WE now come to the subject of "our mission." There are two things which come out very prominently in the Psa. 1 have read: the first, our place with God; the second, our place for God; and these two hang together. I first have to learn what God is for me; if I do not know that I shall never know how I am to be for Christ. It is the root of the ignorance of many converted souls; they do not know what God is for them, and so their efforts for Christ are defective. Therefore it is a positive rule, that you must first know Christ for you.
This opens out very interestingly at the Lord's appearing for the first time in the temple on earth, as a little babe of eight days' old, greeted there by two saints. Simeon said, Christ is for me.; now that I have seen Him let me depart in peace. Anna, on the other hand, now speaks of Him to all who look for redemption in the city. And these two states of soul should characterize all saints everywhere.
If you wish to get the two combined in one person in a very matured way, you see it in Phil. 1 Paul goes beyond Simeon, and beyond Anna. He says, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, and that is greater than Simeon; but, To abide in the flesh is more needful for you, therefore I will remain, is more than Anna. Either with Christ or for Him.
Now, our subject for this evening is, -What it is to be for Christ, or in other words, What is our mission. But, as I have said, if you have not learned the first point,-Christ for you-you are not qualified for the second-being here for Christ.
I shall first, then, say a few words on what is the origin of your mission; for how can any person be true to a mission if lie has not got the origin of it? The Psalm we have read starts with this: the Psalmist brings us to the tabernacles of God, even before the bright light shone which has opened up our way into the holiest. The first blessedness-" Thy house "-is one unbroken scene of delight; everything there awakens praise. But, in the second I am in a scene of opposition, where it is a valley of tears; it is not heaven now, the courts of the living God; it is earth; and your mission, as you pass through, is to " make a well."
The first thing to be clear about in the mission is the origin of it-its starting point. " As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." It is clear from this that you must be first out of the world; how else could you be sent into it? And it is said to the disciples. It was " the disciples " who-were assembled, together, and to 'them He says; "Peace be unto you," as He 'sends them forth on their mission. When He said the second time, " Peace be unto you," it is that they may have peace in a double way; not only up there in a- sphere of glory and praise, but also down here as they go about their work. That is the force of the second peace; it is the peace connected with the mission. He Himself as He walked down here had peace superior to the character of things around Him. He walked in peace, and He would have them do so too.
" As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." This is the origin of their mission and of ours. You must first put yourself outside the world with Christ, that you may come into it for Him It is then you know the origin of your mission. We shall presently come to the purpose of it; but we must'' first be clear as to origin. is from above, and given, too, to a person, who comes from above. And this not to apostles either. I want your to see clearly that every one of us God has thus pent.
I know a scene outside this world-a scene of unbounded delight in the Father's house: that is my home; but I have also a place of business down here in the world. A man is not settled who has not got a home; his character is formed by his home. And just so with the saints. If you do not come from your home above you will never be a good workman-a good missionary here. I use the word mission, because it is true that every one of Christ's people is sent into the world to do some particular work that no other person can do. All the flowers in the garden are different, and so are all the stars in the sky, and they do not clash. If I look the whole sky over I shall not see two stars clash; each has its own sphere. And I believe if those who are sent from God were more distinct in their service, that they would never clash-I mean as to imitation or envy. I ever find it the case that the man who is laboriously occupied with what God has given him to do, is never envious of any other man.
Well, then, first settle the fact that you have got a home with God, and then say, I am sent into this world from my home.
The second question for us is, Whom-am I going to serve now that I am thus sent? Having got my origin above, I find that I come into this world to make a well. It is to serve man that I come. And yet it is not to improve him; it is not patriotism and that sort of thing; it is not the amelioration of society I am occupied with, though my mission has to do absolutely with man. I am to " do good unto all men." I do not think any servant of God would differ with me as to the fact that it is man I have to serve.
But then comes a great question: What would be the character of this service? As I say, I come from heaven, and that more distinctly even than an angel does, for I am saved by grace, united to that One who sends me, and have thus reached the consummation of His finished work. Having eaten the passover, and been at Gilgal, I come forth a fit person to be a channel of mercy to this poor world, as we find it in John 7 " He that believeth in me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." It was the feast of tabernacles-what answers to the harvest home in this country. Man was the object of God then on the earth, celebrated in this feast; all had been gathered in, and men rejoicing in the good gifts of God were found dwelling in booths.
Then on the last day, that great day of the feast, typical of that time spoken of by the prophet, "with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation," Jesus stood and cried, saying, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." The great thought in the feast was, that man was the object of God upon earth, and Israel commemorated this fact. But now, the Lord says, I will produce in you a far greater thing than this feast celebrates; man, instead of receiving from the earth-instead of being contributed, to by it-shall contribute to his fellows ala the earth; instead of seeking water for his thirst from this scene, out of man himself blessing shall be ministered: but of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
Just think of it for a moment. The Lord announcing, When I am glorified, instead of blessing the earth and man through it, I will give to my people the Holy Ghost, flowing out of them for blessing. Nothing can be more wonderful than that I am sent into this world of misery, to be in it a well.
Having then seen the origin of our mission, and that man is the object of it, the question arises, How am I to serve him? and this is where, among Christians, there is a great disagreement. One thought is, that I serve him with what is called charity; and " charity " is doing for him what pleases him. One gives a penny to a beggar, and calls it charity. Charity, then, is ministering to a man where he himself thinks that he requires it.
But the divine idea of charity is that, when I serve, I serve according to the nature of Christ Himself, and that which I minister when thus serving is Christ Himself. Suppose I go to see a widow and orphans, I might console them immensely by what always consoles a bereaved heart, by telling them how the departed one idolized them and so on, and they would be wonderfully consoled by that; but it would be only by what exalted themselves; it would be all natural. I asked some one the other day, "Would you like to be sympathized with as you naturally feel, or as you ought to feel? " The answer is simple. Thus the Lord, when He sympathized with a bereaved heart, brings Himself, a divine person, into the terrible chasm that death has created, and consoles the heart with Himself.
The great point is, What do you minister? Nine-tenths of the reasons why people fail in their ministry is, that though they are occupied with man, the right patient, they are not ministering the right thing to him; they are doing what no doctor -allows, anyhow not till the patient is quite prostrate, and that is doing for him what he likes-what suits his tastes.
The next thing is, that there is a definite service for each, and each should know what his service is. In. Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12, and Eph. 4, gifts are treated of; the difference between the three being, that in Corinthians it is the body; in Ephesians, it is Christ, the head of the body; and in Romans, it is the individual responsibility. In Romans we begin with prophecy, which is the highest gift in one sense, and we end with " showing mercy with cheerfulness "-something that is within the reach of every one. Could not every one of you show mercy with cheerfulness? Do you, any one of you, think that you are outside the hallowed circle? You are not. And, let me tell you, I would sooner have the last without the first, than the first without the last. I would sooner show mercy with cheerfulness than prophesy; the highest moral quality is the gift common to all. We can all have this, though as I say, there is a special service for each one of us; something distinct, something definite within the reach of every one of us, so that we may not clash; and, as it has been said, if the Lord has a service for you, you will never be happy until you are doing it. And this service, if it be but to give a drink of cold water to some one, must be done according as Christ would do it.
I do not say that you must be always speaking to some one or other. You may be an old person like Anna, though indeed, as for Anna, she went about a great deal, speaking to all them in Jerusalem who looked for redemption. But whatever may be your service, you can anyhow show mercy with cheerfulness.
There are two spheres in which we serve, and in these two spheres every person can judge in a measure as to What is his mission. The one is corporate; the other, individual. In all my individual service I never lose the fact that I belong to Christ's body on earth. No one can interfere with my individual service until in it I do something which interferes with my place in thee assembly. An evangelist says, Oh, I may go and preach anywhere that I choose! And so you may; but if in your preaching you say anything that is wrong, you will offend against Christ and against the assembly, and the assembly, or those in charge, will pull you up about it. Thus there are the two circles, the individual and the collective.
As to the former, I will take any sphere you like. For instance, the position of a child in a family, or that of a wife; some one under control. How shall such know their mission? Well, it is a very delicate 'point, and requires great wisdom and holy care lest, while trying to do Christ's service, you clash with the ordinance of God. I say to a child or wife, In doing what God calls you to-in carrying out your mission-be careful that you do not go against the ordinance of God. Perhaps some one says, But this is very difficult; how are you to do in the case of an unbelieving father or husband? I admit that it is very difficult, and if the clash comes, let not the subject one be the one to make it. As Christ's servant, I should not be the' one to wish to bring it about. It is a matter which needs the greatest care. Whilst I insist strongly on your having a mission, and that Christ has sent you into the world to carry it out, I also insist that in doing so you respect the ordinance of God; and, until that ordinance so come in the way as to make it a question of obeying God rather than man, you must submit to it.
I believe if people gave up their rights, there would be much less difficulty about it. If a child in an unconverted father's house would only say, I am content to be nothing-to be a servant-they would get on all right. Look at the exhortation to a slave: " Adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things." What could be greater than that? Is your question, How shall I serve? Serve as a wife, as a mother; serve where God has put you. Everything depends upon your fulfilling your responsibility individually.
Now mark how this comes out in the assembly.. A man who is not true to his individual responsibility is sure to be a hindrance in the assembly. The corporate must be affected by the individual. It is the lack of individual responsibility that is at the bottom of the dullness in many of our meetings. You ask, What then do-you do in a dull meeting? I try so to preserve: my individual responsibility that I may be happy-in my own soul whilst all around me is cold and dull. I am not going to run away in a panic. If others are dull, I am not going to be, and thus only add to the general misery. If my eye get injured or hurt, it grieves my whole body, and just so in the assembly. When people complain to me of dull meetings and the like, I- always answer, Why do you not brighten up at home and come to the meeting brighter yourself?
I will now go a little into gifts-as to the way in which God prepares people for service. I trust I have made it clear that in one way each saint has a gift; to every one is given the gift of grace; and- in the measure in which each receives this grace, from Christ; so he walks. As to different paths of service,-a man's ability in it will soon fell me whether the path he has taken be the one to which he is -called or not. But, whilst I say this, I do not believe that a person is thoroughly fitted, for his work before he take it up. The Lord never employs a ready-made servant. If I engage a coachman, I make sure before doing so as to whether he is able to drive; I make inquiries as to his fitness. Not so the Lord. He acts in just the contrary way. He sets us to drive at once, without, our ever having tried before. But, whilst He acts in this way, He still puts His servants through a period of probation before He gives them their work.
Of course, besides this, the Lord gives positive gifts to His servants. Saints sometimes ask, How may I know that I am gifted? Well, I believe, from looking at Scripture, that besides conversion, the Lord. reveals Himself very distinctly to the soul that He gifts. This revelation, I need not say, is different in different cases; but I will mention two or three examples of it. Moses has a purpose to serve, but without a word from the Lord sets off in his own strength to deliver the children of Israel, and, as the consequence, has to flee into the wilderness. There he goes through what I call probation; and, at the end of that time, the Lord reveals Himself to him in the burning bush, and sends him with His power to do the work he had vainly attempted before. No question but that Moses was God's servant all through, but he had not gone though the probation, nor acquired the mind of God for such a service.
We see the same line of things in Samson's history. He had been a Nazarite from his birth, but it was a special time at which " the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan."
The same thing in John the Baptist. He was " in the deserts till the day of his showing to Israel."
And in the case of Paul himself; he was, I suppose, two years in Arabia.
Any of us who know anything of what service is, know something, too, of what probation is; and know, too, what a time of sorrow and of self-repudiation it is.
It is a moment of immense importance to the soul of the servant when God thus reveals Himself to him-when he gets what I call his base.
This is a military term used for the spot at which the general keeps his resources, his ammunition, his reserves; on which he falls back in case of need, and from which he works. What is the base of the servant? -It is the distinct revelation from God to his soul that he has a special support from Him in his service here', and a servant is never established until he has this base, on which he falls back in time of need. And one more example yet more remarkable than these that I have mentioned—that of Isaiah. We are told that he had the word of the Lord, and the vision up to the sixth chapter; but then, he is not thoroughly established; he cries " Woe is me, for I am undone! " when he gets into the presence of the Lord of Hosts. He has not got his base. But here he learned that' he had to do with God in His glory-in that glory which He was about to withdraw from Israel-and then he " saw his glory and spake of him."
And I might even go on to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and see how He fell back upon His base in the midst of all that was disappointing here, as He said, " I thank thee, O Father;, even so, for so it seemed good in thy sight."
What an immense place of rest it is! What quietude of soul it gives, when I know how the Lord has sent me, and how I am to act in the place to which -He has sent me. After that day on the back side of the desert Moses had not only the mission of a servant-that he had before: he would deliver his brother when he saw the Egyptian smite him, and he would deliver poor women when he saw them oppressed; but he has now a base upon which to act. This is the first point I mention in connection with gift.
The second is, that a gifted person is not only clear of everything, both in himself and around him, like Jonah was, but that he also has the nature of Christ, that charity of which the apostle speaks which is the nature of Christ, and sets forth the manner or the right way for doing a right thing.
And then comes preparation for service; not now probation, nor nature, but preparation; and preparation always goes on. In saying this I do not speak of special gifts. We all require to be prepared, no matter what our mission.
Preparation does not consist in providing for what you will have to do. Divine preparation is often the opposite to what human preparation is. I am not objecting to any one preparing for a lecture—to his having information, that is, understanding the Scripture on which he speaks; but that is not what I call preparation. Divine preparation is, that though you do not know what is going to happen, yet you are able to act with God in it no matter what comes. I believe, as a rule, that when God prepares me for what is. coming, He does not tell me what it will be. Do you say, How shall I prepare for to-day? I answer, Get so into the presence of God that you may come forth into things here with His power and in His Spirit, so that, whatever comes, you may act for Him in it.
See how beautiful is this preparation in Moses. He is there upon the mount with God, looking at the heavenly tabernacle, and he comes down to find idolatry in the camp. Is Moses prepared for such a thing as this 2 Yes; he was so taken up with the heavenly things-with what was suitable to God-that when he came down he saw at once what was worthy of Him. He took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, a great way off. Divine preparation is got up there; then when you come down and see the contrast of everything here, you will know the right line to take-you will know what suits God. Thus Moses was the man for the crisis; be came from God into it, and was colored with what suited God. It is not how man would at in the circumstances, it is how God leads, and that is preparation. All secular employments are but discipline to make us the more effective missionaries.
The Lord lead us, beloved friends, not to lose sight of the wondrous, stupendous fact that we are all sent into this world sent from the Father's house to be channels of mercy in this sad world. It is for this I am sent, full of Christ, -to contribute to a -world of misery. I have a home outside it, and I come to make a well in it; and there is not a drop of water in a well, as every, one knows, that has not come from above. It is wonderful that we should be sent into this world to be exponents of the grace of God! All I say is, whilst you seek thus to be for Him, keep within the banks, whether wives or children; within the banks is the best place for you, just as in a parched land the banks of the river are as beautiful and verdant as possible. And remember meanwhile that you have a place outside it all with Christ., a home there, whilst you come into this world as your place of business; your business being to show forth the grace of Christ..
(J. B. S.)
Until in my heart of hearts I own what a man is down here who is united to Christ at God's right hand, I never find out the things here that I cannot go on with; until then Christianity is but a negative thing to me.
(J. B.)