Copyright - Zac Poonen
(1970)
This book has been copyrighted to prevent misuse.
It should not be reprinted or translated without
written permission from the author.
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The Publisher
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CONTENTS
1. A proper sense of values
2. One thing is needful
3. One thing have I desired
4. One thing thou lackest
5. One thing I do
6. He pleased God
CHAPTER ONE
A PROPER SENSE OF VALUES
The blind man
throws away a cheque for one hundred rupees and clings on to a valueless piece
of glazed paper, considering the latter more desirable because it is smoother
to his touch. He lacks a proper sense of values because he is blind. Like him,
the two-year old child also prefers a cheap toy to the cheque. He too is
ignorant of real values, because he is immature.
However,
multitudes of intelligent men and women throughout the world are doing exactly
the same thing today. And they are doing it without even realizing it! Do you
have a proper sense of values? A mistaken idea of true values can lead any one
of us to a wasted life; and the greatest tragedy in the world today is wasted
human lives. Nor is this wastage peculiar to the irreligious, one finds it
among the religious as well.
Man is born
spiritually blind. He is unable therefore to assess the relative values of the
things of time when compared with the things of eternity. As a result, he
spends his time and energies in seeking the wealth, the honour and the
pleasures that this world can give him. Little does he realize that " the
things that are seen are (all of them) temporal," whereas " the
things that are not seen (and they alone) are eternal " (2 Cor. 4:18).
Jesus challenged the wrong sense of values held by even religious people of His
day when He told them that a man would profit nothing who gained the whole
world if in doing so he lost his soul. If a man is not rightly related to God
through Jesus Christ then he will discover, in the day that he stands before
his Creator, that all he has achieved and acquired on earth is utterly
valueless.
There are
multitudes of believers, too, whose "sins are all forgiven"
and who are "on their way to heaven," yet whose values are no
less confused. In the day of judgment they will find to their surprise that,
though their souls may have been saved, their lives have been wasted. They have
sat as spectators on the side-lines, content with their salvation, happily
singing choruses, watching others being used of God but unaware that He wants
them on the field as well. Occasionally they may wonder why the power and joy
and fruitfulness that mark the lives of other Christians are not their portion
too. They may attend many Christian meetings to stimulate their spiritual life,
but their inner man remains always weak and sickly. Once in a while they may
have ambitions to attain a higher level of Christian living, but soon they fall
back to where they started from - and sometimes even lower. What is the reason
for this? Usually it is quite simple: they have not got their priorities
right. Like the blind man and the child in the illustrations above, they
have again and again in their ignorance thrown away the true spiritual riches
and clung to what is worthless. Thus they have remained spiritual bankrupts,
whereas God intended them to be rich.
Jesus was
forever seeking to remove this blindness from the eyes of those who came to
Him. He taught them what the supreme priorities of life really are. To Martha
He said, "One thing is needful." To a rich young man He said,
"One thing thou lackest." With these words He threw into
emphasis the thing that should take first place in each of their lives. Or again
in Old Testament times, of David alone was it said that he was "a man
after God's own heart " - and he certainly had his priorities right!
"One thing," he said, "have I desired." Paul
too, the greatest apostle of Christianity, succeeded in putting the right thing
first. "One thing I do," he cried; and with that as his theme
he lived out the most effective life (from the standpoint of eternity) that
this world has seen since Jesus of Nazareth ascended on high.
The atmosphere
of the world today gives to all of us without exception a perverted sense of
values. Under its influence we tend to get life's priorities wrong. For that
influence is immensely powerful. Faster than ever before in the history of
mankind the world is sinking into the gutter of moral decay and corruption. The
darkness deepens until the night is black around us. In such conditions Jesus
wanted His church to be the salt of this earth and the light of this world. But
the salt has largely lost its savour and the light its brightness. Corruption
and darkness have found their way into the very household of faith. And because
the Pharisaic leaven of hypocrisy has penetrated so deeply into the church it
is neither aware of, nor willing to face its true condition. Only those who
have quickened ears can hear the Spirit of God speaking, calling even today for
a re-evaluation of existing priorities.
In this great
darkness the only light that you and I are offered is to be found in the Bible.
Let us turn to it then, and seek to discover for ourselves what the prior
claims upon the Christian really are. What we read there may at first hurt and
even offend us, for the Bible penetrates behind our disguises. But let us take
courage from the wise remarks of a twentieth century servant of God: " The
words of Jesus hurt and offend until there is nothing left to hurt or offend
(cf. Matt. 11:6). If we have never been hurt by a statement of Jesus, it is
questionable whether we have ever really heard Him speak. Jesus Christ has no
tenderness whatever towards anything that is ultimately going to ruin a man for
the service of God. If the Spirit of God brings to our mind a word of the Lord
that hurts, we may be perfectly certain there is something He wants to hurt,
even to death." (Oswald Chambers in So Send I You).
" Thou
sayest...I have need of nothing; but knowest not that thou art...blind; I
counsel thee...to anoint thine eyes with eyesalve that thou mayest see...He
that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches "
(Rev. 3:17-22).
“Open my ears that I may hear
Voices of truth Thou sendest clear;
And while the wave-notes fall on my ear,
Everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit Divine.”
CHAPTER TWO
ONE THING IS NEEDFUL
"Now it
came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a
certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister
called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was
cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she
help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful
and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath
chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:
38-42).
How striking are
Jesus' words to Martha in verse 42: "One thing is needful!"
There may be plenty of good things to be done and many indeed that may justly
be considered essential. But, Jesus affirmed, one thing above all others was
needful. What was that one thing?
Jesus and His
disciples had just arrived at Bethany. As soon as Martha saw them, she joyfully
received them into her house, made them sit down and straightway hurried into
the kitchen to prepare some food. Meanwhile Jesus began to preach to those
present. When Martha discovered that her sister Mary had settled down to listen
to His words instead of coming to her help, she rushed out of the kitchen with
anger, and turning to Jesus, appealed to Him in words more or less as follows:
"Lord, here I am toiling in the kitchen preparing a meal for you all, and
my sister just sits here doing nothing. Tell her to get up and help me!"
To her surprise, however, it was Martha herself whom Jesus rebuked. She and not
Mary, He told her, was the one who was at fault.
Now let us note
this, that it was not for anything sinful which Martha had one that she was
thus addressed. She had joyfully received Jesus into her home. The work that
she then did in the kitchen was not for herself, but for Him and for His
disciples. She is a picture of a believer today, who has received the Lord into
her heart and who is unselfishly seeking to serve the Lord and others. Yet
despite her zeal she was rebuked by Jesus. What, we ask ourselves, is the point
of this? What was wrong with her action? And the answer, surely, lies in those
four words of Jesus: "One thing is needful." Martha was not rebuked
for her service, but for not putting first things first.
Mary, the Lord
said, had chosen the good part. What was that? She simply sat at Jesus' feet
and heard His Word. Nothing more. But that is the good part. That is the one
thing needful above all other things. How much place does listening have in our
lives? How much time do we spend sitting at the feet of the Lord, reading His
word and seeking to hear Him speak to us through it? Not very much perhaps.
Other things crowd it out, so that we often find ourselves guilty of the same
mistake that Martha made. It may not be mundane affairs alone that keep us
pre-occupied. It may be Christian service too. We may take active part in
meetings for prayer or worship or witness, and yet find that the Lord is rebuking
us as He did Martha.
"Mary hath
chosen that good part." This is Jesus' own valuation of His words to her,
and by inference, of all that today comes to us as God's Word of life. Our
first theme, then, is that good thing - the Word of God as given to us in the
Bible. We shall look at this from three standpoints. We shall consider first
the authority of the Bible, then the importance of hearing God's Word, and
finally, the effect that the Word of God can have upon our lives.
The Authority of the Bible
We have to
consider first the Divine authority of the Bible because this is the foundation
to all else. To proceed further without settling this point would be as
disastrous as proceeding with the construction of a building without laying its
foundation. Only as we are assured of the Bible's authority shall we value and
appreciate it aright.
Many who are
born and brought up in Christian homes have accepted the Bible without question
as the Word of God, simply because they were taught to do so by their parents
or by their church, but they have never cared to establish with certainty in
their own minds the reason for doing so. Thus they carry on happily for a
while, until one day some modernist gives them a dose of his so-called higher
criticism. "The Scriptures," he claims, "are full of
inconsistencies. The authors are not the persons named but much later writers,
often writing with motives that are not above suspicion. It is impossible
therefore to know what Jesus or His disciples really taught. There is insufficient
factual evidence even for the great saving events. Modern man cannot possibly
believe such fables." So he goes on, and very soon their whole faith
begins to crumble. Why? Because it was never properly founded in the
first place. God does not ask us to believe things blindly. Many Christians
give that impression to others, but it is totally wrong. God intends that the
eyes of our heart be enlightened that we may know.
What the Bible
does teach is that our minds are blinded by Satan. As sinners, therefore, we
cannot with our natural minds understand the things of God. We are thus
completely dependent on Divine revelation - on God making known His message to
us. (This He is ever ready to do for the sincere seeker.) Our minds are sinful,
and therefore fallible. We are not perfect in knowledge. So we need not be
surprised if, with our finite and fallible minds, we are unable to grasp some
things in the Bible that are beyond our reason. This does not mean that the
Bible is contrary to reason. It does mean however that, like little children,
we are just on the threshold of Divine things. If our intellects were perfect
and infallible, we would assuredly find ourselves in full agreement with the
Bible. This is proved by the fact that a person who is born again, as he grows
in likeness to Christ, finds himself growing correspondingly in his
understanding of the Bible and agreement with it. But if instead of
acknowledging our limitations we give rein to our critical faculties, we shall
stumble. If we found our faith only upon what appears reasonable to our
fallible intellects, one day we shall find that we have built on sand.
Why do we
believe the Bible to be the Word of God?
Firstly, because of the
testimony of Jesus Christ. In the Gospels we find Him constantly quoting the
Old Testament scriptures as an authority. At the outset of His ministry in Luke
chapter 4, we find Him quoting the book of Deuteronomy in effective answer to
Satan's temptations. Jesus began His ministry with the words, "It is
written," a straight assertion of the authority of Scripture. After His
resurrection, in Luke chapter 24, we once more find Him expounding the
Scriptures, first to two disciples walking to Emmaus, then shortly afterwards
to the eleven in the upper room. And again and again throughout the
three-and-a-half years that lay between these incidents we hear Him quote the
Hebrew Scriptures as the authoritative Word of God. And remember, these Jewish
Scriptures are the very same Old Testament that we have with us today. In the brief
record of the four Gospels, Jesus made at least fifty-seven quotations from and
allusions to the Old Testament. Since this was evidently His custom, there must
surely have been countless more such instances which the New Testament does not
record in detail.
What is
abundantly clear is that the Lord entertained no doubt at all about the
authority of the Old Testament. It was, in fact, the only written authority
that He accepted on earth. When answering the Pharisees and the Sadducees of
His day, He always quoted Scripture." It is written "was His ground
of appeal. Whereas many of today's preachers quote theologians, philosophers,
psychologists - and even secular writers, the Lord Jesus never cared to quote
the opinions of others. His only authority was the Old Testament. If we accept
His testimony at all, it necessitates our accepting the Bible as God's Word
also. Those who reject the Bible reject the testimony of Jesus Himself.
Secondly, we accept the
Bible as God's infallible Word because so large a number of detailed prophecies
contained in it have been fulfilled. One-third of the Bible is prophecy.
Prophecies concerning the birth, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus were
made in the Old Testament hundreds of years before He came to earth, and these
were literally fulfilled when He came Prophecies concerning many of the leading
nations of Old Testament times, and especially concerning Israel, have been
fulfilled to the very letter. In our own life-time the Jews have returned to
their homeland in Palestine and taken possession of the city of Jerusalem. Yet
these events were foretold 2,500 years ago.
Another proof of the Bible's
Divine inspiration is the remarkably unity that is found in its sixty-six
books. They were written in three different languages over a period of 1,600
years by some forty different authors of varying standards of education and the
widest range of social and cultural backgrounds - kings, shepherds, military
leaders, seers, Pharisees and fishermen. Yet even so there is a marvelous unity
throughout this whole library of writings, and not a single fundamental
contradiction. Apparent contradictions here and there are of a trivial nature,
to be explained by errors in copying of the text. Fundamental moral and ethical
contradictions there are none. Many of the historical statements in the Bible
have been questioned, but have been confirmed on further research. It
scientific statements (though few, because it is not a text-book of science)
are all true to the established facts of the physical world. Though written at
a time when man's scientific knowledge was extremely faulty, it contains none
of the crude fallacies that were believed by men in those and even much later
times. Science is constantly changing its views and rewriting its books, but
the Bible needs no such revision.
The fact that
the Bible has stood through the centuries triumphant over every attack upon it
by its foes is yet another proof of its Divine inspiration. There is no
book in the world that has been attacked so vigorously as the Bible. Yet it has
gloriously survived the criticism of its friends and the hostility of its
enemies. The French infidel Voltaire once said that in a hundred years there
would be no Bible. They were "famous last words" indeed, for
ironically enough, after his death, the Bible Society opened its office in the
very house in which he had lived! Thus has God vindicated His Word. Infidels
may come and go, but the Bible goes on from strength to strength. No other book
has been so loved and respected and treasured by men and women the world over.
It remains the world's best-seller.
Then again, we believe
that the Bible is God's inspired Word because of the accepted fact that
countless lives have been transformed by it, sometimes indeed by just one verse
from its pages. Passages of Scripture which no one would imagine could have
such an effect have been used by God to convert people and bring them to
salvation. Wicked men and women have been transformed overnight into saints of
God through the reading of some passage or other in this marvelous Book. This
has happened even in vernacular versions where the translation has been so poor
as to make such a result highly improbable. God does indeed speak through this
Book to effect moral changes in human lives.
A sixth proof
of the inspiration of the Bible is its inexhaustibility. Through the
centuries many brilliant men with the keenest intellects have spent their
lifetimes studying it. Yet even so its depths have not been fathomed. Like a
bottomless mine, the Book continues to yield new treasures, speaking to men in
ever fresh ways. Moreover, its message has such a sublime simplicity that even
a child can grasp it. Time cannot out-date it; it is time-less. If only we have
the humility to consult it, we will find the answer to all our problems in this
wonderful Book. That could never have been possible were it merely a human
writing; but being divinely inspired it contains the inexhaustible wisdom of
the infinite God. Man therefore can ever draw from it according to his need.
Finally, the greatest
proof of its inspiration is that, as we read it in humility before God, He
speaks to us through it. Hearing its words we become growingly convinced that
they are the voice of God. Scripture's great themes, such as the doctrines of
the Trinity and of the atonement, could never have been invented by men. They
could only have been known through the Spirit's inspiration. They are in a true
sense God-given. We discover, too, an amazing design in the content and message
of every book in the Bible, especially when it is viewed as a mirror reflecting
the Lord Jesus Himself. The title of an old commentary, Christ in All the
Scriptures, aptly describes what students of the Bible have constantly
found, that the entire Scriptures "hang together" in wonderful detail
to form an ever more convincing pattern when He is the goal of their study.
We are living in
days in which the authority of the Bible is being widely questioned. Paul
warned the Corinthian believers of the possibility of Satan corrupting their
minds in just the same way as he corrupted Eve's (2 Cor. 11:1-3). When the
Devil came to Eve, he began with the question, "Hath God said?" He
has been asking men the same old question ever since, "Is this really God's
Word?." This has been one of his most successful devices to turn men away
from the faith. The Holy Spirit warns us emphatically that there will be an
increase of deception in the last days, due to an influx of deceiving spirits
into the world (1 Tim. 4:1). The statement that "some shall depart from
the faith" seems to indicate that this verse is describing not pagans but
Christians. The Lord Jesus referred to this possibility of deception three
times in Matthew 24 (verses 5, 11, 24) while speaking about the last days. The
Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 also speaks of a " a falling away
" prior to the day of the Lord. This defection is obviously due to
Christians being lured away by some subtle deceit of Satan. These warnings are
serious. If in spite of them we still remain unwatchful, we shall most
certainly find ourselves deceived.
How does a man
seek to deceive you? If he wants to cheat you of one hundred rupees by passing
a counterfeit currency note, he will ensure that the counterfeit note is as
close as possible in appearance to the real thing. Only so will he hope to
trick you. And Satan is no less subtle. His most powerful tool with which to
deceive the unsuspecting Christian will be a "Christian" preacher -
one who preaches with the Bible supposedly as his basis but who has not bowed
his knee to its authority. Watch him! On closer inspection the things he
preaches either are not found in the Bible at all, or they give a slanted and
unbalanced presentation of Biblical truth.
The safeguard
against all such deception is the Bible itself. If we do not know our Bibles
well, we shall surely fall a prey to such deception. Unless we make the Bible
our final authority in all matters relating to our faith, we shall be tossed
about hither and thither until that faith itself is lost.
The Lord Jesus
condemned the Pharisees and scribes for rejecting the Old Testament and
replacing it with their own traditions (Mark 7:5-13). Their long-standing
rejection of the written Word of God led finally to their rejection of
the living Word when He came into their midst. The spiritual descendants
of those scribes and Pharisees are found in our own generation. And many are
being deceived by them. How watchful we need to be.
We are told by
the psalmist that God has magnified His Word above all His Name (Psalm 138:2).
To reject or ignore it therefore, or to treat it lightly, is to invite
immeasurable loss. But to reverence it is to discover a door into untold
riches.
The Importance of Hearing God's Word
The overwhelming
necessity of spending time each day with God's Word is implied clearly in the
words of Jesus to Martha, with which we opened this chapter. There are many
other things which may help us and which may prove useful, but this one thing
above all others is absolutely essential. We can no more do without it than our
physical bodies can do without oxygen. It is quite indispensable. The supreme
essential for our spirits is indeed just this - to sit at the Lord's feet daily
to hear His Word.
The Lord Jesus
knew, better than anyone else, all the factors that affect a man's life. He
knew every possible situation that any man could ever find himself in. He knew
the dangers that lay ahead of every man and He knew all the wiles of Satan. He
knew what was necessary for man's spiritual growth, for He alone knew the
relative importance and unimportance of things. Knowing all this, He said that
one thing was needful above all else. He used similar words in Luke 4:4.
"Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God." This is
a quotation from Deuteronomy 8:3, where reference is made to the manna with
which God fed the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness. The Israelites
were told there that God's purpose in giving them the manna daily from heaven
was that they might, in like manner, learn to receive God's Word. If they were
to be strengthened for their wilderness journey those Israelites needed the
manna daily. Even so does man require to receive the Word of God daily,
if he is to be empowered to face the trials of life.
Jesus never made
these statements lightly. He was seeking to impress upon His disciples the
absolute necessity of hearing His Word daily. If that is true, then it
follows that a life that is lived without time given to meditation on God's
written Word is a wasted life, no matter what else it may have achieved.
In Luke
17:26-30, Jesus tells us that the last days will be like the days of Noah and
of Lot, in which people ate, drank, bought, sold, planted, built, and so on.
Have you noticed that none of these things are sinful in themselves? They are
all legitimate activities. Why then did Jesus mention them as being peculiarly
characteristic of those sinful days? Because the people of those days were so
occupied with these legitimate activities as to have no time for God at all.
The Devil succeeded in getting them to crowd God out of their lives altogether.
This of course resulted, as it always will, in moral decay and corruption.
Compare this
state of affairs with what we see in the world today and we shall find an exact
similarity of attitude and of consequent result. Men and women are too busy to
have any time to listen to God. Look into your own life and see if this is not
true. The spirit of the world has crept into the very heart of the believer.
Even though science has invented many time-saving devices which our forefathers
did not possess, yet man finds himself rushed for time. Today we can travel by
car, train or aeroplane where they had to travel on animals or on their own two
feet. Our ancestors had to spend much longer doing the daily household chores
which today are done for us by gadgets and machines. Yet many of them found
much more time for God than most people find today. Why? Because they had their
priorities right. They put first things first.
If we are to be
effective witnesses for our Lord, it is imperative that we spend time each day
at His feet listening to His voice. There are many today who are ambitious to
preach, who have never developed this habit of listening to God's voice daily.
The result is a sad paucity of "the word of the Lord" and a
sickening abundance of man's words. Of how very few of today's preachers can it
be said that" the word of the Lord is with him" (2 Kings 3:12). Yet
this was the distinguishing mark of every true servant of God in the Bible. No
man has the right to speak to other men about God, who has not first spent time
listening to what God Himself says - and this refers to private witnessing as
well as to public preaching. It is written of Moses that he went in before the Lord
and then "came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which he
was commanded" (Exod. 34:34). Joshua was told that his life would be a
success only if he meditated on God's Word daily (Josh. 1:8). Samuel is another
classic example of one who patiently waited to hear God speak, and then spoke
to the people. The result was that the Lord “allowed no single word of his
to fall to the ground” (1 Sam. 3:19).
In a prophetic
reference to the Lord Jesus in Isaiah 50:4, it is said of Him that
morning by morning God spoke to Him, for His ears were disciplined to hear His
Father's voice. The result was, as the same verse tells us, that Jesus had a
ready word for all who came to Him, according to their need. He was truly the
Father's perfect mouthpiece. If this habit of listening to God's voice daily
was necessary for Jesus Himself, then how much more is it so for us. We shall
never be able to minister adequately to those in need if we fail here. It is
only when we learn to "hear as a disciple" that we shall have "the
tongue of a disciple." Unfortunately, many who should have been
teaching others by now are still spiritual babes, because they have either
ignored or neglected this "one thing."
Listening to the
Lord does not mean merely reading the Bible. There are many who read their
Bibles purely as a matter of routine. Listening to the Lord means more than
that. It means meditating on His Word until we receive, through it, His message
for us. Thus alone can our minds be renewed and conformed growingly to the mind
of Christ. But many who read their Bibles have never yet learned thus to
meditate.
There are at
least three spiritual truths to be learnt from Mary's sitting at the feet of
Jesus.
Sitting - unlike
walking, running, or even standing - is primarily a picture of rest.
This teaches us that our hearts must be at rest and our minds still, before we
can hear God speaking to us. Unconfessed sin will preclude the former, while
over-occupation with the cares and riches of this world will stand in the way
of the latter. With a conscience ill at ease or a mind filled with anxiety or
fear, how can we hope to hear God's "still small voice?" Psalm
46:10 tells us that we must be still if we are to know God.
Sitting at a
person's feet is also a picture of humility. Mary was not sitting on a
chair on the same level as Jesus, but on a lower level. God never speaks to a
proud man, except in judgment. But He is ever ready to speak and to offer His
grace to the humble soul who will be as a child before Him (Matt. 11:25).
Thirdly, sitting
as Mary did is a picture of subjection. It is the attitude of a disciple
in the presence of his Master. Our subjection is manifested in obedience to
God’s Word. God has not spoken in his Word to satisfy our curiosity or to give
us information. His Word is an expression of His heart's desire. He speaks in
order that we may obey. Jesus made it clear in John 7:17 that it is only
if we are willing to do God's will that we shall receive an understanding of
that will.
Many Christians
go through months and years of reading the Bible without seeking to hear God
speaking to them through it. Still they seem to be quite satisfied. I ask you,
Do you hear the Lord's voice each day? If not, what is the cause? He speaks to
those who listen. What is it that is stopping your spirit's ears? Is it lack of
stillness before Him, lack of humility of spirit, or lack of obedience to what
He has already said to you? Or is it perhaps a lack of desire itself? Whatever
it be, God grant that it may be remedied at once and permanently. Pray Samuel's
prayer, "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth." Then open your Bible
and seek the face of the Lord earnestly, and you too shall hear His voice.
The Effect of the Word of God
We shall never
fully appreciate the importance of sitting at the Lord's feet daily to listen
to His Word, until we understand the effect that it will have upon our lives. A
man who is given a medicine by a doctor, but who is skeptical or unsure of what
that medicine will do for him, may not, as a result, care to take it regularly.
He is not likely to feel that he has lost anything when he neglects to take it.
But if, on the other hand, that man is made to understand what a marvelous cure
the medicine will work in his body and the tremendous improvement that it will
bring to his health, then whatever it costs him to take it regularly, it is
very unlikely that he will forget to do so.
In very much the
same way, we find thousands of Christians who never have a regular devotional
time with God and His Word, yet who still do not feel that they have missed
anything. Search your own life. If you miss a quiet time with God one day, do
you feel a sense of regret at having lost something valuable, or do you feel
that you have not lost much? How does it come about that so many children of
God never have a quiet time with God daily and yet remain so complacent about
it? It can only be because they have not fully appreciated the creative effect
that God's Word has upon a person's life. For as we shall see, it is more than
a medicine; it is food. They have not realized how much they are losing by not
subjecting themselves to its transforming power.
In order to
understanding something of the effect that the Word of God has upon a man, we
shall consider nine Biblical symbols by which it describes itself or is
described.
First of all, we shall look
at Psalm 119:105, where the Word is likened to light. "Thy Word
is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." When we walk through
unknown terrain in the dark, we use a light in order to see our way. That is a
picture of what the Bible does for us in a world that lies in the pitch
darkness of sin. It shows us the path to God. We can know nothing of God's way
of salvation apart from the Bible.
Further, the
Bible gives light to the Christian on the pathway of right doctrine, showing up
at the same time the pitfalls of false teaching alongside the road, so that he
may not fall into them. Without that light, he would never know what was false
and what was true. The Holy Spirit commended the believers at Berea, because
they did not receive even what the apostle Paul preached in them until they had
themselves checked it with the Scriptures (Acts 17:11). Only then did they
accept his message. (Was it because of this attitude to the preachers who came
to them that Paul had no need to send an epistle to the Bereans correcting
false doctrine, as he did to so many of the other churches?) People who search
the Scriptures diligently are not easily lured into false doctrine. They know
the truth that has made them free.
Unfortunately,
many thousands of Christians today are either too lazy or too pre-occupied to
study the Bible for themselves. Their resultant ignorance of the Scriptures
makes them an easy prey for the Devil's deceptions. Alas, such things as
eloquence, emotionalism and logical presentation of the message are in our day
the criteria by which a preacher is judged. Whether he expounds the Word of God
correctly or not seems to be only of secondary importance. Remember that true
doctrine matters infinitely more than a man's personality or gift of speaking.
The contents of a medicine bottle are more important than its size or shape or
appearance! Do you look for the truth or for eloquent messages? And if it is
indeed the truth you look for, how can you know what the truth is, unless you
know the Bible first?
There is a story
of a man who was told by his priest that the Bible could not be understood by
laymen like him, but who happened to get hold of a New Testament and was saved
as a result of reading it. One day while the book was open in front of him, the
priest dropped in to visit him and asked what he was reading. On his replying
that it was the Bible, the priest protested that he should not read it as it
was not meant for uninstructed laymen.
"But,' said
the man, "I have been saved as a result of reading it. And besides, it
tells me here in 1 Peter 2:2, to desire the sincere milk of the Word that I may
grow."
"Oh,"
said the priest, "but God has appointed us priests as the milkmen to give
you the milk."
"Well,
sir," the man replied, "I had a milkman once who used to bring me
milk every day, but I soon discovered that he was mixing water with the milk.
Then I decided to buy a cow instead. Now the milk I get is pure milk."
Brothers and
sisters, it is only as we study God's Word ourselves that we shall get the pure
milk, the uncorrupted doctrine. For in this sin-darkened earth, the Word of God
is the only light that we have, to walk by. It is also therefore the key to the
problem of guidance. God has marked out a pathway for our lives, but many
Christians complain that they are unable to find it. Often the reason is simply
that they have not spent time regularly in meditation on God's Word. "Thy
word...is a light unto my path." It is God's provision to show us the
road.
Secondly, the Word of
God is likened in James 1:22, 23 to a mirror. We need a mirror to
see whether our faces are dirty or clean and whether our hair is disorderly or
combed. Without one, we cannot tell how we look. If James had been writing his
epistle in the twentieth century, he might perhaps have gone a step further and
used a more modern symbol - the X-ray - to illustrate this effect of
God's Word. An X-ray film shows me the conditions of the interior organs in my
body, which I cannot know otherwise. The Bible does something similar in that
it shows me the condition of my heart before God. It corrects me and reproves
me so that I might be perfect and fully equipped to serve Him (2 Tim. 3:16,
17). Many people today are deceiving themselves about their spiritual
condition, thinking that there is nothing wrong with them. Why? Because they
have never subjected themselves to the X-ray of God's Word.
It is possible
that, even as believers, we may be unaware of sins of which we are guilty
before God. I have often found during times of meditation on the Scriptures
that the Holy Spirit has made me aware of some sin - some selfishness of
motive, perhaps, in my actions - of which I was totally unaware until He made
it known. We need to subject ourselves to a daily examination through the
mirror (or X-ray) of God's Word if we are to avoid spiritual stagnation and
decay. Not a day goes by in our lives without our examining our faces in a
mirror. May not a day go by either without our examining our hearts.
Then, in Jeremiah
23:29, the Word of God is likened to a fire. Fire, in the Bible, is
used as a symbol of that which purifies or burns up. Gold put into the fire is
purified, whereas wood is consumed. The Word of God, similarly, has a purifying
effect upon our lives, eliminating from them what is un-Christlike. It not only
shows us our faults, as we saw above, but it also makes us holy. No man can
ever hope to be holy without spending time every day at the Lord's feet, for
that alone can purge away all the dross from his life. But it is also terribly
true the same fire will burn up the one who rejects the Word (John 12:48). Our
attitude towards God's Word determines whether it will purify or destroy. If we
submit to it, it will purify us. If we ignore or spurn it, then it will surely
consume us.
In the same
verse of Jeremiah 23 we see, fourthly, the Word of God likened to a hammer
- a hammer that breaks the rock into pieces. If you want to make a road on
a mountainside, you have to break up rocks. In these days we use dynamite for
that purpose, whereas in Jeremiah's day they used hammers. The Word of God is
His dynamite, capable of removing huge obstacles out of our way. We all face
trials and problems in our lives - situations in which the mountains have
closed in upon us and it appears as though we have reached a dead-end. Often we
have remained in such situations, discouraged and defeated, not knowing what to
do or where in turn. Our ignorance at such times of the promises that God has
given us in Scripture has prevented us from claiming them. Otherwise, like
dynamite, they would have blasted away the obstacles in our path and taken us
triumphantly through the mountain barrier to the other side. How much we have
missed by not knowing the Word!
Fifthly, in Luke 8:11,
we find the Word of God likened to seed which, when sown into the
ground, produces fruit. 1 Peter 1:23 states that our new birth itself is a
result of that seed sprouting in our hearts. Only as we are fruitful can God be
glorified through our lives. Is there, in your life and service, fruit for the
glory of God? Is it manifest, in your own life first of all, in terms of love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness (meekness),
and self-control? (Gal. 5:22, 23). And then, do you find fruit in your service,
in the shape of sinners turning to the Lord and believers being drawn closer to
Him? If not, perhaps the reason is that you are not regularly receiving the
Word of God into your own heart as seed "having life in itself."
Psalm 1:2, 3 tells us that it is the man who regularly meditates on God's Word,
who alone will be like the fruitful tree, prospering in all that he does.
The Word of God
is also likened to food in Psalm 119:103. The same symbol occurs
again in Jeremiah 15:16 and in 1 Peter 2:2. The prophet Ezekiel and the apostle
John are each shown too in Scripture as" eating" a book (Ezek. 3:1-3;
Rev. 10:9, 10). We have here a picture of men assimilating and digesting the
Word of God. Food gives us strength. Our bodies cannot be built up without it.
A person who is under-nourished will be skinny and weak in his constitution,
and therefore unable to resist disease. He will also be unable to defend
himself if physically assaulted by another. A small push will often be enough
to knock him down. In exactly the same way, one who neglects the Word of God
will be spiritually under-developed, and consequently unable to resist
temptation and to withstand the Devil's onslaughts. Only those who regularly meditate
on God's Word grow into strong virile Christians (1 John 2:14). Mere reading of
the Bible will not make you strong, but meditation upon it allows the Word to
penetrate into the very core of your being and thus to become a part of you,
hidden in your heart (Psa.119:11). Job said that he esteemed the words of God's
mouth more even than his necessary daily food (Job 23:12). By listening to God
daily he built up a tremendous reserve of spiritual strength. This, no doubt,
accounts for the man's remarkable resilience in the face of Satan's fierce
assaults. He did not lose his faith in God, in spite of all the adversity he
faced. His wife, who obviously did not have the same regard for God's Word as
her husband, was ready to curse God as soon as calamity struck. Not so Job. His
example gives us an idea of the tremendous strength that God's Word, if
received daily, can give us to face every trial in life.
Seventhly, in Deuteronomy
32:2, the Word of God is likened to dew. Dew, in the Bible, is a
figure of God's blessing. When God blessed Israel, He gave them the dew and the
rain. When Israel sinned God withheld them, as He did in 1 Kings 17:1. This
symbol teaches therefore that God's blessing comes through His Word upon all
who receive and obey it. Proverbs 10:22 declares that that blessing can enrich
us, making up for all our shortcomings. What an encouragement that is!
More than one
instance in the gospels serves to illustrate this. One day the disciples of
Jesus were confronted with the task of feeding over 5000 people and all the
food they could amass was five loaves and two fishes, the gift of a boy. They
protested that it was totally insufficient, as indeed it was. But then the Lord
blessed that food. As a result, all the people were satisfied and a large amount
remained over. On another occasion we find the disciples toiled all night at
fishing, and caught nothing. Then in the morning they heard Jesus speaking to
them. They obeyed His instructions, and within a few moments the net was full
of fishes. These are two illustrations of the fact that the blessing of the
Lord does indeed make rich. The blessing that comes to us through His Word
makes up for all our lack. You may be lacking in talents and unable to preach
or sing or pray like others, but when the dew of heaven falls on your life,
notwithstanding all your natural limitations, God can still make you a channel
of blessing to thousands. So, wait upon the Lord daily with His Word in front
of you. Do nor rush away from His presence until His dew falls upon your soul.
But dew is more
than blessing. It is also a symbol of freshness. Here is another thing that the
Bible gives us, namely, renewal. Listening to the voice of the Lord day by day
keeps our Christian life continually fresh. It saves us from becoming stale,
with all that that implies of corruption and decay. Mouldy bread will not make
anyone's mouth water. Even so, the staleness displayed by many believers cannot
be expected to draw anyone to Christ. Is your Christian life fresh every day?
It can be so only if you feed daily upon the heavenly manna from beneath the
dewfall (Exod. 16:13-15; compare verse 20).
The Word of God
is further likened to wealth in Psalm 119:162 - or to gold, as in
other passages of Scripture. Money cannot make you truly wealthy. You may
acquire qualifications which give you great earning power and thus may reach a
position where you can earn plenty of money; but that will give you only a
wealth which passes away. Nothing but the Word of God can make you really
wealthy.
A truly wealthy
man lacks nothing. He has enough and to spare. A poor man on the other hand,
has to go around begging from those more fortunate than himself. The Word of
God can make you so wealthy that you will never be at a loss. It will not only
give you enough for your own needs, but will enable you to meet the needs of
others too. There is not a single situation that you can ever face in life for
which the solution is not found somewhere in the Bible. The answer will always
be there in the experience of some Biblical character that parallels your own,
or in some teaching of Scripture. If you know your Bible, you will find in the
time of crisis that the Holy Spirit brings to your remembrance the appropriate
passage and from it gives you His answer.
I have found
this to be true in more than one instance in my own life. When the Lord called
me for His service on the 6th of May 1964, and I sent in my
application requesting that I be permitted to resign my commission in the
Indian Navy, the Naval Headquarters soon replied that they would not release
me. I was really puzzled then, not knowing what to do next. The Lord then
reminded me of the time when Moses had gone to Pharaoh and asked for the
release of the Israelites that they might serve the Lord. Pharaoh rejected that
request outright, but Moses did not give up. He kept going back to Pharaoh
until the Israelites were released. There I had the answer to my problem! So I
applied again for permission to resign, and my application was turned down
again. I applied a third time, stating exactly the same reasons as before. For
many months there was no reply. Finally I was released two years after I had
first applied! This is an example of how God can make us wealthy enough to cope
with every situation - and not only in our own life, but in the lives of others
too who may come to us for help in their hour of need.
Finally, turning
to Ephesians 6:17 we find the Word of God is there called the sword
of the Spirit. The Christian life is a constant battle with a cunning foe, whose
method of attack is often to cast doubt upon God's love, God's justice, even
God Himself. This sword can defeat his every move, provided we know how to use
it. Discouragement is one of the Devil's strongest weapons. With it he has
knocked down many mighty men. Moses, Elijah and Jonah each trembled at its
shock, but each one of these men overcame his own depression by listening to
the Word of the Lord. You and I may be able temporarily to tide over our
discouragement by occupying ourselves in some way that provides a diversion,
but only by the Word of God itself can we ever overcome it completely. Jesus
Himself overcame Satan in the wilderness solely through His use of this Sword.
I remember a
time when I was in the Navy, and our ship had been for more than a month based
at a small port. We had been going out to sea daily for exercises. The pressure
of work on board was intense, and this coupled with the fact that for a
considerable length of time I had no opportunity for Christian fellowship,
brought me one day into a very depressed state of mind. The situation had got
on top of me. As I was sitting alone in my cabin, suddenly this verse flashed
into my mind: "The Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail; and
thou shalt be above only and thou shalt not be beneath" (Deut. 28:13). At
once I saw that the Lord had promised to keep me " on top " in every
situation. Immediately the joy of heaven came surging back into my heart and
there was a song on my lips again. Such is the power of the Word of God to
overcome every attack of the enemy.
The nine symbols
that we have considered above give us a little idea of the effect that the Word
of God can have upon a man. I wonder whether you have now begun to understand
why Jesus said that this one thing was the greatest essential in a believer's
life. Will you take His statement seriously? If so, then settle it right now
that, no matter how necessary and even essential other things may appear to be,
henceforth nothing shall be allowed to rob you of your daily quiet time with
the Lord and with His Word.
The Bible tells
us of days that will come upon this world, in which there will be a famine of
the Word of God (Amos 8:11, 12). There may be many counterfeits in that day -
as we have seen, 1 Timothy 4:1, 2 suggests this - but a famine of the true.
Those days, I believe, are almost upon us, and the famine of the true Word of
God will only increase as the time goes by. Joseph in Egypt laid up corn during
the years of plenty, so that when the famine came which God had predicted,
there was no lack. If we are wise, we shall store up the Word of God in our
hearts today against just such a need. May the Lord imprint this message deeply
upon the hearts of us all.
"Blessed is
the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my
doors." (Prov. 8:34)
“Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
O what words I hear Him say!
Happy place! So near, so precious!
May it find me there each day.
Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
There I love to weep and pray,
While I from His fullness gather,
Grace and comfort every day.”
CHAPTER THREE
ONE THING HAVE I DESIRED
"The
Lord is my light and my salvation:
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked,
even mine enemies and my foes,
Came upon me to eat up my flesh,
they stumbled and fell.
Though an host should encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear:
Though wars should rise against me,
in this will I be confident.
One
thing have I desired 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 enquire in his temple."
(Psalm 27:1-4)
This splendid
psalm was written by one who had attained to the throne of Israel. Yet David
tells us in verse 4 that there was only one thing in all the world that he
desired from the Lord. Kings in those days had two desires chiefly: One was to
extend their territory and the other was to accumulate riches. Israel was not
yet a very big nation, neither was David himself a very wealthy king. Yet his
prayer was not for extension in either of these realms. Even if he were hedged
in by enemies, he states that his primary desire would be to dwell in the
Lord's presence and to behold His beauty (3, 4). And he further adds that he
would seek after this all his life. It is the picture of a lover sitting in the
presence of her beloved, beholding his beauty, and desiring nothing else in the
whole world. There is no need even for conversion - so great is their love for
one another. Those who have experienced such love will know how true a picture
this is.
I believe that
here we have one reason why David is referred to, in the Bible, as a man after
God's own heart. He was not a perfect man. He fell very deeply into sin at one
time in his life, committing both adultery and murder. Yet when he repented God
forgave him, cleansed him and lifted him up from those depths of failure, and
still called him a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22). One reason for this,
as we have just said, was that, deep down in David's heart was an intense love
for his Lord. In 1 Samuel 16:7 God clearly states that He looks at man's heart,
and it is not without significance that these words were in fact spoken in
reference to David. Love for the Lord is thus another of the supreme priorities
in the Christian life.
So love is our
subject and again we shall consider it under three heads. Firstly, we shall see
that Love is the basis of all of God's dealings with man. Then we shall see
that Love is to be the motive of our consecration. Finally, we shall look at
Love as the real test of our spirituality.
Love - The Basis of All God's Dealings with Man
Just as, in our
first chapter, we started by considering the foundation of our faith, so here
too it must be plain that we need a solid foundation for our love for the Lord.
That foundation is, and can be nothing other than, His own unchanging love for
us. "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Many
Christians experience difficulties later on in their lives, because they were
never clear on this point initially. Right at the start of our Christian life
we need to get this foundation strongly laid. Only so can we proceed further.
When God created
this earth, and put man upon it, His intention was that everything in it should
live and move in an atmosphere of love. Even the obedience that He sought from
man was not the obedience of slavery but of love. Since there can be no love in
the true sense of that word where there is no freedom of choice, God endowed
Adam with a will that was free to choose, even though it involved the great
risk of a wrong choice - of man disobeying Him. At any cost God would have a
relationship with man that was free. He never wanted slavish service from man.
He did not want it then, and He does not want it today.
Right through
the Bible we see this picture of love governing all God's dealings with mankind.
In this connection, let us look at the first two references to the word
"love" in the Bible. The first mention of any subject in the Bible is
always a great help in studying that that subject, and we may expect therefore
to find much profit as we look into these two passages.
The first
mention of love is in Genesis 22:2 where Isaac is called Abraham's only son
whom he loves. The offering of Isaac on the altar that follows later on in the
chapter is a clear picture of Calvary where God the Father gave His only Son as
an offering for our sins. Accordingly the love referred to in verse 2 is a
picture of God the Father's love for Christ. The second mention of the word
" love " in the Bible is in Genesis 24:67 which tells of Isaac's love
for Rebekah - a husband's love for his wife. Here we have a clear picture, as
the rest of the chapter also beautifully shows, of the love of Christ for His
church. In the New Testament these two concepts are brought together by the
Lord in John 15:9 - "As the Father
hath loved me (with the love of a father for a son depicted in Genesis 22:2) so
have I loved you" (with the love of Christ for the sinner that finds its
parallel in the love of a bridegroom for a bride illustrated in Genesis 24:67).
Thus even in the typology in the Old Testament, this thought of God's intense
love for man is reflected.
Let us therefore
look at Genesis 24 and, in this faint picture provided by the relationship
between Isaac and Rebekah, see some of the characteristics of the Lord's great
love for us. When God seeks to show us how greatly He loves us, it is very
significant that He uses the husband-wife relationship as an example. The union
between husband and wife is the most intimate of all earthly relationships.
While it would be unwise to carry the parallel too far, the Divine choice of
this illustration, confirmed as it is by such New Testament passages as
Ephesians 5:21-23, serves clearly to underline the very personal intimacy that
the Lord desires to have with each one of us, and that He desires that we
should have with Him. In Genesis 24, we may see a kind of allegory of the
Divine search for such a relationship with man. There Abraham may be seen as a
figure or type of God the Father, Abraham's servant as a type of the Holy
Spirit and Isaac as a type of God the Son, while Rebekah takes her place as a
type of alien, unredeemed man in the far country whom the Holy Spirit seeks to
win to Christ. In the attitude of Abraham's servant (who on this mission was
representing both Abraham and Isaac) and the attitude of Isaac towards Rebekah,
we may discern characteristics of the love of Christ for us.
First of all, we
see in verses 22 and 53 that Abraham's servant gives gifts to Rebekah out of
the riches of his master. This gives us an insight into the heart of God. When
He comes to us, He does not come demanding, but giving. As a good husband will
want to share all he has with his wife, so does the Lord desire to share all He
has with us. Many of us have the idea that if we surrender ourselves fully to
the Lord, He will make so many demands upon us that our lives will become
miserable. Even though we may not say so in as many words, yet this is the
reason why we shrink from an unconditional surrender to the Lord. Yet Jesus has
clearly told us that the real thief who comes to take away what we have is the
Devil (John 10:10). But how few believe this. If we really believed that the
Lord Jesus has come to give us all that He has, there would be no reserve at
all in the surrender of our lives to Him.
A story is told
of a pastor who once went to visit a poor old lady in order to bring her a gift
with which to pay her rent. He went to her house and knocked at the door, and
waited, and knocked again. But there was no response, and so at length he went
away. A few days later he met her on the street. "I called on you the
other day with a present," he told her, "but found the door bolted
and could get no answer." "Oh," said the old lady, "I am
sorry. I was inside, but I thought it was the landlord who had come to collect
the rent. So I didn't open the door." Brothers and sisters, the Lord
Jesus has not come to collect the rent! He has come to give us all that He
possesses. He wants to bring us wealth unimaginable. How foolish it is not to
open the door to Him. How foolish it is not to surrender our lives to Him
utterly.
Look again at
Abraham's servant. Another feature of the story is that, even knowing she was
God's choice for Isaac, this man did not compel Rebekah to go with him. He
respected her free will, and only when she herself was willing did he take her
(verses 54-59). That too is characteristic of the love of Christ for us, as we
saw briefly at the outset of this chapter. God respects man's freedom of
choice. The love of God is without compulsion. He will never force you to do
anything. Men in the world - yes, and even Christian leaders - may exert
pressure upon you to do many things against your will, but God - never. (And in
passing, may I say that any man who seeks to be like God will follow Him in this.)
The Lord will never force you to read your Bible, or to pray, or to witness for
Him. God never forces any sinner to turn to Him, neither will he force any
believer to obey Him. In His instructions to Moses about the Tabernacle, God
told him to receive offerings only from those who gave them willingly (Exod.
25:2), and this principle recurs in the New Testament (2 Cor. 9:7). Indeed it
runs through the entire Bible. God does command obedience to Him, but He never
forces anyone to obey. He will always respect the free will that He Himself has
given to man. What need is there, then, for you and me to be afraid of a love
like this?
When Rebekah
finally arrived at Isaac's home, Isaac himself was out in the fields praying
(verse 63 mg.) The journey that Abraham's servant had made to fetch Rebekah had
been a long one, about 600 miles each way, and he must have been away for
around two months. As the time drew near for his return, Isaac would have been
waiting with rising expectancy, wondering when his bride would arrive. Each day
he would have looked eagerly out through the tent door for the awaited caravan;
each day he would have gone out into the fields and prayed to God that she
might come soon. Then one day he saw the camels coming. What joy must have
filled his heart! Ah, but this is only a faint picture of the eagerness with
which our beloved Lord now awaits us in heaven. This is an amazing fact but a
true one, that even though we are so sinful and defiled and often rebellious
too, yet so great is the love of the Lord, that in heaven He is waiting for us
with longing expectation. There may be eager desire in our hearts to meet Him,
but far, far greater is His desire to receive us and to share with us His
glory. Even though God is completely self-sufficient, yet His self-chosen
longing to dwell with mankind is another theme that runs right through the
Bible. How grieved He must be when men doubt His love, in spite of all the
proofs He has given of its reality and its greatness.
Right through
the history of the nation of Israel God sought to impress upon them the
enduring nature of His love. He loved them with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3;
Deut. 4:37). He told them that the response that He sought was their love in
return (Deut. 6:5). But they were just like us. They constantly doubted His
love. And yet God kept on loving them. When they complained that He had
forgotten them, He replied in those tender words of Isaiah 49:15: "Can a
woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb? Yea, they may forget yet will I not forget thee." A mother
may not think of her grown-up children all the time; but if she has a child on
her breast, there is hardly a moment of her waking hours when her thoughts will
not be upon that child. When she goes to sleep at night, her last thought is
about that baby sleeping beside her. If she wakes in the middle of the night
she looks at her child again, to see if all is well. When she finally wakes up
in the morning, her first thought is again about her sucking child. Such is a
mother's care for her little one. Even so, God says, does He care for His own.
The book of Hosea
also stresses this. The painful experience that Hosea went through in his
own personal life was a parable of God's attitude to Israel. His love, it tells
us, endures as does that of a faithful husband to an unfaithful wife. The Lord
has also placed the Song of Solomon in the Bible to picture this great
truth of the faithfulness of the divine Lover to His wayward bride.
Our faith needs
to be founded firmly upon this fact - that all of God's dealings with us are
based upon His love. The words "He will rest in his love " in
Zephaniah 3:17, have been translated: "He is silently planning for you
in love." Do we realize that every single thing that God allows to
enter into our lives comes from a heart that is planning for us in love? Every
trial and problem that has come into your life and mine has been planned for
our ultimate good. When He ruins our plans, it is in order to save us from missing
His best. We may not be able to understand it all fully on earth. But if we
recognize that there are no second causes, and that everything comes from the
hands of a loving God, it would take away all the worries and fears and hard
thoughts that normally plague us. It is because believers are not firmly
established upon this truth that these anxieties and cares arise in their
minds, and they remain strangers to the "peace of God that passeth
understanding" and the "joy unspeakable and full of glory" of
which the Bible speaks.
The ministry of
the Lord Jesus Christ was very often a corrective to the false conceptions that
even religious people of His day, well read in the Old Testament scriptures,
nevertheless had about their God. Everything about Jesus, His healing the sick,
His comforting words to the sorrowing, His loving invitation to those burdened
with sin, His patience with His disciples and finally His death on the Cross,
all showed the loving nature of the heart of God. How often He impressed upon
His disciples that their heavenly Father loved them and cared for their every
need. How often Jesus rebuked them for doubting their Father. If earthly
fathers knew how to provide for their children, how much more would their
loving heavenly Father provide for them (Matt. 7:9-11). The parable of the
prodigal son was also intended to show them God's great forgiving love towards
his wayward, rebellious children. By irresistible logic, by parable and by
personal example Jesus sought to correct the erroneous views that His
generation had about God. In His final prayer before He went to the cross, He
prayed that the world may know of God's love (John 17:23). May God imprint
deeply and eternally upon our hearts these assurances from His Word of the
truth of His infinite and unchanging love for us, for faith in God can grow on
no other soil but this.
Love - The Motive of Our Consecration
In all our
service for the Lord it is the motive underlying that service that matters. At
the judgement seat of Christ the important question will not be "What did
you do?" so much as "Why did you do it?" It is not the number of
hours that we spend in reading our Bibles or in prayer, or the number of tracts
we distribute, or the number of souls that we witness to, that are first in
importance, but the motive with which all these are done. It is possible to be
keenly engaged in all these spiritual activities and yet to do them all with a
motive that is wholly selfish, or on the other hand that is merely legalistic.
Examples of these two ways of serving the Lord can be seen in the parable of
the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). The younger son had motives that were
selfish; the elder son had a legalistic spirit. Let us consider them briefly.
One day the
younger son came to his father and asked for his share of the property. And
just as we have been seeing that God's nature is to give lavishly, even so the
father in this parable readily gave to the son. But as soon as the younger son
had received all that he wanted, he left his father and set out for a far
country, thus clearly showing that he was motivated not by love for his father
at all but solely by what he could get out of him. Many Christian believers are
like that. They come to God only for what they can get. Personal gain and blessing
are the driving motives of their religion. In heathen religions generally these
are of course the motives. It does not surprise us that the heathen give alms,
or go on long pilgrimages, in order to get some personal benefit from their
god. But alas this attitude is found among Christians too. It is possibly true
that ninety percent of all believers have accepted Christ, if no longer for
material gain (as was once the case here in India), then from a desire to
exchange the horrors of hell for the comforts of heaven. This may not be
altogether a bad thing, but it suggests that from the very beginning of our
Christian lives, we come to God impelled by the selfish motive of personal
profit. Search your own heart, my brother, my sister, and see if this is not
true.
Now as I have
said, this would not be so bad if only, in the process of maturing spiritually,
we came to recognise our selfish motives in coming to the Lord, and corrected
our attitude accordingly. But unfortunately this is not often so, and many believers
live their entire lives on this plane of personal profit. It is because they
are always seeking to get from God instead of seeking to give to
Him, that they have so many problems in their lives and so little joy in their
service. Why do we read our Bibles? Very often we do so solely in order to get
a blessing for ourselves. Sometimes, perhaps to gain a reputation as a Bible
scholar. How very seldom do we read it in order to know the will of God and to
do it, so that God may be glorified through our lives. Why do we pray? So
often, it is just to secure some special blessing for ourselves. How seldom do
believers pray in order that the Lord's work may progress on earth for His
glory. We may even fast and pray. But have we ever stopped to consider the
motive with which we do it? Often it could be to obtain something that we
desire greatly. Ah yes, it may be something spiritual that we desire - perhaps
that we may be filled with the Holy Spirit. But the motive could still be
selfish - that we may be greatly used of God, and not that His work may
prosper, no matter whom He uses. Selfishness is still selfishness, even when it
is a good thing that we are seeking.
Do you sing?
There are musically gifted believers who perform solos. But how many of them
can honestly say that it is the Lord's glory alone that they seek, and not some
glory for themselves as well.
Or, let us
consider meetings where the Word of God is expounded. Have we not often heard
believers saying, "We got a blessing there?" "We" -
the emphasis is still on their having received something from God at
that meeting. Whether God was glorified or not becomes of relatively lesser
importance. By and large, most believers only go where they can receive
something. Thus they remain spiritual babes, nay spiritual beggars, all their
lives, for even what they consider to be their most spiritual activities are
leavened by the sin of selfishness. The tragedy depicted in 1 Corinthians
3:12-15 of having all our work for God burnt up will be the direct consequence
of having done that work with selfish motives. True repentance involves turning
from a self-centred existence to a God-centred one.
The elder son in
the parable is generally considered the better of the two. Examine his attitude
however and we will find that he was just as much as fault as his brother. When
the younger son returned, the father rejoiced along with his whole household.
The elder son however proved unable, out of sheer jealousy, to share in that
joy. He was so angry at such honour being bestowed on his wastrel brother that
he would not even enter the house. His reply to his father's entreaties exposes
the spirit in which he had been serving him hitherto. "All these years I
have served you and not once have I disobeyed. Yet you have never given me
anything like this." His service for his father, instead of being joyful
and loving, was calculating and legalistic, like that of a servant who serves
his master for wages. Thus, as so many of us do, he compared his lot with that
of others and discovered plenty of ground for complaint. They were being
blessed more than they deserved, while he who deserved the blessings received
none.
Do you serve the
Lord like that? Do you read your Bible and pray as a legal duty imposed upon
you and one that you dare not transgress? If it is just to satisfy your
conscience that you have a daily quiet time with the Bible, then that quiet
time is a ritual. No wonder so many believers experience no joy in their Bible
reading or praying or witnessing! No wonder their service for the Lord soon
becomes a strain and a burden, if having been saved through the grace of God
they voluntarily put themselves under the law once again.
Through the
death of Christ we are dead to the law, in order that we might be wedded to the
risen Christ. This is the teaching of Romans 7:1-6. Paul's rather strange
expression there simply means that instead of serving the Lord as a servant
serves his master, legalistically, we are henceforth to serve Him "in
newness of spirit" as a wife serves her husband, out of love. There is a
vast difference between the two. Take a look at the servant first. He works
under rules and regulations, having fixed hours of work and fixed wages. In the
modern world he goes on strike if he considers himself over-worked or
under-paid. Many a child of God unfortunately is serving the Lord like that
today. He goes faithfully through his prescribed rituals. He has a brief daily
quiet time, followed by "intercessions," when he mentions parrot-like
before God the names of a few people in need. In addition to this he attends
one or two, or maybe even three, meetings or services a week. By these means he
hopes to please God enough to ensure that no calamity befalls him or his home,
that all his children pass their examinations and that he gets regular
promotions in his job. He may go further and pride himself on his evangelical
convictions as well. And when, contrary to his expectations, something
unexpected befalls him, he is quick to spell out his complaints before God and
men.
Oh, I agree, it
is better to serve God out of fear than not to serve Him at all. But, brothers
and sisters, there is a higher, a more excellent way - the way of love (1 Cor.
12:31; 13:1). God does not want you and me to carry on our religious activities
out of fear that He may punish us if we neglect them. God wants us to serve Him
as a good wife serves her husband, out of love. She does not serve him for
wages, or only during fixed hours. She does not work according to a code of
rules, nor for reward at all. If her husband is a life-long invalid, she will
still continue to serve and care for him joyfully, at tremendous sacrifice to
herself and without recompense for her labour, just because she loves him. This
is the service God wants from us, because that is the service He has given us
in His Son. Service for God which is motivated by anything less than pure love
for Him is valueless in His sight.
Moreover serving
God for selfish ends or in a legalistic spirit is sheer drudgery. It is like
driving a car with sand in the bearings. How it groans and complains,
protesting vigorously at every least move forward! Yet that, unfortunately, is
a fair description of the lives and service of many of us. But clean out the
sand and lubricate the machinery. How smoothly, noiselessly and quickly the car
moves now! And God wants your Bible-reading and your times spent in prayer to
be like that. He desires that your worship and your witnessing, and every
Christian activity that you carry out, shall spring freely and joyously out of
love for Him.
The attitude of
that great Old Testament saint, Job, affords a striking contrast to that of the
two sons that we have just been considering. In Job we are shown a picture of
the type of service that is acceptable to God. Satan accused Job of serving God
for what he got out of it. Had not God blessed Job and enriched him beyond
measure? Would not any man work to obtain such rewards?
To establish the
true facts therefore God allowed Satan to test Job, stripping him in one blow
of all his material possessions, then of his children, and finally even of his
health. Yet in the face of these catastrophes, Job continued to praise God. The
pressure of the trials did make him doubt God’s care at times. But let us
recall some of his words: "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away,
blessed be the Name of the Lord... What? Shall we receive good at the hand of
God and shall we not receive evil?... Though he slay me, yet will I trust in
him...he also shall be my salvation...I know that my Redeemer liveth... though
worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God...When he hath tried
me, I shall come forth as gold." (Job 1:21; 2:10; 13:15, 16; 19:25-27;
23:10). Having proved that Job's motive in serving Him was a pure one, God
finally blessed him with double what He had given him before. Those who
manifest such a spirit of submission are the ones who get God's best. And
remember, Job was an Old Testament saint. If he could rise to such heights, how
much more should a New Testament one!
A little over
200 years ago, the Moravian missionary movement, a remarkable work of the
Spirit of God, sprang up in what is now Czechoslovakia. It produced some of the
finest Christian missionaries of all time, men of such exceptional devotion to
the Lord as are rarely seen today. Some of these Moravian believers ventured
into Africa with the gospel, and there they came upon a leper colony. They
longed to preach the good news of Christ to those lepers, but were forbidden to
go among them lest coming out they spread the contagion of the disease
elsewhere. So great however was their desire to win those souls for their Lord,
that they thereupon decided to enter the colony for life, willing for His sake
to live and die there. In another instance Moravian brethren heard of an island
in the West Indies which was occupied by a community composed entirely of
slaves. Nobody but a slave was permitted to enter there. The burden to win
these slaves for Christ was nevertheless intense. Casting away their freedom
therefore, they offered themselves as slaves to the master of that island, in
order that they might preach the glorious gospel to those slaves.
Why werr these
men willing to make such a sacrifice? Was it conceivably out of any selfish
motive? Was it done to build up their reputation, as seems to be the purpose of
so much Christian work today? Or was it a legalistic service done to curry
favour with God? No, not at all. Nothing but pure love for Christ led these men
to forsake everything that this world hold dear, in order that from among those
lepers and slaves, they might "win for the Lamb that was slain the
reward of His sufferings.” Those who have accomplished anything of eternal
value on earth are invariably those who served their Lord out of love. It was
love alone that carried Jacob through the fourteen years of service to win
Rachel (Gen. 29:20). His love for her made him forget the strain of toil. Love
for Christ will take you and me also through the hardest service joyfully.
Love - The Real Test of Our Spirituality
For our final
consideration in this chapter, we shall look at our Lord's resurrection
appearance in John 21:15-17. Before the crucifixion Peter had denied the Lord
three times. This was the culmination of three and a half disappointing years
that he had been with the Lord, during which he had proved himself proud,
self-assertive and, prayerless. Yet the Lord, when about to entrust Peter with
the feeding of His sheep, made no reference to any of these weaknesses. He did
not even challenge him to be humble and prayerful in the future and to witness
boldly, facing persecution if need be for the sake of his Lord. No, He did not
ask any such questions, although these are indeed the qualifications we should
look for in a spiritual man, and especially in one who is to be a leader among
God's people. The Lord Jesus knew that one simple question would be sufficient.
If that question found a true response, everything else would automatically
follow. "Lovest thou Me more than everything and everyone else?" Love
for Christ is the real test of any man's spirituality. If a man has attained to
high rank in the church, even maybe that of a bishop we naturally assume that
he must be a spiritual man. It need not necessarily be so. It is the new birth
and a consequent love for Christ that makes a man spiritual. It is possible
today that a bishop of the church may not even have been born again. Possession
of a theological degree - or several - is no guarantee of this either. No, not
even passage through a soundly evangelical seminary will make a man spiritual!
You may be a full-time Christian worker or the pastor of a congregation, but
that does not make you a man of God. All too readily you and I can mistake
regular attendance at meetings, or profound Bible-knowledge, or unabated zeal
for evangelism as the marks of spirituality.
Distinctive
dress and a pious look can deceive us too. But none of them is of any account.
The test of genuine spirituality in God's sight is one thing and one only: the
extent of your love for Him. Ultimately that is something between you and your
Lord alone. He puts the question: "Lovest thou me?" and it is for you
to find the answer.
When Isaac loved
Rebekah, what he looked for in return was not her service but her love. In just
the same way, what the Lord is expecting from us primarily is not our service
but our love. Where there is true love, service will flow spontaneously.
In company with
Abraham's servant Rebekah made a 600 mile journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan.
What do you suppose they talked about together during that journey? If she
really loved Isaac, surely Rebekah would have been enquiring about him all
along the way. She would have put endless questions concerning Isaac to her
companion and guide. With just such a hunger a believer who really loves the
Lord Jesus will read the Bible. Day by day he will invite the Holy Spirit to
reveal to him more and yet more of the beauty of his Lord. This as we saw was
the one thing desired by David (Psa. 27:4).
Down through the
ages there have been men who have followed David in this. Samuel Rutherford,
lying in a dungeon in Aberdeen, cried out, "Oh my Lord, if there were a
broad Hell betwixt me and Thee, if I could not get at Thee except by wading
through it, I would not think twice but I would plunge through it all, if I
might embrace Thee and call Thee mine." Ah, but unfortunately, how few
there are who have such hunger and thirst. May the Lord show us afresh that the
measure of our love for Him is the real measure of our spirituality. And lest
we deceive ourselves, let us remember the yardstick that He Himself provided.
The proof of our love is simply our obedience (John 14:15, 21, 23, 24).
In the last book
of Bible this solemn truth is confirmed. There the Lord rebukes the church at
Ephesus because it had lost sight of the first things (Rev. 2:1-5). In other
respects it was a remarkable church. The Christians there had laboured with
patience, they had hated evil, they had exposed false apostles, they had
persevered and endured for the sake of the Name. Heart and soul they were in
the Lord's work and nothing had made them give up. Yet, in spite of all this
the Lord had something against them. It constituted so serious a lack as to
threaten their very existence as a testimony for Him. They had fallen, He told
them, and if they did not repent, He would withdraw from them His anointing,
the sign of His approval of their testimony. What was this serious lack? It was
just this, that they had grown cold in their love for their Lord. They had not lost
their first love for Him, they had just left it behind and moved
elsewhere. They had become so busy with their meetings and retreats and
conventions (if we may so speak) and other forms of Christian activity that
they had lost sight of the One for whom all these other things existed. Clearly
this shows that the Lord cares more for the devotion of our hearts towards Him
than for all our activity. The Devil, knowing this, will do his utmost to get
us so involved in Christian engagement of one kind and another that we find no
time to spend with our blessed Lord and thus let slip our personal devotedness
to Him.
Jesus warned us
that in the last days sin would so abound in the world that many would become
cold in their love to Him (Matt. 24:12). We are living in those days now. Among
the vast majority of the professed followers of the Lord the spiritual
temperature is below freezing point. Unless we ourselves are constantly
watchful, we shall find that frigid atmosphere penetrating inside us as well.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, even if you lose everything else, do not let
go this one thing - your love for your Lord. Like David, preserve it as the one
thing that you desire with all your hearts and that you will seek all the days
of your life.
"The
greatest...is love. Follow after love." (1 Cor. 13:13, 14:1).
“What language shall I borrow
To thank Thee
dearest Friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow
Thy pity without
end?
O make me Thine forever,
And should I
fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
Outlive my love
for Thee.”
CHAPTER FOUR
ONE THING THOU LACKEST
"And when
he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and
asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And
Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that
is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do
not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and
mother. And he answered and said unto him, All these have I observed from my
youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou
lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up thy cross, and follow me.
And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great
possessions. (Mark 10:17-22).
Here we read of
a wealthy young man who came to the Lord with much eagerness but went away
disappointed. He was an exceptional young man, for he came running to the Lord,
thus showing his eagerness to know the truth, and he kneeled, so displaying his
humility. Moreover his question revealed an interest in the things of eternity
that is rare among young people, and perhaps rarest of all among the youthful
rich. Further, when Jesus spoke to him of the commandments, he could reply
without hesitation that he had kept them all. He had never committed adultery,
never killed, never stolen, never borne false witness, never defrauded anyone
and never dishonoured his father or mother. Since Jesus did not challenge his
statement, we must agree that he was a remarkable young man, honest, upright,
moral, sincere and keen. But Jesus then put His finger on the one thing still
lacking in his life, a thing so important that without it all his other
qualifications were of no avail. He was unwilling, because of attachment to
material possessions, to take up the cross and to follow the Lord.
We are told in
verse 21 that Jesus beholding him, loved him. Jesus looked at this man and saw
the tremendous potential in his young life waiting to be used for the glory of
God - or misused for self and the Devil. And He loved him. Today as the Lord
looks at young people, He looks at them in just the same way. He sees the possibilities
latent in every young life and he also knows how most of these lives are being
wasted on things which will not last eternally. Very many young people today
are dazzled by such things. Like this young man they go away sorrowful. They
are unwilling to pay the price involved in following Jesus, and thus like him
they miss the great privilege of fulfilling through their lives the purpose for
which they were created and redeemed. The sorrow they choose is theirs for
ever.
Many who are
familiar with the invitation given by the Lord to heavy-laden sinners in Matthew
11:28, are ignorant of the very next words of Jesus on that occasion. To
those who heard His call "Come unto Me," He went on to say, "Take
My yoke upon you and learn of Me" (verses 29). This is really
equivalent to Jesus' words elsewhere: "Let him take up his cross daily
and follow Me." But the two statements of Jesus in Matthew 11:28 and
29 were never meant by Him to be separated. He intended all who came to Him to
take up their cross and follow Him, and He expected none to come to Him who was
unwilling to follow. The Lord Jesus never presented men with two alternative
levels of consecration, one for those who only wanted salvation and an entry to
heaven, and another for those who were prepared to take up the cross and follow
Him fully. He presented only one standard before men. All who came to Him for
forgiveness of sins were to pursue His purpose to its fulfillment. Many
Christian preachers present two separate standards, one involving the accepting
of Christ as Saviour and the second the accepting of Him as Lord. But this is,
in Paul's words, “another gospel," and not the gospel of Christ
that the apostles preached (Gal. 1:6-9). Men have separated what God has joined
together and this divorce of the two essential ingredients of the Christian
message is the cause of so much lack of vitality in the Christian church today.
Perhaps few of
us have clearly understood the real implications of bearing the cross. Many of
us speak of the incidental burdens of life as our crosses. Others of us see
crosses in our physical infirmities. Still others use the metaphor to describe
our unruly wives or unloving husbands or disobedient children. I tell you,
these are no more our crosses than are the gold crosses people have around
their necks or the stone crosses on church steeples. None of these is the cross
that Jesus referred to in the words "Let him take up his cross." The
Christian church today has so beautified the cross of Christ as a religious
symbol that most people have a wrong impression of what Jesus really meant.
In the times
when Jesus walked on earth, the cross was an instrument of death. It was a
thing of shame. If you had been living in Jerusalem in those days, and one day
you saw a man carrying a cross down the street, surrounded by Roman soldiers,
you would have had no doubt at all in your mind as to where that man was going.
He was going to the place of execution. He would have said goodbye to his
relatives and friends and was now going along a pathway by which he would never
return. He had said goodbye to the world and was now leaving that world for
ever. Nothing that he possessed in it would he ever see again. And furthermore
he was leaving the world by a most shameful and humiliating exit. The death of
the cross was a death of ignominy. All this was involved in what Jesus meant
when He called men such as this rich young ruler to take up the cross and
follow Him. For to follow means to walk the same road and Jesus was on His way
to Jerusalem to be crucified. Unless we get this picture of the cross in our
minds, we shall never fully understand what Jesus meant when He spoke of the
cross in the believer's life.
But there is one
other thing that we must note here before we proceed further, and that is that
Jesus never compels anyone to carry the cross. We saw in the last chapter that
God always respects man's free will. Jesus said, "IF any man
will come after me, let him take up his cross" (Luke 9:23). There is no
compulsion here at all. He desires our voluntary dedication to the whole
purpose of God.
On another
occasion the Lord Jesus spoke of a corn of wheat falling into the ground and
dying and thus producing much fruit (John 12:24). There again He was alluding
to His forthcoming death on the cross, but the principle of that verse applies
to all who seek to live a spiritually fruitful life. A grain of wheat will
remain a single grain as long as it stays with the other grains in the granary.
If it is to bear fruit it must be separated from all the other grains, and fall
into the ground alone, and there die. Then only will it spring forth in a
triumphant fruitfulness. So our subject in this chapter is our death with
Christ, and once again we shall consider it under three headings. First we
shall see that the cross involves a separation; secondly, that the cross means
death; and thirdly that the cross brings victory and fruitfulness.
The Cross Involves a Separation
On the hill of
Calvary, in the hour when Jesus was crucified, two thieves, condemned with Him,
hung on either side with Jesus in the middle. For the hour of their suffering
they were thus separated, if only physically, by the cross of Jesus. In the
outcome they were eternally separated, one to perdition and the other to be
with Him for ever.
This is a
picture of what the cross of Jesus always does. It separates men who choose the
light from men who choose the darkness. Yes, it separates.
There are many
sincere Christians today who feel that any attempt to separate mankind always
has its source in the Devil, and that every movement towards unity always
originates from God. This, however, is only because they are not familiar with
the Bible. The Bible talks about separation in its very first paragraph. In
Genesis 1:3 we read about the creation of light, and in verse 4 we read that
God saw that this light was good. Thereupon He separated the light from the
darkness. Had He allowed the two to mingle they might have produced some form
of twilight; but this could scarcely have served the life-giving purpose for
which God had created light. Thus we see that God was the first person to make
a separation. He is a God of distinctiveness, and right through the Bible we
find this principle clearly laid down. Moreover from a "separation of principle"
it soon comes to involve a separation of people. God forbade Israel to mix in
intermarriages with the other nations because they were themselves to be a
light to the nations who sat in darkness. In the New Testament for the same
reason the church is clearly told to be separate from the world (2 Cor. 6:14).
In fact, the very Greek word “ekklesia”, which is translated "church"
in the English versions, itself means a "a called-out company."
The church and
the world thus have something in common with the two thieves who hung there at
Calvary on either side of Jesus. Both men were originally wicked, but one was
forgiven and justified because he repented. The other continued in his sin and
died unforgiven. So their eternal destinies were different, just as are those
of the church and the world. For the spirit of the world is wholly contrary to
the Spirit of God, loving the darkness and turning away from the light. It
chooses its own destiny - and finds it.
Alas, this
separation to God can at times mean a separation from the religious world also.
When what passes as the Christian church lives according to the spirit of this
world and not according to the Spirit of God, and is guided by the tradition of
men instead of by the Word of God, a choice may be forced upon us. At the very
hour when the Lord Jesus was being crucified outside the city of Jerusalem, the
priests and religious leaders were worshipping God in the temple, inside the
city. They had crucified the Son of God, but in their blindness were carrying
on with their empty religious rituals, in the belief that God was pleased with
them! Both in His life and in His death the Lord Jesus Himself was outside all
religious formalism, and so will His true disciples be (John 16:2). There are
many professing Christian churches today that, like the church in Laodicea,
have placed themselves in the same position as those Jews. They are carrying on
their activities, thinking that all is well with them, while in truth all the
while the Lord Himself is outside their church door (Rev. 3:14, 20).
There is a story
of an African-American in the early twentieth century, who had recently
accepted the Lord, and who went to attend a church service in a certain city in
the Southern United States. Not realizing that colour discrimination extended
to the Christian church as well, and that this particular church was
exclusively for whites, he was surprised when the ushers refused to let him
enter the building. He went away disappointed and told the Lord about the
matter in prayer. The Lord replied (so the story goes): "Don't worry, My
son, I Myself have been trying to get inside that church ever since it came
into existence, and have not yet succeeded; so don't be surprised when you too
are turned away." When it is religious formalism or church tradition that
rules rather than the Word of God social prejudice such as this easily gets a
grip upon men's hearts. The Christian who takes up his cross and follows Jesus
will find himself separate in spirit from a Christianity that displays such worldly
features. But to be thus separate is never an easy task.
Today all the
talk is of ecumenical unity among Christian churches. Consequently many are
afraid to preach separation, fearing lest their congregations regard them as
uncharitable and un-Christlike. It is therefore good for us to bear in mind the
words of Jesus in Luke 12:51, 52, lest we get an unbalanced picture of what
true Christ-likeness is. Jesus emphatically stated there that He had come to
bring division. Of course there is a unity which is wholly in accordance with
Scripture. It is the unity which Jesus spoke of in John 17, which takes its
character from the unity of the Godhead ("in us," verse 21), and it
is significant that in this same chapter Jesus spoke very strongly about
separation also (verse 16). And equally it is the unity referred to in
Ephesians 4:3, the unity brought about by the Holy Spirit. This is one thing. A
man-made unity is quite another. The latter can have no better future than the
unity manifested at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9).
Separation from
the world is in fact a leading theme of the New Testament. Before He went to
the cross Jesus told His disciples that they did not belong to the world. Jesus
was Himself one apart - "not of this world." And He affirmed that
His disciples were just as truly other-worldly. And because they did not belong
to it, He told them, that they would find this world a difficult place to live
in (John 15:19; 17:16). It is the disciple's responsibility to keep himself
unspotted from the world (James 1:27). For the church is Christ's bride, loved,
won and sanctified, by Him (Eph. 5:25-27). This explains Paul's "godly
jealousy "over the Corinthian believers. He desired, he said, to present
them as a pure virgin to Christ, and he feared lest the Devil corrupt them (2
Cor. 11:2, 3). This explains too the extremely strong words, "Ye
adulterers and adulteresses," addressed by James to believers who
showed themselves friendly with the spirit of the world (4:4). Yes, the Bible
has much to say on separation.
But let us be
clear in our minds that what the Bible speaks of is not a separation in terms
of distance. It is not an outward, physical separation from the people
of the world at all, but one of the heart. Many have thought that by
dwelling as hermits in some lonely place where they have no contact with the
people of the world, they could draw near to God. The monk who sequesters
himself in a monastery, or the nun who retires within the walls of a convent,
has not understood the meaning of separation as the Bible teaches it. Neither
does this separation mean the wearing of white or saffron-coloured clothes, or
any other uniform. Jesus Himself never preached or practised any such means of
outward distinction. What He taught and practised was a freedom from the spirit
of this world, even while living in the midst of it.
We are beings in
an alien element. A ship in mid-ocean is surrounded by water, and yet no
sea-water penetrates inside the ship. When a believer lives like that, he is
bound to face ridicule and opposition from the world sooner or later. The world
will quickly become an uncomfortable place for him to live. Jesus warned His
disciples in advance that this hostility would ensue as an inevitable
consequence of following Him (John 16:33). If a Christian belongs to heaven,
then earth is obviously not his natural sphere. He is a fish out of water, and
need not be surprised if he finds it difficult to carry on his existence here.
It would need a miracle to keep a fish alive on land, and it needs no less a
miracle for the true church of Christ to exist on earth. But that is just what
God intends the Christian life to be - a life of daily dependence on His
miracle-working power.
God expects to
see, between His people and the spirit of this world, a great gulf fixed, a
gulf as deep and as wide as that which separates Paradise from Hell (Luke
16:26), a gulf never to be bridged or crossed. Freedom from the spirit of the
world has always been God's desire for His own. Many a believer, unfortunately,
has yet to learn this lesson, and until he does so remains powerless and
frustrated.
It was such a
freedom of spirit that, once learned, brought Abraham to the place of power and
fruitfulness. This is clearly pictured for us in Genesis 22. There the Lord
told Abraham to offer up his only son. This was not because He wanted Isaac
slain, (as is evident from verse 12) but to free Abraham from any inordinate
love for the boy. Abraham's usefulness as a servant of God was here in view.
God wanted him to be free of any selfish possessiveness in his attitude towards
Isaac. He wanted him continually to hold Isaac as a Divine gift.
When the Lord
either withholds or removes from us material possessions and other things that
we hold dear, He is dealing with us as He dealt with Abraham. This was why He
asked the rich young man to sell all that he had. He was too attached to his
money. Material things are not sinful in themselves. It is when they become a
hindrance to our following the Lord that they become sinful. This too is why
the Lord allows trials to come within our family circle - in order to detach us
from inordinate affection for our loved ones (cf. Luke 14:26, 27). True
separation involves our holding everything that we have in trust, as belonging
not to ourselves but to the Lord, and as given to us to use for His glory.
We may count
ourselves to be the children of God, but unless we have accepted this aspect of
the cross of Christ in all its costliness, we shall not enjoy the privileges of
sonship that God intends for all His sons and daughters (2 Cor. 6:14-18).
Brothers and sisters, there is wealth undreamed of, that God intends us to
have. We have not yet received it, and He is still unable to give it to us,
because our hearts are distracted and our hands full with this world and its
things.
The Cross Means Death
If we really
accept the cross that Jesus spoke of to His followers, it must mean death for
us. When the corn of wheat falls into the ground, is trampled under foot and
finally has its shining outer shell cracked open, it is no longer beautiful. In
exactly the same way, a believer who takes up his cross and follows Jesus
ceases to be attractive to this world. The world despises him. There may have
been many things that it admired in him formerly, but not now. Like his Lord,
he is now despised and rejected by men.
Just as in Old
Testament times the fire consumed the sacrifice that was placed upon the altar
and reduced it to ashes, so the cross of Christ puts a man to death. Real
consecration to the Lord always means that. The fire of God will so consume
every life that is yielded to Him that that soul can no longer live for himself
or for the world, but only for God. He will be dead to this world and this
world will be dead to him (Gal. 6:14). There is a lot of superficial
consecration among Christians today that fails to take this fact into account.
But "let him take up his cross "is what the Saviour said, and this is
the only consecration that is acceptable to God. No Old Testament sacrifice was
accepted by God which was not consumed by fire upon the altar. We may have
often given ourselves to God to receive His blessing, but have we ever yielded
ourselves to Him to be put to death in this way? Have we allowed God to take
away from us whatever He pleases and to shatter all the ambitions and plans we
have made for ourselves, reducing them to ashes? That is what the cross means.
It is indeed
surprising to see Christians professing to follow the Lord Jesus, yet seeking
at the same time to be accepted and popular in a world which crucified and
rejected Him. Theirs can scarcely be other than a counterfeit Christianity.
Acceptance and popularity in the world, or even in Christian circles, for that
matter, are no indications of God's blessing. On the contrary they are
something of which Jesus Himself warned us constantly to beware (Luke 6:26). To
Him it did not matter in the least whether the world accepted Him or rejected
Him, for in His spirit He had died to this world long before He went to the
cross. He did not go out of His way to make Himself unpopular with the world,
but on the other hand it did not disturb Him if doing the will of His Father
had this effect.
That is to be
the spirit of the disciple as well. That is why Paul called himself "a
fool for Christ's sake" (1 Cor. 4:10) - F.F.C.S. - a degree we may well
feel is far more to be coveted than an F.R.C.S. or any other worldly
qualification! Everywhere Paul went there were those who despised him as a
fool. But none of these things moved him. Like his Master he had died to this
world.
In a certain
town there was a man who used to witness for his Lord by walking through the
streets wearing placards on his body with Bible verses written on them. (In the
West they call them "sandwich boards.") As a result he was the butt
of ridicule on the part of many in the town. One day when he went out, on the
front placard he had substituted these words: "I am a fool for Christ's
sake," and on the back: "Whose fool are you?"
Do we understand
this, brothers and sisters, that if we are not willing to be fools for Christ's
sake, we shall be fools of the Devil, whether we realize it or not? Accepting
the cross means accepting the position of death to this world, so that it no
longer matters whether the world praises or criticises. This is often the
"one thing lacking" in many young people, which considerably
restricts and often totally hinders their effective service for the Lord. We
may have many educational qualifications, and possess many gifts and talents,
but all these will be of no avail in the Lord's service, if we lack this one
thing.
The cross not
only means death to this world. It also means death to our own wills. This is
more difficult than what we have been considering so far, for it means that we
no longer have our own way, but choose the Lord's way. It also means that we no
longer stand up for our own rights. We no longer retaliate when other people
hurt us. This is the standard of life that Jesus held up to His disciples in
the sermon on the mount (Matt. 5, 6 and 7). How different this is from
the type of life that we see around us every day - and not only in the
unbeliever, but alas, in many believers too! Many have looked at the standard
set by Jesus in those chapters and said that it is too difficult to live by. It
is not too difficult; it is impossible! Unless we are willing to
accept the cross in our daily life, such a life is an impossibility. But when
our lives are yielded to the lordship of Christ, we can joyfully refuse to
fight back and meekly submit to all that men may do to us, because we know that
God has permitted them to treat us thus.
This was Jesus'
attitude during His trial. He could have called 72,000 angels to His help with
a word, yet He refused to do so. Meekly He submitted to being falsely accused,
insulted, beaten and crucified, believing that His Father had allowed it all.
At His trial Jesus was treated like a worm (Psa. 22:6), spurned and trodden
under foot. The difference between a snake and a worm is that if you tread upon
the former it will strike back, whereas with the latter, even if you trample it
or crush it, it will never retaliate. In the one you have the spirit of the
Devil, in the other of God's Son. When people harm us, or insult us or trample
upon our rights, what we manifest in return will always be one of these
spirits. Which has it been so far?
Have you been
grossly and humiliatingly insulted? If you accept the cross, it means that you
are willing to let the Holy Spirit tie your tongue so that you do not speak
back in the same tone to your accuser, and chain your hand so that you do not
write back a stinging reply, and melt your heart so that you return love for
hatred, blessing for cursing and kindness for harshness. Your friends and your
own injured self may tell you, in such a situation, not to accept the
humiliation lying down, and not to let the other person get away with his
insults. But the Holy Spirit will point you to the pathway of the cross and
say, "No, do nothing, say nothing. Instead let Me love that person through
you."
Which voice are
you going to listen to? You are going to face situations like this every day,
and often many times a day, as long as you live in this sinful world - and
sometimes the provocation may come even from believers! Remember on every such
occasion you have only two courses open to you. You will either accept
willingly death to yourself, or else you will crucify your Lord afresh. The
world cannot crucify Christ again, but there is a sense in which believers can
(Heb. 6:6). We do so every time we refuse to accept the cross in our own lives.
It is our refusal of the way of the cross in such situations that paralyses our
spiritual life. Accept the cross there, and we shall not only fill our heart
with joy; we shall also pave the way for great fruitfulness.
Let me repeat
here what I said earlier, that to accept the cross in this way means that we no
longer want our own way in anything, but only the Lord's way. This was implied
in the prayer of Jesus Himself in Gethsemane: "Not my will but Thine be
done." It is implied too in the use Paul makes of the marriage
relationship to illustrate our union with Christ: "As the church is
subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything"
(Eph. 5:24). What does that submission mean? Surely it can only mean the
crucifixion of our own wills, that henceforth we may do His will alone. This
was the spirit of Christ when He went to the cross, and it was because of this
spirit in Him that He could rout the forces of darkness there.
Brothers and
sisters in Christ, have you so yielded yourselves to Him that you desire
nothing but His will, even though it may mean saying No! to your own will again
and again? There is always a cross in the pathway of those who seek to do the
will of God.
Further, just as
death transports a man from this world to another, even so the acceptance of
the cross transports the believer to the plane of the kingdom of Christ (Col.
1:13). At once he begins to look at this world from a different standpoint and
with an altogether new sense of values. Money, worldly goods, people, all are
now looked at in the light of the cross, in the light of eternity, in the light
of Christ's kingdom. People are no longer seen by him as rich and poor, or
great and small, or on their different social levels. They are all seen as
souls for whom Christ died (2 Cor. 5:16).
To such a man,
money and material things no longer have their old attractiveness. The things
of eternity shine with greater lustre. He sees this whole world and everything
in it as already condemned by God, and therefore assuredly going to pass away
one day. Henceforth he lives only to do the will of God and to lay up treasure
in heaven (1 John 2:17; 1 Pet. 4:1-3). It is a grief to see children of God
looking at people and material things in the same way as an unbeliever looks at
them - through worldly eyes. Such a soul has never known the true meaning of
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Would you care
to test yourself? Are you concerned to know how far you come short? You only
have to read through Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7, and honestly ask yourself how
many of those commands of Jesus you have never even thought it necessary to
obey.
The Cross Brings Victory
Does all we have
been saying seem rather gloomy? The message of the cross has a brighter side -
a positive one. It is this, that the cross is not an end in itself. It is a
pathway to the resurrection life. There is a joy set before all who are willing
to accept the working of the cross (Heb. 12:2). The corn of wheat that falls
into the ground and dies does not remain there forever; it springs forth into a
triumphant fruitfulness. The believer who accepts the pathway of the cross, no
matter how much he may be misunderstood by others, will ultimately be vindicated
by God. Fruitfulness comes through death to Self. Some of this fruit we may see
even while on earth, but all of it will be seen only at the judgment seat of
Christ, when the Lord will reward His faithful ones.
The life of
Joseph affords a wonderful example of this. It was a painful experience for him
to be sold by his own brethren whom he loved, and to end up as a slave in a
strange country. Nevertheless he made no complaints while in Potiphar's house,
but faithfully carried out the work assigned to him; and when Potiphar's wife
falsely accused him, he remained faithful to God. Flung in jail, he still did
not complain, but accepted everything as permitted by God, and harboured no
bitterness against anyone. Forgotten there by Pharaoh's ungrateful butler, Joseph
still bore no grudge against God or man. The outcome of all this was that he
finally became Prime Minister of Egypt. God honours those who honour Him (1
Sam. 2:30). He did so then, and He does so even today. It may not always be
public honour in the world's eyes as in Joseph's case, but Divine honour
nevertheless. How much we miss when we avoid the pathway of the cross!
But the story is
not finished. Even after Joseph rose to supreme rank and had all power in
Egypt, he sought no revenge on Potiphar's wife nor on his brethren, but forgave
them freely. Many a believer has initially walked as Joseph walked, submitting
to the suffering of the cross at every step. But then success has come and he
has been honoured and exalted by God. And tragically, with it has come pride
and selfishness and the lust for revenge.
Joseph was not
like that. He remained the same humble man, whether he was in the jail or on
the throne. What a remarkable man he was! This attitude is what God appreciates
and ever delights to honour. It is the spirit of His Son. When it is missing in
us, He has to say that one essential thing is lacking in our lives. It was not
through His miracles, nor yet through the messages that He preached that the
Lord Jesus brought Satan to nought. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that it was through
His death that He rendered the Devil powerless. If the Lord Himself defeated
Satan only through death, then surely His disciples cannot defeat him in any
other way. Many have the idea that if only they could do a few miracles in the
Name of Jesus, the Devil would be defeated. But the Devil has yielded to no
other weapon than the Cross of Christ. When a believer refuses steadfastly to
accept any other way than the way of the cross in his life, he will find that
the Devil is powerless against him. It is only the man who submits joyfully and
completely to all of God's dealings with him, whom the Bible commands to resist
the Devil and who will find the Devil fleeing from him (James 4:7). It is folly
to resist the Devil if we have not first submitted ourselves to God.
The way of the
cross is the only way of victory. That is why Satan tried his best to prevent
Jesus from going that way. That is also why Satan is constantly trying to
prevent men and women from accepting that way for their lives. Peter sought, in
well-meant love, to prevent Jesus from going through the suffering of the
cross, but Jesus instantly recognized the voice of Satan there (Matt.
16:21-23). Our friends and relatives may give us similar advice too, when our
pathway is hard. But remember that the voices we hear, whether inside our
hearts or from others, that would divert us from the way of the cross are
always the whisperings of the Devil. Do we always recognize them as such?
In the book of
Revelation we see the Lord Jesus as the slain Lamb. There we have heaven's view
of Calvary. In the eyes of man, Calvary was a defeat. We have no account of any
unbeliever seeing Jesus after His resurrection, and Calvary is therefore still
viewed as a defeat by man. But in heaven's eyes, Calvary was the greatest
victory ever won on earth. On earth they crucified the Lamb of God, but in
heaven they worship Him. When, in following Jesus, you surrender your rights,
men on earth may say that you have no backbone, but in heaven there will be
rejoicing over a child of God who has taken a position of victory. "They
overcame him (Satan)...they loved not their lives unto the death (of the
cross)...Therefore rejoice ye heavens" (Rev. 12:11, 12).
In Psalm 124:7,
we have the Christian life pictured in the symbol of a bird that has escaped
from a snare. A bird soaring in the sky is a perfect picture of the glorious
liberty that God wants all His children to experience. Mountains and rivers can
hinder the onward course of earthbound creatures, but not of a bird. It soars
high over them all. God created man in order that he might be like that bird,
perfectly free, having dominion over everything and subduing everything under
him (Gen. 1:28). But man's disobedience has made him like a bird trapped in a
snare, unable to fly.
Only the cross
can break that snare and set us free. There is no other way. Accept death to
this world and to your own self, and you will therein die to the Devil's power
as well. His hold upon you will be broken, and nothing can then prevent you
from soaring upwards like that bird. That is true liberty - and that is what
the Holy Spirit seeks to bring in our lives (2 Cor. 3:17). But the way of the
cross is the only pathway to that liberty.
As in the
earlier chapters, this message too has a special application to the last days
in which we are living. In 2 Timothy 3:1-8 these days are described. Men, we
are told there, will primarily be lovers of themselves. Consequently they will
manifest in their character all that is most contrary to the spirit of the
cross. It is not surprising therefore that when persecution increases against
Christians, many will be offended (Matt. 24:9, 10). Many Christians who have
all their lives been satisfied with superficial Christian activity will turn
away from the Lord at that time, because their Christianity had all along been
regulated by their convenience and not by the demands of the cross of Christ.
In Mark 4:17 Jesus speaks of such Christians as those who do not have any root.
Their Christianity was superficial. Whenever God sought to strengthen its roots
by giving them opportunities to accept the cross in their lives, they always
avoided it.
There is only
one pathway that can lead a man into the fullness of life that there is in
Christ. We can walk along other paths if we like, but we shall never fulfil
God's purpose along any other road. All our gifts and talents will only be
wasted if we avoid the pathway of the cross in our lives. We can accept it or
reject it - the choice is entirely ours.
Sadhu Sundar
Singh used to say that, when we reach heaven, there will be no second chance to
bear the cross for Jesus's sake. We may reject it now, but we shall have no
opportunity in eternity to follow in the blood-stained path that Jesus walked
in. When we meet our blessed Lord, He will yet have nail prints in His hands
and feet. What will it be then to look back over our own earthly lives and find
that we carefully avoided the cross at every step? God grant, rather, that at
every step we may yield to it, and thus have no regrets in that day.
"Always delivered unto death.….always
led in triumph." (2
Cor. 4:11; 2:14)
“Jesus, I
my cross have taken,
All
to leave and follow Thee;
Destitute,
despised, forsaken,
Thou
from hence my all shalt be;
Perish
every fond ambition
All
I’ve sought and hoped and known;
Yet
how rich is my condition,
God and heaven
are still my own.”
"But what
things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but
dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know him, and
the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the
resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which
also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 3:7-14.
Let us first of
all remind ourselves that these words of the apostle were not written by a
young enthusiast starting out on the Christian road. They are the testimony of
a mature Christian towards the close of a rich and full life. Thirty years had
passed since Paul's conversion. During those years God had used him to
establish many churches, mightily attesting his ministry with signs and
miracles. From the first Paul had spent himself unstintingly in the work of the
gospel, traveling constantly and undergoing great hardships. He had come to
know the reality of victory over sin as he grew in likeness to his Lord. And
among his many joys he had had one unique experience of being, as he put it,
lifted up into the third heaven to receive remarkable revelations of spiritual
truth.
Yet at the end
of all this, he states that he still has not attained to all that God had
purposed for his life. Here is one of the greatest Christians of all time
saying towards the end of his life that he still needs to press on to the goal.
To most believers, alas, salvation begins and ends with the new birth and its
assured escape from Divine judgement. Not so for the apostle, nor indeed for
anyone else who seeks like him to be a true disciple of Christ. Here in this
passage he declares his firm belief that Christ had laid hold of him with a
purpose. He, in return, was determined to lay hold of that purpose at any cost.
This is a tremendous and solemn truth, that when the Lord lays hold of us at
conversion, it is with a purpose extending far, far beyond just the saving of
our souls out of hell fire and into heaven. If so mature a man as the apostle
Paul had to say at the end of thirty years of untiring Christian service that
he had not yet attained, but had still to strive to fulfil all of God's purpose
for his life, what a vast thing that purpose must be.
Paul goes even
further in this passage. To him everything that the world considers as precious
is worthless rubbish, when compared to this supreme objective of grasping the
purpose of God and fulfilling it. He considers this a prize worth the giving up
of everything in the world (verse 14). When we look around us and see believers
coveting worldly possessions and clinging to material things, giving these a
greater place in their lives than the things of God, we are forced to conclude
that their Christianity is very far removed from Paul's.
It is a mark of
spiritual infancy to think of salvation only in terms of an insurance policy to
escape the flames of Hell. When we mature spiritually, we realize that God has
saved us in order that we might walk each day in the pathway that He has
already planned for each one of us from eternity (Eph. 2:10). That pathway was
what Paul called God's purpose for his life. If we are satisfied with having
received His grace, but are uncommitted to fulfilling His will for our lives,
then no matter how thoroughly evangelical we may be, we shall go through life
without accomplishing anything of lasting value to God. Of course the Devil's
first aim is by one means or another to blind people to the grace of God in
Christ Jesus, thus preventing them from being saved (2 Cor. 4:4). But if he
does not succeed there, then his next aim is to blind that new believer to the
fact that God has a very definite plan for him. To a large extent he has succeeded
here. There are thousands of true believers who never seek the will of God with
any degree of earnestness, even in major decisions that they make in their
lives.
The Christian
life is depicted in this passage in Philippians as one in which we have to be
continually pressing on. No degree of spiritual maturity attainable on earth
will ever absolve us from this need of constant urgency. It is because many
believers have neglected this lesson that they have no living testimony. Their
only testimony relates to an experience in the distant past when on a blessed
day they perhaps raised their hand or signed a decision-card in some
evangelistic meeting. That was wonderful, but nothing has happened since!
Proverbs 24:30-34 with its picture of a garden gone to waste, describes the
condition of the man who relaxes after his salvation. A garden requires constant
weeding and caring, if it is to be guarded against weeds and nettles - and
so does the human soul.
I think it was
John Wesley who made it a rule in the early Methodist testimony meetings that
no one was to give a testimony that was more than one week old. Anyone who
had no story to tell of the Lord's dealings with him during the previous seven
days, was to consider himself a backslider. How many of us can stand that
test? Would we have to sit glumly silent in a meeting of that nature?
Notice Paul's
words in verses 13, 14: "This one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus." Here we have one more of the priorities for the Christian.
Understanding God's purpose and pressing on to attain it is not an optional
extra for the spiritual elite. It should characterize the life of every
true child of God.
Once more we
shall consider our subject from three standpoints. First, we shall consider the
things that can hinder us from pressing on to God's full purpose; secondly the
power that can strengthen us to press on; and finally the attitude of mind that
can keep us doing so to the end of our lives.
The Things That Can Hinder Us
When God
delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. He had marked out a route for them to
travel in the wilderness on their way to Canaan. They however could know it
only as they followed the pillar of cloud and fire, day by day. For each of His
redeemed children today, God has a pathway marked out too. But they can know it
only as they walk with Him each day. If we are to fully lay hold of the purpose
for which God has laid hold of us, we must learn to walk with God. And here is
where we shall find resistance from Satan at every step. Even as thieves invade
the homes of the rich more than of the poor, Satan aims his darts more at the
believer who is spiritually minded than at the one who is carnally minded. We
shall therefore find the battle getting thicker with every step of progress in
spiritual maturity.
There are many
forces that seek to hinder the believer who would press on to do all of God's
will: the world with its varied attractions, the flesh with its unclean lusts,
and the Devil with his subtle devices. If these are hindrances to the
believer's spiritual growth, we may wonder why God does not eliminate them, or
at least protect the believer from them. This has been a problem that has
plagued many minds down the centuries. Sufficient here for us to know that it
is our heavenly Father, who is wiser than all of us, who has permitted these
forces to exist. One good reason at least may be in order that our spiritual
strength may be built up. Even in the physical realm, our muscles can be built
up only as we subject them to resistance through exercise. Otherwise our
muscles will be flabby and powerless. A wrestler who is training for a bout
will need constant exercise, wrestling with others in order to fit himself for
the event. In the same way our spiritual strength can never be developed if we
are protected from the trials and temptations of the world, the flesh and the
Devil.
It should bring
us strong consolation to know however that the Lord Jesus was Himself tempted
with every single temptation that comes to us (Heb. 4:15). Luke tells us that
Jesus went into the wilderness, "full of the Holy Spirit," and that
at the end of the temptation, He returned "in the power of the
Spirit" (4:1, 14). Overcoming the temptations common to man had
strengthened even Him, as a man. Can it not do the same for us? Let us never
imagine that we can become spiritually strong just by reading Christian books and
attending religious meetings. Such activities are the equivalent of taking
food, but along with our food we need exercise too if we are to be strong. That
is why those who cut themselves off from contact with the people of the world
and live protected Christian lives never become spiritually robust.
Holiness is like
health. To be fully healthy, we need to take regular exercise. Then only can we
resist disease. Thus to be made perfect, we have to go through temptation and
overcome it. If we evade testing, we can never be made perfect. This suggests
another reason why God placed the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. It
gave Adam the opportunity to overcome temptation and to become positively holy.
There is no need for us to fear temptation. The Lord has assured us in 1
Corinthians 10:13 that He will never allow us to be tempted above our ability
to bear it.
Psalm 66:10-12
is one of those wonderful Old Testament passages that suggest what tremendous
benefits can come to us through trial and testing. The fire and the water make
us not only spiritually wealthy but spiritually healthy too. The men of God in
the Bible were all subject to the same temptations that plague us. James 5:17
tells us that even Elijah had the same lusts and passions to overcome as we
have. It was because these men of God overcame in their trials and testings,
that they became strong, and thus usable in God's hands. God permits temptation
to come to us in order to test us. Everyone who would be used by God must be
tested. The temptations that come to us when we are alone are meant to prove
our fitness for more public service. Overcoming temptation is like learning to
swim. You cannot learn to swim in one day. But if you are determined, you will
sooner or later acquire the skill. Then you are no longer afraid of the water.
In just the same way, if we are determined, we shall learn the secret in Christ
of victory over temptation, and then of that too we shall no longer be afraid.
Let us consider
briefly the three temptations that came to the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 4.
We shall find if we study them that it is along the same lines that the Devil
comes to us too. The three temptations described here seem to have been the
Devil's final attempt, at the end of forty days of temptation, to knock down
the Lord. They were the three last weapons in his hand, but the Lord overcame
them all.
The first temptation
came along the line of the natural appetites of the body, in this case
the desire for food (verses 3, 4). It is significant that both Eve and Esau
were also tempted along this line (Gen. 3:6; 25:34), but where they failed
Jesus conquered. To all men and women the Devil comes today with this same
temptation to satisfy the natural appetites of the body outside the means
appointed by God for their satisfaction. The desire for food, rest, sexual
fulfillment and the like, are normal appetites that God Himself has endowed us
with, and God has also prescribed the ways and means by which these appetites
are legitimately to be satisfied. But when we seek to gratify these appetites
outside God's appointed means for their satisfaction, or when we over-indulge
these natural cravings of the body, then we sin. The Devil tempts us very
subtly here. There will be no open appeal to sin - only a call to satisfy a legitimate
craving of the body, but in an illegitimate way. Give way to over-indulgence in
the matter of eating food, and we end up as gluttons, unable to go without food
for even a single day. Thus our usefulness to God becomes seriously hampered.
The same holds good if, like sluggards, we have not learnt the discipline of
getting out of bed early in the morning to have a quiet time with God.
In the West
today, the Devil has found a large following in those who subscribe to the
so-called "new morality." Unfortunately this philosophy is now
creeping into the East also. It teaches that in the realm of sexual desire
there is no need to exercise any self-control whatsoever. Vast multitudes are
swallowing this philosophy of license wholesale. Their refusal to love the
truth has ended in their believing a lie (2 Thess. 2:10-12).
Samson and David
were lured by Satan through lust. David could conquer Goliath, but not his own
lust. Many are the mighty men who have fallen here. The one who is careless or
undisciplined in this area of life will be an easy target for Satan. Take for
example modern fashions in women's clothes. They seem designed to uncover ever
larger areas of the body which God intended to be covered, as Genesis 3:21
makes clear. Fashion design, together with the exposure of naked flesh that is
shown in the cinema and brazenly advertised on roadside posters and in
newspapers and magazines, are together part of a carefully planned strategy of
Satan to enslave men totally in their own lusts. If in these wicked days we are
to subdue our lustful desires we shall have to discipline our eyes as Job did
(Job 31:1). We must refuse to look at or to read anything that would enflame
those desires. David sinned because he did not control his eyes (2 Sam. 11:2).
Having learnt a bitter lesson thereby, he later prayed that God would help him
to discipline his eyes (Psa. 119:37). We too would do well to make that our
earnest prayer.
The Apostle Paul
was very conscious of the fact that over-indulgence of the natural appetites of
the body would disqualify him for the Lord's service. He therefore severely
disciplined his body and kept it in constant subjection to God (1 Cor. 9:27).
Thousands have disqualified themselves for the Lord's service through
indiscipline in this realm.
The second temptation
that came to Jesus was the temptation to presumption. He was asked by
the Devil to cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and to arrive
spectacularly, unhurt, in the midst of the crowd in the temple court below. For
protection He was to claim the promise in Psalm 91:11, 12. Here the enticement
was to do something spectacular in order to display His trust in God: to jump
when God had not asked Him to.
Today there is a
great craze for the spectacular and some sections of the Christian church have
succumbed to it. The Devil is constantly urging believers to do something
adventurous and out-of-the-ordinary, that will display their faith in God. Many
have gone completely astray from the pathway God planned for them by following
these urgings of Satan.
There are many
others who have rushed forward into some course of action without patiently
waiting for God's time and God's leading, and have thereby made shipwreck of
their lives. As one has said, "We must be in His path and move in it at
His time and at His pace if we would have His protection and claim His
promises." In the life of the Lord Jesus we have the perfect example of
One who always moved forward under His Father's direction, governed only by His
Father's will and time and never by the urgings of Satan or of men. He would
say to those who urged Him, "My time has not yet come" (John 7:6);
that is to say, "I can only move when my Father tells me to." King
Saul lost his kingdom because he rushed ahead without waiting for God's time (1
Sam. 13:8-14). Many believers have missed God's best in just the same way.
Many, for example, have rushed into marriage without awaiting God's will in the
matter. Having acted in haste they are now repenting at leisure! Brothers and
sisters, learn to wait patiently for the Lord's time and then you will never
need to regret. He will never disappoint those who wait for Him (Isa. 49:23).
In the third
temptation the Devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and the
glory of them. All would be given to Jesus, he said, if only He would fall
down and worship him. Here again is a temptation that comes to all of us. It is
the temptation to compromise our Christian principles for the sake of some
personal gain.
There are many
things that we can obtain in the world if only we are prepared to compromise
our principles and bow our knee to the Devil. One of them is money. It is one
of the biggest attractions. Frequently believers are tempted to lower their
standards for the sake of making a little more money. When we seek employment,
are we not governed more by the salary that can be expected than by the will of
God? Consequently it becomes very easy for the Devil to lead us out of the
mainstream of God's purpose for our lives. This was the error of Balaam, and
many are taking this road today (2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11; cf. Numbers 22). Do we
realize that this is really bowing the knee to the Devil? Then there are
Christians who adopt unscrupulous worldly methods to "collect money for
the Lord's work," as they would say. No matter how good the end in view,
God can never sanction unrighteous means to reach it. God does not want us to
win the world by bowing our knees to His usurper. If we would follow the Lord
wholly, let us beware of the attractions of money. Jesus warned us to despise
it if we would hold on to God (Luke 16:13).
Then there is
the lure of status, the temptation to become famous or prominent. Many are the
compromises that the soul seeking earthly fame must make. Even in Christian
circles and in the work of the Lord, there is this very same temptation. There
is something within all of us, that craves the limelight. We all like to be
admired and respected by others. It gives us an inner satisfaction to be
"the life and soul of the party," the focus of all eyes, the one who
stands out head and shoulders above all those around us. Even in the church,
what a temptation it often is to display ourselves as better or more gifted
than others in singing or in preaching, or even in praying! We are tempted to
elevate ourselves in the esteem of men at the expense of our fellow believers.
All this is totally contrary to the spirit of Christ.
Or take again
the appeal to the Christian preacher. How often is he tempted to be more
"broad-minded," to avoid emphasizing Bible doctrines that are
distasteful to his hearers, to refrain from denouncing sin or covetousness in
his preaching! Let him avoid giving offense to the wealthy and influential and
gain a wider hearing. But at what price? Essentially at the price of bowing his
knee to the Devil, from whom all these suggestions originate. Every preacher is
tempted along these lines at one time or the other. Many, alas, have yielded,
unaware of the ultimate complicity with Satan that underlies all such
compromise.
An avenue along
which temptation frequently comes to younger men and women is in the matter of
marriage. We have spoken already of the danger of haste in this matter, where
nothing can be lost through waiting for God's time. But there are other, more
serious temptations. Many believers have flagrantly disobeyed what they knew to
be the clear teaching of God's Word, and have married unbelievers. Tragically
it is just at this critical point that so many who stood courageously for
Christ in student days have fallen down later. Often a life which had begun to
be of great use to God has had its entire usefulness nullified by compromise on
this issue. This is the price of bowing the knee to Satan.
In India the
pressures brought to bear upon young people at the time when they have to
choose their life partners are very great. There are pressures from parents and
relatives who may be neither converted nor sympathetic. There are financial
pressures caused by sheer poverty, or by the iniquitous system of dowry. And
the saddest of all, there are social pressures arising from the retention, even
after conversion to Christianity, of this country's heathenish caste system.
Not surprisingly, many a young Christian has finally succumbed to these
pressures brought upon him by the Devil, and consented to an unspiritual match.
Satan has
countless plausible arguments to deceive us. "Do not," he urges,
"be too narrow-minded about 2 Corinthians 6:14 and its talk of the unequal
yoke. After marriage you have only to persuade your partner to believe the
Gospel and all will be well. If you throw away this golden opportunity, you may
never again get so commendable a match." How many have been taken in by
his suggestions! O, I know God has worked miracles, and has saved some
unconverted husbands or wives in answer to much prayer. But this is no ground
for our disobeying Him. This is no excuse for bowing to Satan.
Has such a time
arrived in your life? I appeal to you: have the courage to stand by your
convictions! Reject every diabolical proposal, no matter how great the
pressures. Seek God's help in prayer and wait on Him for His will. He will not
fail you. Honour Him, and He will give you the partner of His choice; and if
the choice is His, it can only be the best.
Many and subtle
are the temptations to fall down and worship the enemy of souls. Brothers and
sisters, if you do not want to miss God's purpose for your life, then reject
them all. Stick to the pathway of moral and spiritual integrity, even if it
means worldly loss. Do not be led astray by other believers who may have lesser
scruples, and who perhaps have sought to get the best of both worlds. What does
it matter if they seem even to have a better time than you? Appearances may
deceive. Much so-called "success" in this world may be adjudged as
failure in the clearer light of eternity. Determine to have none of that.
Refuse to accept any of the Devil's short cuts to advantage or prosperity. Walk
with God and seek His praise alone. Cling to Him, and you will have no regrets
at the last.
So far, we have
been considering only sinful things that can hinder us from pressing on to
God's full purpose. There are, however, legitimate things also that can prove
to be a hindrance to us. That is why we are exhorted in Hebrews 12:1 to lay
aside not only our sins but also every weight that will hinder us in running
the race.
Take one
example. Talking is not at all sinful in itself. But talking can easily
degenerate into harmful gossip. Idle conversion can be indulged in, too, at the
cost of Bible study and intercession. Ecclesiastes 5:3 tells us that a man who
speaks too much is a fool, and Proverbs 10:19 warns us that no one can converse
for long without falling into sin. Many a believer has forfeited the privilege
of being God's mouthpiece because of a lack of self-control in the matter of
speech (Jer. 15:19). Excessive or careless talk invariably leads to leakage of
spiritual power.
Or again, no one
would question the value of music in Christian worship. But when countless
hours are spent in training our voices, or developing our talents with musical
instruments, and when such practice becomes more important to us than Bible
study or prayer, then what is quite legitimate in itself can also become a
hindrance to our spiritual progress. How many believers there are, who are more
regular at the choir practice than in their daily quiet time!
The apostle
Paul, being conscious of the many devices of Satan was not only careful to
avoid sinful things; he was no less careful over even legitimate things that
would prove to be a hindrance in fulfilling God's purpose (1 Cor. 10:23). He
had his priorities right and decided that he must give up even some good things
in order to attain the Lord's goal. He saw that even in the Christian life, the
good can be the enemy of the best. When the Devil finds he cannot hinder us
through sinful things, he will seek to reduce our effectiveness through
legitimate things. This should drive us much to our knees, to ask God's help to
distinguish what is edifying and profitable from what is not.
The Power That Can Strengthen Us
All that we have
said so far may seem calculated only to dishearten us. The wiles of Satan may
have appeared so subtle and so varied as to leave us without hope of any
successful defence. It may be that we have tried sincerely for years to
overcome some assault of his and have been foiled. But God has a message of
hope for us. He has given us His Holy Spirit. His is the power that will
strengthen us to fulfil all God's purpose. Without this gift of the Holy Spirit
to indwell us, God would never have made such demands. He would never have
expected us to carry out His will unaided. The distinctive mark of the age in
which we live is this, that since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to
heaven, the Holy Spirit Himself indwells and fills any human life yielded to
Him. God not only calls us to His high purpose; He also enables us to reach it.
Even the Lord
Jesus, God's own Son, needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit before He could
set out on His earthly ministry. This event took place at the time of His
baptism, and it was through the power of the Spirit that Jesus passed
triumphantly through the wilderness temptations that followed it. It was the
same Holy Spirit's power that enabled Him to fulfil His long earthly ministry
and to tread the pathway to the cross.
The same held
true in the lives of Paul and the other apostles. Paul testifies that his
service for God was fulfilled only through the power of the Spirit of God (Rom.
15:18, 19). Many today have neglected the command, "Be filled with the
Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). Many others are afraid to seek that fullness, lest in
finding it they become fanatics. The Devil has used this fear of emotionalism
to turn away a large portion of the church from seeking God earnestly for this.
Others he has kept satisfied with some ecstatic experience in the past, which
though it may have been from God, is valueless without the present enjoyment of
a continuous filling with the Holy Spirit.
Many are
confused regarding the fullness of the Spirit. They have the idea that God is
very reluctant to give His Spirit to us. But the words of Jesus in Luke
11:11-13 should for ever dispel such doubts from our minds. "How much more
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him!" So
if God had delayed in thus blessing us, we can be sure that the cause lies in
us and not in Him. We have only to approach God and ask Him in simple faith for
this filling. All He demands of us is an unreserved surrender of our lives to
Him. Fulfil these conditions, maintain them day by day, and we shall remain
continually filled with the Spirit.
The testimony of
Dr. Walter L. Wilson has been a blessing to many in this respect. He states
that the experience of surrender to the Holy Spirit brought about a greater
transformation in his life than even the experience of salvation had brought
about seventeen years earlier. For some years after his salvation. Dr. Wilson
remained dissatisfied with the fruitfulness of his own life and labours. He
came at last to recognize that this was because he had not given enough place
to the Holy Spirit in his life. At the same time he was full of fear lest
seeking for the Spirit's fullness should make him fanatical. One day he heard a
message from Romans 12:1, where the speaker emphasized that the presenting of
our bodies, spoken of in that verse, must be to the Holy Spirit, for the Lord
Jesus had a body of His own, and the Father remained upon His throne in heaven,
whereas it was the Holy Spirit who at Pentecost had come to earth without a
body. Dr. Wilson went back to his room after hearing the message, and falling
prostrate upon the carpet before God, he addressed these words to the Holy
Spirit: "My Lord, I have mistreated You all my Christian life, I have
treated You like a servant. When I wanted You I called for You; when I was
about to engage in some work I beckoned to You to come and help me perform my
task. I have kept You in the place of a servant. I have sought to use You only
as a willing servant to help me in my self-appointed and self-chosen work. I
shall do so no more. Just now I give you this body of mine; from my head to my
feet I give it to you. I give You my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my
brain; all that I am, without and within. I hand over to You, for You to live
in it the life that You please. You may send this body to Africa, or lay it on
a bed with cancer. You may blind the eyes, or send me with Your message to
Tibet. You may take this body to the Eskimos, or send it to a hospital with
pneumonia. It is Your body from this moment on. Help Yourself to it. Thank you
my Lord, I believe You have accepted it, for in Romans twelve and one. You said
`acceptable unto God.' Thank You again, my Lord, for taking me. We now belong
to each other." Dr. Wilson testified to the remarkable fruitfulness that
attended his labours, even from the very next morning after this act of
surrender was made. (This incident is quoted in, "They Found the
Secret" by V. Raymond Edman; Chapter 18).
I am not asking
you to go and copy that. God does not ask us to imitate others. But there is a
principle here that we do well to heed. It is this, that the Holy Spirit will
possess us fully only when our surrender to Him is unconditional. Very often
our surrender is with inward reservations. We are unwilling to go to a certain
place, or to take up a certain type of employment. We have inward choices as to
where and how we want to serve the Lord, and we want the power of the Holy
Spirit for the sake of success in the task that we have in mind. That is the
point. Our yieldedness to Him is conditional. We have made our own terms, and
that is the reason why we so rarely experience the Holy Spirit's working. Maybe
we feel that we can carry on well enough without His anointing for most of the
time, but we do not know what we are missing. How foolish we are! Is not the
Holy Spirit the One who can make the most use of our lives?
Brothers and
sisters, unless our surrender to the Spirit of God is truly unconditional, how
can He possess us completely? We must sincerely be willing to do all His will,
even to the extent of taking up the lowliest duties. In marriage we must be
willing to accept His choice of a partner, dark or fair, educated or
uneducated, rich or poor, who is one with us in the Lord." In employment
we must be prepared, at whatever cost to ourselves or our families, to be
either constantly on the move or stuck in one place all our lives, if only we
are with Him. Have we ever yielded ourselves to the Holy Spirit like that, without
personal preference or reservations in any sphere? That is the only type of
surrender that will bring into our lives the full measure of His power. And it
is with that power alone that we shall fulfil God's purpose.
The Attitude of Mind That Can Keep Us
In the passage
we have been considering in Philippians, Paul described to us by example the
attitude of mind that must be ours if we are to attain to God's full purpose.
Forgetting the things that are behind, he tells us, he keeps looking ahead to the
things that lie before. In spite of every temptation to do so, he refuses to
look back. Earlier, in Acts 20:23, 24, he had said that he was unmoved by the
knowledge that persecutions awaited him. No fear of them could shake his
determination to press forward to God's goal. Again, in Acts 26:19 he testified
before King Agrippa that he had not disobeyed the heavenly vision received from
the Lord nearly thirty years before. And in his very last letter he could claim
to have fought the good fight and finished his course (2 Tim. 4:7). Here is a
man who had doggedly pursued the pathway of God's purpose right up to his very
last day. Despite countless inducements to give up and turn aside, despite
fierce persecutions, despite slander and calumny, and all the rest, he held
faithfully to his course, his eyes fixed on the goal. Blessed shall we be if at
the end of our lives we can have such a testimony.
How often we are
tempted to look back! The failures of the past have a way of discouraging us,
and when that happens, sure enough the Devil arrives to whisper in our ears the
lie that God has no more use for us. It has always been a great encouragement
to me that it was said even of an ass that the Lord had need of it (Matt. 21:2,
3). If the Lord Jesus needed an ass to fulfil His Messianic programme, and if
God could even on one occasion speak through an ass (Num. 22:28), then there is
hope for everyone of us. For whatever was written in the former days, and even
therefore the story of Balaam's ass, was written for our encouragement (Rom.
15:4). You may feel yourself to be as stupid as an ass, and you may make ten
thousand mistakes; yet your Lord has need of you, and when He so chooses He can
even speak through you.
The same Bible
that tells us not to worry about tomorrow tells us with equal urgency not to
look back over the past. We need to finish with all our yesterdays and to face
today and the future trusting in the Lord. If tomorrow you fail, do not let
that cast you into despair. Go and confess your failure to the Lord and have
your sin cleansed in His blood. Then press on again. And if you fail once more,
go and do the same thing yet again. Never abandon yourself to despair.
Resolutely refuse the futile backward look of regret over the past, for there
is only loss in crying over spilt milk.
But refuse also
to look back in pride that destroys the soul. So if God uses you in some
wonderful way tomorrow, seek grace to forget that as well. Do not indulge in
self-congratulation. Press on. Discouragement on the one hand and pride on the
other are equally means that Satan uses to stay us on our course and rob us of
our effectiveness.
We are told in
Ephesians 5:15, 16 that, if we would walk wisely in these evil days, we must
constantly redeem the time. That means that we are to buy up every opportunity
that comes our way and turn it to the glory of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58). Each of
us has only one brief life, and every day of that life should be made to count
for God. But that will only happen as we persistently look ahead to Him. No
matter how heavy the odds that we are called upon to face, let us maintain this
attitude of mind. But let us also refuse to look aside at other believers and
compare our lot or measure our successes against theirs, for that too can lead
to discouragement or to pride (cf. John 21:20-22; 2 Cor. 10:12). We are to look
straight ahead and in no other direction (Prov. 4:25).
Even before his
conversion the apostle Paul was whole-hearted about his religion (Acts 22:3,
4). His was no feeble, faint-hearted faith such as we see too often today. When
he was converted, he was equally wholehearted in his devotion to Christ. The
only difference was that now he had set his mind on things above and not on
things on the earth. Our risen Lord Jesus tells us clearly that He has
absolutely no appreciation for lukewarmness (Rev. 3:16). God seeks utterness in
His people, for only people utterly committed to Him can fulfill His purpose on
earth. If many of us were as half-hearted in our studies as we are in our
Christianity, we would never even have passed the elementary school grade. Or
again, if a man were as half-hearted in his job as many believers are in the
service of God, he would have been sacked long ago. Wholeheartedness is
plentiful in the mundane activities of many Christians, but alas, how seldom is
it found in their religious activities! We are told that when king Hezekiah
worked with all his heart, he prospered (2 Chron. 31:21). But the day came
when, forgetting "the things that are before," he relaxed. That day
he tragically failed the Lord.
By word and
example Jesus urged those who would follow Him to keep their eyes on the goal.
He warned one would-be follower that any man who had put his hand to the plough
and then looked back was unfit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). A little
earlier we read that Jesus Himself had
“steadfastly set His face” to go in the direction indicated by His Father
(verse 51). "I must be about my Father's business" was His unceasing
attitude, and he desired no followers who were unwilling to look in the same
direction and walk the same road.
The disciple of
Jesus Christ must have only one aim in life, namely, to do God's will and thus
to glorify Him. Everything in life - money, position, marriage, employment and
all the rest - must be made to serve this one end. All must be relaxed to the
purpose of God. It is only when we adopt such an attitude of mind that we can
claim the promise in Romans 8:28 for ourselves. For it is only to those who
love God and who are aligned to His purpose that all things work together for
good.
We do well also
to remember that in eternity it is those who have done the will of God on earth
whose works abide for ever (1 John 2:17). All else will be destroyed. So let
doing God's will be our one aim. As it was for Jesus, let it be our very meat
and drink (John 4:34). The man after God's own heart is the one who desires to
fulfil all His will. Only such a one can effectively serve his generation in
God's eyes (Acts 13:22, 36). God is seeking for such men and women in the world
today.
As in the last
three chapters, let us notice here also the relevance of this theme to the days
in which we live. In speaking of the last days Jesus warned his disciples once
more in Luke 17 of the danger of looking back. To point out the lesson He
quoted the grim example of Lot's wife. What was her weakness? Unlike the others
in Sodom, she had believed the message of God. Not only that, she had obeyed it
and set out from the city. But then she had second thoughts - and looked back.
The moment she did so judgment overtook her: she became a pillar of salt. Her
backward look resulted in her becoming fixed - a stationary pillar. From that
moment she could not move forward one single inch.
Today,
unfortunately, many believers are as stationary as Lot's wife became. She has
her twentieth century counterparts in those who many who, though saved years
ago, have made no progress at all in the things of God since then. Here and now
in their lives there is no more holiness or peace or patience than when they
began; there is no advance in repentance for sins, or joy in the Lord, or
victory over the world, or understanding of God's purposes, than there was on
the day when they were saved. The sins which plagued them then still plague
them. The same desires for wealth and position and comfort that existed at the
time of their conversion characterize their lives even today. The reason has
invariably been that they have looked back instead of forward. Jesus makes it
plain that this will be a special danger of the last days.
Do you want to
live a life over which you will have no regrets when you arrive in His
presence? Then set yourself to do all the will of God. Seek day by day to
discover and understand His purpose for your life. What that purpose is, the
Holy Spirit can show you. You can never learn it theoretically from books, but
only in experience as you walk with God. "Lord, what wilt thou have me to
do?" was Paul's question from the very moment of his conversion. What
better attitude than that could you and I choose as our own?
Let your aim not
be to live a long life, but one satisfying to God. heaven and eternity will be
sweeter to you if you arrive there having fulfilled God's will on earth.
Will you come in
sincerity to the Lord as you read these words, and say to Him in faith,
"Lord I do want to fulfill all Thy purpose for my life. I do not have the
wisdom to discover that will, nor the strength to act on it. Nevertheless Lord,
I do desire with all my heart to press on through sweat and blood and tears to
the prize of Thy high calling. Grant that when I enter Thy presence it may be
without any regret at all, but only with the joy of having finished my course
and glorified Thee on earth. To this end fill me, Lord, with Thy Holy Spirit."
Do this, and you
will find life full of meaning and hope in the coming days. The eyes of the
Lord seek through the whole earth for such men and women. God grant that you
and I in our generation be ready to pay the price necessary to fulfil all the
will of God.
"Hold that
fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Rev. 3:11)
“I’m pressing on the upward way
New heights I’m gaining every day.
Still praying as I onward bound
‘Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven’s tableland
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
In just three
words the Holy Spirit records the testimony of Enoch's life: "He pleased
God" (Heb. 11:5). There is no mention of wealth amassed or of earthly
honours obtained. There is no record of sermons preached or of good deeds done,
nor even of the souls led to God through his witness. Neither are we told how
popular or famous he became. No, instead of all this his life is summed up in
that one tense sentence, "He pleased God." That is all, and that is
enough.
For that, my
brothers and sisters, is what matters supremely. It is indeed the only thing
that will have value in eternity. The Bible tells us that God created all
things "for his pleasure" (Rev. 4:11). It follows therefore that the
measure in which we please God is the true measure of the effectiveness of our
lives. In no other way is the cost of our redemption justified. Our very
existence on earth is meaningless if God is not thereby glorified.
In these pages
God has, we trust, put His finger on some of the true priorities of life. It is
not merely to supply us with correct information that He does this. He expects
that we shall act on what He shows us. He looks for us to amend our lives
accordingly. The Spirit's challenge, if it comes to us through this book,
demands from us a response. To fail to respond is to invite only spiritual
stagnation and death.
How subtle is
the self-life, how deceitful the human heart! How readily does it lead us
captive to this world's treasures! "Oh," it exclaims, "such
wealth and pleasure are too precious by far to be given up for the doubtful
satisfaction of following the Lord utterly. Surely this Christian race can be
run on easier terms! Public opinion is against extremes. Let us take it easy.
Let us live for God in moderation!"
God would
deliver us from such faithless thinking. He would have us lay aside every
weight and go for the prize. He desires that we should turn from the world's
base standards and be satisfied with nothing less than His highest. What
matters the honour of men to the man whom God would honour? Of what value is
this world's wealth when heaven's wealth is at stake?
Do you seek earthly
security for your life? Do you hope somehow to insure it against the risks of
faith? Then, believe me, you will most certainly lose it. You will have nothing
to show at the end.
Change you mind!
Be prepared to throw away your life for Jesus' sake. Suffer hardship for His
gospel. You will never regret the decision. You will find there is no waste, no
true loss at all. On the contrary you will discover that eternal fruits spring
from the seed you have planted. The heavenly rewards will far outweigh the offering
you lay at His feet. For "the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:
but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (1 John 2:17). In the
day when Christ returns in glory and the present order of things is no more,
they who have followed Him wholly will forget all the costliness in the
unspeakable joys before them.
I remember, as a
young boy, being taken to watch the Indian Republic Day celebrations in New
Delhi on the 26th of January each year. It is on that day that the nation's
highest awards for gallantry are given away by the President. Often, as I
watched, the man who came forward to receive his award was some unknown junior
soldier, maybe with an arm amputated, or limping on an artificial leg, or
disfigured in some other way from wounds received on the battlefield. Then the
citation would be read explaining what he had done to merit the award. And then
finally, in the presence of the highest dignitaries of the nation, the
President of India would pin the medal on the recipient's breast, and the whole
audience of thousands of men and women would cheer the soldier who had risked
his life in the defence of his country.
I have often
felt that this was a picture (though how faint a one!) of the day that is
coming when we shall be caught up to the portals of heaven's glory to stand
before our Lord. Then, in the presence of the highest dignitaries of heaven,
redeemed men and women who on earth have been faithful to their trust will be
rewarded by the King of kings Himself. I can imagine, in that day, Enoch
walking forward when his name is called, and the citation being read: "He
pleased God." Yes, he may have been mocked and ridiculed on earth for
three hundred years and more but now amidst deafening angelic applause he is
decorated with heaven's highest award for gallantry in battle. I see, too, the
apostle Paul step forward when his turn comes to receive a similar recognition.
On earth he was a considered a fanatic and a fool; here there is laid up for
him a crown of life. All the years of suffering are forgotten in that moment of
time. The joy that takes its place springs from the knowledge that God has been
pleased, and this is a joy that abides for all eternity.
And then your
turn will come, and mine. What will the citation read, dear brother, dear
sister? When we stand there stripped of all the religious veneer, all the
outward sham and pretense that covered our lives on earth, what will be left?
Will you know only sorrow at your emptiness in that day? Will you bitterly
regret the worthless choices made, the opportunities lightly thrown away? Or
will you take your place there alongside Enoch and Paul? These are urgent
questions, for they relate not to something I have imagined up, but to stark
reality. Something like the scene I have crudely depicted above will take place
in actuality when Christ Jesus returns, and many, we are warned, will be
ashamed before Him at His coming.
Let us, then,
give earnest heed to His Word. Let us take serious account of these priorities
of life, for eternal values hang upon them. And let us determine from this day
to give the supreme place to our Lord Jesus in all things. There is a life to
be lived on earth, and a race to be run, that will call for everything we have
to give. But the race has a goal, and the life has a prize, alongside which all
that earth has to offer will seem but the vilest refuse. For when we enter the
presence of the King, no music will compare with His welcoming words:
"Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
"Behold, I
come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his
work shall be." (Revelation 22:12)