way of holiness, anchored, and maintaining the exacting strait and narrow course, confident in the stability of its foundation in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.  Only this is the place God will invest the holy treasure of His own holy nature upon which He would call us to partake.