MINISTERS OF GOD
MINISTERS OF GOD
At every time, as there was favour from God, so was there a minister empowered of God to set forth and maintain His will; and whenever God vouchsafed mercy and succour to His people, it was through the intervention of His servants and the blessing of the people was indicated by the power and faithfulness of [p. 119] the servant, so that at any time the moral state of the people was represented by that of the servant. All through Scripture there is favour and help for the people whilst the servant remains faithful; but when the servant fails, all are involved in the downfall. If the one to whom God entrusts His mind continues faithful, even though the people be rebellious and perverse, he is still enabled to rally and restore them, or at least to save a remnant.
It is a high but grave position to be called of God to minister His mind and counsel to His people; none more highly favoured, and none so opposed and thwarted by every device of Satan. It is plain that when God would help and succour His people by unfolding His will and way to any one, Satan’s great effort would be to hinder such an one, and if possible to pervert him. The favour of God is shown to His people when He raises up a faithful servant; and His rebuking is shown when “Jehovah hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your chiefs, the seers, hath he covered”, Isaiah 29: 10. And hence the enemy labours to counteract the effect which would flow from the faithfulness of God’s ministers. While Noah was faithful he was signally used, but when he failed he opened the door for evil in his own family.
Moses is a faithful servant, and the people of God, in their rebellion and unbelief, obtain succour and help through him. The whole history of the book of Judges sets forth this truth, that the faithfulness of the servant ensures blessing to the people, markedly in keeping with the order of the faithfulness. The more truly any one was God’s minister, observing and maintaining His mind and counsel, the more surely was there blessing to the saints through him; so that, as we can see in the case of Samuel, where there was simple and true dependence on God in prayer, there was the most marked blessing; but when he failed in [p. 120] the matter of his sons, then the door was opened for the disclosure of the people’s evil. The principle is the same all through; like priest like people. When the servants went down to eat and drink with the drunken, then the kingdom of heaven was likened unto ten virgins, who all slumbered and slept. We see this same principle still more strikingly and authoritatively established in the kings of Israel. As there was faithfulness in the king, the people were blessed; and as there was unfaithfulness in him, the people suffered. It is simple and necessary, that if the minister of God fails, there must be an opportunity for the exposure of the evil of the people. If the minister of God be the organ or instrument to instruct the people of God according to His will, surely any dereliction in the minister must seriously affect the people. When truth is qualified by word or deed, its effect on the hearers must be seriously weakened. And what more effectual way to accomplish this than by corrupting the channel called and gifted of God for imparting it? As Paul says, “From among your own selves shall rise up men speaking perverted things”. And Peter is still stronger: “There were false prophets also among the people, as there shall be also among you false teachers”. Satan’s great aim has been to supplant the minister of God, and this in a twofold way: one, by seducing the true one from his fidelity, as it is written, “That evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming”; and secondly, by introducing false teachers, as angels of light (2 Corinthians 11: 14); and as “that woman Jezebel ... to teach and to seduce my servants”, Revelation 2.
Let us but see the responsibility of the minister of God, and we cannot fail to see that any remissness in him must entail, or give occasion for, greater evil in the people to whom he is called to minister, A minister of God is one appointed by God to impart His mind, by a gift specially conferred on him by the Holy Spirit. It is distinctly given and knowingly possessed, but [p. 121] capable of being cultivated and increased by study of the word and prayer. It is not the line of the gift we are considering here, but the simple fact that one is endowed with Christ’s gift by the Holy Spirit, and hence takes his place among God’s people as His minister. To a true conscience, no appointment could be more solemn or responsible; but when we see the effect one’s faithfulness, or the reverse, has on the people of God, one may well tremble, if not supported by the cheering assurance that our competence is of God. The gifts have been given for the perfecting of the saints; and hence if the gifted one, the one called to be God’s minister, in anywise misrepresents God in teaching or preaching, he necessarily damages and hinders saints. They are straitened and checked by him, and he has not approved himself as the minister of God. His conduct and course should be of such a character that he could say that they were without excuse as far as he ministerially was concerned. Is it not plain that if God’s minister does anything in word or deed to contravene the mind of God, of which he is the minister, he must therein hinder the saints? Does he not indicate in himself the real measure of the power of the truth of which he is the minister? If the minister can allow this or that of the world in his surroundings, it is vain for him to expect that the saints will accept the truth he ministers as able to effect more, or that really there is more in it; for it is remarkable how defective walk in a minister will lead to qualification of the truth in its very enunciation; and hence there is not a rightly dividing the word of truth.
Nothing has tended to lower the standard of christianity so much as the little practical effect that the truth has had on the ministers of it. Nothing does the awakened conscience more eagerly look for, or more intently examine, than the effect of the truth on the one who ministers it. It is remarkable how everything a minister of God does will be criticised, and how [p. 122] conscience will be either convicted by his conduct or emboldened to do what it might otherwise fear to do. Who could read the credentials of a minister of God in 2 Corinthians 4 and not fear, while he accepted and assumed the duty of such a highly privileged, and at the same time self-denying calling? Or who, while humbly bowing to Christ’s favour in putting him into the ministry, does not feel the obligation which rests on him, and the importance of the word to Timothy? “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them”; (though working at a trade, as he did — see 2 Thessalonians 3) “that thy profiting may appear to all for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee”.
The gifts are given by Christ for the perfecting of the saints, and pasture is always provided by Him as there is appreciation of it. A Simeon, a Nathanael, or a Cornelius will not be neglected; no, nor the Ethiopian eunuch. The Lord will provide a servant suited for His saints who wait on Him. There is no lack of gifts, now as ever; but they are not in vigour or usefulness in their proper spheres, because they are not exercised in simple subjection to the Lord. The fact is, when grace is working in any few, the word of God is heard, and some one or another is gifted of the Lord with His mind, for He seeks for the ear of the saints; see Revelation 2, Revelation 3. The gift cannot be refused, nor can it be treated with indifference; it is given of Christ, and it should he cultivated. We see in many a gift, and an evident desire to exercise it; but they are not making full proof of their ministry. They are not good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The minister’s place is accepted too lightly. It is not enough to possess a gift, or to have readiness to exercise it. The latter may be an evidence of its existence; but notwithstanding this there will he feebleness if there be not a deep sense of responsibility to the Lord in the using of it with the obligation that rests on the minister to forego everything selfish, to [p. 123] deny himself altogether, in order that the gift may be unhindered by anything of his nature, and that it may shine forth in the grace of Christ. Where there is this charity and self-abnegation (see 1 Corinthians 13), there will be a marked consideration and care for others. The true minister not only in every way proves himself as of God by his devotedness to the work, but like a nurse, he considers for them to whom he ministers. He knows that he cannot wash another’s feet but as his own have been washed. He is able to help and comfort others, as he has passed through like trials with God. The minister watches the souls he tends. He is a nurse, feeding with milk and not with meat, when there is not preparedness of heart for meat. In a word, it is not what he has to impart that is so before his mind, as the state and capacity of those to whom he ministers. The nurse does not over-feed, does not weary; he does not preach too long, or pray too long, he considers carefully and skilfully the state of his hearers. Jonah was zealous and devoted before he had the sympathies requisite for an efficient servant. To be fully God’s minister, devotedness and fidelity to the trust are first required; but the gift is hindered and the saints are not edified, if there be not charity and real self-abnegation in every point.
May the Lord in His mercy awaken in the many whom He has given a desire to serve Him — an evidence that He has called them thereto — simple purpose of heart to abandon everything that stands in the way of effectually carrying out the ministry that they have received of the Lord, that they may fulfil it. While rejoicing in being put by him into the ministry, may they have a true sense of the obligation imposed on them in everything to approve themselves as ministers of God, and to fill up the measure of it, that they may challenge the saints for a recompense! And may the saints so value pasture that God may raise up many to feed them faithfully!