The Apostasy
ITS RAPID APPROACH, AND SATAN’S EFFORT BY IT TO PRODUCE DEPRESSION AND ISOLATION. BOTH ARE WRONG, GOD IS ALL-SUFFICIENT
Before the giving up of the truth there is always the existence of a mixed state of things where the truth has been known—a state wholly repulsive to the Lord. It is what is called in Revelation 3 “neither cold nor hot”. We find that it was so in Israel, there was the worship of Jehovah going on at the same time as the worship of Baal.
And to come to our own day, the apostasy draws nigh. The giving up of God and His truth by what is now called Christendom is so clearly prophesied in so many passages of scripture—and its dark shadow comes so rapidly upon us in these days that no honest soul but must stand convinced of the awful future that is approaching for this world. The contemplation of it, along with the thought of the utter powerlessness of the efforts of any—and of the best—to stay its progress, must, apart from the sustaining comfort of the Spirit of God, fill the heart with dismay; and tend at least to paralyse, if not to nullify, every effort for the service of God and the blessing of the saints.
Yet this fact is the truth, and if we would be for God today, the truth must be faced in all its naked entirety; for in bowing to it alone, shall we be instructed in what the path is, and where it is, that He would have us in. But what is important for us to understand is the mixed state of indifference which precedes the apostasy which exists today. Where are we as to this?
No heart can exist, which in any feeble measure is true to the Lord, and be unaffected by the fact that indifference to what are the interests of Christ is stealing upon us with rapid and silent steps. Its poisoned breath has produced a deadening influence on all around. Adherents and satellites to this state of things, and those newly converted to its doctrines, may be counted by myriads. Nor is it where empty profession without life exists, and there alone, that we find this indifferentism to the truth. No; all around us are Christian men—men who preach the gospel—yet men who are found catering for the masses and providing a preaching and a teaching which will still allow to exist ‘THE WILL OF MAN’, and even more than this. The preaching and the teaching current among Christians today not only does not refuse the will of man, but openly announces its intention to use it to assist the will of God, and to civilise and educate men to receive the gospel!
This spirit of the age—indifference—is fast plunging this so-called ‘Christian world’ into open apostasy. The ‘vox populi’ which is heard in Christian countries (and here ENGLAND takes the lead) is pretty much as follows: ‘Christianity may only exist if it tolerate my will; if it do not this, then no Christianity for me’. Thank God that there are bright exceptions to this, but I speak of the voice of those whose ways are heard to speak even louder than their language, and whose acts prove, not the language of the lip, but that of the heart.
Now the tendency of such a state of things on a “man of God” is twofold. It tends (first) to depress him, and (second) to lead him into isolation. Both are wrong, as we shall try to shew from scripture. Yet in such a time and in such a state of things, the soul has to learn deep lessons with God. Depression and isolation, or the tendency to them, are incipient features of the approach of apostasy; but God has resources for faith, though the approach of a day of open departure from the truth He does not stay.
Having spoken of the ‘will of man’, it may be well first to ask what place is given to it in the word of God, especially in that part written since the death of Christ. Does God tolerate what we call the WILL? If we let scripture reply to the question, and bow to its reply, may we not say that we are taking the only wise and safe course? Now the activity of man’s will (all will admit) is the spring of all the actions of unregenerate human life. You cannot confine these actions of the will to those which are justly termed (because infringements of common decency and worship) wrong actions. There are other actions of the will than these. We know that there are activities which come from us continually when there is no infraction of human or moral relations. But if the will suggests them, and then acts from itself, without reference to any superior or restraining power and without considering it—this spring of action being there, is what the word of God denominates “sin”. “Sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3: 4 NT), that is, it owns no law, human or divine, which is greater than itself. Now this will of man, which is sin, receives no toleration at the hands of God. In Christianity, as it was given to us by Christ and His apostles (which is the only standard, and one to which all must come) we read: “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins” (v 5) and this refusal of it is found in the same epistle which informs us of what sin is. If then to tolerate the will is not Christ-like, nor apostolic, it is wrong to tolerate it today. When human will bows to no controlling power save itself, it is “SIN”, however moral, educated, intellectual, refined, or religious it may be.
This factor then, the will, must be wholly refused in the things of God, though we may regard it from the most attractive side. Man is in a state in which he needs help. He is away from God. But all the philanthropic efforts of the will of his fellow-man (admirable as they may be) will never help him God-ward. If we introduce them, we do not help on the Christianity of Christ, but the apostasy of Christendom.
The servant of God who in this day refuses to own or to use the ‘will of man’ may, as far as his fellow-servants are concerned, be looked upon with an eye of suspicion, and may even have to walk without their fellowship. They recognise some little of good in human nature—that is, in the will. But in refusing to own or use that which God does not own or use, he is not seeking isolation from his brethren. If they leave him, and God writes His approval upon him by using him, his danger then commences. The enemy is not slow to see it, and will seek to occupy him with the thought of his own importance. This is in order to lead him to separate himself from his brethren. This is the object of Satan, and it is a great evil, but one to which depression may lead. The narrowest path with God will be always accompanied by the largest heart for the saints. Let us remember it ever—that the path of a man of God is to “walk with God”, and to work “with him;” and if others cannot walk with us in that path (in which we see self-will is refused) we must go on alone.
In the time of Israel’s apostasy (1 Kings 19), the prophet Elijah was a “man of God”. We there see that he is greatly depressed at the state of God’s people and testimony. “It is enough”, he says, as though the poor faithful but depressed heart can bear no more, “now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers”, 1 Kings 19: 4. “I only am left”—and with this sorrow in his heart he fled from the face of Jezebel. This is depression. The prophet is dismayed at the dark day which has settled down upon himself and upon God’s people. Nor is this depression unaccountable when we see that he is looking at them and at himself, but he is leaving God out of his calculations. Had God changed? Well we know that He had not. He meets the prophet in order to shew him that He was the same. For what was the only thing that would profit God’s people at such a time? It was power—only power could be of any avail. And power was there, but it was in God. This is what the depressed servant had to learn. It was not in the prophet, however faithful—not in a people, however blessed as God’s chosen ones—no; it was in God—in a God who was and is unchangeable. This is the blessed and eternal resource of the weakest faith in the darkest day.
Elijah has to learn this, “God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God” (Ps 62: 11)—and God Himself condescends to become his teacher. “And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice”. All these testified to the might of His power, who was nevertheless allowing things apparently to take their course in that day. But the servant should not have needed this manifestation of the thunder of His majesty—he should have been in the quiet of communion with Him. And Elijah knew this well—his heart at once responded to that still small voice one well-known in quieter moments. “And it was so, that when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave”, 1 Kings 19: 11-13.
Having thus shewn the servant His power, the Lord next shews him that he is not in his proper place. He has fled from his post through depression, and the next word he must hear is “Go, return”. He has to retrace his steps with a fresh reminder of the One who is watching over them, and that isolation is not God’s path for him. But there is more even than this. He has to learn that in the midst of his own supposed importance (the “I only am left”) God has further resources. God’s eye is on His future king and on His future prophet. “Elisha … shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room”—“Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel”, God is not taken by surprise at anything that has happened. All is but working out His own purposes, and what we want is to know them better.
These are important lessons for us to learn today. Depression is not right: it too often, if not always, leaves God out. Isolation is not right, which is often the result of depression, and which means giving the people of God up. When God does this we may, and not till then. What God’s purposes and counsels were at that moment, the depressed and isolated prophet did not know. God graciously instructs him in them, cares even for the need of his body by providing the “cake baken on the coals”, and putting the “cruse of water at his head” watching near, while the weary servant sleeps! How tender is all this personal care, and then He unfolds to him His own resources as to His people, adequate to meet far more than every thought of His servant’s heart! Truly we may say, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”, Ps 46: 1.
That is, God loves us, even to caring for what we eat and drink, but He can do without us and carry on His work by means of others if He pleases, and He will do so, if we turn out of the path of faith. It is a needed lesson for us to learn, humbling as it may be, and it shews us what we are. It was a bright day when God so mightily used His servant in the destruction of the four hundred prophets of Baal, but in Elijah God was the same God still, though unseen in His actions. May we remember this, and not tempt God, for this we do when we distrust Him.
For our day, God’s future king is Christ, and God will also continue to speak to His people; but it is by another if we turn away from Him. May we learn the lesson and learn what is in the mind of God today in the midst of the rapid approach of the general apostasy of Christendom, and may we remember how Satan wants to work upon us in it all, and so to resist him and be kept, humbly walking in that activity of faith which counts only upon Him, for His Name’s sake.
From Helps in Things Concerning Himself—vol 2, 1892
