“THE LORD HAS NEED OF THEM”

F. C. Mutton

Matthew 21: 1–7; Acts 15: 36–41 16: 1–3 (to “took him”); 1 Kings 19: 19–21

I wish, as the Lord helps, to speak of how persons (and the colt and the ass would typify persons) are taken up remarkably and sovereignly in relation to the will of God. I trust we all very earnestly desire that our time together might lead to committal to the will of God and to the testimony of our Lord. My impression as to this first passage in Matthew 21 is summed up in these words, “The Lord has need of them”. That is the position today, that the Lord has need of you. It is marvellous that it should be so, marvellous grace that would take us up and make some use of us. “The Lord has need of them”—He needs you, and He needs me. Let none of us think that we are insignificant and of no interest to the Lord. He has need of each of us, and in a meeting like this would call to us in a specific way that we might, yield to His claim.

How rich in associations this area is, Jerusalem, Bethphage, the mount of Olives, whether we think of Jerusalem as the city where Jesus was to be betrayed, mocked, and denied, and outside which He was to be crucified; or whether we think of it, as this gospel speaks of it, as “the city of the great King” (Matthew 5: 35). Supremely great matters were at hand as the Lord moved into this area. And as He moves into it He has a need. We can say quite simply that as the Lord currently moves on in relation to His testimony He needs persons. “Go into the village over against you. and immediately ye will find an ass tied, and a colt with it; loose them and lead them to me “.

May we each of us realise that the Lord has been over our lives and our circumstances right up to this moment, and may it be that at this time we hear His call. In a certain sense we have been detained, “tied”, restricted mercifully and protectively, kept from a great deal that would damage, spoil and impair us in relation to what the Lord would do with us. How great the mercy of being brought up in a baptised household, for example, the preservation and the salvation there is in it. And there is also the protection and salvation of being among the saints. These are things for which we should give thanks. But the other side is your answer, and mine, to the Lord’s call. The Lord sent two disciples here saying, “Loose them and lead them to me”. Such an occasion as this the Lord would use for our loosing. A good deal has been before us, not only what is positive, but also what is negative, that we might be loosed from what is earthly, worldly, and sinful. Not that that is exactly the interpretation of this passage because the ass and colt were loosed from a protective setting. Nevertheless, the Lord would use an occasion like this to bring things to a certain climax, that we are loosed and thus become unreservedly available to Him.

I would like to ask you, especially the beloved younger brethren, is that the direction of your desires and longings, to be unreservedly at the disposal of Jesus?—He who has been unreservedly committed to us in relation to our needs and our salvation. He who has gone to the uttermost lengths for us in devotion, love, and sacrifice is calling for you and for me today, because He has need of us, to be unreservedly available to Him.

Now, we might deprecate ourselves. We might say, ‘I am very young; I do not know much. When I hear brothers talking, it makes me think I do not know anything at all’. Well, how very little any of us knows. It is not a question of what we know, although we would love to expand in our understanding of divine things; it is a question of simply answering in love to the love of Jesus toward us. That is what is called for, simple affection that would commit us unreservedly to Jesus because He has so loved us. I wonder if that is found with us. I believe it is, and I would encourage our beloved younger brethren especially to commit themselves unreservedly to the Lord Jesus for His use—“The Lord has need of them”. He immediately utilised what thus became available. It says, “The disciples having gone and done as Jesus had ordered them, brought the ass and the colt and put their garments upon them, and he sat on them”.

And then commenced this scene of great dignity and significance, really prefiguring the world to come when Christ shall take up His universal rights. Here there were just these two animals available to Him as He came into the city of the great King. And such is the position now; He is publicly rejected. What a privilege to be available to carry Him into the area where He is loved and honoured. You say, ‘How can I do it?’ Well, we read earlier of Epaphras, a praying man. What influence, what effect, a praying man, a praying woman, a praying youth, or a praying young sister can have in enabling the Lord to come into a local situation. I am very, very conscious of the effect of prayer in such occasions as this. And these prayers make way for the Lord to come in. Your supplication to Him, your prayers to Him, your secret exercises—He will come in upon them among the brethren. It is fine to see in this passage what speaks of young and old together. So the young have a part to play, an essential part. What we read of in Romans 12 earlier would indicate this, that there is a sphere of constructive, positive exercise that each of us can take up and diligently attend to for the promotion of the welfare of the work of God and the comfort and encouragement of the beloved people of God. So it says, “He sat on them”. He came in upon them. It works in many ways. He can come in upon your spirit if you are an exercised sister or an exercised brother. Such are with the Lord as to things generally and locally. The Lord will come in upon that. It gives Him, as it were, a means of access and entry in power and will enhance the tone and wealth and richness of the meetings, and enhance the sense of the Lord’s presence as He comes in. May we each then respond to this word, “The Lord has need of them”.

When we come to Acts we have another kind of situation, and it is not unlike some in which we have found ourselves, humbling situations. It was a situation the effect of which would be most disturbing, disheartening and discouraging that one of the most prominent and attractive servants of the Lord had turned aside from Paul. “There arose therefore very warm feeling”.

This was between two honoured men—Paul and Barnabas. As you read about Barnabas earlier and the kind of man he was, “son of consolation”, “a good man”, you would hardly think such a crisis possible, but it happened, and it has happened often. And another sorrow was that a very promising younger man, Mark, had gone back home from the work. He had a wonderful opportunity; we could say that the Lord had need of him; but he drew back from his committal. He went back home when there was work to be done—he abandoned it. What sorrow this must have caused amongst the brethren! There might have been misgiving as to whether the work of God could go forward in such circumstances. But it will go forward. Nothing can stand in its way. If some turn aside, others become available. So here two men are lost—temporarily—Barnabas and Mark—but two others become available. It says, “Paul having chosen Silas went forth”. Paul is continuing. He went forth. It is a word of purpose and power. The work is to go on, the great Pauline work. And not Paul alone, he would have Silas go with him. Paul’s heart must have been sad and burdened, and yet he would be comforted that there was a young man available in Silas, who had already proved himself in this chapter, to comfort him in the sore sorrow of the loss of his fellow-workman, Barnabas, and the unavailability of Mark.

Are you and I going to be available for the continuance of what is Pauline, that it shall continue in its own power? That it shall go forward and prosper is undoubted; but I would love to be with Paul. So Silas at this moment of crisis is comfortingly and strengtheningly available to go forth with Paul.

So they come to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, what a fine discovery, what an encouragement! The Lord had planned and ordered something for the comfort of His beloved servant. There is a precious feature of the work of God in Timotheus just waiting for him. So the weakened position is to be doubly strengthened, not only by Silas, but by Timotheus. Is it going to be strengthened by yourself and by myself? Are you and I to be available? As to Silas, “Paul having chosen Silas went forth”. As to Timothy, “Him would Paul have go forth with him”. Timothy had credentials. It says he “had a good testimony of the brethren in Lystra and Iconium”. He was a faithful, committed local brother. Let us be that. Let us prove ourselves in that sense where the Lord has set us. Do not let us seek what is spectacular; let us just seek to be faithful and devoted among the brethren where the Lord has set us. Let us be happily content to do the humblest service. He “had a good testimony of the brethren”. I think they would say, He does what needs to be done; he is diligent; he loves the Lord, he loves the truth, he serves the brethren practically. He would be a comfort to the brethren. Those, we might say, were the qualifications. “Him would Paul have go forth with him”; what an honour, what a privilege; and it is open to you and to me. I would just say this again, that the great Pauline work is continuing and shall be completed, and I would like to be in it, and in full, unreserved support of it.

The Lord has need of such persons as Paul had need of. Paul loved to associate Timothy with himself in various circumstances, and before long in the prison in Philippi we find Paul and Silas in the wonderful partnership of prayer and praising. What a privilege to be with Paul in prison, to witness that man’s buoyancy of spirit, his confidence when the whole situation seemed to be crumbling and the way seemed almost to be shut up. What an experience to be in the stocks with Paul, in suffering with him and in salvation with him, and then to see God’s resolution of that situation as the jailer and all his house were secured. The Pauline testimony will go on. There will be apparent reverses and disasters, as there have been. But it will go on because it is the will of God and the work of God, and the Lord has need of you and me, that we might be joined in the work. Paul uses the terms “fellow-bondman” and “fellow-labourer”. May they embrace us. As we said earlier, the testimony is not a sphere for spectators at all. It is a sphere for fellow-workmen with Paul in the work of God.

When we come to Kings, it is a most interesting portion. The service of Elijah was nearing its end and he was told, “Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint prophet in thy stead”. Someone was needed for the continuation in power of the work of the testimony.

There is, of course the element of divine sovereignty in all these matters. There is a striking illustration of that in Simon the Cyrenian. You will remember that he was coming from the fields and was laid hold of to bear the cross of Jesus behind Him (Luke 23: 26). It was an extraordinary sovereign movement of God that that man, a Cyrenian, coming from maybe a thousand miles away in Libya, coming from the fields, was chosen by divine selection to share the reproach of Christ, to bear His cross behind Him. Heaven is making its choice and its selection and sovereignty enters into it, but on our side exercise and desire, and above all love for Christ, also enter into it and, if I may so say, put us in the way of God’s sovereign operations.

So here it says, “And he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was ploughing with twelve yokes before him, and he with the twelfth”. There are certain features about Elisha that are very significant. He was the twelfth. I do not think he was an aspiring, pushful kind of person at all. Such persons are not going to be of much use in the testimony.

Paul says, “I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and the gentleness of the Christ”, 2 Corinthians 10: 1. That is the kind of person whom the Lord can make use of. Here is a man prepared to be twelfth, doing the work, but the last in the line. I am pretty sure he had no idea of what was going to happen to him. “And Elijah went over to him, and cast his mantle on him”. I do not know what Elisha had been thinking about just before—perhaps concentrating on the straightness of the furrows, perhaps thinking of the harvest; suddenly this happens to him. And may something that corresponds to it happen among us at this time, a sense of something being laid upon us.

Paul says to Timothy, “This charge … I commit to thee”. Something was being transferred in a certain sense from Paul to Timothy. Something is being transferred here from Elijah to Elisha. Paul is concerned as to Timothy taking on responsibility, the charge, concerned too that he should commit what was entrusted to him to faithful men that they in turn should commit it to others also. So the testimony goes on, we might say from generation to generation. But are you and I available to take it on? “And Elijah went over to him, and cast his mantle on him”. I do not doubt that in a sense Elijah is a type of Christ putting in his claim to you and me, bringing us under His influence, as Paul says, “The love of the Christ constrains us”, 2 Corinthians 5: 14. What the effect would have been on Elisha to find himself enfolded in the mantle of the great prophet. Yet he obviously was not frightened. I think he had an impression not only of something being committed to him, but of resources to carry it through, which he was very soon to prove in the double portion of Elijah’s spirit.

His first reaction is good. “He left the oxen, and ran after Elijah”. May that be our reaction as the Lord speaks to us. Let there be a haste and an urgency to commit ourselves to the Lord.

But, as with ourselves so often, Elisha’s was a mixed committal, “Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow thee”. Just let me go home and see mother and father, then I will come. But Elijah challenges that—“Go back again; for what have I done to thee?”, as if to say, If that is your outlook, putting your own things first, that is not the kind of person I require. As the Lord said, “He who loves father or mother above me is not worthy of me”, Matthew 10: 37. That means that the claims of the love of Christ and the work of the Lord are to be paramount over every other claim. But as we put them first, every other righteous claim will be duly attended to. “And he returned back from him, and took the yoke of oxen, and killed them, and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen”. It shows that Elijah’s word had sunk in and had a revolutionary effect. Elisha’s whole outlook now was not in relation to his ploughing, to that field, but to another field. It was total, irrevocable, sacrificial committal. Now the Lord loves that, and may it be found with us. It was found with Paul. He said he had suffered the loss of all things, and counted them filth for Christ. What an irrevocable committal was his, and how the Lord honoured it!

Now certain right instincts come to light immediately in Elisha in what is sacrificial. He “took the yoke of oxen, and killed them, and boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate”. Nobody told him to do it. I would only comment that the Lord greatly values love and consideration for His beloved people. Let that underlie all activity and service. Let not service be an end in itself, but let there be affection and care for the saints and the desire to supply, whatever the cost, whatever needs to be provided for the beloved people of God. “He gave to the people, and they ate”—he gave them food. The Lord Jesus said, “The Son of man did not come to be ministered to, but to minister”, Mark 10: 45. That was the great principle of His service; others were His object. He was not, in that sense, desiring to be the object of the service of others. He was among His own as the One who served. And at this early phase of his call Elisha had this instinct.

He “gave to the people, and they ate. And he arose and went after Elijah, and ministered to him”. We see these holy, right instincts and desires finding expression. He has ceased to be immersed in his own field of activity and is finding an object and outlet now in the people of God and in the great servant of Jehovah at that time; he ministered to him. Later it says he poured water on the hands of Elijah. He was a comfort and support to him. It is like that little company that Paul had, like-minded, committed, and devoted, when so few were available, every one valued and treasured and supportive of the great work with which Paul was entrusted in relation to the will of God. My longing is that what has been before us may result in personal committal to the Lord, and to the work of the Lord, until He come.

Address at Macduff
24 May 1980

One or two have expressed concern as to a statement in a preaching by Mr. C. Hammond in the March 1982 issue, p.5—‘The Lord Jesus left the status of deity (not deity itself), to come here’. One correspondent quoted Mr. J. Taylor (Vol. 57, p.266) where, answering a question as to expressions as to the Lord leaving the status of deity or leaving the form of God, J.T. said, should not say those were scriptural remarks. We cannot restrict a divine Person as to what He can do or must do. To bring in the word must is not right’. The author is in full agreement with Mr. Taylor’s emphatic objection to the negative assertion.

As to the statement made in the Plainfield preaching, the author writes: ‘After sober consideration it is felt right to withdraw the statement, with regret that it might give concern, even though it was followed by the words in the parenthesis which at the time it was felt covered what was due to the Lord’. The editor agrees as to the wisdom of withdrawal, although it was an expression used by Mr. J. N. Darby (‘Coll. Wrtgs.’ Vol. 32, p.420), and regrets any anxiety caused in relation to this holy subject.

Published by F. C. Mutton, 22 Christchurch Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 4QY, England Printed by Crystal Stationery, 22 Rushdene Road, Billericay, Essex, CM12 9JY