Guidance in the Assembly
There was one question of this nature asked here this afternoon. It was how a person might know in the assembly whether he was directed by the Spirit of God to take an audible part. I think that this principle we have here solves the difficulty: it is “faith in Christ Jesus.” When we are together in assembly the Lord Jesus Christ is there; He is Lord, He is Lord of all, and how much more when in our midst. Beloved friends, He is the Lord of the blasphemer; is He not then our Lord? The day is coming when the scoffer shall bow to Him; ought we not to bow to Him now? and if I am in the assembly and I know the Lord is there, this very fact, which can only be realized by faith in Christ Jesus, this very fact will bring me to my proper place and cause me to assume that right and reverent attitude in His presence which becomes both brother and sister.
There are a great many brothers and sisters who think that in an assembly meeting it is only the brothers who have to be led by the Spirit. This is quite a mistake. Brothers have to be led by the Spirit to open their mouths, but the whole assembly must be led by the Spirit to open their hearts to the Lord, and the Spirit is there to produce in the hearts of those assembled all that which is suitable to the occasion.
There is one infallible guide whereby we may know that which is of the Spirit. If the “Spirit is truth” (1 John 5:66This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. (1 John 5:6)), and if “thy word is truth” (John 17:1717Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)), there can be no contradiction between them; so that what is of the Scripture is of the Spirit, and what is done to the glory of the Lord who is in the midst is of the Spirit also; and Jesus Himself is the Truth (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)).
THE INSPIRATION OF EVERY SCRIPTURE
We now come to that which is general (vers. 16, 17), but our time is gone, and I can only refer to it briefly. But do not let us forget the previous exhortation; here we have what is true of the Scriptures as a whole and of its parts. The apostle had already mentioned the holy writings which were of Old Testament times. Now he comes to that which is general, because at that time there were some of the New Testament scriptures which had not yet been written. They had not then been communicated in the way of writings, and therefore these were not yet “scripture.” Hence the Spirit of God caused the apostle to write that which should be of the greatest comfort to us in these days.
“Every scripture,” he says, “is inspired of God.” Now we know that it is a common article of the creed of Christendom—at any rate, it was so once—that the Scriptures, are inspired of God. But, beloved friends, we must not think only of the general fact that Scripture is given of God. We need to have the truth about it in our hearts, and the truth about it is that in the Scriptures we may be absolutely certain that we have the voice of God to our souls. There are many persons who have tortured their minds and the minds of other people as to an adequate definition of what inspiration is—where it begins, where it ends, what it really involves, and so on. Beloved friends, we can afford to leave all these inquiries and confine ourselves to the single fact that when we open our Bibles and read our Bibles, there we have that which is of God. God has infused into it that which is of Himself, and which gives it a character which nothing else has.
We may see an illustration of it in the formation of Adam. God formed the body of the first man out of the ground, and there was a shapely form—not of some hairy uncouth savage, as many persons think nowadays—but of a handsome man, a man that God had designed to occupy a place of sovereignty in His world below. But there it was, a dead, inert mass, beautiful to look at, but a thing without life; no motion, no sound, just simply a part of this lower world—dust, a grand and beautiful body of dust, but dust only. Now God communicated from Himself to that inanimate mass; “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Thus were the soul and spirit communicated by the direct inspiration of the Almighty, and thus man was placed at a tremendous distance from the rest of the world. The beasts that perish have their soul and spirit; they return to the dust from which they sprung. Man received his originally from on high. This constitutes the difference between man and the lower creation.
And it is even so with this holy Book. People will tell you that the works of Shakespeare, as well as the older writings of Greek and Latin poets and philosophers, have their measure of inspiration, and so they put the Bible a little way above such books, but only just a little way. By and by they bring it to the same level, and presently it goes into the waste-paper basket—no use at all.
The great truth is that we have something here which is different in kind and nature from every other book on the face of the earth; and the essence of the difference lies in this: it is inspired of God; and though I may be the simplest person on the earth I can come to it and get divine direction. I may be only a little child just able to prattle, but I can be instructed in my measure in the truths of Scripture. That blessed and holy Visitant from heaven above, the Lord Jesus Christ, when He was here, was pleased to take the babes in His arms and bless them, and the heavenly light and radiance in Him did not distress or awe the infantile minds.
Oh, beloved friends, it is a great mercy of God that we in this day of great errors have our Bibles, that we have that which is inspired of God, and nothing can wrest it from us. We have it; but the crucial point is whether we make that use of it which we ought to make. It is profitable—profitable in a fourfold way—but as declared here, particularly to Timothy, it is so especially “that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto every good work.”
THE MAN OF GOD
Now, you notice that this term “man of God” occurs here, and also in the First Epistle. I think it is a word we might retain in our minds as a term to meditate upon, and to consider what is its special significance in the connection in which it is used. We find the term also in the Old Testament. We see that at a particular period it was applied to the prophets of Israel. It was used at the time of their declension, their national declension from the worship of Jehovah, and when they had been carried away into the baseness of idolatry, and the whole ten tribes were involved. The prophet of God is called the man of God. Why? Because he was the man who stood for God in the midst of the mass which is characterized by error. He stood for God, and, if necessary, stood alone.
There is, according to prophecy, a man coming who has an evil title, “the man of sin,” who shall sum up in himself impiety in all its worst forms. He is the man that will stand for sin. But we are called to-day, every one of us, like the prophet, and like Timothy, to stand for God. Oh, beloved friends, it is a privilege surely to be on God’s side, and to know that we are in the current of God’s thoughts in a day of general departure and declension. We can see error all around. Some persons say, “You should not talk about these things; they do not create any pleasant feelings in our minds.” Of course they do not, they are not intended to awaken a pleasant feeling; they are intended to arouse in us the very reverse—a revulsion of feeling so that we should never be ensnared by the evil tendencies.
There are those who are entrapped. You do not want to be entrapped, do you? Be, on the contrary, a man of God. Do you ask how you can be a man of God? Only by cleaving simply to the scripture. Do not attempt it in any other way. There are persons who look round upon the divisions of Christendom and they throw up their hands in horror in view of the number of the sects. Some persons we know have been the evil instruments of making more sects. Cannot we reduce them? If there are, say, five hundred, can we not make four hundred and ninety-nine by bringing two sects together, or even reduce them to four hundred and ninety-eight? Beloved friends, even in such a case we should not do very much good after all. No, we are not called to do this. It is not for you—if I may still keep to the figure five hundred—it is not for you to select (say) number four hundred and number four hundred and five, and join these two together and let the others go their way. If you wish to do the work of reunion you must aim to bring all the five hundred together. This you will never do; it is too late in the day to attempt it.
How to Consult the Bible
What we have to do is to be men of God, and the only way in which we can be perfectly instructed in these perilous times is by having the word of God before us, and by coming to it as an inspired communication to our souls. Depend upon it, the reason why we do not profit by the word of God as we might is that we do not come to it in a practical way. By a practical way I mean coming to it for light upon particular points of conduct or service or association. There are persons who, having a difficulty, say, “I will lay it before so-and-so, he may help me.” They write, or wait till the brother comes, who sends it on to another, and so the question goes round, and when it returns eventually, the question is exactly where it was before. We should, of course, seek to help one another. I am not saying a word against that, but, beloved friends, you will never get useful help from other persons unless you go directly yourselves to the word of God.
It is an absolute necessity in these days to have direct recourse to the word of God. It may be upon a personal matter, or it may be upon a church matter, and we ought to remember the distinction between the two things. We have a personal relation as children of God, and the Scripture gives us light for that. But in the face of the terrible confusion and the wreck and havoc that have been wrought in the outward testimony of the church of God, we still remain members of the one body of which Christ is the Head. Now, as members of that body, have we not a particular responsibility? Is there anything that the Lord, to whom we are attached by this loving tie, is there anything that He would have us try to do for Him while we wait for His coming? I know of no other means of obtaining the answer to such a question save by reference to Holy Scripture. There you have that which is inspired of God, which will teach you all that is good for you to know, and which will instruct you in all good works. May God bless His word to this end.
W. J. H.
(Concluded from page 155)