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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] This evening we're going to speak about some essential, only some essential characteristics in those who would serve God. Now, of course, there is a sense in which every one of us is called to serve God. That is the most fundamental and basic sense of service. Every single child of God, born of God's spirit, is called to serve the Lord.
[00:00:27] And we must therefore remember that what we say this evening, in a sense, does apply to every single one of us. However, there are those who are chosen and appointed and called to be leaders, perhaps pioneers in God's work. And in their lives. These things must be exemplified. They must be. In a sense, these characteristics must be apparent, clearly apparent in the lives of those who, in a way, are leaders in God's work. Sometimes we call them full time workers. It's a rather awful phrase, really, because we really all ought to be full time workers for God. We're all full time servants of the Lord.
[00:01:26] It's a great mistake to make a division between full time servants of the Lord and, I suppose, part time servants of the Lord. I don't know what the rest are. There's no such thing in God's word. We are all full time servants of the Lord. Some called to serve him in our homes. Some call to serve him in our offices and factories and schools and hospitals. Others are called to serve him in the work of God, either here in this country or overseas. Another little point we ought to make before we even start is that there is no such thing in God's sight as a mission field and a home field. Really.
[00:02:09] God has said in his word, the field is the world. And we have only to go into London tonight to see that we have the jungle in London in spirit and character, if not in so many leaves, bushes and trees and animals.
[00:02:28] You see, the world is the field, and it's up to God to appoint where he will have us in the field, where he would have us work for him. And the Lord Jesus said, go, yeah. And preach the gospel to all nations, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. This is our commission. Not the commission of a certain type of God's child called a missionary, but in fact is the commission to every one of us. But there have been those who, as a result of this last weekend, have committed themselves to the Lord in a new way and have told the Lord they're prepared to go anywhere in the world if he should so show them. Some of you, one or two of you are getting a little clear already as to perhaps where it could be.
[00:03:35] So this evening we want to talk very simply about those characteristics that God looks for in those who would serve him. Now, the first characteristic, if you've got a pencil and paper and you want to put it down so that you can go and think about it, is what I have called an utter devotion to Christ.
[00:03:59] An utter devotion to Christ, leading to. To worship, service and testimony. Now, let's just look at Matthew, chapter 22.
[00:04:12] Matthew, chapter 22, verse 34.
[00:04:18] But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had put the sadducees to silence, gathered themselves together and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, trying him teacher, which is the great commandment in the Lord? And he said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second, like unto it, is, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments, the whole law hangeth and the prophets. The most remarkable statement of the Lord Jesus, for he really virtually said that two thirds or more of the Old Testament are explained by these two commandments. They hang, they hinge on the keeping of these two commandments. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and secondly, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[00:05:23] Now you see the mainspring of all true worship and service and testimony, whether here in this country or overseas, is to be the love of God.
[00:05:37] The love of God. First, that love toward the Lord, which becomes absorbed with the Lord and not only absorbed and captivated by the Lord, but becomes involved with the Lord and identified with the Lord.
[00:05:55] This is why in one corinthians, in that great letter that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, where he had so much to say about various disorders and various problems and difficulties, we find the 13th chapter, which I think you all know so well. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I had the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
[00:06:36] These are very, very strong words. Think of it.
[00:06:40] You could spend 20 years studying theology. You could have all the knowledge about God and all the knowledge about the Bible that it's possible to contain. But if you haven't got love, God's estimate is there is nothing there. It's futile. Now, many of us would not go so far as that and say it's futile. For instance, have we got, do we know all mysteries? There's not a person in this room that has knowledge of all mysteries, let alone has all knowledge about things that are clearly apparent in God's word. And we are told that if we have faith to remove mountains, the cry in our hearts is to have more faith. But God says, if we have faith so that we can remove mountains into the sea, and that love is not the mainspring, it's futile. It doesn't mean anything. We don't like this estimate. It is something so often we seek to avoid. If we had all this great amount of faith, we would be very pleased with ourselves. And I'm sure we would say, well, I'm not very good on love, but I've got an awful lot of faith.
[00:07:50] And, you know, I can change things and transform things by my faith. But God says you can have all faith like that, a practical faith, not a faith up here, but a faith here which can move things and transform things. But if love is not the mainspring, it doesn't mean anything to God.
[00:08:06] Now, that's a very, very searching and acid test.
[00:08:12] But then it goes on. It tells us that if we. We've already said if we had the gift of prophecy out of preaching, but if we go on verse three, if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Now, you see, there's a progression.
[00:08:32] Preaching to knowledge of mysteries, to knowledge about God and about the things of God, on to faith, which can remove mountains. And now, you know, when. When God starts to touch our pockets, he's starting to touch our inward being, our inward being. And it's as if we bestow all our goods to feed the poor but have not love. In other words, if we just do it as a good work, as a kind of philanthropist, without. Without real love, it means nothing to God. But the final thing of all is if I give my body to be burned, in other words, I can be a martyr. According to Paul, the last, final, most final thing we can do is to give our body to be burned, become a martyr for the faith. But if love is not the mainspring behind it, God still says his estimate of it is futile. It means nothing.
[00:09:31] Now, when we realize that, we begin to understand something of the nature of love in God's eye, it is the one thing he looks for. And you know, it is very interesting to see how this chapter, of course, when Paul wrote this letter, there were no verses and no chapters. And you see, he was talking about the church.
[00:09:53] In one corinthians, chapter twelve, he was that wonderful chapter about the church, which is the body of Christ, all the various functions and gifts and so on that are in the body. And we've all. We're like that. We've all been given something of the Holy Spirit to serve one another and build one another up. We all belong. And then if you go on to chapter 14, you find Paul's talking all about gifts and a good deal more about disorder in the gatherings of God's people. But in between these two matters lies this whole matter of love.
[00:10:33] Just as if the Lord was saying, oh, you can talk about the church, you can understand the church, you can seek to build up the church. But the only real thing that matters in the end is the love of God.
[00:10:49] If we've got the love of God in our hearts, first for himself and then for one another and then for the world, and that's the heart of the matter, you see, the church means nothing to God unless it's a place of love. It's a tasting place. That's why in God's word, the church is called the wife of the lamb, the bride of God, because as far as God is concerned, there is no meaning to Christianity and no meaning to the work of God unless it stems from love.
[00:11:29] Now, if you turn over to John, back to John, chapter 21, this is all emphasized even more when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead.
[00:11:41] In John, chapter 21 and verse 15, we read this. So when they had broken their fast, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, feed my lambs. He saith to him again a second time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, tend my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep.
[00:12:34] Now it is a very interesting thing that the first thing the Lord Jesus ever really said directly to Peter personally were these, lovest thou me? Here was the chief of the apostles, the one, in one sense, who was the pioneer of the way. And the first thing the Lord Jesus asked of him, the first challenge the risen Christ ever brought to his once backslidden child, his once backslidden disciple, now recovered, was a challenge as to whether he loved the Lord. And the first command he ever gave to him as a result of that challenge. And Peter's response was, service.
[00:13:25] Feed my lamb. That's the little ones. Feed them. Tend my sheep. Isn't it interesting? Lambs and sheep tending and feeding. Now, feeding and tending are two different things. You know, to feed creatures is one thing, to tend them is another.
[00:13:45] A lot more care goes into tending than feeding. You've got to see they get the right diet, I suppose. But sheep normally find their own pasture, and all the shepherd's got to do is to lead them and watch over them. But tending them is a full time job. It really is a full time job. And he's got to watch out for the. For the first signs of disease. He's got to watch out for the first signs of the sheep getting out of the way. He's got to specially guard and keep the little ones, and especially see that they're getting a share of the food once they've been weaned. The bigger creatures don't push them out of the way. All this is service. And it is interesting that, again, the Lord puts his finger upon this question of love. So I think we can see that it is the mainspring of all true service.
[00:14:41] The love of God within us enables us to serve one another.
[00:14:50] Just because we love the Lord, we can serve one another. In Galatians five and verse 13, we read this, for ye, brethren, will call for freedom only. Use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants, one to another. For the whole Lord is fulfilled in one word, even in this thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
[00:15:20] So you see, those of you who've responded to this challenge this weekend, the first thing I must ask you is, where is your. Your love for the Lord?
[00:15:35] Have you left your first love for the Lord?
[00:15:39] This is the first and most fundamental thing in God's service. And if we have to say it to those who've responded to this challenge, what must I say to all of us, to myself included, have we left our first love for the Lord?
[00:15:55] What is the state of your love? If the Lord Jesus were to stand in this room, who knows everything about you, everything about you, knows your true condition and were to say to each one of you, so and so, so and so lovest thou me.
[00:16:14] What would you say?
[00:16:16] What would be the response of your heart? Would you have to say with Peter? You know, the Lord used one word for rather than Peter had to come down to another level when he answered him.
[00:16:28] What would you say if the Lord stood here in the midst this evening and were to say to you, lovest thou me? And yet, you see, our love for the Lord is our key to our love for one another. If you don't love God's children, it is a pretty sure, uncertain thing. You don't love God.
[00:16:49] This is the key and the love for the world as well. In two corinthians, chapter five and verse 14, Paul says that.
[00:17:02] Paul says, for the love of Christ constraineth us. For the love of Christ, constraineth us. And this word constrain is so interesting. It means the love of Christ, as it were. It squeezes us into serving the world. We've got this. This tremendous energy within us which is driving us in our service to those who are not God's children, to those who are without the fold of God. And it is God's love. Now, I must say one thing before we leave this matter. I might just give an illustration that I have given before. I have a dear friend.
[00:17:47] For those of you who have heard this illustration, forgive me, but I think it's a good one because it, in many ways, it illustrates the point. I have a dear friend, titled lady, who, when she was young, when she was 24, heard God's call to go to the arab world.
[00:18:05] And she responded.
[00:18:07] She was a very wealthy woman, and she was a titled woman, and she had recently lost her husband.
[00:18:14] And so she responded to God's call. It was very humiliating for her. She didn't quite know how a titled lady was to become a missionary, but she faced it and she decided to apply to a certain mission. And she applied to the mission, and of course, the board of directors asked her to come and see them. And there they were, this long table full of old gentlemen. This is the beginning of the century. And she stood in front of them, and they all looked at her. And she felt that every eye was weighing her up and down, began to ask her questions. When were you converted?
[00:18:55] Why do you want to go to the field?
[00:18:58] How were you called? Well, she answered them all, until one old gentleman asked her, do you love the Egyptians?
[00:19:09] And as quick as a flash, she said, no, I don't.
[00:19:12] Well, there was a gasp of horror all round the table. And so another old gentleman evidently bent forward and said, you don't love the Egyptian?
[00:19:24] No, she said, I detest them.
[00:19:27] She said, they're the only people I find it hard to love.
[00:19:31] So then the old gentleman said, then how are you going to work amongst them? Oh, said my friend, God has called me and I am trusting that in obedience to his call he will give me the love that I haven't got. Well, I don't like to say this, but she was a titled lady and a wealthy lady. I'm sure no one else would have got past that board. But she did, and she was accepted into the mission and she was sent out to Egypt and she began her work. But far from the Lord giving her love, she found she hadn't got it at all. When she got to the smells and the flies and the dirt and the heat of Egypt, she found her love. The little that she had for just a few of the folk fled from her. And finally she was asked to help a doctor in some villages right out in the delta. And she went with that doctor. When they were in the clinic, an Egyptian came in and said that there was a woman who had collapsed outside the village. They didn't know whether she was dead or alive, but she was there. So the doctor told my friend, come with me quickly, we must go. And they went and they found this woman was a very advanced case of a certain disease which meant open ulcers all over. She was just a bundle of vermin and rags and huge orphalosis.
[00:20:56] And my friend said to me the smell of that woman was so revolting that she could hardly get near. But the doctor bent over and said, my friend, there's only one thing we can do. We've got to give her an injection and you've got to hold her. She's probably never had an injection before and she may break the needle if we don't. She don't. Also, my friend had to bend down and hold her and she said she was nearly ill until all of a sudden something within her said, kiss her.
[00:21:28] And she's like, I've catch something.
[00:21:32] And suddenly she let go and she kissed what to her was hardly a human being.
[00:21:41] And at that moment God gave her a love for the Egyptians which never left her in the years she spent in Egypt and later in the rest of her life that she spent in India. Now it's a little illustration of a fact.
[00:21:57] It's God's love that gets us through, not our love. Our love can be very sentimental. It can be very choosy. It can decide what it loves and what it doesn't love. But God has a love which, when we respond to him, he can give to us, which can carry us right through. And you see, often it's a simple little act that opens to us an experience of God's love. We have to wash one another's feet. And often it is only when we've taken the step, the humiliating step of, as it were, kissing one another metaphorically. So speaking or washing one another's feet, that God floods our hearts with a true love. I just give that as an illustration. It's not a sentimental thing. What does it mean to be utterly devoted to the law? What does it mean? It means, I believe, that we must have no Christ as first and Christ as last, Christ as beginning and Christ as end. We must know Christ as all, everything.
[00:23:01] That's what it means, really, to love the Lord. It doesn't just mean that you indulge in very lovely little poems about the Lord when the mood so takes you, or you get a little sentimental under the pressure of an emotional type of meeting. It doesn't mean that at all. Love for the Lord means that you deliberately make him everything in your life. That doesn't mean that you can throw everything out and make him all, but it means you have to take a stand with the Lord. He's going to be everything. Let me put it more simply.
[00:23:34] Christ must be your head, Christ must be your life, Christ must be your goal. Now, if you want, I'm not going to give you all the references for this, but if you look at Colossians chapter two, and I think it's verse 20, I think it's verse 20, you will discover there's holding fast ahead.
[00:23:51] That's the first thing you've got in Ephesians chapter four, and I'm not quite sure which verse it is. Again, I think it's about 16. I think it is. It is. Grow up into him who is the head.
[00:24:03] Go up into him in all things. Who is the head? So you see, we've got to find Christ as our head. Now, that's a very, very difficult operation, to find the Lord as head. But, you know, I do not believe that anyone can serve the Lord till they've lost their own head and found Christ as their head. They've really got to discover the Lord as their head. And you've got to find the Lord as your life. Again. This means that you've got to lose your own life to find Christ as your life. Paul put it like this in Philippians 121. For to me to live is Christ.
[00:24:43] For to me to live is Christ. And in Colossians three, four, he says, christ, who is our life, you see? So that's what it means to be utterly devoted to the Lord, to find him as our head, to find him as our life. And then in Philippians chapter three, find him as our goal, pressing on toward that goal that you may win. Christ the goal, the objective. Now, that's what it really means. Let me put it another way.
[00:25:11] To be utterly devoted to Christ means that you, you have nothing. You find nothing outside of him, but you discover everything within him. You see, some people have got this mentality that if they're going to serve the Lord, they've got to lose everything and that life becomes mean and narrow and all denial and drab and grey and much else.
[00:25:41] It's a really miserable, long mouthed, gray type of existence. Well, I don't have to say a lot about that. After last weekend, I have never heard in my life singing like I heard on Saturday, and count your blessings, name them one by one. But there is one thing I can say that is this, that nor have I ever seen such joy, such uninhibited joy in singing of it. I didn't worry them what it sounded like.
[00:26:11] The point was they thoroughly enjoyed it. Those folk have given up everything. They don't know what fresh milk tastes. They don't know what fresh bread, like many of the vegetables, they don't. Mary Reese said to me after that meal on Sunday afternoon, she slapped her stomach three times. And I'll not forget this. For years, all the things that I've been deprived of were there on that table. Well, you know, that's denial. Now, naturally speaking, a life lived like that should be grey and sombre and joyless and full of. Well, she was there, full of sacrifice and the heaviness of the way and the cost of it all. But you see what happens when people really do God's will. They find it perfect, good and acceptable, for they so discover the Lord that they're delighted in him and they have a joy that makes up for everything else that we would feel. Joy depends upon what a lesson that is. Don't take this to heart. Find nothing outside of Christ. If you do, you'll lose your joy and you'll lose your peace and you lose your faith.
[00:27:23] You see, now, you see, the whole point is this. You've got to find. You've got to find your family in him. You've got to let go of your home and find it in Christ. You've got to let go of your work and find it in Christ. You've got to let go of friends and find them in Christ. You've got to let go of all these and find them within Christ. You see, God doesn't want to deprive you.
[00:27:52] He really only wants to take away from you what will not make you happy.
[00:27:59] And, oh, if we could only learn this lesson, that we can have all things in him. It doesn't matter what it is, says Paul. Whether it's Kephas or pallas or me, that's Paul. Or someone else. Or someone else. All things are yours, and you are Christ's. And Christ is God's. It's all yours. But, you see, if you and I could only learn the lesson. I remember brother Lee once put it like this. You remember Moses had a stick.
[00:28:27] And this stick was what God used again and again to do tremendous things. But the first thing you remember, one of the things the Lord told him to do, he said, throw down the stick, Moses. Moses threw down the stick, and it became a serpent. And then the Lord said, pick it up by the tail. And that's the one thing you don't do with a snake.
[00:28:44] Never pick it up by the tail. Pick it up behind the neck, but never behind the tail. It's the most dangerous thing you can do. Now, Moses must have said to Lord, look here, Lord. I've lived here for 40 years in the desert. I know a thing or two about the desert. Perhaps you've forgotten.
[00:28:57] You don't pick up vipers by the tail.
[00:29:00] But, you see, he picked it up by the tail, and it became a slick again. And what was God teaching? Remember what Brother Lee said? He said, well, we've got to learn that in all things. We've got to throw them down and see their true nature outside of Christ. And then we've got to pick them up again in faith and find them in Christ. And then what happens? We find the authority of God.
[00:29:25] Those things don't control us, but we are above them.
[00:29:30] Now, you see, this is what happens. All these things can become idols. They can take the place of the law. But, you see, what we've got to find is in our utter devotion to the Lord. We've got to let go of everything outside of Christ and find it all in him. And you can be sure that if you don't find it in him, it's not for your good. It's not in your best or highest interests. And in the end, you'll praise the Lord for it.
[00:29:56] Well, I leave that like that. Well, now, that's the first thing I would like to say. It's the most important thing. Utter devotion to Christ, leading to worship, to service and testimony.
[00:30:09] The second thing I'd like to say that is an essential characteristic in those who would serve the Lord, is an implicit faith in God and his word. Could we look at. Mark, chapter eleven.
[00:30:27] Mark, chapter eleven, verse 22.
[00:30:41] Mark 1122. Jesus answering saith unto them, have faith in God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass, he shall have it. Now mark it. But shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass, he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.
[00:31:11] An implicit faith in God and his word. Now, faith is the principle upon which we live, not the principle upon which we are merely saved. It is tremendous thing to be saved through faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That is, put your trust in him, commit yourself to him. Lockstock and battle, and you will be saved. You will come into an experience, his salvation.
[00:31:45] But you know, it does not say the just shall be saved by faith, but it says in Romans, chapter one, if you look at it, and verse 17, last part. But the just shall live by faith. I've always liked Jn Darby's translation of this verse, where he says, the just shall live on the principle of faith.
[00:32:15] Now the christian life is on the principle of faith. Nothing can be more emphatically stated. If God looks for love in us, he also looks for faith. And faith is not just the gateway, it is the principle upon which we live.
[00:32:36] Now, at any point, you and I who have begun to live in Christ can die.
[00:32:44] If we step off the principle of faith, in other words, like lot's wife, we can become a monument.
[00:32:54] Salt, you know, just preserves. You just become a monument. You become static. You're saved, but you just become static because you've stepped back from living on the principle of faith.
[00:33:11] The assault on our faith is the wisest of all the devil's stratagems.
[00:33:18] Why?
[00:33:20] Because he knows that if he can weaken us in faith, he gets a foothold within. And once he's got that advantage, then he can work from that. And, you know, it can so happen that we begin to retreat from this principle of faith. And before we know what we are, we're only believers in name. We've become unbelievers in practice.
[00:33:48] It's so simple and it happens to so many because, you see, the evil one knows. This is why we're told, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on. This is a contest. This is a fight, and you've got to fight this good fight, and you've got to lay hold on life. It's a positive thing. It's an active thing. Faith doesn't just go on blooming.
[00:34:15] It has to be watered and cared for. It's a rather unique type of plant which needs a lot of food and a lot of care if it's going to live. You've got to fight this good fight of you. You've got to fight this good fight of faith, and you've got to lay hold on eternal life. Now, that doesn't just happen at the beginning. We know, of course, that that's where we begin in faith, but it's a lifelong trusting of the Lord. Why does the enemy assault our faith? For the simple fact that he knows that once we step back from faith, step into uncertainty, we lose our authority, we lose our clarity. We become uncertain people.
[00:35:04] We are always dithering, you know what I mean? And then we become. We step back into negativism. Once you step back from faith, you immediately become negative. You see everything in its somber black colors, and it's all too much, and it's great burden, and you don't get any of the joy and the peace of the way because there's joy and peace in believing.
[00:35:29] But once you step back from that, you lose it all.
[00:35:34] There's no more courage but fear. Fear comes from unbelief. Isn't that true? You've only got to look at the ways like Peter, and you become fearful and you think, and how many of us become fearful people? And we become more fearful of the world itself? And they look at us and they see, here are people called Christians. And look at them, they're negative, they're fearful, they're uncertain, and they're aimless. Yes. Once you step back from faith, you become, you've lost your objective. It's clouded over. You become aimless again. And of course, I've said so much else. Emptiness. Well, once you step back from faith, your life supply, your supply line is cut and your life becomes empty again.
[00:36:24] Now, this is why the evil one is watching all the time on this question of faith. Why? Well, look, Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse five.
[00:36:35] Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse five, verse six.
[00:36:44] And without faith it is impossible to please God.
[00:36:51] Impossible to please God. What strong words. It is impossible to please God without faith.
[00:36:59] And the second thing, even more searching. Romans, chapter 14 and verse 23. The last part of the verse, whatsoever it is not of faith is sin.
[00:37:14] I say, that's tremendously searching, isn't it? There are two trees in the book in the Bible, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life.
[00:37:27] Faith is its principle. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
[00:37:32] Self is its principle. It's very, very interesting. Here you've got it. All that is not of faith is sin.
[00:37:42] Very, very, very sombre words.
[00:37:45] All that has not got its source in faith that doesn't spring out of faith. Can I illustrate it? In the old testament, Abraham had two children, Ishmael and Isaac. One sprang out of faithlessness and one sprang out of faithfulness.
[00:38:11] One came out of the sin of unbelief and one came out of the triumph of faith.
[00:38:19] Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.
[00:38:25] Now those are searching words and they make us realize how fundamental faith is. The just shall live on the principle of faith. The christian life is a progress in faith. Well, now, that's what it should be. I hit this last weekend, found a lot of us out on this chapter one of Romans, verse 17.
[00:38:48] Listen to this. For therein is revealed a faith, a righteousness of God. From faith unto faith, it's a progress. From faith unto faith, just like grace unto grace, it's a progress. Do you know we're supposed to go on from one triumph in faith to another, and every new triumph in faith brings an increase in our christian life, brings us into a new, deeper experience on the Lord. That's what it's supposed to be. That's why we've quoted that scripture in one Timothy, chapter six and verse twelve. Fight the good fight of faith. This contest, all the time it's a contest. Fight it. Lay hold on life, and every time you triumph, there something more is yours.
[00:39:41] And every time you lose, you can be sure you're on the retreat and the enemy will get you back, and you'll go back, and you'll go back, and you'll go back until you're left with your bare salvation and nothing else. And then you'll just feel that you're play acting because you believe everything up here and you've got nothing within your experience is a contradiction to what you believe up here and what you find in the book.
[00:40:11] Fight the good fight of faith lay hope on eternal life. Now, if you look in Ephesians, chapter two, I've given you a lot of scriptures. That's why we had no reading this evening. Ephesians, chapter two and verse eight, you will find that faith is the gift of God.
[00:40:33] It was a gift to begin with. How were you saved? How was I saved?
[00:40:40] We were saved through faith, by grace. Are you saved? Have you been saved through faith? And that is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Faith is the gift of God. Sometimes, you know, a lot of people get the idea that it's much easier to become a Christian if you're credulous, if you're one of those very simple people with very simple minds and very, very credulous. It's an easy thing to become a Christian. But, of course, the evil one knows about credulous people, and he has temptations and hindrances to credulous people as much as he's got temptations and hindrances for rational people.
[00:41:21] And you see, really, when you come down to it, faith is the gift of God. Credulity is not faithful.
[00:41:29] Some people sort of can believe in anything.
[00:41:32] That's not faith.
[00:41:34] That's not faith. Some people can get led off onto this and led off onto that and led off onto the other. That's faith.
[00:41:41] Just because you're credulous can be a positive hindrance to growing in the Lord. Faith is the gift of God. I well know this in my own life. People think I'm a credulous person. I don't blame them, because I suppose I have got a rather simple mine, and I suppose they see it. But one, I must say is this, that I have never yet found faith a natural thing.
[00:42:09] Again. I found, people say to me sometimes I must love you to have faith like you all have at Richmond, like you have, and so on, and as if it's a natural thing. And some people have even told me that because of what some of the things they've heard today, that the English must be a naturally, sort of find it easy to believe, you see? But there's nothing farther from the truth. Faith is the gift of God. Doesn't matter what nationality you are, what background you have, who you are, faith is still the gift of God. And when I think that some. In 1951, the largest sum we'd ever believed in was 30 pounds in 1951. And when I think of all the sums that we have trusted the Lord for and seen come in and all the things we've seen him do in answer to faith. I can say this this evening and God knows, can bear witness to it. I find it as hard this evening to trust for ten shillings as I did in 1951. One is a natural unbeliever. And even when God provides, you still immediately wonder, how did it come? Oh, it must have come this way. It must have come that way somehow. There must be an actual explanation for it. Many other ways I can think of. But we won't talk about those this evening. We are natural unbelievers even when we see God work.
[00:43:38] But God can give us the gift. And if we will only exploit and use the grain of faith that is in us by the Holy Spirit, God will give us more and more faith and we can become strong in faith, giving the glory to God. And we can come into that a wonderful position where we can see ourselves as unbelievers in one sense and yet know the faith of God working in us on the other hand, so that there is a paradox at work within. I cannot explain it, but I can tell you this, that faith is the gift of God. Every single advance, corporate or personal begins with faith. Now do remember that. I don't know where you stand this evening, but let me ask you a question very strictly.
[00:44:28] Have you been going on from faith unto faith in your life?
[00:44:36] Has there been an advance or has there been a retreat?
[00:44:45] I have. Here I've got one or two people's witnesses this evening. I'm going to bring them back, as it were, from the dead. They're in the glory. This is a t. Pearson and I. This is a little part. It's always been a great blessing to me in Pearson book the Bible on spiritual life. It's a wonderful book. It's in the library if anyone wants to bother it.
[00:45:06] But let it be observed that this bearing witness to God always implies a risk or venture. There is an abandonment of self to God and in this, mainly the witness consists.
[00:45:20] Noah withstood a corrupt and unbelieving world and risked everything on God's people being true. Abraham went out not knowing whither he went and even laid his son of promise on the altar, trusting God to raise him from the dead. Moses renounced Egypt with all its treasures and pleasures and undertook to lead a vast host into a wilderness, depending on God to supply all needs. In Hebrews 11 32 40 we have a brief resume of the triumphs of faith. And the one great feature in all these lives of witnesses is the risk run the venture of faith upon God. Gideon with his 300 and only lamps and pitchers. Daniel going unarmed into the lion's den and the three hebrew children into the fiery furnace. Jonathan and his armor bearer, daring to advance against a whole garrison. Joshua trusting God and taking Jericho without a blow struck or any dependence on on carnal weapons. Every true servant of God accepts some such adventure for God.
[00:46:29] That is his way of witnessing. And God always honours such witnessing by proving his faithfulness in faith is found also the potent remedy for all the evils of materialism, secularism, rationalism, ritualism. Whatever hinders individual or church development, it keeps the soul in the attitude of waiting on and receiving from God. It bends the energies of the saved soul upon that higher salvation found in actual likeness to Christ. And hence whatever is unlike him or hinders assimilation to him will be detected and detested. No believer can be absorbed in godlikeness at the same time engrossed in world.
[00:47:13] He will see that some things divide attention, divert affection, and make spiritual duties and delights distasteful. And he will naturally turn from them. Godly people are always conspicuous for faith, for simple faith. They begin by the simple receiving from him of salvation. Then they advance a stage further and learn the secret of reckoning on him for all he promises. And then they find it easy to advance to the point of risking everything for him whom they find can be reckoned on to keep his word. Listen. His truth is his truth. Isn't that beautiful? His truth is his truth from first to last. Then faith is the secret. It makes salvation hours by appropriation. It makes sanctification hours by assimilation.
[00:48:02] It makes service ours by cooperation, identification. Now that's ag pearson. He was a man of faith. You know what he was talking about.
[00:48:12] And you see faith. If we have faith in God, we have faith in his word, in God's word.
[00:48:22] We must see the link between Christ and his word.
[00:48:27] If you look at John chapter one and verse one, we read in the beginning was the word. Now this of course, speaks of Christ as the word of God. But I am quite sure that there is a connection between Christ as the living word of God and what we know we call the scriptures, which are only the manifestation of him.
[00:48:53] There is a link between these two. If you look at John 14 six, Jesus said, there I am the truth. Jesus said, I am the truth. Then look at John 17 and verse 17. He prayed, sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. Jesus is the truth.
[00:49:19] The truth is. It is in Jesus, says Paul, and he speaks of sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. There's a link between the risen Christ and the written word.
[00:49:32] Now look again at one Peter, chapter one, verse eleven, searching what time or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them. Now, why doesn't God's word say the spirit of God? Why does it say that it was the spirit of Christ who was the divine author of the Bible? He was in the prophets, speaking, as it were within them these words that have come to be called the Bible.
[00:50:14] Again, if you go on to Peter and chapter one, verse 16, we mean, for we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then verse 19 and we have the word of prophecy made more sure, whereunto ye do well, that ye take heed as unto a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing this verse that no prophecy of scripture is a private interpretation, for no prophecy ever came by the will of man. But men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
[00:50:59] Faith in God means faith in God's word.
[00:51:04] For, you see, we take.
[00:51:09] We take what God has said, we take it, we appropriate it, we believe it, we appropriate it, and we see it realized.
[00:51:20] Saint Augustine put it like, become what you are. Now, that might take some explaining, but really he simply was saying, you are sanctified, become sanctified.
[00:51:34] You are crucified, become crucified.
[00:51:39] You are seated in the throne. Then come to that, become what you are.
[00:51:49] We have once or twice read a little portion in this book by Erich Stauer, which I thought I'd read again this evening, because in many ways it's a rather wonderful little, very small note on inspiration, and I think it's rather remarkable. We believe in a full inspiration as worthy of God in the view of the fact that in the creation, which is the divine revelation in nature, the minutest objects are ordered with the greatest care and exactness from its greatest representatives in the starry world down to the minutest creatures and plants, indeed to the molecules, atoms and electrons of which it is composed. Nature is built up with inconceivable exactness according to most refined and powerful laws. Therefore, we ask, shall the most high, seeing that he is so wonderfully ordered in the lower form of his self revelation, that is in nature, have employed less care in the infinitely higher and nobler revelation that is his testimony in the written word. Every butterfly wing with its hundred thousand pelagrums, the eye of every fly with its six to 7000 lenses, every spider thread with its 300 single threads is a witness to this exactness. And the 306 armor plates of a beetle, the 8000 pairs of muscles of a silkworm, the 700 strokes per second of the wings of a gnat, the sperms of the 300,000 species of mushrooms, which are so minute that one of each sort would not even fill one thimble. Are they not all a direct, irrefutable proof that not only is it not unworthy of God, the greatest of all, to control the tiniest of all things, but that, on the contrary, it most fully and in the highest degree displays his greatness? Or we may think of the marvellous structure of the bee. 31,000 sensitive hairs are on the feelers of the drones, 5000 facets or lenses are set together on each eye of the bee, all exactly hexagonal. The 440 strokes of the wing per second enable it to attain a speed of 40 mph, almost the average speed of a fast train.
[00:54:10] And finally.
[00:54:13] And finally, what shall we say of the infusorio, some of which are so small that a one variety bohemia, not less than 225 million armor plates are found in one single cubic centimeter, to say nothing of the marvelous power of that 10,000th gram of animated matter which we call the brain of the ant, or of the wholly inconceivable atomic planetary systems which are the basis of matter, or of the other millions upon millions of wonders of the tiny world of the most minute things? And lastly, seeing that, as the Lord said, the very hairs of our heads are all numbered, will God be less concerned as to the details of his word by which he wishes to guide millions of human beings with unending existence to salvation, blessedness and glory in all the ages of eternity? Whatever you may think about that, it has some truth in it. If God has served such care over small things, then we can trust this book. There are some things we cannot explain. Explain it. There are some things as yet we don't, we cannot fully reconcile. But oh, the wonder of this book. When it is taken in its overall pattern, its theme, the way, its harmony, its cohesion, its unity. It is remarkable.
[00:55:32] I have never yet discovered a person who has a question about this book, who is being really used by God.
[00:55:44] That's a very, very strong thing to say.
[00:55:47] I have met many people with questions about this book. I've met them on the mission field and I've met them at home, and I've always found them dear people, cultured people often, but people who have lost their certainty, lost their clarity and lost very much of their experience.
[00:56:05] No, this book is entirely trustworthy.
[00:56:11] And the greatest evidence for its trustworthiness is the fact that those that trust God's word find it works.
[00:56:22] You can trust every one of its promises. Oh, last night, in that little time of prayer, Douglas Harris read to us a little portion from C. T. Studd. Now, C. T. Studd, of course, was the father of all those who came on this last weekend. And this is the book through which God saved me. And as a result of Douglass reading it, I took it up today and hardly had a study at all because I was once again, after all these years, 20 years now, getting a bit old, I was immersed in this book which when I was a lad of twelve, led me to Christ.
[00:57:00] Well, I want to read you just three things from a man who gave up a fortune, was one of the co team members with WG Grace, great cricketer. He was one of the great cricketers, English cricketers. Went out to China, went out to India, went out to Africa. When he should have retired, he finally went to Africa and I was saying to Mary Rees, we laughed together at the thought of dear old C t. In the glory as now he sees thousand upon thousand, literally, of souls who have come to Christ through his faith. Now, these were some of the things he said when it's hard to believe it. Central Africa was all cannibal territory and when there was hardly any missionary work. All too long he said, have we been waiting for one another to begin? The time for waiting is past. This is a letter he wrote just before he went to Africa.
[00:57:59] The hour of God has struck wars declared in God's holy name, let us rise and build the God of heaven. He will fight for us as we for him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ. And the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us should such men as we fear before the whole world. Aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby pamby christian world, we will dare to trust our God. We will venture out all for him. We will live and we will die for him. And we will do it with his joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only in our God than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position, the battle is already won and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts. We will have a masculine holiness, one of daring, faith and works for Jesus Christ.
[00:59:00] Now here's another letter. This was written to his great friend doctor Wilkinson just before he went out to Africa.
[00:59:12] This is just when he was going to start the heart of Africa mission. The committee I work under is a conveniently small committee, a very wealthy committee, a wonderfully generous committee, and is always sitting in session. The committee of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. We have a multimillionaire to back us up, out and away. The wealthiest person in the world. I had an interview with him yesterday. He gave me a chequebook, free, and urged me to draw upon him. He assured me his firm clothes. Grass of the field, preserves the sparrows, counts the hairs of the children's heads. He said the head of the firm promised to supply all our need and to make sure one of the partners of other two were to go along with each member of our parties and would never leave us or fail us. He even showed me some testimonials from former clients. A tap, old chap with a long beard and hard bitten face said that on one occasion supplies had arrived and had been delivered by black ravens, and on another by white winged angel. He's referring to Elijah, of course. Another little old man who seemed scarred and marked all over like a walnut shell. This is the apostle Paul. Said he had been saved from death times untold, for he determined to put the proof, the assurance that he who would lose his life for the firm's sake should find it. He told stories more wonderful than novels and arabian nights, of escapes and hardships, travels and dungeons, and with such a fire in his eye and laugh in his voice, added, but out of all of them, the partner delivered me. He said gambling for Christ was the best game in the world. He said the compulsory rest cure now was rather hard on him, with his gambling craze still there. But the chief partner commanded it and said he must not be selfish and greedy about it. That he had a good long innings and made the highest score so far and had better sit quiet a bit with pads off and coat on, encouraged the others. It did me good to see this old warrior. He was like a bit of red hot quicksilver, and one felt scorched up with shame. And ever since I saw him and heard him, I've had a sort of pocket telephone inside ringing me up and saying at intervals, go in, old chap. Go in for a slog. Your eye is in all right, and their bowling's getting weak. Take the long handle. Only a few minutes till the stumps are drawn. Go to it. Now again. Well, that's old C. T. Now you can understand why C. T. Studd was disliked by so many christians.
[01:01:28] He was the man who didn't mince words. And although he was an aristocrat, in fact, he upset an awful lot of people. And this is the other portion I'm going to read this evening, which shows you the stuff that men of God are made of who turned the world upside down. I mean, you get some very pretty little saints sometimes seemingly so. But here's the stuff that turns the world upside down and really changes nations when in hand to hand conflict with the world and the devil. Neat little biblical confectionery is like shooting lines with a pea shooter. One needs a man who will let himself go and deliver blows right and left as hard as he can hit, trusting in the Holy Ghost. It's experience, not preaching, that hurts the devil and confounds the world because it's unanswerable. The training is not that of the schools, but of the market. It's the hot, free heart and not the balanced head that knocks the devil out. Nothing but forked lightning. Christians will count. A lost reputation is the best degree for Christ's service. I am more than ever determined that no ring nor limit shall be placed around us other than that of our Lord himself. To the uttermost part, to every creature. I belong and will ever belong to the great God party. I will have naught to do with the little God party. The difficulty is to believe that he can deign to use such scallywags as us. But of course he wants faith and fools rather than talents and culture. All God wants is a heart. Any alternate will do for a head.
[01:02:57] So long as we are empty, all is well. For then he fills with the Holy Ghost. The fiery baptism of the Holy Ghost will change something half sleek christians into hot, lively hearers of Christ who will advance and fight and die, but not mark time. Let us race to heaven. An accident means dashing into the arms of Jesus. Such accidents are God's choicest blessings. Don't be a luggage train. Fools would cut the devil that has cut him out, pretending they do not see him. Others erect a tablet over his supposed grave. Be wise. Don't cut nor bury him. Kill him with the bayonet of evangelism. Hugh Latimer was an inextinguishable candle. The devil lit him and ever since has been kicking himself for his folly. Won't someone else tempt the devil to make a fool of himself again? Nail the colors to the mast. That's the right thing to do. And therefore that is what we must do, and do it now. What colors the colors of Christ, the work he's given us to do, the evangelization of all the unevangelized. Christ wants not nibblers of the possible, but grabbers of the impossible. By faith in the omnipotence, fidelity and wisdom of the Almighty savior who gave the command. Is there a wall in our path? By our God we will leap over it. Are there lions and scorpions in our way? We will trample them under our feet. Does a mountain bar our progress, saying, be thou removed and cast into the sea? We will march on. Soldiers of Jesus, never surrender.
[01:04:23] But what if ct sty? What? But what if c t dies?
[01:04:28] We will shout hallelujah. The world will have lost its biggest fool. With one fool less to handicap him, God will do greater wonders still. There shall be no funeral, no wreaths, crate, nor tears, not even the dead march congratulations all round will take place, for he says, and I if I be offered up, rejoice and congratulate. Do ye also rejoice and congratulate me? This is Philippians 217 18.
[01:04:53] Our God will still be alive, and nothing else matters. The first heart of Africa mission funeral will take place when God dies, but as that will not be till after eternity. Cheer up, all foreman, every man straight before him. Hallelujah. To die is gain. And this is the famous verse that's often quoted to do with c? Tud some wish to live with within the sound of church or chapel bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Well, that's exactly what he did. He went out to the cannibals, he lived there, he never came home. And he died then, very great pain in the end, but triumphantly. And now all over central Africa and all over the world, there are, I suppose it must number some millions now who have found Christ and whose lives have been transformed by this one old man's faith.
[01:05:47] Well, now, that's the kind of faith you and I have got to have.
[01:05:52] We may not be the personality that C t. Studd was, but we've got to have the same faith, and we've got to have that faith which can dare and which can adventure for God.
[01:06:05] Things about faith looking unto Jesus, Hebrews twelve two. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. How do you get this gift of faith? By looking unto Jesus vision always results in faith.
[01:06:30] So if your eyes, or on yourself or on people or on things, you won't have faith. You've got to look unto Jesus. Who is the captain or the pioneer or the author of faith and the perfecter, that is, the one who develops it and finishes it, perfects it. Perfecter of our faith.
[01:06:55] That's the first. And the second thing I'd like to say about faith is this. If you want to serve God, you must learn to look unto Jesus.
[01:07:05] This is the most important thing of all. If you look at people, if you look at things, if you look at co workers, if you look at the work, you'll go down. You've got to learn to look unto Jesus. Everything else breeds unbelief.
[01:07:17] Everything else, even our dearest and most cooperative brothers and sisters, can breed unbelief in us. If we get our eyes on them, we've got to look after Jesus. The second thing, if you want to know faith, an implicit faith in God and his word is Romans 1017. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Let me put it very simply. Faith cometh by the word of God. Faith cometh by the word of God. How does faith come? It comes when you study this book with the help of the Holy Spirit, when you have a reverent and humble approach to this book, faith come.
[01:08:02] I don't believe faith comes first that way. It comes by hearing. But it is true that, you know, our faith is fed by feeding on God's word, believing and trusting ourselves to God's word. So don't forget, finally, that faith is the gift of God, as we have said. And it is a very interesting phrase in Galatians 220, where we have this phrase in the authorized version, which I think is better than the revised standard version. It says, the faith I live by the faith of the son of God.
[01:08:37] And that's a very lovely phrase. You see, sometimes we haven't got any faith, but then we can trust the law. Well, I'm going to finish there. But, you know, Hudson Taylor, the founder of the CIM mission, went through three experiences in his life. So he told us in that little tiny book called a retrospect, and if I'd only had time, I would have probably read out to you a lot more snippets from various lives. Of those who trusted the Lord. He had three experiences. The first was he had no faith when he was young. He only had faith to trust the Lord for his salvation. But he had no faith for anything else. Nor did he think it was required. And he used to have a salary and everything else. When he first went out to the field, to China, which was then, of course, a closed country, just opened. Then he went to his second experience where he saw that all could be opened by faith. God had provided everything. Faith was the key. And if you only had the faith, you could experience as much as your faith, as you had of faith as your faith would allow you to.
[01:09:50] And then as he got older in the Lord, he had some very dark experiences and he lost his faith because he had lost his faith. He had lost his faith in the Lord, but he lost his faith to trust the Lord for his provision, for his everyday provision. He went through a very, very terrible time. If any of you have read the book, Hudson, Taylor, Moya, his first wife, a beautiful account, you will have read it. There he went through this very deep and dark patch and one day he just felt that everything had come to an end. He didn't seem to be able to screw up enough faith to trust the Lord. And he thought of his children and he thought of his wife and he thought it must be the end.
[01:10:35] And then he stumbled. Here it is. He didn't give up reading God's word. In his depression, he read, and in one Timothy, I think it's chapter two, he came across this.
[01:10:47] If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.
[01:10:52] If we deny him, he will deny us.
[01:10:57] If we are faithless, he abideth faithful.
[01:11:05] And he suddenly realized that it was the faith of the son of God that was going to kiss him through, not his own faith. His own faith was necessary, it was vital. But in the end, it was God's faith, the faith of the son of God that was going to get him through. From that day on, he found that the Lord was always there. Even when he found himself weak in faith, he found underneath were the everlasting arms. You must have an implicit faith in God and in his word. Now, only two things to remember this evening. An utter devotion to the Lord leading to worship, service and testimony, and an implicit faith in God and in his word. These two are essential characteristics that God looks for in all who would serve him. Now, shall we pray?
