CONTINUANCE IN SERVICE
[p. 287] CONTINUANCE IN SERVICE
Revelation 10: 8 - 11; Acts 23: 10, 11; 2 Timothy 4:17
My remarks will have service in view. For this purpose it is said, “to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ”, Ephesians 4:7. Nothing is left haphazard in the things of God. The principle of measure enters into each, whether it be a great servant like Paul, or a very obscure servant. Each is assigned something to do, and given grace to do it, that grace being according to the measure of the gift of Christ. It is one of His departments, so to speak, to select servants, to assign each his work and to furnish grace accordingly so that we are in a great system carefully measured. We see it in its widest sense in the great heavenly city which is measured in its square measure and its cubic measure.
What is in mind now is the continuance of each servant, for if the Lord takes us on it is not by the day, but the whole lifetime of the believer is in mind. He discharges no one. There are days in the divine reckonings, and the divine measure was twelve hours in a working day, and after we have finished, according to the way He speaks, He would put it in our mouths to say we are unprofitable servants. That is to be understood in its own setting, for He never fails to accredit us as we are profitable. Paul says, “lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway”, 1 Corinthians 9: 27. It does not mean that any true believer is cast away eternally from the Lord Jesus, for the Lord says, “they shall never perish” (John 10: 28), but that a person may serve, and serve effectively, and yet become a castaway. No doubt Judas served well in his day with the other apostles, but he was lost. He is called “the son of perdition”; only he and the man of sin are called by that terrible designation. So it is most serious not to come up to the measurement in service. Paul says, “lest ... I myself should be a castaway”. He would put himself forward as representing others, making himself representative of others, as serving, and yet failing to be accepted eternally. The Lord says in regard to such, “for I have not found thy works complete before my God”,
Revelation 3: 2. He says that to Sardis. So He has His eyes on us as to our works. He says of old by the Spirit, “Cursed be he that doeth the work of Jehovah negligently”, Jeremiah 48: 10 — a very strong word, a solemn word, especially needed where we are on optional lines in the work of God, that we may do it or we may not do it without consequence either way, whereas the Lord has His eyes on us and metes out the grace needed for each of us, and He looks for results. Of course, “Ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God’s gift”, Ephesians 2: 8. But when it comes to service, there is a big’if’attached to it, and when it comes to continuance, whether collectively or individually, God is not mocked, and never was any dispensation more real than this wonderful dispensation in which we are. “I have not found thy works complete before my God”; hence the peculiar kind of judgment that the Lord metes out to Sardis, and each of us comes under that heading. I shall have to hear the Lord say, ‘thy works’. Books are kept above. In the kingdoms of old there were chroniclers and scribes, persons who were skilled in writing and reading and recording things, and so it is that God has His chroniclers and His recorders and scribes, and everything therefore is kept with the utmost accuracy above. Not only is there a book, but books, and not only our names, but our sins, and our works, are recorded. Each shall receive according to his works, we are told.
[p. 289] Now John is a prophet. We should rightly call him a prophet in the book of Revelation. He is an apostle in writing the gospel, and I bring him forward first as an example of one who is allowed to continue, who is not discharged from the work. Many have been discharged. John is kept on according to this passage, and what is stressed is how he kept things. That is, the bitterness in his belly — the little book was the same as in his mouth as to material as it was in the belly, but it had a different effect in each. It is said that it should be bitter first. The angel told him that as he ate up the book it would be bitter in his belly but in his mouth sweet as honey. When you come to the actual facts as they happened, he says, “I ... ate it up; and it was in my mouth as honey, sweet; and when I had eaten it my belly was made bitter”, Revelation 10: 10. That is, the sweetness comes first, the bitterness comes second. In the mouth of the angel the bitterness is mentioned first and sweetness second, but in the actual transaction he begins with the sweetness. The taste is brought into action. Job speaks of it, “Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food?” Job 12: 11. It is a question of the senses, whether it be taste or hearing, spiritually we should be fully equipped with every sense, as John was, at least as to taste or feelings in his inwards and in his mouth, and notice is taken of this. Surely it is not literal; it is a question of a servant feeling things with God. “I took the little book out of the hand of the angel, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth as honey, sweet; and when I had eaten it my belly was made bitter”, meaning that he was a brother or a prophet who felt things. The word of God was to him sweetness. Jeremiah speaks of that, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15: 16), meaning that the mind of God, written or spoken, is always sweet in itself to [p. 290] the lover of God. He cries out for it, as the psalmist speaks. There is one psalm of 176 verses, Psalm 119, that is almost entirely devoted to the word of God, and the writer of that psalm lived in it.
John is accustomed to this. It is he who tells us about Christ being the Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1: 1), that is, Christ as conveying the mind of God. John is employed to bring that truth out, and he knew how sweet were the communications of that blessed Person. On the occasions when the Lord Jesus came in and went out amongst them from the baptism of John until He was received up, every meeting brought out something fresh. John had become accustomed to the words of Jesus, they were sweet to him, but they might have been bitter to him as digested. He had also his sorrowful exercises regarding his own ministry in the gospel and in the assembly. He speaks of having great joy amongst his converts, or his children, as he calls them, as he heard of them walking in the truth.
He was a man of great feelings and sensibilities, both as to affections and as to sorrow, and I believe all these things enter into these verses. Is he to continue as a prophet, or servant? The Lord Jesus is the One who has the book in His hand here; the facts show plainly enough that He is in mind, although an angel is mentioned. It is a question of whether John is to continue prophesying, and my point is that he continues here as having eaten the little book and felt according to what was in it. On the one hand it was the word of God, the little book, and on the other hand it contained something that was sorrowful in the history of God’s people. He loved the saints.
Those who love God and Christ, love the saints; and things that are sorrowful in the history of the saints become the occasion of sorrow to one who loves them, he is not indifferent. Any failures on their side, any [p. 291] advantage to the enemy on their side, any persecutions they have to endure, are felt by the lover of God, of Christ and of the saints. If I am a true christian, a true lover of God, of Christ and of the saints, I shall feel bitter as things happen that are detrimental to them and to God’s testimony. I make my christianity questionable unless I am affected by what affects God, Christ and the saints. I am questionable, and if I have been given a little bit of work to do and I am relinquishing it in any way, I may not be employed again. My opportunity may be past and we cannot afford this. We shall not pass this way again. Others will, but not ourselves. Some of us are nearly finished, others of us are in middle life and others in the first part of our lives, and our prospect is yonder in that sense, but we shall only pass this way once, and it is a way fraught with wonderful privileges. If we fail in them the Lord will be obliged to look around for others, and there are others, thank God, to carry on the service. Why should I have to look around? Why should I not feel with them in what may be occasioning sorrow?
Why should I not have bitterness? It belongs to my very nature, if I am a true christian, when sorrow takes place.
So the word here is, “And it was said to me, Thou must prophesy again as to peoples and nations and tongues and many kings” (verse 11). There are two speakers to John here. The first is a voice from heaven in verse 4, and then in verse 8, “The voice which I heard out of the heaven was again speaking with me, and saying, Go, take the little book”. This is the Lord Jesus Himself, the second speaker. How often He had spoken to John before! How often John had heard Him speaking! What holy conversation they used to have! John was one of the last persons to whom the Lord spoke at the cross. He had finished His life on earth, I might say, with a [p. 292] word to John. His mother was standing there, John was standing there, by the cross of Jesus, and the Lord says to Mary, “Woman, behold thy son”. He referred to John. John was to be a son to Mary, the mother of the Lord. Our Lord was to be no longer her Son. He was taking up a wholly new condition in which she could not be a mother to Him. Natural relationships do not apply to that condition. He is, therefore, plainly referring to John. He said, He is to be your son, and you are to be his mother. After that He said, “It is finished”. John tells us he was a witness to all that happened, and we know his witness is true.
Now the same Jesus who hung there upon the cross at that time is here seen as a mighty angel as it says in verse 1, “And I saw another strong angel coming down out of the heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow upon his head, and his countenance as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire, and having in his hand a little opened book”. That is the same Jesus who said to John, “Behold thy mother”. But now Jesus is speaking from heaven in another guise altogether, as a mighty angel. It is a question of His taking possession of all here, the sea and the land. He puts His right foot upon the sea and His left foot on the land, and He cries, we are told, with a loud voice as when a lion roareth. Such is the mighty Person presented here, and He has authority, and He says to John, “Thou must prophesy again as to peoples and nations and tongues and many kings”. He had already made him an apostle to preach the gospel, to cure diseases; now he is to prophesy again, before many peoples, nations, tongues and kings. He is not rejected, he has maintained right feelings in his service, he is not careless about his service, not worrying about what this little book means, but he eats it according to the word given and it enters into his inwards to be digested and [p. 293] assimilated and there it is felt in its true bearing, as involving the people of God, and he feels it as bitter. The Lord says, You continue the service. No matter how small the service, we cannot afford to lose it, to prove unprofitable through negligence or indifference, so that we are no longer employed in the service of the Lord. We cannot afford to be a castaway in that sense.
Now I turn to the other great servant, Paul. He is to continue, although he had just made some errors. He had gone to Jerusalem of his own accord, in spite of divine warnings, and he had just said to the high priest, “God will smite thee, whited wall”, which he quickly corrected, saying, “Thou shalt not speak evilly of the ruler of thy people”. We are not to speak evil of elders or rulers. It is a good word for all of us. We are enjoined to treat them as fathers. Paul corrected himself but he suffered most bitterly. I need not go into detail; the chapter is well known. He was arrested after going up to Jerusalem; the persecution against him was most fearful, and he felt it. It might have been the judicial act of God. Am I to be superseded? Is another to take my office? He magnified his office, a word for everyone, no matter how small, to be rightfully filling out his service, even if it be a deaconship. It is to be magnified, and you can understand how Paul would be exercised lest he should be superseded. The Lord had given him a commission exceeding all others. The night following, when doubtless he had serious concern (and the Lord knew it), the Lord stood by him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul”. He was a suffering servant, but not delivered to death. He was testifying of Jesus all the time. On the way up he said he was ready to die at Jerusalem for the Lord Jesus, he was a true martyr, and now he is suffering. It is said in verse 10, “lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces” — that was the state of things. Think of the [p. 294] agony of suffering entering into all that, from his own countrymen, and in the midst of it all he had called the high priest a whited wall, which was not right because he was still there in the priestly office. But Paul corrected himself, which is a very fine thing in those of us who serve. If we make mistakes, acknowledge it. We need not be afraid, we have a great Priest above interceding for us, making intercession for us. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”. He is ready to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, from all sin, removing the effect of it, even the fine effects of sin. He knows how to do it, and set us up again in the anointing, as if nothing had happened. Paul knew this. What exercise he must have had that night ‘Lord’, he would say, ‘why did all come upon me, why did I say that to the high priest?’ This would come home to a man with a conscience like that. The Lord heard all that. No one felt more for him than the Lord Jesus Himself. He never fails any of us. He looks for confession. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. He assures our hearts that whatever happens He will never fail us, as it says of David, “David strengthened himself in Jehovah his God”, 1 Samuel 30: 6. Doubtless Paul did, too, but the word is, “the night following”. Some time had to be gone through to reach it. There are three days and seven days in the Old Testament types so that we might be thoroughly cleansed, not only by the blood of Jesus, but by the water that flowed from His side. Paul knew how to use this. No doubt Paul wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, so he knew well the great system set up in Christ. It was for him and the most insignificant of saints. The Lord appeared to him the following night, and said to him, “Be of good cheer”, not a word of reproach. As one servant says, ‘the joy of an unrejecting, gracious Saviour’. The Lord called him by name, indicating the real companionship of Jesus in our service. Is it not worth our while to do our little bit and do it well, lest we should come under the rebuking gaze of the Lord and the forfeiture of our commission?
As we feel things like Paul and John, we magnify the position. It was no small thing to Paul to be an apostle. “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” He could not afford to forfeit a moment to the Lord’s displeasure. We must please Him all the time. How much he speaks about pleasing the Lord! So the Lord says, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome”. Paul might have said, I did a poor job at Jerusalem, but the Lord says, “thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem”, for in truth he had, and now He says, I will give you a bigger job, to witness at Rome, the very capital of the world, and so he did for two years, longer than the time he spent at Corinth. He might have spent even longer, after he was in prison the second time, but we know he was there two years and the testimony reached out, and some of the household of Caesar were christians. It was no small matter to be a witness to Christ in Rome. Doubtless Paul was martyred there. The Lord honoured him in witnessing for Him in the greatest of cities of that time.
Now to confirm that, in Timothy we have the apostle saying that the Lord stood by him when the last moments had come for him to witness before the emperor. “At my first defence no man stood with me, but all deserted me. May it not be imputed to them. But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made, and all those of the nations should hear”. That means that no one was to take his office. He was to have no successors. The preaching was to be fully known through him, of course through the twelve,
[p. 296] too, but the word of God was completed by Paul, and he says here that the Lord stood by him. Let nobody try to displace him. The Lord took him up for a purpose, and He stood by him until the work was finished. “I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth the crown of righteousness is laid up for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will render to me in that day; but not only to me, but also to all who love his appearing”. He could not afford to lose that, and hence he kept on and on, even though chained to a soldier; he kept on with his work. The greatest written ministry came out of that prison in the city of Rome. In no more exalted way did he testify of Jesus than he did at Rome, carrying out the Lord’s word, “thou must bear witness at Rome also”. May we be encouraged to continue the little bit the Lord gives us to do! Thus we shall not be rejected, we shall be carried forward to that great day when everything will come to light, according to the word, “knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord”. It may be very small, but it is not in vain in the Lord.