WORDS IN A MINISTRY MEETING

(i) Allan Brown

1 Timothy 1: 15; Ephesians 3: 8; Luke 22: 27

I owe this impression to another, but I suppose in the commonwealth what belongs to one belongs to all. I feel free, therefore, to bring before the brethren this simple thought, yet there is a great deal in it that tests us. The apostle Paul when speaking of sinners puts himself at the top; when speaking of saints he puts himself at the bottom. I find that testing and anything I say now I would apply to myself as much as to anyone else. Whether Paul was the worst sinner that ever was, I cannot really say, but that was his own judgment as to his course in the past. It is said of John Newton, the writer of that beautiful hymn ‘Amazing Grace’, “there are two things that I shall never forget, one is that I have been a great sinner, and the other is that Christ is a great Saviour”. I think we need to keep humble, dear brethren. It is not that there is any guilt or feeling of guilt attaching to us because that is all cleared in the death of Christ. His finished work has justified us; according to Romans 5, “we have peace towards God” (v 1). So guilt does not remain with us, but the sense of how great the deliverance has been and the greatness of the Deliverer is something that ought to remain with us and keep us lowly.

Remember that man in Luke 18 who appeared before God, ostensibly at least, and said, “God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men” (v 11). That was a very irreverent way to address God, “God”, he says, as though he was talking to an equal. Bu the other man says, “O God, have compassion on me, the sinner” (v 13), and that man “went down to his house justified” (v 14), and if he was justified, he had peace. His guilt was gone, but he would never, ever, think of himself as being better than anyone else.

Now, I ask myself this, as well as any other, do I really think that I am better than anybody else? Ask yourself that! Paul, imbued with the spirit of his Master, speaks of himself as, “less than the least of all saints”. If anyone had anything to be proud of, it would have been Paul, or Saul of Tarsus as he was. He gives us a list of all his accomplishments, his birth, his achievements, the full record, all of it. You might say, what a glittering list he had to be proud of! He says, “But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”, Phil 3: 8.

And that just bring me to these precious words of the Lord Jesus Himself, “But I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”. What an example! One who, “subsisting in the form of God”, taking upon Himself in manhood “a bondman’s form … humbled himself”, Phil 2: 6-8. Think of Him there amongst these disciples! Think, dear brethren, of the Lord Jesus going round the disciples and washing their feet! What would it be if He were here tonight, if He were to go round every one of us, serving us in that way? Does it not humble you to think of One so great being in the midst of His own as “one that serves”? This is the example. The Lord said to His own after He washed their feet, “as I have done to you, ye should do also”, John 13: 15. Let us therefore learn to serve one another and to esteem one another in this way. The apostle says in another scripture, “each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves”, Phil 2: 3. If we do that, it will solve a great many problems. Things will work out in a mutual way as we regard the work of God in one another and esteem one another as “more excellent than ourselves. We will then be able to serve in the spirit of our Master. May it be so!