PROMISES

J.C.Evershed

John 6: 45 (part) "And they shall be all taught of God"

The promises in the Bible are numbered in their thousands. There are at least ten vital ones on this column from which I have read, such as "he that comes to me shall never hunger, and he that believes on me shall never thirst at any time"; and "him that comes to me I will not at all cast out”. All those are precious promises and we need to read the Scriptures to look for them because God has given them at His own word. What has been read is one of the most precious of them, at any rate it has come before me as such at the moment; that God has charged Himself with our education. What a God we have, to educate such as we are! the same God who wipes the tears from every eye. The tenderest of mothers might leave a tear that will dry on with a salty mark; it says of God that He will wipe away every tear. And I do not think He is any less careful in the education of His people, for it says "And they shall be all taught of God".

I desire therefore to speak a little about the school of God. It is what is called a comprehensive school and is all the better for that because it means that we are all in it together. The benefit of that is that we can and do learn from one another, even from little children. What would you have thought seeing the twelve great apostles standing round and looking at a little child whom the Lord drew attention to and set alongside of Himself? The Lord was using this child to teach them something of vital import, that they should not be so concerned with their own importance but rather that they were being educated to serve the Lord and needed to have a humble and lowly spirit. We can learn from those who are older also. God's school is a boarding-school as well without any holidays. That is a good thing too because we are all always in it, and do not let us forget that. We might overlook it from time to time. God would educate us on Saturday mornings as well as any other time or day.

It would be difficult to say, I suppose, at what age we go into God's school. What might be more important would be the fact that a time comes when we are aware that we are in His school. Paul the apostle was set aside from his mother's womb, so that God had His eye, as we say, on him right from that very time, but it was a long while before he, as Saul of Tarsus, came to realise that God had undertaken to work in and educate him. In his case it was to train him quickly for a very great place in the divine system, greater of course than you and I have; but then think of the favour and the honour of a place at all in the divine system. God's education is in view of making us fit for that and for the time when what He has accomplished will come out in a setting which will add lustre to the great and glorious day when the Lord is in display. It would be easier, I suppose, to say the time when persons leave school, some at a very great age. Why is that? Is it that God's ways in education are not yet completed? That might be so, but another reason why they are left here for so long is to teach us the twin lessons of patience and thankfulness in which we often get rather low marks. So I say this for the encouragement of those who are older that they need not say, Well, I suppose I am a slow learner, or God's ways take a long time with me. God has His own timetable in these things, but let them take courage that they are left here as monuments to His grace and in order to show out in themselves the maturity of His work and education so that others who follow may see the things worked out in persons. That is the great objective of God's education, that things should be seen to be completed according to His pleasure in persons.

God uses a number of means in educating us. We all know, and the scripture tells us categorically, that nature itself teaches us (see 1 Cor 11: 14). Nature does not only teach that elementary lesson that if a man have long hair it is a shame to him and if a woman have long hair it is a glory to her, but many other things as well, more than I could possibly enumerate or know even. It is a principle that everything in the old creation in some way, if we are intelligent and enquiring enough, will teach us something in new creation. Who would have thought for instance that a she-ass could give us a lesson in fulfilled responsibility? When God opened the mouth of Balaam's ass she said something to this effect: Thou hast ridden on me ever since I was thine, and have I ever disappointed thee? Balaam had to say, No. He had to admit that his ass had fulfilled her responsibility to him. Well, that is something in the old creation. You may say, how am I going to fulfil my responsibility? I will tell you. Fulfil the righteous requirement of the law by walking according to the Spirit. The scripture (Romans 8: 4) refers no doubt to the whole scope of the law and in a way even more. The righteous requirement, what God is looking for from us, we fulfil by the indwelling and the activity of the Holy Spirit.

The old version of the Bible said that the law was our 'schoolmaster' up to Christ; it says "tutor" now, which means more 'guardian' I think. Of course where the scripture comes in in Galatians it has a setting which is especially to do with the Jews because Paul says, as a Jew writing to gentiles, that the law was our tutor up to Christ. In other words there was an immaturity with the Jews and they had to have a law to observe; God in His goodness gave it to them. It set out to a large extent His own moral qualities, but was not intended so much for that but to be a perfect rule for man, As we know, the Galatians tended, if not to put themselves under the law as such, to put themselves under what scripture says is the "principle of works of law". I do not suppose there is anyone here at whatever stage of education, who has not said to him or herself, Now I am going to try and keep God's law. In a way it would not be a bad thing to attempt. It would lead to disappointment, and I know very well by my own experience that that kind of thing does. But then what is the value of it? The law was a tutor up to Christ, but when Christ came liberty was known, not liberty to fulfil the will of the flesh (and I do not mean by the will of the flesh the things gross and obviously evil) nor just the will of man. The will of the flesh in Galatians is the will of the legal flesh that wanted by ordinances and services and fastings to ingratiate itself with God and to improve self. But "the principle of works of law", an expression used a number of times in the epistle to the Galatians, written to gentiles like ourselves, shows the danger of our putting ourselves under law. No doubt it has its educational value, and I expect there are very few of us in the course of our Christian experience who have not been under that principle, or even under the law. We become worried and upset by it because it disappoints us, and the reason is that its centre is always 'self'. We might say it is God's law and I want to keep it, but then it is always you who are trying to keep it, and it has a baneful influence.

We learn much from the man, as we call him, in Romans 7. I do not think there could ever have been a real man in Romans 7 because there could never be anyone whose desires were wholly right and whose practice was wholly wrong, but there is with us all a mixed condition. I would not allow that this is the normal thing in God's sight, but we find it in practice with ourselves that there are right desires and we are disappointed because there is not the power to maintain and keep them. That man came to it that the law was perfect and the commandment holy, just and good. Mark the order - holy in God's sight, righteous because it has to do with equity and everything that is due to everybody else, and good because of its guidance to the persons to whom God gave it; so that there is nothing wrong with the law. The principle of law leads to what is beggarly and Paul had to take issue with the Galatians because of that influence. But the law was the tutor up to Christ; it took care of the persons in view of Christ coming in. When the time of liberty has come, the heart, the soul, has a fresh object. I have no doubt that those who, like David, loved God's law had God as an object though all the time feeling that they were not able to do what they wanted to do. Now God has given power in the Holy Spirit whereby His righteous requirements should be fulfilled in us. The apostle was not the only one; we can put ourselves in the 'us' who walk not according to flesh (which would be the principle of law) but according to Spirit. Have we reached this stage in our education, that we have a new object before us? Christ being in heaven the Spirit has come and we have received the Spirit so that we have power to maintain what is right and good towards God.

Scripture also says that the grace of God bringing with it salvation, teaches us. Is that not a wonderful thing? Think of being taught by someone who says, Now I am not only teaching you things but I am bringing you the means to learn them and answer to them. The grace of God will give you the very means, just what you need, to answer to each particular lesson. And it is for all men too. We speak to one another as a few here representing more still whom we know definitely as the people of God. But all these things are for all. Someone said to Mr Raven, I understand, All these things I suppose are for all Christians; he said, These things are for all men. The question is whether we are ready to be taught by grace. You may think it sounds a more lenient teacher than the law, but make no mistake, grace does not overlook wilfulness or anything of that kind. In fact it brings salvation in order to save us from that. I have discovered that the worst possible thing I can do is my own will; that is of course the will that would be contrary to God's pleasure. What God's education aims at with us is that our wills should be brought into line with His, so that obedience (which would be right and good) is not with a contrary will but our obedience is with a will to do what He wills. That is what came out in Jesus; what Peter brought forward in the beginning of his epistle as to being sanctified unto the obedience of the Christ. You say that is a high standard of things; well, God works to a high standard. He must do because it is His own standard, although He comes down to where we are and educates us in view of it. So the grace of God comes in and it teaches us. We have to abandon something first, abandon fleshly lusts and things of that kind. As a believer you will give a sigh of relief and thank God you can abandon those things and have the power to do so. They exercise a certain attraction but as we refuse them we find that that attraction does not have its hold. I will not say it vanishes because there is always with us a condition which is liable to failure, but then as we refuse evil it loses its power. Then Peter says we should live soberly, righteously and piously. Mark the order again, it is the opposite way round - soberly as to what we are ourselves (we have to watch self); righteously in connection with those we have to do with and observe their rights; piously you might think would come first, but the great thought to which all leads is that we should live a godly life. I do not doubt that all who are here are on this path and many well advanced on it too, living piously in this present evil world.

When we were children at school we were not encouraged to look out of the window as it might distract us, but God has given us a window in our school to look out of, very much like the window in the ark - right at the top. Paul wrote these things to Titus and he would pass them on to the Cretans where everyone was a liar, and all lazy persons, even as their own prophet said. Titus must have been educated under Paul for a service like that, and to tell them about living piously. Perhaps they came to it more quickly than we do; we do not know. Sometimes people taken up out of depravity make far better progress than we do who are settled in amongst these things all our lives. Nevertheless it is a time of quick education, and he would be able to say to those persons and to us that we can look out for the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. God would encourage us to look for that. So it is not a time only of a toilsome education but all the time we are looking for the day of display when God will show what He is doing and accomplishing now in the hearts of men and women and children. We have spoken of persons going on into old age; we do not speak of doing so ourselves but what we look forward to is the Lord's coming. We were reminded not long ago that if we say the Lord may come tomorrow we are wicked bondmen, and we are putting off the coming of the Lord. A remark like that detects what is really uppermost in our hearts, whether we really are looking and longing, and not only waiting, for the great and glorious appearing. The rapture is to come first, but in the way in which the Scriptures put it the two can be viewed as one. The Lord will transform our bodies, and those who are in their graves will hear the voice of the Son of God; they will come forth and we shall all be changed. We know the terms of these things, but let us be looking forward to the appearing when the Lord Jesus will be glorified in all those who believe. There will be something distinctive in each. The world speaks of mass education but there is individual education in God's school; it says "they shall be all taught of God"; personal attention is given to each one, and there is corresponding discipline that goes along with it. There is not exactly punishment in His school but rather discipline. Perhaps it is too much to say there is no punishment, I would not altogether say that from my own experience, but in the principle of it anyway it is not punishment but discipline. In other words it has a forward look and not so much a backward look. It looks forward to what God will produce; therefore His discipline, whatever it may be and however painful, has reference to what He will achieve in us and educate us to for His own pleasure.

Now we cannot do better than to learn from the Lord Jesus Himself; in fact He said do so. What a Lord we have! He did not just say "learn from me", which is very attractive, but He said something else first: "take my yoke upon you". Now have we the consciousness of that? That is a very definite thing and not something that can be shaken off. I cannot think in that setting that anyone who took the yoke of the Lord Jesus on him or on her would ever be restive in it. So it is a definite committal; and He does not say, I will put it on you. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me", Matt 11: 29. It is something deliberate on our part and something to be maintained in the spirit of our souls; so we are associated with that lowly Man and it would be a form of companionship in our pathway here. He says "and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls". The whole matter of education is really bound up with our links with the Lord. Mary was sitting at His feet. Martha was serving, which was very good, and I have no doubt that from that incident Martha learnt how to serve even better than she had done, but the Lord said Mary had chosen that good part which should not be taken from her. That was the part of sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His word. The whole setting of discipleship is one of education, so that all the time the disciples were with the Lord they were being educated in one way or another, even if it was only by having to study a little child. If also He was making known to them the things concerning His Father it was all for their education. In their case all those things which might have appeared to us to be dormant in their history with the Lord sprang to life when the Holy Spirit came and indwelt them and we have Peter and John being able to say "look on us", Acts 3: 4. They said in effect, It is not silver and gold that you need, but look on us and have what we can give you; in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean rise up and walk. Think of what was imparted by Peter! Now we too are being educated to impart things. They were not just learners, although no doubt they were always learning, but they came forward in the beginning of the Acts as graduates in the school of God, able to draw attention rightly to themselves and exercise the power of impartation from one to another. We do not have sign gifts now but I do not think the power of impartation has by any means lapsed. We know it because we receive help from one another. We do not receive merely by way of knowledge, but it is something that has led to formation in us which God has been pleased to show us and demonstrate in someone else.

The Spirit teaches too: "he shall teach you all things", the Lord said, John 14: 26. What a guarantee that was, one of the greatest promises in the Bible! As things come along that we need to be taught, I believe that by the power of the Spirit God would bind them on us so that they are lessons we learn. Think of learning by the Spirit who "has taken his abode in us", as James says! chap 4: 5. I like that expression; it is not just that He has come for a moment or on trial. The point in the writer's mind was that He has found it congenial to come and abide in the believer. Do you feel that that would be so with you, that He has found it a suitable thing to come? He will not leave, I know; but He may retire as to His activities. I am not concerned so much with the negative side of things; that is all met by positive ministry. Persons may fall out of the practical enjoyment of the testimony and of assembly life and may fail in some way, but the great thought is that He has taken up His abode in us because He finds material with us whereby we may be educated into God's things.

Following the sentence I read it speaks of learning of the Father: "Every one that has heard from the Father himself, and has learned of him, comes to me". Oh to be taught of the Father! The apostles were taught of Him on the mount of transfiguration. What lesson did they learn? They learned to hear Jesus. The lesson was, there is My beloved Son, hear Him. So that in a certain sense God's education goes full circle; it begins with Christ and it leads to Christ. It brings us to Christ - another valuable promise - "Every one that has heard from the Father himself, and has learned of him, comes to me". So that learning of the Lord is the ultimate in our education, and the ways of God with us are in order that we should be conformed to the image of His Son to which we have been predestinated. May we reach it the more, not in a time to come, but now and here for the Lord's Name's sake.

TUNBRIDGE WELLS

27 March 1976

THE CHILDREN'S FREEDOM

The first words spoken by God when Adam was put into the garden of Eden were "... thou shalt freely eat". At the very end of the Bible the last appeal is to everyone who thirsts to come and drink "the water of life freely". We thus learn that it is the desire of the Creator that mankind should have liberally all that is necessary to maintain life in the body and especially spiritually. Our part is to receive everything with thanksgiving and in "freely addressing him", according to the Scripture. His bounty as Creator and as our Father thus returns to Him in the name of the Lord Jesus as the rain is drawn up again to heaven by the power of the sun.

We know, however, that Adam disobeyed God's word as to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thus became a sinner, as also all men, women and children, his vast family. Whether people believe this or not, it is 'thraldom' - an ancient word meaning the opposite of 'freedom'. Sins are committed because persons are sinners. However, by the obedience of "the one man Jesus Christ” in being made sin at Calvary's cross, the many who have faith in Him receive the free gift of righteousness. The Holy Spirit within the believer gives power to reign in life even in the weak natural condition in which God’s wisdom has left us.

As to actual sins the provision that God has made is as great and free as that for the sinner himself. Through the conscience He has given us we become aware of a burden from which we cannot free ourselves by good will or good deeds. Self-will is bondage, not liberty and it is good if at an early age children are concerned about their sins. Many years ago a blacksmith had to go into prison for his misdeeds and was bound with a great iron chain. He felt sure that he was strong enough to free himself somehow. However on examining the chain he could find no flaw since it was one which he himself had made and he boasted that his work could never be broken! But if someone had taken his place and borne his punishment then he could be free. The glory of the glad tidings is that Jesus has died for us and therefore the believer will never come into judgment for his sins, all of which were foreknown at Calvary. Can you say with myriads of Christians "Christ has set us free in freedom"?

 

 

J.C.Evershed