WHAT GOD CAN DO THROUGH ONE BELIEVER
[p. 553] WHAT GOD CAN DO THROUGH ONE BELIEVER
Romans 7: 25; Jeremiah 1: 17 - 19; Judges 16: 23 - 31; John 14: 23
I have in mind to show how much may be accomplished by one man whom God fits for any given service. God thinks long ahead in view of vessels. Having a great variety of ends in detail to reach in His work, He necessarily requires a great variety of workmen, and the word that governs the service in this respect is “to every man his work”. It is not that any workman is to be in his own mind a specialist; if he confines himself to a speciality, he is liable to be out of employment very often. The principle governing the work is that what one’s hand finds to do is done, and our Lord, as in all matters, is our Leader. He is our Leader in workmanship, He speaks of Himself as among the disciples, as He who serves. His greatest follower, Paul, most faithful and imitative, is marked by the same feature, he was among the brethren as he who served, even to the putting of sticks on the fire.
But still, each man has his work, and it is divinely intended that each having his own work should know what he is most efficient in; yet love is the motive principle and no one should withhold his hand under the mere plea that a certain task is not his work. Samuel was a prophet and a judge and a priest; it became known that he could serve in a variety of ways, particularly in prayer, so that in a crisis the saints asked him to pray. Not that it is spoken of as a speciality with him, but he took advantage of the privilege of approach to God and made the most use of it, and the people understood. When they indicated their preference for another ruler, he said, “Far be it from me that I should sin against Jehovah in ceasing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12: 23). So that the most exalted and honoured servant is ready to do what is to be done — what is most needful at any given moment. At the same time, as I said, each man has his work, and, in order that he should be efficient in it, he has to be taken on by God and fitted, formed, and commissioned.
No one has much definiteness or effectiveness in his service who has not a secret understanding with God as to his commission, because a divine stamp must be upon the work and the workman, and in his work he understands what is to be done, and that he is to “receive full wages”. You will understand that I am not suggesting anyone working on account of wages in a literal sense, but it is due to God that we should think of that side, that there is such a thing as that in a spiritual sense. He will doubtless leave it with us as to what we regard as wages, but still we are to have full wages, and if one is to claim this, and the apostle John had it in mind, he cannot be negligent or trifling; his work has to be done. The time will come when matters will be entered into and we shall have to give an account. I speak thus because a great field has opened up to us — it has been always open to those who love God — and what the Lord is looking for is definiteness amongst many other things, a definite aim in what we are engaged in.
Then, as I said, there has to be formation. I am not now speaking of formation leading to the assembly, that is, to what is collective, but of what is in itself individual, for each one is formed in view of his work — in view, of course, of his place in the assembly, that is another side to the position, but each one is formed in view of his work. In Jeremiah’s case, Jehovah told him that He took account of him before he was born; He thought of his parentage, his forefathers, his environment as born, his [p. 555] education, not one item was left out of the divine reckonings. This makes the matter very personal between each of us and God, and in a way, nothing could be more important than that the saints should have individual relations and transactions with God, to be, in a sense, fellow-workers with God.
Now in view of this, what is basic in all of us is to arrive at the point of self-consciousness — conscious individuality is a better way to put it. It is arrived at through a moral process of the most remarkable kind, for it is, as it were, by the occupant of the house — the believer being regarded as a house — grappling with inward conditions so as to have things right. No unconverted man is troubled on these lines, it is the outcome of the work of God, for God must take the initiative in each case, and He does. The individual has no active part in new birth, it is altogether a sovereign matter. Later matters are joint ones, that is, God works in us, taking account of us in our moral conditions and intelligence, for the willing and the doing for His good pleasure. He takes us into the matter in our faculties, after He has done His sovereign fundamental work. There is no hint that the believer has anything to do with this work, the very figure used would show that it is a sovereign matter, but as it is once accomplished, an element is introduced which begins to work and produces a sense of responsibility to God: it is instinctive. So that, as the light comes to the believer he finds conditions within impossible in a moral sense; they must be adjusted, there must be an analysis of what is going on, and right must prevail.
Now that is all basic, and well known no doubt to most of us, but important to have before us always, so that we arrive at conscious individuality — “I myself”, but self wholly on the side of right, consciously so — a real victory, so that he says, “I
myself”, not simply I. In ordinary matters it might be that, but now it is “I myself;” it is I in consciousness after a great victory, a great struggle within. He thanks God for the victory, it has come to him through the Lord Jesus Christ, but then he himself has reached a great victory in his soul, expressed in this — “I myself with the mind serve God’s law”. That is no particular law, the emphasis is on “God” — God’s law, whatever that may be. It will come up in a variety of ways, we shall never be clear of the obligation of it as long as we are here, and even eternally the principle will hold. The believer reaches this point of great moral victory in his soul, that he determines with his mind, his greatest faculty, to serve God’s law. It is deliverance, but deliverance from his own point of view — Christ has effected deliverance, from another point of view, for him. This is a real triumph, and it is necessary for every one of us who is to be taken on by God and formed for the great variety of services He has in mind.
Now I go on to Jeremiah to show how much God can do with one, as having known him beforehand, and in view of conditions that should arise amongst God’s people. Jeremiah came in, as you know, under declining circumstances in Israel; God foresaw everything; he came in in favourable circumstances too, however, for it was under the reign of the good king Josiah. He had a good start, which is an important matter, and no one in Israel valued Josiah more than Jeremiah. We can usually tell what a man is as he dies, what place he has in the hearts of the saints, and especially in the hearts of the spiritual, such as Jeremiah; he lamented for Josiah. I suppose no one in his day could lament as Jeremiah did, it is one of his characteristics, and it is an important one, in such circumstances as we are in now, to know how to lament spiritually. Others lamented with [p. 557] him, as you will see, Judah and Jerusalem and all the people were in it, but Jeremiah lamented, and we know from his writing how he could lament; what a spiritual touch there would be to his lamentation.
What I have spoken of succeeds what I have before me in this first chapter. I want to show how God formed Jeremiah, how He foresaw what was needed and prepared him beforehand and in due course worked in his soul; and, in working in his soul and touching his mouth — even putting words into it — He gave him a commission to Israel and to the nations “to pluck up, and to break down, and to destroy, and to overthrow, to build and to plant”. No one, one may say, has had such a commission as that, it is remarkable — all put on one man, but I confine myself now to the remarks made by Jehovah to him in these verses. He says, “Gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I shall command thee: be not dismayed at them, lest I cause thee to be dismayed before them. And I, behold, I appoint thee this day as a strong city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land”.
I wish just briefly to point out the magnitude of this formation in one man, making him what Jehovah says here — first a strong city. It may be that we have not thought much of a man being a city; it would be hard maybe to get such a thought elsewhere, but anyway we get it in the most definite way here. Jehovah says, “I appoint thee this day a strong city”. And then, “an iron pillar”, and then “brazen walls” — not merely in a passive sense, standing out pre-eminently passively, but against certain people — against the rebellious land, against its kings, against its princes, against its priests,
[p. 558] against all the people, the whole land. What a commission! and let us not think that it is simply Jeremiah. It would not be written if it were only for Jeremiah, he had gone through the thing, but it is written for us to show what one man can be as God may fit him for a particular exigency in the testimony — for instance, when everything may be in disorder in the locality in which he is. It often happens; indeed it is a feature, alas! of these very days in which we are; certain localities have been invaded by the devil working independency in certain persons, so as to obliterate, if possible, the testimony that may be in each locality, rendering the conditions so bad that the Lord cannot be with the saints.
I need not remind the brethren of this; the history of recent years furnishes much of what I am saying, and what is said here, the commission to Jeremiah is, I believe, intended to help us as to what one man can do, that is, as taken up by God. Why should I not be taken up by God if an exigency of this kind arises? If I am in the locality, or if it extend to the whole field of testimony, why should I not be taken up of God? Why should not any one of us be taken up? Let no one assume it is not his matter; there is nothing, I am sure, that God hates more than for any one of His people to say, in such a case, It is not my matter. It is your matter, whatever happens is your matter. There are other principles of course that enter into it; God will not pass by the locality if there are available persons. One who has the character of a strong city is what is needed, a man standing out as definitely committed to the law of God; whatever other principles govern the matter, the law of God is involved. Basically I am prepared for it by the conflict, by the victory, indicated in Romans 7 — the law of God is in question now, let there be no compromise.
[p. 559] A city has a variety of features; think of them all being in one man — a strong city — one that is not to be overcome! I cannot stay to enlarge on this, though one could do so, many of us could enlarge on this, but I just want to suggest how independent God may be if He has His people in this way ready, by His formation, for any eventuality in the history of His testimony, either in a locality or generally. “He that dwelleth in the heavens”, we are told, “shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision” (Psalm 2: 4). How can He laugh derisively at evil down here? Because He has His anointed — “And I have anointed my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness”. That is the idea, dear brethren; it is God setting up a man in any given circumstances who is ready to devote his life, to lay it down if necessary, for the law of God; for the idea of a city must involve the working out of the law of God. A city, of course, has a council, it has authority, it has laws, it has a constabulary, it has means to carry out its designs and orders. A variety of things enter into the idea of a strong city, and it is in having here that which answers to the city, that He that dwelleth in the heavens can laugh at the enemy. Let it not seem that this is fanciful, it is not indeed; it is God putting on an individual, in whom He has wrought and whom he has fitted, that which will meet the emergency; and victory is already assured in such a strong city as is contemplated here.
Now the next thing is an “iron pillar”. Jeremiah represents this thought throughout his whole book and his Lamentations. He is seen standing for God right through, even with a rebellious remnant to contend with, and suffering with them. The idea of an iron pillar is that it is strong, iron is suggestive of strength. We have many pillars spoken of in Scripture; the idea, I think, is sometimes, especially here and in Philadelphia, that the pillar represents [p. 560] in dignity the great idea for the moment — what is in mind; it is outstanding, anyone can see it, not simply what I do, but what the person is. A pillar is a passive thought, but as representing a person it means what is observable, there is something there to denote what is current, what is in hand, and what is going through in dignity. How great this is, that in maintaining the order of God, which is the thought in a strong city, in any given place, there is that in the person, or persons, active that is expressive of the feature of the truth at issue, that there is no surrender of heavenly dignity, that the anointing is there, and may be seen by those who have eyes to see.
Then finally “brazen walls”. Brass, I suppose, is what can sustain pressure, and what pressure there will be against the fellowship in such circumstances! From all angles it comes. One is not free to mention names, although the Spirit of God is not afraid to mention the names, especially in the epistles that deal with apostasy, of those who oppose the truth. There is a current abroad, that is insistent and is increasing, it is looseness. I could put a name on it, but I am not going to. I doubt if there is one here who does not understand it — the insistent current marked by imitation that there is, every day and every night, against the truth of God. It is the real issue for the moment against the brethren, this great evil that is abroad, and it is at our doors all the time. “Brazen walls”, I believe, refer to that courage, to that power of endurance too, that is needed that this element may not be allowed in. If it is, if it sways us, the Lord will leave us. It is most important to keep this matter in mind, what one man can be. One could cite many that have been like this — true men, resolved not to give way for one moment to the evil pernicious principle that was introduced nearly a hundred years ago, and is [p. 561] stronger now than ever, increasing in volume and pride too. The things spoken of here, which were seen in Jeremiah are effectively against it. They are against the ruling conditions, the kings, the princes, the priests; and then the people of the land, and the whole land; it is the general position marked by departure from God, and one man stands victoriously for God in the midst of it.
Now I go on to Samson, to show how in one man the world is brought down. You will understand that it is not literal, it is typically in a moral sense here, and it is that feature of the world that affects the people of God at any given time. “Woe to the world because of offences!” (Matthew 18: 7). God has it in mind; He has every offence of the world in mind — “offence” means a fall-trap, what decoys the saints, damaging them, bringing them under its influence. God has all that in mind, He is going to deal with it. For us it is a moral question, how we deal with it as it affects us: each of us has to learn how the world affects him. Samson makes a point of how it affected him. The history of Samson is well known, and it is a wider thought really than what belongs to one man; he is a type of public christianity, I believe. There is the flagrant conduct of the world, on the one hand, and nazariteship on the other — nazariteship in some sense continuing down, not given up, not surrendered; here it quickly returns and is seen in the growth of Samson’s hair. A very important point to observe if there be failure with any of us; the real evidence of recovery is in the element of life — “the hair of his head began to grow”. It does not say that the seven locks grew, but the principle of life was there and afforded Jehovah the opportunity of dealing a death-blow to the world as it had affected Samson.
He is in the prison-house, and what is to be observed here — especially by the young people - is that the word “house” is used as designating the scene of the mirth — “the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there” — it is a social affair. One of the most treacherous things for young people is the social side. It is a big affair, it is what you might call a royal function, the lords are there and a large number of people, and, at a given point in these social affairs, hilarity begins; here they became merry. There is the opposite of that in the house of God, for there “they began to make merry” in a holy way; there was music and dancing according to God; and that is really over against the world as I am speaking of it. Now what will these Philistines do? They will bring in Samson — how sorrowful! One would like to be able to feel things with God, that that which had been a nazarite “purer than snow”, as Jeremiah lamented, “whiter than milk” (Lamentations 4: 7), should be in this condition. As one looks abroad and sees the whole profession under the world, it is most sorrowful. Blind, too — the eyes put out, for the world knows how to take out the eyes of nazarites, it is a question of spoiling what is of God. Let every young person here take this to heart. The enemy wants you, of course, but his chief aim is to spoil the work of God, to turn the nazarite into a poor blind prisoner in a Philistine prison-house, in a prison-house of the world, and now brought out to be made sport of. How often it is that young people who have turned away from the truth become the best sportsmen.
Samson was apparently so regarded here, but it says, “they set him between the pillars” — that shows that the world is short-sighted, but faith understands. In our conflicts with the world it is well to bear in mind that at times the world is exceedingly short-sighted. Satan is short-sighted too. They set Samson in the midst of the pillars. Can he pull [p. 563] down the world? Well, the apostles did at the beginning, and so did Samson too — I mean he had power to do it, there is no limit to his power as seen earlier, we never have any limit to Samson’s power; there is no limit, dear brethren, for the power of God is available to faith; faith removes mountains. The world forgets this. Men of the world say, There are no signs, no miracles, now. But there are, they are blind to them, there are miracles happening every day; there is not a saint here that is not a miracle — thank God! The Lord speaks of us as signs — “Behold, I and the children that Jehovah hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel” (Isaiah 8: 18). Every saint is that in the measure in which he is truly a saint. The world does not know the latent power that lies in nazariteship, even in those in whom it may have been for a moment lost.
So Samson’s hair began to grow; the Philistines did not take any notice of that apparently. Evidently Delilah did not watch that hair; she had taken off the seven locks, but the hair is growing again. How lovely it is, how encouraging to those who are in any measure lovers of God, lovers of Christ, and lovers of the brethren, to see, in an erring one, the hair beginning to grow! It is the work of God, it is latent, the power was there, for in truth the root of the matter was in Samson. The root of the matter is in the assembly too, but the world does not know. There is Samson, a poor blind prisoner, brought in by the hand by a lad, and they set him among the pillars. It spelt disaster, but they did not know. Where has God set the testimony today? He has set it among the pillars, if you will allow me to extend the thought. We are to understand this position. Everyone who understands the mystery of God understands what the pillars of the world are; how poor they are, how easily they can be overthrown!
[p. 564] We know well enough how empires and kingdoms and republics have fallen, but then, their foundations were not moral, they were not really foundations, hence they fell.
I believe the apostles’ testimony at the beginning brought down the pillars, but now the world is set up again, and we have to understand what its pillars are. God understands, and He has placed us where, in regard of them, He knows we can serve Him best. Let us not forget that the matter is God’s. Whatever it be, in which He would use us, God has set the saints where He wants them; it is a sovereign matter, and each is to be in his place, as we learn from Josiah. If each is in his place, God will do His work, the world will come down. It is not a literal matter now, the point is that the world is brought down so that saints are delivered out of it. One might think this lad is leading Samson to the pillars, but it is not a question of the lad’s leadership here — it is too great a matter for a lad. In fact Samson, the servant of God now recovered in measure, says, “Let loose of me, and suffer me to feel the pillars” — release me — that is really what the word suffer means. Now this is an important word, I believe, for us, that the servant is to do the work himself. God is going to use him, blind though he be — it is a question of God.
So Samson, with true instinct, says, “Let loose of me, and suffer me to feel the pillars”. It is his own matter, now; he has instinct, he has the power of his senses, has lost his sight, but not the power of touch. Great things may be accomplished without some of the senses, but certainly Samson has the sense of feeling, and he says, I want to feel these pillars — and he did. What a mighty triumph there was, one man moving in the instincts of the work of God effective in him! Then the beautiful prayer, “Lord Jehovah”, he says,
“[p. 565] strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once”. How intent heaven was at that time! and how intent it is as such a desire emanates from our hearts in pressure, as we think of the world! As the Lord Jesus says, “O righteous Father, the world ...” what it is. If we really discern it, we shall hate it, not the persons, but in a moral sense, “for the whole world lies in the wicked one”. Samson feels the pillars, he has no hesitation, he prays, he is dependent on God, but he bows, “he bowed himself with might”, it is a question of the power of God, enough for the moment, there is plenty for the moment; it is to bring down the world.
Well, dear brethren, I am sure you will see that what I have said about Samson is enough for our consideration as to the whole matter of what each is doing to bring down the world. We are suffering from it, and the Lord Jesus says, “Woe to the world because of offences” (Matthew 18: 7). We are to have a right attitude towards it in the sense in which it affects us, to turn our faces steadily against it, to see how it affects us and face it in that way, and it will be brought down. Samson dies with the world, but it is a remarkable thing that he has not a burial by the Philistines or with them. God has great regard for the burials of His saints, whatsoever their history may have been. Supremely in the case of the Lord Jesus: “men appointed his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death” — that was the divine decree. Samson too was with his brethren. It is a very precious thing to me that it should be so, that a man who brings down the world is amongst his brethren in his death, buried by them. And it is significantly stated that he “had judged Israel twenty years”.
Now there is just one word to add, that is from John 14; it is to call attention to what one man can be as affording tabernacle conditions at the present [p. 566] time. We may be sure that God has thought of these days, of how small things may become in remnant times. There are many outposts that, in their weakness and exposure to the bitter north winds, at times force one to the deepest feelings as to what many dear brethren are suffering in isolation. Think of them in India, and other places where the saints are isolated.
Well, this passage, I believe, is intended by the Lord to meet these conditions in our days, so that there should be no surrender. The man that is a strong city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls in any given place, will afford tabernacle conditions for God. Why not? You have Jerusalem, the city; you have the pillar, denoting what is outstanding as to the spirit of the moment, and the brazen walls, the power of keeping out evil. Why not have tabernacle conditions? It is as sure as possible that one like Jeremiah would afford tabernacle conditions. Who can say what Jehovah found when Jeremiah was let down into the pit? Think of the ignominy of the servant of God being let down into a pit full of slime and mud! Was not God with him in that pit? He promises to be a little sanctuary to us, but what I am saying now is not simply that God is a sanctuary to us, but that we afford a sanctuary to Him. It is another side of the matter, and one man can do it. So let no one give up in any locality. It is a question of the formation of the man. So “Judas, not the Iscariote, says to him, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him, If any one love me, he will keep my word”. It is said to him, “If any one love me, he will keep my word;” it is not now the commandments, as in the previous verse, but the word, that is the mind of the Lord Jesus, and that mind is full of the Father, it is full of all that is suitable to the Father.
[p. 567] His prayer, in chapter 17, that we so often and rightly allude to, breathes out His desires for His own, but all in relation to the Father.
So His word is kept; it is not simply that one should keep it, but he will keep it. It is a question of love for Christ in any locality. One hears complaint about the weakness in some locality and the possibility of things being discontinued, but where is love in such a circumstance? Love never fails. Hence why should what is divinely needed be discontinued? Why should I not make tabernacle conditions? If I love Christ, I shall lay myself out to be a strong city, an iron pillar, and brazen walls; I shall lay myself out for tabernacle conditions for God. There the Lord says, “my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him”. How beautiful that is, and how independent it makes us, dear brethren, even of numbers! The real commodity needed in this particular case is love for Christ; one who loves Him will keep His word, as He accredits to Philadelphia; He says, thou “hast kept my word;” one of the greatest features of the last times is the saints keeping the word of Christ. It affords tabernacle conditions, because, if I keep the word of Christ, I must have everything removed from myself and my surroundings that is contrary to God and to Christ. This makes way for individual holiness, and all that is suitable for God, and hence the Lord says, “we will come to him and make our abode with him”.