WHAT CAN ONE PERSON DO?
E. M. Walkinshaw
Colossians 4: 12, 13; 2 Timothy 1: 12, 13; 1 Samuel 1: 9–18
It sometimes is said in christian circles, ‘Well, what can one person do in the circumstances?’
As believers, those who have part in God’s testimony, the primary answer to the question is,
‘What has one Man not done?’—“I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”, John 17: 4. That one Man is Jesus, as we know. Totally abandoned by His lovers and associates, left entirely alone in accomplishing the work in which God was glorified, He glorified God “on the earth”. As another has said, it would not have been morally right for Him to have died on the earth, because He glorified God on it; but He was lifted up between earth and heaven and died on the cross. In Jesus we have perfectly what one Man has done, and He did it alone. That is really the answer to the question. If men ask such things, and they do so frequently, you can always speak to them about the Lord Jesus; tell them what one Man has done. You can tell them what He has done for God, and you can tell them what He has done for them, and what He has done for you. If you speak of what He has done for you, you speak from experience, but you can say the answer is in what one Man has done for God. In the light of what the Lord Jesus has done, let us not, dear brethren, ever ask, ‘What can one man, or one person, do?’
But I wanted to extend this with a word of exhortation for all of us. The Lord Jesus, of
course, stands alone in all His perfection, absolutely and infinitely perfect. But there are many examples in Scripture of persons of like passions to ourselves standing alone, and we find examples of what one person can do in the ways of God, doing it, of course, with the support of God. So I selected these three scriptures which I hope may encourage us. The first is about Epaphras. Here we have a man who was earlier called “a faithful minister” (Colossians l: 7).
He is not called that here, he is called “one of you”. Jesus elsewhere speaks of “two of you”.
This is not two of you, it is one of you. Epaphras, I think, is demonstrating to us what one man of like passions with ourselves can do in connection with the beloved people of God, in order to help them, having before him that they should stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. So Paul says, “always combating earnestly for you in prayers”—a plural word—
“to the end that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God”. This is not something that is out of the range of any one of us; it requires perseverance, that is pretty evident; but it is not out of the range of any brother or sister, alone, to engage in this wonderful service of combating earnestly for the saints, the local saints.
He was “one of you”, a local brother. We could extend it to a local sister, too, concerned that the saints should be getting on, growing in the true knowledge of God, and growing by the true knowledge of God, the person that is combating having nothing less before him than what God has before Him, that the saints should stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. I believe, dear brethren, if we took up this simple practice more, and committed ourselves to it, we should find the truth being made effective in the saints, and positive progress being made amongst them towards
the great end that God has before Him, that they should enter into His purpose. For my part I feel how little I engage in it. Perhaps I could say I pray a little more than I used to, because I have a little more time, but I am concerned about the question of engaging in combat for the saints, which is not simply prayer. It is, I believe, becoming engaged in prayers in the power of the Spirit against the enemy, so it is called combat.
I would like to ask each one of us here, especially the older brothers and sisters, What do you know about this? I ask myself, What do I know about it? We have a small company in Gillingham; one thinks of that company as precious to Christ. I think of the objective that the Lord has before Him in connection with that company. You cannot necessarily pray this prayer, or combat in this way for every company. I do not know, if Epaphras had been local in Corinth, what he would have prayed for them, or what he would combat for them, but his main objective would be the same, because God has in mind that all the saints should come into the knowledge and enjoyment of His purpose; but I suppose the combat would relate to the present state of the saints in any locality. I would desire to encourage us all to look at this passage and seek to take it up with God, but I can assure you that it will require perseverance.
The enemy is set against God’s people coming into His purpose for them. The conflict is between God and Satan, and man’s soul is the battleground. I would be more concerned for myself and for my brethren that we might enter into this combat, that Satan’s foothold among the saints might be removed, so that they might move forward progressively towards this great end to which I have referred.
Now Epaphras had this in mind; he was not just a faithful minister. There were two prophets,
Haggai and Zechariah, and it says of them that they prophesied and that they helped the people (see Ezra 5: 1, 2). They did not only prophesy but they helped the people. I think, dear brethren, it is not sufficient simply to prophesy; it is not sufficient to teach, or to have the scope of the truth before us, but we need to have simple confidence in God, to persevere in combat, because the enemy is set to dislodge Christ from the place that He has in the affections of the saints, and to hinder them from progress in the knowledge of God. There is a word in the Old Testament, “And he said, For the hand is on the throne of Jah; Jehovah will have war with Amalek from generation to generation”, Exodus 17: 16. It means, I believe, in its application, that the effort of the enemy in the activity of his hand is to dislodge Christ from having complete sway over His people as in the testimony of our Lord. No doubt his objective would be to remove God from His position, to rob Him of His rights in every area, be it in the government of the world, in the assembly, in our localities, or in individuals. He would try if he can to break the moral sway of God in the souls of His people. And that is going on all the time—from generation to generation—because the flesh does not change. So, dear brethren, we are up against one who has often been called a very wily foe, but, thank God, greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. The One that is in us, the Holy Spirit, gives us power to enter into this combat for the saints.
Now in particular, I think, it refers to our localities. Sometimes we think that numbers indicate moral strength and fibre, but that is far from the truth. A few in a locality may have moral fibre, and may be in the power of the present testimony of God. A large number may be out of it. I think that would be fairly obvious to all of us.
Our desire should be to be so with God that whether we be few or many we might be marked by moral power and giving place to Christ in our souls, and that each in his locality should be marked by this combat, that the saints might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Now you may say, Is it possible that every one in every locality would do that? I would say, You do it; You pray; You take it up. You may be one of two in a locality. It only says, “one of you” without saying of how many; you may be one of two, or one of two hundred; I would say, You take it up. You may say, We have many others in the locality who share the responsibility; that may be true, but I would say to each of us here, however many or few you may be in your locality, You take it up. God will honour it. You will learn from practical experience what one person can do, how one person can be effective in the maintenance of what is due to God, and in contributing to the progress of his local brethren in the knowledge of God. So you be one—one like Epaphras—“one of you”.
We are thankful to have “two of you” which stands in a similar connection—“Whatsoever it may be that they shall ask it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens. For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”, Matthew 18: 19, 20. But I thought it would be interesting and more encouraging to us in this meeting if I referred to “one of you”. Now you be the one; you be an Epaphras in your locality. You may say, I have heard that said before. Yes, I have too; I would desire to be exercised myself, and to exercise you personally in your locality to be an Epaphras in relation to your local brethren.
Then, further than that. Epaphras laboured for the saints in Laodicea and Hierapolis. However wide the boundary of your prayers and your combat, so wide will be your influence amongst the saints; you will find that. You may pray for brethren many miles away and not contact or see them or hear from them. Well, God is not limited; if we can humbly submit our prayer, and combat with God about the saints, wherever they may be, in our locality, or beyond. God is not limited to the person who is combating to accomplish His end. You may pray for someone in a locality hundreds or thousands of miles away; God has His own means of answering that prayer—His own agency, His own vessel, or He may operate directly. He has the power to do it. I think therefore the Lord would raise the question with us as to where our faith is. You remember He says in one place, “O thou of little faith”, Matthew 14: 31. He says in another place, “Where is your faith?”, Luke 8: 25. Where is it? They were on the storm-troubled lake, and the ship nearly full of water. Jesus was in the ship but He says, “Where is your faith?” It is little, we often have to own, but ‘ Where is it?’ seems to me to be even more challenging. And I think, dear brethren, it calls for faith to take these things up. So even if I may be the only one in my locality who is an Epaphras, let me be an Epaphras; I say, whatever the conditions, You take it up.
Now the next example is Paul. We all know about Paul and how he says that at his first defence no man stood with him. So here is another man who was alone. I wonder what Paul would say if you said to him, as to your particular difficult circumstances, ‘What can one person do?’ You know what he said to Timothy, who evidently was drooping—rather like us.
Do you ever droop? I find I do. Do you ever decline in your affections? Does your zeal sometimes become weak? Well, I think Paul demonstrated in himself what one person could do. That man had confidence in the
Lord— implicit confidence. He says, “I know, whom I have believed”, that is, ‘I am conscious’—it is conscious knowledge—‘whom I have believed’, “and am persuaded”—this is one of Paul’s persuasions, he had others also—“that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him”. That is to say, despite the darkening state of the assembly, the apostasy—and “all who are in Asia ... have turned away from me” (2 Timothy 1: l5)—
despite it all, he was persuaded that the Lord was able to carry him through. That strengthened the man to stand alone. He says, “The Lord stood with me”, 2 Timothy 4: 17.
He was not quite like Jesus, because there was a time when Jesus had no one with Him. Paul was never entirely alone, never, because he says, “The Lord stood with me”, and he had
.implicit confidence in the Lord Jesus.
Now that is another matter I would like to stimulate amongst us, confidence in the. Lord Jesus. We said in our reading that it is the testimony of our Lord. Paul is indicating, I believe, that he is fully convinced in his confidence in the Lord that He will see that testimony through to its full consummation in glory. This confidence is seen in one man, Paul. Now he virtually says to Timothy, ‘You be a man, Timothy’. He is speaking to an individual, one man. He is telling Timothy, putting it simply, what one man can do, a man who was not very strong and had frequent illnesses. Evidently he had stomach illnesses of some kind. Paul says to him, “Drink no longer only water, but use a little wine on account of thy stomach and thy frequent illnesses”, 1 Timothy 5: 23. He might make many an excuse, as we do, plead his weaknesses, and so on, but Paul would encourage him to “be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus”, 2 Timothy 2: 1. I think the Lord would encourage our younger brethren in this way; if it is only one man—like Timothy—we would encourage him to be strong in the
grace which is in Christ Jesus. What grace that is! I think it is experienced as we abide in Him. It is not something which is communicated, so to speak, a lot at a time, but you experience the inward strength as you abide in Him.
Remember, as I have already said, that Paul is speaking to one man. Men of God have told us to read the Scriptures as if they were written to us personally. So this is a letter, so to speak, from Paul to me! Read it as if it is written to you. When Paul speaks of Timothy as his true child and the like, we would never put ourselves in the same category, but what Paul exhorts Timothy to do I would read as though it were written to me. Can you do that? Now I do not believe that Timothy, in any sense, worshipped Paul, or allowed Paul to come between him and God, so that when Paul departed Timothy’s faith stood in the power of God. What he received from Paul he would give thanks for; he knew about him, his manner of life, his conduct, his purpose, his teaching, and so on, but Timothy had his own link with God, and the truth was made good in the soul of that man so that, according to profane history, he himself was martyred.
When Paul went, everything did not go to pieces for Timothy. When Mr. Darby died, for some people everything finished. When I was a boy we had an old man who used to come into our meeting in Strood and when we sang Mr. Darby’s hymns the tears rolled down his face. He was a dear man, but he made it plain that, as far as he was concerned, when Mr.
Darby died that was the finish. That is where he stopped. Others thought everything finished when Mr. Raven died; others think, or thought, that everything finished when Mr. Taylor died; but the continuity of everything in ministry and in the truth is in the Spirit of God. We do
need to understand that, and I am absolutely sure that as far as Timothy was concerned he would not fall into the snare of doing homage to Paul. I am equally certain that if he had done. Paul would say, “See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-bondman”, Revelation 19: 10. So Timothy would move in his own relation with God as an individual, although as an individual he would be thankful for others in the same path with whom he could walk.
I would like to make a few references to Hannah, because she was a sister. There is no reflection on our sisters implied in the fact that I have read about two brothers and only one sister, because there is ample evidence in Scripture of sisters who were alone with God and had in mind His testimony. I thought of Hannah and her bitterness of soul and her sorrow.
You think of the dark background in which she was. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, but the scripture seems to imply that it was well on the way to do so. The background was very dark. There was Eli, and we would be careful in what we say about him, but at any rate he had declined. He was sitting down, which as far as I know the priest should never have done when in function. It says he “sat upon the seat by the doorpost of the temple of Jehovah”. Hannah was in bitterness of soul. I do not think she was in bitterness of soul simply because she had not a child, but because she was thinking of God’s testimony. She was thinking of Jehovah and His interests, of His people, and the deplorable state in which they were.
Dear brethren, you think of the deplorable state publicly in which believers are, scattered far and wide. I understand there are well over 400 different groups or sects of believers in this country alone. What a deplorable condition! The condition among God’s people was deplorable at
this time. Here is an exercised woman. We would love that our sisters might also be exercised. I believe they give character and substance to our occasions. We can all be exercised to be giving even more body and substance. You may say, ‘What can one woman do?’ Well, what did Hannah do? There is no record that she ever saw the full result of what God did in answer to her prayers, in Samuel becoming the great link, the prophetic link, between God and His people; but her exercises were before God. The official priesthood thought she was drunk; the Lord’s own brethren thought He was mad. Eli says to her, “Put away thy wine from thee”. She says, “I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink”. She had vowed a vow, and in our day we can make committals to the Lord and the testimony. What about your locality, dear sister? Are you in the spirit of Hannah? What is required? What was required in Israel at this time? What was required was a man—a man of God. And Hannah’s asking for a man child meant that what was in her mind was a man of God. That is what Samuel became. Think of that coming in, through God’s mercy, through the exercises of one woman in a very dark day.
Now what can one person do? What can you do, dear sister, in your locality? You may say, ‘Well, I cannot speak in the assembly’. But at any rate you can pray; you can be with God.
You can be discerning as to what is needed in your locality, and what is needed in the assembly generally. You can be exercised about it. You can be feeling, as is said of Hannah, in bitterness of soul about conditions. And then I think you will find, as you are with God, that your influence and effectiveness will extend in the locality. There will be greater substance and greater power given to the assemblings of the saints. And you may never see the full answer. You say, ‘Well, that is rather sad that
Hannah may not have seen the full answer’. Stephen never saw the conversion of Saul, did he? The last he saw of Saul was the stoners’ clothes being laid at his feet. He never lived to see what Paul became, as one of the greatest servants, if not the greatest, of the despised Jesus. And yet it was the witness of Stephen that had affected Saul’s conscience. No doubt the Lord used it, as he says to Saul, “It is hard for thee to kick against goads”, Acts 26: 14.
And we are not told whether Hannah saw Samuel in his prime, if I may use such an expression, when he was the great prophetic link between God and His people.
What I wanted to draw attention to is what one man or one woman of like passions with ourselves can do; what one person can do, so that we may never be guilty hereafter of saying in almost morbid depression, ‘Well, what can one person do?’ Let us look into the Scriptures and we shall find a multitude of instances of what one person did, because that one person was with God. May we be more with Him, dear brethren, in particular about our own localities, like Epaphras and Paul, but then extending from our own locality so that the boundary of our influence may become greater because the boundary of our prayers is wider.
May it be so for His pleasure.
Address at Colchester
29 September 1979