TWO PERTINENT QUESTIONS

E. Palmer

James 4: 14; Colossians 3: 1–4; Genesis 47: 3; 1 Timothy 4: 12–16

I desire, dear brethren, to raise these two pertinent questions—firstly, What is your life? and then— What is your occupation? Of course, with the Spirit’s help, it would be possible to preach the glad tidings on the basis of these two questions, but I trust I address those in whom God’s work is. Perhaps everybody here belongs to Christ, perhaps everybody here knows that His precious blood has cleansed them from their sins; if so, I address those that belong to Him.

James raises this question in regard to a situation that evidently existed, and he says, “for what is your life?”; he is referring, of course, to our natural life; “for what is your life? It is even a vapour, appearing for a little while, and then disappearing”. How reducing that is, is it not? How it puts things in perspective. How it makes us see that any one altogether absorbed with the things that are here is spending time and energy, maybe involving much anxiety, in regard to what in itself has no real substance; a vapour has no substance, or very little, and is passing away, disappearing. I think this is one of the most telling passages in the Scriptures to show what the existence here of man, apart from God, really is, “appearing for a little while, and then disappearing”. But every person who has confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ, and an abiding hope in what He has done, who has faith in His blood, that precious blood, is possessed of a life that will never ever pass away.

I referred to Colossians because of that expression, “Christ … who is our life”. I raise the question with myself, and I raise it with you, beloved and respected brethren, Is Christ consciously your life? In this section believers are addressed and exhorted to seek the things that are above where the Christ is, to seek those things; not the things on the earth, not the things that are going to disappear, but to “seek the things which are above, where the Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God”. Oh to be occupied with that Person in the place of power!

Do you not think that is strengthening? “Have your mind on the things that above, not on the things that are on the earth”. The latter are disappearing. I venture to suggest that this is a real challenge. But let me say this, that as this is taken up, the things that we must needs be occupied with as on earth—for after all we are still here in flesh and blood conditions—will be regulated not by the dictates of our own hearts but in relation to the One who is in the place of power. That is a great encouragement to our hearts, that He is in the place of power at the right hand of God. Paul says, “For ye have died”. You say, But it was He who died.

Yes, He died for us; thank God He did; the penalty that rested upon us He took Himself, but in this scripture it is that we have died with Him. What does that mean? I am identified with all that was set aside judicially in His death and I take my place, there. Then, having died with Him, part of the wonderful truth of God is that we were also buried with Him; we have gone out of God’s sight in His burial. That is the end of everything; but the end of everything opens the way to the beginning of everything, the beginning of our true life.

We really have only one life; then I say to my soul, and to the soul of every person here. If

we have only one life, let us live in it. What marks it? Affections, wonderful affections; affections for God the Father; affections for Christ and for the Spirit, yes, and love for the brethren; that is really life—“your life is hid with the Christ in God”. People do not understand, do they? They do not know what you live for; they do not know what you do.

No, “your life is hid with the Christ in God”. It is secure—absolutely secure. Is there resource? There is abundant resource in God to maintain that life. Can it be interfered with?

No, for it is hid with the Christ in God. There is going to be a time when Christ will be manifested. John, too, speaks of that in his first epistle, he says that when Jesus is manifested we shall be like Him (see 1 John 3: 2); but here it says, “When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him”. What will mark that manifestation? It will be “in glory”—the outshining of God in the Person of Jesus and those that are His. What a day it will be! These things are to be in our minds, are to be in our hearts; they are to regulate the practical working out, beloved, of things down here. I think we would thus put different values on practical things. The things that we sometimes think are of prime importance would take their place in relation to what is of all importance, and that is the things of Christ. So the question is raised—What is your life? Christ is our life. Does everybody subscribe to that? Oh, you say, it is true. I say, Is it practically true? I say that in the sense of that word that we had earlier, “exhorting”, but in the footnote to that word it says, ‘beseeching’, and love is in that. Is it practically true of us? I am raising the question with myself first; I feel the edge of it as I appreciate, perhaps a little more, and freshly, the blessedness of the truth that Christ is our life. It is “our life”, you notice, our life together.

Well, I turn to Genesis. Pharaoh said to these brethren, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Thy servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers”. Every true shepherd has a heart. As we think of the Lord Jesus His was such a heart that He laid down His life for the sheep. But every true shepherd has a heart for the sheep. We said earlier that we shall have no respect for one another unless we love one another. “Thy servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers”; that was their occupation. It makes me think of Peter who in John 21 had been fishing and got that haul, a hundred and fifty-three great fishes. That had special significance in relation to what was on hand at that time, but I think that later, when the Lord had to say to Peter in regard to that three-fold challenge as to his affections, Peter virtually exchanged his net and fishing hook for a shepherd’s crook; I think so; he changed the hook for a crook. The Lord says to him, “Feed my lambs ... Shepherd my sheep … Feed my sheep”, (John 21: 16, 17). That was his commission. In his epistle he exhorts others to do the same. He speaks of “the shepherd and overseer of your souls”—Jesus, of course, but he exhorts others in this matter of shepherding, and then he speaks of “the chief shepherd”.

What is your occupation? Is it under the chief Shepherd? Are the directions from the chief Shepherd arbitrary? They are full of affection with regard to the sheep that none other could possibly have because He knows them through and through, every one of them. What is your occupation? Are you under direction? Are you concerned about the beloved saints, concerned about every believer who trusts in than precious blood of Jesus and is sealed by the Spirit of God? I feel the test of doing a bit of shepherding. You know, the shepherd brings the sheep into the right path

and keeps them there. Oh how we have been shepherded! We have come under the touch of His own hand, that coming through His own very often. “Thy servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers”. I would like to be occupied more in shepherding; one feels one’s tardiness in it, but I believe that the Lord would help us to see that what He values is cared for, and it is quite close at hand in our own places, and maybe we may have the privilege of touching God’s work in others too.

Now in Timothy there is a word to a young man, “Let no one despise thy youth”. Some of us who are getting older are constantly looking around to see God’s work appearing in committal in the younger brothers and sisters—yes, and sisters. If the Lord is pleased to maintain the testimony here a little longer some of us are going to depart to be with Him.

Thank God for the youth! My concern is that the occupation of the youth might be such that they will carry some of the features set out here. “Be a model of the believers”. It is not a static model, it is a working model—“in word, in conduct”—manner of life, that is—“in love, in faith, in purity”. That is the model. Of course, Peter says with regard to Jesus that we have been given a Model in Him.

“In word”; that means I am careful in what say; I do not descend to the language of the world; do not do that, beloved; I do not think that careless and flippant expressions become a believer. I have had to face it, so I do not speak in any unfeeling way. If we are careful about our words as we move around, we shall be available with regard to a word as we meet one another, a word about Christ. You cannot expect to take the words of the world upon your lips and then speak about Christ; it does not work. No, let us be careful and we shall have the word. Then “in conduct”—

manner of life; the whole deportment of the believer is to be regulated in relation to Christ in love. That is the formula of respect; let us keep that in our minds; love and respect go hand in hand. Then it says, “in faith”. In Hebrews 10 the apostle speaks of “full assurance of faith”—

unbounded confidence in God. He is worthy of our unbounded confidence. Then, “in purity”.

What a word that is at this present time—purity in word and thought. You say, I have an impure thought. But what do we do about it? We have One in the Person of the blessed Spirit who will serve us and give us power to judge and to dismiss that thought as unworthy of that life that we have in Christ; He will give us power to judge and dismiss it instantly. A beloved brother, formerly in London, now with the Lord, said that, if I have an impure thought it is on account of what I am naturally. If I retain it and dwell upon it it becomes my thought and then I am responsible for it. I cannot help these things coming into my mind, but I am to dismiss them. The Spirit is here to help us, beloved, so let us take it up. Purity is a word that is hardly in the world’s vocabulary at the present time.

“Till I come”, says the apostle, “give thyself to reading”. That includes reading out to others, something that I think is needed. If .I might just be practical, we get these valuable books, these monthly books that we value very much; I think it is a good thing in a household to take opportunity to read them out when together; I think it helps. We get a book and with two or three in a household sit down and read it out; then those persons have read the book and you can hand it to somebody else. “Till I come give thyself to reading”. Of course, primarily it would be the Holy Scriptures. And then, “to exhortation, to teaching. Be not negligent of the gift that is in thee, which has

been given to thee through prophecy, with the imposition of the hands of the elderhood”.

Now we come to this verse that bears on ‘What is your occupation?’ “Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them, that thy progress may be manifest to all”. Be like the Lord Jesus. You say, What makes you say that? Mr. Darby’s note; he refers to what the Lord Jesus, when a boy here, said to Joseph and Mary, that He was to be occupied in the things of His Father. “Occupy thyself with these things; be wholly in them”. What does it mean? It means that the things of our Lord Jesus Christ, the things of the Father, and the things of the Spirit, are to be the first, the prime, consideration for every one of us. And what results when it is so? Spiritual progress. A brother once said to me, ‘The acceptance of responsibility is the way to spiritual prosperity’. Then, “that thy progress may be manifest to all”. The apostle then says, “Give heed to thyself and to the teaching”. “Give heed to thyself”—I may have something in my mind and I may think, ‘So-and-so should really get adjusted about that matter’. I say to myself, ‘Am I adjusted?’—“Give heed to thyself and to the teaching”. The teaching keeps us in the way that is right according to God. We must have teaching, we must be taught; then, “continue in them”, be regulated by them all the time; “for, doing this, thou shalt save both thyself and those that hear thee”—we shall be an influence for good.

Well, I raise these two questions. I trust the Spirit may fasten them on our hearts. What is your life? I hardly like to use this expression in relation to these holy things, but I will say it.

Now, honestly, what is your life? And I say that to myself. Then, What is your occupation? A life without an occupation is an aimless life, but, thank God, the Christian’s life is Christ, and his

occupation concerns the things of Christ. When we speak of spiritual formation we speak of what is right; I venture to suggest that occupation with the things of Christ is conducive to spiritual formation because the Holy Spirit Himself delights in it. I commend the word to us; may it bear its own fruit for God’s glory. Amen.

Address at Croydon
20 September 1986