THE WORLD AND THE CHRISTIAN CIRCLE

D. Andrew Burr

John 14: 30, 31; 16: 28, 33; Titus 2: 11–14; Luke 22: 21–27

I seek grace, beloved brethren, to look at what these passages have to say about the world. I do not hold myself up as any particularly shining example, and brethren will have to understand that I share with them what I might call exercise in progress. As Paul said in another connection, I do not count to have arrived (Philippians 3: 13), but I do pursue, and I trust that I will be helped to speak humbly on that account. In occasions of this kind it is not uncommon for brothers to speak about the world. There are occasions when they feel led to do so in a very specific way. I confess I do not feel led to do that, although there is one matter that I do feel pressed to say something about. However lest the impression should be given that that is what my word is about, I will refer to it at the end. It is perhaps fair to observe that on many occasions when specific things are said about the world, the remarks are about features of the world that are seen in others. It is not quite so common for a brother to speak, as I might say, confessionally about features of the world that he finds a snare to himself, and I do not suggest that it would be very profitable for the brethren if I were to speak in that way now. Another thing that would sadly have to be remarked is that much of what is said about specific things does not appear to have much effect. I would not say I am discouraged from being specific on that account but perhaps we need to look a little deeper into this question.

On other occasions we speak about the world in a very general way, almost abstractly. We speak about its darkness and about its evil character, we speak about its course and the manifestations of corruption in it, but in doing so we take the ground of being separate from it. Whatever its character is, it is out there. Whether it is sufficient to speak of it like this might be a question. We have to see that the world is not only just out there, but it has a place in the hearts of every one. As long as we are in a mixed condition that will be true, and therefore it behoves us all not to speak of it abstractly but as recognising that it is something with which we have to contend in our walk with God.

I wonder if we might look a little at the way that Scripture speaks about the world, and for that purpose I think anyone would turn to John’s gospel, because it is one of the main themes of John’s gospel. It would have to be said in that connection that the dark picture we paint of the world does not fit all the references in the gospel. For example, the one with which are most familiar says that “God so loved the world”, John 3: 16. I think it might be said on the strength of that verse that there are two ways of looking at the world, and I borrow from someone else to make the distinction simple. Another has said, and it appeals to me, that God loved what Christ made, which seems to me a very beautiful and very simple statement of the truth; God loved what Christ made. It is the way that John presents the world first in his gospel. He says, “All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being”, John 1: 3. The focus of that mighty work was on humanity. The scripture says that God formed the earth to be inhabited, and it says that His delights were with the sons of men (Proverbs 8: 31). God’s special interest in the world is the human race.

I do not, in saying that, exclude the rest of the creation, and I might perhaps make an aside about that. There are professional people in this country, trained to care for domestic animals, who are engaged, as we speak, in killing them by the thousand. There is a disease, an epidemic in the farming community which is being met by the wholesale slaughter of God’s creatures. The slaughter is not for animal welfare purposes, the motivation for it is commercial. I do not go into the

merits of that further but God feels that very much. He feels it that His creatures have become a commodity whose lives depend upon their commercial value. The scripture says, “A righteous man is concerned for the life of his beast” (Proverbs 12: 10), but it is one of the main causes of the present trouble that people do not think of the animals as their own; they are a commodity bought and sold, and killed for the sake of commercial gain. God feels that.

How much more, therefore, is God concerned about the race of man? The scripture in John 3 goes on to say, “God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him” (John 3: 17). It comes across with even more force and simplicity in the words of Jesus Himself. He says in chapter 12, “I am not come that I might judge the world, but that I might save the world” (John 12: 47). Think of God’s concern about the condition and needs of humanity, “the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all”, 1 Timothy 2: 5, 6. That means every human being.

Alongside the world that Christ made there is a world that man has made. He has made it as away from God and he has not made any place in it for God. Indeed he has given it up to the prince of this world, to the devil himself. In one of the temptations it says that the devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time (Luke 4: 5). It was as if a rapid overview was given of all those parts of the earth in which God’s special interest lay, and wherever Jesus might look. He would see it delivered up to Satan. I suppose Satan was right in a measure to say that it had been delivered up to him, but he was not right to say that it was his to give to anybody else. Whatever the state of the world may be, God retains His right to direct the course of affairs. It says that He sets up kings and He takes them down (Daniel 2: 21). He sets over nations the basest of men, He chooses who He will. There may be elections, there may be all kinds of systems of choosing governments, and Satan may feel that all is in his

control, that it is his to dispose of; but it is not, it is in the hands of God. Nevertheless it is the world from which God is excluded. And it was into that world that Jesus came. He says in the passage we read, “I came out from the Father, and am come into the world”. He took the world as He found it. The world did not receive Him. John does not speak immediately of the political world, or the social world, or the depraved world, the world of entertainment, or the world of sport or fashion, he speaks of the religious world and he speaks of its acme, Christ’s own, and they received Him not. If we speak of the world as a dark place it is because its light is denied. Jesus has come into the world bringing the light of another world. How was it that Jesus could say, “I have overcome the world”? I think the secret lay in the way in which He came into it, “coming into the world he says … I come … to do, O God, thy will”, Hebrews 10: 5–7.

He came into this world as light. He came into this world to bear witness to the truth. He grew up as a root out of dry ground (Isaiah 53: 2). He drew nothing and He sought nothing from society. He did not participate in its movements or its culture. He did not catch its moods or its spirit. His motivation, His desires, His food all derived from His Father and from another world altogether. People invited Him to involve Himself in their affairs or the affairs of this world and He steadfastly refused. Nevertheless He took up need as He found it on every hand. Here was Someone who was absolutely different. They said, “Never man spoke thus, as this man speaks”, John 7: 46. How wonderful it is that there has been in the course of man’s world Someone who has come into it, who did not belong to it and never subscribed to it or had any part in it. There is a place in the world for every one of us. If you were to go out into the world you would find a place for yourself, it would make a place for you. It would not value you, it does not value anybody, but you would find a place. But He did not. I remember a brother saying, If you want to put the world to the test, go out into it but take Christ with you. What you will find is that there is a place offered for you but not for Him; and if you want to have Christ with you, you will find there is no place for you on His account. But He was not overcome by the world. He was not overcome by its ruler. He was not forced in any way to submit or to give tribute to the course of things here. His steadfast obedience to the will of God, cost what it did—and it cost Him everything—secured for Him a victory over the world. Beloved, how He has put the whole world in the shade. There has been nothing in the history of the world to compare with the coming of Jesus. John concludes his references to the world by saying, If all the things that Jesus did were written one by one the world itself would not be great enough to contain them (John 21: 25). You see how the world has been put into the shade by this lowly, humble, rejected Stranger come to save. I draw your attention to one more reference to His coming to the world, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, 1 Timothy 1: 15. He came to save sinners, to share with them the victory which He won at the price of His life, to share with them and give them the fruits and spoils of His overcoming the world through which He passed.

I read the scripture in Titus because I would like to raise the question. What does that victory mean for us? The world is a very diverse place. It is one reason why I hesitate to speak about anything specific because to do so would appear to be at the exclusion of other things, but there are many, many features of the world. One of the general characteristics of it is that it is deceitful, and one of the consequences of that is that you might be taken up with the things of the world and not know. There are some very blatant things that of course people in the street would agree were wrong, but look at some of the lists of evil things that the Lord Jesus speaks about. Has it ever struck you that He should put murder, fornication, haughtiness and folly all together? How subtle pride is; how close to the surface it is with us all.

This passage in Titus speaks about worldly lusts, and I would like to dispel the impression that worldly lusts are the same as carnal lusts although they include them. Paul also speaks to Timothy, who was a young man, about youthful lusts, and youthful lusts are not only a snare to young people. The references are to things that begin to emerge as we grow up. There are things that make teenagers awkward and difficult and contrary. It is not a question simply of biochemistry but it is a moral issue. The world begins to assert itself as we grow up and that demonstrates that the world is in all our hearts. It does not come in, it is there, and the underlying principle of it is quite simple—‘I am going to do what I want’. That is another way of describing worldly lusts and it is the principle on which the world operates. It is independent of God, it is independent of right moral judgment, it determines what is right by what I want to do. These things begin to manifest themselves as we grow up and as we become adult. They may become subdued but they never leave us. Indeed they sometimes become supplemented by a desire not only to do what I want but to get other people to do what I want as well. And you can see that such an immoral principle is the underlying cause of the confusion that is in the world. The state of the world is irreconcilable because that principle is allowed in the heart of every member of it, and of course it is impossible for people who operate by that principle to get along with each other. I speak soberly of these things and I urge us all to examine ourselves and see whether this principle does not underlie many of the specific things that we speak about. This principle that asserts itself in independence of God and of moral principle is in fact a general snare to every soul.

I do not speak any more about that but about the answer to it. It says, He has redeemed us from all lawlessness, all lawlessness. There is one answer and one answer only is needed to every diverse manifestation of the principles of the world in the hearts of God’s

people. That answer is Christ. He has died, He has come to save sinners, and He has saved us from the world by redemption, at the price of His life. At the cost of His precious blood He has redeemed us not only from the things of which we are guilty, but from the underlying principle that generates those evil things, and that in every possible manifestation of it. He has redeemed us from all lawlessness. There is in Christ a sufficient answer to every manifestation of lawlessness. You need look outside of Him for nothing. If there are principles that rightly govern us you will find, if you examine them, that they point us to Him, an object for the heart and One who has atoned in the presence of God for our moral state. He is a sufficient answer to all the manifestations of what we find within, and by that means there is reconciliation. It says, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself”, 2 Corinthians 5: 19. It is not patching up differences, it is not meeting halfway, it is an act of redemption. That scripture goes on, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might”, as being set free from all lawlessness, “become God’s righteousness in him” (2 Corinthians 5: 21). What a wonderful and blessed thing the work of Christ is. How present, and immediate and universal is its application to us.

I come to the passage in Luke because it is in what I have to say about this passage that my burden lies. In the light of what I have felt led to say, is there anywhere in this world a place where the principles of this world do not operate? Would not such a place be most attractive?

Would it not be a place of harmony and security? Is there such a place? I ask that as a practical question. The answer should be. Yes there is, it is the Christian circle. The Christian circle should be a place where the principles of the world are absent; not simply subdued or suppressed or rarely apparent, but absent. This passage is very interesting in that connection.

It describes the Lord’s supper and the conversation which followed it, an occasion of inestimable privilege. If privilege was a means of

excluding the principles of the world, the inauguration of the Supper should supremely have been such an occasion. Then let us examine what we find there. The first thing the Lord has to bring out is that nothing can be taken for granted. He says, There is somebody here who is untrue. I am not making that suggestion about this company, but how sober it is. Someone had come to the inauguration of the Supper who was untrue, who had already arranged to deliver Jesus into the hands of His enemies at the earliest opportunity knowing He would be killed. Jesus raises the point faithfully in a way that was intended to exercise all those present, not just to discover the betrayer. We know it had that effect because Matthew was one of those present, and we have his account of this matter. If we read Matthew’s gospel we find that they all were constrained by the question to examine their own hearts. They all began to say, “Is it I … ?”, Matthew 26: 25. That is a very healthy thing, is it not? It is therefore striking that Luke is much more severe. Luke does not say that they looked to themselves.

Sadly what they did was to look at the others—‘Now it cannot be me, but could it be him?’

How subtle, how deceitful the principles of the world are. The exercise calculated to purge this privileged circle of all that would defile it provoked not only soul searching, as we read in Matthew, but what I might call finger-pointing at others. We cannot afford this, beloved.

The obligation in relation to the purity and sanctity of the Christian circle lies firstly with myself.

If we go on to what follows, we find there was also a reasoning among them, “which of them should be held to be the greatest”. It was not, ‘What do I think about myself?’ but ‘What should other people think about me?’ That is a naked manifestation of the spirit of the world.

It is shocking in its context, but here it is. We are not preserved by the ground we take, and we are not preserved by the privilege we enjoy, from the deceitfulness of our own hearts. We need something more, so it is very touching to see how Jesus meets all this. He refers to the kings and the benefactors in the world. I suppose it is possible to say that not everything in the world is bad; it is a good thing that there are those that are ready to take up the responsibility of government and people who are moved by public-spiritedness to be generous to others. For example, a lot of public appointments are not paid, and people take these things up. If the world has any noble features these are among them. They are certainly much more noble than the principles that manifested themselves in the disciples. But the Lord Jesus says, even of these things, It shall not be thus among you. Even the very best bits of the world must be left outside. Jesus does not deal with this striving among them as He had met it before in the spirit of a little child. Now He speaks to exclude the principle altogether. He says, It shall not be thus among you. He goes on to show, very simply, that in the Christian circle the very opposite principles apply. The principles of the Christian circle are not borrowed or refined from worldly principles, they derive from another source altogether and they are quite different.

Then He goes on to what is at the heart of this matter. He says, “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”. What a centre the Christian circle has, “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”. He does not say, I have been in the midst of .you, but, I am in the midst of you. Beloved, if you have in grace found a place in the Christian circle, at the centre of it is the One that serves. He came to save you; He laid down His life for you; He shed His precious blood for you; He bore the judgment and all that it required; He has passed through death and the grave; He is now exalted as a Man in the glory; He sits upon God’s throne. He has been promised the earth; He is about to claim His rights and reign over the world; His enemies are about to be destroyed. He is in the midst as the One that serves. Beloved, take a look at the Centre of the Christian circle. Fill your heart, satisfy your soul with Him. Allow Him to eclipse all your ideas as to how

things ought to be and what you would like them to be. Let Him set the tone, as we sometimes sing,

‘Be Thou the object bright and fair

To fill and satisfy the heart’. (Hymn 328)

And beloved, may I urge that if others gather for the sake of being occupied with such a One, do not distract them, do not divert them, do not spoil their experience; but above all, do not give it up.

Now I said there was one thing I would like to speak about, and I recognise that it may only be a small contribution, but I feel pressed to say something. Sadly, from time to time, ones we have walked with turn aside. They do so for many reasons. Sometimes they say they are dissatisfied and discontented, and it is in the nature of that kind of thing that there is not much of a pattern to it. People go off for their own reasons, they go in different directions, and it appears to be quite random and unpredictable. But there have been a series of departures among us to which there is a pattern. In recent years there has been a succession of young women who have grown up among us but have left the circle of which I have spoken for the sake of relationships formed with unbelievers. I am pressed to speak of this, beloved, because it is so painful that it should be so, and I ask myself and I raise the question, Why is this happening and how can it be stopped? The world is a corrupt place. It is a very impure place, but that does not mean to say that it does not value purity when it finds it. The reality is that the chastity and refinement of a Christian upbringing makes people attractive to the world. If you have had an upbringing like that, you may expect to be the object of temptation. I trust that identifying that danger may itself reduce it. It is also just to speak very soberly about the consequences of departure of this kind. The relationship between a man and a woman is a divine ordinance. The Lord Jesus says, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate”, Mark 10: 9. It is therefore for life. Relationships of this kind are taken up in the world on a very casual basis, and it may be that those who have led our young sisters astray have taken a casual approach; but you cannot take a casual approach. You cannot assume that if you form a relationship of this kind that you will be able to extricate yourself and find your way back when you feel different about it and regret what you have done. You cannot assume that. God may in His ways choose for your discipline not to release you. You may in the mercy of God find a way out, but you cannot count on it. You cannot tempt God and hope that if you ever think differently you will be able to act on what you then think. These are very sober matters and we need to recognise the sobriety of them.

I speak not only, of course, to a particular section of the brethren, but I urge it upon us all that relationships are not to be taken up as lightly as the world takes them up. The way back is never as easy as the way out. Imagine the way out like a slippery slope. It is easy to go down, but it may be nigh impossible to come up. God says, The way of transgressors is hard (Proverbs 13: 15 A.V.). So how can these departures be arrested? I appeal to my young brethren, fix your eye on Jesus. Acknowledge that He has a claim over you. If you have gone to Him about your sins and about salvation from eternal wrath you have granted Him a claim over your life. Salvation and your eternal destiny are secured on no other terms. Whoso confesses Jesus as Lord shall be saved. The scripture is very simple, is it not? You have given Him a claim. You may forget that you gave Him that claim, you may dishonour it. He will never forget, and you may find that at some point, when you have forgotten, that He causes you to remember. You may expect that that will be followed by very deep and painful exercise. Spare yourself; honour His claim; put Him first. Allow Him to take charge and give direction in your life. You have trusted Him with eternity, is He not enough for the day? Does His claim not prevail over that of the world.

May we learn to value the Christian circle, and to appreciate the Lord Jesus as the One who is in the Centre of it as the One who serves. I appeal especially to my beloved brethren, do not do anything to dishonour the One who has done everything for your good, and do not ever think of giving up for something else the place He has given you among the people of God.

One day you will regret doing so. I trust that I will be forgiven for speaking freely. I appeal to my young brethren to take account of those who have continued. They have passed through times of sorrow, they have passed through times of division, they have clung tenaciously to their inheritance. They want you to have it from them, and they want you to keep it and to care for it and to entrust it in turn, if the Lord does not come, to another generation. They want you to have the opportunity to share and to enjoy what has sustained them through the whole of their life. Do not give it up. May He bless the word.

Address at Grangemouth
10 March 2001