HERE FOR GOD'S WILL

HERE FOR GOD’S WILL

(Word at a Marriage Meeting)

Romans 12:1-10 I have no very great disposition on an occasion like this to attempt to exhort — it is not in my power to do so. All I would desire to do is to call attention to what I should call two or three great principles which you get here, the apprehension of which, I think, will greatly help us in our pathway here. They are principles which we want better to understand. What we want in order to enable us to carry out detail, to fulfil obligations, is to see the great principles of God’s ways with us in grace. I cannot conceive that anything can be more important than the comprehending of principles. Details will fall into their right place well enough if you apprehend principles. The reason of many a failure is that people are looking too much to detail and fail to apprehend principles. It is a very few words I wish to say. What must be perfectly plain to all of us is that our pathway down here is marked out for us in this chapter. The great point of the scripture is that you are to be here for God’s will. All of us have been here long enough for our own will, what we are to be here for now is God’s will. What has greatly altered the aspect of things here is that Christ has been here and Christ has been here for God’s will. One who was divine truly enough but at the same time One who said, “I come ... to do thy will O God”, Hebrews 10:7. The divine will has had its perfect expression here in Christ and that has materially altered everything here. The great thing now for the christian is to prove “What is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”, Romans 12:2. In the previous part of the epistle you get the light by which we are practically educated. From chapter 3 to chapter 8 you get ^[p. 269] the light. In the school of God you are more than educated, we are formed by the light. It becomes the power by which not only everything is exposed but it forms us according to God Himself. The light is the revelation of God Himself. The revelation of God is light, that is how light has come to us in God revealing Himself to us perfectly in His grace and faithfulness. Up to chapter 8 you get the revelation of God to us in grace. God presents Himself to us in grace apart from the question of law, sin or flesh. God raises no such question. Sin and flesh exist in us and all of us more or less have been under the power of law but God raises no question on that ground. He presents Himself to man in Christ raised from the dead, i.e., on the ground of resurrection and raises no question on that ground. He presents Himself on the ground of grace when everything, sin and flesh, have been removed from before Him. It is a wonderful thing for God to have come in in grace and that is the first impression He makes. Christ has come in and everything contrary to Himself has been removed from under His eyes. He has now nothing to say to sin and flesh. He presents the order to form us in the life of Christ. There could be only one Man before God and that Man is Christ — the last Adam — the quickening Spirit. I only say that much as to the first part of the knowledge of God, that is grace.

When I come to the next .chapters — 9, 10 and 11 — I find God makes Himself known in faithfulness. You get the dealings of God dispensationally and the restoration of Israel. I do not touch on that, I only refer to them as bringing out the great principles of light and the faithfulness of God. In making Himself known on the ground of the resurrection of Christ apart from sin and the flesh I get grace. In the next part, the dispensational part, I get the sense of His faithfulness. I think it is that light by which we are formed. And now the apostle says, “I beseech you ^[p. 270] therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies”, etc. (Romans 12:1,2). Just one word let me say in regard to the beginning of this chapter. Two principles come out — the will of God and gift. These two points I touch upon for a moment, I can understand the will of God being proved in Christ. Christ has been here and we are set here really formed by the light of God in the knowledge of His grace and faithfulness. We are set here in the pathway of Christ. The will of God has been set forth in perfection in Christ and now the will of God is the pathway for us. Thank God it is not an untrodden pathway! When the Lord was here the pathway was untrodden. He was the beginning and the completion of faith. No one had trodden it before Him. Now we are set here to prove what is that good and acceptable will of God. Beloved friends, what a place we are in here! We are set here really to follow Christ in the fulness of divine light. Do you think you could follow Christ if your soul was not in the fulness of divine light? If it is in that light then you can follow the path He has trodden and that is God’s will.

Now the next point I want to come to for a moment is gift. Gift I understand to be that in which we can help man, by which we can be beneficial to man down here. When Christ ascended on high He had led captivity captive and gave gifts to man. Gift is that by which we can be beneficial to man according to God. Philanthropy is not a gift. You may do a great deal to benefit man as a philanthropist but not perhaps according to God. Gift, I repeat, is that by which I am enabled to be beneficial to man but according to God. What I argue from that is that every gift must be the expression of Christ. If gift is that which enables me to be beneficial to man it must be according to Christ. It was the case when He was here upon earth. “Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him” (Acts 10:38) and every gift He has given is now the impression of Himself and also the expression of Himself. I should say that He forms gift by the impression of Himself. It is very important to bear in mind what we are left here for. We are left here for the will of God, to be the expression of what is beneficial to man. We are here by the will of God and by that will we are allowed to enjoy the gifts and mercies God has provided for His creatures here. By sin we have forfeited all title to anything but by the will of God and in the light of His grace we are allowed to enjoy His benefits for the creature down here. In that sense marriage and other things come in. But I must just say in conclusion there is a better thing and that is not to marry at all. But if a man consents to marriage he must be content to accept the fact that it will be God’s discipline to him. Many of us have proved it. As a christian if you form that tie you must accept the fact that God will use the tie in discipline. If it is in your mind to enter the tie you must accept the discipline. I allow the husband and wife may be great helps to each other in divine things; they can afford mutual support and the tie may be turned to the furtherance of God’s interests down here. But you cannot escape the discipline. I speak as one who has had experience of it. We have many of us had this experience. I do not speak as a theorist and that is my conclusion — you must accept the discipline.

But do remember there are two first principles. I feel it is such an immensely important matter, not merely to have a glimpse of that light but that my heart may be pervaded by that light in which God has been pleased to shine out to us. Then we can be here for God’s will and endowed with gift it may be, I may be beneficial to man according to God.

I only just say these things with the desire that the thought may be helpful to our brother and sister. I ^[p. 272] truly desire that our brother may be more devoted to the service of the Lord and that this tie may help him in that service, though that tie itself may be and must be the means of discipline. There is no tie down here that does not call for patience and grace and forbearance. Affection may be there and very real affection, too, but at the same time comes the call for patience and forbearance with one another.

All these things have part in God’s discipline for us, let us remember, and in our moral education down here.