C. Barton
2 Timothy 22TI 2
We know that in spite of all the failure that has come in, the Holy Spirit still dwells in the church, and the place where He dwells is a place of privilege with which the name of Christ is connected. The path for such a day as this is marked out for us in 2 Timothy. The danger for our hearts, in looking at all the corruption that the will of man and the flesh have brought in, is that we resort to our own ways and means to meet the difficulties.
Jeremiah 7 was a day of moral and ecclesiastical evil and the people said, "We are shut up to this." (See verses 9-10.) They throw the blame back on God, and nowadays some Christians will even admit that they are going on with what is contrary to God. They say, "What can we do? What a mess Thu have made of it.”
Well, we may find much failure in those who are trying to walk in this path, but the truth remains. There is a ruin and we have all contributed to it, but there is the path today. God's order is to cease to do evil first, before you learn to do well. It is one thing to be adept at pointing out the evil around and quite another to lay hold of the Lord's strength to walk in His path. Is there a resource for faith, or would He have us go on with all this? "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." Is there a path in which we can look up to God and count on His being with us?
Some people talk of all testimony being gone. It is one thing to be saying, "We are Philadelphia," but it is quite another to say, "Everything is gone." They would be more truthful if they said their hearts had let it go. They have gotten under the state of things around. I would to God that saints, especially young saints, would read Romans 14, and not the beginning only, but the end. I know how that word, "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," brought me up short, and it is not speaking of unconverted people, nor is it for people inclined to walk carelessly, but it is written for scrupulous ones who had not the light and instruction we have today.
Have I the Word of God for my path? Turn to Jeremiah 18:1212And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. (Jeremiah 18:12). The danger for the heart that is not in communion with God in this evil day is to say, "There is no hope," and instead of bringing in God's "nevertheless," they bring in their own "but we will walk after our own devices." They turn in on their own hearts. At the end of Judges, Micah was a man who had a houseful of gods, and a Levite came that way. (The Levites received their place of nearness to God for their faithfulness at the time of the golden calf.) Micah makes a bargain with this Levite to be the priest to his houseful of idols in return for certain things. What is so terrible is that he counts on God's favor and smile on the occasion. "Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest" (Judges 17:1313Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. (Judges 17:13)).
How true it is that them is nothing new under the sun! Where is ill.: worst show of the will of the flesh? Is it not when it intrudes itself into the things of God, where He has expressed His mind and will? Jeremiah did not do very much, but he took to heart the state of God's people. He was faithful and he bore faithful messages to them. In Jeremiah 15:16-1716Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. 17I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation. (Jeremiah 15:16‑17) we find it was the Word of God that put him right, and it filled him with indignation. People think now that the study of the Word of God fits them to put up with what is around them, but that is not the result to a true heart. What people call a useful, large-hearted man today is sometimes a man with a rubber conscience. God's picture of a useful man is not one that goes on with everything, but one who purges himself from the vessels to dishonor that he may be meet for the Master's use.
People talk of being liberal; it is very well to be liberal with What is my own, but if it is God's truth, it is very presumptuous of me to be liberal with it. (See 1 Corinthians 4 on stewardship.) I am to be subject to it, to be girt about with it, and by manifestation of it to commend myself to every man's conscience in the sigh t of God. The man in 2 Timothy is awake, his conscience is exercised and he is to "endure hardness" to good, notwithstanding all the efforts to turn him aside. The Word of God teaches us how to strive and how not to strive. In one sense strife is wrong, but in the sense of contending earnestly for the faith, it is not. There is no loophole here for "agreeing to differ." We are not to be amiable by saying, "You maybe right and I may be wrong, but we are brethren, so let us ignore everything else and agree to differ." No, the servant of the Lord is to be patient and gentle, but he never for a moment gives the sense that he will agree to differ (vss. 24-25). His object is that he and his brother may acknowledge the truth.
Is it not a comfort today that "the Word of God is not bound" (vs. 9)? If any soul turns to Him, there is the Word of the Lord to meet him and the grace of the Lord too. But we are not to compromise one single point of the truth of God. We may talk of the good of souls, but "to obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Sam. 15:2222And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15:22)). Saul had been destroying witches, but "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft," and he dared cover his disobedience by sacrificing. In Hebrews 12, Esau is called a "profane" person. What was his sin? He so lightly valued his birthright that he sold it for present advantage under the pressure of circumstances.
What people are saying today is: What is the use of contending for the truth? Some who do not say it in actual words have imbibed this profane spirit. In Zechariah 4:1010For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth. (Zechariah 4:10) we get, "For who hath despised the day of small things?" When God talks of despising, it is always in connection with something very precious of His that is presented to me, and indifference to it makes me a despiser. It is in a day of small things that endurance is all the more called for. The path becomes narrower and is more opposed, but is there anything on this earth equal to what the Lord holds out to us in this day? "A vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use" (2 Tim. 2:2121If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. (2 Timothy 2:21)). Can this be true of us even though the church, so dear to Christ and so cared for by Him, is in a state of ruin? You say, Is that what the Lord has for me in such a day? I say, Yes, for the youngest and the simplest believer with the love of Christ before him can know that the Lord has marked out this path. What are the things of earth compared to it?
What do you suppose heaven esteems most on earth? Not that which is highly esteemed among men! In the darkest day, how precious it is to the Lord to mark the path of one who knows Him, by witnessing that He is sufficient. It is the witness to who He is and to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, even in the scene where Satan's seat is. However, Christ is over it all and He is sufficient to meet and help us in it. "Study to show thyself approved unto God." How easy it is to get under the eye of man and to give souls what will be popular. No, we are to study to be approved of God. The men in verse 18 had erred concerning the truth. It is the truth that sanctifies (John 17:1919And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (John 17:19)), and the Spirit of truth is here (John 14:16-1716And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (John 14:16‑17)). Saying the resurrection was past led to indifference.
In Thessalonians we find Satan trying to terrify the saints by saying the day of the Lord was present. He will try to terrify and he will try to set us at ease—anything to prevent us pressing on with energy and vigor. Then we come to the blessed resource of verse 19 of 2 Timothy 2. People sometimes say, "The Lord knows I love Him." Do they remember that was the expression of Peter's shame? He had denied the Lord. Men could not see he loved Him. It needed One who saw the heart to know it. Is that all that is to be in our lives? Men should be able to see by our lives that we are His. Every one of us should be His witnesses, but instead of that the house of God has come to this: a company bearing His name, but having to fall back on His knowledge—"the Lord knoweth." Here is really the point that tests us all. "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ [or, the Lord] depart from iniquity." Individually, this is our responsibility. If we desire to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," as surely we do, and desire to see the saints together, that desire is so apt to lead us to compromise with evil in order to maintain outward unity. I am to own the claims of the Lord over heart, conscience and life and to depart from all that is unsuited to Him.
Do you say, How am Ito know what is iniquity? By God's Word! I must depart from what dishonors Him; it matters not where or with whom I find it. We are not called to separate from Christians. If Christians go on with iniquity and cling to it, I must separate, but it is from iniquity, not from them. We should always have a tender heart for every Christian, but also be true to Christ and own His claims over everyone. In faithfulness to the Lord, we must not compromise truth in order to bring Christians together. We must be faithful to the Lord who is holy and true and will not have one point of truth compromised. If it is in the Lord's name and for Him, it must be worthy of Him who is soon coming to take the church out of this scene and present it to Himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
We may fail in a great many points, but this is the instruction for the saints: "Depart from iniquity." An earthly master may come down in his standard, but if it is for the Lord, let us be jealous of any compromise is not this true love to our brethren? That is what true love is. I distrust above all things the expressed love of any Christian who is untrue to Christ. Is it love to my brethren to encourage them even by a look in any bit of their path that is contrary to Christ? It is treachery. Can you call it love and fellowship if anything due to Christ is lost? It is the cruelest thing to those to whom it may be meant to be kind. In 1 Timothy 6:1111But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (1 Timothy 6:11), he is told to follow after righteousness. In our chapter, "with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" is added to it.
What is a pure heart? We find the answer in 1 Peter 1:2222Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: (1 Peter 1:22). Compare also Titus 2:1414Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:14) and 1 John 3:33And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:3). One who "purifieth himself, even as He is pure" is one who judges and refuses in thoughts, walk and ways all that is unsuited to Hint The Apostle compares the house of God to a great house with many vessels, but it is not a question of degrees of usefulness of the vessels; it is a condemnatory word; dishonor is disapproval. The truth disapproves them; therefore one must purge oneself from them, (I fit is not truth disapproving them, you get a sort of select company.)
Now he who has purged himself is ready to be taken up and used for the Lord's work, and verse 22 is his moral responsibility and his company. "But follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." It is remarkable it should be "with them" here where the state of the church is such confusion—everything is mixed up, and we each have to tread our way through it, but not in isolation. Separation is one thing and one may have to sit alone, but he shall find out that there are others who have done the same, so he has others to walk with. We get the ordering of the path elsewhere, but here we have to learn what is to govern it—the principle on which we are to walk together. We are not to go on as we like in self-will. There is that which remains, what we get in 1 Corinthians 12. Being separated from all that denies that "there is one body" on earth, we are to come together on that ground.
We have 1 Corinthians 10 as well as 11 before us, and we know the Lord's word in Matthew 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20), "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." The loaf on the table remains the outward expression of the unity of the body today. If there are only two or three gathered by the Holy Spirit, they are to think of the whole body in their hearts, and if only three are governed by this, it is not their oneness, but "there is one body" and they come together in acknowledgment of it. There is, so to speak, a chair at His table for every member of the body of Christ. Our responsibility is to acknowledge "there is one body." Our eyes of faith have been opened to it, and what we have to do is to acknowledge it practically.