WORK

Ron Plant

Mark 13: 31-36; Nehemiah 4: 7-11, 21; Haggai 1: 3-9; Acts 15: 36-41; 16: 1-3

The hymn that we began with (No.367) I am sure contains words that touch the heart of all of us here:

'I am not told to labour

To put away my sin;'

It is part of the very basis, beloved brethren, of our blessing. Nothing we could do, nothing we could achieve, nothing we could offer, could ever give us a standing and place before God. Nothing in my history, nothing in my abilities, could mend, bridge or remove the distance that sin had brought in.

'So foolish, weak, and helpless,

I never could begin'.

I suppose all of us here know the stirring of conscience within, and have realised the helplessness of man away from God as to his condition and not able to lift a hand to help yourself,

'But blessed truth - I know it –

Though ruined by the fall,

Christ for my soul hath suffered,

Yes, Christ has done it all!'

Wonderful, precious truth! Nothing I could ever do, even as a believer, be I the most thankful, the most spiritual person, will ever give me a greater place before God than I have in His purpose. In His sovereign mercy I am secured for ever, through the work of Jesus, for time and for eternity, with nothing that I have contributed; everything because of what Jesus has done, 'Yes, Christ has done it all!'

What I wanted to speak about was work, but first I thought we should start with this vital truth, that my eternal salvation and my standing before God is entirely and wholly based on the work of Another. It is a precious thing that when God sees me He sees Christ. How thankful we can be for that because some days we may be up and some days down. Some years of our lives have been very dull spiritually and perhaps there may be persons here who are thankful this afternoon that they are not at this moment having to stand before God in their own faithfulness. Though we may fail on the line of faithfulness He abides faithful. What a wonderful thing! I am secured for ever beloved brethren.

Yet I wanted to speak about work, because as persons who have been secured in sue a way, who appreciate what it is to be taken up in so reign mercy by God through our Lord Jesus Christ, surely we would then seek to be here in His testimony and for His pleasure, and this involves that we take up His work. So I refer to this first scripture which we referred to earlier: "having ... given to his bondmen the authority and to each one his work". It refers to His absence - "for ye do not know when the time is: it is as a man gone out of the country, having left his house and given to his bondmen the authority". The authority is not given to a hierarchy, the authority is not given to a clergy, it is not given to persons, we may say, who are able by study or application to receive a position or an ordination from men. The scripture does not say He has put the authority there, He gives to His bondmen the authority. Every one of us here, we may say, is to come into that category of the bondman. So there is authority from God "and to each one his work". That is what I wanted to speak about. Work is not something to be ashamed of, we need to work. I make a plea to the brethren, to all of us, young and old, that we might work and work hard at the present time; that we might seek to be with God in what He is doing, to sow and to toil and to work in relation to the things that are precious to Him with all the strength we have. Whatever you find to do, you do it. "To each one his work": that means everyone in this room, all of us; every one has something to do, every one has been given a measure of faith. Some of us are good at starting jobs and not finishing them; and even starting them is not so easy sometimes. But it is a great thing if we can take in this thought of working amongst the saints. The Lord says, 'The fields are white to harvest but the workmen are few', (see Luke 10: 2, John 4: 35). That is true today. Some things in the Scriptures are said to be few, workmen is one of them. "The workmen are few" (Matt. 9:37) are the Lord's own words. Another thing that is few, according to Paul, is fathers - "not many fathers", 1 Cor 4: 15. But to work, to take up something and not lay it down - that is the thing. You do not take something up and then lay it down again, as Mr Carter's poem speaks of taking up his cross:

'Nor let me lay it down;

Thy work in me complete:

Then for the cross give me the crown,

To cast before Thy feet'.

That would be a right exercise. I remember once serving at a meeting like this and feeling that perhaps it was a poor service rendered, and expressing this thought to someone who said to me, 'Never mind what you feel, do the work'. Let us do the work, that is an important word for us. Sometimes you younger men may preach and you may feel you are struggling a bit; and perhaps think you should not preach any more. You do the work. You may try to do something amongst God's people and feel you are not getting any appreciation for it, and sometimes you will not. But do the work, because you are doing it for Him. That is a most important thing, beloved. There is a great deal to be done at the present time, beloved brethren; "to each one his work": that we can all take up. We are not all the same, we are not all able to express ourselves very well perhaps, but there is something we all can do, and thank God, there is much that the saints can do. But sometimes you just feel disheartened and discouraged. I would like to encourage all here today to take up the work and not to lay it down. It is all to be for Christ.

I read these three other scriptures because they all represented times when the work had begun and stopped, and I wanted to use them just to encourage us to carry on with it, not to look for glamorous things or for great feats, not to seek great exploits, but the work is to be done. There are things to be done amongst the saints, one and another to be encouraged, and there is teaching and all sorts of practical things to be done. There are things to be done for the Master.

Nehemiah is a very fine book; we have often used it before. It speaks about a day like ours, a day of recovery. As we have been taught, it relates mainly to what is external. The book of Ezra, which comes before this, speaks of when the people came back from Babylon and captivity and built the altar at Jerusalem. They were moved in their affections to come back, and they rebuilt the altar amongst the ruins. Then Nehemiah comes later and he builds the wall of the city. I wonder, beloved brethren, if we are all occupied in that. In a certain way the experience of rebuilding this wall is known over and over again, as the practical exercises of fellowship are experienced amongst the saints. Nehemiah was a man who, in his job as the king's cup-bearer, became aware of the sadness of the situation at Jerusalem, the ruin and the breakdown that had come in. And the king said, "Why is thy face sad ...?", Neh 2: 2. It was the first time, he said, that he had ever been sad in his presence. Now there comes with all of us a first time in our history when we experience real sadness at what enters into the public history of the church. Perhaps with some this is a time like that. Nehemiah had an experience like that. Do not let it just stay as that but see what you find in a man like Nehemiah who set himself in relation to his God to go and rebuild those walls, to go and do something as to the ruin of and shame of Jerusalem, and he goes - you will remember in the history - he goes and sees for himself. It is not something you pick up exactly by talking about it to others. He goes and sees for himself, and he arrives on his beast and goes around the ruins until he comes to a place where it is said, "there was no place for the beast under me to pass" (Neh 2: 14). How sad, beloved brethren, the awful breakdown in Christendom. How sad the breakdown amongst brethren. There are places today where we cannot pass. There are places in the ruins where we cannot go, there are persons whom we know and love, whom we have broken bread with, and yet we have no access to them. There are situations where the link that we have in the Spirit is interrupted. Nehemiah went round the broken walls of Jerusalem, and he felt that he had come to that point. Oh, beloved brethren, would to God that we could yet see an end to the sorrow that there is no place to pass. I wonder what God will yet do in this day in which we are. We have seen recovery of some of our beloved brethren, we thank God for it; I would love to see them all, I am sure we all would. Nehemiah was a man like that. He was going to toil and work despite all kinds of things that come in to discourage them to rebuild the wall. Others had gone with him; they may speak of believers walking here at the present time in fellowship together in relation to the Lord Jesus, and working at the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. It is not exploits but being willing to take up any kind of work. Here even the goldsmiths were building the wall, all these people were building together. Some of them had so much heart and love for it they built two pieces: think of that! (see chap 3: 19,21,24). I wonder if you could do that, beloved, build another piece. Some of our older brethren have been around a long time; they have built a piece but now they are building another piece. I remember some of the older brethren here when I was just a boy; these brethren were building their piece, and now they are building another piece. That is very fine. And there were those outside in Nehemiah's day who were mocking them. Do not let mockery stop you building the wall. You may remember they said, even if a fox went up it would knock it down. People have said that, they have said it even about the brethren in my day, 'It will not last, just give it a few years and it will be gone'. Well, it is through no merit of ours that everything has not gone, beloved brethren, no merit of ours, but the Lord has been very good to His people. Perhaps the voices of the mockers have stopped for the present time; they brought in hindrances here so that the people's strength was sapped, and so on. In another place there was an attack from within because in chapter 5 they started to make money out of their brethren. Sometimes the attacks come from within, not from without. The enemy would use that to stop the work. Then they said, Come down to the plain of Ono and let us talk it out down there (see chap 6: 2). Come down to a lower level and let us talk about things and we can resolve them. Then finally they said what they were doing was rebellion, and so on. All these things the devil will use to stop the work. But they went on in perseverance and faithfulness - that is what marks the Book of Nehemiah - perseverance.

I refer particularly to this point where such was the attack of the enemy from without when they were working, seeking to complete the wall, that the people said, "The strength of the bearers of burdens faileth, and there is much rubbish". The work had stopped because the rubbish was not being cleared away. It is a very important thing, beloved brethren, if the work is to go on that the rubbish is cleared away. We often go round our cities and places and see examples where the rubbish is left; and sometimes in a spiritual sense rubbish is left. If the work is to continue, if we are to be helped in the work, clear the rubbish away, beloved, get it out of the way. The enemy has done his work if by occupying us with problems, difficulties, hindrances amongst the brethren, all this kind of things, the work has stopped. But Nehemiah is not satisfied with that. He arranges for them to have their sword and their trowel - you know the history - and through perseverance the work goes on. Let it go on, beloved brethren! I read that verse - lovely is it not? - "And we laboured in the work ... from the rising of the dawn till the stars appeared". May we be helped in that, beloved brethren, to carry on working. You may say, 'It is not very glamorous in our place, just a few of us and it is hard work sometimes. Sometimes we do not understand all the Scriptures and sometimes we have difficulty with the interpretation'. Do the work, beloved brethren, keep on working, keep on toiling amongst the saints. Young people, keep working at it, keep seeking to work in relation to what is precious to God. You will find there is a great blessing in it.

I read in Haggai, which again is a well known scripture. It seems from the history that they had started to build the house and then the work had stopped, and it may be according to the books, it had stopped for fifteen years . They had started to live in their own things, to build their own lives, their own interests, all of which had superseded what was precious. The prophet here indicates what the people said: "The time is not come, the time that Jehovah's house should be built". They had come back from the captivity and were building His house, but it was very small relatively compared to the glory of what had been there before. Jehovah says, "The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former" (Hag 2: 9), but in the first chapter they looked at what they were doing, and would recall the times when things were more glorious in Israel's history; they would have looked at it and thought, how sad it all is. I believe one of the reasons the work had stopped here, beloved brethren, was a lack of vision. Scripture says "Where there is no vision the people cast off restraint", Prov 29: 18. There is a great need for vision amongst the saints, a great need for vision. There is a need for you to lift your eyes and thoughts away from the smallness of the surroundings and try and get some impression of the vastness of what God is doing. There is not one thing that God has begun where there will not be a full answer to Himself, not one thing. There is not one person in whom the Spirit has begun His word where it will not be completed in its glory. I would that I had more vision. Do you have that, beloved? Ask God to help you to have vision as amongst His people. "Where there is no vision the people cast off restraint", you will seek your life in other things. I wonder if Christ is everything to us. I would that I knew more about total occupation with Christ. We were having at meetings in London, ''to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings", Phil. 3: 10. The outlook of Paul’s life was the greatness of Christ, he was totally absorbed with the greatness of Christ. Would that there was more vision with us, beloved. I love to read those Old Testament scriptures and glimpse the glory of what God was doing amongst His people. They were a people that God identified Himself with, and every day in the wilderness there was the pillar of cloud above them, the divine presence was there, and as the darkness fell, the pillar of fire by night. Think of those things! In the New Testament Paul says they had the promises, God was with them, identified with them. And now we have the divine commitment to what is coming to light in this dispensation; with the formation of one family in this day in which we are. I think we may be short of vision. These people here had lost vision, I am sure they had, and it says, "Consider your ways". Is there anyone here dissatisfied with their life spiritually? "Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but are not satisfied; ye drink, but are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages for a bag with holes". It is very descriptive, is it not, of a dissatisfied life? Perhaps it is time for us to consider our ways, to ask ourselves where are we going, what are we doing? Where is my life spiritually? Where am I in relation to Christ? How much time do I spend in relation to Him? I doubt whether some of us go as far even as Jacob who offered God ten per cent, beloved brethren. I think many of us would be very challenged by ten per cent for God; ten percent of your time, two and a half hours a day; ten per cent of your affections. Well, these are very real things, are they not? "Consider your ways". The time had come that the work was to go on in God's house. The remarkable thing here, as is often said, is that within less than a month they were all working again. Oh, beloved, what a thing it would be if you and I were back in the work inside month. They were working again and were going the mountain to get the wood, getting material, something that is like Christ, bringing it in and building it into the house. It means you need to go uphill. It is not easy to go uphill. You may say it is difficult to get things moving in our localities. Young people here, it is time for us to take our full part in it. Our careers are important, many things are important, but put everything into the house of God, do that first. I am making a plea today, you understand, beloved brethren, I am making a plea that we do not, through a lack of being ready to work, let things, as far as we are concerned, slip away. Do not let it happen, beloved brethren. Young people, you do your part, take up your place in your local meeting, and though what you can do may seem small to you, it is precious to Christ. Put your strength in in relation to it and see how it fits in the great pattern of what He is doing and work and work and work that there might be more for Christ in our places. This is a simple word, I realise that, but I think it is a day for work, a day for workmen. Timothy says, "a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth", 2 Tim 2: 15. It may sound simple but actually it is very difficult to cut a straight line, but it gives some idea of a workman not to be ashamed. Lay it all out before the Lord, tell Him what you have tried to do. The Lord prophetically says, "I am a tiller of the ground", Zech 13: 5. Mr Darby used those words, did he not? He made nothing of himself and yet he worked and toiled for all those years, all those books, all those writings, the hymns, the travels, all those things. We are not all able for that but what a thing, to take up the work and not to lay it down. Paul at the end of his life says, "For I am already being poured out, and the time of my release is come". He had a sense that he had finished the race.

So finally in Acts, "Paul said to Barnabas, Let us return now and visit the brethren in every city where we have announced the word of the Lord ... And Barnabas proposed to take with them John also, called Mark; but Paul thought it not well to take with them him who had abandoned them, going back from Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work". What a thing that was! How much sorrow it brought in. It brought in a parting of the ways here between Paul and Barnabas, it resulted in the loss to the testimony for the time being of a very valuable man, Barnabas, a good man. He was recovered later, we are thankful for at, but it says of John Mark that he "had abandoned the, going back from Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work". Well, I just leave that with the brethren. We might perhaps think about that. He had not given up Christ, he had not in the gospel, he had not given up the preciousness, you may say, of what he held, but he went back from the work. It was hard, and here Paul was going to encourage the saints, he was, he going to see how they were getting on and that is something we all can take up. Let us not, any one of us beloved brethren, go back from the work, but let us take that word in the gospel that I first read, ''to each one his work". We have it. Let us consider our ways and see if there is anything that we need to attend to in relation to working for Christ in the present time. For His Name's sake.

 

SUNBURY

16 April 1994