WOULD YOU CROSS THE ROAD FOR A MILLION POUNDS?
Jim Gray
I have no intention of making any indictments, but to speak about the attractiveness of Christianity and the attractiveness of having a Father and being sons and daughters to that Father. The Corinthian saints were Greeks, and they had been mainly pagan peoples, heathen peoples. They did not own God in creation; they worshipped other gods, material gods, gods of the air, and made the sun a god and the moon a god and other created spheres gods. The scripture says “gods many, and lords many”, 1 Cor 8: 5. When Paul came into Corinth, the Lord Jesus indicated to him that he had much people in that city. He was going to find them by the gospel, just the way He found you and me: He found us in the world, with thoughts and desires after the world, and He found us through the glad tidings. He has delivered us, brought us out, washed us from our sins in His blood and given us the gift of the Holy Spirit. He did that for these Corinthians saints too. In Corinth, as we have often said and been told, there were three meeting places: there was the pagan temple; there was the Jewish synagogue; and there was the meeting place of Christians. The pagan temple in the worldly ways it had was a place of moral corruption and immorality. The Jewish synagogue was not that. They worshipped publicly Jehovah of the Old Testament; they had a relationship with God. Of course, matters had changed when Christ died and was raised but I am not touching on that just at the moment. If you went along to the Jewish synagogue concerned about your sins, they would tell you one thing: sins can be atoned for here through the two scapegoats of Leviticus 16 and your sins can be forgiven you for one year. How would you like that, to be told your sins could be forgiven you for one year? That is the Jewish synagogue. Come into the Christian meeting house, they will tell you your sins can be forgiven you for all eternity; no shortcomings here! The Lord Jesus had died; His blood had been shed; atonement had been made for sins. Is that not wonderful, that you come along to a meeting like this and you can be blessed and your sins can be forgiven? God says in the scriptures, “Their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more”, Heb 10: 17.
Then the Corinthians had some other things to learn about the world. They were walking in the world. We are still walking in the world; we earn our daily bread; we need to be cared for; we need to have shelter above our heads, a house to live in and a bed to go to. It is all part of life here, but there is a difference now. You are in the world, the same world you were in before you were converted, but before you were converted you belonged to that world, your tastes were in that world, your thoughts were in that world, your way of life was the same as that of men and women around you. When you are converted, you are changed. The divine thought is that we should not remain part of that world. There is a cost to Christianity. The greatest cost was Christ’s cost, the preciousness of His blood, the laying down of His life, but to the believer in the Lord Jesus there is a cost to be for the Lord Jesus here, to be faithful to Him here. He was cast out; He was rejected; He was put on a cross. They cried, “We will not that this man should reign over us”, Luke 19: 14. “Away with this man … Crucify, crucify him”, Luke 23: 18,21. Well, He was rejected. Believers are in that world and you will find once you are converted, there is a difference.
But there is also a divine plan for you. That is in this scripture. It is going to cost you something. It says you can no longer be yoked with an unbeliever. In those days there were no motorcars; everything was done by animals; they ploughed in a yoke; they were yoked together; the animals were bound together in a job. Paul says you cannot go along with an unbeliever in business. You cannot be in a partnership with an unbeliever. How could two persons, one a believer and one an unbeliever, get along together with different principles and different thoughts, different tastes? They live in a different world? How could they be in partnership? That is what he is saying to them here. How can righteousness and lawlessness be together? “What fellowship of light with darkness?” Well, unregenerate man or pagan man, as it was in those days, how could you walk along with him in business or in partnership or association, go on with his way of life? You cannot do that. The Lord Jesus is saying through Paul, I do not want you to do that. I want you to be free form that; be in the world, but apart from the world morally, find your life apart from it. And then, “what agreement of God’s temple with idols? for ye are the living God’s temple”. How could they go along with idols? In those days there were idols. How could a believer go along with an unbeliever in relation to his idols? He could not do that.
But then there is the recompense. The recompense is that “ye are the living God’s temple; according as God has said, I will dwell among them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be to me a people”. Is that not a recompense, such a recompense, for being faithful to the Lord Jesus in the scene of His rejection, in His absence, to be “the living God’s temple”, know something about God’s presence in a living way presently as we are gathered together? The speaking is not from man but from God and He is considerate for us. “Wherefore come out from the midst of them and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not what is unclean”. That is a clarion call to every Christian, to come out of the world they once lived in. You cannot depart from it altogether, but you can come out from it morally, not go on with its lifestyle and its ways, its partnerships, its businesses, all that a man in the world would have before him in ambition without God. You have to be apart from it. “I will receive you” – well, that is a wonderful thing – “and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”.
I will tell you something that happened in my local meeting many years ago. An old brother named Percy Lyon was ministering one night and a number of younger men like myself were present. He was exhorting us to be here for the Lord. He said, ‘Would you cross the road for a million pounds? Would you give up your principles for a million pounds?’ I said to myself, Well, there is no chance of that in this life. Never would I be tempted that way. But, you know, young friend, it comes around. The devil is very skilful. He will make prospects to you in this life here and a million pounds might be within the grasp. Would you cross the road for a million pounds? Would you? What would you give up? You would give up the known care of a Father, give up the joy of communion with this Father. You could no longer have joy as a son or daughter if you crossed the road for a million pounds. See how the devil would give you a temptation in the energies of life, the prospects of life, that you never thought about. One man said in this city an association was only ‘microscopic’, but it was an association. Would you give up your principles for a million pounds? You may be tempted in that in your life, but be grounded in Christian principles, “be separated, saith the Lord … and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters”.
The hymn we sang at the outset encouraged me to say these few words to you because this Father cares for you. If you think of your million pounds, go to Luke 12: “What shall I do? … I will take away my granaries and build greater” (vv 17,18). “But God said to him, Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; and whose shall be what thou hast prepared” (v 20)? you want to be wealthy, wealthy in relation to what is heavenly, not riches here. The Father will see you have enough to get through. Those of us who are older have proved that of this Father whom we have known. He says, “I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters”. Then He says, “saith the Lord Almighty”. He is a Father, but He is the Lord, the sovereign Ruler and He is the Almighty. He will bring you through. If you cast your cares on Him, you have the comfort of communion with Him.
And he says, “Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God’s fear”. Well, that is a little word of exhortation to all of us to see to the purity of our thinking, and the purity of what we feed on, free from the pollution of flesh, self-judged persons, keeping ourselves right by the Holy Spirit so that we are self-judged and we can live in the blessedness of the Father’s care, the Father’s communion! You know, at the rapture, dear brethren and dear younger brethren, every believer will go, every person who knows Christ as their Saviour and has the gift of the Holy Spirit will be taken out of this scene, no matter what their state is. God will take them because of the blood of Christ, because they have a passport for heaven. That passport is the righteousness of God, conferred on them through the Saviour’s work. However, it is fine in time and life here, in the flesh and blood condition to know something of communion with this blessed Father to whom you can turn and be to Him a son or daughter. You do not get daughters much in scripture. In this setting in the New Testament, we always speak about “ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”, Gal. 3: 26. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Rom. 8: 14), but here Paul says, as a Father He will take you up as sons and daughters. That shows He is considerate for our present state, our flesh and blood condition, the need of being succoured. Whether you are a son or whether you are a daughter, He will support you and you will know the blessedness of His grace in communion with Himself. There are Christians who may be mixed up in the world, who belong to this blessed One, but they do not know the secret of this joy of having Him as a known, blessed Father; relationships being disjointed or disrupted by worldliness. He is desiring that we are not worldly Christians, but that we are Christians who are seeking to be faithful to the name of the Lord Jesus.
As I say, it will cost you something. Tests will come up in life. You will be tested by these principles, whether you join yourself to the world or the worldling or whether you stay apart and prove the blessing that comes from this blessed One, known as Father, and the joy that He supports you and will see you through and provide what you need. What a triumph, what a joy! These are the blessings of Christianity. It is His desire you should enjoy them. May the Lord bless these few words for His Name’s sake!
Word in the ministry meeting
Edinburgh
15 April 2004