THE MATURITY OF THE WORK OF GOD IN OUR SOULS

J. T. Brown

Numbers 23: 18 (from “rise up”)–23

I have been thinking, beloved brethren, since we came together, and listened to the two words which have gone before, of the maturity of the work of God. I am impressed that God is doing great things at the present time in the hearts and souls of men; He is doing them in persons like you and me. I think this is a very interesting section of Scripture, because these words were written by a man who was unspiritual; he was hired to curse the people of God, taken on by Balak with that express purpose, and yet he has to say, “Behold, I have received mission to bless; and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it”. He brings out early in this parable the greatness of God’s mission, that He should bless men. That is God’s great desire at the present time, that He should bless. The time when God will curse men will come, but at this present time He is blessing. He is blessing men on account of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it says, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither a son of man, that he should repent. Shall he say and not do? and shall he speak and not make it good?”. What God has purposed to do, He will do. Job came to that in his own personal history, when he said, “thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”, Job 42: 2. That is so, and I think it is something each one of us needs to come to in our own personal experience with God, that what God has set out to do He will complete. Paul says, “he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”, Philippians 1: 6. God desires to bless us, and He blesses us in Christ.

Then it goes on to say, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen wrong in Israel”. That seems a strange thing to say, in the light of Jacob’s history, the way in which day by day in his responsible life he deceived; characteristically he was a deceiver; he deceived his father, he deceived his brother, he deceived his uncle; his whole life appeared to be one of deception, and yet in spite of that, it says, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen wrong in Israel”.

How can that be? If you take a look at Jacob’s history, how awful it was; if you take a look at your own personal history, you say how awful it has been; how we have continued on the line of deception, how we have continued on the line of the flesh. Yet it says, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen wrong in Israel”. That is, God looks at us, not from the standpoint of what we are responsibly, but rather from the standpoint of His own personal work in our souls. What He sees is Christ, “they are not of the world, as I am not of the world”, John 17: 14. We have been sanctified by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has done that, and He has done it righteously on account of the way Christ has gone. So He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob—He looks at us from the standpoint of His own personal work in our souls “neither hath he seen wrong in Israel; Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is in his midst”. I think we know something of the triumph of divine grace, we know something of the shout of a king being in our midst. That is that Christ has the supreme place in the midst of His own as He comes in amongst us. How wonderful that is to give Christ the supreme place in our midst!

Then it says, “God brought him out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a buffalo”. Think of the way that God has brought us. Then it says, “For there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel. What hath God wrought!” I believe, beloved brethren, if God is arriving at these heavenly features in any one of us it is on account of His own activities through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. “At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!”. I think that has been said to be the conciliation of God’s purpose and His ways. It is good to see what we are in the light of the purpose of God. So that “it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!” What we are in responsibility is made equivalent to what we are in divine purpose. God can do that, and He can do it righteously, on the basis of the finished work of Jesus. There is the work of the Holy Spirit in the souls of believers. If any one of us has been taken up and brought into blessing, there is that work in our souls and God will complete it. The completion of the work of God in our souls involves a display of Christ in our lives in the area of responsibility. The hymn-writer speaks of guiding and leading a heavenly people home. I believe God will have a heavenly testimony here on earth before the church is taken to be with Christ. May these things encourage our hearts, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
7 January 1997