TRUSTWORTHINESS
TRUSTWORTHINESS
Genesis 49: 22-26; John 3: 35; Proverbs 31: 10-12
I desire, dear brethren, to speak a little of the trustworthiness of Christ. I am sure that we have all been made to feel that apart from what is of God, there is nothing we can trust in this world. Nations think they can trust in their navies and armies, but that confidence is waning. Others would put reliance on money, but we have lived to see the world’s finance lose its value. It is natural for men to trust in their own hearts, but the scriptures say, “He that trusteth his own heart is a fool.” What a history that of man has been!
I suppose Satan unfallen, was the most trusted of beings then created. It says he was the “anointed cherub that covereth”; “the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee, in the day that thou wast created,” Ezekiel 28: 13 — possibly a suggestion that the power was given him to express the praises of the creation, such as are referred to in Job 38. But instead of being thus serviceable to God the mind of Satan is expressed in the words of the king of Babylon who said “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God... I will be like the Most High,” Isaiah 14. He proved untrustworthy in that which God had committed to him.
When we think of Adam, he too, betrayed his trust. The garden of Eden was put into his trust to care for and keep; but did he do so? No he attempted to take for himself what was for God. When we come to Noah, he is entrusted with a new world — a cleansed world, but he could not be trusted; he became drunk.
To Solomon was given “wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.” He was able to speak of the whole creation, his largeness of heart enabled him to speak of the trees, the beasts, the fowls and creeping things, and of fishes, but he betrayed his trust.
Then when we come to Nebuchadnezzar, God gave him the place of king of kings. He exercised authority over the whole known earth, but he betrayed the trust given to him, and usurped God’s place. So with the assembly in its responsibility: how unfaithful it has been, and what a history of unfaithfulness has marked man in relation to it.
How good it is, dear brethren, to leave our side of things, our mistakes, the conflict between good and evil, and look at Christ. We may speak of it as objective, but then the subjective comes out of what is objective. If you have not an object, you cannot have what corresponds. Stephen looked up into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus. He saw what was in heaven, he saw “the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” There is an object, and as an inevitable consequence, the features of the glory of God, and Jesus, were seen in that man. As you look at him with the face of an angel, and see him kneeling down, and hear expressed in his words the very grace of heaven, you see features of the glory of God and Jesus expressed in one who has Christ as object. So just in a simple way, one thought it might help to direct the hearts of all to the trustworthiness of Christ.
I suppose the outstanding feature which Joseph represents is that he could be trusted. You see that at every point, except perhaps one. You see him first in Jacob’s house; it says that Joseph brought the evil report of his brothers’ doings to his father. This is a very trustworthy thing. He went out with them, and heard what they said, and saw what they did, and he came and told Jacob. It is not trustworthiness to cover what is evil, but rather to come and make it known where it ought to be known. You may be hated for it; it may bring you into suffering. Joseph came and told Jacob everything — he proved his trustworthiness in this, but they sold him for it. Jacob had made Joseph a coat of many colours, he could be trusted with that distinction. The many colours refer to the many glories in which Christ is arrayed. How natural it is for our hearts to become elated if we become distinguished — but not so Joseph, he could be trusted. No one but Christ could really wear what that coat of many colours sets forth — that is, be invested with every glory that God could put upon man.
Jacob sent Joseph out to the fields — the place where we are all tested. If you go into the world, you will find it a testing place. Joseph goes into the fields, and what he is sent to do, he does. When asked “whom seek ye?” he says, “I seek my brethren.” He carried out the mission on which Jacob sent him. Later on you find him tempted and tried, having been sold into Potiphar’s house, Potiphar gets an instinct of the trustworthiness of Joseph, so that he puts the whole of his house into Joseph’s hands. Joseph is tested and tempted, but he would not betray his trust. He will not take one step that would mark a betrayer. That takes him into prison, but he is not long there before all the prisoners are put into his hands. The prison keeper finds that he can be trusted. He comes out of the prison to bind Pharaoh’s princes, and is given a place next to Pharaoh in Egypt. He uses all that power in a trustworthy way; he uses it to secure the supremacy of Pharaoh absolutely, so that the ultimate result of his administration is that everything comes into Pharaoh’s hands.
How trustworthy he was in the exercise of discipline. He will not take any short cuts. We see his heart moved with the utmost tenderness to his brethren, but he waits in patience the whole period, until he reaches the end — the end of the Lord — and then makes himself known. All these things dear brethren, speak typically of Christ, as the One who can be trusted at every point. One would just like to connect that with the end of John 3. It says “The Father loveth the Son and hath put all things into his hand.” That is like the blessing pronounced on Joseph by Jacob — “blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb,” shall be upon his head. He can be trusted with them. The blessings which reach to “the utmost bound of the everlasting hills” are on “the head of him who was separated from his brethren.” Now Jacob had learned that Joseph could be trusted, but he had learned that Reuben could not be trusted. A painful lesson we all have to learn. Reuben was his firstborn, and when he was born, no doubt wonderful hopes were found in Jacob’s heart for his son. Parents know the pleasure they have in a firstborn. What hopes, what possibilities are entertained. So as to Reuben Jacob says “Thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.” No doubt that was what Jacob had hoped for, but what he finds, dear brethren, is that Reuben cannot be trusted, but that he was a betrayer of the most sacred relationship on earth. Nothing is safe in Reuben’s hands.
We are all gradually learning that, are we not? as to what we are in the flesh. There is nothing that can be trusted to our hands, the most sacred and hallowed thing will be corrupted by man according to flesh. Jacob had to learn that in Reuben, and so Joseph takes Reuben’s place of firstborn by moral worth. By right, the birthright was Reuben’s but Jacob says, all the blessing shall come on the head of Joseph. I thought that had a bearing on John 3: “the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.” God has entrusted everything to the hands of Christ; and John shows us the things.
In the fourth chapter we see that God has put into the hands of Christ the administration of living water. The Lord said to the woman, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” John the Baptist realised something of the greatness of Christ when he said “He must increase, but I must decrease.” He said, “I baptise with water (a great service that was) but there standeth one among you... whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.” “The same is he that baptiseth with the Holy Ghost,” John 1: 26-33. The Lord Jesus Christ has been entrusted with the administration of living water, let us ponder the grace in which He administers it.
John says “Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well,” chapter 4: 6, and the Lord said to that poor thirsty woman of Samaria, “Ask.” If she knew what was available in Him, if she knew who had said to her “Give me to drink,” she would have asked and He would have given living water. He is prepared to give the living water to every one that asks of Him. It is in His hand “the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand.” The Lord could be entrusted with the administration of this precious gift, and every thirsty one who asks for it can have it, for He came to make it available to every man.
In John 5, the Lord says “For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself” — what a wonderful thing that is! As to His Person it is true that “In him was life” but I am not speaking of that side. Being here as the Sent One of God it has been given to the Son to have life in Himself in view of communicating life. Think of the greatness of One who is entrusted with the power to communicate life to man! Men would like to have ability to communicate life; they can take life, but they have no power to give it. It is something infinitely great for us to consider that the blessed Lord can speak to men and communicate life to them; He says “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live,” John 5: 25. How we see that set forth in John 11 — Lazarus is sick, and Mary and Martha thought the Lord would come at once. They sent a message to Him, “he whom thou lovest is sick,” but He abode two days where He was; He waited to allow death its full power, before He used His power to give life. He says “I am the resurrection and the life.” He knew what was required, and He could be trusted to use that power for the glory of God; as Jesus said “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God,” John 11: 4.
John proceeds to tell us of many things that have been given into the hands of Christ. He was given power over all flesh, John 17: 2. How the Lord stands out in that way.
Nebuchadnezzar was nothing to compare with Him, nor was Adam. Think of One who can be entrusted with authority over “all flesh!” And what for? That He should give eternal life to as many as God had given Him. The Lord speaks to the Father of “the words which thou gavest me.” He could be trusted with them; every detail of the mind of God was given to Him to communicate to men. “The words which thou gavest me — I have given unto them.” He did not keep them simply for Himself. Peter discovered that when he said “thou hast the words of eternal life.” So again, dear brethren, as to the saints, the Lord could say to His Father, “Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition. “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name.” He could be trusted with every one belonging to God. “The glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.” The Lord can be trusted with everything, to carry out all according to God.
Then at the end we have the wonderful word, “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it,” John 18: 11. He could be trusted even to drink that cup. It was given Him of the Father, and the Lord’s closing words in John’s gospel are “It is finished.” “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” The Lord left nothing incomplete. Incompleteness marks man; there are defects in everything that man does, but what marks God is that He finishes His work. We read in Genesis 2: 1, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” They have stood ever since. The Lord Jesus was given a work to finish, and He could say, “It is finished.”
Well dear brethren, the trustworthiness of Christ continues in heaven, for He is there interceding for us. He has entered into heaven itself, “now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Who can tell what each one and all of us owe to the intercession of Christ? The interests of every individual saint are in the hands of Christ, and He intercedes for us. He is carrying on the work of God; it goes on in His hands. Then we come to the day when He “must reign.” How one loves the thought! It is just like Joseph, who could not be kept in the prison, he must come forth. The Lord must reign till He puts every enemy under His feet; until there is not a lawless will in the universe. Then in supreme trustworthiness, He delivers up the kingdom to God, “that God may be all in all.” Everything having been brought into subjection to the Son, all has been completed that was entrusted to Him.
If we make room in our affections for Christ, something of what we read in Proverbs 31 will come to light. It reads, “Who can find a virtuous woman, for her price is far above rubies? The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.” “She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.” This refers to the assembly, and these features will be seen in every local assembly, indeed in every individual composing the companies. The first feature seen is, “the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her.” How little we have corresponded to Christ. How trustworthy saints were at the beginning, and that is what the Spirit of God is looking for.
Simon the sorcerer said to Peter, “Here is money,” but Peter replies, “thy money go with thee to perdition.” Ananias and Sapphira came to God with a lie, and God judged Ananias for this; then Peter says to Sapphira, “the feet of the young men which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.” He entirely endorsed the judgment of God. God will not have lies in the assembly. Ananias falls dead and the young men carried him out, then Sapphira comes in and Peter says she shall be carried out also. Had he made light of their sin, he would have betrayed the trust.
God wants us to judge lies. At the root of nearly every sorrow among the people of God, there is what is false. These sorrows originate with the “father of lies,” he is the root of every difficulty. While what is false is allowed, the Lord cannot bring about trustworthiness in us; He desires truth in the inward parts; so that He may trust us in some measure with what is proper to the assembly. “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her,” should be true of us now. Soon the word will be fulfilled “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.” She has been loyal to Him, and she is not ashamed for Him to come.
The assembly in Philadelphia had not denied His name — that is, the name of the Husband. Philadelphia had been true to Him. Thus the Lord is seeking, dear brethren that there should be at the end, that which He can trust, which is true to His name, and that we should do Him good and not evil all the days of our life. The Lord wants continuance — all the days, that we may not dishonour His name. Those who are younger, may have more days; the Lord is taking up young men and young women today in view of maintaining freshness and power till He comes. It is not necessarily that they are going to remain here a long time, but the Lord gives power to continue. One would desire that the Lord might help us to be trustworthy to the end in affection to Him.
Jacob’s soul at the end of his course is in ecstasy as he thinks of Joseph. He has many humbling things to say about the others, but unlimited blessings are to be on the head of Joseph. Every moral perfection and glory will be seen in Christ, and as we ponder these glories we can let our hearts go out in extolling His name. He is trustworthy in regard of everything that is committed to Him. The apostle Paul says to Timothy, “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him,” and then He charges Timothy, “Keep by the Holy Spirit which dwells in you, the good deposit entrusted,” 2 Timothy 1: 14.
One would like to leave that word with you, that it may re-echo in the hearts of the young men and women. The Lord has put something into your hearts, and whatever it is, keep it by the Holy Spirit, that it may not be lost. May the Lord help us to find our joy in the contemplation of Christ, into whose hands all is committed, and will be held in perfect trustworthiness for ever.