UNRESERVED COMMITTAL
G. Williams
Ruth 1: 16–18; 2 Samuel 15: 19–22; Philippians 3: 13, 14
I would like to encourage every one of us to commit ourselves without reserve to God’s testimony at the moment. Difficulties may stand in the way, but we are in the time when God is wanting nothing less than a giving over of our lives to Christ. We are living in times when there is so much indifference. Some are looking for alternatives, an easier path, but God has in view, dear brethren, that He shall get a full result at the end of the dispensation. That is what the Spirit says at the end of Revelation, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come” (Revelation 22: 17)—a full and practical answer in this day in which we live. If that is to be so, it involves each brother and sister in every locality committing themselves to what the Lord is doing, and He is doing something. While Christ is on high on the Father’s throne, He has control of everything down here.
My simple exercise tonight is that He should have full control of you and me. He has died to that end. Paul tells us that He has died and lives again to that end, “that he might rule over both dead and living”, Romans 14: 9. You and I are living—“We, the living who remain”, 1 Thessalonians 4: 17. What mercy there is in that, and that we are here together amongst a company of brethren who, I think I can thankfully say, want the truth and
nothing but the truth. There is perhaps a need to be a little more magnanimous in our attitude toward one another, maybe giving more credit to where the brethren are in their souls. I love to think that the saints have a desire to go on with the truth and to make everything of Christ. That is one thing that has come to light in recent times, both in our comings together and in the ministry, that brethren seem to want to learn more of Christ. Is not that a wonderful thing? What else is there anyhow, except it be His wonderful counterpart, the assembly? Yes, the assembly remains. We are not making any assumption here today that we are it, but the assembly remains. I thank God for those who wish to continue in the truth of the recovery, in the unity of the body of Christ, and my simple exercise is that we might all commit ourselves freshly to it.
Now we older brethren have a great responsibility in this regard, that is why I read concerning Naomi and Ruth. There was never, you might have said, a more inappropriate time for a person to commit herself to the fellowship than that. There was Naomi, bereaved of her husband and two sons, and marked by bitterness. What bitterness has marked the present course of things amongst brethren, what sorrows have entered into their families! There was nothing outwardly attractive about this woman, Naomi, to cause Ruth to follow her, but she loved God’s people and knew that something had happened among them. And something has happened in our day. Let us not set it aside. Something has happened, beginning with Mr. Darby, and it is going right through. We do not boastfully say these things, but it is so, it is a movement of recovery. There is bread available in Bethlehem and Naomi says, ‘The only thing I can do is to go back there’.
She moves, and as she moves this young person Ruth is attracted by her and makes a full committal. This young woman—may it be true of a brother or a sister present here today!— commits herself to what the Lord was doing in the testimony at that moment, and she is divinely blessed. There is nothing else, dear brethren, for any of us, once we commit ourselves to the path of God’s testimony on earth at the moment, but that we shall be divinely blessed. I am absolutely assured of it. They came in in the time of the barley harvest—Christ risen. What a wonderful thing that is! Has anything prevented that truth from being a joyful matter in our souls? As we often sing, ‘Christ is risen! Hallelujah!’. What can alter that? Nothing! Christ is risen; that is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15: 20. He is the first-fruits, and soon, dear brethren, all His own, including those that are in the grave, will hear that wonderful assembling shout and we shall all be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. But what a moment it is now to be committed to God’s testimony.
So the language of Ruth comes freshly to me, “Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest I will go ... thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried”. This is the language of an exercised soul in the day in which we live, wanting nothing but to commit herself to what Naomi represents—a return. How many of us need to return! We need to return to first principles. What we go on with is not sectarian—not a bit of it! If we are going on with anything it is, as Mr. Taylor said, a return to first principles. We are not setting up anything new, and we are not looking for anything new. We are not looking for alternatives. Many are, and I hope there is not one present today looking
for alternatives. What God did 150 years ago in Mr. Darby’s time was a sovereign movement of God Himself—“Then the Lord awoke”, we read in Psalm 78: 65; He did certain things and from that day onwards it has been a movement forward. There have been many divisions, many have gone back, even in recent times, but the Lord says, “Will ye also go away?”, John 6: 67. What a word that is to us today, lest there should be someone here thinking that it is not worth going on with. I can assure you the path of the righteous is worth going on with. It goes on and brightens until the day be fully come (Proverbs 4: 18).
So this dear woman, Ruth, commits herself in what outwardly was a most inappropriate time, and that is the present position. Let me assure you the Lord’s eye is upon us as to what decisions we are making in this time of difficulty. Remember what Elijah said, “How long do ye halt between two opinions?”, 1 Kings 18: 21. Is that the condition of soul of anyone here present today? There is to be only one opinion, and only one decision can rightly be made today, and that is to commit ourselves to Christ as Lord and to commit ourselves to the testimony down here as we know it in the time of recovery, in spite of all the difficulties. That is what this dear woman did and she comes in for the best. She comes in for a link with Boaz, the mighty man of wealth. Oh what a mighty Man of wealth Christ is! “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, John 3: 35. The whole administration now is not a legal one, it is in the hands of the Son; He is Son over God’s house. How much He is ready to dispense to us! The more dependent we are, the more diligent we are, the more we go on with our secret histories with God, the more we shall prove how much the Son has to dispense in every locality.
Oh may we be freshly stirred, dear brethren, to go on to some sense of finality in our soul exercises and come through to what Ruth reached in type, union with Christ. That is what we are looking forward to on the morrow, something for Christ. Our side has been met. All our liabilities have been met by the blood of Jesus. We have the eternal prospect before us of being with Him where He is. He has died to deliver us from this present evil world and to give us a present part and place amongst His so great a people. Then, finally, we have the prospect of being with Him. He is soon coming. That is the word that the Lord says to some of those assemblies in the Revelation. He does not tell them to try to make things better down here. I know there is such a thing as making our local conditions better, but you cannot set up something now like Pentecost. But the Lord says, “I come quickly—hold fast what thou hast”, Revelation 3: 11. Let us do it; let us hold fast to the treasure we have. It has been secured at much cost and suffering. Men of God have laid themselves out for a secret history with God and they have brought to us a heritage of ministry, of truth, that is a great stand-by in the day in which we live, though we cannot exactly live on it. Do not misunderstand me, but you cannot live on the bookshelf. If you are going to live at all you live by Christ; “He also who eats me shall live also on account of me”, John 6: 57. The previous verse shows that we are to eat His flesh and drink His blood also. No, you cannot live on the bookshelf. I may quote a good many things here today, but I want my heart filled with Christ. It is He that causes us to make a decision for Him and for His people, and that is what Ruth did—“Thy people shall be my people”.
You may say, They are a poor lot, making all these mistakes, doing this and that, but you could not deter Ruth. It is the work of God coming out in her, and that is what we want, the work of God coming out and asserting itself in devotion and committal to Christ. The Lord is looking for it today, dear brethren.
It was the same with Ittai. When was it outwardly a more inappropriate time than in the days of Ittai to commit oneself to a rejected David? Was it a prosperous time? It certainly was not. David was on the run. It was a suffering time for David and it is a suffering time for the testimony now. Paul tells Timothy, “Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”, 2 Timothy 2: 3. But he also says, “Remember Jesus Christ raised from among the dead, of the seed of David” (verse 8). These words of Paul are calculated, I think, to stir us up in our hearts as to the salient features of the truth connected with christianity itself, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the ascension of Christ, and the Spirit down here. What a wonderful thing that the Spirit is here, dear brethren. Are we at a loss? Not a bit of it! Small numbers? Two or three brothers and sisters in a place, sometimes one brother—Are we at a loss? No! If the Lord has put His hand upon a place to put something of assembly character there, He has committed Himself to it. We are never at a loss with the Lord and the Spirit with us. All that is called for, dear brethren, on our side is this secret history and committal, such as you get here with Ittai.
He is tested. David said in effect, ‘What are you doing following me? I am going where I can. It is a time of suffering’. Here we are today, and what suffering there is. You look
around upon the dear brethren and see them suffering family-wise and circumstantially. Does it deter an Ittai? He is a Philistine, you know, from Gath. He is a converted Philistine. There is certainly room for converted Philistines in these days, dear brethren. There is a danger with some of us of developing things in the head. But this man is not like that, he is a converted man, and he is an influential man. What is called for, I think, in all our localities in these days is persons who will commit themselves and thus become influential, as were Naomi and Ittai. Ittai has six hundred men with him and little ones. He affects them all by his committal.
The best way to help the dear young people to commit themselves to the testimony is to let them see committal in us. We talk enough about these things, but let them see it. A father and mother throughout the day have their daily tasks to do, but their spare time, what are they doing with it? Are they diligently pursuing the truth? Are they on their knees before God that He may do something additionally in the locality? Such was Ittai—“In what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be”.
What we get in Philippians 3 is Paul’s inward energy of devotion for Christ. O, dear brethren, I would like to appeal to us all, myself included, to give ourselves more unreservedly, as Paul did here, his inwards, his whole being, given over to Christ. It is not a question of whether it is the time for it, or whether there is suffering or whether there are difficulties. Paul is saying in this chapter it is always time to have Christ before you as your Object. Let me add a word here, if I may. We often say that Christ is to be our
Object. The only way to prove deliverance is to have Him thus. There is such a thing as having Christ as our satisfying Object. It is easy to tell a person who is satisfied, and the only way to be satisfied is to have Christ supremely before our souls and to be pressing on. This is no time for sitting back, what is called for is inward energy in going on with the truth. This reminds us of the offerings of old. You will remember how the inwards were to be put on the altar. No doubt it applies uniquely to Christ Himself. What an offering that was as He gave Himself over, you might say, in suffering on the cross, involving His whole being (I would touch it with reverence), His inwards, what was intrinsic in Him.
Paul in this chapter would encourage us all to give ourselves over as he says, “Brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing—forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue”. Stretching out is an athletic reference, showing that the matter is urgent. There is something before us. What else can be rightly before us in these days but Christ in His own intrinsic, essential worth and what belongs to Him down here in His assembly? He says, “My assembly”. Let us learn, dear brethren, as we beseech one another today, to give ourselves over to secret history with God, so that the assembly locally and universally may be prospered from this day forward. Let us keep our hearts and our eyes firmly upon Christ and what is precious to Him down here, as those who care for the things of Jesus Christ. Paul says, “All seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ”, Philippians 2: 21. .This is a time, dear brethren, to seek the things of Jesus Christ, things that really matter, things that really last, things that call down divine approval. May it be the portion of
us all, for His name’s sake.
Address at Grimsby
26 July 1975