FEAR NOT, FAINT NOT, FAIL NOT

J. G. Chalmers

Luke 12: 28–32; 18: 1; 22: 31, 32

The Lord Jesus would speak to us tonight from His own words. We live in a day when what is material occupies a large place in the minds and lives of men, when men are getting very anxious and fearful at the trend of things publicly, but the Lord Jesus would say to our hearts now, “Be not in anxiety ... your Father knows that ye have need of these things”. Let us each challenge our hearts as to whether we have implicit confidence in our Father to see us through in regard to our temporal needs.

There are far greater things to occupy our attention—spiritual, heavenly, eternal things. The Lord Jesus says here, “Seek his kingdom”. Matthew, in his account, adds the word “first”—“Seek ye first” (Matthew 6: 33), impressing us with what is to have prime place with us.

Then, in our scripture, He says, “Fear not, little flock”. This is how the Lord regards those who are attached to Him in the midst of the world (see footnote to verse 32 in N.T.), and He would comfort and assure them. Then, “It has been the good pleasure of your Father to give you the kingdom”. The good pleasure of the Father!—wonderful! Let the glory of that come home to our souls.

We had a touch on Lord’s day as to what is revealed to babes; “Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight”, Matthew 11: 26. “Good pleasure” and “well-pleasing”—what touches for our souls! There would be a moral link between the “babes” and the “little flock”, and the Lord Jesus would impress upon us that the Father has great delight in giving things to such. Here it is the kingdom, but other scriptures show us that He gives much more, such as “all things” (Romans 8: 32) and “every spiritual blessing”, Ephesians 1: 3. Let us then seek to apprehend increasingly by faith those things that the Father has given us in His good pleasure, and draw upon the help of the Holy Spirit to make them good in our souls.

The purport of the parable in Luke 18 is that we should always pray and not faint. We are in a very testing time, with much pressure on every hand, and if that occupies us unduly we shall get downcast, be overwhelmed, and faint. Well, beloved brethren, the Lord does not want us to faint so He exhorts us to pray always. He speaks in verse 7 of God’s elect crying to Him day and night, a most touching reference to the deep feelings of the faithful remnant of the Jews as they go through the period of unprecedented suffering, their faith being tried as they await God’s intervention. In our day things publicly will get worse and worse, the faith and courage of the saints will be severely tried, but what a resource we have in prayer!—an outlet from all that is around, a blessed inlet to the presence of God, where we can unburden our hearts and make our requests known to One who is fully sympathetic and understanding. As we do this, God fills our hearts with a sense of peace, the peace of God, and turns our thoughts to the glorious Man in His presence, the Man Christ Jesus, in whom all His thoughts are immutably secured. Thus we are strengthened inwardly—“They that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their strength”, Isaiah 40: 31. Let us then be persons characterised by prayer so that we can go onward and forward in the testimonial position in moral triumph and superiority.

Lastly, in Luke 22 we have a touching reference to the priestly service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Satan has demanded to have all the disciples; he is after the wheat, what has cost the Lord Jesus so much and is precious to Him. The Lord Jesus has every right to the wheat—Satan has none whatever—his objective is to deprive God of His pleasure in His saints and to obliterate the testimony. But he will not succeed. Indeed, the Lord in using the word “brethren” in this verse, “confirm thy brethren”, indicates to us that what is collective will go right through, and we can be assured that the service of God will be sustained assembly-wise in the power of the Holy Spirit right to the end of the dispensation. But any one of us might fail, for Satan studies each one of us to exploit the tendencies of our flesh to bring us down.

Let us then have a thorough judgment of the flesh, and have no confidence in the flesh. We would gather from the Lord Jesus praying for Peter that He intercedes for each one of us individually. What a High Priest we have, ever living to make intercession for us! His desire is that we might be inwardly strengthened by faith and be in moral power in the testimony. In praying for Peter, the Lord Jesus is a Model for us, for if we see any brother or sister growing cold in their affections and inclined to turn back, we can render them a great service in praying for them. We want all the brethren to be preserved livingly in the testimony of our Lord and in the service of God. All we have now is the rest of our time and we can, like Peter, use it rightly to confirm and comfort each other. May we each be encouraged then by these touches from Christ—fear not; faint not; fail not; for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Lossiemouth
28 June 1977