PERSONS WHO ARE BLESSED
H Tim Franklin
Luke 7: 23
John 20: 29 (from “blessed”)
Revelation 14: 13 (from “Blessed … henceforth”); 22: 14
I simply wanted to link on with what we had set on for us in the glad tidings here last Lord’s day. I felt the edge of this word in Luke 7; how wide it is, and how blessed we are as included in it. But in Luke the “whosoever” comes in, as our brother was speaking of; it brings in all that are in mind for blessing, and embraces all who believe, who “shall not be offended”.
In these references in Luke and John the Lord Himself is speaking; how He adjusted Thomas, who was adjustable. He had missed the meeting, and what that means for us! We have missed many this year, through no fault of our own exactly, but the Lord knows, and these are His words, “blessed they who have not seen and have believed”; which gives John’s view of the matter. I think it would be more limited than the “whosoever” of Luke 7. We are amongst them, beloved! We have not seen the Lord, but we are amongst that company, redeemed ones that wait for His coming, wait for when we do see Him, when “we shall be like him”, 1 John 3: 2. We shall soon see Him, and “blessed they who have not seen”: the personnel of the assembly for Christ. John does not bring out the assembly so much, he brings out the family as we have been instructed: “blessed they who have not seen and have believed”. We have had the family emphasised in our present gatherings, the imperative of the family and the household, and the blessing as believing in Him.
We are still with John, and we go into Revelation, and the prophetic unfoldings that there are. I was struck with this verse, “blessed the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth”. We know how blessed it is, not personally, but through the death of loved ones recently, and in our experience, those who die in the Lord; how special they are, how blessed they are! This is a future time of intense suffering, this chapter brings that out; and there will be such a time, and this is what Mr Darby brings out: his impression was that ‘the time is come when dying in the Lord was to cease’, Synopsis vol 5 p408. The assembly period will have been finished before then, and yet there are martyrs, and they are gathered up. That is how inclusive the work of God is, how inclusive this blessing is; even dispensationally we cannot limit God. We need to be intelligent as to His ways, but we cannot limit Him, “Blessed the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours”. We know that believers who have died in the Lord do rest from their labours, and “their works follow with them”, many we have known. You become a little older, and you realise how many we know! They rest from their labours, how blessed, they will not miss out! They are not missing out: “their works follow with them”. They have believed in the work of Another for them, what a work was done for them.
We look at the first page of the Bible and how many threads, how many themes, how many of the blessed ways of God with one theme in mind open up! We come to the last page of the Bible and these threads have been drawn together. I speak very simply and I wondered if these things that we read of in Luke, and what we read of in John, and what we read of as to a dispensation to come, are drawn together. The wording is different from the King James’ Version; but Mr Darby and others have: “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life” (Rev 22: 14); that includes the present moment, and it includes us! It is being in the gain of what has been done for us, and there is the blessing; how blessed! It is our credential for walking in fellowship. It might become a little hackneyed expression that we do not hear so much of, but these things still apply. We may have been limited in our gatherings, and we can only admit we are, but it is still a fact; it is still required of me. It is still required of each of us as the fellowship is maintained, as the moral side of it is maintained: “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life”; that is Christ! Wonderful source of fruit! John’s gospel would help us again about that; and “that they should go in by the gates into the city”. It is the last page of the Bible, and we know what the gates are, they are spoken of, there has been much teaching about it, but this is the way in for each of us personally. Then, according to the principles of the truth, according to the principles of the assembly as they are maintained, we “should go in by the gates into the city”; that is our present application of it. This book helps in that figure in the previous chapter; you see the celestial city, setting out all it represents, and it has been explained to us in recent times in ministry.
I wished simply to draw these things together, and I would seek to do so for our encouragement. We are thankful for what our brother had to say in the preaching, and for what followed from his impression in the preaching, but we are blessed! How blessed we are! We are blessed to be able to gather, beloved; some cannot do it. We are blessed as we are able to have contact, able to read the word together. May we be encouraged for the Lord’s Name’s sake.
Word in Ministry Meeting, Grimsby
17th September 2020