RECOVERED FOR GOD'S PLEASURE
2 Kings 4: 1-7; 5: 9-14; 6: 1-7 and 13-17; 2 Timothy 1: 8-12
It is of great importance to see that the days in which we live have been foretold by the Spirit of God so that we may not be taken by surprise.
There is no epistle more encouraging than the Second Epistle to Timothy, which foretells the condition of things in the presence of which we now are. On the one side there is the faithful portrayal of these days, while on the other there is the great encouragement for us in them, because that which cannot fail is presented to us - that is, the testimony of the Lord. No matter what happens, or what departure there may be, the testimony remains, and it has been God's way all through, in the darkest day to have the brightest testimony. That is distinctly encouraging. I am encouraged by it myself, and I should not be here but for what is set before us in this epistle. I want to be in that testimony - that is what we should seek above all things - and to respond to it practically.
The testimony of the Lord is Christ, or what God has in Christ - that blessed One; nothing can fail that is established in Him.
I want to shew you, in the simplest possible way, from the narrative that I have read from the Book of Kings, how the testimony of the Lord spoken of in Timothy is illustrated.
There is a striking analogy between the times of the Old Testament of which I have read, and the times in which we live. It was the darkest moment in the history of God’s earthly people, but God did not fail His people. God’s testimony was with Elisha.
There are four things, in the order in which I have read the narratives, to present to you illustrating what I think is set before us in Timothy.
In this remarkable passage in Timothy we get the origin, manifestation and final triumph of the testimony. There is first the origin of it, then the manifestation of it by the appearing of Jesus Christ, and finally the triumph of it in that day. There is -
Grace, Cleansing, Recovery, Power
in the testimony, and the four incidents that I have read from Kings set forth those four points.
It is a very great thing to taste that the Lord is gracious. I suppose there is not a word more frequently used than “grace”, but it is one thing to speak of it and another to know the taste of it in our souls. It is not simply that I can explain it, but my soul has tasted it - I like that word “taste”. Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious?
Grace is set forth in the testimony of the Lord, and that grace is in Christ, because Christ is God's testimony.
The first narrative that I read to you is an exceedingly simple one. The woman was in the presence of responsibility - she had no way of meeting her liability and was in very great distress, in that her two sons were to be sold, but she cried to Elisha because the testimony of the Lord was with him. Let us look for a moment at this little picture; we all need to be established in grace, for we are greatly lacking in it. Our constant tendency is to be legal, and that is because we are not established in the grace that comes in the testimony of our Lord.
The prophet asks the woman what she has got. All she had was a pot of oil. Elisha tells her that she is to shut herself in with this pot of oil. She was to be shut in with God and her deep need and that little pot of oil.
The door was to be shut. People are more or less in the presence of man, but man must be excluded. If we were more with God we should have a deepened sense of the blessing. It is because man is so much in presence that we are so weak.
That little pot of oil is the Spirit of grace that is in Christ. You remember how the Lord speaks, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor”, &c. (Luke 4: 18) - there we get the anointed Vessel of the marvellous grace that came into this world.
Now I ask you - have you been shut in with God and a risen Christ? I would ask you with great anxiety - do you know what it is to be shut in with God, man shut out, and to be there in the presence of God to learn God's disposition towards you in that blessed Person who lives before His face and who was down here on earth in the power of the Spirit? That is the way to learn that God is gracious. He is God’s unfailing resource - the risen Christ in the presence of God, “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”, &c, Rom 4: 25. “By whom we have access … into this grace wherein we stand”, Rom 5: 2. There was sufficiency to meet all our need, and in the Spirit it all becomes available to us.
Grace never fails. Do you think that there is a moment when we might think that it does? I may know doctrinally that grace never fails, but there is such a thing as putting your soul through the drilling and to keep the sense in your soul of God's disposition towards you, to measure what God will be to you by what He finds in Christ, not to measure what God will be to you by what you find in yourself: He whose going has been established and whose feet have been set upon the rock.
Well, the woman's debt was paid, and she lived on the remainder. May the Lord establish that word in our souls.
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Now with Naaman it is not a question of responsibility but condition. The very next lesson I have to learn after tasting the grace of God is, what sin in the flesh is - that is, what I am. The story is often preached from, but I have always had a difficulty because I could see it was not a question of guilt but of condition - Naaman was a leper. A little maid knew where God's testimony was, but the King of Israel did not know. It is little people who may know where God's testimony is when big people miss it. If you want to be in God's testimony you have to be little. I do not look for the great people of this world to be in connection with the testimony, but obscure people often know where the Lord's testimony is.
Well, Naaman is greatly disappointed when the servant of Elisha comes out with the message “Go and wash”, &c. He says, “I thought, He will surely come out to me ... and strike his hand over the place”. What I understand by “the place” is, that he had not learnt that he was altogether unclean. It is not “the place” - our pride, or our temper, or whatever it may be, it is ourselves.
Naaman had to learn that he was leprous all over. Not the place but the whole man. “But”, he says, “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?” He had to wash in Jordan. Jordan means descent. You must go down to the river Jordan. Why there? The ark has been through that river. Think of it - death has been annulled because He (Christ) has been down into it; He has made that river efficacious and turned it into a means of cleansing. That is the spiritual meaning.
Naaman had to dip seven times - seven times we are taught to appreciate the death of Christ in real soul history. Your measure of the appreciation of the death of Christ is the measure in which you have been made to feel your need of it. It is the triumph of God - He has annulled death, and death is the cleanser. That is the way you are taught to love Christ - every time you dip you are taught to love the One who made it efficacious at such a cost to Himself. Oh, blessed death! If you have tasted it yourself you will understand me, but not if you are a mere doctrinal person. Love has made death efficacious. That is the cleansing. He has made death the cleanser, and I am taught to appreciate it seven times - a life-long lesson.
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I come next to the axe-head, which is recovered. Christ has brought life to light, it is recovered for God's pleasure. The axe-head went down to the bottom - it was lost, but God brings the axe-head to the surface. I am convinced that this illustrates the beauty of the testimony of our Lord; that is, that life and incorruptibility are brought to light.
The thought that I have been recovered for God gives me the greatest possible pleasure - that He should think it worth while to recover me for His pleasure. It gives me peculiar pleasure - I was the axe-head and it went down, and no human power could bring it up. The axe-head - I, a poor lost soul, utterly sunk in the depth of ruin, have been recovered for God's pleasure.
That is the great idea in Luke’s gospel, that we are recovered for God's pleasure in the life of another Man - Jesus Christ.
Life involves the revelation of what God is, and a response to that revelation; that is to say, He annulled death because He brought to light the love of God in the very spot where sin and man were removed.
Then on the other hand He gives us the capacity to answer to it in His own life, in the power of the Spirit.
It is very simple. There was a tree growing by Jordan - there was life there. Let us look at it - “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Ps 40: 8) - that marked the tree growing by Jordan - a thing of beauty.
I refer now to Psalm 14 - “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God” (v 2), but He found none, there was not one man answering to Him; no, not one. What desolation! What awful degradation! In the next psalm we get, “who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?”, Ps 15: 1. In Psalm 16 the voice is heard, “Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust”. God found a Man to answer to Himself perfectly. Do you find peculiar pleasure in the thought that one Man here had God for His head?
Psalm 16 is most blessed. One Man having God for His head - answering to God absolutely, and our recovery for God is in that Man. That one Man has pledged that He will recover us for God's pleasure. “I delight to do thy will, O my God”, Ps 40: 8.
The tree was cut down and had to go into death in order to make it possible - He has annulled death and brought to light life and incorruptibility. How does He do this? He gives us the ability to respond to it. He stooped into death to write the law of love on the fleshy tables of my heart. The writer is the perfect revelation of God. He has brought the axe-head up - I am recovered for the pleasure of God, in His life.
Now He has brought life to light and gives the ability in the power of His own life to respond to God. God sees the best part of man - what is the best part of me?
My heart - He sees if my heart is responsive to Him and that gives Him pleasure. He has so revealed Himself to us that He gives us the ability to answer to Him in holy affection. The first action of the life of Christ in a Christian is that he responds to God. The result is, “In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust”, Ps 31: 1. It is love that gives us confidence, and it is the heart that confides in God.
Do you know the luxury it is to trust God, to be shut up to Him when no creature can help you? Man disappears and God supports you. Life for the Christian is the love of God; to live is to love, and to love is to live.
Then if I am recovered I need power. Satan is not so much against people going to heaven when they die, as he is set against anything that is for the pleasure of God down here. If you have a sense in your soul that you are recovered for God's pleasure, and you respond to that holy love, you have got pressure - all the pressure is against such an one. It means a great deal.
There was a host of people surrounding the village of Dothan, and the young man says, “Alas, my master! how shall we do?”, 2 Kings 6: 15. There were only two to stand against the host. The testimony of the Lord was with Elisha, and he prayed, “open his eyes, that he may see”. It is a great thing to have your eyes opened. When his eyes were opened he saw that all the power of God was with Elisha - with the testimony of our Lord.
The power of God is with that testimony because it is His testimony and according to God.
The Spirit is here, but He gives you the ability to look to the Lord in whom the power is, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, Rom 10: 13. Do you believe, dear reader, that there is an irresistible power down here, far greater than any physical power could be? Do you believe the Holy Ghost is here? Do you know anything stronger than such a power as this? That power is available for us.
One may be inclined oftentimes to give up, for Satan is opposed to anything for God's pleasure down here; he does not mind our adopting religious notions, but if it is anything for God's pleasure he will oppose it.
But the Spirit of God is here, so let us be encouraged - where the testimony of the Lord is there is very sweet music. I want to be with the singers - with those who sing with the Lord.
Every Christian sings to the Lord - he would not be a Christian if he did not. So many Christians are in Babylonish captivity where they cannot sing. The moment you get away from the testimony you get into Babylonish captivity.
May the Lord bless His word and establish us in grace so that we are recovered for the pleasure of God.
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From ‘The Believer’s Friend’, 1917