NO PART WITH ME
NO PART WITH ME
It has been said that nothing can deprive the believer of eternal life, but that a very small thing can distract or hinder his communion with Christ. There is no communion but in the light. Light is the essential [p. 159] characteristic of our new existence, and that is light which doth make manifest. There may be much reality and devotedness without communion with Christ, and where there is really no part with Him. Can anything affect our hearts more than the fact that one can be really loving, true, and devoted, and yet because of some soil from some unjudged, unwashed away defilement one has no part with Him? I am sure there is no exercised soul who does not know how often he has felt there was something of reserve between him and the Lord, and that it was not removed until he was in heart and spirit freed from some false way by the ministry and power of His word. I do not here attempt to show how the reparation takes place. What I desire now to call attention to is the simple fact that when any saint has been drawn aside by any of the corruptions all around us. that he, while unwashed, that is, when not cleansed from the effects or damage of it, has no part with Christ.
A great many things harmless even in themselves would never have been engaged in, had there been communion with Christ, and there would be communion if we were under the immediate action or washing of His word. If I were detached from the evil influences here, and attached to Him through the penetrating virtue of the word in present activity, I should have part with Him, I should walk as a child of the light.
To have part with Christ is not understood in its magnitude, or it would be seen that it cannot be secured without the action of His word. Were it seen as really conducting us into the high and holy line of His position and ways, we should not only wonder at the grace which set us there, but we should be more aware of the amazing contrast between it and the best line we could invent for ourselves. I believe this ignorance lies at the root of the kind of christianity which satisfies many. It is rather desired and expected that Christ will sanction and bless our endeavours and pursuits, than that He should lead us distinctly and definitely into His. It is very seldom [p. 160] apprehended that I am to rise to the level and scope of His measures and designs, that I am to share with Him of the things which God hath ordained before the world was unto our glory. The general idea is that unless Christ blesses our undertakings they will prove abortive and useless, but there is no thought of our rising up to take part in His things, or to be agents in doing His pleasure. When we speak of consecrating a house or anything to the Lord it is for His acceptance, with the hope that He will gild it with His blessing. All this arises from not comprehending that the main truth of christianity is that Christ has not come down to man to improve him by contributing His own virtue, but that He has died and risen again, that we might be raised up, and made to sit together in Him in heavenly places. That man is transferred to Christ to be really Christ’s in part with Him while walking here, and to be entirely conformed to His image by and by.
It is not that the iron (i.e. man) is either polished or gilded; many who do not think that it could be polished (that is, improved), do not hesitate to expect that it should be gilded, that is, that Christ should be an auxiliary to the works and the projects which are considered necessary for man’s benefit and progress. Once the immensity of the purpose of grace is apprehended then there will be, according as there is conscience, not only a fear of the things here which would divert from Christ, and carry one into a line of things not according to His mind, but there will be watchfulness that we should be protected by His word, or washed by it, whenever contrary to it, in order that we may enjoy having part with Him.
Whatever is not light is darkness. The carnal mind in itself is enmity against God, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God. It is not so much what the thing is, but if it carries us into the flesh it deprives us for the time of a part with Christ. When I originate, I put myself foremost in my own eyes, and I have lost part with [p. 161] Christ. It is not that I am not a child of the light, but I am asleep; I am not in the activity of light. I have to be awakened and to rise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon me.
Noah considers for himself when he plants a vineyard; doubtless he had no intention of being intemperate, but he departed from God’s side, and being here simply for God, to meet his own nature, and he got defiled. He lost part with the Spirit of Christ, until restored to it.
It is not the intention which we have at first, which indicates the mischief, or the fall eventually; generally at first it is something so simple and undangerous looking that no one could augur any harm from it. Why should not Lot choose the green fields of Sodom when he had the liberty to choose? But he would not have chosen had he known how it would end. Faith alone overcomes the world; the moment the visible sways, we must lose sight of the invisible; we lose sight of Jesus the Son of God.
Moses lost part with Christ when he spake unadvisedly with his lips; he lost sight of the high place in which he was set for God, and descended to the level of men. It could not have occurred to him the grave consequences of hastiness with his lips; the failure seems very small when compared with the penalty. We must see that it is not so much the greatness of the failure, as the simple fact of descending to a level where Christ is not; and when we yield to the carnal mind, allowing it, and not Christ to lead us, this is the root and essence of the step. In everything that He wills or arranges for us we have His support and counsel, as we proceed. He has a distinct path for us, but He has His own way for us therein; while we yield to His leading, He is in sympathy with us, and there is no losing part with Him in the most earthly matters, provided He is our guide in them, we are doing His will. John was called to a very natural service when the Lord said to him, “Behold thy mother”; and to her, “Behold thy son”. It is not the thing in itself which causes a break between us and Christ, but it is when we [p. 162] judge for ourselves, and let the flesh guide us, instead of Christ’s glory; so that whether we eat or drink, the very commonest thing of daily life, we may do all to the glory of God.
Now, as we have seen, though the thing which at first turned us away was very small in itself, and never seemed likely to grow to anything more than it was at first, yet this is the saddest thing connected with the failure. When we have lost part with Christ, by even a very small thing, as a hasty word, like Moses, or a look like Lot, or a vineyard like Noah, or a self-confidence superinduced by personal affection like Peter, or fear like Mark, or kinsmanship like Barnabas, we little know to what painful consequences it will run. When the greatest disciple loses part with Christ, he is worse off than the least; - as the largest ship when left without a pilot, incurs incomparably more loss and damage than a small boat.
When a saint has not learned the great and peculiar blessing of having part with Christ, he cannot of course know the loss of it, he has not spiritual sensibility to feel that he is not supported by Him. Such saints regulate their lives and walk by the law, and are often very respectable in the eyes of men, and often less erroneous to the outward eye. The standard is lower; they are but little boats as I might say; they are no great witnesses, and they cannot at any time, or under any circumstances, suffer much damage or loss. The saint acquainted with the blessedness of sharing with Christ in His scenes and concerns is painfully conscious when it is interrupted; he feels it in service especially, for an act always discloses the measure of power; and he feels when he is hindered, that he is not supported by the Lord. Now this is quite different from the check or discouragement which one in service encounters from the unthinking and the unspiritual. In the former case you feel you are unsupported and the words you say have no refreshment to yourself; they are not from “the belly” whence the living waters should flow out. In the other you have the cheering [p. 163] sense of how the Lord helps you, but you are checked by the want of receptiveness. I suppose that nothing can be so opposite as service of any kind done in concert with Christ, and that done without it, and yet the spiritual can only truly detect it, or really account for it. It requires a spiritual person to comprehend spiritual things, and yet the more spiritual any one is, the more must he be blessed to every soul he has to do with, though souls be not very conscious of it at the time.
With a true desire to serve like Martha, if we have not part with Christ, the service will be unspiritual, or even with the right word of blessing, like Isaac, there will be a want of divine intelligence in the use of it.
The Lord lay it on our hearts to watch against the smallest departure from Him; may we ever accept the action of His word, that we may enjoy the immense favour of sharing of His position and of His things.