QUALITY IN THE SOUL OF A BELIEVER
J. N. Mather
Ezekiel 5: 1–4; Zechariah 13: 8, 9
There are many lessons to be learned, dear brethren, in our brother’s death and we are not able for many of them now. There is an ‘afterwards’ to those who are exercised, and as we are able the Lord Jesus will continue to speak to us in relation to this which at the moment seems so strange to us. But there is one lesson which I would like to draw attention to simply, which I feel is so obvious to us all—that the Lord Jesus is drawing attention to the quality that he can develop by his service in the soul of a believer.
That work in our brother began when he committed himself in faith to the Lord Jesus and received the Holy Spirit, and from then onwards the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have wrought in and with our brother. Some of us have been favoured to company with him for a time and have been able to see what was going on, perhaps not always recognising in its fulness what was going on—but finally, today, able to understand that the Lord is drawing our attention to what He is interested in—quality in the soul of a believer. It is not to say that God is not able for quantity—for His span measures the heavens but God is very interested in quality.
Now, dear brethren, in our scripture in Ezekiel the nominal people of God were divided into three parts first, and I think that was a selection for quality. Our brother did not belong to the first third, and he did not belong to the second third—he belonged to the third third. He answered the first two tests and he therefore was drawn into this little part which comes particularly under God’s own personal service.
He accepted—could we just allow the weight of the statement to sink in, dear brethren?—he accepted God’s government. That was what he did. He patiently accepted God’s government.
You will notice in this third part that God Himself has to do with it; previously it was the prophet, but now “I will draw out a sword after them”. Well, he was in that third part and that was not all he was in—“And thou shalt take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts”. He belonged to that part, not simply as to ecclesiastical position, but as to condition.
He belonged to the few who were bound up affectionately in the apparel of the prophet.
Now, of course, it would be lovely if we could stop there and say, ‘Well, that is the position for every one of us’. You will notice He does not stop there. He says, “Thou shalt take of these again, and cast them into the midst of the fire”. Now our brother knew that. I say that feelingly, dear brethren. Our brother has known that. He was selected and re-selected and finally cast into the midst of the fire in surpassing measure in a way that, I suppose, not one of us here has yet known. But again that is not all. I would like you to notice, because think it is a word for us, “from it”—that is from the third part—“shall a fire come forth against all the house of Israel”. Our brother’s life, dear brethren, is a challenge to every living soul. It is not the fire itself that is to consume but rather the fire that came forth from this few.
I would fail the Lord if I did not speak faithfully to every one of us here who understands: when quality of this character has been given and has been manifested in testimony, dear brethren, it is a challenge to all of us. It is a challenge first to those nearest to him. We often say how would we measure up to the Lord Jesus, and when we say that perhaps we sometimes excuse ourselves and think of Him in His uniqueness. I am not at the moment actually saying, How would you measure up to Christ? I think the Lord would say, ‘What is your life? I have ended a life here in this township of Leven where this man’s testimony has been for so long where he is so well known—I have ended that life’. And just at the moment we are pausing, dear brethren. We are thinking of that life and He says to every one here,
‘Have you continued as that man continued?’—showing patience under God’s government, showing grace, showing delightful features in quietness and tranquillity.
Now I would just like to say—mainly for our sister’s comfort—when this is spoken of in Zechariah there are two things mentioned. The one is that the silver is refined and the other is that the gold is tried. The way these things are put is most important because there was committed to our brother at his conversion, and has been committed to each one of us at our conversion (if we are the Lord’s), a deposit, a deposit which can become tarnished; which in itself is perfect and reflects the refiner, but it can pick up impurities. But the service of Christ, in all we pass through in suffering and sorrow, is to maintain that deposit in its intrinsic value. Our brother’s sufferings, dear brethren, lay in that. But that is not all. The gold is not refined. The gold is tried.
There is something which is incorruptible—it cannot be refined, dear brethren. It is pure. It can only be tried, and some of us—many of us—have been privileged to watch this, process working, the trying of the gold. God has taken delight, I think, to draw the attention of many of us to His own quality in the soul of a believer that needs no purification because it is His own work. He would draw attention to it, allowing the heat to increase and to increase—as He did uniquely in Jesus to show the peerless character of what He was. “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers, and he opened not his mouth”, Isaiah 53: 7. That was Jesus, and that was seen in the spirit of our brother. I never heard one word of complaint. That is not what a man is naturally—no! we are human.
And as to this He says, “It is my people”; he does not say, ‘Thou art my people’. He is not addressing them as he does elsewhere personally. He says, “It is my people”, and that is where we are at this moment, dear brethren. He says, ‘That is mine’. He would challenge the whole universe and say, ‘That is mine. I am taking it to myself’. Could anyone say, No? We valued our brother. We loved him. We walked with him. We walked with him year by year until so very recently, but the Lord says finally, ‘It is mine’, and He would comfort us as His superior claim is bowed to. May we, dear brethren, every one be really stirred in heart as we accept this challenge for ourselves—Are we as concerned about quality in our souls as the Lord is?
Word at the burial of Mr. T. N. Pye, Kirkcaldy
16 June 1981