THE WORD OF GOD
E. M. Walkinshaw
Hebrews 4: 12–16; John 4: 6–10, 15–18, 28–30
I desire to say a brief word of exhortation, dear brethren, about the word of God. It is not against us; it is for us. God’s word has in mind that we should come into His purpose, and while we are here in the wilderness, with the opened heavens before us, we need to be preserved. We are preserved by the word of God. It says it is “living and operative, and sharper than any two-edged sword”. Mr. Darby said that that sword is all blade—it has no handle. That means that when it is used it cuts the person who is using it. It cuts both ways. So in seeking to speak of the word of God you can understand it is a sober exercise. If the sword is all blade it must cut the person who is wielding it. It is intended to affect us all. It says it is living, and if it is living it becomes living in persons, and as living it is operative. If it is the word of God it must be effective, and it must be operating. Our brother said last evening that at one time he thought he would like to have given a ‘profound address’. I do not know who would be capable of that. It reminded me of Mr. Stoney’s word that an intellectual address will exhilarate the brethren, but a spiritual address will sober them, and I am sure that any one addressing such a company—such a dignified company in God’s eyes would desire that the Spirit of truth might be in what is said. It might not be exhilarating; may it be sober, because we are having to do with the living God.
It speaks of the word “penetrating to the division of soul and spirit”; only the word of God can do that. Soul and spirit cannot be separated. In some sense one is spoken of to include the two. When the life of the believer goes, the spirit departs to be with Christ, and the body is in the grave; but the spirit and soul are not separated. But while we are living here God’s word divides soul and spirit, that is, divides what I am as a man, attached to the creation, and what I am in my spirit as linked with God. You can see the effect, therefore, of the word of God.
Then it divides joints and marrow. The joints are your actions, and the
marrow, I would judge, your motives, and one finds the question of motives very searching.
What is my motive in anything I do? What is my motive in standing here? My action is to speak, but what is my motive? My motive might be right, and my action wrong, or vice versa, but the word of God tests us, especially as to our motives. Is my motive Christ?
When Jesus was here His motive and object was always His Father. You think of the perfection of that Man, as another has said, ‘Christ is perfect enough to be always good; and as absolutely and infinitely perfect, is always absolutely and infinitely good’ (J. N. Darby,
‘Notes and Comments’. Vol. 2, p.2). As a Man His motive was always the will of His Father—for example, “Father ... glorify thy Son”; but why?—“That thy Son may glorify thee”, John 17: 1, 2. How perfect in His motives! In the burnt-offering the inwards were opened up—how perfect the motives of Jesus were! I do not know about you, but I find it very difficult to think of a Man who was perfect; who never had one evil thought, never an evil action or a wrong movement. I find it very difficult to think of a Person like that—in fact, it is impossible to have a right conception of Christ apart from the Spirit. If you have some conception of Christ other than from the Spirit, it is a Christ of your own imagination, and that is not the Christ of God. So we are wholly dependent on the Spirit for right impressions of Christ. You will remember it was said to Mary that she would conceive in the womb and then it was also said to her, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Highest overshadow thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God”. It was holy conception, and if I may just use a simple application, the only right conception of Christ in the soul of the believer must be by the Spirit,
otherwise it is a Christ of your own imagination.
So the word of God would come to us and challenge us as to this—not to discourage us, but to encourage us, that we might see the Christ of the written word and count on the Spirit for a right impression of that Person. So our motives are tested. Do I love my own opinion more than I love the truth? I fear that may be so. And, consequently, it is very difficult to say I have made a mistake. But if the motive is Christ, as others have said, a spiritual person is quickly adjusted. The word of God reaching David quickly adjusted him, and as the word of God reaches us we would be quickly adjusted if we are spiritual persons.
I read about the woman because she was in the presence of the Word of God—“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, John 1: 1.
She became aware of it slowly, that she was in the presence of the Word. I wonder whether every one here, every young person, has had personal dealings with the Lord Jesus like this woman. Although maybe the disciples can be criticised for having gone shopping, as someone has said, twelve persons going shopping for food for thirteen—most housewives would think that an extravagant number—it was no doubt divinely arranged so that this woman should have personal dealings with the Lord Jesus alone.
Now we were reminded last evening that none of us arranged when we should be born, or into what family we should be born. Those things were in God’s ordering. I wonder if you have ever wondered about your upbringing. If you were brought up in a household in fellowship I wonder whether you have ever thought that perhaps you had been brain-washed, as men say. You may say, Persons down the road were born into a Methodist family, and they are
still Methodists, and there are others down the road and they mock me when I speak about the Lord Jesus. I think the only answer for that is real affection for Christ and personal dealings with Him. Otherwise when the test comes you may be diverted.
But how gracious He is! In the latter part of what we read in Hebrews He is spoken of as “a great high priest”. You see, the word of God reaches you. This woman might have shrunk away, as you or I might. The word of God reaches you and you feel you would like to get away from it. Sometimes that is the case in the gospel preaching. But the High Priest is there to support you; He wants to bless you. The Lord Jesus wants you to have present dealings with Him. This woman would never have had another question about anyone down the road, and whether he was brought up a Methodist or a Baptist, or whether he was an atheist or an agnostic—she would have had no difficulty because she had been in the presence of the Word of God in Person and she had known in her soul His support as Priest. So we have in a person a practical, living example of the teaching of Hebrews 4.
But this woman is now dead; the point is you and me, you young women here, and young men—have you really had personal dealings with the Lord Jesus? He may ask you for something. He did ask of this woman. Some say it is a very good way to approach people, to ask for something. Nature is such that if you ask a person to do something for you they are only too ready to do it. He said to her, “Give me to drink”. There is no evidence that she ever did. But she says, “How dost thou, being a Jew, ask to drink of me who am a Samaritan woman? for Jews have no intercourse with Samaritans “. Ah! Jesus said, ‘If you only knew who it is’—“Who it
is that says to thee. Give me to drink”. Dear young person, if only you knew who it is who desires you to have personal dealings with Him, I am sure you would ask of Him. You would come to Him so that you might have your own conviction. It is essential; especially I press my younger brethren to have your own personal dealings with the Lord, and your own personal conviction from Him as to the truth, so that you know why you are where you are.
Well, the Lord says, “... thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. This was a conversation between the Creator and the creature—what a wonderful thing! She asks, “Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself?” For fifteen hundred years they had been drinking and thirsting, thirsting and drinking. Jesus says, “Every one who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. That refers to the Holy Spirit, and Christ as the Giver of living water. Have you received it? I want to appeal to the beloved brethren as to the reality of the Person and the things with which we are dealing. We are not dealing with philosophy, but with realities.
Is there any young person here who has not received living water from Jesus, who has not had personal dealings with Him? If there is, I would urge you to go to Him. He is ready to support you and to give you living water. He raises this question with her before He speaks about the moral question, and even as to that, how skilfully the Lord treats this woman in this conversation between the Creator and the creature. To my mind that is wonderful! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”; and here He is sitting by the well speaking to this poor woman. And you see how quickly she comes into deliverance from herself. As we all know, in the simple teaching of it she illustrates deliverance. She is delivered from herself, set free from her sins; she is able to go out and be a testimony to the One who blessed her. We may say God was there; she was in the presence of God. And although she was searched, she was blessed.
So she leaves her water-pot and goes away into the city and says, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done”. And what were they? Ah! that is a secret between her soul and the Lord. It is not disclosed. We get here only what is necessary for our help. ‘Who told me’—not ‘who told everyone else’. It is a personal, private interview. And each of us needs to have that. The Lord does not expose us. It has often been said that He never publicly exposed a man or a woman, or a servant, unless that person had been secretly warned many times. How gracious the Lord is, and so it was with this woman. She finds herself in the presence of the Word of God, but she finds herself in the presence of the Priest, the One who would support her so that she might get the fullest profit from the word of God and that her motives and her actions might be right from that day forward.
So God would help us. As I have said, the woman is now with the Lord, so the word is for you and me. Do you receive the word of God? I do trust there is something of the Spirit of truth in what I have conveyed to you as to the word of God being living; living in you, searching in you, and yet a great High Priest to support you so that, instead of running away, you can approach and “receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help”. Let each of us, as receiving God’s word and the support of the High Priest, continue in the path, with the opened heavens before us, until the Lord comes. May it be so for His pleasure.
Address at Kirkcaldy
23 June 1984