GOD AS OUR SUPPORT FOR CONTINUANCE
GOD AS OUR SUPPORT FOR CONTINUANCE
I desire to say a few words to indicate how we may be helped to continue in the service of God. The apostle Paul before Agrippa says, that “having obtained help of God I continue to this day.” He did not attribute his continuance in the service to himself or to his own faithfulness, but he says, “having obtained help of God I continue.”
This scripture gives us the last words of the apostle to the Ephesian elders ere he parted with them. He had laboured amongst the saints there for three years, night and day, with tears, going from house to house, a living model of the truth. We need models today, if we are to continue in our localities in relation to what is of God. The letter of the truth, which cannot be gainsaid, will not alone enable us to continue; what is essential is that there should be models in each locality. The apostle Paul had been for three years presenting the truth in his life, in his ways, in his words and ministry. “I know,” he says, “ye will see my face no more.” The Lord had evidently given him an impression that his journey was coming to an end and he says, “I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God,
shall see my face no more.” Well then, dear brethren, he is concerned that what is there should be continued, and he warns them, and seeks to encourage those who have the care of the saints, that they should be faithful and watch and remember. And then, after having done that, he says, “I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace.” That is what I wish to speak about “I commend you to God” — for God continues.
Moses is the Paul of the Old Testament, he says, “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations... from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” He indicates that if we are to continue it is because God is our dwelling place, because we have access to God. God speaks of Himself as “I Am” the “Eternal” — the One to whom time does not apply. Then God would encourage us in our time conditions; He speaks, not only as the I Am., but as the One “who is — (present) — who was (past)and who is to come” (future). God speaks to us like that, so that we might understand that He is as available to us as in all generations. So the apostle says, “I commend you to God.” I desire to re-echo that today, to commend each one to God as we separate after this meeting, perhaps for ever, as to our place on this earth. We necessarily must part here, but the apostle says, “I commend you to God” — He abides — He continues.
Luke tells us that the people as they witnessed the activities of Christ here, “wondered at the glorious greatness of God.” As the ministry of the word from the Lord gives us a fresh and deeper sense of the greatness of God, He would have our hearts filled with wonder at His glorious greatness. The apostle Paul knew God in such a way that he could say, “if we are beside ourselves, it is to God.” One would like, dear brethren, to have a little touch of that kind of knowledge of God — to be beside oneself to God. As the apostle thought of God in the spirit of worship, his soul was in an ecstasy, as considering the glorious greatness of God. One has often thought of the sun in the heavens as suggesting the light of the glory of God. We look up and see that marvellous light, greater than creature can compass or look at fully, our eyes are dazzled by it; but then God is pleased to break up the light in its various colours, so that we may gaze with wonder at it; we can marvel at the blending of light.
Take the flowers — look at the absorption of light, the various colours, the blending of light in the flowers! All came from the sun. See it again in the feathers of the peacock — what wondrous beauty. See it in the fish in the tropics — the light absorbed from the sun. God has given us all that to help us to consider the greatness of the sun. Thus He brings before us various rays of His glory and greatness. So in commending the Ephesians to God, the apostle would have in his soul all that God would be and is, towards man. God is pleased to break up the glorious greatness in different ways for us to contemplate and adore.
First I would speak of the God of heaven, Daniel 2: 44, for, dear brethren, if we are to continue, we shall need the God of heaven. What a wonderful sphere heaven is, and then there is a God of heaven. Heaven continues. There are changes on earth, especially as far as man and his world are concerned, but heaven does not change. The rule of heaven goes on; the sun still rises upon the evil and the good; the stars still go on their course as God ordained. God is the God of heaven, His throne is established there. The knowledge of the God of heaven comes in most beautifully in Daniel in the presence of the break up on earth, in the presence of the monarch who slew whom he would, and whom he would he kept alive; who overturned the kingdoms of the world.
Daniel was in the presence of a dreadful tyranny which cast men into a burning fiery furnace; in the presence of conspiracies which put men into lions’ dens if they did not give way. But Daniel speaks of the God of heaven, and Daniel lived in the light of that. What is said is “this Daniel continued.” All the mighty power of Nebuchadnezzar, of Darius or the princes, could not get rid of this Daniel; no lions could devour him. It says “this Daniel continued until the reign of Cyrus” — until God came in. He stood in the light of the God of heaven, come what may on the earth. One delights to think of such men as Martin Luther who, standing before the Popish leaders and monarchs of the earth, said, “God is in heaven.” You might say, help seems far away, but the apostle says, “I commend you to God,” the God of heaven.
That is one ray of the glory, one marvellous ray of the glorious greatness of God. God is also the Rewarder — indeed He Himself is the Reward, Genesis 15: 1, and Hebrews 11: 6. The One who is supreme on the line of rewarding. The Lord Jesus said prophetically, “I have spent my strength for nought and in vain” — all His labour apparently fruitless — “yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work (reward) with my God,” Isaiah 49: 4. He trusted in God to reward Him. He continued in the sense of who God was, and that He would recompense Him. He “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name.” That is recompense! He has “highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.” There is much more too, that the Lord is yet to have. Like Jacob who served for a wife, the Lord will have the assembly for His reward, part of the recompense that God will give Him.
Paul served like that, and continued to the end. He could say “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me in that day, and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing.” The recompense comes — the God of recompenses will give him a reward for continuing in His service. It is also true that God will recompense what is evil. Jeremiah tells us that “the Lord God of recompenses shall surely requite,” Jeremiah 51: 56. Paul writes to Timothy, “Alexander, the coppersmith, did me much evil, the Lord will reward him according to his works.” God is the God of recompenses, and everything is going to be paid. What a recompense Christendom will have — that which professes the name of Christ. God will recompense Babylon double for all her sins — it will soon come upon the apostate system which dishonours the blessed Lord.
We should recognise this feature of the glorious greatness of our God, and that He is the God who rewards, so that we should not be weary in well-doing, but be faithful, serving God who takes account faithfully and truly of every service done to His name. One would think of the dear sisters, many of them unknown, and often unappreciated, but let them commit themselves to God, the One who does not fail to take account of every bit of devoted service, for there is a reward with Him. On the other hand, speaking of those who may have turned away to the world, though they may not be aware of it they are still in the hand of the God of recompenses — God repays. There have been some very solemn warnings of late in connection with those who have turned away from the light into the world of darkness, but they are still in the hand of the God of recompenses.
God is also said to be the God of measure, 2 Corinthians 10: 13. The apostle Paul speaks of Him in that way — the God of measure, a wonderful ray of the glorious greatness of God! Things are not haphazard with God. We know little of how He measures, but He is the God of measure — He is supreme in measuring. It says “He meted out heavens with the span” meaning that it is all measured. “The stars in their courses” are spoken of, a course is a planned out highway. Then, speaking of the earth, it says He “weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.” That is another form of measurement, putting this earth in a measure, putting a line to it as a builder does. God says to Job, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth” — God speaks of its measures and its corner stone, Job 38: 5-6. And God measures what is spiritual also.
You will remember what is said to John in Revelation 11. “Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” It is a solemn exercise to measure the temple to see if it corresponds with the pattern. In Ezekiel they are told to measure the pattern, so that they keep to the form and the ordinances, Ezekiel 43. Then the altar is the place of sacrifice. God would measure the ability there is to sacrifice. What ability have we to sacrifice to Him? Rise, and measure it. Then again, measure them that worship, measure the worshippers. When the divine line is put on the worshippers, what have we got? The Holy City answers to all the measurements, and much is said there about measurements. The angel finds everything according to God, the length, breadth, and height are all according to God, everything measured according to God.
If we are to continue we must have to do with the God of measure. The apostle says that he had a measure — God had measured to him a measure. He says he did not overreach himself, but that his measure reached to the Corinthians; in coming to them he did not go beyond his measure. Then he tells the Ephesians that “to everyone is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Christ measures out to everyone something to use for His name. He knows how much to give to each one, he measures it. Take the localities we come from, are we using our measure? Have we come into touch with the God of measure and are we concerned to fill up to the full, the measure of what God has entrusted to us, or do we sit back and leave things to others? The measure may be small, but the Lord knows what He has given us. He has given you something and He wants you to use that according to the measure.
I wish to ask each brother and sister, Are you using what the Lord has given you? You will not continue if you do not keep in touch with the God of measure. I would urge the older brothers to encourage the younger ones, to make room for them that they may use the measure they have, as Paul did for Timothy to whom he said “Fill up the full measure of thy ministry” — he desired that he might use it to the full. What we need is that those who are older, should recognise and encourage the younger ones, and that the younger should — take up the exercise of using their measure.
“Unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” If we do not use the measure, we are depriving God of the results of His own work. How encouraging if each uses his or her particular measure, and what increase for God would result!
Now another feature is the God of patience; Romans 15: 5. One would almost hesitate to say that, if it were not in scripture. That the One who is Omnipotent, the One who is Almighty, should be called the God of patience! Think of God being patient, supreme in patience! There is nothing like the patience of God in the whole universe, nothing that compares with the patience of God — how wonderful it is! Think of the antediluvian world, “the long-suffering of God waited” over such a wicked world — He waited in patience. He endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath, He endured them patiently. Look back over our own histories, long or short, how wonderful the patience of God.
One marvels at the patience of God in bearing with a wayward people, as with Israel of old; grieved often, but He endured them with patience. The God of patience will help us to endure. The apostle Paul knew something about this; he wrote to the Corinthians and said, “truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience,” 2 Corinthians 12: 12. John also, in the isle of Patmos could say, “your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” He was waiting patiently for God to come in. How we need that, if we are to continue — “patient continuance in well doing.” The apostle says, “I commend you to God.” He is the God of heaven, the God who is the Rewarder, the God of recompenses, the God of measure, and the God of patience.
There are many other beams of glory which we cannot touch on now, innumerable blending as well as direct beams, but I would refer finally, to God as the God of Jacob, Psalm 46: 7. He is our refuge if we are to continue. “The God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah!” What a God was the God of Jacob! The Psalmist says Selah — that is, pause, think about that — a note in the music! Think of Jacob, how like he is to us naturally, but I do not dwell on his natural features, we know them well in ourselves, features that are unworthy of God. The apostle says “I commend you to God,” it would include what is expressed in the God of Jacob, the One who took up Jacob and brought him through, until at the sunset of his life, he is a truly great man along with Abraham and Isaac,
for God says also, “I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.”
What a man Jacob is when a-dying! He “blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.” God had followed Jacob for he says, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day, the Angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads!” We can say that, too, for how often have we nearly slipped; we can say “my steps were well-nigh gone.” So he says “the God that shepherded me all my life long to this day, the Angel that redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads,” and in blessing them he puts the younger first.
God had taught Jacob, that the first man must be set aside, and that Christ in principle must take his place. God had given light as to it, earlier, that the elder must serve the younger, but light is not sufficient. Jacob now knows God in such a way that he gladly and “wittingly” puts the younger before the elder. It says it displeased Joseph, but Jacob says “I know it”; he crosses his hands wittingly for the younger was to be the greater. He puts Ephraim before Manasseh. The God of Jacob had brought Jacob to it, following him until he had learnt his lesson. Then it says, he worshipped. “By faith Jacob, when he was a-dying, worshipped.” Think of a dying man worshipping! Go back over Jacob’s history, and think of the God who followed him, fed him, blessed him, until looking through the door of death, he worships God. One would like to die like that, to die worshipping God as known and loved.
As he approaches death he is not a self-sufficient man but dependent upon the God of Jacob. It would help us to continue if we knew the God of Jacob better.
The apostle says, “I commend you to God.” How much more could be said about the glorious greatness of God. But the apostle says “I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance amongst all them which are sanctified.” The ministry of the Spirit is the word of His grace, and the Spirit is here to bring that word to our hearts. What helps us to continue, is to commit ourselves to God and to the word of His grace; what is ministered by the Spirit to our souls, will enable us to continue when those we love are gone. God remains, and the Spirit of God remains, and the word of His grace remains.
One would close with this dear brethren, that we would commend ourselves to God, and to the word of His grace.