I should like to say a word on service. You are here in testimony for Christ; but first you must learn that Christ is for you; it is then only that you can be for Him.
In looking at these chapters of John, as every careful reader of Scripture knows, we find, in the thirteenth and fourteenth, Christ for us, and this my heart has to learn first. Then the fifteenth chapter is, I am for Christ. It is not anything about life, as people often suppose. In the seventeenth chapter, which is higher still, it is not that I am for Christ, but, if I may use such a word, I am as Christ.
Thus we get progress in the chapters. There is nothing about joy in chapter fourteen; there is fullness of joy in chapter fifteen; and in chapter seventeen it is: My joy fulfilled in them." The first great point for every soul is to know that Christ is for me; I cannot take the place of being for Him otherwise.
He gives us here three characteristics of what we are to be: disciple; friend; and witness. Each believer ought to be the three. The Lord prepares us for this service by the way in which He deals with us Himself; and in this there is a double action: washing, and sanctifying.
I first turn back to the. thirteenth chapter, because there the Lord begins to educate tin, disciples for this new position. He here shows them, that He is about to go away, and that, whilst away, He will take care to remove from them everything 'that would hinder communion with Himself. Washing removes from us anything that defiles; that is the first thing. Nothing can be more touching to the heart! " He says: I am going away; I am leaving you in the defiling place; but I will take such care of you, that I will keep you from all that could come in to distract your heart, and prevent your having fellowship with me. It is the action of the priest outwardly (the action inwardly always goes on); it comes in washing power;. He washed them, and wiped them; He entirely removes everything that could hinder intimacy between Him and me.
This is practically brought- out in the twenty-first chapter, where, " when they had. dined,". He says, as it were: Now Peter, I want to have an explanation with you.—Often we judge acts without touching the roots—with out reaching the point of departure: Every person, unless he is extremely degraded, sorry for his faults'; but it is a very rare person who is 'sorry for the thing that commits the fault's.
Peter is broken down, and now washing comes in. It is not merely pointing out the sin; that is law; law always rebukes; there is nothing about washing in the law. Washing is removing the thing that defiles; and that is the action of Christ to me. He says: I so love to have you in unclouded intimacy with me, that, while it ought to be your business to take care that nothing should come in to interfere with it, yet, if it do, it shall be my care, if you are subject to me, to remove it.
Intercession always goes on for everyone; grace follows everyone, for grace flows out unhinderedly; but all are not washed. All sat >round the table, and the Lord went round, and washed their feet; and, if anyone were not subject, he did not get it done, anyhow, not for a time. You will find in the case of everyone who is happy with the Lord, that the first action on. going to Him is washing. Souls often only get to this point-getting rid of the thing that defiles; but that is not sanctification. Sanctification is that you are keeping the word; not only the word acting on you, but you act according to it. The disciples going to Emmaus give us an example of this. And the Lord says in Revelation: " I have not found thy works complete." It was not that they had not begun; what proves the mettle of any one is whether he can finish his work; everyone can commence a thing-there is a novelty about it that is pleasing; but the point is where is the one who can finish them? This is what the Lord is setting forth, and I do not know anything more interesting to my heart.
A soul walking with the Lord will always know why the Lord is interfering with him, for He will be sure to tell him; He will bring the word to bear upon him: The Father chastens me, that I may be a partaker of His holiness; and the Lord Jesus washes me, to the same end.
A person walking carefully with the Lord is conscious of this sanctification going on. If affliction come upon him, he can say: I know why this is come upon me, because there is another thing going on. The Lord says: I have a controversy with you about that; and the one who knows it, instead of finding it a grievous thing, is glad to get rid of it.
The Lord says now to Peter: " Follow me." The real hindrance to your following Christ definitely is, that there is something that has not been cleared up between your heart and Himself. That is what it was with Peter. After he had been ordained, and sent forth in service for Christ, he goes off the line-he is going quite the wrong way; they all go off on a wrong line of- things-millennial, if you will. Now the Lord comes in, and waits for the time when He shall have it out with him; and this is always His way. He does not come down on him at once, and ask for an explanation, but He waits till after they had dined-waits till after dinner, when the heart had been brought into perfect social ease; and then He says to Peter: There is a little question to settle between you and me. Why, we do it ourselves; we do not come down harshly at an unfitting moment to find fault, but we wait until we are sitting round the fire to say, I want a little explanation from you. Of -all things I think explanations are the most trying; but, though such times are not pleasant they are useful; they have to be gone through. Thus, was the Lord freeing Peter of self confidence, and I call attention to the manner in which He did it, because I think we are defective in the manner of our service. He says: " If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." He brings the word to bear. The word comes down, and reaches my soul, so as to detect the deficiency that is there; and I say, 'nobody knew that deficiency in me but Christ, and He has touched it.
When any ministry comes home to me and touches my conscience, it is not the minister; it is Christ Himself that is speaking. Servants sometimes think they can apply the word, but be assured you never can. The Lord will apply it. He may give you the word, but you can not apply it. He alone knows the secrets of the heart, and He is too loving and too careful about my heart to entrust that loving to any other thin Himself, though He may make another the channel of it. Therefore we read: " Nourisheth it and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church."
You see the first thing-the ground work of all service-is this gracious way of setting about it. I see a defect in a brother; then I am responsible to remove it. But I may not be able to remove it, though I may have sorrow about it. It is not at all that I do not see it.- The child I love best is the one to whose faults I shall be most alive, but at the same time most anxious that no one else shall see them. I desire to see saints that I have a care for, up to the standard which I know to be according to the mind of Christ. As Paul says: " I am jealous over you With godly jealousy." When I thus see a defect, and am not able to remove it, then all I" can do is to fall back on the Lord.
You will find there is a practical cause of failure in attempting to remove a defect from another which one has not removed from oneself. Such a one is powerless to do it, however much he may see the necessity of it While desirous to do the right thing, he is lacking skill for it he is an unskilled surgeon; he has not had practice. The true place of a Christian is to be like the great physician Hahnemann, who, it is said, practiced all his remedies first on himself. That is the effective person practically. I know the tender, gentle, nurselike way, in which the Lord has dealt with myself; so the apostle shows how necessary it is that 'there should be love in our dealing. with another. Love takes away everything Lat could interfere between the soul and Christ; therefore, in Corinthians, he insists on it that the Man who deals with others must be a man of charity. The man of charity is the man who has got rid of himself. I have alluded to this because it is the ground work of all service.
Of course the thirteenth chapter is private, and the fifteenth public you do not wash people's feet in public. But the thirteenth is the groundwork of service: you cannot so much as read your Bible, or even pray,- but you must begin with the thirteenth of John; there is no effective service of any kind that it does not begin with removing anything that interferes with communion.
Take Cain as an example; he says: " I am not my brother's keeper." But I am my brother's keeper now. I often wish I did not see defects, for then I should not be chargeable with them. No doubt the best: way to correct defects is to, be before that person the living expression of the power of Christ in the very thing in which he fails. You see a vain person; well; walk before him without a bit of vanity. You see a proud person; walk before him in humility; you need not tell him that he is proud; let him see what grace can do in you, and thus you will become a voice to him that will be better than any rebuke.
I turn now to the fifteenth chapter, which is public. And the first thing I get in it is: "Abide in me; without me ye can do nothing."—You must have to do with the Lord. It is not standing at all; it is state; it must be a thing that is going on; you must have the Lord at the time. Now if you go to visit a sick woman and say to yourself 'by the way: I will try to say' something comforting to that poor woman; say you have spoiled the whole thing; you are wanting to do something, whilst you ought to have wanted to be something-to be Christ. And what will you leave behind you as the result? The sick woman will say: That was such a nice person; not: I have been edified through the presentation of Christ to my soul.
" Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much 'fruit." I will give you an illustration which I borrow from the Servant in the Psalm " My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.". The moment get anything from God, it is not to go back to EMI, but down to man; I am to give it out to refresh others. " The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." You are to be like a fruit tree in a garden. A fruit tree is to be plucked of its ripe' fruit by whoever, the owner of the garden chooses-it is there for the use of those who have the privilege of guests in his garden. Are you ready to be plucked by every one He invites to His garden? The figure is that of `a garden; you may be a currant tree, or a peach tree; there are various kinds in a garden. When the fruit is ripe it is ready to be plucked; the Owner allows me to go into the garden, and I have the privilege of taking what I want; and what do I take? Why the ripe fruit, of course. And who is the sufferer? Why the tree!
Sometimes I find a person who is not ready to be a donor-who is not ready to be plucked. How different to the saints of old, who, "In their deeps poverty, abounded to the riches of their liberality." The apostle" says: I do not want your gifts, but I am glad of them as " fruit that may abound to your account. It is not that I can spare it, but that I am here for the express purpose of being plucked. " Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit. I am here to be a servant; I am here to be plucked, but at His pleasure only; and that is like Himself I then learn of Him who "for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be rich." He was here to be a servant. There is nothing more unhealthy than the saint who appropriates everything for his own use and comfort. There is nothing more humbling to ones heart.. I would say to each one of you: How are you spending your time? The one who spends it on himself only makes himself a spectacle of misery to the eyes of men, and God will make him so too. I said to a person a little while ago:, "I have seen you like a stately cedar of Lebanon, full of self consideration." I could• have added: " Now you are broken down like a bramble bush." Where is the love you say you have in your heart, when you never do anything to show it?
It is not a question of ability. The apostle says of some, that " beyond their power they were willing." " It is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." just as it was with the gathering of the manna; the poor feeble old man, or the little tottering child, gathered alike with the strongest man: " He that gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no lack." And it must be so. I do not care if a person says he is poor; let him give of his poverty. The poor widow gave all she had for the temple. Have you done as much for the church? She might, as has been said before, have given one of the mites to God, and kept the other for herself; it notes the fact that she had two but she gave them both-her all-to the Lord. I speak of this because I think the tendency in us is to surround ourselves, and to let others surround us, with comforts; But you have to come to the fact that you are put here as one who is to be plucked-as one who really is a fruit-tree in the garden of Christ upon earth.
And He has these fruit-trees here not for Himself, but for " the saints in whom is all his delight." Lash you are. you practically a. fruit tree here for the Lord, and is your fruit in word and work growing for the benefit of any whom He may send to pluck it? That is what it is to be a "disciple." If you are, then what you have for yourself is your joy full." I never see a person Wholly given up to the Lord that he is not as bright as can be; his joy is full. If any one talks of being worn out, I say: You are not serving the Lord; or your joy would be full. Even one who sees the ruin and the crash of all here; has yet his joy full if he is serving truly. I What do you think that man would have said who broke through the Philistines' camp, if I had asked him what he was doing it for? He would have said: All I want is a drink of water for my captain.-What! risk your life for such a thing as that?-Yes, anything to please my lord. I do not care-what it is!-Let each one of you go home your different spheres and ask yourselves there, is that the course you are taking? Is that the- action of your life? Will I endanger my life? Will I go through anything just to get a drink of water for my Lord?-In the Case of David, what characterizes the action is, that, when he had got it, he would not drink it: this offering of a true heart must be consecrated forever to the Lord.
As I have said, the tendency is, either to let others do it to you, or to surround yourself with comforts. But the question should be not, What do I want? but, What can I do without? It is not only to want nothing, but what can I do without? That is the point to come to, and it is not monasticism; for, whilst thus needing nothing for self, I am interested about others, and can think of, them.—The apostle says: " I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state." Look at that servant of the Lord Epaphroditus; what must the state of the saints have been then? when he would not tell the Philippians he was sick, because he knew the sorrow of heart it would give them. What real interest for servants there was in the saints of that time!
I come now to the " friend." The friend is one who gives his life for the saints. That is the public expression of love. Everyone here in Quemerford and elsewhere ought to be able to say of me: There is a man who would give his life for the saints. It is not giving property; it is giving one's life; that is the character of this love.
But let me come to detail. I find everybody else out by studying myself, because " As in water, face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." Now, in the question of service, do you consider people? or are you merely thinking of yourself? If you go to see a very feeble person, do you stay a very long time? and perhaps pray about something you have on your own heart? I believe you fail there. I sometimes say to myself when I have been speaking to long: You are not considering others; you must put yourself in their shoes. The greatest lack I know is the lack of Consideration and sympathy. And the reason you are thus wanting is, that you have not studied yourself, and seen how God has considered you. Paul says: "We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." Did you ever nurse a child? I suppose most of you have fed one, putting a little sup down its mouth at a time, taking care it was not too hot. It is just thus that Paul speaks of himself; not as a father, only, but as a nurse too.
Take a prayer meeting for instance; you pray a long time; then you are not considering others; you are considering yourself. I remember a meeting when a great number of hymns were given out, and, when I spoke of it afterward, some one said to me: "Why do you object? "I said: " Because you did not think of me; "meaning that they were not considering others, or really the Lord who would consider for the assembly.
I dare say all here know that there is what is called a key-note to every room. A professor of sound would tell you in a minute the key-note to which to pitch your voice, so that it would be -heard in every part. of the room. Now if I get the key-note of a meeting (I know not if I have to day), I have got what will suit every saint there, even the most dormant; and it will wake him up, anyhow for the time, even if he goes to sleep again, like an oyster opening only to shut up again; still he will get a sense that he has been in a good place. And it would be not a sensational thrill either, but a divine touch that awakened the dormant heart; it is: "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." I hay thus seen' a whole meeting shaken up into vigor and life; though I have known that most of them would in all Probability return again to their dull ways.
I am not speaking of gifts now. Gifts are specialties, and all are not gifted; but every one may be a fruit-tree. If you have a gift, you must be in a certain state to be able to exercise it. You may offer me a fine mettled horse, but if you say he is unmanageable, I say, I would rather have a dull pony. The ability is in the former; but the state to enable you to make use of it is lacking; there is no abiding in Christ; there is not charity-he is not tractable.
What characterizes a "friend" is, not merely that I am a fruit tree, but that I am here to give my life for the brethren. I believe it is the one thing that will keep a person safe in this world-having but one' thought, to live for the saints. You say: But do you not live for the world? No, I live for the saints; and, as to the -world, I work for it from the heart of Christ. And that is where I think evangelists sometimes make a mistake: they work to the heart of Christ instead of from it. The true evangelist is one who finds, as I might say, vacancies in the heart of Christ, and says, I go out to find persons to fill them. He is like a recruiting sergeant going out for recruits to fill the ranks; he is commissioned from the heart of Christ to go forth, and bring back souls to the place he came from himself. I do not ask him to talk to them about " church truth; " but he brings them to Christ, and that is " church truth." Paul came from Christ, so he brought souls to Him.
There is such a thing as being simply a philanthropist in' evangelizing. The unconverted man, who would' have brought all his friends to the gold diggings, now that he is a Christian, tries to bring them all to faith in Christ very much on the same principle. This is only benevolence; it is meeting man in his ruined condition, and offering him relief in it but it is not leading him entirely out of it to Christ.
But love is quite other then benevolence, though love too relieves of every want; as the scripture says: " He will rest in his love." There never was a greater evangelist than the apostle Paul, and he says: I endure all things for the elect's sakes." The evangelist must love. It is not a question of preaching any particular point of truth, but it is having his heart charged With the love of Christ's heart, and then coming forth to say: I come not only to save you from judgment, but to bring you to Christ. He may go on a long time before he finds the silver piece, but he will find it in the end. The world wants him' to " sweep the,- house: that. is what missionary societies: are chiefly doing. The evangelist will " sweep the house " too, as he seeks to find the silver piece, for he cannot help imparting a good color to the world. I shall say one word more, and that is as to the "witness." All this devotion to one another will call out the enmity of the world. It is the most strange thing, but the Lord says, that, if you are the expression of the most devoted love to one another, instead of your calling out the world's admiration, you will call out its enmity; it will hate you. Hence we read: " When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." There is another action of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is here to comfort us in the absence of Christ, but He is here too to stand for Christ in the presence of the world. He is here in Quemerford. Do you realize that He is here? I was saying somewhere the other day, that a man with a good stick could drive all the saints out of the place; but I defy him to do so, why? Because they have got so much power? Not at all! but because the Holy Ghost was there.
I lament it in my heart, but I have not a doubt that everyone who is giving up the power of the Holy Ghost as to testimony for Christ, is weakening the enjoyment of the Holy Ghost in his own soul. That is why I am against placards, against sensationalism, and I hope I shall be more against them than ever, because it is bringing in the power of man, instead of that of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost does not want human agency. You say: But may I not do this or that?-You may do anything that: the Spirit of God tells you to do; but do you think that God cannot bring people in to hear the gospel preached without your placarding it all over the town? I see the whole world combined against Paul at Philippi, but God came in and put them all aside, and just brought in the jailor where Paul was, in order that he might be saved.
There is an invisible power with us here in this room, in 'testimony for Christ. You need not be discouraged a bit. There is an invisible power with us; there is the Holy Ghost, and-nothing can overcome Him. And the one who does not maintain this fact, does not maintain the testimony of the glorified Christ, for the Holy Ghost was to come from heaven to tell of Him " He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." He comes in to comfort you in the absence of Christ, and He is with you also as a testimony against the world, and, if you stand with Him now, He says: I will tell you all that concerns that absent One and His glories. Thus, as you get hold of the sixteenth chapter, you will find what it is to get into the seventeenth, and become a living representation of that absent One-of Him here where He is not. But to be this you must take the road to it.
The Lord teaches us the tenderness of His own patient love, as He makes us fruit trees in His garden, to be plucked by those whom He privileges to share that which belongs to Himself.. May He lead our hearts to know the reality of it.
(J. B. S.)