I just want, by way of refreshing your minds, those of you who were with us last week, to read just a few verses from Psalm 91, and then go to the New Testament and then come back to the Old.
First, in Psalm 91—this wonderful psalm that is all about this matter of covering. Now, do not let those familiar words slide over you. Think about it:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
“Abide”—remain, continue, stay—under the shadow of the Almighty. The Almighty will come between all hostile forces and that child of His.
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Whom I trust.For He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,
And from the deadly pestilence.He will cover thee with His pinions,
And under His wings shalt thou take refuge:
His truth is a shield and a buckler.
Now, if we will turn to the New Testament, to John 15—the fifteenth chapter of John—verse 1.
I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh it away:
And every branch that beareth fruit, He cleanseth it,
That it may bear more fruit.Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in Me, and I in you.As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine;
So neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.I am the vine; ye are the branches:
He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit:
For apart from Me ye can do nothing.If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
And they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you,
Ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;
And so shall ye be My disciples.Even as the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you:
Abide ye in My love.If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love;
Even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.These things have I spoken unto you,
That My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
And then back to the Old Testament again—Psalm 118, Luther’s favourite psalm. Now, here is another wonderful psalm all about covering. Once you start to see this matter of covering, it seems that almost every other page of the Bible is all about it. I suppose that is true every time God begins to show you something.
This wonderful psalm begins with the mercy of the Lord, or the steadfast love of the Lord. If you have the Revised Standard Version, or the English or American Revised Version, it is “the lovingkindness of the Lord.” But it is this wonderful word, mercy—this Hebrew word which is so hard to put into English.
Oh give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good:
For His mercy endureth for ever.Let Israel now say,
That His mercy endureth for ever.Let the house of Aaron now say,
That His mercy endureth for ever.Let them now that fear the Lord say,
That His mercy endureth for ever.
Will you note that remarkable statement: “Let them now that fear the Lord say, that His mercy endureth for ever”? Many of us would not associate the fear of the Lord with the mercy of the Lord. But it says, “Let them now that fear the Lord say that His mercy endureth for ever.”
In other words, they have become so sensitive to divine things that they recognise the greatness, the infinity, of the mercy of the Lord.
Out of my distress I called upon the Lord:
The Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.The Lord is on my side; I will not fear:
What can man do unto me?The Lord is on my side among them that help me:
Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me.It is better to take refuge in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man.It is better to take refuge in the Lord
Than to put confidence in princes.
All nations compassed me about:
In the name of the Lord I will cut them off.They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about:
In the name of the Lord I will cut them off.They compassed me about like bees;
They are quenched as the fire of thorns:
In the name of the Lord I will cut them off.Thou didst thrust sore at me that I might fall:
But the Lord helped me.The Lord is my strength and song;
And He is become my salvation.The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous:
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.
The right hand of the Lord is exalted:
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.I shall not die, but live,
And declare the works of the Lord.
Now we shall sing another hymn.
Lord, we cast ourselves upon Thee. Thou canst give power and ability and simplicity and clarity, so that, Lord, this matter begins to open up to us through the ministry of Thy Holy Spirit.
O Lord, we thank Thee that we are all, by faith, abiding now in our Lord Jesus Christ, hiding ourselves in Him, and looking to Thee to meet with us this evening in His name. Amen.
Well now, I am not going to go over last week’s introductory study to this whole subject of covering, because I want to take up a matter which we finally just briefly surveyed last week, which is the heart of the whole thing.
You remember last week I pointed out that this was a vitally important and necessary subject, overlooked by the vast majority of Christians. It is just because it is overlooked that there are so many casualties in the work of God—not only amongst young believers, but more especially amongst those who are older in the Lord.
Let no one think that they are safe in this matter. Not one is safe. Not even the apostle Paul was safe. No one is safe unless we first see the danger that surrounds us and always hide ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ in a deliberate, definite act of faith, day by day.
Whenever we feel a threatening from the enemy, or from circumstances or problems where we feel somehow that the enemy is in it, there must be a definite and deliberate act to hide ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This matter, therefore, for the walk of the believer, for the work of the believer, and for the warfare of the believer, is absolutely vital.
Last week we rambled through the Old Testament—a tremendous number of Scriptures. I suggest to any who were not here that you listen to the tape on that matter and see for yourselves the vastness of this whole matter.
I cannot profess to have understood this matter. It is one of the most profound and mysterious subjects in the whole Word of God, for the simple reason that it is not just to do with sin.
Covering is not just to do with sin, and the sooner we realise that, the better. It goes right back before sin was even found—the anointed cherub that covereth above the glory of God. Now, do not ask me to explain that; I am but a student myself in this matter.
All I can tell you is this: there is beyond us an infinity in this subject. Therefore, it behoves every one of us, I think, to be very humble in the presence of this matter and to recognise together that we are all learners.
Well now then, what does covering mean? It is summed up in a New Testament phrase which is used over two hundred times: the little phrase, “in Christ.”
The child of God, the believer, the sinner saved by the grace of God, has been placed by the sovereign power of God in His Son. That is your position.
If you are a child of God, if you are a believer, if you have been born of the Spirit, if you have been saved through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, then whether you know it or not, your position is in Christ.
Not just a subject of Christ, not just a person related to Christ, but your position is in Christ. That is where you are in the sight of God. You are in Him.
He is not a child of God who is not in Christ. There is no such thing as a Christian who is not in Christ, for it is synonymous. To be a Christian is to be in Christ, and for Christ to be in you. That is synonymous.
It is impossible to be a child of God and not in Christ. On the other hand, let us just say this: if you are a child of God, you are in Him.
I do not want to labour that point, but if only God could cause it to dawn upon you, this whole subject of covering would immediately start to become clear.
Last week we went through a ramble in the Old Testament from Genesis right through to Malachi, and the result was, I am quite sure—I hope—that people were quite bewildered, because it seemed a terrific wealth of material. Something tremendous was behind it.
God seemed to be almost—put it almost irreverently—harping on this matter again and again and again. In everything He did, He spoke of covering, covering, covering.
We even find the cherubim had those three pairs of wings, two of which they used for covering face and feet, and only one pair for flying. It is a most extraordinary business.
But it all starts to become clear when you understand that every true believer is in Christ. That is your position. To be in Christ is to be covered.
Do you understand? To be in Him is to be covered. You are covered by what He is: His holiness, His purity, His spotlessness, His righteousness—all that He is before God covers you. You are in Him.
If you are in Him, you cannot be seen out of Him. It may all sound rather odd, but when you start to think about it for a while, this is the point: why do so many Christians have consciences of evil? Why do many Christians have hangdog expressions? Why do many Christians continually carry around this body of death, moaning all the time about it?
Because they have not seen that they are in Christ.
Many Christians, especially in a company like this, will say, “Oh yes, of course, that is kindergarten.” But they do not understand it. They think it is kindergarten, but we have never seen what it means.
What does it mean to be in Christ? It means that we are in His holiness, covered by Him. When God looks, He sees Christ. When heaven looks, it sees Christ. We are in Him. We are hidden in Him. We are covered by what He is.
Now, of course, this is what it means to be justified. It is so simple. It is quite fundamental. But do not think that anything fundamental is to be left behind. The foundation governs every single part of the building and carries all the weight of the building.
This whole matter is tremendous.
Suddenly, we begin to find all these Old Testament pictures and all this Old Testament symbolism starts to mean something. Let me just go through a list of things at random. I have not gone through a concordance, which I perhaps ought to have done, and taken out every single thing; but just at random, as they came to my memory.
All these kinds of pictures and Old Testament symbols are summed up in this matter of being in Christ, covered in Him.
He is fortress, stronghold, strong tower. Oh, cannot you think of all kinds of Scriptures that come to you?
You remember some months ago we showed some slides on Masada. Remember that? In Hebrew, metsudah means stronghold. Masada is just a variation of it. Christ is that to the believer. You can get right into Him, hidden in Him. A whole city can be hidden in that great rock.
He is fortress. He is stronghold. He is strong tower.
The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
The righteous runneth into it, and is safe.
He is refuge. He is the wings under which we have come to dwell.
Whenever you find wings, Scripture speaks of them again and again in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy comes to mind, where it speaks a number of times of wings; many of the Psalms speak of wings. But it is all the same thing: we have come to dwell under His wings. His wings are like a protection that covers us.
He is shield and buckler. I do not know if everyone here understands what a buckler is. I do not really understand it fully myself, but a shield is one kind of shield and a buckler is another kind of shield. So really, He is shield and shield.
He is the rock in Whom I take refuge. He is house—His house.
Now, that is something to think about. He is the house of God into which I come.
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
When you are in Christ, you find that He is the house of God. The house of God is not a building. The house of God is not an organisation. The house of God is not an institution. The house of God is a Person. It is Christ.
We come into Him as the temple of God. The Lord Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They thought He spoke of that great building called the temple, but in fact He was speaking of His body—of something that was going to go into death, into burial, and into resurrection, and when it came out in resurrection was going to be the house of God, the temple of God, for ever.
Those of you who are older in the Lord, and who know your Bibles, think of the many Scriptures there are about the sanctuary: “When I came into the sanctuary, then I understood”; “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.”
The sanctuary is Christ. In Him you are hidden, covered in Him.
All these Old Testament pictures start to take on meaning. The tabernacle—do you remember the tabernacle? It had curtains all round. What were the curtains inside? They were of blue, of scarlet, of purple, and of white. They all spoke of Christ: of His redeeming work, of His heavenly nature, of His kingly nature, and of His absolute righteousness.
But then over there was another covering—rams’ skins dyed red, or goat skins—and then over that, another covering of badgers’ skins, or seals’ skins. We are not quite sure what they were, but covering after covering. Every single thing speaks of some aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The tabernacle is the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people say the tabernacle is the church. This is not wholly true. The tabernacle speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the aspects of His being, His character, His nature, and His work. You and I have come into the tabernacle of God.
We could go on and on. Think of the word pavilion. This is a word spoken more of a palace.
He will hide me secretly in His pavilion.
In another place it says, “He will hide me in His pavilion from the strife of tongues.” Like a king taking someone into the palace and hiding him in the secret place of a strongly fortified and guarded palace, the Lord Jesus Christ is a pavilion into which you and I can come and be absolutely safe, and feast with the King Himself.
Then there is the hiding place. Many of those words and points in Scripture speak of a covert, a covered place, something that is secret—the secret place of the Most High.
All these Scriptures begin to take on meaning when you understand that they are all symbolic, all in picture form, setting forth the fact that the believer, the child of God, has been placed by the sovereign power of God in His Son.
However we like to see it, there are all different aspects of that work, but it all finally comes to the same thing.
But there is something far more. Oh, how I wish that certainly some of the older ones—and you younger ones as well—could get hold of it, so that when the older ones go to glory, if the Lord tarry, you can take their place.
Here is something else about this matter of being covered, and we find it in Leviticus, in the first seven chapters of Leviticus.
Now, I know just what some young believers can feel, because I can remember myself as a young believer first starting to read Leviticus and dying a million deaths. I could not think what all that business about this offering, and the law of this offering, and that offering, and the law of that offering, and the other offering, and the law of that, had to do with us in the twentieth century.
Page after page, chapter after chapter, details about each of these offerings. What was it all? It was obviously very, very important.
It was years afterwards that I began to understand how practical all this business about offerings was. There are five offerings in those chapters: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering.
Every one of those Christ is. He is the fivefold offering for us. He is the fivefold sacrifice for us, and it covers every single aspect of our relationship with God and with man.
In other words, we are covered by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are covered by the finished work of the Lord Jesus, by the offering up of Himself once for all time.
For instance, what is the burnt offering? This has not so much to do with sin. The burnt offering is all to do with service, with worship.
Some people think that all you have to do is consecrate yourself to God and fling yourself into the work of God. That is the surest way you will get uncovered.
How does God receive anything? He burns it up. He takes the whole and consumes it. Is there anyone ready for that?
But our Lord Jesus Christ has been offered up as the burnt offering. Listen to Him:
Lo, I come to do Thy will.
I delight to do Thy will, O My God.
Mine ears hast Thou opened.
Service—the burnt offering. But you know, my service must always fail. Why, if I had the zeal of the apostle Paul, or if I were to labour like he did, or if I had the revelation, understanding, and passion of the apostle John, still I would need the Lord Jesus Christ as my burnt offering.
I could not plead anything of myself. I could not say, “O God, see me. See what I have offered to Thyself. See how devoted I am.”
The further I go, the deeper I go with God, the more I must plead the covering of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my burnt offering. No service from me is acceptable apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The meal offering—what is the meal? It speaks of humanity. God mixes this in with the other offerings always, because it is meal, not meat—meal. It speaks of the perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Has anyone got perfect humanity? No.
This kind of service we find so often in Christian circles—mechanical, cold, hard, legal, according to regulation—it is not human.
But the one thing we see about the Lord Jesus Christ is humanity. The thing that shines through Him, when God is most revealed in Him as God, is His humanity.
How can I know that? The Lord Jesus was offered as that for me. He is the only One Who can bring that kind of humanity into me as the new man.
If I try to bring my old nature in and polish it up, sort of rehash it, and somehow present it to God as a new kind of humanity, it is an awful mess—an awful mess.
But God can produce something in me as I take the covering of the Lord Jesus Christ as the new man.
But the peace offering—what was the peace offering? A peace offering was the one offering that we all shared. If you took the offering to the temple in the old days, you went in and sat down and ate it.
First the priests had their portion, then the Levites had their portion, and then it was handed back to you, and you sat down in the temple courts and had a jolly good feast—you and your family. It was called the peace offering.
Do you know why it was called the peace offering? Not only because it spoke of peace between you and God, but peace between you and your brother and your sister. You could commune together. You could participate together. You shared together.
Oh, do you know Christ covering you as the peace offering?
Our relationships are continually subject to pressure. We have an enemy. All the time he breathes into our ear insinuations about one another. All the time he is trying to press relationships to breaking point.
Woe betide anyone who rests on the kind of line, “Well, I like so-and-so. He and I will never get parted. She and I will never get parted, because we are buddies; we are pledged.”
You will find that when the devil gets to work, the dearest natural relationship will come to breaking point. There is only one way through: covering.
The Lord Jesus Christ covers us because He was offered as our peace offering, and it is He that we share. It is Himself Who is this offering that is offered and given back to us to eat. It is Christ.
So, as I offer up Christ, as I take back into my hands what God has offered for me, I share Him with you, and you share Him with me. Our relationship is Christ. Our unity is Christ.
We do not agree to agree. We do not just try to make our opinions the same. We hold to the oneness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is covering.
Then there is the sin offering. If someone has committed sin, of course we all understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the sin offering.
But what about the trespass offering? In these democratic days, when there are such cockeyed ideas all over the place, you find that many Christians get this idea: “God will not hold me responsible for doing something that I did not even know was sin.”
But that is just where you are wrong.
You are just being subjective, as if all that sin is what you know is sin. God help you. If you knew what sin really was, you would probably go into a mental home.
It is in the mercy of God that we do not understand the full capacity of sin, that we do not understand what we are capable of as human beings. We do not even understand what is inside us.
The trespass offering was this: when a person sinned unwittingly, they were still guilty. When a person sins, they sin. It speaks of God passing over sins because people did not know, but they were still sins, just because they did not know it.
Do you understand?
Sometimes we come to a meeting and it is so heavy and so dark—this unwitting sin—and there is not a single soul in the company who can hold the Lord Jesus up as trespass offering.
We have found again and again that in the brothers’ time, Sunday morning, sometimes when there has been a sense of heaviness, when we have pleaded the Lord Jesus Christ as trespass offering and peace offering, immediately the atmosphere breaks.
How do you explain that? Is it psychological? How do you explain it if it is not that it is a matter of covering?
Sin has been committed. People have talked unwisely. People have prayed unwisely. Someone has done something unwise. Because we are all bound up together, we infect one another. The invisible forces around us, they know all about it. “Ha!” they say. “We have got them,” and they come in like a flood.
What do people do? As soon as a heaviness comes, they say, “Oh, so-and-so.” All we do is blame flesh and blood. We really do blame flesh and blood. I know I am just as guilty, probably more so than others.
Oh, how we blame flesh and blood. We take hold of people. We say, “Well, if so-and-so would pull their socks up, it would be so different.”
“If we had not sung that hymn at the beginning—that dreadful hymn at the beginning—it would have all been different.” Then we blame so-and-so because so-and-so chose that hymn.
It has nothing to do with flesh and blood at all, and so roots of bitterness begin. There is nothing to do with that at all. It has to do, perhaps, with something that no one knows about in a particular life, and that life themselves does not even know. They do not even understand that they are in unwitting sin.
Fivefold covering. Now, is that not amazing? It covers something not to do with sin at all—service, worship, presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is our spiritually intelligent worship or service—and it comes right down to sin committed unwittingly.
That is what it means to be in Christ.
It means that God has given us a salvation so great, so tremendous, so infinite, that not a single contingency, not a single emergency, not a single avenue of Satan needs to remain open. Not a single thing, because He has given us such a sacrifice, such a covering. We are covered.
Oh, how I wish that there were those amongst us who could pray in this way, who by the Spirit of God knew when to take the Lord Jesus as burnt offering, who knew when to take the Lord Jesus as peace offering, who knew when to take Him as trespass offering or sin offering. You can only know that by anointing. But that is prayer.
Some people are so insensitive and so dull that the only way they would know the devil was amongst us would be if he appeared physically in front of their very eyes and gazed at them. Then they would say, “Oh, we must take the covering.”
How tragic that would be. If we were alive to God, if we were alive to the Spirit of God, there would be times when we would know there is something going on here, and the only answer is the Lord Jesus.
It is a question of covering or uncovering. We do not know what is happening.
I could keep you regaled for literally an hour or more with stories from our history of this kind. We have known, over various gatherings, meetings, relationships, and other things, where we have seen clouds, and where the vast majority of this company did not even know how it was shifted, because it was all done behind the scenes.
And that is the only way it can be done: covering.
Of course, there are three subjects, perhaps, that we find in the Word of God and which, in the New Testament, sum up this whole matter of being in Christ in many ways. The first is the name of the Lord.
Just look at these Scriptures. We did mention this last week, but I do want to give you the Scriptures for this: the name of Christ.
If ye shall ask anything in My name, that will I do.
—John 14:14
Now turn to Colossians 3:17:
And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
Giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
This is a very interesting word. It is not just that when you pray, you tag on the end of your prayer, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
By all means say, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,” when you know what it means, but it is not a charm. It is not an open sesame.
What does it mean? How do you do all things in the name of Jesus Christ—not only in word, but in deed?
When you give a word, you do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But when you have a conversation, you do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Have you ever thought about that? That might shut some of us up.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ when we talk; act in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; do your shopping in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am not being funny. Do your washing up in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do your cleaning, caring for the home, your work at the office or at the college, your studies.
Whatsoever ye do, do all in the name of the Lord.
What does it mean? Does it mean we become sanctimonious and say to the person from whom we buy our service, or whatever it is, “I am buying it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”? Of course not. You understand that as well as I do.
But what does it mean? The Scripture is not foolish. It says, “Do all, whether in word or deed, in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
It means simply this: you are in Him. Do everything from a covered position.
Now think of that. Do everything from a covered position. Never do the most innocuous job outside of covering, whatever it is.
Remember, there are invisible forces from another world, as we put it last week in illustration, that would hit you and bring you down once you are uncovered.
“Do all in the name of the Lord.” What does it mean? All the members of my body are Lance Lambert, so everything they do is in the name of Lance Lambert. Word or action is Lance Lambert. When I speak, it is Lance Lambert. When I gesticulate, it is Lance Lambert. When I walk, it is Lance Lambert.
Ron Roberts is sitting there, and he is silent. He is not me; he has nothing to do with this voice in that sense at all. He has his own voice, and he has his own fellowship, because there in his body is the fellowship of Ron Roberts. Everything he does or says is in the name of Ron Roberts.
Everything I do or say is in the name of Lance Lambert. Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. You are in Him.
You cannot say, “Now there is a spiritual side to my life, and there is a secular side to my life. There is, of course, my meeting side, when I go and naturally am more godly there; and then there is the other side when I get home and put my slippers on and let down my hair.”
That is my other side. There is no such thing as that. You are either in Christ or out of Him.
You cannot do anything outside of Him if God has put you in Him. God says, “Remember that. Do everything as being in Him.”
Now let me remind you of the Old Testament. Proverbs 18:10, such a well-known proverb—we have quoted it already:
The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
The righteous runneth into it, and is safe.
Well, that is where we are meant to be—in the strong tower, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then take another subject or phrase which we find again and again in the New Testament, and which sums up this whole matter: the blood of Christ.
If we walk in the light as He is in the light,
We have fellowship one with another,
And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
—1 John 1:7
The blood of Christ speaks of peace. It speaks of being made nigh to God. It speaks of access—immediate, instantaneous access to God. It speaks of victory.
They overcame him through the blood of the Lamb.
It speaks of life. Oh, to know life! The life is in the blood. We know eternal life continually as we know what it is to be under the covering of the blood.
But some people think they can just use the phrase “the blood of the Lamb,” and that is enough—it works a miracle. Not so.
The Scripture has an “if”:
If we walk in the light as God is in the light,
We have fellowship one with another,
And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Not as we see the light, but if we walk in the light as God is in the light. That is objective.
Now turn back to the Old Testament again, Exodus 12:13:
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are:
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you,
And there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you,
When I smite the land of Egypt.
Do you know God sees blood upon everyone who is saved by His grace? He sees the blood of His Son. You do not see it; God sees it. You do not see it; God sees it.
When God sees it, He passes over. You are covered.
It is possible to come out from under that covering by not walking in the light, but that is another matter. When we are walking in the light, we remain under cover. It goes on covering. It goes on cleansing us—the blood.
What a victory it was. When the firstborn of Egypt was smitten that night and died, it spelled the end for Egyptian power. The power of Pharaoh and the power of Egypt were broken that night by the blood of the Lamb.
Any Hebrew who had not got the blood on his house was visited by the angel of death. Any Egyptian who had the blood upon his house was passed over. Think about that.
Then there is a third thing about this being in Christ. Not only are we in the name of the Lord and can use the name of the Lord; not only is the blood of Christ covering us and cleansing us; but there is the righteousness of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:21, so very well known to you all:
Him Who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf;
That we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
“In Him.” We often miss that: “That we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
That is, God has removed my sin by the blood of the Lamb and the work of the Lamb, but He has placed me in Him, where I am righteous—made righteous, declared righteous, justified, acquitted, covered.
Now, of course, go back to the Old Testament again, Isaiah 61:10:
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.
You are in Him—in Christ, in Him, in His righteousness. That is the garment of salvation.
Do you know anything about the garment of salvation? Do you know how to use the garment of salvation? Some people come in on a Sunday morning and it is quite clear they have got the spotted garment of their own doings. You can almost see it looking out of their eyes.
“Oh,” they think, “it is no good me praising the Lord.” And the devil says, “Quite right. You are hopeless. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that.”
“Oh God, here I am at Your table. Do forgive me. I can hardly lift my eyes up.”
But if you are not living in sin, if you are not living in habitual sin, there is a garment of salvation.
“What have you done coming into the wedding feast without your garment?” The Lord could be angry and say, “Out with that person. How dare they come into My presence and think that something of their own doing is going to satisfy Me?”
“Have I not provided the garment of salvation? They could have come in in the garment of salvation, and I would have said, ‘Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee.’”
Some people get a terrible shock when the Lord says to them, “I do not find anything in you.”
Do you remember when Balaam had to prophesy about the children of Israel—the most rebellious, in one sense godless, lot you ever saw? There they were murmuring, complaining, chattering to one another about how they would like to go back to Egypt, and all the reasons why God brought them out into the desert.
And Balaam said, “The Lord says, ‘I see no iniquity in Jacob.’” Have you ever heard such a thing?
Why did God see no iniquity in Jacob? Because of the Passover—their sin was covered, covered by righteousness.
Do you know how to use the garment of salvation? More Christians suffer from depression, and in the end oppression, from the enemy because they do not know how to use the robe of righteousness, the garment of salvation.
Having been saved by the grace of God, they slip off the garment of salvation and start to walk before God as if they were something. But it is the garment of salvation that covers.
Well, we must go on. What does it all mean? It means simply this: we are hid with Christ in God.
Now let the words sink in. We are so used to the Scriptures that they roll off us like water off a duck’s back.
In Colossians 3:3:
For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Now, when something is hidden, you cannot find it. Is that not so? When something is really hidden like that, it is sort of lost to you. You cannot find it.
Where is your life? Your life is lost in God—hid with Christ in God. Think of that: the infinity of what God is. God has hidden your life with Christ in Himself.
So when the devil comes and says, “Where is Lance Lambert? I am going to get him,” God says, “I am sorry. You cannot find him. He is hid with Christ in Me.”
Now, that is just where Peter failed. Peter came out from the covering and said to the Lord, “Die? You die? Never.”
In so saying, he contradicted the will of God. Of course, it was the natural thing to do. Would you not have done it? If the Lord Jesus said to me, “I am going to die tonight,” would you not have said, “Never! Never! Over my dead body”?
How did he get out of covering? Most people think, “Oh well, you see, it was presumption.” No, he was not presumptuous. He was quite spontaneous. It was not presumption.
What was it then? He contradicted the will of God.
Some people say ignorance is bliss, but others say ignorance is dangerous. He did not know what he was doing, and therefore he spoke inadvisedly. Satan heard it, and he went before God and said, “Peter, Peter, let me have him.”
God was unable to say, “He is hid with My Son in Me.” He said, “All right. He has come out from under cover. You have him.”
The Lord Jesus said in Luke 22, “Simon, Simon, Satan hath obtained thee by request, but I have prayed for thee.”
This teaches us one of the biggest lessons: how we can get uncovered.
Hid with Christ in God. Something, when it is hidden, cannot be found except in Him. If I want to find you and you are in Christ, I have got to find Christ. Do you understand? I find you in Christ.
Is it not wonderful when the enemy is after you? He comes up against Christ. The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire comes between the enemy and the people of God and confuses the enemy, so that he cannot see.
That is covering.
Perhaps you begin to understand why this matter is so vital. Do you not see the whole point of staying where God has put you?
This brings me really to the final point this evening: we are to abide in Christ. John 15:5: “Abide in Me, and I in you.”
What does it mean? Does it mean that somehow I have got to fight through to get into Christ? No. You abide in Him.
What does it mean to abide in Him? The word is remain, or stay, or continue, or dwell. It is to continue where God has put you. Stay where God has put you.
Where does God put you? He puts you in Christ. Well, do not get out. Stay there. If you have got out, get back. Get back immediately, whatever the cost. Get back.
Whilst you are uncovered, you are in terrible spiritual danger. Anything can get you.
That is why the Lord Jesus intercedes. Many people have asked me at different times, “Why does the Lord Jesus intercede—ever live to intercede—at the right hand of God? Surely God knows what He is going to do anyway.”
Of course God knows what He is going to do anyway. “Well, surely God can do what He is going to do anyway.” Of course God can do what He is going to do anyway. That is not the point.
The Lord Jesus intercedes for those who get out from under cover. “I have prayed for you, Simon.”
In that one statement, we have the foreshadowing of the intercession of the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God. Oh, I thank God for the prayers of the Lord Jesus for myself.
No wonder the old Puritans used to write whole books on intercession. You never really hear such things today. If you get a book at all, it is upon our intercession. But the old Puritans used to write books on the intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God.
They knew, seeing something of the sovereignty of God, that the only thing that would ever get them finally before His face was the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Left to ourselves, we are so stupid and so dumb and so insensitive that we will be out from covering straightaway.
Abide in Christ. To abide in Christ is to remain covered. “Abide in Me, and I in you.” We are covered by that.
That is what it means to put on the whole armour of God. You know those words so well in Ephesians 6:10-18. But have you ever noticed the little commentary, in one sense, upon it in Romans 13:12-14?
The night is far spent, and the day is at hand:
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness,
And let us put on the armour of light.Let us walk becomingly, as in the day;
Not in revelling and drunkenness,
Not in chambering and wantonness,
Not in strife and jealousy.But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,
And make not provision for the flesh,
To fulfil the lusts thereof.
Can you see straightaway this little point? It is, after all, the lusts of our flesh—or, to put it in a way that perhaps is easier for us to understand, the desires, the natural desires, sometimes legitimate and illegitimate, of the flesh. These are the things that so often entice us and bring us out.
Put on the armour of light. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, so that it has not got a chance.
It is not only the enemy from without; it is the enemy from within.
Will you also notice in Ephesians 6 that it says, “Put on the whole armour of God”? It does not say, “Put on the armour of God.” It says, “Put on the whole armour of God.”
It is a sober fact that you can put on ninety per cent of the armour and leave off the one part at which the enemy will get you.
There is no point in my dressing myself up like a human tank and leaving my helmet off. I am a sure target for the enemy to blast my head off.
There is no point in my taking a shield and not having the breastplate of righteousness, for while I am shielding off something there, something hits me here, and I am down.
What is the point of being absolutely clad in armour and not having the shoes on? I do not know whether most of you realise how vulnerable feet are. If you were in an army with all those people clad in armour, you only need one of them to tread on your toe and you are there. You do not even need the enemy.
Your feet are vulnerable unless they are shod.
It is so interesting that Scripture speaks of putting on the whole armour, and this is where we all fail. Some of us have got the helmet on, but we have not the shield of faith. Some of us have got the shield of faith, but we have not got the breastplate, or we have not got our loins girt strongly with truth—reality.
We could go on and on. Put on the whole armour of God. Why?
Listen. It says that we may, thus covered, be enabled to stand, and to withstand, and having done all, to stand.
Now, is this not just another way of saying, “Abide”? Stand, having done all to stand.
Is it not interesting? It says, “Having done all.” Not having done all, you marched forward a thousand miles; but having done all, you stood covered.
This battle is not a question of going forward. This battle is won by abiding. It is a victory already won which has got to be ratified.
When we see that, it makes a great change. This is not a kind of victory where we have to go forward. It is a victory where we stand still in Him. We abide in Him. We are covered, and as we remain covered, it is won. It is ratified. It is expressed. It is manifested. It is registered.
Well then, what can we say about all that? We see that there is in Christ absolute safety, absolute security, absolute protection. The youngest child of God has no need to fear.
We have sung a hymn which I do not suppose many really understood, or if you did, it should have given you a bit of a problem. What did it mean in that verse of that hymn, “And can it be,” when it said this in the last verse?
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.
I see that in some of our hymnbooks they changed that last line because so few people understood what it meant.
What it meant was this: all those people in glory are not more secure than you and I down here. If you let that sink into you, it will change your whole attitude to Satan, to the enemy, and to darkness.
You think they must be more secure. No, they are of course beyond the reach of the enemy, but they are not more secure. You are beyond the reach of the enemy if your life is hid with Christ in God. If you could only see it, if you could only remain under covering, you are as secure as they.
Think of it. How can the enemy get hold of you if you are in Christ? He has got to deal with Christ.
Therefore, if God says, “Yes, you can come through Christ,” it is going to do something in you that is absolutely marvellous. It is going to be heaven, and work something not in the same category at all as destruction, disintegration, and deterioration.
More happy? Oh yes, they are more happy, I think—or some we know up there. I say “up there”; they are probably all around, because heaven is only another dimension.
I think my auntie is more happy, but she is not more secure, and I expect if she can hear me, she says, “Amen.”
Think about it. They are more happy, but not more secure. For where are they, pray? They are in Christ. And where are you? In Christ.
Are they more in Christ than you? No. Then what is the difference? They are those who are asleep—the dead in Christ—and we are, as it says in the old Prayer Book, the quick in Christ. There is no difference.
Let it sink in. This is why the devil will blind you to it and try to make you think that you are a second-class citizen in Him, but somehow or other those up there are first-class and you are second-class. Not so.
In the creed, which I hope one day we shall have and be able now and again to say together, we say, “I believe in the communion of saints.”
What do we mean? We do not mean the communion of living saints on earth. We mean, “I believe in the absolute sharing of the whole—one church, part in the presence of the Lord, the rest on earth. I believe in the communion of saints, the one holy church.”
There is something very wonderful about this whole thing. You are not more happy than they; I am not. That is something to come. But you are not less secure.
You are only less secure insofar as you come out from under the cover. Let the enemy get you out. Let him entice you out. Let him get you to say something ill-advised. Let him get you to do something in darkness. Let him get you to collide with someone and not put it right. Let him get you to contradict the will of God. He has got you out.
If you do not know how to get back immediately, you are in for trouble. You and I have got to learn how to get back.
But not only how to get back. We who have responsibility in the work of God—and in the end that shall be every one of us—must learn how to take Christ as our fivefold offering and plead Him for the whole, for those who do not know what they are doing.
Do you remember—I must finish—but do you remember that when Job’s friends did some very stupid things, said some very wonderful things, and angered the Lord because they got uncovered, the Lord said to Job, “Stand back, Job. I will wipe them out”?
Then they came to Job. The Lord said to them, “You ask Job to pray for you, and if Job prays for you, I will hear.”
So much for democracy, in that sense. They had done something quite wrong. “Oh, You did—that is quite unjust.” No, it is not. They should never have spoken in the way that they had.
They had not suffered like Job. All those wonderful, high-flown phrases they used about this and this—if you read it, it is really rather wonderful, some of the things those friends said. But it would have been much better if they had shut up and written a book all of their own.
Of course, it would have been called the Book of Bildad, and we would have had those wonderful thoughts of Bildad, nothing to do with Job at all. But to try and apply it to Job’s situation—to say, “Job, you are a sinner. Job, you have done this. This is the reason for it all, Job”—that was another matter.
It was Job who had to pray, “O God, forgive them.” And God said, “I will.”
The children of Israel murmured against the Lord, and the Lord said to Moses, “Stand back. I will destroy the lot of them, and furthermore, I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they.”
That should have got something out of Moses. If he could only have been enticed, he would have come out and said, “Oh, that is something. I have suffered this lot for forty years. I think it might be better that they were like me—my type of nature and character.”
But Moses would not come out from under cover. He said, “Lord, You just remember Who You are. Just think what the nations will say when they have heard that You brought them up out of Egypt.”
The Lord smiled and thought, “Moses is just like Me. He has got the same kind of nature as I have. Of course I cannot destroy them. Right, Moses, you pray for them, and I will forgive them.” And Moses prayed.
Oh, for a ministry like that, that can take hold of Christ in the fivefold aspect of His offering and plead for all.
I have seen believers kept in spiritual life by the secret prayer of people when they should have been struck down. Now, I mean that. That is the question of covering.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Well, do not forget then: next week we shall talk further about this subject. We shall next week talk about how we get uncovered, because that is a very practical matter—how.
Then, if we have time, we shall start to take some of these amazing illustrations in the Old Testament, of which there are so many that we shall only be able to select a few, and leave others for you to read yourselves. See if we can understand a bit more about this whole subject.
But let me say this. The Lord Jesus taught us to pray a pattern prayer, and He taught us to pray like this. Last week I spoke about, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”
Now see how it goes on:
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
The New English Bible puts it, “Do not put us to the test.” But deliver us from the evil one.
Very few Christians ever think about that prayer which the Lord gives us as a pattern. Every time you pray, say, “Father, do not put us to the test, but deliver us from the evil one.”
What it really means is this: “Do not let us get uncovered under trial, under temptation. Do not let us come out. Oh Father, preserve us, Lord, that the enemy does not get hold of us because we have got uncovered.”
Shall we pray?
Father, we do pray that Thou wouldst, in some real way, write this tremendous subject on our hearts. Some of us understand just a little about it; others of us, it is altogether new.
No, we do not want the wrong kind of fear and self-consciousness to come upon us, so that spiritually we are inhibited. But, O Lord, we do need to know what it is to be in Thy Son in practice.
To know the provision which is ours, the fullness which is ours, the blessings which are ours—all that is ours in Him: protection, security, safety.
Father, hear us. We commit ourselves to Thee. Write this lesson indelibly upon our hearts. May it be for all of us, Lord, perhaps the beginning of an understanding of this matter that will stand us in good stead in the days to come.
Now let us say that pattern prayer of the Lord Jesus together:
Our Father, Which art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.For Thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.