“AND THOU SHALT GLORIFY ME”
J. C. Evershed
Psalm 50: heading, 14, 15; 2 Peter 1: 1–4
I want to speak a little, dear brethren, about the matters of deliverance and escape which come into these scriptures I have read, and also the way in which every experience that we have is intended to enrich the divine system. Not of course that this system is in need of enrichment in one way since it is ample and sufficient in itself. But as in the sphere of testimony, our experiences with God are intended to help us to contribute to it by way of thanksgiving and praise and thus to glorify God. It would not be difficult to see the distinction between deliverance and escape; the one is what is done for us, the other is what we do for ourselves.
We will first notice verse 14 of the psalm which gives us a link with the previous meeting as to what is for God. The writer says, “Offer unto God thanksgiving”. He would look for this by way of sacrifice. It is to be the first thing with us to do this, and not only for temporal things and mercies. We can give thanks that we have been brought up in a christian household where the testimony is valued, for having the Scriptures, and for the various blessings that we have. The apostle wrote to the Ephesians of God, “who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” (Ephesians l: 3). Not just all blessing, but every distinct blessing. Thus we can perform our vows to the Most High. Let us remind ourselves, and the young people especially, that God sets great store upon absolute committal
to Him and His interests. He will see to it that there is all that is needed in the testimony, for He is the Most High, known to us in this way as well as others (see Acts 7: 48). We are to perform our vows to Him. It is not that we make a certain vow and are upset if we are not able to keep it, or congratulate ourselves if we do keep it. What is meant is rather devotedness at all costs of the heart to the interests of God in this scene, and He sets great value on it.
Then it says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee”. It might not be actual crises in outward things that this would point to, but rather I think to what we call soul experience. The young people need to take the things of life in a more purposeful way, recognising that the Lord is dealing with them. He allows circumstances, words of ministry, happenings in the household, blessings and favours from heaven, to come to them that they may be in exercise in their souls towards Him. Evidently there is in the psalmist’s mind great scope for deliverance and as a consequence that “Thou shalt glorify me”.
If you were able to take a royal letter and liberate righteously someone in prison, would not that be a fine thing? That person would be set free by the truth. But supposing the Queen were to send the Prince of Wales personally, that person would be set free by the son. It shows the distinction, that God would not only have the believer absolutely set free by the truth, but to know it as a personal matter between himself and the Lord. The man in John 9
was set free by the truth when he arrived at knowing one thing, that he was blind before whereas now he saw. But it was when the Lord Jesus found him outside and spoke to him that he was really set free by the Son. He was able to worship Him and bring his tribute, so
that it is not merely a matter of deliverance as a doctrine but of knowing the Deliverer Himself, “Jesus, our deliverer”, 1 Thessalonians 1: 10.
There are three men mentioned in Ezekiel 14 in connection with the matter of deliverance.
Noah, Daniel, and Job. They would not have been able to free anyone else, but they knew what freedom was themselves. Noah, particularly, knew deliverance from judgment. If there is anyone here who is unconverted, you need to know what this is. All around Noah was judgment. We need constantly to be aware that God has saved the believer by a salvation which should insulate us entirely from the world-system that is under judgment, though we have to do with it. A young man in London told us once that he wished to go out of fellowship so as to have a wider path. We went to see him and told him that he made us think of someone in the ark who wished to be thrown out for a swim. You cannot think what the consequences of it would be. Well, such is the world around us morally as under condemnation. You may say that it goes on much as it always did. That may appear so, but it is under judgment nevertheless. It is in His longsuffering and mercy that God has not yet brought in the judgment in actual fact. He is not willing that any should perish.
Then you would need deliverance from Satan’s present power as well. There were those in bondage in Egypt even though they were under shelter of the blood from judgment. They were not free from Pharaoh’s power until they went through the Red Sea with walls of water on either side of them. The bearing of the death of Jesus on your behalf delivers entirely from the known power of Satan and of sin. Looking back, the Israelites minimised what that deliverance was, they tended to forget, and we are often like that. We have to have refresher courses in these matters, hence the ministry given to us often dwells on these elementary and basic matters in order that we might deepen in the intensity of soul experience. What our deliverance has meant for Jesus! The Israelites, though in fear, went through the Red Sea in perfect order by faith. It is the only thing said of them that they did, as a whole, by faith. Thank God for giving us faith that we may enjoy deliverance from sin and from Satan’s power—it is through seeing that in Christ having died we have died as well. As to deliverance from law, anyone who has put himself under it will know how it leads to disappointment. It leads to the cry in Romans 7—“Who shall deliver me out of this body of death?” (Romans 7: 24), but then there is the tribute—“I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (verse 25).
Then there is deliverance from the world system. Daniel could say much about this in its various forms. By purpose of heart he became free of the whole system of unholy culture that was built up in Babylon where his lot was cast. He would not take the food of idolatry that was offered to him. I feel, dear brethren, that we all need to set our hearts more in the true direction, as it were to have our compass thoroughly adjusted and sail according to it. Then Daniel was delivered from the world of difficulties by prayer. When the question came that all the wise men had to be slain (Daniel 2: 13), he and his companions would suffer as well.
That was a solemn trial to be in! But he called upon the prayers of his companions that God would be merciful and show him Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in order that not only their own lives might be preserved but also those of others. How good God is that if we know deliverance we can be a help to others.
Then there was the furnace. I know that it was the three companions there, but they followed the same principle in that they yielded themselves to God and their bodies a living sacrifice and were freed from the whole world of fear. I feel very much the bearing of fear upon us in the testimony. Even amongst ourselves we have known what it has been as a power working against peace and restfulness. God’s thought is that we should be delivered by being devoted entirely to Him, having placed our bodies on the altar. Later, Daniel was freed from the world of ambition as well. When there was the opportunity of his being loaded with benefits by Belshazzar, he said in effect, ‘Let the gifts be to another, but I will read the writing’. He was ready to be of service, but was not caught in the snare of ambition.
Then Job had to know what it was to be delivered from self. He was a man to whom God was looking for His tribute, but he delayed payment. He is an example of one who in the end glorified God but first had to be set free from self—not the bad self so much as the ‘good’
self. God was working with him. He was empowered by God to maintain his integrity all through, but had to come to an end of self. It says that “Jehovah accepted Job” (Job 42: 9) when the burnt offerings were made and he prayed for his friends.
Well, deliverance is one side of the truth, the other is to make our escape. Peter speaks of
“having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust”. This epistle from which we have read is especially interesting. It is not written to any individual or class of persons, excepting that it is to “them that have received like precious faith” with the apostle and others. You can put yourself in there, for you have received precious faith. Thank God for that; and you have
received it through the righteousness of God, so that it can never be taken away. God has a direct word for you as if you had received this letter in the post, a message of great importance.
Now I suppose that one danger in escaping is that you might get caught again. Once you are delivered from a thing, though you may become hazy as to the doctrine or the enjoyment of it, yet as a thing accomplished for you it can never be changed because God has done it for you; “Jesus, our deliverer”, 1 Thessalonians 1: 10. But escaping has its own exercises because you might be entangled with the same things again. The apostle warns of that (2
Peter 2: 22). But to escape shows that you have a horror of being detained in any evil that you might be in, and one great way is to flee. You have power to do this. “Youthful lusts flee”, the apostle says in 2 Timothy 2: 22. That is not only things that persons with natural conscience speak of as evil or wicked, but would extend to desiring things that are not in God’s mind for us. We are to flee from those, but there is the power of attraction as well as that of compulsion. You are not only fleeing from something but have something of God to which to escape—“Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. Thank God that there are those that are calling on the Lord, not only on His name but on Him personally, with whom we can follow these things.
We read of people who escape by going underground. The believer is able to do that too. In fact that is what baptism is—going under water in actual fact. The understanding of it is really that you go out of sight by being baptised to Another, even Christ Jesus. It says of the Israelites that they “were baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea”, 1 Corinthians 10: 2. The cloud comes first there. The blessing set before them was one thing, but they were baptised in the sea as well, so that they really escaped from Egypt by being identified with Moses. Now the Lord Jesus has been buried, and His burial was on behalf of each one of us, so that for one thing we make our escape from the world system by going out of sight. Paul, you remember, says that he escaped from one who would have laid hands on him. He was let down in a basket, which some say was the kind of thing in which the dead bodies were taken out of the city (see 2 Corinthians 11: 33). No doubt he was gently let down by the brethren but nevertheless there was the humiliating side of it. So it was by accepting death really that he escaped the hands of one who would have bound him. Do not let us ignore the fact that there is an enemy, not only of our souls personally, but of the whole testimony of God here, who is concerned to capture us. It is not that we have to die to sin, but we have to reckon ourselves already dead to it and maintain the reckoning and so keep our freedom.
I mentioned that by our experiences we are enabled to enrich the whole divine system. What I mean by the divine system here is that, as in the world there are forms of government, so in God’s world there is government, not a democracy but a real kingdom, so different morally from the world’s systems. And God’s government is a very real thing which works always for good for those who desire good, but is against those who work evil. The principle of it can be seen in the fact that if we sow to the flesh we reap corruption (see Galatians 6: 8). If we sow to the Spirit we reap a crop to eternal life, making it attractive to us and enriching the system.
Then, just as the world has welfare systems, we find that God has one. We have read about it in the Epistle of Peter—“His divine power has given to us all things which relate to life and godliness”. If that is not a welfare system I do not know what is! It does not cost us anything but is provided freely in order that believers might in their turn support God’s interests here.
He has a commercial system as well. According to the parable, when the high-born man went away he gave to his own bondmen some money and said, “Trade while I am coming”. Luke 19: 13. You will remember that the bondmen came to their lord and brought their gains with them, saying for instance, “Thy mina has produced ten minas”. In other words, they were not just taking the benefit of their exchange and commerce to themselves, but they were enriching their lord’s possession. We engage in trade, I suppose, by conversation with one another and in reading meetings. Indeed all our gatherings have an element of the trading floor, where there is exchange and profit. As has often been said, if one exchanges impressions of Christ with another believer both are doubly well off. And so it goes on, and the progression increases so that there is a great enrichment.
There is one great difference between the world’s sphere and God’s. The world has an entertainment system, which God does not have. What he has in its place is one of joy, which is far greater. We do not come to meetings to be entertained but that we might rejoice together in the things that God has given us. We bring the whole tithe into the treasury in order that we might know the heavens opened and a blessing poured out upon us (see Malachi 3: 10).
There is a further way, dear brethren, in which we can cause enrichment. We were reading elsewhere about the trees in Jotham’s parable (see Judges 9). They contributed to the divine system by just being what they were where they were. The olive-tree would bear its fatness, and do just what it was intended to do. The fig-tree would produce its sweetness and the vine its wine. They benefited “God and man”. It shows that the divine system really includes man—God and man together. I think that it is a wonderful thing to think of. Not only is there a tribute going up to God, and a blessing coming down from Him, but there is the sense of being associated with Him in what He is doing and in all His thoughts, so that we are enabled where we are placed to contribute spirituality, sweetness and joy—“Thou shalt glorify me”.
Well, these thoughts are put forward feebly, dear brethren, but I think there is much in them in order that we might the better be able to add to the prosperity of the divine system as we know it here. May the Lord bless the word for His name’s sake.
Address at Cardiff
22 September 1979