Read Luke 12:22-34
There are two great principles here that are dealt with by the Lord in a twofold way, and which it will be very profitable for our souls to contemplate a little. I speak of what I believe few are strangers to; namely, care and fear -two of the commonest influences that are at work to weigh down the hearts of the saints of God. You will find that the two are closely allied to each other; that is to say, whatever is the thing that causes you anxiety is that concerning which you are likely to have the most fear; whatever it is that settles upon your heart, and becomes a pressure or a weight, this produces fear in connection with it. I do not speak of care about that which is wrong, hut I speak of it in the largest possible sense. There is a care which it is right to have—a godly, proper, prayerful concern -which if we were devoid of, we should be simply like sticks or stones.
I speak now of that which becomes so settled in the soul that it is between us and God; and there is a mighty difference between having God, and my Father's interest between me and legitimate anxieties, if I may so speak, and having these anxieties between me and Him.
I do not know anything more destructive of true, real, spiritual growth in the soul than having cares resting upon me. If I have God between me and them, then they only become fresh links between me and God, fresh opportunities for me to lean on Him, new reasons for my turning to Him. It was somewhat in that sense that the Lord used that word when He said, "Pray, that ye enter not into temptation."
Trial is a thing that comes sooner or later to us all; in one sense we are never truly proved till we have been under fire. The Lord's charge to His disciples was this, "Pray, that ye enter not into temptation"; that is, when the moment of trial comes, let it be an occasion for you to turn to God instead of turning away from Him.
Verse 30. "And your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." Think of what that
is! He says, Do not trouble yourself; you do not need to let these things weigh down your heart. Oh, what a resource! "Your Father knoweth." He knows it all from beginning to end.
And yet while I delight to own the fact that He knows all, that He is conscious of the need of His child, let me point out a danger. I sometimes think, in our anxiety to meet our need with the supply there is in God, we are making our need the measure—I do not say of the supply, but of the affections of His heart. There is a tendency in us to do so. Never let us forget this that God has a father's heart, that there are feelings that are peculiar to Him as a father. He didn't want servants, He did want sons, it was His pleasure to have them; but I speak now of what is more intimate than sons—of children. There is a distinction between the term son and children. Let us illustrate it this way: you have all seen and heard of acts of benevolence; how the mighty of the earth, moved with compassion, have taken some poor, forlorn little creature, some little waif, and have brought it into their family, have educated it and given it all it was in their power to supply.
But all the power and all the love that person had could never make it his child. You might adopt him and make him a son, for that does not of necessity suppose a birthtie; but when we speak of children, we speak of that which must be by birth, and therefore it implies a much more intimate relationship to say that I am a child, than a son. I am both, blessed be God! And hence I can say, "See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God" (1 John 3:11Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (1 John 3:1);. N. Trans.), and also, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Rom. 8:1414For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Romans 8:14).
Do you think God acts the part of a patron to us? Never; it might suit us but it would not suit Him. What God does is this: He has children born of Him into His own family, with the nature of children given them from birth, and toward whom He delights to do a father's part.
While I fully own how graciously He knows and meets all our need, yet I remember that there are motives and springs in Him apart from every question of our need, but of which our need becomes the occasion of display.
It is amazing how few there are who walk in the knowledge of this relationship. I find there are comparatively few who live in the enjoyment of what God has brought them into. What a wonderful place it is! And yet we actually see those who are brought into all this, walking about with the very livery of anxiety on their countenances. Why, one would think it was all over with them, that there was no Father's hand behind the dark cloud, and no Father's loving care for them. And it is not a question of the way in which He meets our need, I am sure, whatever that may be; that is not the measure of what is in His heart. And yet many people think it is a wonderful thing to be able to say, "Oh, I can trust the Lord, and I know I shall not want." It is a blessed thing to know we shall not want—no question of it—but is it the highest thing God has for me? What is the highest thing He can do for me? My need or necessity cannot be the measure of it; we cannot measure it; the heart of God is its own measure. When I come to Him, I find the fullness of God. It is a wonderful thing to say you are born of God, and that in grace He stands to you in the relationship of Father, with all the feelings and affection of a father's heart toward you. What am I to do then? Put your hand in His and go on in patience.
What are cares? They are choking things that stunt the spiritual life in the soul; am I to allow them when there is all this love for me?
It is the Lord's object to keep me up; these would drag me down. And what is to keep me up? Not the question of the supply, not the question of the time that intervenes between the need and the supply, not the question even of when He will come in for me, but. the blessed fact that He knows; so you can leave time, ways, means, everything with Him.
But now for an instant let us look at the next point. He meets the question of care by the fact of our Father's knowledge of us (v. 32); He meets the question of fear by the fact that it is "your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." It is a little flock, for God's people are very few in number compared with the multitude outside. It is the "Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom"; that is, it is the Father's good pleasure to do a father's part. Is it not sweet to find
that this is the very same word that is used of Christ when the voice from heaven was heard saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight." Matt. 3:1717And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17); N. Trans. It is His good pleasure to act a father's part to you, and to give you the kingdom; and the consciousness of that takes away the fear.
So far, this affects us in that which is negative, but there is a positive side of truth. He says (v. 33), "sell that ye have." He says, Let things here go. Beloved friends are we up to that? Many would be glad to say, "Thank God, I needn't have any fear"; but arc you willing to let things go? What I mean is simply this: that the sense of the goodness of His nature, that He, in suiting those feelings of His, so gratifies His own heart, that I want no more, and so I can afford to let things go.
But what if I were to lose everything? you say. Well, you would have the less to burden you. There is not a thing on this earth that does not entail trouble. Even the possession of lawful things—all brings trouble—that is the character of them all.
Remember, I am not speaking of things which are wrong in themselves, but of what is perfectly lawful. Take, for instance, the God-given relationships of life, as that of father, mother, husband, wife, sister, brother, child. All I can say is, They are Godgiven relationships, and the man that despises them, despises that which is of God.
But look, for instance, at a mother and her child—you see how she loves it, nurtures, cares for it—but is there any fear in her heart about it? Isn't she afraid she may lose it, that it may die? The best thing I see in this world, there is the moth and the thief to seize upon it. There is death, the thief that enters into every house, and no bars can keep him out. Well, if I have not any of these things, I have the less to promote anxiety and fear.
Or, to come down to what is a great deal lower than these—earthly possessions—the same thing holds good. Suppose you were to enlarge the circle of these blessings, to widen the area. Why, you would only have a wider target for death, moths, and thieves to shoot at.
How wonderful to have something that death cannot touch, something to attract and to hold my heart.
First of all, what is your treasure? I believe with all of us there is a great deal too much tendency to make Christ the servant of our need. I know He is that. I know He is the willing servant of our need, but too many are satisfied with that, and He is not the treasure of their soul. The question is, Where is your treasure? for where that is, there will your heart be also; it is that which must control all the affections.
I feel we are all glad to have heaven as a sort of relief from the storms and trials of the way, but alas, we know very little of it as our home, the home of our hearts.
We know it is a shelter from the things that distress us here; and when everything else is gone, then we turn our thoughts there. And that blessed One is ready to receive us even though we value Him only as a shelter from the storm. He never refuses any who come to Him. But He wants the affections of our hearts to be set on Himself.
He will not deny us, though we only come when everything has failed here. But it is another thing to say, like Ruth, "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge:... Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." There should be an attractiveness about the Person of Christ to our hearts, that will lead us above everything, so that even when things are bright around us, we can say there is a brighter thing still that holds all our affections: and this would flow from it -in place of being visitors there, and dwellers here, we would be visitors here, and dwellers there.
Verse 36. Here is the second aspect of preparedness of heart; This refers to Christ's coming. There is the sense of His absence; I don't think any of us feel the want of Christ's presence as an affliction to our hearts. I may feel the terrible nature of the world through which we are passing, but do I feel that He is absent? I know He is here in one sense, that is true; but I am not speaking of that now, but of the sense that He is not here, and that it is only His presence that can fill up the void His absence creates. And this will lead us to watch and wait—to watch for His coming every moment. Is there not a lamentable deficiency about us in this respect?
"And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord"; this is the proper demeanor of the Christian, so that the world might read in our very ways that we are strangers here, waiting for our absent Lord. The world does not understand this—it does not know doctrines—but the world can understand whether the people who hold these doctrines practice them or not.
Has the world seen this in us? I fear that we have given a poor testimony to it. I fear that the saints of God have not backed up the gospel as they should. The gospel is just as clear and distinct as it can possibly be, but here are people who profess to have believed it and owned it; and yet there is not the practical testimony which ought to flow from it.
It is a solemn thing to think that the poor world, that lies in the arms of the wicked one, can turn round and say, "I hear all this that you tell me, but I do not see it carried out in practice; in other words, I do not see those who look like men 'that wait for their Lord.' "
The Lord give us exercised consciences and hearts; may His own Word find such a place in our souls that we may arise and shake ourselves from the dust and soiling influences of the age, to meet and welcome Him who saith, "Surely I come quickly."