Who is on the Lord's side? Who? Who cares for the glory of God upon earth? Who for the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ down here? Who stands for the rights and for the interests of God the Holy Ghost upon earth: as to the testimony of the word of life among men- and as to the walk of those who have received that word of life?
'Tis the man of God's place to answer, "I- I am the man you call;—the duties you describe are mine, -fruit of the calling wherewith I have been called. Other duty, other service or occupation here below have I none."
His answer may be with an "Alas! it is I," and with many tears, if His day be as Jeremiah's or himself as Timothy, but answer to the challenge He must and will, when it reaches Him. But the man of God has not to serve at his own cost, or to live upon his own resources;—he cannot count upon his own energy, plans, or will,—he may be weaker than was Timothy,—as little trustworthy, in himself, as was Peter, BUT there is one thing which he has to do, and there is but one thing for which he is here; namely, to be the man of God—the man for God—wholly for God, and for God alone.
Speaking abstractedly (that is, of things as they are in principle, and should be in practice, and not of things as they are), how true is it that, if " God is for me," then " I am for God."
His service is perfect freedom. To a creature, however high, what liberty is there, can there be,-but in the service of God? And what for a fallen creature -Where shall he find liberty? Where shall he find a land, a life of perfect freedom? Is this earth a land of perfect freedom to the sinner?—this earth, with all the tears, death, sorrow, crying, and pain which are its very atmosphere? The very thought is folly the teaching it is deception. To such an one is the life of self-will, and the pleasures of sin (which are but for a moment) a life of perfect freedom, leading as it does to death, and after that the judgment? They are better than hell-fire, -better than that life which shall have its worm that dieth not, and its fire that is not quenched—better, alas! to an unrenewed heart, than would be heaven (with no joys there but those of God and the Lamb) to it in its unrenewedness; but land of liberty- life of perfect freedom, must be looked for elsewhere. And where alone they can be found, there are they stored up, in rich provision, for the very chiefest of sinners.
'Tis sweet to think that He that challenges man to take his place with Him, does so as the God of mercy and of compassion—does so, too, as thus claiming of man that he too should honor the Son of God, and the wonderful work that He hath wrought, and thus be " born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you" (1 Pet, 1:23).
And if God has indeed commended His love to us thus, " in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;" for us, "when yet without strength"-" ungodly"- " sinners"-"enemies '(Rom. 5:6-106For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (Romans 5:6‑10)); if He has used our state of rebellion and hatefulness as an occasion to set forth His bowels of mercy and of compassion -to prove that He indeed, and He alone is God—[and 'tis a fact that " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved"]-who that knows Him, and His mercy, and His compassion, that would wish, or desire to shut out from his own soul, any claim, any challenge, which God might make upon it-God, Who is Love, has said, My son, give me 'thy heart. And (oh, happy, blessed truth!) He has, by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, spoken in a way, in a language that man's heart can understand. He who is the appointed judge of quick and dead, has already borne the judgment due to our sins in His own body on the tree; alive again from the dead, He has revealed Himself to us, quickened us, and made us to know Himself as the One in whom our life is hid with God. What then now shall hinder my perfect peace? I have access to God: and there, upon the throne, I find Him who paid for me the penalty of my sins—I find God's righteousness in raising Him from the dead is inseparable from the pardon, acceptance and full blessing of those that believe in Him,—the seal of the Spirit (spirit of adoption and earnest of the glory) is upon me, and my whole soul finds liberty with God, and His service is perfect freedom. The understanding is not unfruitful. I know that He is in the Father, and we in Him, and He in us. And if every part of the gospel suits my soul, as a, creature-it has taught me also, that not only the gospel suits me before God, but suits God Himself in receiving me. Through it my deliverance, acceptance, and coming' glory, redound more to His praise than would my loss, condemnation, and eternal misery do without it. And the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, is the power of the comfort and joy.
Tis well to look at this, because it skews how readily the response of every member of God's family to His every claim comes forth; comes forth with the intelligence that so, according to that which is human and that which is divine, to obey is liberty. God works in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure works which God prepared before the foundation of the world, that we should walk in them-we were created for them—and He works all our works in us.
Life, eternal life, is an element in a Christian much more important than any dispensational gift. It has its instincts and its tendencies. Communion with God; obedience and praise are among its most remarkable features, and characterize it, everywhere, in every grade of the family: in fathers, in young men, and in children; and not only in every grade of the family, but in every position of each of its members. No apostle, or bishop, or deacon, could fulfill his calling upon the mere ground of his office call. Eternal life is an element not only of deeper weight than the call to a service of any kind, but also is the element which is the power in which alone any service can be carried out.
And what though inward weakness and difficulty in circumstances force us to say, Who is sufficient for these things? Can this weakness, can these difficulties silence the spirit of obedience in the child of God? No. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty: and liberty, too, to say, though with humbleness, " Lo, I come to do thy will, Oh God!" but. to say it, too, with confidence, because we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose, and also that it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure. The Spirit of God always thinks first of God Himself; of His being and character as being eternal; of His relationships, as, however passing they, through a creature's sin, may in some cases be, yet as involving, while they last, the glory of God. The rainbow points to a relationship which will pass—but, while it lasts, God will remember Himself to fulfill His promises connected with it. Man, when renewed, oft thinks of God's claims over him more than He does of the basis of those claims in the works, being, and character of God: he is right as to the claims, but wrong as to the putting himself so forward, as though because he is in question, therefore God must think more of his faithfulness and unfaithfulness than He does of Christ and His work and of His own character and glory. Yet, at the same time, there is an element of truth which never should be forgotten: God is first in everything, and thus, if the Holy Ghost is in me-while lie will surely make me know, that all God's works are wrought as the I AM the first and the last—that His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting,- yet, that having saved me for His own name's sake with a salvation complete, and finished in Christ, it is that I am to live to Him and Him alone.
He never gives up His place of being the end; the one for whom all things are created—and it is in His very greatness that He can condescend to lay claim to and to accept such little cups of cold water as we can give. The cup is His, and the water is His, from Him the will and the power to draw it, and from Him, too, the desire to offer it—and His also the grace to accept and to love the service of His saints. He is wonderful, and nowhere more so than as the living God walking with his people. To deny that He cares that I should live to Him and to Him alone, would be to deny my own honor and glory -just as much as I should deny my place and life of dependance, if I assumed that I had any power in myself to live to Him, and were not absolutely and hourly debtor to Him, and to Him alone, to counterwork the evil of my nature, and the power of the evil of my circumstances, and to give more grace. The humbled heart knows this, but if it knows in God's presence the suitability to itself of the two phrases, " Chiefest of sinners," etc., " less than the least of all saints:" it knows also, on the other hand, that it becomes God, is meet for God to think that Christ is worthy to fill every vessel with grace worthy, by the Spirit, to reclaim and keep every poor saint living to God, and to God alone. To me to live is Christ, was Paul's word. And 'tis the veriest sweetness of life divine in the soul of a poor sinner to be serving the living and true God, while He waits for His Son from heaven who has delivered us from the wrath to come.
But while the doctrines of grace set all the children on one level as to the benefits of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord—all partakers of one Spirit, one life, one hope, etc.- this, by no means, hinders God from separating some by office, or power, from the mass of them and giving to them peculiar benefits for the sake of all the rest. Such I conceive to be the case with " the Man of God." God's man for a crisis, or a generation, will have a distinctive place, as had Timothy in his day; and when Paul wrote about "the Man of God," Timothy was the party before him. I do not think any one can read the portion in which the term "the Man of God" occurs, and not see that it was a champion of the warrior band of whom Paul was speaking. The principles to the champion and to the band might be common—but there was a distinctiveness of intelligence and of power to the champion for the sake of the band, which the band possessed not. Timothy has a crisis to meet, a generation to serve, and Paul was teaching him how to do it.
" But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:10-1710But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, 11Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. 13But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 14But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:10‑17)).
No one that fears God would dare to say that God has no right to raise up, and have on earth, here a man and there a man, with no other object save to recall to His people His claims over them. No one that has entered into the history of the development of redemption, but what must admit that there was a chain of such witnesses for God from the time that failure set in in Old Testament times onward. None that cares for the glory of God, the honor of Christ, the Holy Ghost as Comforter, and the flock of the Lord, and looks back from the present time to the days when the volume of inspired Scripture was perfected; but what must admit that grace has raised up, from time to time, men who were wise to know the signs of the times—men, whom God fitted to see and to know the bearing of His Scriptures upon the present phases of things. In olden times new truth came forth through the prophets, but, since the book was perfected, God has raised up men of intelligence and power to see the bearing of the contents of the book upon the present phase of things.
To deliver the Truth of God, and to deliver it in a way worthy of the Revealer of it, must be every servant's aim. Of that there can be no doubt. There is a stern reality of Truth, and the bearings of it upon men in the wilderness have an awfulness connected with them. The Lord Jesus was perfect as the witness for God, as he was perfect in every other respect. He knew all the fullness of the divine glory, of the divine character, for He was God; and he knew the solemn, awful importance to man, for eternity, of time-relationships with the truth of God. Creation glory, glory in Providence, as well as the revelation of the glory of God in redemption, have a direct bearing upon every man, and also, upon every servant of God. When I consider how the Lord Jesus was the truth, and how; from His days upon earth, instead of truth being generally revealed (as in Revelation) by visions, it flowed through the thoughts and affections of the New Testament prophets, I feel how, in a peculiar way, responsibility rests upon us, the handlers and the holders of the Scriptures, as to the way in which we present truth to others. God knows how feeble we are, and how little we know how to commend the truth, and ourselves unto every man's conscience. But we do want our message to be read and to be received; and it is not enough for us to have left the letter at the door of the house. And when among the saints there is rebuke, or warning, or even more severe acts of zeal for God, have we not to say, "In many things we offend all." The work we have to do may seem to be within our range of power, and we may put forth our own strength, as did Moses, at first: or it may seem to lie altogether beyond our power, and we may, as did Moses afterward, refuse to go in the strength of the Lord. And yet the heart and its affections, the mind and its desires, may be still set upon that on which God is set. This singleness of eye as to object,- this purpose of heart to seek that which is the Lord's,—and it only is of great price. And it rises in value to one that loves what God loves, in the very measure in which an individual feels he himself fails in it. Certainly, if I love God, and love His glory and His people, and yet find, alas! but little practical singleness of eye, and but little full purpose of heart to subserve that which I love, I shall rejoice if I find that, just where I fail, there others who do not fail are present.
I speak now as it would be with a man whose whole heart, mind and soul were occupied with an object -who was plunged into a rough stream busy about a great work. " The work, must be done; I am in to do it -may I be the happy doer of it: but, if I have failed, thank God that there are others who have not failed." The flesh does not so speak, I know; nor would a half-heart, or a double mind so speak. No: but if the work is in my heart and mind, and the doing of it is my business—then, if I fail, I thank God if others do not fail.
I have often, when feeling ready to find fault with others at work, had cause to stop and warn myself, thus: "If you are of the warrior band, take care, in finding fault with this other, you are not really proclaiming that yourself (the fault-finder) have leisure enough, at home and away from the work, to find fault with an ease-renouncing laborer in the field, your own Master's servant: and the fault, in such case, I find, is oftener about the way of doing it, than about the thing sought to be done, or about the object and aim of the laborer. Luther and Calvin made great mistakes, no doubt of it; so did Whitfield and Wesley; but they lived out their light for God. On the other hand, men, as men (and alas! many half-hearted Christians, in the days of Luther and Calvin, agreed with them), do not conceive that God has the right to have here a man and there a man, with nothing whatever to do but to look after HIS interests upon earth. They do not understand any one, it may be a mere stranger to them, saying: " I, as God's servant, must protest against this or against that, because it is against His mind—or because it is not for His glory."
Now it is just this that I conceive " the man of God" has to do. So I judge as one who counts himself to be of the warrior band, though, practically, (it is my confession), more ready to look round to see who is on the Lord's side, than able to go forward in the Lord's might -a leader. Clearly, a guide ought to try to inspire the hatred of evil, and the dread of it; surely he should desire to inspire the love of good, and the choice of it: but, if he aims at being a voice for God upon earth, he will oft have to bring out (and that badly enough too), God's thoughts upon a given deed or a given action, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear. If he be, as was Peter, self-confident, he'll meet at the Lord's hand, correction; if he have a good opinion of himself, or seek, from man, admiration, the Lord will correct all this. There is no need for me to be zealous for the Lord to take the rod—it may fall upon myself first if I do so—I had better pray for myself. Weaknesses within and difficulties outside may exist, but they do not change the work that we and the man of God have to do; He has to be God's man- a man for God after all. Every medal has two sides: if there be no cross on one side, there is no crown on the other. Every generation tests God's family, and servants, and they test it too. If all speak well of us now, it is because they do not see the Master in us. If we showed more of Him, the generation would stone us, and then religiously build us tombs. But I fear if our mausoleums are to be built with the stones we get thrown upon us, they will be small indeed, after all. It was not so with Whitfield-with. Wesley-with many a one who has trod the earth. Their own generation—the great mass of the religious of their own generation, could not bear them; the survivors, however, spake well of them. The fiery ordeal is good; how few of us can boast of it as ours. It is good even to be left alone with God. Not pleasant, but good. And in looking at the Lord's course on earth—and at Paul's course as assimilated to it—I have been struck how Paul was left alone. There was a needs he, as to atonement to be made, that the Lord should be left alone—none in that could stand with Him. There was no such needs be as to Paul; but in the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, which were sufferings of testimony and service, Paul was left alone.
Far be it from us, in the energy of our own wills, to ask for such a place; but if the Lord gave us energy of faith, we should find ourselves there: when we come thither, may we be prepared to recognize that it is no strange place, fiery though it may be,—if all men forsake, yet will the Lord never forsake. The Epistles of Paul to Timothy were both of them the expressions of a heart which knew what it was, oft alone, to bear the heat and toil of the day. And, if the writer was lionhearted as any free-born citizen of Rome, how gently, yet firmly, does he try to rouse the courage of his more timid and gentle fellow-servant to prove himself worthy -in all patience, and in all long-suffering, yet with full purpose of heart, readiness of mind, and personal self-surrender, to follow the Man of Sorrows right through to the end of the course here below.
Nothing can communicate the strength of the unchanging will and purpose of the Divine mind to the life, here below, in such feeble rushes as we are (in contrast with the eddying deluge of human will that surrounds us), but full fellowship in the patience and hopes of the Lord Jesus.