THE HELP OF THE LORD IN FACING EXERCISES

P. A. Gray

John 6: 58–60, 66–69; 19: 1–5, 17, 18, 30; 20: 11, 15–17

In the reading on Lord’s day about fellowship, our brother made a remark that what was being brought before us was not always easy and nor is it. But is it too difficult? God never sets anything before us that is beyond us. It would be foolish to say that it is easy, for it is not, and many here will have suffered in their spirits and in their minds on account of assembly exercises. Many know more about these matters than I do, but the path is not impossible and it is infinitely worthwhile, because as we have been hearing there is a man called Jesus who makes it all worthwhile. The Lord spoke about what was heavenly, “This is the bread which has come down out of heaven”; they said, ‘That is too difficult, we can understand what is earthly but we are not so sure about what is heavenly, that is too difficult’. There is a heavenly One, and—“our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens”, Philippians 3: 20. Our outlook is to the place where Jesus is, to the Man in the glory, and there are resources available.

The woman in John 4 had difficulties. The difficulty there was one of sin, and the resource that was brought to bear was the Holy Spirit. In John 5 there was a problem. The problem was the law, and Jesus brings in the name of the Father, and in chapter 6, among other things, it is a question of the world and what it leads to, it leads to death. The answer is Christ, not exactly Christ as He was, but Christ where He is. There is an answer in divine Persons to every difficulty. They are of course more than that, but you might say—“This word is hard; who can hear it?” Well, as I say, some of the things that we are asked to carry are not easy, but they are not impossible. It says—“From that time many of his disciples went away back and walked no more with him”, they said ‘No, this is just too difficult for me’, and we have known that. Beloved brethren, it is not a new phenomenon, it is not something that only happened last week or last year. Brethren have experienced at all stages of the testimony what it is to have to face the fact that some have said ‘No, this is too difficult for me, there is a better way, there is another way’. There is only one way and that is the Lord’s way. There is not a different way, an alternative way.

There is only one Man and there is only one way, but He is there to support and help us in it, and Peter has the answer—“Lord, to whom shall we go?” Who else could we remember on a Lord’s day morning, who is worth calling to mind? There is only one Man worthy of it and that is Jesus. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” You know beloved brother, beloved sister, we often speak to the young but I trust I speak to everybody, because going away is not just going away and saying that you will not break bread here anymore. Oh no, it can be a lot quieter than that. You can stay and still be far away, and I have done that, I have had to come to it myself that—“All we like sheep have gone astray”, Isaiah 53: 6. It is not people out there in the world, it is me, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way”, we have just done our own wills, I have done it anyway, but “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”, Isaiah 53: 6. There is only one Man that could bear the iniquity of us all, there is only one Man that could bear the iniquity of anybody, and that is Jesus. Only one Man fit to do so, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”, and there is an important word, “thou hast words of life eternal”, well no one else has these. Then it says, “we have believed”, that is one thing, but it also says—‘and known that Thou art the Holy One of God’. Have you a personal knowledge of Jesus in your own soul? It is so stabilising and so important.

I read in John 19, not to go into the detail of it, although it is affecting to read it. But you know, if we think the word is hard, there is a Man that has borne it all. None of us has been subjected to the treatment that He has been subjected to, going out there wearing the crown of thorn and the purple robe to be sneered at by a mocking crowd. Pilate says, “for I find no fault in him” (John 19: 6), there is no guilt in this Man, but I will permit Him to be crucified because it is expedient to do so. Do not forget these words—“Behold the man!”, there is only one Man, that is Jesus, and He has been there, He has borne the suffering, He has carried His cross, He has thirsted, He has gone into death and He did it for us, and He did it for God because it was the will of His Father that it should be so. He has borne the hardest matter of all, He has borne what it was to be made sin and furthermore, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Peter 2: 24. He has borne what it is to be forsaken, He has borne what it is to die, so when we say that the word is hard, He draws alongside us and says, ‘I know, but let Me show you how, let Me show you the way for I have been that way Myself.’ He has known what it is to be rejected of His own family, to be mocked by them; He has known what it is to come to His own, that was Israel, “and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God”, John 1: 11, 12.

The last thing I want to say is that He has the best in mind for you. Mary “stood at the tomb weeping without”. You might say, ‘well, the word is hard, but apart from anything else I am not really up to it’. Well, you know the Lord has the very best in mind, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. He is going there and He wants you with Him too. The word is hard, we do not ignore that, but there is a Man who has been that way of suffering, who knows all about it, and He wants you with Him where He is. Well may it be so, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
24 January 2012