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"... reaching forth unto those things which are
before ...
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
"
(Philippians 3:13-14)
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Vol. 2, No. 4, July - Aug. 1973 |
EDITOR: Mr. Harry Foster |
[ifc/61]
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EDITORIAL
WHEN recently I undertook a series of Bible studies on the book of the
Revelation, I began with two propositions which seemed to arise from
the opening verses of the book. The first was that its God-given
intention is to give us a new vision of the Lord Jesus. John was
commissioned to pass on to us an unveiling of Christ's destiny which
surpassed anything which even he had previously known. The second was
that this Scripture is meant to produce action from those who read it,
since its peculiar offer of blessing is not merely for the student and
the preacher, but for the man who 'keeps', that is to say, obeys, its
message. I therefore covenanted with those who attended the meetings
that as we went chapter by chapter through the book I would never let a
single study pass without seeking to bring them a fresh discovery of
Jesus Christ and a new challenge to obedience.
THIS was not difficult for the first twelve chapters, but when I
reached chapter 13 I wondered if my promise had been a rash one. Here
was I confronted with descriptions of terrifying beasts, and no mention
made at all of that 'little Lamb' whom we rejoiced to find in other
chapters. The reading of this section of the book forced me to face the
prospect of such an intensity of evil and deception as would captivate
the whole world and crush the saints of God. It spoke eloquently of the
tide of wickedness which will result from the rule of Satan-inspired
men, and at first it appeared to give no hint of how believers will
have any awareness of the presence of their Lord or understanding of
what He wants them to do. It is true that the chapter closes with the
declaration "Here is wisdom". I knew that the cryptic number of 666 had
given rise to any number of speculations about the past and the future,
but I wanted the Lord Jesus, not speculations, and I needed practical
advice rather than uncertain identifications.
AND then my eyes lighted on the words: "He that hath ears, let him
hear" (v.9). What a relief! Here was the authentic voice of the
Saviour. No man can spend years absorbing the synoptic Gospels and
studying the letters to the seven churches without being able to
recognise this unmistakable characteristic of Christ, the call for
those who have ears to hear. So I took a little respite from the
strident fury of the beasts to listen to the quiet advice of the Lamb.
I asked myself, What is it that He wishes me to hear? What is this
timely message to the listening disciple? These were the actual words:
"If any man is for captivity, into captivity he goeth: if any man kill
with the sword, with the sword must he be killed" (v.10), but what was
the meaning? Was this just a consoling reminder that men of violence
ultimately destroy themselves? No, that is so patent that it does not
require anointed ears to be told it. Was it something to do with
conscientious objection to military service? No, that matter has no
relevance here, for the scene is of oppression but not of war. So I
read on and found that the words were meant as a warning to the saints
not to be moved from their original position of patience and faith in
the Lord Jesus.
THERE is hardly a day now when I do not feel impatient with men's
mismanagement of human relations, and an impetuous urge to hit out in
some direction or other. My natural instincts make me indignant about
wrongs, and ready to back any man or movement which offers to put an
end to them. The peril of such an attitude is that impatience with one
kind of rule can make for sympathy and support for its opposite, and so
lead me into strange company for, unless I am very much mistaken, it
will be the chaos and anarchy of contemporary conditions which will
finally precipitate the kind of despotic rule represented by the beast.
I seem to hear my Lord warning me that if I allow myself to get caught
up in this political struggle, I will inevitably be deceived into
welcoming the master-man that conditions will seem to call for. To do
that will be to discover -- perhaps when it is too late -- that such an
authoritarian regime may begin with good intentions but will, in the
end, become the instrument for Satan's lust to domineer over men.
IT takes wisdom (v.18) to understand that if 777 is God's number, then
666 is the number of that kind of man who always comes short of the
divine standard, and who being fallen, can never remedy humanity's
ills. Indeed all his attempts to do so can only lead to calamity. Our
wisdom, then, is to recognise that the saints are citizens of another [61/62] world. We are pilgrims -- visitors -- here on
this earth. Let us submit to men's ordinances and let us pray for
whoever are our rulers, but let us avoid emotional involvement in their
suggested solutions of world problems. I find that I am constantly
pressurised to get so involved. All protestants feel that the Roman
Church has failed to use its political powers for good, but do they
equally realise that Christ's Church was never meant to have political
power for any purpose? World events are moving fast. If it so happens
that the present development of our home and foreign affairs paves the
way for the last great deception, then we shall soon be carried swiftly
away on an irresistible tide of humanistic godlessness. Then the saints
who have not had ears to hear and have backed political solutions will
want to withdraw from their sympathies for and support of the
contemporary saviour of the situation. Or it is to be hoped that they
will. But in any case will they be able, at that late stage, truthfully
to assert that their politics are in heaven?
THE patient faith of the saints is not a placid acceptance of evils; it
is not silence in the presence of the lie. We must follow Christ, the
embodiment of true saintliness, in witnessing to the truth, even at the
cost of our lives. But if the Church is to follow the example of Him
who refused to take part in political agitation and equally refused to
arbitrate in a family quarrel, we must be very careful not to get
involved in partisan attempts to grapple with the problems of corrupt
society. Here, it seems to me, is the patience of the saints -- they
avoid the use of carnal weapons and keep faithfully to their spiritual
power-structure. Individual believers have to find their own God-given
place in society, but the Church is the body of Christ, the one who
affirmed that His kingdom is not of this world.
PATIENCE is a great spiritual weapon when it is allied with faith. If
we weaken in this realm we shall court defeat. The Lord not only wishes
to save us from being defeated; He wants to make us His fellow soldiers
in the great climactic victory. And "faith is the victory" -- faith,
not fatalism! We need to beware of mere negatives. For me this call to
hear does not represent a warning against registering for ration cards,
belonging to a union or even voting at an election. No, it is
essentially a call to the right kind of detachment from those
humanistic activities which strain to get the kingdom of heaven here on
earth without waiting for the return of the King. The Church must keep
clear of this kind of power politics and keep its faith and patience
fully operative in the realm of prevailing prayer. I feel sure that the
Lord's call for patience, faith and wisdom was necessary in John's day.
I am equally of the opinion that it has been meaningful all through the
dispensation. Today, as never before, it seems most relevant, for
modern world conditions seem to cry out more than ever for
authoritarian action. I wonder if the scene is now being set for
Satan's masterpiece, Antichrist, who will begin by offering himself as
an inspiring saviour and prove in the end to be a most monstrous beast.
THIS, at any rate, was what my ears seemed to hear, and I worked it out
accordingly. In due course we had our Bible study on Revelation 13. We
caught a glimpse, I trust, of our calling to be separated unto God in a
growingly evil world. And we just permitted ourselves the luxury of a
glance into chapter 14, where we saw the triumphant Lamb on Mount Sion.
We went home newly reminded that our vocation is to "follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth". - Harry Foster.
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I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
J. Alec Motyer
THE subject of the Holy Spirit is mysterious. Do you not find it so? We
talk of God the Father and we feel that we are on familiar ground.
Whatever allowances we have to make for our earthly father, and
whatever even greater allowances our children have to make for us, at
least the concept of fatherhood is something which we know about. We
can therefore appreciate in measure the Bible's revelation of God as
our heavenly Father. Likewise when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ we
feel that we can identify Him, for He has a face, He is a Man. We have
never seen that face but we have known the story of Jesus as the Man
among men, with hands outstretched [62/63] to
help us and a heart filled with compassion for us. We feel at home with
the God who came to us as a Man like us.
But the Holy Spirit. What shall we say of Him? He seems like a God
without a face. We find ourselves talking about someone for whom we
have no real analogy. It is so difficult to form any idea or give any
expression when we want to speak about the Holy Spirit. Yet we do want
to do so, for the New Testament attracts us by the many titles which it
employs for this divine person. Here are some of them:
He is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of holiness and the Spirit of glory.
Now the very ideas of holiness and glory tell us that He is truly God.
They also make us understand that His great concern is with holiness,
and His supreme objective is to make us holy.
We are told of His relationship with the other members of the Godhead.
He is the Spirit of God. Just as my spirit is peculiarly the spirit of
me, so He is the actual Spirit of the one who is God. Moreover He is
called most graphically "the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the
dead", giving us a beautiful glimpse of the Father and the Spirit
together brooding purposefully over the dead Jesus and lifting Him up
from death. He is also called the Spirit of Jesus, and the Spirit of
God's Son, so close is His relationship with our beloved Saviour.
He has other titles which speak of His relationship to us as believers.
He is our Comforter or Counsellor (RSV). If these names do not thrill
you, as I confess they do not particularly appeal to me, then we can
turn with gratitude to the title "the Spirit of adoption". My sister
and her husband adopted a boy. He is thirteen years old now, and I
imagine that long, long ago they ceased to remember that he was
adopted, and have become accustomed to thinking of him as their own
son. We have been adopted into God's family. We do not belong there by
nature. By nature we were children of wrath, but we have been adopted
by a deliberate, wonderful and inexplicable divine choice. Just as my
sister made such a choice and said: 'We will have that one', so God has
decided that He wants us. But there is one thing that she and her
husband could not do, and in that her son differs from mine; they could
never share their nature with their son. My son, however, has the
misfortune very manifestly to have received his nature as well as his
name from me. The Spirit of adoption is more than a name: He is a
nature. Is this not wonderful? We who were not children and never could
have been, are brought into God's family by an adoption which far
surpasses the human use of the word, for the Spirit of adoption has
filled us with God's own life. The Holy Spirit is the one who makes
adoption a reality.
Yet other titles tell of His relationship with the Word of God. He is
the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of prophecy. How rich an occupation
it is to discover more of this great Holy Spirit! It is not possible
for us to consider His many titles in this single message, so we will
limit ourselves to three aspects which are indicated in Christ's own
words: "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of
truth" (John 14:16-17).
1. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first point suggested by this verse is that the Holy Spirit is the
Spirit of the Lord Jesus. This fact is of tremendous help to us. Just
before He went to the cross, Jesus was talking to His disciples about
God the Father when Philip interjected: 'Lord, show us the Father and
that will be enough for us'. Jesus replied, almost sharply: "Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He
that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Shew
us the Father?" By using the expression 'another Comforter', the Lord
showed that what was true of people meeting the Father in Himself was
also true of their meeting the Spirit. What He really meant was: 'He
that hath seen Me hath seen the Holy Spirit'. The Holy Spirit was another
Comforter. They had had one already, and how they needed Him! Now the
Lord Jesus told them that they were going to get another, and the word
used denotes another of the same kind, another one like the one you
already have. He said: 'When this Holy Spirit comes you will not see
Him nor be able to take hold of Him, but since you see Me, then you
have seen Him'. And that is why the Lord went on to say: "I will not
leave you desolate: I will come to you" (v.18). He promised that He
would not abandon them as orphans, but would personally come to them.
So that when the Holy Spirit comes, Jesus comes. Can it be, then, that
the Spirit has a face after all? The only begotten Son who is in the
bosom of the Father, [63/64] He has made the
Father plain to us; and the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of
the Father has also made the Holy Spirit plain to us.
You should never discuss with anybody the arguments for or against the
existence of God. If people express doubts, make sure that they really
do want to know if God exists, and if so the answer is to request them
to consider Jesus Christ. After all that is the only way in which the
Christian knows God. You and I do not know God by any process of
reasoning, but only by coming to Him through the Lord Jesus. So avoid
all heated arguments as to whether God exists and quietly insist that
if men are really in earnest about knowing God they should take up the
Gospels and read about Jesus. Now it is exactly the same if we wish to
consider the Holy Spirit. He is not a subject for debate or conjecture.
He is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ and we know Him by referring
always to the Lord Jesus. If anyone is puzzled about what this
invisible, intangible God can mean for you day by day, this is the
answer: 'It is like having Jesus with you all the time'.
Now there are two great truths in the New Testament which are linked up
with this matter of the Holy Spirit being the Spirit of Jesus.
(a) The Lord Jesus has secured the presence of the Holy
Spirit for every believer.
We are told that "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth
His Son ... to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons." We were not sons, but God sent us His
Son to make that adoption a reality." And because ye are sons ..." not
in order that ye might become sons, but "because ye are sons, God sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father"
(Galatians 4:4-6). Jesus came to purchase our adoption and we know the
joy of this adoption when the Holy Spirit leads us into the presence of
God and we can call Him Father. If you know and love the Lord Jesus,
trusting Him for your personal salvation, then I say to you on the
authority of these verses that the Holy Spirit is no stranger in your
life. This truth can be abundantly confirmed in the words of the Lord
Jesus Himself: "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for
you that I go away". That is a shock! Many of us as children sang about
the time when Jesus was here among men, with the line: 'I should like
to have been with Him then'. Would you? Of course you would if you love
Him. And yet Jesus says that there is something much better. 'It is
better that I go away.' Why? Because: "if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send Him unto you"
(John 16:7). It was better, it was for our highest good that He went
away. And how did He go? He went away to the cross. How else did He go?
He went away into the tomb, to show the reality of His substitutionary
death. He also went away in the resurrection and the ascension and
"being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the
Father the promise of the Holy Spirit ..." He shed forth, poured out,
His gracious Spirit on all believing men. He has secured the presence
of the Holy Spirit for every believer.
(b) The Lord Jesus is the test by which we recognise the
presence and teaching of the Holy Spirit.
It is He alone who is the test. So that if anybody claims to have this
or that experience of the Holy Spirit, we can apply the test and ask:
'Does it make him like Jesus? Or is it making him critical, divisive
and hard to live with?' If anyone urges upon me a special experience,
saying that unless I have had a similar experience I cannot claim that
the Holy Spirit is in me, my immediate question is: 'Is that true in
the case of the Lord Jesus? Did Jesus have that experience? There can
be no question about the Spirit's presence in His life for my Bible
tells me that He was absolutely full of the Spirit. So it is no use
your saying to me that I ought to have this, that or the other
experience to be filled with the Spirit unless what you say is also
true about Jesus. He is the test.'
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, and what is not found in the
Lord Jesus cannot be essential. We are to test every experience by Him.
Look at 1 John 4:1-2, where this is made strikingly plain. "Many false
prophets are gone out into the world." What is a prophet? He is a man
who claims to speak for God. Now we are told that many who claim to do
this are false prophets, so we must not believe all that purports to
come from God. I cannot ask you to believe me without applying this
Scriptural test. And what is it? "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus is come in the flesh is of
God." We must be directed to the Man Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels,
if we are to be confident [64/65] that we have
the presence and teaching of the Holy Spirit. Not to the Jesus of our
sensations or imaginations, but to the Jesus who came in the flesh --
He is the test. What you do not find in Him is not necessarily of God
and cannot be essential.
2. The Spirit of Truth.
The second point which is stressed in John 14:17 is that He is the
Spirit of truth. This is self-evident, since He is the Spirit of the
Lord Jesus who insists on the centrality of the Word of God in the life
of the Christian and of the Church. Two men were walking down to Emmaus
... You know at once what I am talking about when I begin in this way,
for theirs is one of the best known and loved stories of the
resurrection. These two had sorrow in their faces and problems on their
lips, when they were joined by a third party who walked on with them.
Now we know that this was the Lord Jesus, but they did not know. Why?
Because God would not allow them to recognise Him. It was not that they
were stupid and unobservant, but that God deliberately made it
impossible for them to identify Him. Jesus asked the two why they were
so sad, and they disclosed that it was over recent happenings in
Jerusalem. The Lord asked: "What things?" showing that He asks
questions not to obtain information but only to help us to unburden
ourselves. This they did, saying that all their concern was centred on
the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Surely this might have been the moment
to drive away their sorrow and remove all their questions! All Jesus
had to do was to reply: 'Friends, just stop, turn, look and see My
hands'. Then they would have realised it all and known that the rumours
they had heard were after all quite true. But no! The risen Lord gave
no short-cuts, no 'hot line' to heaven. He made them work together with
Him in the Scriptures. "He expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). Note that this was what
made their hearts burn within them -- not thrilling sensations and
ecstatic emotions, but the opening up to them of the Word of God.
So we learn that the Lord Jesus insists that we can only know Him
through the Bible. This is not my idea, I did not invent it, but it is
clearly proved by Luke's account of the resurrection. We all revel in
Matthew's account of the risen Lord, with His inspiring words: "All
authority is given unto me", so why should we be so confident about
Matthew's teaching and less assured by that of Luke? It is clear that
according to Luke Christ says that there are to be no short-cuts to Him
apart from His Word. There is no immediate knowledge of Jesus for you
and me except by means of the Word of God. If we are going to be true
worshippers of the Lord Jesus, we must pay heed to Luke's reminder that
Christ will only make Himself known to us and to His Church as we come
under the government of the Spirit's application of the Bible. It is
the Spirit of Jesus who will show Himself to be the Spirit of truth,
and He will do this in two ways:
(a) By guaranteeing the Bible to be the Word of God.
We are told that men were only able to write these books as they were
moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). What an amazing collection of
men these writers were! What great, attractive, colourful human beings!
To neglect the Book is to miss the finest company that any man could
ever keep. They were magnificent people in themselves, these Old
Testament prophets and New Testament apostles whose hands wrote down
the Scriptures. But how did they come to write them? By the Holy
Spirit. None of it was ever of man's initiation. It was not that Peter
or Isaiah or others woke up one morning and said: 'Do you know, I would
like to write a piece of the Bible today'. No, it never came by the
will of man. In this connection the NEB uses the word 'whim' -- '... it
was not through any human whim'. That is a good rendering. It was not
just something which occurred to men: the origin was in God. How did it
come from Him to earth? By men being moved, impelled, by the Holy
Spirit. There was a wonderful transmission of words from God which were
made real, safeguarded and guaranteed on earth by the activity of the
Holy Spirit. Luke uses this same word 'moved' when, telling the story
of Paul's shipwreck, he says that the ship was 'driven' by the
tempestuous winds (Acts 27:17). In using the term Peter stressed the
mighty activity of the Spirit of God driving men to write the
Scriptures. What a wonderful thing it is for us to have an assured
Bible, a word from God which we can trust! How do we have it? Because
the Holy Spirit inspired the minds and pens of those who wrote. He is
the Spirit of truth.
(b) The same Holy Spirit is also our teacher in the Word of
God.
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall [65/66] teach you all
things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have
said unto you" (John 14:26). These are the personal words of Jesus and,
to the first apostles, they guaranteed the truth of the New Testament.
In those dark days after the crucifixion, the apostles must have said
to one another: 'If only we had been more alert when the Lord taught
us! If only we had listened more carefully to those marvellous things
which Jesus said! If only we had written then down! Oh, why didn't we
write them down?' They need not have worried. As they later found, the
Holy Spirit brought it all back to their remembrance. We owe the
Gospels and then we owe the whole of the New Testament as the
development of the teaching of the Lord Jesus, to the activities of the
Holy Spirit. Now this is the very same one who undertakes to teach us.
For our part we can lay claim to Him as our teacher; we can take these
Spirit-inspired words, look up to God, and pray: 'O God, please send
Thy Holy Spirit to be my teacher'. If we want to be people according to
the mind of the Lord Jesus, then we must give full place to the
centrality of the Bible in our lives and churches. We can never expect
to know the mind of God if we are not prepared to give complete
obedience to the Holy Spirit as our teacher of God's Word. Only in this
way can we be safe from mere human suppositions, delivered from the
emptiness and vanity of our own thoughts and kept in the way of truth.
He is the Spirit of truth.
3. The Comforter.
Comforter is the usual word, though it is also rendered Counsellor and
Advocate. I must confess that I do not find any of these names very
helpful for the one who is 'called alongside'. In fact the Holy Spirit
is the Spirit of conflict. If we ask what is the first mark of the
Spirit's presence, we have to consult the experience of the Lord Jesus
and test the matter by Him. What happened to Him after the Spirit came
upon Him at His baptism? "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil" (Matthew 4:1). Don't ever expect
anything else. If anybody ever tells you that the first mark of the
Spirit is this, that or the other, then don't believe him. According to
Christ, the first mark is headlong and inevitable conflict with the
devil. The Lord Jesus was led into this conflict by the Holy Spirit. It
was not an accident; it was not by His personal choice; it was the
result of the government of the Holy Spirit in His life. Perhaps some
of you will now understand why your life is so full of difficulty if
you are a Spirit-indwelt Christian. The Spirit leads into conflict.
There was once a Christian employee of a country squire who sought to
be faithful in witnessing to his non-Christian master. This master
sometimes said to him: 'It is just not worth it. Here you say you are a
Christian, and yet you have to face so many trials whereas I, who make
no claim to being one, have no worries and lead a smooth and easy life.
It doesn't make sense.' The worker had no answer to this argument until
one day he was out with his master who was shooting. Two birds flew
over; the squire fired two shots, killing one of them and winging the
other. The injured bird went off into the wood, and the Christian went
forward to pick up the dead bird, but his master shouted: 'Don't bother
about that one, it's dead. Go after the living one'. The man did as he
was told, but when he came back to his boss he had the answer to their
problem. 'The devil doesn't bother about the dead ones either, Sir,' he
said, 'he goes after the living ones'. Yes, the devil does go after
those who live in Christ, but note that the Spirit goes after the
devil. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh" (Galatians 5:17). Thus it is that the Spirit-filled
Christian is in a situation of conflict.
And it is in this conflict that we so sorely need help, and the Spirit
is our helper. He is the Comforter, Counsellor, Advocate, to get us
through the many problems of our daily life. The simplest rendering of
the Greek word is surely 'Companion', and I cannot understand why it
has not been used. The one called alongside is the Companion in the
conflict who responds to our call for help. Does this mean, for
example, that He is there for me to call on? Can I call Him alongside
when I am in need? You certainly can. Whenever Satan attacks and
troubles threaten then you may appeal to Him, for the Lord Jesus
promised that this Companion would abide with us for ever. There is,
however, something much more precious than that. He is the one whom God
calls alongside us. This is why He is called another Comforter, for the
same Father who appointed that Jesus should be called in to be our
Saviour has appointed that the Holy Spirit should be called in to be
the Companion of saved sinners. He is at hand, not only by my
invitation or because I have asked Him to help me, but because the
Father has called Him to [66/67] come alongside.
The Father has given just such another as Jesus to be the constant
Companion of such a wretched failure like me. Isn't it wonderful? No
Christian has to go out into a hostile world alone. No Christian need
ever be lonely, for even if we live alone we have the rich company of
the Father and the Son, made real to us by the blessed Spirit. Oh yes.
I believe in the Holy Spirit.
----------------
FOLLOWING THE LAMB
3. THE FATHER'S GIFT
Poul Madsen
"Then Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them, what
seek ye?
They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,)
where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see." John 1:38-39
WE have seen John using the daily repetitions of life and finding
God-given opportunities in them. The outcome of his faithfulness was a
short, powerful message: 'Behold the Lamb of God', which the two
disciples heard, and they followed Jesus. Now we read what is said
about the Lord. Whenever you read about Him, read as slowly as you can;
it all seems so simple and you may be apt to think that you know it all
already. The truth is that what Jesus said can never be exhausted: the
simpler it seems the more profound it is. So be very, very careful when
you come to a passage which you think you know.
"Jesus turned". He never did anything casually. When He turned He had a
definite intention. When people followed Jesus He often turned. Why did
He do so? To avoid and prevent superficial following. " And there went
great multitudes with him: and he turned and said unto them, If any man
come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:25-26). He did not say: 'I am so happy
that you are all following Me. I promise you everything if only you
just keep on following'. No, He said something very different.
According to the wisdom of men, this action of His was most foolish.
Men would say that He spoiled His chances, imagining that He could have
had a wonderful following if He had kept silent, instead of turning
round and saying such harsh words to the enthusiastic crowds. At a time
of conference or special meetings many are ready to follow, and
therefore it is very important to know that this is how our Lord would
speak to them at such a time. They may feel so happy and think that
they are all following so long as the conference lasts, but they are
carried away by their emotions and that is why the Lord has to turn and
say seemingly hard words to them. It is true that these are not the
methods of mass evangelism but they are the authentic words of Christ.
On this occasion the Lord turned to the two men, not to prevent
superficial following but to encourage true following. "And saw them
following". Do you think that this means that the Lord just had a look
at them? No. What does it mean, then? It means the same as what He
indicated in His words to Nathanael: 'I saw you under the fig tree'
(v.50). This meant that before Nathanael knew anything about the Lord,
Jesus knew everything about him. So when the Lord turned and saw the
two following it means that before they knew very much about it, He
knew everything about their following. They did not know much of the
implications of following, but He did. They did not know that it would
involve becoming an outcast in good society and even in religious
circles, but He could see them following even at the cost of being
outcasts. At that time they did not know that following meant losing
everything, but He saw them following and leaving all. They did not
know that following meant going to the cross, but He saw them following
right to the cross. "He saw them following" means that He acknowledged
them as true followers right to the end of the road. Of course He saw
their limitations, their faults, their sins, their follies and their
trials, too, but He looked on them in a spirit of faith and so saw them
as though already perfect. Following is a part of the gospel. It is a
gift [67/68] from the Lord. That is why we read:
"whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he
called, them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also
glorified" (Romans 8.29). Glorified! That means that they have reached
the goal of all their following. This was true of these two disciples;
He foreknew them right from the beginning, He called them, He justified
them and He glorified them; this was how He looked upon them. And what
could they say? What can we say? 'If God be for us -- and looks upon us
like that -- who can be against us?' It is a wonderful thing that the
Lord looks on us in that way. All your fears will disappear and a new
faith will enter your heart if you can lay hold of this.
HE said to them: "What seek ye?" The words of our Lord Jesus are never
empty. They are spirit and they are life. They are power. They are
divine. They are eternal. Even when He asked what they were seeking, it
was not a real question because He was not in need of information. He
spoke to help them. He wanted them to become conscious of the purpose
behind their following Him. Did they know what the purpose was? So He
tried to help them by means of this question, and really He taught them
by way of contrast. His question as to what they were after made them
start thinking: Is it peace? No. it was something more than peace. Is
it joy? Is it love? Is it happiness? Is it a new meaning to life? No.
it is more than these, though they are all included. More and more they
became conscious that what they were really seeking was the Lord
Himself, they wanted Him. This is what He was trying to teach
them: not this and that but Him! Immediately, therefore, they began to
call Him Master. What a tremendous testimony to the evangelism of John.
So often in modern evangelism people are promised joy and peace and
happiness and blessing. John did not promise anything, he simply
testified: "Behold the Lamb of God" and they responded by following
Christ. All this really came out of the Lord's question. What seek ye?
They sought only Him: there was nothing else and nobody else to seek.
He was becoming all things to them, and so they wanted to stay with
Him. It is only as you stay with a friend in his home that you really
get to know him. And they wanted to know the Lord as much as possible.
THE next thing we read is that He said unto them "Come". We must not
take it for granted that we understand what this means but rather
enquire what is the depth of meaning in the word when it is used by the
Lord Jesus. 'Come' is a great keyword to John's Gospel. "All that which
the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh to me I
will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37). "The Jews therefore murmured
concerning him, because he said, I am the bread which came down out of
heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose
father and mother we know? How doth he now say, I am come down out of
heaven? Jesus answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
No man can come unto me except the Father draw him, and I will raise
him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall
all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the Father, and
hath learned, cometh unto me" (John 5:41-45). Now we understand a
little more of what He meant when He said, 'Come'! It was not just an
invitation, it was much more. He really implied, 'You are the gift of
My Father to Me, and I am longing for you to come'. "All that the
Father giveth me" means that you are the Father's gift to Me. Come! He
did not just invite them -- 'Will you please come? Will you consider
coming? Would you like to come? Will you make the decision of coming?'
It was much more wonderful than that. He did not urge them to make a
decision, for the big decision had already been made by the Father who
had decided, before ever they made a decision, to give them as a gift
to His Son.
There is even more in this call to 'Come'. The Jews could not come
because they did not know Him. They thought that He was the son of
Joseph, and so felt no desire to come to Him. They had not been taught
of the Father. These two, however, had been taught of the Father and
had learned through John the Baptist. This again is a remarkable
testimony to the words of John when he said: "Behold the Lamb". That
was the teaching of the Father, and that is why they came. They had
learned. The same is true of us. We have not made the big decision. We
are not religious heroes. We are sinners whose eyes the Father has
opened and who gladly respond to the Lord's call to come.
There is yet more. "It is written in the prophets, And they shall all
be taught of God" (John 6:45). It was written in the prophets, and
these two disciples had been taken up into what had been [68/69]
written and that is why they came to Christ. They were in the counsels
of God so that what was written in the prophets had become true of
them. Was it difficult for them to come? What else could they do but
come? You see evangelism is not an appeal, repeated again and again
with pressure and persuasion. This can only produce a resolution of the
flesh, an appeal to the old man. The gospel is something more than
that. The gospel is God at work. It is Jesus at work. It does not
produce a birth from flesh or blood or the will of man, but through
God's almighty 'Come'. He it is who imparts to men the meaning of
coming, so making them comers and followers.
FURTHER the Lord Jesus added "... and see". We may wonder what He had
to show them. I am quite often invited to new homes where a young
couple are beginning married life together. They are proud to show me
their home, and I usually say how wonderful it is. But what had Jesus
to show these two disciples? There was no earthly glory at all. He was
poorer than they, much poorer, and could have had very little to show
them, and yet there must have been something worth seeing for Him to
have so invited them. The word 'see' is another keynote of John's
Gospel. "He who has seen me has seen the Father". Come and see -- the
Father! "If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of
God." This is what He had to show them, the glory of God. And so they
came and they saw. And we know from their testimony that they really
saw. "We have found Him of whom Moses has spoken, the anointed one."
They had really seen the Father and the glory.
This then was what the Lord Jesus said to the two men. "What seek ye?
Come and see." And the outstanding result was that they were both
totally transformed. They found that they were the gift of the Father
to His Son. If I ask you what kind of gift the Father gives to us, you
will reply that He always gives perfect gifts. They are good and
perfect gifts which come down to us from the Father of lights. If I ask
the further question as to what kind of gifts the Father would give to
His beloved Son, the answer could only be that they are perfect gifts.
In this case, then, the Lord Jesus when He turned saw two perfect gifts
which the Father was giving Him. And now He turns to you. He looks at
you. He calls you to come. You, then, are a perfect gift from the
Father to the Son.
Do you perhaps feel that your life is unsatisfactory and unfulfilled?
Maybe you have tried again and again, making one resolution after
another, rededicating yourself perhaps a hundred times. You have tried
this and you have tried that, and still deep down you are a
disappointed Christian. May I tell you that no efforts of yours will
change this? Only one thing can help you, and that is the realisation
that you are a perfect gift from the Father to the Son. As soon as that
is clear in your mind, and really believed in your heart, a new hope
and a new joy will spring up, not because you have made a new
resolution but because you have seen what the Father has made out of
you. By faith you must look on yourself as the Son looks on you, and as
you do so you are free. It is almost too good to be true, yet it is
true, for it is divine. This is no struggle: it is a gospel, good
tidings. It is no credit to you. You are not a religious hero, you are
not even a super Christian, but you are the Father's gift to His Son.
He foreknew you; He called you; He predestined you to become like His
Son; He justified you; He glorified you. What, then, can you say to
these things? 'If God is for me, who can be against me?' And you, like
these two, will now dwell where He dwells. From now on your testimony
will not be about blessings or achievements or things at all -- it will
just be that you have found Him.
----------------
THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION
CHAPTER 4
THE TESTIMONY OF TRIUMPHANT LIFE
T. Austin-Sparks
ELISHA'S life was full of expressions of resurrection life. He came
into touch with various people and situations, and whatever he touched
produced a new expression of life triumphing over death. We now
consider three such situations.
1. The Valley Filled With Water
The story of Moab's revolt against Israel is described in 2 Kings 3.
The actual fact is mentioned in the very first verse of 2 Kings, as
though to suggest that sooner or later Elisha would find himself
involved in this matter, as indeed he was. [69/70]
The facts were that in the past David had subdued these Moabites, and
their payment of tribute had continued right through to the end of
Ahab's reign. It was then that they broke into active rebellion. The
larger spiritual background of the New Testament suggests that this is
an allegory of the victory of the Lord Jesus over all His enemies. What
David did was typical of the full victory of Christ. And just as this
revolt was a violent reaction against the Davidic throne, so there were
hostile forces which showed themselves soon after Pentecost, seeming
almost to contradict the all-inclusive victory of Calvary. The secret
of the Church's ability to triumph under such circumstances was -- and
always is -- a new experience of the resurrection life of the ascended
Lord.
In this case the revolt of Moab was precipitated by the state of
spiritual weakness among God's people. Ahab had been responsible for
spiritual declension in the nation and had handed on to his successor a
heritage of unfaithfulness. Things were at a low ebb spiritually, and
the sad situation called for Elisha's intervention. So we see that the
first lesson is the need for establishing a testimony to the absolute
rule of the Lord at a time when God's people are in spiritual weakness
and the pressure of the world is correspondingly great. The story shows
that things became very precarious for God's people when they set out
to combat Moab's resistance without the resources to carry their
attempt through. When they came to the actual moment for launching
their assault, they found themselves paralysed because of their lack of
water. They arrived at the place where they had expected to find
streams, only to discover that the water had dried up, so that the
whole army was in danger of perishing for want of natural resources.
The issue was clearly one of life or death, as the king of Israel
confessed, but Jehoshaphat, who had some vital relationship with God,
suggested consulting Him by means of a prophet: "Is there not here a
prophet of the Lord, that we may enquire of the Lord by him?" So an
appeal was made to Elisha.
For his part Elisha refused to have anything to do with the king of
Israel because of his spiritual depravity, but in view of his respect
for Jehoshaphat he was able to offer help in the name of the Lord who
never despises any genuine appeal to Himself. So Elisha asked for a
minstrel, not for the sake of soulish inspiration, but to quieten his
own spirit and to find detachment from the earthiness all around him.
Being thus disentangled from the emotional atmosphere, he was able to
open his heart to the Lord and to receive the divine command and
promise about the digging of the ditches. We need not stay with the
details of the story: we note the central message.
In this conflict with hostile forces which, taking advantage of the
current spiritual declension, are bent on the full and final
destruction of the Lord's testimony in His people, we find ourselves
without sufficient resources to meet the situation. How, then, can
these evil powers be met? Only on the basis of our knowing the Lord in
a new way in the power of resurrection. It is a very simple lesson, but
it is one which runs continuously through the New Testament. It is
clearly seen in the life of the apostle Paul, who often seemed in
danger of complete extinction by the overwhelming odds against him, and
yet triumphantly emerged from the ordeal. Like Elisha's experience in
the wilderness of Edom, there was neither noise nor outward
manifestation -- no sound of wind or rain -- but a mighty flowing in of
resurrection power which completely recovered the situation for God.
On one occasion, after a murderous attack on him, the apostle was
actually left for dead, but he rose up again, went back again into the
city, and ensured that there was a great and abiding celebration there
at Lystra of the power of Christ's resurrection. At Ephesus the attack
took another form, but the riot there seemed for the moment to be an
overwhelming victory for the kingdom of evil. Nevertheless we have
proof of the vital testimony established in that city. It was
concerning Ephesus that the apostle said that it was there that he
despaired even of life, yet he was delivered from that great death; and
the spiritual values of the letter to the Ephesians have persisted
through the centuries. Eternity will reveal what marvellous fruit came
from the battle at Ephesus, a battle which for a time looked to have
been lost. What was true of Lystra and Ephesus was equally true in
other places and on many occasions. The powers of evil threatened the
maintenance of the testimony of Jesus but, without any noise or show,
there was the effective working of the risen life of Christ and a
celebration of His victory. In the outcome it was the opposing forces
which were destroyed, while the Lord's servants were delivered.
Today we often feel hard pressed in the spiritual battle, and the need
is for a fresh knowledge of [70/71] the Lord in
terms of resurrection. Many other remedies are suggested, and there is
a wearisome round of conferences, discussions and committees, aimed at
removing the spiritual deadlock. The only vital impact on the heart of
the problem is a fresh experience of the Lord's resurrection power, a
fresh knowing of the uprising of the fullness of His life. It seems as
if, through Elisha's story, the Lord is telling us that rather than
look for better ways and means, we should seek for more lives which are
mightily energised by the risen power of our exalted Lord.
2. The Widow's Oil
We pass on to the next incident which is described in 2 Kings 4:1-7,
which treats of an experience of a widow of one of the sons of the
prophets. Inasmuch as these sons of the prophets were representative of
those who took responsibility for the Lord's interests, even though
they lacked experience, we may find help from the spiritual
interpretation of what happened. The widow was in a state of serious
impoverishment, and in that she represents the condition in which God's
people sometimes are where they are unable to meet their spiritual and
moral obligations. "Thy servant my husband is dead: and thou knowest
that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take
unto him my two children to be bondmen". She could not face the
creditor; she was not in a position to meet his demands; her two sons
were to be taken into bondage. Typically this suggests the forfeiting
of the fruit of life to alien rule, as though the Church had been taken
possession of by the world and was being forced to lose the values of
its activities.
We see this happening today. The world uses Christianity for its own
ends and so often reduces the professing Church to bondage by getting
it to use its own methods and ideas. Every worldly development in this
realm is really a confession, albeit an unintentional one, that the
'Church' cannot live its own independent life, but has to rely on human
expedients and worldly support to continue. When the Church lacks
spiritual resources it always tends to suffer some sort of 'take-over'
by earthly and carnal elements. Like this widow, the Church has a
little oil. It is not altogether devoid of the Spirit, not absolutely
and finally without some vital experience of Christ. But when there are
activities and organisations which are enlarged beyond the measure of
its spiritual experience, when the inner life is not commensurate with
the outward development, then the situation becomes pathetic and cries
out for a remedy.
It was Elisha who solved the widow's problem, and it is this same
reality of a fresh knowledge of the Lord in the fullness of His
resurrection life which alone can provide the remedy for the Church's
weakness. Elisha asked the woman what she had in her house, and then
told her to borrow as many empty vessels as she could find. We notice
that in every one of these movements of recovery (revival, if you
like), the knowing again of the Lord in the power of resurrection
involved a challenge to faith. In the face of the Moabite onslaught it
was: "Make this valley full of trenches ...". With no sign of rain and
no idea where the water would come from, they had to obey the command
to make the valley full of trenches. Their part was the obedience of
faith, and they had to leave the rest to the faithfulness of God. In
the case of the debt-ridden woman it was: "Go, borrow vessels ... not a
few". The natural mind would have reacted to such instructions with the
question: 'But where is the oil coming from for these vessels? I do not
see the use of it.' Once again God insisted on the principle of the
obedience of faith. In sheer confidence on Him she must go out and
borrow the vessels from her neighbours. They might well have laughed at
her, for the obedience of faith often gets us into situations which to
the world are quite ridiculous. However that is just where faith has
its real value, in that it is prepared to move without caring what
other people think, but trusting God implicitly.
Such faith not only necessitates stepping out on the Lord's word, it
also means putting into operation the little which one already has,
like the widow's use of the pot of oil. So many of the Lord's people
are waiting to learn a great deal more of Him before they are prepared
to move at all. They have just a little knowledge of the Lord, and the
divine principle is that there will be no increase until they are
extended to the full in what they have. It is by acting in faith on the
basis of what we have that brings us to increase. We are not to have
our expectations based on what we already have, but on the confidence
that God has very much more to give us as we use what we have. If the
woman had fixed her attention upon that pot of oil, and said: 'That is
the beginning and end of all my hopes and expectations', then nothing
would have happened. [71/72] She had to see that
small vessel in relation to a fullness which was boundless. If we take
our little as all that is, then we will remain poor; but if we count on
God's fullness rather than on our own experience, we shall find
deliverance. The fullness of God is a fact which lies beyond our
present experience, but it is [a] fact concerning which we have to act
in faith.
The power of the risen life of the Lord Jesus is without limit, and
there is no situation and no life which presents a need which cannot be
met by Him. If at times we were to act according to our own feelings,
we would say that we could not face the challenge before us, but since
the Lord is our resource, we can go on in faith and find Him coming in
and filling our emptiness. This is a sound principle for the Lord's
servants to work upon. The point where we cease to believe that a
situation is capable of solution by the Lord is the point where our
testimony fails: we are contradicting the fact that the power of His
resurrection knows no limit. For this woman it was a case of keeping on
keeping on! In the end it was she, and not the Lord, who set the limit.
When she ceased to provide vessels then the flow of oil stopped. The
limit is never on the Lord's side.
3. The Shunammite's Son
This third story is found in 2 Kings 4:8-37. It is different from the
others, and the extra emphasis is significant. In the case of the
widow, we were dealing with a woman manifestly in poverty and
emptiness. It was the oil which brought her fullness. When we come to
this woman of Shunem we find that we meet quite another situation. She
is called "a great woman". This means that insofar as temporal matters
were concerned she was well provided for; her position was one of
comfort, of plenty and of affluence, indeed just the opposite of the
other woman. Unlike Elijah's helper, the widow of Zarephath, who had to
be urged to give the prophet some of her meagre supply of food, this
woman was the one to persuade Elisha to accept her hospitality. She
seemed to have plenty, but in fact she had one great lack. The prophet
contemplated her. He looked at her home, her table, her servants, her
possessions, and had to enquire if there was any way in which he could
enrich her. The need was not obvious, but it was very deep. Gehazi was
able to disclose this hidden longing of hers: "Verily she hath no son
...". When Elisha pursued the subject, the woman replied: "Do not lie
unto thine handmaid", as if to suggest that the one desire of her life
was incapable of fulfilment and had been accepted as such. She could
not bear any superficial good wishes, nor did she wish to face again
the battle of resignation. For her the matter was finally closed.
Elisha, however, had something better than pious wishes to offer and in
due time his word of promise came to pass. From that moment all her
life was concentrated in this son. Then "... it fell on a day ..." that
he became critically ill, was carried home from the fields to his
mother, and "... sat on her knees until noon, and then died". She laid
him on the prophet's bed, and went to fetch Elisha.
There is no need to repeat the whole story, for our purpose is simply
to stress the one issue of the miracle of resurrection life. This is
the one matter of supreme importance, the knowing of Christ in the
power of His resurrection. In Philippians 3 the apostle Paul lists the
things which he had valued, and then affirms: I count these things,
great as they are in the eyes of men, as well [as] lost if by this loss
I may come to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. This was
what made him the man of spiritual power which he was. There is an
inner secret history of knowing the Lord in a way that cannot be
accounted for on any other basis than the power of His resurrection.
The testimony reaches its full expression in the matter of the
resurrection of Jesus. It was by this resurrection that Sonship was
established. And what was true of Him has to be worked out in us. The
New Testament teaches by its two distinct Greek words that by our new
birth we are children of God, but that sonship is something in advance
of childhood, it is childhood brought to maturity in the power of
resurrection. "Adoption" is the word used, but in the New Testament
adoption has nothing to do with the taking into the family of an
outsider, but only with the adoption of one's own child at the time of
his majority. The Greek father 'adopted' his own son when that son
reached his majority. That was the time when the one concerned ceased
to be a child and became a son.
This woman came to know the type of all this in a very deep way. The
son was given: that was wonder enough! And yet there might still linger
some doubt as to whether he was wholly a miraculous gift, so the son
had to die, and be brought back to life again, so demonstrating that
his existence was not just the course of nature but the power of God.
The woman was great, but this is not a story of human greatness but of [72/73] the marvellous power of resurrection. We may
have a great deal, even in our Christian lives and work, and yet still
lack the essential element of an inward experience of the power of His
resurrection. So much of our lives can be external, on the surface. The
need is that our experience of God's power shall come right down into
the depths of our inner being, so that we know Christ there in terms of
resurrection life. An altogether new testimony was established in
Shunem when this most precious of God's gifts to the mother had to go
down into death and then be raised again. It is only as the Lord's
people know similar experiences that they are constituted an effective
expression of His testimony, and this explains why we often have to be
taken down into painful depths in order that we may so learn Him.
----------------
TIME, GOD AND MAN
A STUDY OF PSALM 90
John H. Paterson
"So teach us to number our days that we may get us an heart of wisdom
"
(Psalm 90:12).
"I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten ...
and ye shall eat in plenty" (Joel 2:25).
THERE is a part of the basic dilemma of being human which we do not
often refer to explicitly, but which often presses very heavily upon
us: the problem of living in time. It is not merely that we never have
enough time for all the things we want to do, or that as Christians we
must be good stewards of our time, as of our other God-given resources.
It is also the fact that we are time-based creatures and that,
immediately, makes us actors in a human tragedy. The tragedy is that we
can never re-live or re-capture yesterday; that we can never know all
we need to know about tomorrow in time to do what we should do in it.
This is a problem that we need wisdom in solving, as the psalmist
recognised: "So teach us to number our days that we may get us an heart
of wisdom." The wise man learns to reckon with time.
There is another aspect of the problem, too. With time we change. We
are not the same people that we used to be. And those we deal with
change just as we do. Our relationships with them change and, in the
end, even that great word of the Scriptures, "Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today and forever" returns to mock us. He is the same: we
are not. We have changed. And out of this dilemma arises temptation --
the temptation to try to alter, or halt, or even speed up, the passage
of time. But there can be no escape for time-based mortals and
certainly no rest for the Christian who cannot accept his place in this
dilemma.
What the psalmist says is that we should accept our place, and
that if we can do so life will be much more peaceful and settled than
otherwise it will be. He says, "O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that
we may rejoice and be glad all our days." If only we can come to terms
with time, then some of the tension will be removed. Once we can accept
our situation then we may rejoice and be glad but, until we do this, we
shall be fighting against something, struggling to escape. The psalmist
recognised that there is no escape and that the sooner we, too,
recognise it the less tension there will be in our time-based lives. If
only we can be convinced that what we experience are indeed God's
mercies, that He is not capricious, and has not set up this time-scale
simply to mock us, then life will be a lot easier.
So what are these things that we have to accept? At this point we need
to look more closely at the 90th Psalm. Perhaps its most important
feature is contained in its title line: it is the only psalm in the
book which is attributed directly to Moses. And as soon as we say that,
things begin to fall into place. This is Moses' Psalm and Moses knew a
great deal about the passage of time. If we read the psalm again in the
light of Moses' experience, [73/74] we find that
we have a whole set of new insights upon it.
THE first thing about time which we have to recognise is that life does
not get easier as time goes by, and it is an illusion to imagine that
it does. Moses says, "Satisfy us early", because later on the
tests will come on this very point. Let us get this clear at the
beginning, and then we may be able to rejoice later on, when the
difficulties arise.
In Moses' experience, of course, the hardest part came right at the
end. Moses' life was divided into three sections, each of forty years,
and unquestionably the hardest was the last. And in those last forty
years it is not unrealistic to suggest that the very hardest moment of
all came right at the end, when, after dragging those recalcitrant
people behind him through the wilderness for forty years, he finally
got them to the edge of the Promised Land and God said: 'You are
not going in!' This was the hardest blow of all, and we can only marvel
at Moses' calm acceptance of God's verdict -- the verdict of the God of
the Rock which Moses in error had struck: "He is the Rock, his work is
perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without
iniquity, just and right is he" (Deuteronomy 32:4). This is the
reaction of a man who has learned wisdom. Let us not expect things to
get easier as we go on: the reverse is more likely to be the case.
And I think we can see why it should be so. Surely this is not the
caprice of God, but it fits a pattern -- the purpose of God for us all.
For this God of ours is avowedly using time as an instrument, and His
purpose in using it is to bring about change -- moral change, moral
increase and growth in moral stature. And the way He seems to work is
to alternate revelation, or instruction, with out-working. He shows us
something and then He works it out in practice in our lives. So it
should not surprise us, surely, if the very last lap is uphill. That is
God working out the last lesson; putting into practice the last thing
He has shown us. If He keeps the best to the last -- and He may well do
so -- then it is not inappropriate that that should prove the hardest
lesson to apply.
It must surely be in some such way as this that we explain why, in the
lives of so many of God's people, the last lap is a particularly
difficult one. Just when we feel that they have earned a respite,
things get more difficult still. But it fits the pattern, for, in the
purpose of God, moral stature is to go on increasing to the very end.
THE second thing that we need to get settled seems to be that for long
periods it may well appear that nothing is happening at all. Here is
Moses, over eighty now and going round in circles in the wilderness
with a lot of people who never wanted to be there in the first place,
and the years are ticking past. After eighty, a person has not got a
great deal left to look forward to; at least that was how Moses felt
(verse 10): "The days of our years are threescore years and ten, or
even by reason of strength fourscore years; yet is their pride but
labour and sorrow; for it is soon gone, and we flyaway." There speaks
the eighty-year-old, and at eighty he is going round in circles in a
desert and getting nowhere. Here is a man, then, who knows what it
means to have a long period when nothing appears to be happening at
all, and no progress is being made.
Now it is a simple and observable fact that, at the beginning of our
Christian experience, things seem to happen very fast. One of the
interesting aspects of working among young Christians is that, for
them, things develop very rapidly. There is so much to learn, and every
day seems to bring some new and exciting discovery. But later on, as
anybody who has got past that stage will bear out, there are long
stretches where it really seems as if nothing is happening at all. The
greatest trials may well come then, in the blank periods. Has the Lord
forgotten? Is nothing more going to happen? Have we reached a
standstill? We need to be clear that such times will very probably
come, and although we assure each other that God is really there, in
the silence, we know how difficult these times may be. We can at least
be prepared for them.
THE third thing about time that we need to see and accept is that we
cannot dictate it. We know this, of course, but we tend not to be
positive enough in our attitude. When the Lord disappoints our hopes,
as He sometimes does, about a particular piece of timing, we all say.
'Oh well, it evidently wasn't His time.' But under our breath, so to
speak, we may go on believing that He has made a mistake. We are not
really reconciled to His timing by mouthing our little phrase. We
accept in principle that His timing is [74/75]
better than ours, but if we had been in charge it would have happened now.
We need to realise that, on this point, He is not only quite deliberate
but also very definite -- that time and timing are permanently outside
our competence. Surely those New Testament words have an application
much wider than their immediate context: "It is not for you to know
times or seasons, which the Father hath set within his own authority"
(Acts 1:7). There is a division of labour here, and time belongs to His
competence and not to ours. There is no appeal against this for Moses
or for anyone else. Moses would have loved, as we all should, to have a
few more weeks, to go over into the promised land and enjoy a sense of
achievement: "At that time I made this plea to God: 'O Lord God, please
let me cross over into the Promised Land. ... I want to see the result
of all the greatness and power you have been showing us'" (Deuteronomy
3:23-25, Living Bible). But he was blocked at the very
threshold of the land. God was quite emphatic, and if He would not
change His timing for Moses there is no good reason why He should for
us. We must accept this, not in the fatalistic way in which the
Easterner says 'Kismet', or in the reproachful way which indirectly is
a rebuke to God for not knowing His own business best, but in a
positive way by saying, 'I know the timing is not my business
but His; that I can't affect it and He won't allow me to.' This is a
part of the problem of being time-based and yet having to deal with a
God who is eternal, to whom a thousand years have no more ultimate
significance than one day (verse 4). He has got all eternity to mature
His plans. We have not; so, we are always in a hurry. We want to see it
now. If, says Moses, we can recognise in this
disposition of things the "mercies" of God, then we can rejoice and be
glad. The tension will ease when we recognise that He has deliberately
arranged it so, and that He has done it in His mercy.
IF all this forms part of our human dilemma, what can we say? In
particular, what good news have we for each other? If this is the
formidable problem we face, what is the Gospel message with regard to
the tragedies of time? The good news is summed up, surely, in a word
from the verse in Joel's prophecies with which we began: "I will restore
to you the years which the locust hath eaten." We cannot affect or
alter time, but He can, because He stands outside it. He is a God of
restoration. He can do what human beings have always wished they
could do -- put back into time the missing content of the past; the
years which the locusts have eaten. What a wonderful verse this is!
So here we have good news indeed, and good news, in particular, for all
those of God's people who live under the shadow of past mistakes. Some
lives are permanently stunted by the memory of the past, like that of a
Christian who once said, very sadly, to me: 'I can see where, years
ago, I went wrong, and things have never been the same since.' For ten
or fifteen years he had lived under the shadow. Even worse is the case
of those who live under the shadow, not of their own mistakes, but of
the mistakes of others -- the Christian woman who never got married
because a Christian man hesitated with his proposal; or the children
who suffer from the mistaken ideas of their parents. All of us have had
locust years, and He can restore them. What took years to develop or go
wrong, He can restore in a single moment.
He is a God of restoration. He is a God of purpose. He is manipulating
time to serve His purpose and, in the end, what matters is the purpose
and the image into which He is changing us. So we come to the last
verse of this 90th Psalm: "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon
us." If we remember that it is Moses who is speaking, then our thoughts
turn easily to an incident in Moses' life of which he may well have
been thinking. Once, after a period of speaking to God, he came back to
the people and, to their astonishment, his face shone. There was marked
on him an image which was not his own, the image of God. The people who
looked at him could see God in him, the image of the Eternal. Then, as
time went on, that image faded away. He put a veil over his face so
that this fact would be concealed, but the glory gradually faded. Now
this is the man who is praying, in his own psalm, "Let the beauty of
the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou ...". Oh, for a
glory which will not fade away with time! Oh, that there may be seen in
us the image which it is God's purpose to generate in our lives -- the
enduring glory of God, the beauty of the Lord our God upon us. [75/76]
----------------
THE SHADOW OF HEAVENLY THINGS
THOUGHTS ON THE TEMPLE (2)
Roger T. Forster
WHEN Solomon's reign began, the tabernacle of Moses was in Gibeon, and
David's tent, containing the ark of the covenant, was in Sion. The
king, so we are told: "loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David
his father; only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. And
the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high
place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar" (1
Kings 3:3-4).
Already, then, the writer is giving us a hint that one of Solomon's
defects was in this use of the high places for worship. Gibeon was a
pagan high place, yet the priests of God operated there and Solomon
used it for his worship. It is clear that God put up with all this,
indeed He showed Himself very accommodating in the tabernacle sphere of
worship, though never in the realm of the temple. The high places in
Palestine were where the Canaanites used to practise their heathen
rites and when they moved out, the people of Israel took over these
sacred spots, no doubt triumphant that in this way they could express
the superiority and victory of their own faith. The very same thing
happened as Christianity spread over Europe, including our own country
of England. Recently certain magic or occult societies have published
maps showing the sites of druidic shrines by means of lines and
triangles. The apex of each triangle shows where the pagan rites were
held, and it is striking to discover that there are now churches on
these ancient druidic sites. The churches were built as a sign of
Christianity's victory over paganism but in fact they proved to be not
symbols of victory but of defection and compromise, for the paganism is
reviving in our country. In Israel the use of the old religious sacred
sites, the high places, for the worship of the Lord always provided a
subtle temptation for the people to return to idolatry. So it was that
from time to time God accused them that although they used His name
they were, in fact, offering to idols and serving false gods. They were
loyal only in words: their hearts were hankering after what the high
places had always stood for.
Now the marvel is that the Lord overlooked this use of the high places.
He met Solomon at Gibeon. His Son described the temple built by the
non-Jew Herod as "My Father's house". In the earthly realm of things
God seems willing to accommodate Himself to our faulty circumstances,
never accepting them, but using them to produce material for His own
perfect temple in the heavens. This realisation should encourage us,
for we are far more infected with this tendency than we realise. Our
position is often frail and faulty, but God will meet us if our hearts
are truly towards Him. There is no imperfection in what God is doing.
The Lord Jesus said that He would build His Church and the gates of
hell should never prevail against that temple, because it is built on
resurrection ground. So there are faults in man's 'high places', but
perfection in the building of God. In order that Solomon might build
the temple, certain conditions were necessary in his own life, just as
certain things must happen to us if God is to build in our lives. In 1
Kings 3 we find some of these conditions.
1. "... I am but a child ..."
Solomon had no illusions about his own smallness. "... I am but a
little child: I know not how to go out or come in" (verse 7). When we
are first converted we know that we do not know, so we are ready to be
taught; but after being Christians for a few months, we began to
imagine that we did know, and often lost our joy in the Lord because we
began to criticise others, thinking that we knew better than they.
There is little hope of eternally lasting fabric being formed out of
our lives unless we are prepared to learn as little children. In
Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus declared that He would build His Church. In
Matthew 17 Peter thought that he knew all about temple affairs and
rashly committed his Master to the payment of tribute money. Christ
extricated him from that predicament by paying the temple tax by means
of a miracle and then immediately followed with the emphasis of Matthew
18 on the need for becoming like a little child. It was as though the
Lord was indicating that the basis for His building of His Church is
the spirit of childlikeness. We get involved with what God is doing
when we are ready to confess that we are not master-builders but
insignificant little ones who do not know how to go out or come in.
This gives the Lord His chance. After all, we have the Lord Jesus as
"head over all things to the church [76/77]
which is his body". Having Him as Head we do not need to have knowledge
in ourselves, but only to be sensitive and responsive to our Head, who
knows it all. So we see that the first requirement in the divine
building is for those who are ready to confess: "I am but a little
child".
2. "... a great people ..."
Solomon was deeply aware of how small he was, but he was equally
impressed with how great Israel was. "Thy servant is in the midst of
thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be
numbered nor counted for multitude" (verse 8). He realised that it was
completely beyond his capability even to count them. This suggests that
this building requires those who have a small view of themselves and a
big view of God's people. The subtlety of Satan's working in our minds
is that he seeks to invert this, giving us a big view of ourselves and
a small view of God's people. This means that we tend to discount the
others and exalt ourselves. The devil's purpose in this is to interfere
with the divine building process.
If the temple was to be built Solomon could certainly not do the work
alone. He needed powers of organisation quite beyond his own ability
and, if he was to accomplish the task, it was essential to get
everybody mobilised into action. So wisdom was given to him on the
basis of his appeal for help in view of the greatness of the people
involved. So far as he himself was concerned he admitted that he could
not work it out, but he found that the mind of God was available to
him, and by this means he was able to get a great number of people
geared into action, the work of the building being shared by all.
3. "... an understanding heart ..."
"Give thy servant therefore an understanding heart to judge thy people,
that I may discern between good and evil: for who is able to judge this
thy great people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had
asked this thing." (1 Kings 3:9-10.) Solomon asked for ability to
judge. This does not mean to criticise or condemn, but to discriminate
between good work and bad work. Discernment is very necessary as a
spiritual gift for those who are called to inspire men to work together
as a team, to help the saints so that they can each fulfil their
ministry in the body of Christ. It is not a matter of judging and
excluding people because they are failures, but ability to realise what
they can do and to encourage and guide them into the right exercise of
the gift God has given them. A man may be out of place, but there is a
way in which he can function in the right place in the will of God, and
discernment is needed to help him to find his true sphere, and so
express his life in the Lord better.
Solomon did not have the mind of the Lord as we do, but he received
help from God in this essential feature of spiritual building. There is
need for the body to be "fitly framed together through that which every
joint supplieth ..." (Ephesians 4:16), which means that in a healthy
way we are meant to encourage and help one another to discover our
spiritual gifts. I cannot look at a brother and determine what his
particular gift is. I have tried to do so, and have made terrible
mistakes. Alas, that we often encourage and discourage the wrong
people. It frequently happens that the people who should not be
encouraged are the ones whom We do encourage, simply because it is
easier to do so. It may well be that if we were faithful brothers we
would discourage them, but we fail to do so because we fear a painful
experience. How much we all need this gift which Solomon asked for and
received! We need to know what to say and how to say it, in order to
bring out the potential in one another. It is one of the tasks of
shepherding among God's people, not to discern faults in order to
discuss them with a third person, but personally and helpfully to come
alongside our brothers, in order to bring about the will of God in
their lives.
So in Solomon's case we see these three prerequisites, and they are
well illustrated in the little incident which forms the completion of
this chapter. In his exercise of divine wisdom, Solomon threatened to
cut the baby in two (1 Kings 3:25), which would not have been
unreasonable if the infant had been dead. He not only discovered the
true mother, but he showed that when life and love are involved, the
sword must not be used to divide. True wisdom always refuses to divide
God's living people even with His own sword, which is the Word of God.
If there is genuine life, Solomon would not divide it. Divine wisdom
will always work to preserve life, and not use the Word of God for the
illicit function of dividing up the Lord's people into groups. When
vital relationships are in question, the sword may at times threaten
but it will never divide. The temple [77/78] can
only be built when the Word of God is used correctly.
4. "... as the sand which is by the sea ..."
Chapter four tells of how the whole people was mobilised, men of every
variety and even of non- Jewish origin being among them. It was a
period of great prosperity: "Judah and Israel were many, as the sand
which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making
merry." (verse 20.) This state of the nation was exactly what God had
originally promised to Abraham. The territory of the kingdom stretched
from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea. and the people were like
the sand on the seashore. It was a wonderful phase in their history,
for the people of God were seen in their widest context and in their
fullest expression. They were safe; they had all the food they needed;
there was full employment, since it was not only the builders who were
kept busy, but the whole nation was involved. This indicates to us that
God desires to mobilise all His happy and well-nourished people to
concentrate on this one project of providing the fabric of His house.
This matter of full employment is of supreme importance in the Church,
and it is essential that each member should discover what is his
allotted task. It is not for others to insist that we must play their
part, or play it in their way. No, each must find, through the guidance
of God and the help of those whom He sets in authority in His house,
just what is his specific gift, and then do it with all his might. What
we do may seem temporal, whether we are witnessing, praying, giving
loyal assistance to others or involved in the many other occupations in
the sphere of our fellowship together, but it is all vital, and if done
in the Spirit, it is eternal. Our part may seem frail and even earthly,
but we shall find that it is all designed to produce something for
eternity. Solomon's officers and men helped one another in the
all-consuming objective of their king, and so should we who serve the
heavenly and the permanent house of God.
"And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and
largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore" (verse
29). This is a phrase which we have met before. It was used to describe
the vastness of Israel's numbers, and now the very same words are used
to describe the heart capacity of their king. His heart was as wide as
their need. In this Solomon was a true type of the Lord Jesus, who is
the only one with a heart large enough to encompass all, but we who are
His servants must also seek to have enlarged hearts in the same way,
for the whole project of the house springs from fellowship with the
heart of the Lord.
----------------
WHAT IS HIS NAME?
10. THE WORD
Harry Foster
IN his Gospel, Epistle and book of Revelation, John calls Jesus 'The
Word'. In some ways the description is attractively simple, and yet at
the same time it suggests deep profundity. Who can adequately describe
such a title?
God's Word is so much a part of Himself that we find no difficulty in
agreeing that before the beginning of time they were together and were
one (John 1:1). We readily admit that this natural universe is too
complex and too wonderful for our minds to comprehend. We could never
visualise the circumstances of its beginning. Scientists may do what
they can to discover or trace its development, but no mortal can expect
to understand the mystery of its genesis beyond the fact that "God said
..."
Christians have an advantage in that they know the ultimate destiny of
the creation: it is to be filled with Christ (Ephesians 4:6). They also
know that this cosmic destiny was planned and provided for in an era
described as "before the foundation of the world". So that to the
believer it was wisdom, as well as power and love, which began our
exciting history.
The enlightened king, Solomon, described in beautiful as well as
dogmatic language, that it was Wisdom which brought human life and
environment [78/79] into existence (Proverbs
8.22-31). There is a New Testament review of faith in action which
asserts that it is fundamental to such faith to accept that the Word of
God produced the visible world (Hebrews 11:3). Those who have no faith
and no Saviour may speculate as they will, but those who rely on Jesus
Christ for forgiveness and peace with God have no option about
believing that He is the responsible explanation of the material
universe (Colossians 1:14-16).
The Wisdom of God and the Word of God are therefore synonymous with the
Son of God. We believe that Jesus is God's last utterance (Revelation
19:13). Our eternal destiny hangs on the finality of Christ. Equally we
must believe that He is also God's first utterance, the Word of life (1
John 1:1), and our confidence is confirmed by His own claim to be the
Alpha and Omega -- the A to Z -- of the divine alphabet (Revelation
22:14). It follows, then, that if this living Word brought the creation
into being He, and He alone, can do a work of re-creation, which makes
sense of the reminder by both James and Peter that Christians are born
again by the Word of God (James 1:18 and 1 Peter 1:23). The actual
words of the gospel message, composed as they are of so many letters in
the A to Z of whatever language we speak, can instruct or annoy but
they can never regenerate. But when, through the sounds and ideas of
his language, the Spirit of God speaks savingly to a man, then there is
a spiritual parallel to Genesis 1 and 2, and God's Word brings a new
world and a new life into being. So 'The Word' means the Creator, in
all the plenitude of His loving power and wisdom.
The consummation of the creative work was the sabbath. The Word of God
is very active to discern if the new creation man is missing out on
this supreme blessing (Hebrews 4:12). The sensitive believer will know
something of what is described in this verse. When Jesus was here on
earth He saw through men, and looked right down into their hearts. It
was a soul-searching experience to be confronted by the living Word.
This is precisely what happens to any man of the new creation who
exposes his inner being to the Word of God. It is living; it is
penetrating; it gets right down to hidden thoughts and secret motives.
So for us, too, the Word of God is not an inanimate thing but the
Person "with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13). Those who did not run
away from Jesus found Him to possess words of healing and life. So,
today, the living and active Word of God not only searches us but, if
we permit Him, brings us into the sabbath rest of God. And when the
'today' of this life and warfare is over, and the Lamb gathers His
blissful saints around Him at His marriage supper, this will be one of
His titles of honour. "And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in
blood: and his name is called The Word of God" (Revelation 19:13).
----------------
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
SENSITIVE FINGERS
Harry Foster
MY friend Paul is blind. He lost his sight in the last world war, but
he never ceases to thank God for this trial, for it was used to bring
him to know Christ as his Saviour and Lord. He and his wife, Lily, are
French, but they visit London occasionally and they once spent a few
days in our home. Paul amazed us by his ability to learn his way about
the house and by much more too. Of course, Lily was never far away from
him, and indeed she is the best example I have ever seen of a Hobab,
the man to whom Moses said: "thou shalt be to us instead of eyes"
(Numbers 10:31).
Paul's hands also acted as eyes for him. One day they were examining
our garden. Lily took him round, explaining the colours, letting him
enjoy the scents, and then letting him feel the flowers. He had such
sensitive fingers that he could get the full enjoyment of our Dutch
tulips by feeling up the stem and then gently following the shape of
the bloom with his hands. His fingers told him a great deal that we can
only know because we have sight. One only had to ask him the time and
he would quickly raise the cover of his wrist watch and then report the
correct time without any hesitation at all. [79/80]
He managed wonderfully at mealtimes, too, with only a little occasional
help from Lily. I noticed, however, that at breakfast he always refused
marmalade. Now our continental friends usually seem to like English
marmalade, especially the home-made kind, which ours was, so it rather
surprised me to see that while Lily enjoyed toast and marmalade. Paul
always said 'no', and kept to plain bread and butter. We even asked if
he would prefer honey, but again he said 'No, thank you' to that and
still kept to plain bread and butter. At last I asked him if he did not
appreciate our English marmalade. He replied that he did, in fact he
liked it very much, but still he would never have any.
I was so curious that at last I asked him the reason, and it was so
interesting and so important that I would like -- with his permission
-- to share it with you. His fingers were eyes to him, but only if they
were clean. Anything sticky would spoil their sensitive touch. Now, as
you know, it is very difficult to eat bread and marmalade without
getting just a little stickiness on your fingers, even if you have your
sight. It may be so little that it does not matter to you or me, but
supposing Paul wanted to feel the time on his special watch and had
sticky fingers! He would not have been able to do it. So, although the
marmalade was sweet and pleasant he refused it, so that he should not
spoil his sensitive contact. The most important thing for Paul was to
keep his fingers quite unsoiled in any way. He dare not allow anything,
however nice, to interfere with this.
How many things there are in the life of a Christian which can spoil
our spiritual sensitivity! They may be sweet things, they may be very
good things in themselves, and yet they may make us insensitive to the
will of God and to His gentle Holy Spirit. It is not a question of what
others can do. The rest of us could rightly eat the marmalade, but Paul
dare not do so. And although others may indulge in many things, we who
love the Lord must give first priority to keeping our contact with Him.
There is only one way to do this, and this is to follow the example of
my friend Paul, learning to say 'No, thank you' to all such things.
This will help us to avoid losing our close contact with the Lord and
keep us always sensitive to Him. It will help us to obey the command:
"Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day
of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30).
----------------
[HONG KONG DIARY]
[Eric Fischbacher]
"THE captain of the host of the Lord" (Joshua 5:14) surely represents
the Holy Spirit, and the instruction He gave, the Word of God. Both
were essential throughout. The details of the plan to defeat Jericho
would, in themselves, have been valueless, and would not have produced
the effect apart from the power of the Spirit. At the same time, had
the instructions not been carried out to the letter, the effect, we
must presume, would not have occurred. The Israelites could not say.
'There is no use in doing anything, only God can do it' -- they must do
their part, as instructed. On the other hand, to imagine that what they
did -- walking and blowing trumpets and shouting -- actually brought
the wall down would have been equally misguided. The Holy Spirit
requires simple obedience to the Word before His power is released to
accomplish the will of God. - Hong Kong Diary. Dr. E.
Fischbacher [80/ibc]
----------------
[Inside back cover]
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($0.70) |
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THE ARM OF THE LORD |
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1p /$0.04 |
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Collections of various messages by T.
Austin-Sparks |
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and others) |
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THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY |
Vol. 1 |
15p /$0.64 |
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Vol. 2 |
16p /$0.69 |
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Vol. 3 |
17p /$0.75 |
The three together |
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45p /$1.92 |
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Books for children |
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By G. Paterson |
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GOSPEL MESSAGES FROM THE ANTARCTIC |
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20p /$0.85 |
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By H. Foster |
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READY FOR THE KING |
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7p /$0.32 |
ON WINGS OF FAITH |
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10p /$0.43 |
BURIED TREASURE |
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10p /$0.43 |
OPENING IRON GATES |
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10p /$0.43 |
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Bound volumes of this magazine for |
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1971 & 1972 |
each |
50p/$1.00 |
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To be ordered from:
The Secretary, WITNESS AND TESTIMONY LITERATURE TRUST,
39 Honor Oak Road, LONDON, SE23 3SH. Telephone: 01-699 5216/4339
Also obtainable from:
Ministry of Life, |
Testimony Book Ministry, |
Gospel Literature Service, |
Box 74, Rt 2, |
Box 34241, |
P.O. Box No. 65, |
Cloverdale, |
West Bethesda Branch, |
Bombay 1, |
Indiana 46120, U.S.A. |
Washington, D.C. 20034, U.S.A. |
INDIA |
POSTAGE AND PACKING:
For orders totalling less than £1 -- please add 25
per cent.
For orders totalling more than £1 -- please add 12
percent.
For all orders to the U.S.A. -- please add 15 percent.
----------------
[Back cover]
"GOD IS FAITHFUL, BY WHOM YOU
WERE CALLED INTO THE FELLOWSHIP
OF HIS SON JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD."
1 Corinthians 1:7
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Printed by The Invil Press, 4/5 Brownlow
Mews, London WC1N 2LD -- Telephone: 01-242 7454
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