PIETY
[p. 334] PIETY
1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Timothy 4:7,8; Acts 16:33,34; James 4:13-15; Acts 27:21-27; Acts 27:30-38
I have before me to speak about piety. And I thought it well to begin with the first verse read, because it introduces the idea of mystery into the subject. “And confessedly the mystery of piety is great”. And, as if to indicate what is meant, that the idea proceeds from God, the passage says, “God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit, has appeared to angels, has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world, has been received up in glory”. The verse seems to be poetic; so that it remains peculiarly in the mind, and is the kernel of all truth; so that it is well that it should be in our minds; that we should repeat it at any time, both to our own edification and to that of others.
But I referred to the word ‘mystery’ because it is a sort of shroud by which we are concealed from men, as the veil of Rebecca. As we had it today, the veil concealed her, but not from Isaac. So now piety enshrouds us and hence we are not understood, as ordinary men are. “The spiritual ... is discerned of no one”, 1 Corinthians 2: 15. Not that we should make it a point to be misunderstood; it is from the very necessity of the case, as scripture says, “For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew him not”, 1 John 3:1. Christ was marked by mystery, and yet He was a positive testimony in all that He said and did. Every word, every act, every movement was in Him testimony; but with it all, the big question mark always covers His position; like the manna in Exodus 16: manna meaning “What is it?” Never was it a thought of God that Christ should be compassed by man’s natural mind. It is true, He said of Himself that He was the song of [p. 335] the drunkard; but that song could in no way convey Christ. It would be a profane song. There is much profanity connected with the Lord’s name today. How desecrated His name is in the mouths of men and women at the present time! How dreadful to His own mind it must have been that He was the song of the drunkard! But such songs could never penetrate the veil of His flesh. Believers have access to the holiest through it. But those profane songs of the drunkards could never penetrate that veil. God is mysterious. A representative of Christ of old said to one, when he enquired about His name, so that he might do Him honour, “How is it that thou askest after my name, seeing it is wonderful?” Judges 13: 18. So is the name of Christ: “and his name is called Wonderful”, Isaiah 9: 6. But wonderfulness in itself does not imply that it is understood or penetrated.
Now we are inside this veil in the mystery of piety. The world knows us not; that is, christians normally. If we join with our neighbours in their social affairs and the like, we shall soon become known, and they will consider that we are not much different from themselves. I do not wish to be regarded in that way. I wish to be regarded as different. That was what Christ was. There is a type of Christ called the red heifer. The word ‘red’ indicates something distinctive, different; the heifer was slain as a sin-offering and its blood was sprinkled before the tent of meeting seven times, and she was burned, with cedar-wood, and hyssop and scarlet, without the camp. Her ashes were to be used with running water for cleansing one who became defiled by touching a dead person. Becoming defiled by evil associations, we lose our heavenly character and we must appropriate the ashes and running water for our cleansing and restoration, and thus we are again set up in our heavenly status and association; for those that are heavenly are as the heavenly One; that is Christ — the heavenly Man down here (1 Corinthians 15: 48).
[p. 336] And yet we are to be a testimony to men on God’s behalf, especially in the gospel. The gospel is presented in language and terms that are intelligent to the ordinary man; but it is to be presented so as to detach the believer from this world. He is not only to be a forgiven man but also a heavenly man. He is to have part in the assembly which involves what is called “the mystery of the gospel”. The persons who preach it belong to the assembly. They preach the gospel clearly so as to be intelligible to men, but in wisdom, so that they may see that it leads them out of this world to heaven, that God is bringing many sons to glory (Hebrews 2: 10). So the Lord taught in the temple every day; He said when He was attacked, “I taught always in the synagogue and in the temple ... Demand of those who have heard, what I have spoken to them”, John 18: 20, 21. He spoke in the temple every day, but where was He at night? There is mystery attached to His nightly relations. He was on the mount of Olives. He would be with His Father there. This would involve the mystery of piety.
God was manifested in flesh; manifest — that is not mysterious. The manifestation is not a mystery, but it is what is behind the manifestation. What was there? God. You may say that the creation (the heavens and earth) witnesses to God. So it does. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse sheweth the work of his hands”, Psalm 19: 1. “Because what is known of God is manifest among them, for God has manifested it to them — for from the world’s creation the invisible things of him are perceived, being apprehended by the mind through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity”, Romans 1: 19, 20. But that is all in keeping with what is normal in the gospel, “so as to render them inexcusable” (verse 20). To preach mystery to people will not put them under that which makes them responsible. But nevertheless, mystery is there, the mystery of the gospel. Even in the creation [p. 337] there is mystery. Who can fathom it? We hear much about it from so-called scientific men, but they will admit that mystery enters into it. Indeed it is undeniable even as to things with which we are constantly in contact. But I am not dealing with this now, but with the mystery of piety.
“God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit”; meaning that the Spirit was the power of the Lord’s testimony. He was justified in the things that He did. Let anyone question Him. John the baptist, for instance, sent messengers to Him, saying, “Art thou he that is coming, or are we to wait for another?” Luke 7: 19. How sorrowful that must have been to Jesus! But He says, “Go, bring back word to John of what ye have seen and heard: that blind see, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead are raised, ...” (verse 22). What can anyone say to a man that raises the dead? Not simply one person, but many. “... justified in the Spirit”, and in many other things — far more than what Scripture records in detail, there was the justification of God in Christ by the Spirit. “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then indeed the kingdom of God is come upon you”, Matthew 12:28. But who could explain it when the Lord made the woman straight, and when He said to the young man of Nain, “Youth, I say to thee, Wake up. And the dead sat up and began to speak”, Luke 7: 14, 15. Who can question this? He is justified! Whatever that Man does or says is justified by His works of power. God had visited His people. “Has appeared to angels”; the angels saw God there. “Has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world”. Everything He did as here below was verified in one great culmination. “Has been received up in glory”. Notice, in glory, not simply into glory; it is the manner of His reception.
I am saying these things so that our souls should become accustomed to mystery. “And confessedly the mystery of piety is great”. But then there are other references to the mystery. Colossians 2: 2 says, “Being united together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge”. Chapter 1: 27 leads on to this — “... what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you the hope of glory”. Christ has been received up in glory and is among the nations, including America — far away from His birthplace of Bethlehem and the scene of the cross, far away from Jerusalem. Christ is the hope of glory, but His position there is “this mystery”. Let us appreciate this great fact, for we have part in it. In Colossians our life is said to be “hid with the Christ in God”. Thus our life does not consist in what we are or have outwardly; it is hid — hid with Christ in God. As walking in the light of all this we cannot but be mysterious. Presently we shall be translated into heaven. That will occasion mystery surely. What has become of us? The papers may take up the inquiry: What has become of this one and that one? People will say, I always thought they were mysterious people; I never could understand them. I have seen them going off with their Bibles, but did not know where they were going. It is involved in the mystery of piety. In piety the flesh is given no place at all. Piety brings God in and where God has His place there is no room for the flesh. The outlook of piety is glory above. It is simply that we are here for a moment — sojourners, ready to depart “on the morrow”, Acts 20: 7. The mysterious disappearance is always imminent. That is our position.
The next thing is to exercise ourselves in this matter. That word “exercise” is used much by the Lord’s people; I think more than by most. The word for us is, “Exercise thyself unto piety; for bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but piety is profitable for everything, having promise of life, of the present one, and of that to come”, 1 Timothy 4: 7, 8. It is the present life. Whatever the outward circumstances, there is the present life. There is gain in it through piety. And then, that which is to come. The life to come is in mind throughout Scripture. It was “promised before the ages of time”. Eternal life is immense in its scope and blessedness. Having the promise of it strengthens us to exercise ourselves unto piety. And the man that is not exercised in the sense in which Scripture speaks of it is not a christian; at least he is not one characteristically. “For this cause I also exercise myself to have in everything a conscience without offence towards God and men”, Acts 24: 16. The man who says that says here, “But exercise thyself unto piety”. I want to have that whatever else I have: I cannot be without it. You may enquire, What does piety mean? It marks the believer normally as a characteristic state, and as working out it means simply that I bring God into my circumstances. He of course brings me into His; but piety is that I bring God into my circumstances, and the apostle says that this is profitable for everything. I do not suppose there is a merchant in the whole world who can say his particular commodity is profitable for everything, but here is something that is profitable for everything. The promise of the present life and the one to come, is the positive thing that underlies this exercise “unto piety”. I have the power for it; the muscle, as it were; the energy for this exercise that I should have piety. If there is something I have not brought God into, I can bring Him into it today. Are there things in my life that I cannot bring God into? The apostle is aiming at that state of things. He says, “Exercise thyself unto piety”. That means, I must see that God comes into all my matters. I am not going to enumerate the matters I have in mind. There are many; but the point is, exercise yourself as to piety including them all. That is, you are not indifferent: You are not drifting along like a fish without fins and scales. You are going against [p. 340] the pressure of the tide of evil in this world. You say, I want to bring God into whatever specially weighs upon me. As you get up in the morning and get ready for the day’s duties you say, Will God hear me now? Certainly. Pray while you are getting dressed. God is ready. God says, If you put a grain of wheat in the field, I will give that grain of wheat a body as it pleases Me; and why will God not look after the believer when He is doing his toilet in the morning? We are apt to get up and not be too happy in our spirits in the morning. The devil is apt to take advantage of us early. Bring God in. A little word of prayer when you get out of bed will raise your heart toward God. I have been greatly impressed by Nehemiah’s short prayer. He says to God, “Now therefore strengthen my hands!”, Nehemiah 6: 9.
“Exercise thyself unto piety”. That is what the apostle says. It is profitable for everything, having promise of the present life and that to come. As I have said, I cannot enumerate the things. Each of us can do it for himself. But the great thing is to keep God before you always and bring Him into whatever arises in your affairs.
I would next touch on the household of the believer. It is mentioned in Acts 16. It is the household of a jailer, a man who in his unregenerate state would use brutal, unseemly, and blasphemous language. Now he is converted. The passage I read is well known. The jailer has done damage to the Lord’s servants. Paul and Silas, He did his duty to a point, because he was a jailer, but he thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks, disregarding their wounds. They had just been scourged. But now he washes their stripes, “he took them the same hour of the night and washed them from their stripes”, Acts 16: 33. That is a very tender and sympathetic action; and then we read, “and was baptised, he and all his straightway”. I just wanted to show how he brought [p. 341] piety into his house at once. He did a kind act in washing their stripes the same hour of the night. He might have put it off until the morning if he had a hard heart, but he has a soft heart now. He is converted. He washed their stripes the same hour and laid the table for the prisoners. He laid the table for them. There is no assertion of his masterly rights in his house. He did the thing himself. But he rejoiced. You say to him, You are full of exuberance; you have just been converted and you think everything is all right now. It was; he brought his whole house into his joy. He rejoiced ‘householdly’, for that is the word, really. He rejoiced householdly, believing in God. God has His place in that jubilance, at that happy table. We all know how we make earthly joy of one thing or another, and minister to our natural tastes and appetites. But, dear brethren, where is God in all this? The jailer brought God into his household joy. It was an occasion for joy, but it is a household joy. He says in effect, This is a matter for God to have part in. So that there was a peace-offering in that house that night. One has often connected the scene with the prayer meeting, the gospel meeting, the Bible reading and the peace offering. What a transformation! and piety enters into it. God is in the whole environment. So that the house is full of joy; the head of it, a converted jailer. The head of the house is rejoicing with his household, believing in God. A believer at the head of a house, in piety, is one of the finest divine orderings in this world. The head of Christ is God, and the head of man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and that is what is seen here.
I just refer to business for a moment now. James takes account of business. He wrote to Jews, and they are the leading business people, you might say, in the world. His epistle is addressed to “the twelve tribes”. He has the dignity of the Jews in mind, but they would spoil their dignity by their keen business transactions [p. 342] in which they disregard piety. God will help you to make a sale. He will help you to buy and help you to travel and sell, but then if He does, it is because you are pious. Think of a pious salesman! Think of a pious soldier! (Acts 10: 7). There are millions under arms now in this country. How many pious men are there among them? You might say, I could never think of a soldier as a pious man, but the Scripture speaks of pious soldiers. Cornelius was a pious soldier. Why can he not be pious? It is a department of God. Government is of God, and you cannot have governments as things are in this world without armies and navies, and without the police departments. It is not, however, the christian’s department. The christian is not of it, but he can pray for it. Whether Cornelius continued in the army we are not told. Scripture contemplates pious soldiers, pious sellers of goods, pious sailors, pious manufacturers. They are to be considered. Those who sell, like Lydia, will not tell lies about their wares, and about their deliveries. They bring God into their businesses. That is what James has in mind in his brief reference to people who are in business. It is a well-known passage that I read; it says, “Go to now, ye who say, Today or tomorrow will we go into such a city and spend a year there, and traffic and make gain, ye who do not know what will be on the morrow (for what is your life? It is even a vapour, appearing for a little while, and then disappearing, ) instead of your saying, If the Lord [p. 343] should so will and we should live, we will also do this or that”, James 4: 13 - 15. “If ... we should live”; that is, if God allows us to live, and we do this or that; God has to do with the matter. You say, ‘I will leave this city; I have not done so well here; I will go to another where prospects seem better’. If I do that, I am leaving God out. Can I hope for prosperity? No, I cannot. If I leave out God I am apt to meet with disaster. “If the Lord should so will”; that is, I must take the Lord into account. “If the Lord should so will and we should live, we will also do this or that”. Well, if I speak in such language I should say, ‘Why should I go away from the city in which I am? I am making my living here. God is helping me, so why should I move away?’ I pray about it and I do not move away. I am needed here. Many meetings have been weakened because people thought they would do better financially by going elsewhere. I know that this country is largely peopled by those who thought that way. Millions of Europeans came to America to improve their circumstances. And, of course, this country was opened up of God to benefit humanity. But then, what about the motive underlying all this? “If the Lord should so will and we should live, we will also do this or that”. Did they bring the Lord in like this? The more I think over those words, the less likely I am to make a hasty move, because I want to bring God into it; I will make no move without God. I weigh over these precious words, and the more I weigh them over, the less likely I am to make a rash move — or any move. God is supporting me where I am, and blessing me where I am; why not continue? It is the will of God. The fact that God has followed up human migratory movements with the gospel and blessed men does not set aside what I just said. We rejoice in His sovereign mercy thus attested.
Finally, I would say a word on Acts 27. What is in mind is my political relations. It is part of Paul’s experience that is depicted in this chapter. It entered into a four year period, or more, of extraordinary experiences of the apostle Paul with the governing powers, involving great sufferings. He had been two years imprisoned in Caesarea. Now he is on his way to Rome in custody, and he is to spend two years there under guard. This voyage occurs between the two periods, but it is an incident in relation to his position in the political world. We are all outwardly in the political world; I mean as to outward contact in which [p. 344] we are subject to the ruling powers. We are all in that, and the question is how each is in it. That is just the one thought I wish to close with. How am I in this political world? Paul was in it — very much in it — not morally, but physically. He was bound with a chain, and the boat was tossed about in the Mediterranean. A terrible storm arose on it and continued for days. What I want to show is that he brought God into the matter. I cannot get out of the international world. I am somewhere in it whilst I am here below, and the question is, How am I in it? Am I pious? And so I read in Acts 27.
The passage says, “When they had been a long while without taking food, Paul then standing up in the midst of them said, Ye ought, O men, to have hearkened [p. 345] to me, and not have made sail from Crete and have gained this disaster and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good courage, for there shall be no loss at all of life of any of you, only of the ship” (verses 21, 22). What a word that was on that ship after a long abstinence! That is, they had not been taking food. Here is a man standing up, and we see he has shackles. He is a prisoner. But he is not speaking like a prisoner. He is speaking almost like the master of the ship. A pious man becomes influential even among men. As with God, he acquires moral power. When the Lord Jesus stood before Pilate, which is a corresponding position, He said to him, “Thou hadst no authority whatever against me if it were not given to thee from above”. He brought God into the matter. Pilate had power, but God gave it to him, and the Lord recognised that. Paul is on the ship as a witness of Jesus, and there is a terrible storm, but he stands in the midst of all, especially those responsible, and says, “Ye ought, O men, to have hearkened to me”. You may say, ‘What has he got to do with the matter? Why does he not stay in his cabin and read his Bible and pray?’ But no, he comes up on the deck and says, “Ye ought, O men, to have hearkened to me, and not have made sail from Crete and have gained this disaster and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good courage, for there shall be no loss at all of life of any of you, only of the ship. For an angel of the God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me this night” (verses 21 - 23). Some of us might think he ought to be preaching the gospel, but he is a pious man. I want to bring before you, dear brethren, the importance of bringing in piety in the present situation. Can I bring God in as before the authorities? It is a question of God. Paul says, “For an angel of the God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me this night”. He is no pro-Roman; he is no pro-Jew. He is God’s — “whose I am and whom I serve”! Well, an angel appeared to him. How we need angelic service! They are all ministering spirits sent out for service on account of the saints (Hebrews 1: 14). I often say to the Lord, I would like to be treated as Gideon was treated. He requested that the dew should be on the fleece, and God put it on the fleece; and then he asked that it be put outside the fleece, and God put it outside the fleece, the fleece being dry and on all the ground dew. I would like to be treated like that — indeed I may say I have been treated thus. I am not merely bringing myself forward; God forbid! But, I am seeking to show how we may come into the gain of piety, the gain from bringing God into what we are doing. Can God condone wrong? Can He condone wrong in the government under which I am? No. If I do, I am identifying myself with the wrong. God is not condoning the wrong. Piety forbids me to condone wrong, whatever the wrong, or in whomsoever it be. Can I justify the right? Certainly. Piety requires that I justify the right in whomsoever the right is. Since sin came into the world, war has been waged between good and evil. Piety requires that I take sides with God, and if I take sides with God, I take sides with what is good and what is right, and condemn what is evil, no matter [p. 346] in whomsoever it is. If I condone evil, I am identified with the evil, and I become evil myself. That is the general and unchanging position between right and wrong.
Paul says, I belong to God, “whose I am and whom I serve”. But then, see the advantage he had. There was nobody in that ship like him. He says, “For an angel of the God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me this night, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must stand before Caesar; and behold, God has granted to thee all those that sail with thee”. Think of that! There were two hundred and seventy-six people aboard the ship. And Paul indicates that he was praying for them, that they all might get ashore safely. You say, Is he not praying that they may be saved eternally? No doubt he was. But he would say, I am praying also that they may get ashore safely. Thus God had given those two hundred and seventy-six people to him. God is the Saviour of that ship; Paul being a pious man, God hearkens to him. He sends an angel to him. It is not assembly intimacy; it is a governmental position. It belongs to the history of the nations; and in it there is prophetic instruction as to the failure of the assembly. The soldiers and sailors belong to the nations, and they are all saved because Paul asked for them. Hence today, we are to pray “for all men; for kings and all that are in dignity”. God has to do with them all, and so we have to do with them all. There is great difficulty in travelling from country to country now, but christians pray for all governments. Is God going to do anything in the way of shortening this terrible war? I think so. He will do it from His own point of view, but He will do it from the point of view of the prayers of the saints. We must thus take sides with the right in the attitude of our souls and not condone evil for national reasons. To stand up for wickedness is wicked. Let us take this to heart. We need to look into this matter in our relations with the powers that are;
[p. 347] whether we can be godly in that connection. Paul is, and he is given the two hundred and seventy-six souls who sailed with him. And they land on the isle of Melita. Well, you say, if God told him that, why was he not just restful and say no more? No. He is concerned as to the rest of the voyage as a man who feared God should be; for dependence should always mark us.
And presently the sailors evidently gave up hope, as many do. People are very quick to say so-and-so is winning the war, and so-and-so is not winning it — leaving God out. But it is a question of what God is doing. The sailors seem to have no hope of the ship; but Paul trusted God, and knew all should reach a certain island. It is a question of what God would do. What is Paul going to do now? Is it all settled? Well, it is all settled, and Paul knew this. And as to the present situation, the whole matter is settled in the sense that one of two things is going to happen. If present conditions go on and get worse and worse, the man of sin will appear, and the saints will be translated; but if they do become better, in the sense that right, as we have been speaking of it, prevails, we will all be allowed to stay on here a little longer. That is piety. As to details, there are those sailors wishing to leave the ship. They evidently think the ship is going to founder and they want to escape. I do not want to be among those. Paul speaks to the centurion — notice the centurion and the army is one set, and the sailors another set, and the passengers another set. And the sailors are about to leave the ship. You may say that Paul should let someone else attend to the sailors, he being a christian. ‘No’, Paul says, in effect, ‘that is my business. I want to see the will of God go through, and these sailors are essential to this’, so he said to the soldiers, “Unless these abide in the ship ye cannot be saved”. Did not the angel say so-and-so? Never mind; they must not be allowed to leave the ship. The soldiers [p. 348] saw to that; and the sailors were used, as they should have been used, to guide the ship to the destination indicated, which was Malta. She was taken right through in spite of the storm, and it was all in connection with the piety of one man, and he a prisoner on the ship. It seems to me a momentous thing, and it is within our range, also applying at the present moment, whether I can take God into my reckonings in regard of all that is transpiring. That is piety! If I leave God out, I am like a ship without a rudder and compass in the sea, tossed about by every wind. The knowledge of God in my soul keeps me steady, but it does not make me indifferent to what may be happening. I look out for those sailors. Do not let them go off the boat. How am I going to keep them? Pray for them. They are essential to the salvation of those two hundred and seventy-six, including Paul and those with him. Hence I have no difficulty about praying for armies and navies to a certain point. It is a question of the will of God. It is a question of the maintenance and support of what is right and the testimony of God here right unto the end. May God bless this word.