WHAT NEVER FAILS

E. F. Woodford

1 Kings 17: 10–14; Lamentations 3: 22–24;

1 Corinthians 13: 8 (“Love never fails”); Luke 22: 31, 32

The sentence in Corinthians gives the clue to what I want to speak about—that is, what never fails, and the last scripture gives us what should not fail. I am trusting that the Lord will just bring home to us the value of what never fails. It is a tremendous asset in these days, when everything around is marked by failure, to know something that never fails. I suppose that you believe that there is that which never fails. It does not matter what the circumstances are, it does not matter what the opposition is, there are certain things that never fail.

I read in Kings particularly to refer to the presence of the Spirit. We have been reminded locally recently that we ought to value the Spirit more. This has been said often, and it is still true, that we need to value the Spirit more. The brother who referred to it said that although it is right that response to the Spirit at the Supper is the least extended part, that portion should be particularly feeling and sweet.

We read here of a very pathetic scene relating to a poor widow. I feel particularly towards widows as those who have had help. If you have never had help you do not really miss it. As a brother said when commenting on the happy spirit of some he had met in terrible poverty, ‘They have never known anything else’, and therefore to them it is not the same as if somebody came along and took away all that we have, and put you or me in that position. So a married woman has a companion. If he is taken away and she becomes a widow it is a very real thing. But this poor soul had come to the end of everything. She was going to die. The Lord knows the circumstances and feelings of every one. Maybe you have been at some time so near to giving up that you have said, ‘Spiritually, I am going to die. I will just gather two sticks, I will just do something I know I can do, and we will eat and die’. But she had certain things in the house, and Elijah comes to bring out the value of what she had. I think there is always a tendency not to value sufficiently what we have, which may lead us to covet what another has. That is an awful bane amongst men. It is the root of trade union activity; it is the root of most sorrows amongst men, and it can be a trouble amongst us. But let us value, beloved brethren, what we have, because you have that which no one else has. God has seen to it in His sovereignty that He has given to you things that are in no one else, and this brings out how needful it is to use what we have for the service of the Lord.

But I was speaking about the Spirit. This woman had certain things, and she was ready to do certain things. She had water, and she valued that. Elijah said, “Fetch me ... a little water”, and she went to fetch it. There are certain things that we are ready to do. But then he tests her further. He says, “Bring me … a morsel of bread in thy hand”. This brings out where she really was. She said, “As Jehovah thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse”. Thank God she valued to some extent that oil in the cruse. It was available; I think that is the idea of it being there in a cruse. It was available but she said it was little. This is what we feel sometimes. We know the Spirit is here; we know He is in us, but we may rarely refer to Him, rarely rely on Him. Beloved brother or sister, I am echoing what I know has been in myself, the lack of reliance on the One who is so great in Himself.

The widow might have been more reliant on the supply of oil if Elijah had left a tankful, but it remains in a cruse, and it is not going to fail. That supply of the Spirit, beloved brethren, is never going to fail! Is not that good? Are you going to rely on the Spirit a little more? Am I? I am sure that God would have us rely more on the Spirit. He is going to remain here all the time that you and I are here. Every moment of every day He is available to you and me. Oh, let us not restrict or hinder the operations of the Spirit, for He longs to serve and be at liberty amongst us. His part in every meeting is absolutely essential. What is the meeting going to be like if we make no room for the Spirit in it? What is your life, and mine, going to be like if we put on one side the Spirit? We should be thankful that the Spirit will never leave us. If you have the Spirit He will never leave you, but you can hinder Him. That is very searching, that it is possible to grieve the Spirit, but He will never leave you, never! So may we use the Spirit more, because He will never fail, and if we allow the Spirit to control and influence us, we shall not fail either. I do not think it is a time for failure amongst the saints. Failure in the world? Yes, it is a time today of failure there, but it is the time of the operations of the Spirit, so that we should go through until the end.

Let us go on to Lamentations, because here is a prophet, Jeremiah, who lived in a very dark day, when he had to put up with far more than you or I will probably ever experience. Think of a man being let down into a pit so that he sank in the mire (see Jeremiah 38). Think of the suffering that man had to go through, the ignominy and the shame. It is a man like that who wrote this. It is worth listening to, is it not, when a man who had such experiences can say something about Jehovah’s compassions failing not? Did you think like that, Jeremiah, at the bottom of the pit? He would say, ‘I think that now’. What is our daily appreciation of God’s compassions? So Jeremiah says, “Jehovah is my portion, saith my soul”—I think he would come to that in a feeling way. “Therefore will I hope in him”. I think that was the result of appreciating the compassions of God. Jeremiah comes to it that his hope is in Him.

I wanted to refer to the Lord’s compassions because they are very touching. The Lord when He was here was very interested in persons who had faith. I was noticing that He speaks to individuals and He refers to the greatness of their faith, but He also speaks of little faith. But when He speaks of little faith it is, apart from Peter in Matthew’s gospel, always to a company. I think He spares the individual, and would make something of the faith that is in the individual. But then the Lord had something else, He had compassion. I do not want to go into detail, but to bring out this point of the compassions of Jesus towards persons here. How well He understood every detail. Beloved brother and sister, He knows every detail about you, every suffering. You may say, and it may be right, that others do not understand you, but you can never say that the Lord does not understand you. The Lord Jesus not only understands you, but He is compassionate towards you. He wants to help you. He wants to provide for you. But more than that, He wants to be to you what no one else can ever be. There is no one like Him! His compassions fail not, never!

Just a word on the love which never fails. If we have not some appreciation of what never fails I think it will become a question as to whether there is going to be breakdown when the test comes. But Corinthians refers to love never failing. It brings out that other things are going to cease, but there is something that is going through. As was said in the reading, it goes through to eternity. It will never cease! Loves goes through to eternity; it is the nature of God Himself. But what about the expression of it? Can we say, beloved brethren, that love never fails? You may well say, ‘I have tried it. I have tried showing him love and it fails, it has no effect upon him’. That is not because the love has failed. Love never fails. Beloved, go on loving! You may think that it is not having any effect, but what was said in the reading was good—that we sometimes go back years and appreciate as we did not at the time the love that was expended upon us.

Oh what a Lover is the Shepherd! I think that the love of the Shepherd is more to you now than when you first knew it. The sense of it increases, and certainly it never fails. May that be an encouragement to us to go on, not only loving Him, but what is more testing, loving one another. It does not say, ‘Love answering to love never fails’. That is easy, is it not? But we are to go on loving when the conditions are difficult, knowing that love never fails! Oh I feel the exercise of this, but it is true. Go on loving and eventually it will find its fruit. It may not have the same effect that you expected, but love should not really expect anything. Love does not do things because of what it is going to get, does it? Maybe you have thought that if you love him enough then he will do something. But I do not think that is true love. Love does something expecting nothing. But go on loving and you will find the fruit in due time, because Jesus has taken account of it. Oh what is treasured up in heaven of the love of the saints! There are the sorrows of the saints; the tears have been treasured up in a bottle (see Psalm 56: 8) and I believe the love that has been expended by the saints is never forgotten.

In Luke 22 we have a man who had expressed his love, Peter. Peter had such love for Christ that I think he really meant what he said, though he was saying it with his natural mind, that he was ready to die for Him. Peter loved the Lord. But Satan demanded to sift the disciples.

This is not a sifting in the same way as the sifting of God. God tested Abraham. God has a right to do this, and He sometimes tests us. God is sovereign and He has a purpose in His testing. But Satan wanted to sift Peter, really to show what a poor mortal man he was. Satan sometimes wants to do that with us. He will say, ‘You poor thing, what good are you in the testimony? What good is that small locality in the testimony?’ And what do we say? Are we going to go under? Satan is very cruel in his efforts against people who want to go on with the truth. But Jesus had this matter in hand. He said, “I have besought for thee”. I think that is a wonderful thing.

Jesus had prayed for Peter. Think of His service, beloved, in glory at the present moment. He is there serving, in the same way praying for us, that our faith fail not. “I have besought for thee”—what strong language that is! “I have besought for thee that thy faith fail not”. I would suggest that the Lord has besought for you, and me too, that our faith fail not. He would strengthen it at this time, but then He goes on, because it may be we do fail. We have all had to say that we are amongst those who have failed. We feel it, but we go on. It is right that we should feel it; let us not forget that either.

That is a profitable part of history, if held rightly, that we have failed. But you must add this too, “When once thou hast been restored”. What a thing it is to be restored! You did not restore yourself, you were restored. Now you have to do something—“Confirm thy brethren”. When faith is active then you can confirm your brethren. You cannot confirm them otherwise.

May it be that the Lord exercises us all, both locally and individually, that these features are more prominent within us so that there will be a greater yield to divine Persons, even in times which are marked by testing. Do not forget the word that in the last days difficult times shall be there. We should not really be surprised at difficult times because it is a mark of the last days, and that is what we are in now. But it is in these very days that faith and hope can shine, and there is more room than ever for love to flow. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Address at Cardiff
22 March 1980