THE WORD OF GOD
A. P. Devenish
Genesis 24: 54–58; Matthew 16: 21–24; Genesis 17: 18, 19 (to ‘Isaac’); 21: 10, 11
We read this morning in the morning reading about the word of God, “For the word of God is living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and penetrating to the division of soul and spirit, both of joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is not a creature unapparent before him; but all things are naked and laid bare to his eyes, with whom we have to do”, Hebrews 4: 12, 13. I was thinking of the value of the word of God coming to us. Sometimes we might think it severe if God has to speak to us severely. Sometimes it affects our conscience and brings about repentance. God’s word will always bear fruit as we make room for it in our hearts, but it is often the case we might seek to turn the edge of the word, to modify it.
That is what really happened in Genesis 24, the servant said, “Send me away to my master. And her brother and her mother said, Let the maiden abide with us some days, or say ten”.
You say that sounds very reasonable, just ten days, surely it would be a reasonable thing to expect before she went on this long journey, to stay with them ten days. But you see that involves the whole responsible period, and is typical of how the enemy would seek to hold us, to keep us from going with the Spirit to Christ. Laban has been called a neutraliser and we want to be concerned that we are not neutralisers, we are not neutralising the word of God, not allowing it to have its full effect.
The servant says, “Send me away to my master”. It was a fine tribute to Rebecca in what she says, “I will go”. Let us allow the word of God to have its full effect, dear brethren. The ten days would involve the whole responsible period, and if the enemy could hold us back he would, and often it may be that the word of God comes and we seek to neutralise it, make it more acceptable, and thus hinder what the Spirit is saying to the assembly. What is the Spirit saying? Let us go to Christ.
Then in the second scripture there are Peter’s words. You might say, Well surely every one of us would speak as Peter spoke. You could understand his feelings. The Lord had spoken about being killed and that “he must go away to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed”. The Lord says, “thy mind is not on the things that are of God, but on the things that are of men”. He would have hindered the Lord.
You might say it was a nice sentimental thought that he brings forward and maybe we are inclined to that. We do not like to accept the full matter of taking up our cross, as He goes on to speak about it. “And Peter taking him to him began to rebuke him”. Think of the audacity of it and yet you can understand his feelings in a way, his natural feelings. He did not want the Lord to have to go this way but it was necessary, absolutely necessary for the Lord Jesus to go this way in order to secure us, to secure men, women and children, to secure us for the pleasure of God. But then you see we may modify the pathway of suffering. We may say, Well we do not say too much about that. You might discourage persons if you say too much about the path of suffering, about persons taking up their cross.
O dear brethren, let us not modify the path of reproach that is involved in following a rejected Saviour; let us not modify it. See what a privilege it is, what an immense privilege it is to follow our rejected Saviour.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any one desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. Deny himself, what does that mean? Going to some meetings instead of going to a holiday place—denying himself. We so tend to minister to our own pleasure, to work out our lives for our own satisfaction, but what does the Lord say?
And let us not minimise what He says, let us not modify it, let us not make out that the pathway is easier than it is. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any one desires to come after me”. Would we not want to follow after Him? Would you not feel the desire of your heart to follow after Him? So what does He say then? “Let him deny himself and take up his cross”.
Have you taken up your cross? Have you accepted the path of reproach? Have you habitually denied yourself in order that you should be in the pathway following a rejected Saviour? We want to think about these things. I just suggest them that we do not want to turn the word, turn the edge of the word. Let the word work tonight, let it work amongst us so that we are really Christians. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means that we are followers of Christ. We so like to pander to our own desires, our own tastes, our own natural feelings. The Lord says, “let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”.
I just finish with this word to Abraham, great man as he is. I do not want in any sense to demean him. Such a man as he had strong natural feelings, and of course we do, and it comes out in his expression, “Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!”, and later as we read when Sarah said, “Cast out this handmaid and her son”. That becomes scripture, you read it in Galatians, it becomes scripture, carrying with it divine authority as the inspired word of God.
“Cast out this handmaid and her son; for the son of this handmaid shall not inherit with my son—with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son”. If he had not followed God’s word, this son would have displaced Isaac, and we do not want that ever to happen that Isaac should be displaced. Isaac speaks typically of Christ, Christ risen, the centre of God’s thoughts. Let us in no wise allow natural feelings to interfere with and hinder the place that the Lord Jesus is to have in our affections, the supreme place. Well I trust the word may work amongst us, in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Word in meeting for ministry, Dundee
12 April 2005