AT 16:1-23{THE two great subjects which come out at the end of the chapter I have read are, the one, the rock on which Christ builds the Church-that is His own person; and, the other, the cross. These two things must go together, and I desire to dwell upon what will prepare you to understand them; looking however at the cross, not as connected with our sins, but as that which separates us from the man that is here, and from the things that are here.
You will never understand that wonderful scene in which the Lord presents Himself to Saul of Tarsus unless you see that He there recognizes no other man besides Himself: He has done with man. That blessed One, who is the Son of the living God, brought man-the first Adam-to an end in the cross; so that my hope is not in a dying man but in a risen Man. Now I wish to show you how we are taught this.
You have to learn the cross as that which has separated you from things here; you have to find out what Jesus is when there is nothing else gut Jesus, or, as this scripture teaches it in figure, when there is "no bread. The Lord says, Do not look for a sign. The leaven of the Pharisees was looking for a sign; but Jesus is to be sufficient for you when there is nothing but Himself, when there is nothing to supply you naturally. The natural is what man looks for; but what Christ would here teach His disciples is that it is not for what is natural they are to look, but for Himself.
You will never really understand the church of God until you understand this lesson. And why do not saints understand it? Because they have not learned Jesus as the resource of their heart, though they may have learned Him as their Savior, as a relief for their conscience.
Bread is what suits nature. After forty years' wandering in the wilderness Israel learned, "man doth not live by bread only." God's purpose is to teach me this lesson, and He does so in various ways: not only by leading me through sorrow; He gives me bright days as well as dark ones. But though there are dark ones, I wish to correct an idea that often troubles people, namely, that God always wants to bring us down, when He chastens us. When He corrects a man it is not that He may bring him down, but that He may lift him up. He says, " Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." I discipline my child in order that I may exalt him morally.
The Lord says, “Man shall not live by bread only." That is what I have to start with. Here is the blessed Son of God led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and when He has fasted forty days and forty nights He is an hungred. He has no bread. Is it wrong to be hungry? Of course it is not. But what does the Lord say when the devil comes and says to Him, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." He says, I have got no instruction from God to make bread. What a marvelous sight! There is the Son of God, that made the heavens and the earth-there. He is, hungry, in the very nature and make that He Himself created; He is hungry, and He will not stir His hand to provide bread for Himself!
I just turn to that passage in Peter to which I referred. He says, " Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." Then, "Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you." That is the proof that you are humble; a man who is really humble casts His care upon God. As a man here I must have care, but when I am humble I cast it on God.
But besides this there is the devil. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil; as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." Here I get a double character of evil: care inside and the devil outside. As to the care, you are relieved from it when you can say, I am so little that I cannot help myself, so I just cast it upon One who can help me, as in the case of the widow with the adversary. I am then a humble person, because I cast my care upon One who can care for me. But this lowly weak person has besides a most terrible enemy; and where does this enemy show himself? Per haps in your next-door neighbor, who will try to carry you off to a flower show; perhaps in another, who will come in to talk to a mother' about her children, or to a man about his business. “Whom resist, steadfast in the faith "; and the more sense you have of your own weakness as' you resist him the greater the 'sense you will have of the power Of God. You never learn power but in weakness, and the measure of the strait you-go through with God is the measure of your strength.
Oh! it is the distraction of the soul that so hinders,-the looking for something else to relieve it in the strait instead of Jesus; so that it is unprepared for a place where there is only Himself. Our place is in the holiest, and what is there there save Jesus? What does Paul find when he gets into the third heaven? Not one bit of " bread " there; nothing to keep up nature. He did not even know whether he was in the body or not, so little was there to minister to it there.
Now there are three powers in the world: the power of Satan, the power that God gave man, and the power of the Holy Ghost. And since the cross, there is, as it were, a subterranean passage between the power of man and that of Satan. There was a coalition between them when they put Christ to death, so you cannot now use the power given to man; for Satan is connected with it. The moment you use it the Holy Ghost retires. I do not stay to dwell upon this now, but pass on to the power of God with which you really have to do; for the Spirit of God is my only power, and the only bond that I have to Christ. When have I the greatest sense of His power? My adversary the devil is going about as a roaring lion outside me, and inside, it is Weakness and cares; but It is when I am most conscious of the power outside and the weakness inside that I have the greatest sense of the power of Christ.
What strait have you passed through with God? I do not doubt you have had troubles; but it is not passing through troubles that makes you strong, but passing through them with God. It is "the trying of your faith that worketh patience"; the trying, not trial. Putting a horse at a fence that he can go over is a trying of him, but it is no trial; on the contrary, he enjoys going over it if he can clear it. You say, I have gone through plenty of trials. But how has it been with you in them? You have been looking for bread, and often the bread has come in, and you have lost the blessing of the lesson which you might have learned. If God is going to teach it you, He will not let you have any relief until you have learned it; He will not give you relief until you are fit for it. When Peter was going to be relieved what was he doing? He was sleeping: he had no care; he had cast it upon the One who cared for him But instead of this, people are shrinking from distress, whereas it is in distress that you learn what God is to you. In favors you learn what the kindness of God is; but it is in distress that you learn what God is Himself.
Let me say a word upon enjoyment, for I think people confuse in their minds the difference between enjoyment and strength, and thus after a season of enjoyment' are much surprised to find that they want strength. Paul found this. After being in the third heavens he had to say, "When I am weak then am I strong," and to learn, " My strength is made perfect in weakness," so that he could say, " Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake: for when I am weak then am I strong." No man in life could make sense of this unless he knew that it is in straits that you learn what. Christ is.
Do you like to get into a strait to learn something of Christ? We are glad enough when it is over to see What we have learned in it; but do say when going into it, Well, now I shall learn in this sorrow- what a resource Christ is? I hear people talk in a very loose way of their " being on the Rock," when they have very little idea of what they mean. To say that you are on the Rock is to say that you are connected with Christ, and, if so, you are prepared to find that Christ is sufficient for you in any circumstances in which you may be placed.
Now I want you, beloved friends, to see how what I have been saying is established in the third chapter of Joshua; namely, That it is the measure of the strait you go through with God than is the measure of your strength. This great truth is brought out in the bed of Jordan-in death. Here is a type of death I-every bit of "bread ".gone, not a thing left to support nature. What can be weaker than death? Well, " Hereby shall ye know that the living God is among you "! See it in the death of Christ; God, the living God Himself came down-the mighty power of God-and raised Him from the dead: I have not got a bit of power; there is nothing left; well, then " man s extremity is God's opportunity."
If you have thus gone through death you will never lose the mark of it. Do you think you could forget what God is when He is thus known to the soul 'and this learned? And how did. you learn this? Was it in—His favors? When did Jonah learn it? He learned it when the gourd with erect; when he had no one but
God; when he was in extremity. I tremble for the saints who look for favors upon earth. Favors will teach you God's kindness.; but if Noah had been in a desert where there was only a little stream of water, he would-never have got drunk. It is not that I want you to look for trial; I think a person who could do that has self-confidence: but I want you to say, Jesus is enough for me, and if trial comes, it but brings out the preciousness of Christ.
Look at David at Ziklag. He was in the greatest and most terrible strait; everything seemed to bear down upon him; his own conscience could not be happy because he was in a wrong place; and his friends, who had adhered to him through thick and thin, now spake of stoning him. What did he do? " David encouraged himself in the Lord his God "! He cast all his care upon Him. And what was he brought through such straits for? It was all to prepare him for the elevation to which God was going to raise him.
As to myself, practically speaking, I may feel -that I am not fit to be put through much suffering; that I should go to pieces if I were. But when I have the mind of God, I know that the highest portion I can have is, not favors, but suffering. In that wonderful chapter where the Lord sends out His disciples, He tells them that they are going out as " sheep in the midst of wolves," and that "he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." You cannot complain of any suffering when you see that the greatest possible suffering, the cross, is only your normal state. But the Lord Sometimes cannot put you through suffering; because you would be discontented, and He does not want you to be that. It is marvelous to see one like Stephen superior to everything, and to think,— Why, a tooth-ache or any trifle of that sort would put me out at once! The Lord says, I have given you an opportunity of learning, and you will not take it; you prefer the bread, so I let you have it. If you will not learn of Him, He will not force you; He will not subject you to suffering if you cannot bear it. But I believe the saint ought to be subjected to suffering. If he is not, he is to me like a horse turned out to grass; it may be all very fine for the horse, but I would rather have it said of me, I cannot do without- that horse, and find myself kept at work, than be the horse turned out to grass because I was not wanted.
The more I suffer, the more deeply I feel a trial, the more I know Him with me in it. As He walked beside Mary to the grave, the Lord could not suppress the sensibility of His heart. Lazarus was dead; He knew what it was; and He walked beside her to bring her heart into acquaintance with His own.
Now you never understand a truth until you practice it. You do not preach to a child to walk; he must be set on his feet if he is ever to know how. It is in your greatest weakness that you learn the power of God, and you never know what God's power can do until He has done it in yourself. If He has done it in you, then you have proved it, and you will be able to use it yourself. If you compare the ninteenth verse of the first of Ephesians with the tenth verse of the sixth, you will find the same word used. I have only to take that same " power " that He used to quicken me, and use it against my adversary. I have learned it in my weakest point, in death. No one ever yet got a right sense of dependence on God who, did not learn it through death. This is the practical difference between a nun and a widow. A nun is a person trying to retire from things; a widow is one who has lost them all through death. We can learn this lesson in the death of Christ, and we ought to. I often think in connection with the death of those I love, how I have passed through a greater death before-the death of Christ. But there is this in sorrow, that you never get used to it; every new sorrow revives all the old ones, while every new joy eclipses all the old ones. And not all the nunneries in the world will teach you this; it must be death. A nun dare not look out of the window for fear of what she will see; but a widow says, However much I look out I can see nothing to engage me, for I have lost all. And when I have learned death I have learned what the sufficiency of Christ is.
Now I turn to two miracles in Matthew to show how they meet these two points, and whilst I do so I would say that it is not in our power to apply truth; God applies it according to the condition of the soul.
In the fourteenth chapter the Lord is cut off from the earth. Death has come in; death is a thing that I am now prepared for; it has come in like a wave, and, if it has done its worst in the death of Christ, I cannot fear anything else; it cannot now take me by surprise. " When the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, then shall they fast." That does not mean that I am to deny myself this thing or that thing, but that the Friend who lent a charm to everything has departed. Do you: say, I want to learn the Lord in this way? Well, then, you must go into the desert to learn Him thus; this world must be a desert place to you; you are to be fasting here and feasting with Him.
Now the Lord finds in the desert the multitude that has followed Him; and He is moved with compassion towards -their'. In both the fourteenth and the fifteenth chapters of 'Matthew He gives us a miracle and an illustration; in one case the illustration is given before the miracle, in the other it is given after. As we have seen, there is the evil working in myself, and there is the adversary outside; weakness and care within, Satan without. In this fourteenth chapter we get the outside evil. He. goes out to the multitudes and feeds them with five loaves and two fishes, and they take up twelve baskets full of fragments-twelve being the number of earthly administration of government. Where there is no resource He is my resource.
Then He sends His disciples over the sea; the ship is in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, and the wind is contrary. And now we find Jesus walking on the water to go to them. He is acting throughout like a rejected One. He begins with feeding His people in spite of all the dearth,' and then He shows Himself in power above all the evil. If the Church had held firm to the Holy Ghost it would have been kept from the inundation of the world. Nothing but the Holy Ghost can keep me from the world. Christendom has entirely lost sight of Him as the One who is standing for Christ in the presence of the world, and He is here not only to comfort me but to witness for Him. I feel at times that I would do anything if I could persuade brethren to say, Not one single natural thing will I allow to come in to help me in the testimony.
Well, the Lord finds them in these trying circumstances. The waters are men, and the winds are Satan; He is above them all. Where will you be? The ship was made for water; the ship was "bread." Peter will not have anything to do with it. He says, I will have faith; I walk on the water to go to Jesus; I have done with bread., Is not a ship made, for water? Of course it is; and if you have not faith you had better stay in it. But a ship is not faith; Jesus is not. there; He is walking on the water. Do you think a man would try to walk on the water if he had not faith? I hear people say, But I cannot do as Christ did! Peter had the same power. There is no mediocrity-in Christ. In any act of faith, I either have the power of Christ or I have no power at all. It may be only a thread of gold in a rope of cotton, but if there is gold there at all, it is as good gold as in Christ Him- self, because it is the same gold; there is no mixture. If it is of faith, it is of Christ.
Faith leaves the ship which is made for water to walk upon the water because Jesus is on it; and the power to do it is to keep looking at Him, to keep the eye on Him. I find if I begin planning, and say, I will go to such a place and do so and so there, that it is sure to he all wrong, and nothing to happen at all as I expected; another time, when, instead of planning, I say, "I will just go looking to the Lord, everything will turn out right. Why? Because " I set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand 'I shall not be moved." How did Peter fail? He looked at Satan's power, and he began to sink. However, I had sooner be near the Lord and sink in the water and have Him save me than I would be in the ship.
I turn now to the next chapter. Here we have the illustration before the miracle. It is the inside thing now. “Those things which proceed out of the -Month come forth from the heart, and they defile the man." There is weakness, evil within you that you cannot get rid of. In the last chapter we found Christ taking His place in the desert and saying, I feed my people. in spite of all that is against them; but if you will walk with me I will make you superior to the bread altogether. 'I often ask myself, Why was one put before the 'other? Well, I believe it is that I often, find that Christ has the power over things all round me, before I find that He has got practical power over the evil inside me. Stephen gives us an example of the one, Paul—of the other. Stephen was superior to everything- that was around him. Paul to all that was within him he had the messenger of Satan to buffet-"him that he might know the power of Christ resting upon him.
In this `fifteenth chapter we get the evil in ourselves. The Syro-Phoenician woman comes to Him, and He, answers and says, " It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." Here we get the illustration. She has no claim. She says, I quite admit I have no claim; I am the lowest of the low. If I have gone so low as to be a dog I certainly have not a particle of claim on the Lord. When I accept the lowest place the trying is over-the strait is passed. What is the use of keeping Paul and Silas in prison when they are singing? They are just as comfortable as if they were at their own fireside, 'so what is the use' of keeping them there any longer? They are morally over the fence. And David is over it when he says, " I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against me round about."
You will often hear a person say, I am so worried by the evil thoughts that are in me. Then, I say, you have never yet taken the place of being a dog-of abhorring yourself; that is repentance. You would soon come down if you got into the presence of Christ. This woman is there, and she says, I am a dog. And at once He answers, The devil is gone out of your daughter.
Then come to Him great multitudes of lame, blind, dumb, maimed all weakness finds in Christ a complete resource. And next we find the seven loaves to feed the multitude and. the seven baskets full taken up; that is completeness again -a complete resource. And thus we get back to what He is teaching His disciples: to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. He prepares them to know the Rock, the Son of God, and then shows them that in the cross, the man that is here is set aside.
Well, what is' the good of it all? What is the good of an hour's recital of the truth? The soul must be exercised if there is to be any real good. Am I in straits? Then I am to learn what Jesus is in my strait. That is what measures every one of you here to-night. People go through trial, and think God has dealt very hardly with them. The fact is they have never gone through a strait with God; it has been a trial to them, not a trying. It is a wonderful thing to think that each of us has a history that will come out at the judgment seat of Christ; all that He makes us pass through will come out there. Is it that He likes to see us suffer? It is not! And this is ' why He spares a person who He sees will not learn in it.
What a blessed thing it would be if you were to start now and say, Well, whether it be a. strait from outside or inside, I must from this night learn Christ in it and His sufficiency. I have to do with the Son of God, and in this same Son of God the history of the man that ruined me has been ended. God says, I have broken the bond that united you to him, and have brought in a new bond: I unite you to my Son. You are of the Church, which is founded on the Rock.
The Lord lead our hearts, every one of us, to know what is the wonderful way in which He would lead us—the wide place into which He has brought us, even to have to do with the Son of God. May the Lord bless. us. But to be blessed we must be content to walk with Him through straits to learn in them what Christ is, and how He can make Himself known as a sufficient resource when there is nothing but Himself.
Very often then the strait is over; but the fence does not fall until you have passed it, and what matter if it fall or not when you are over it? Our place with Him is that of those who have passed into a scene where the natural man is at an end, to have to do with Christ Himself.
The great thing to take hold of is that I have got a totally new state; not only that life has been given to me, but that I am raised with Christ altogether out of the place that I was in. I am not united to Christ by faith, but by the Holy Ghost. And here we get two things: " the body "-union to Christ in heaven: "the habituation,"—the dwelling-place of God on earth. There is no dwelling of God with man, except upon the ground of redemption: He only visited Adam; but He dwelt with Israel. (Ex. 29.) (J. N. D.)
The history of man placed under responsibility teaches the solemn truth, indispensable to all enduring blessing, that the moment the creature (no matter who) is subjected to responsibility (no matter what) he fails, because he is a creature. I speak of the creature left to himself. There is no power, no stability, save in God. The creature, as such, tends to destruction. In Christ we see a man who never failed; but He was God manifested in flesh. (W. K.)
The world is an immense system kept up by Satan to blind the eyes of men, and to keep them away from God. (J. N. D.)