HOW THE LORD SUPPORTS HIS WORD
HOW THE LORD SUPPORTS HIS WORD
“The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it”. One great mark is the way in which the word — not any particular system of theology, but some definite word from Himself — is spread abroad. There will be concurrent with this an effort of the enemy to hinder the Lord’s work by setting up an energetic publication of something professedly christian, but really “tares”, something to interfere with and embarrass the Lord’s work. The evidence that there is a word from the Lord is that it is light. He said, “Let there be light: and there was light”. “There is nothing ... hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops”, Luke 12: 2, 3. It will come out fully — the truth, the light. It will be baffled in many a way, and in no way more effectually than by a spurious or merely natural way of echoing the word which the Lord hath given.
When the Lord sent the gospel first, “their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world”. If there be a word from God, if there be light from Him, surely it must spread, and instruments are raised up to be the bearers of it.
[p. 69] The Lord demonstrates His purpose by the instruments which He prepares for Himself. Noah’s building the ark for a hundred and twenty years must have sounded out wide and far. Doubtless there were many objectors, and they were more successful in obtaining followers than the great preacher of righteousness. The number of adherents is not an evidence of where the Lord’s word is, but the power with which His mind is declared is. The way of faith is always the narrow path, and “few there be that find it”. In our own remembrance it is remarkable — and we do well to take it to heart — that the crowd went one way, and the gifts, as it was popularly said, went the other. What did this indicate, but that the Lord had chosen His own instruments? and they as a rule went in the line of the truths which had been committed to them, while the congregation, as in the days of Caleb, went the very opposite way.
When the Lord gives the word there is markedly a full clear sound, as the trumpets sounded for battle. Abram’s call, though so very individual, entailed on him such a marked and peculiar course that it could not fail to be well known, and, as it were, in every way to come abroad. It is true many novelties and vanities are ever occurring, therefore it is the more needful for us to be able to distinguish what is really of the Lord. Now one thing is very certain. Satan imitates in order to spoil the real thing by a counterfeit. Lot may be in part a companion of Abram, but before long he is lost in his own worldliness, and there is no sound for the Lord from him, while Abram is heard more distinctly and effectively than ever. Lot may break away from Abram; and the ten spies can take up the opposite ground to Caleb and Joshua, but they have not the sound or the weight, nor do they succeed as Caleb and Joshua. One man, led of the Lord, gives great publicity to His mind at the time. If I am in His mind, and His word has been entrusted to me, some day it will be heard abroad. It will not be hid in a corner. David was hunted as a partridge on the mountains,
[p. 70] and yet, as with Joseph, his time came. “Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance”, Psalm 105: 19 - 21. That which was spoken in the ear in closets was proclaimed on the housetops. Whoever expected that either Joseph or David would be heard in the highest housetops of Egypt and Israel? Saul might have boasted of the numbers of Israel who followed him, while few comparatively followed David; but the most distinguished in Israel, together with the poor of the flock, attached themselves to him; and David, in his brightest day in the kingdom, could recall in thankfulness and encouragement his mighty men. The gifts — to speak in the language of our day — were with him.
In reviewing the ways of our God, the one great impression made on us is this, that He will bring into full light, with very positive evidence, what is His mind at the time; so that if I have His word, I may rest assured that it will obtain a hearing in one way or another. In every instance we see that if there is not simple faith in God, and unwavering integrity in adhering to it, the ways and influence of those we might have counted on will surely hinder us. If we have the word of the Lord, we must be satisfied to find that our help is only from Him. Daniel and his three friends would have utterly failed, even though they had the word of the Lord, the truth for the moment, if they had not had faith in God. How could it be possible that in Babylon, with the greatest power on earth arrayed against them, they could be heard? They were so convinced that there was no help from man that in everything they turned to God only, be it in declining the king’s bread and the king’s wine, or in enduring the fiery furnace; and the result was that the effort of the enemy to extirpate or silence the word of the Lord was the very means used to proclaim it; and all Babylon rang with it.
In Esther’s time it was still more hopeless for Mordecai. He had the word of the Lord; and when it seemed as if he had, by strict undeviating persistence in maintaining it, imperilled the existence of Israel, when to human sight all was lost, and when only God could help, here again, succour came in the most signal way, and the word of the Lord was triumphantly established.
If I have the word of the Lord, He will surely cause it to triumph. I may be baffled and hindered, but if I am instructed by the Lord, I am not discouraged; I have His truth and it must prevail.
When the Lord came into the world, the light appeared in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not. He did not discontinue the proclamation of His grace because of opposition and rejection. Nay, on the contrary, He first sent the twelve, by two and two — six streams of testimony through the country; and afterwards He sent seventy. And Paul can say afterwards, “their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world”. Can any one enter into the patient faith of our Lord Jesus Christ? He knew that He was the Word; and though baffled and rejected, He pursued His course to death, well knowing that when to man’s eye it would appear to be extinguished, at that very moment the darkness was passing away and the true light shining. He can tell His disciples, as I have already noted, that there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. The truth may be greatly opposed, there may be no prospect of its being listened to or proclaimed; yet faith can reckon assuredly on God, that because it is His word, and sent by Him, it must accomplish that whereunto He has sent it.
When the truth of the Lord’s return was revived, at midnight there was a cry made. “Behold, the bridegroom; go forth to meet him”. And surely any believer who remembers for fifty years, can testify how largely and fully that truth has been proclaimed. The great truth to be assured of is that I have the word of the Lord; and if I [p. 72] have, He not only gives me power to declare it, but I must be prepared to find help from no other quarter. I may find help from many; but often where I might most expect it I may be disappointed, like Abram with Lot, or Caleb and Joshua with their fellow spies, or David with Absalom and Ahithophel, or Paul with all that were in Asia, where he had laboured most. I must not calculate that those to whom I have taught the truth will be the defenders of the truth. I must not in any way go outside faith. The word is from God, and only God can support it; and if I lose faith in Him as supporting it, the truth will be reduced to a mere science in my soul. Paul never had more courage than in 2 Timothy. He directs Timothy to commit the truth to faithful men who shall teach others also. This was given after his first answer, when all the saints forsook him; but he adds, “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion”, 2 Timothy 4: 17. Remark how he insists that the preaching or proclamation should be fully known, and that all the gentiles should hear. Though single-handed he had no fear for the truth of God, for the Lord was with him.
The Lord grant that, however opposed or however nearly overwhelmed, we may never swerve from the truth committed to us. And may our faith in God to defend His own only increase as we are deserted by those on whom we might have counted; assured that as our Lord left this earth from a Bethany, He on His coming again will find a Bethany here to meet and greet Him. Let us therefore quit ourselves like men and be strong. “He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast”.