OUR VOWS
[p. 218] OUR VOWS
1 Corinthians 2: 1 - 5; Jonah 2: 7 - 9; Hebrews 13: 1 - 19
Paul was determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the one Man that pleased God, and that Man crucified. These Corinthians were allowing the first man: “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling”. Paul said, “I was with you in weakness”; having been among them for eighteen months, he knew what their danger was. Paul said, as it were, ‘I will show you how to disallow the flesh’.
What is needed in a meeting is a man who can show how to do things, a leader; Paul said, “I was with you in weakness”, and, instead of displaying his learning, he was simple, “My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom”. He did not select words such as the flesh could joy in, but spoke in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; he maintained an outward appearance of weakness. He selected this way of ministry among them because of their danger, because of what was among them. Young converts are likely to take their cue from leaders, hence the leaders should be exponents of what they say. They should walk softly; one who has the truth in his soul states the facts and leaves it. He relies on the Spirit to make it effective, for the natural man can effect nothing. In Romans 8 the carnal mind is enmity against God — for it is not subject — “They that are in flesh cannot please God”.
Jonah said, “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered Jehovah”. He comes to the idea of the spiritual in the voice of thanksgiving; he has advanced from the natural to the spiritual. He was sent to Nineveh; instead he went to Tarshish; he would make a wide sweep, taking the licence of the flesh;
his will was active. God says, ‘I will bring that to an end, I will bring that man back to the spiritual’. God leaves no escape for the will: He limits you! Jonah feels his own nothingness; he was powerless, but he said, “Yet will I look again toward thy holy temple”. If you are going on in the natural, God will come in, He will bring about circumstances, it may be a sick bed or limited circumstances, but you will be limited. It shows you are really His own; if you were not, He would let you go to Tarshish. When one is circumscribed by the discipline of God, he begins to think of God and His people. Jonah praises before he is delivered; Hezekiah after he is recovered.
Jonah says, “I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed”; his prayer is the expression of a fully recovered soul. This shows that discipline has done its work. The principle is that we pay our vows. One is hardly a christian at all unless he has made a vow; in a vow you assume obligation, and you are now no longer free to do your own will. It may be that after that you do your own will, but God will circumscribe you, and will pen you in like Jonah. When you really repent and come back to God, you say, ‘I will pay my vows’.
In Romans 6 your baptism is an obligation, and in Romans 12 you present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Jonah says, “I will pay that which I have vowed”. He wants to fulfil his obligations, it is the foundation principle of christianity. You assume your obligations. The vow we have made is an obligation to live for God. Paul said, “What shall I do, Lord?”. You present your body.
In Numbers 30, if a married woman vow a vow in the presence of her husband and he is silent, it stands. So if a christian vow a vow in the presence of Christ and He is silent (which He is) the christian is held responsible, and if the vow is not kept, discipline [p. 220] comes in. The New Testament requires it, you have obligations and you must fulfil them. Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah”. A christian is not worthy of the name if there is not resolve. Ecclesiastes 5: 4 says, “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed”. We treat altogether too lightly our obligations; when you accept christianity you accept responsibility (1 Corinthians 2).
It is nice to compare Jonah’s prayer and Hezekiah’s; Hezekiah prayed and got the answer; Jonah is still in the place of need, when he says, “Thou heardest my voice, ... All thy breakers and thy billows are gone over me, ... Yet will I look again toward thy holy temple”. A truly recovered man thinks not only of God but of God’s people where the light of the temple is. 1 Corinthians 2 is to show how they were to be on spiritual lines. God is not dependent on human culture, and Paul laid it aside. The great point in discipline is that God is brought in. Jonah had reached in his soul the light of the temple. Wisdom is not of this world, the perfect man is one whose senses are exercised, and thus he discerns.
You do not get much in a meeting, unless there is a leader; it is one thing to be a teacher, but another to lead, to show the way. You lead after Christ, but you do not assume to be a leader. Paul not only had the light, but he could say ‘follow me’. A good shepherd is a good leader. When difficulties arise one man must die for the people, the aggrieved one is often the one that dies, the one that suffers is the one that dies. All is effected by the Spirit; we must be on spiritual lines, there must be spiritual instincts. We have the mind of Christ; we have the thinking faculty of Christ, we can think of things as Christ [p. 221] does, we have a faculty according to God, a spiritual mind.
Hebrews 13 shows how we arrive at spiritual thoughts. Jonah anticipated it; he offered the sacrifice of praise almost identical with Hebrews 13. Sacrifice and praise can only come when what I am naturally is gone in death.
We should be exercised about paying our vows; meeting our obligations as christians; our bodies are to be presented a living sacrifice.