Our Hearts And Our Feet
OUR HEARTS AND OUR FEET
We have sung of the Lord’s coming and we await His coming, but in the waiting time we would desire to be faithful and to represent God while He leaves us here. Two features are to mark us—our hearts are to be as large as God’s, and our feet in the narrow path. It is possible to have our hearts large and to be open and loose in our walk. It is possible to have our feet in the narrow path but not have a large outlook, God’s outlook. We need both these features, which we find mentioned a number of times in Mr Darby’s letters.
We find in 1 Timothy 2 how large God’s heart is. He desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. God has all men in view and we are exhorted to have this evangelical outlook. Paul speaks of “Our Saviour God, who desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”. Then he says, “the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all”, for all. The gospel presents the fact that what has been accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ is available for all. Not only is there God’s desire for all men, but also there is the work that is available for all. How wonderful that God has this outlook towards all! It has been maintained for, nearly two thousand years right to the present day. If we are rightly to represent God, we need to have this kind of outlook. Paul says, “I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men”. This is a challenge to us, but if we are to represent God here in testimony this is the kind of heart we are to have towards all men, “for this is good and acceptable before our Saviour God”.
We often come short of the largeness of God’s heart regarding all men. If we had this kind of outlook we would be praying not only for all the preachings in our rooms but the great work that is going on universally. In His sovereignty God can use whatever means are available to reach men because He desires that all men should be saved. We may not be able to have fellowship with every such effort in the gospel, but we ought to be thankful there are such efforts, because of God’s sovereignty and the largeness of His heart, and we need to have hearts like God’s in our outlook towards all men. Paul speaks in Colossians 1 of his outlook—“Whom we announce, admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ”, Col 1: 28. That was Paul; what an evangelist he was! We ought to long to have hearts like that.
Then Paul mentions to the Colossians and the Ephesians love towards all the saints. We need a large heart and an evangelical outlook including all men, but then also love for all the saints, which would include every believer on earth. Our attitude ought to be love towards such, like the Lord, because He has regard for every one of His people. He does not forget any one of His own, yet in Revelation 1 the Lord presents Himself as being girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. He has affection towards every one of His own but His affections are restrained because of conditions. If we are going to be pleasing to the Lord, if we are to represent Him, then, since He is girt about the breasts with a golden girdle, then, while we have love for all the saints, there may have to be restraint in the expression of it.
That is what we have in 2 Timothy. It says, “The Lord knows those that are his”. Every one is precious to Him, but it also says, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. It means our being separate from anything that would not be in accord with the name of the Lord. This involves our feet being in the narrow path. Our hearts are to be large, having God’s outlook upon all men and the Lord’s love for all the saints, yet there is the necessity for having our feet in this narrow path. It says, “But in a great house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen; and some to honour, and some to dishonour”. We are all part of this great house. We tend to speak of Christendom as if we were not part of it, but we are part of Christendom; we are part of the great profession. We are all in the great house, but the question is what kind of vessels we are, whether we are vessels to honour or vessels to dishonour. How we become a vessel to honour is shown in verse 21—“If therefore one shall have purified himself from these”—and that word “purified” is a very strong word, it is ‘purging himself’ from these—“in separating himself from them”—from vessels to dishonour; it involves separation from persons. It is how we move; it is our feet in a narrow path. Hearts large, but feet in the narrow path.
So it says, “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these”, that is, from vessels to dishonour, “in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified ...”. Being sanctified involves our feet being in this narrow path, the path of the will of God, the pathway related to how the Lord would have us act in this time in which we are when there is so much profession. What the Lord is looking for is reality in vessels to honour. Every one of us can be a vessel to honour by purifying himself from vessels to dishonour. Thus “He shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master”. This is the divine way of being serviceable to the Master. Many think they can be more serviceable by being more ‘open’ and disregarding divine principles, but this is the divine way of being serviceable in this day in which we are. It is intensely individual. “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”. “Prepared for every good work”, not by being ‘open’ and loose, but by following the directions we have in this chapter. It is the way to be prepared for every good, according to God and according to the Lord at the present time. We might think that having our feet in such a pathway would be restrictive; in a sense it is, but it is the way to be prepared for every good work.
Then it says, “But youthful lusts flee, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. As individually each desires to be a vessel to honour, he finds others on the same path—“with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. This expression, “a pure heart”, would test us as to whether there is the reality with every one of us that the Lord is looking for.
I can see the importance on the one hand of having our hearts as large as God’s, but the importance too of having our feet in this narrow path. This is not new, this is how the recovery started so brightly one hundred and fifty years ago, a wonderful sovereign movement of the Lord, answered to by persons with a pure heart. In simplicity they followed these instructions—evangelical and outgoing as far as gospel work is concerned, but with feet in the narrow path. That is how the recovery started and that is how it is going to be continued. There was a great challenge not long after this recovery began, and there have been many challenges since. One of the enemy’s most successful activities is to try to get us to depart from this way, but the Lord is looking for persons who have hearts as large as God’s but feet in the narrow path.
May the Lord encourage us. What is needed at the moment is endurance. We need to endure, to be prepared for every good work and to endure. The Lord said in Matthew 24, “he that has endured to the end, he shall be saved”, Matt 24: 11. We are near the end and it calls for endurance. The Lord said to the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia, “Because thou halt kept the word of my patience”, or ‘my endurance’, Rev 3: 10. We need to endure in this way of the will of God at the present time. May we be built up in that way and encouraged, for the Lord’s Name’s sake.
BROOKLYN NY
18th November 1986
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