"OUR NOTHINGNESS"
F.C.Mutton
Psalm 22: 4-8; Genesis 18: 27; 1 Kings 3: 7-9; Ephesians 3: 8; Luke 9: 46-48
I have been struck afresh recently, dear brethren, with that line of Mr Darby's,
'O keep us, Love divine, near Thee,
That we our nothingness may know' (hymn 87)
- a remarkable expression: that we our nothingness may know. I trust that our brief consideration of these scriptures may help us as to what was in that beloved servant's mind. I just feel that I need to be deepened in the sense of nothingness. There are two sides, of course, to what is true of the believer. On the one hand we are wonderfully dignified and elevated, taken up from the dunghill and set among princes. As we view it from the divine side we can speak of the greatness of man, men taken up and blessed in Christ, redeemed, given the gift of the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit dwelling in us. We are dignified as being the brethren of Christ, His disciples, having part in the assembly and in sonship, given remarkable intelligence and entrance into the purposes of God that go back before the world's foundation. What privileges these are! As a sister has written:
'Absorbed in favour all divine
Conferred on those of high estate' (hymn 116)
That is true of us, dear brethren, and we look at one another and respect one another in that light, as those given by the Father to Christ and taken up for the greatest privileges, now and eternally, that could ever be known and experienced by men.
But there is another side; we are still here in our weak, mortal condition. We read in the house this morning in Psalm 103: "For himself knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth; For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof knoweth it no more" (vv 14-16); that is true, dear brethren, that is part of our nothingness. The footnote to "As for man" is 'Enosh, mortal man'. Then the Psalmist goes on, "But the loving-kindness of Jehovah is from everlasting and to everlasting"; that is the other side of it. I feel that if we are to be rightly in dignity and privilege we need to be maintained and deepened in the sense of our nothingness.
Psalm 22 is the utterances, prophetically, by the Spirit, of Jesus. One feels the need of the greatest reverence and care to comment on them at all. The brethren will understand that and the need of not, in a sense, going beyond what others have said as to it. I note that Mr Taylor said, 'It is beyond me to understand that He could say, "I am a worm, and no man"' (see Vol.75, p.150). But He used those words, and I would say we are intended, therefore, to have some sense of what He meant in using them because they bear upon us. If He, holy and sinless, here sacrificially to the uttermost cost for the will of God, could say "I am a worm, and no man", what of our position, we who have the flesh in us? The setting of these words is in contrast to our fathers: "Our fathers confided in thee: they confided, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were deliver ed; they confided in thee, and were not confounded". But as to the Lord, in verse 2: "My God, I cry by day, and thou answerest not", and in that context the Lord says "But I am a worm, and no man". It must mean that He went lower than any man ever could go. For other men, due to the grace and mercy of God, the cry of need was answered; for Jesus it was not answered. Think of the pathway of Jesus and how it ended in that mockery of justice when He was arraigned. Men normally would be regarded as entitled to justice, to fair treatment, but it was denied Jesus; His judgment was a travesty of judgment. Men normally have a certain respect for one another; for Jesus there was no respect, and how He felt it, as it says in these verses: "All they that see me laugh me to scorn". These are inspired words that we are to weigh. Think of the tenderness of the Spirit of Jesus, how He felt things; think of all that weighed upon Him, what He felt in His pathway here as to what lay upon man; but then there was what awaited Him:
'Thy path, uncheered by earthly smiles,
Led only to the cross' (hymn 230)
The shadow of the cross was over every day of His pathway, and the pressure intensified. "All they that see me laugh me to scorn". Dear brethren, think of it! Can you hear their laughter, their mockery, their jibes, as that holy Man was there before them, sacrificially, sufferingly? What was their reaction? It was a matter for their jibes and their laughter. He went lower than any man. This was not the normal portion of man, and in that setting the Lord says "I am a worm, and no man". This is to bear upon us. What a rebuke it is to every element in myself of pride, self-exaltation and ambition. These are the depths to which Jesus went. I think that when Paul speaks of the breadth and length and depth and height, these things are to be in our minds and upon our spirits, that He went lower than any. And, dear brethren, one of the things we need morally is to be kept low: 'That we our nothingness may know'.
I turn again to Abraham. As we saw earlier in this chapter, he was a great man of God, dwelling in relation to the purpose and will of God, so great that he could entertain Jehovah, and indeed, entertain what suggestively would bring before us the Godhead, not actually, but suggestively. Now he is interceding with that same God. He had conducted God to judgment in relation to Sodom and Gomorrah, and now he is interceding, he is in line with God, the God who is not willing that any should perish; he is interceding for that city because there is some divine property there. What I want to concentrate on is his expression: "now, I have ventured to speak unto the Lord; I, who am dust and ashes". We shall find in all the scriptures we have read, that moral greatness is accompanied by profound humility; it must be so. I am assured of this, that you cannot have moral greatness apart from deep humility. Let us attend to humility, not only as an exercise within ourselves but by keeping close to the blessed Man who humbled Himself. "I, who am dust and ashes": we have spoken of dust, mortal man; how frail we are, how physically weak; as to our breath dependent on God from moment to moment. "Dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return", Gen 3: 19. This is our mortal condition, and it should keep us very small, very lowly, very dependent, very humble.
But Abraham says, dust and ashes; ashes are the result of sacrifice. You know in connection with the offerings the references to the ashes and the place of the ashes, especially in connection with the red heifer in Numbers 19. Those ashes were kept, the ashes of the red heifer which speak of the death of Jesus, and into the burning had been cast the cedar and the hyssop and the scarlet. That is where Jesus went; He went down into death; and that is where I am to go, in fact where I in the judgment of God have already gone; He has condemned sin in the flesh. But I have to arrive at it, and I think it would be right to say that I have to cast those things into the burning - the cedar, that is my high and proud thought, my self-centred thoughts; and the scarlet, that is the conspicuousness of man, that we like to be in the limelight; and the hyssop, that is the imagined humility that my deceitful heart can claim and take pride in - if we can think of such a thing, and yet such can I be. All that went in the burning; all that was consumed in the death of Christ; but the ashes remained, and those ashes were kept in a clean place, that is, they were reverently treasured and always available as the basis of the water of purification. Let us have to do - I would rather say, we must of necessity have constantly to do - with the water of purification, the application to us of the death of Christ. All that we are in our natural pride, arrogance and self-confidence must go - "I, who am dust and ashes". May we keep near to the ashes, keep near to the death of Christ.
Now in 1 Kings 3 we have an extraordinarily great man, Solomon, like David, a remarkable type of Christ. Here he has ascended the throne and he is to undertake great operations for God, the building of His house and the establishment of His service. Does he step out in assurance and self-confidence to take up all these things? No! "And now, Jehovah my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father; and I am but a little child: I know not to go out and to come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people... Give therefore to thy servant an understanding heart, to judge thy people, to discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this thy numerous people?". He was a king; that was one side; he had glory divinely bestowed; but the other side is that consciously, in his own estimation, he was a little child; "I know not to go out and to come in". Was that inappropriate? It was most appropriate and most suitable, and God honoured it, as He will surely honour this spirit wherever it is found; and without it, I would say again, there is no moral greatness or moral power. It says in verse 10; "And the word pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing"; that is, he had asked for an understanding heart; the footnote says 'a heart that hears'. Let us be on that line. Let us be little children, dependently anxious constantly for the living divine word which will guide us and furnish us. If you and I take the place of a little child in dependence it will please the Lord, and that is really all that matters; and He can add something to us on that basis.
What a wonderful start Solomon had! He ruled over all kingdoms, and then you get the building of he house in all its glory and adornment. Then in chapter 8 all the elders and the heads and princes are assembled and the ark is brought in. Then "when the priests were come out of the holy place... the cloud filled the house of Jehovah... for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah" (v 10). How successful he was! How blest was this man who started out, and I am sure continued, in the spirit of a little child! Then in chapter 10 you get the queen of Sheba coming up and there is no spirit left in her when she sees the glory of Solomon.
Now look at chapter 11: "But king Solomon loved many foreign women... And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart". Then it says "And Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians", and then he built "a high place for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites" (vv 3,5,7). What a contrast! What a dreadful collapse of what had been so glorious! Why? He must have given up the spirit of a little child. He became self-indulgent; he became his own object. Dear brethren, let none of us take refuge in imagined status or past history; collapse could be just around the corner if we are not maintained in the spirit of a little child.
Now we come to Ephesians. This is the zenith of Paul's ministry. It is ministry, and yet as chapter 3 reaches its wonderful climax it is a prayer. We could say, I suppose, that this is Paul at his finest and greatest spiritually. Who had such spiritual intelligence and penetration, such apprehension of the purpose and pleasure of God as this beloved man? What a rich section it is, giving us an inlet into eternity, and yet showing us what is immediate, "in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the allvarious wisdom of God" - that is now. Now we might say to Paul, if we were bold enough, You have been given marvellous gift and enlightenment, what do you think of yourself? "To me, less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given"; that is what he thought of himself, and it was genuine. It was not anything of mock modesty; it was not a sort of robe put on to look good; it was this beloved man's innermost assessment of himself, and I think that is one reason why he could be entrusted with such a ministry. He had been a subject of the ways of the Lord and His discipline for this very purpose, as we find at the end of 2 Corinthians, lest the very greatness of the revelation should cause him to be exalted. That is sobering, that such a man as Paul was in danger of being exalted by the greatness of the revelations committed to him. Does that not remind us of the frailty of our condition and the need to be kept in the sense that we are dust and ashes? I am sure it does, and let us never depart from that area of smallness and nothingness, otherwise we shall become top-heavy as Solomon did. But Paul was preserved in steadiness, and I think it is very powerful and very significant that in this very chapter he says "To me, less than the least of all saints". Mr Taylor said he could hardly understand how Paul could say that, and in a way we cannot; but he did, and it was real, and this was his genuine assessment of himself. His humility sprang from what he felt inwardly; it was a genuine humility. Beloved brethren, may this be our assessment of ourselves, to take the lowest place, and it is to such, I am assured, that the Lord can give power and support, because they represent the spirit of Jesus.
Now finally we read in Luke 9: "And a reasoning came in amongst them, who should be the greatest". There was obviously partisan feeling. How unprofitable! How unsuitable! - especially when you think of verse 44: "For the Son of man is about to be delivered into men's hands". That was His downward path, He who said of Himself "I am a worm, and no man"; and in that context a reasoning came in among them who should be the greatest. O, dear brethren, what an exposure of what is in our hearts! Now it does not seem as if it was a matter, for example, of Peter saying, I am going to be the greatest; or of Andrew saying, I am going to be the greatest; but rather that some would say, We are supporting Peter as the greatest; and another might say, John is to be the greatest. How completely unsuitable! A reasoning came in amongst them; it is like an evil element coming into that circle that should have been pure and holy; this foreign, evil, worldly, indeed Satanic element, because pride originates from him. Am I on that line at all? Are you? Dear brother or sister, have you some favourite you are supporting? That is a foreign element among the people of God.
The Lord then brings in a word: "And Jesus, seeing the reasoning of their heart, having taken a little child set it by him"; the footnote says 'alongside of' Him. That was the first thing; there was a demonstration; there was someone there the Lord could set alongside Himself, identify with Himself and approve of. How humbling this would be to the disciples! If I had been supporting one disciple and you had been supporting another, it is as if the Lord would say, This is what I am supporting, and for the moment it is an element that is lacking among you. Could the Lord take you or take me and set us alongside Him as embodying the spirit which is pleasing to Him? Could He? It is challenging. This is not a matter of ability or gift, it is a matter of spirit and humility, and the Lord sets it by Him. Then there is ministry: "Whosoever shall receive this little child in my name receives me, and whosoever shall receive me receives him that sent me". I would not attempt to seek to explain it but it evidently means that where that spirit is among the saints it represents Jesus, and it represents the Father; in that sense the divine economy is expressed in that person. I would love to be in that position among the saints, and I am sure you would; and there are divine resources that we may be in the spirit of a little child, having no part whatsoever in what glorifies persons unduly, or makes them objects when Christ alone is to be the object. Now this incident is closed by the Lord's own pronouncement: "For he who is the least among you all, he is great"; that is final, dear brethren. There is no qualification to that; none of us can argue with that, nor would we seek to. It is a definitive, authoritative statement from the Lord Jesus as to moral worth and quality, and brings together these two elements which cannot - be separated, what is small and what is great, and you cannot have what is great unless you have what is small. So the Lord says "He who is the least among you all, he" - that is emphatic - "is great". Well, may we be preserved, dear brethren - and we need preservation - in profound humility and dependence so that we may be morally great, for His glory. Amen.
MAIDSTONE
30 January 1982
PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL
J.N.Grace
2 Kings 5: 1-4, 13,14; Romans 1: 8-10,16,17; 5: 19
It is a great privilege, in preaching the glad tidings, to be able to convey to you in some way God's thoughts about Christ - not God's thoughts about you, although that might come into it - but the glad tidings concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. You might be able to say that He is your Lord, but if you have never said it before may it be that you will be able to say it before this meeting is over. The whole world is looking for a man, but God already has His Man, one Man, a wonderful Man, and that Man is Jesus. How wonderful that God has come within our range in a Man! He has been here in conditions of life that we are in in flesh and blood conditions, yet He Himself without sin. Jesus has been here amongst men and women . He grew up here, came in as a babe, grew up into boyhood and manhood. How wonderful it is that God has come so near to us to win our hearts. God being who He is is entitled to you and me, entitled that every creature should be subject. How lawless men are and insubject! You do not know me, or my heart or my life, but I know that if Christ has not secured His place in my heart I am lawless. The gospel is that you might be brought back into right relations with God in Jesus, the one Man. It was not your fault that sin entered into the world; God does not charge men with things they are not responsible for. You were not responsible for sin entering into the world. God is not holding you responsible for that, but just as by one man sin entered into the world, so by one Man salvation, righteousness and blessing are available to all - by one Man. I would like you to come to know that one Man tonight and to trust Him. I would like you to share the joy that I have in trusting in Jesus; you will never regret that. There are many things you might regret in your life but there is one thing that you will never regret, and that is the time you come to put your trust in Jesus. God says, I have the answer already in one Man to all that has happened in the world through one man's disobedience. Through one man's disobedience we are all constituted sinners. God says, I am not charging you with that; but you are responsible not to reject the Saviour, and the gospel is presented to you for obedience, the obedience of faith. God does not present the gospel to men in the way that they can accept it or reject it; that is not God's way. If God presents a thing to men for their blessing, then the obligation upon us is to accept it and be obedient. So the glad tidings are presented for the obedience of faith. You do not have to do anything to earn God's favour; His heart is already toward you. Did you know that? You say, If I repent God will change His heart towards me. No, that is not the gospel. The gospel is that God's heart is already towards you; He has forgiveness in His heart for all men, and not all the lawlessness and rebellion of men will change that. You did not bring that about; what brought that about was the death of Jesus, the one Man. How wonderful that through the obedience of Christ, this one blessed Man, God has been able to take this attitude towards all men. Whether they all come into the gain of it is another matter but the fact is that even if you have been rebellious and disobedient and if your course has been set against God and against Christ, let me tell you this, that God has not changed His attitude towards you. His attitude towards you is one of forgiveness and He wants you to come into the joy of that tonight, and it is all based upon the death, resurrection and glory of Jesus, the One Man. No wonder Paul said he was not ashamed of the glad tidings. I am not either; there is nothing to be ashamed of. It is wonderful that the glory of God is shining in the face of Jesus; it is not the doctrine of it. Paul says "I serve in my spirit in the glad tidings of his Son". I would like to reach the gospel in the spirit of Christ to win you, if I can, for Christ.
That is why I read that passage in Kings about the little captive maid who had been taken out of the land of Israel, taken captive, taken out of her home into a foreign country to serve in a strange household and there she was serving Naaman's wife. Was she vindictive? Was she rebellious? Was she bitter because of what had happened? No, she knew God and she new God's heart was towards men even though it be in Old Testament times; she served, like Paul in her spirit in the glad tidings. I think this is the best way to serve in the glad tidings really - in your spirit; it is a sort of exclamatory way that comes from the heart. She did not set forth the doctrine or the teaching that lay behind it (the whole teaching of Scripture is important in the understanding of the truth), but really what God is after is your heart. This little maid was serving in her spirit in the glad tidings of God's Son, so that is how we can serve; and the youngest of us, if we put our trust in Jesus, can serve in our spirits in the glad tidings of His Son. We do not have to be grown up, or acquire a great knowledge of Scripture, or to read the ministry (read it by all means, and read the Scriptures every day), but if you have to do with others it is what is in your spirit that counts, and that is what this little maid did. She was misunderstood, even in the preaching that she made she was misunderstood, but it was effective and it caused that her master found his way to the prophet that was in Samaria and received blessing. Well, may you receive blessing tonight, and that blessing comes from this one Man, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So Paul says he is not ashamed of the glad tidings, the power of God to salvation. You might say, I have thought over things a good deal and have been brought up in a Christian household, but I feel too weak, I do not understand much about it and I have to face lawless companions, I have to face the influences of the world at work. The gospel is not about you: Scripture is not about you. The gospel is about God; it is about your salvation and about your sins but about the power of God in salvation. This letter to the Romans is all about God; some people think it is about us, but it is about God and God's Son and God's truth and God's salvation, and that is what I am speaking about tonight. It is a wonderful thing to prove the power of God in salvation and you will never do that unless you put your trust in Jesus. It is so simple; it is the very simplicity of the gospel that stumbles people. They think that they have to acquire a certain knowledge, and beyond that they have to do something to merit the favour of God, but you do not have to do a thing because it was all done long before you or I came upon this scene, and the basis was laid in the work of Jesus, a work of perfection. When He died on the cross, He bore all the judgment of God that was due to us because of our sins and the basis that was laid in His death enables God to come out in full and free forgiveness.
Would you not like to be constituted righteous instead of constituted a sinner? What do I have to do to acquire that kind of righteousness? You have to come to an end of yourself and come to it that you have to take this plunge. That is what Naaman came to. We are so slow to take the plunge and leave ourselves - to leave our fancied power or righteousness or whatever you like, our histories, standing, place; to change our man and put our trust in Jesus. That is what this type means, and Naaman was slow to come to it; he says, I know a better way: "Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" But finally he had to come to own, and we all have to come to own, that, try as we may, God's way is always better. So forsake yourself, take the plunge and put your trust in Jesus.
Two things are involved in the gospel: one is the blood and the other is the water. May I raise a few questions with you? First of all, have you faith in the blood? The blood is what gives God a basis to come out in righteousness, to declare His righteousness, that He might be just; not that you might be just but "that he should be just, and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus", Rom 3: 26. This is a solid basis for you to rest your soul on, and you have to do nothing but come to this great, wondrous fact that God, instead of requiring righteousness of you, is bringing out His own righteousness established in the death of Jesus. O, put your trust in the blood! There is nothing else that you can put your trust in in relation to your sins but the blood of Jesus. It is so wonderful, so great in its efficacy before God, and God can pass over the sins of all who have gone before who put their trust in Him. Men like David, men like Adam, men like Abel: how could God pass over the sins of all those men? Because of the blood of Jesus, because of the mercy-seat. The blood was on the mercy-seat, and when you come to Christianity you have the antitype, - the antitype which is always far more than the type - and therefore it is whom God has set forth a mercy-seat; you come to the person of Jesus. Put your trust in the blood of Jesus tonight and it will secure you a place of blessing in the presence of God eternally and nothing else will do so. You cannot add to that and you cannot take away from it either; the work of redemption stands in its own glory. Before ever you came on the scene, before you committed a sin, the blood of Jesus was the basis on which you could have to do with God and stand eternally before Him. The righteousness of God is revealed in the glad tidings n the principle of faith; that is to say, not one work on your part is acceptable to God, only the work of Christ, and it is on the principle of faith to faith.
That brings you to the question whether you are prepared to believe God. You can hear the gospel once; very likely you have heard it week after week but has there been a living link in your soul with Jesus? This is a very personal matter; you can sit down in a congregation and listen to the gospel and assent to the truth of it, be convicted as to the truth of it, yet never come into the blessing of it because you will not have to do with Jesus, the one and only Man, the one on whom blessing depends. May you have to do with Him tonight! It is on the principle of faith, outside of anything you can do; the work has been done, and you accept that in the faith of your soul: "according as it is written, But the just shall live by faith". God puts you among the just. A wonderful thing that you have an acceptance in the presence of God! And if God takes you on, no one can raise an objection; if God is for you who can be against you?
It is God you have to do with about your own sins: your relationship with God is a prime matter for you tonight. It is a matter of your blessing for time and eternity, and your relationship with God depends on whether your faith rests in the blood of Jesus. Thank God this is a day of grace and a day when God is accepting men. In His patience God has gone on with the lawlessness and rebellion of men. Think of the world today; it is increasing in its rebellion every day and God is not bringing judgment upon it. Why? Because He wants men to be saved; His heart is unchanged in His attitude towards men: "who desires that all men should be saved" (1 Tim 2: 4). You can think of men that have been rebelling against God right up to this present time - and it may be you - or of men in darkness; you can think of men, women and children, whatever their age or status in life, whatever their history, God will have all men to be saved. He is no respecter of persons. The God that I know would have all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. The choicest Christian blessing that you or I could enjoy, God has in His heart for every man; that is the Saviour God, that is the God I preach in the person of Jesus. You need to confess your sins and be brought to repentance. Perhaps your proud heart will not allow you to go that way; then I would say it is your proud heart that is keeping you from blessing. But God enjoins all men that they should repent - "repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ", Acts 20: 21. How wonderful if you come within the circle of those who can say, Our Lord Jesus Christ! He is Lord, Lord of all, and the time will come when every knee will bow, heavenly and earthly and infernal beings too, all will bow to the name of Jesus. Why not bow tonight? God's attitude is one of forgiveness and He wants you to come right now into all the blessings that are in His heart. He wants you; it is not your wealth He is after, not your intelligence simply that He is after - He wants that too - but He wants your heart. He says "My son, give me thy heart" (Prov 23: 26), and in order to win your heart God has given His best in the person of Jesus, because Jesus is the Man after God's own heart. All that God wanted and looked to find in a man He found in Jesus, in the person of His own Son; never a son answered to a father's heart like Jesus, and the price of your blessing is the blood of Jesus; God was prepared to give His own Son.
Paul says in Romans 5, "For as indeed by the disobedience of the one man the many have been constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the one the many will be constituted righteous". Then in the next chapter Paul goes on to speak about sin. The matter of sins is one thing but the matter of sin is another, and there is an area in which sin is working, and that is in this world where Satan has a place. Earlier in chapter 5 Paul says "by one man sin entered into the world" (v 12). There is a way out, and that way out is through the death of Jesus. I think we would all like to be clean. You know what it is to get defiled and dirty; what a wonderful thing it is to get fresh and clean! Well, in the acceptance of the gospel it is just that; you can be clean, you can be washed in the blood of Jesus. John says, "To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood", Rev 1: 5. Are your sins all gone? Do you feel free from any charge against you because of your sins? Then there is more than that; it is a question of your state, because sin has entered into it, the very poison of the serpent has entered into it, but God has dealt with that in the death of Jesus. That is really what was involved with Naaman. Come to an end of yourself; come to the fact that sin has been working right in you. Change your man; instead of thinking of yourself and what you can do or what you cannot do, it is a wonderful thing to find the deliverer in Jesus. Every truth that God has brought within our range finds its expression and centre in a living, blessed Person. It is not only a system of doctrine, although the doctrine is necessary; the doctrine is because of the One who is the centre of it, and there is enlargement opened up to our hearts intelligently by the Spirit that the kernel of everything is the Person and work of Jesus.
And so we come back to Naaman, and the message to Naaman was to go down to take the plunge. Come to the fact that your whole history has been ended in the death of Jesus, not only that sin was met but all that you are has been finished with and gone out of sight in the death of Jesus. That is what Naaman had to come to. We love to cling to some distinction of ourselves; we do not like to take the plunge. We may feel the conviction of things and the need, maybe, of confessing the name of the Lord, but we do not like to take the plunge; but when you do take the plunge, what a wonderful change! There is a hymn which says, 'What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought, since Jesus came into my heart'. O dear friends, Christianity is experience; I wish to get that into your soul, because you may know everything about it, yet not have the blessedness of the experience of the plunge and having to do with Jesus. O take the plunge tonight! Maybe you have been brought to the point of committal, maybe someone here tonight has come under the sway of the love of Jesus, knows Him as their Saviour and has put their trust in Him; they thank God that the question of their sins has been settled once and for all. I know that God will not bring up my sins against me again because my Saviour died and He is up there, and not a charge can be brought against Him, it has all gone in His death, and He lives there for my justification. But what as to being left down here? God has not taken us yet; He has left us down here and He wants you to commit yourself to the testimony down here. That means the confession of Jesus as Lord; that means that I am going to commit myself to His interests down here beginning with the Lord's supper, the identification with those that walk in the fellowship of God's Son. You say, Well I have not come to that yet, I am not old enough. Why are you not old enough? I do not see anything at all in these scriptures about the question of age. It is a question of putting your faith and trust in Jesus and committing yourself to Him. To those who have drawn back, whatever it is that has hindered you, I say that the word of the Lord to you tonight is, Take the plunge. Be like Naaman and go down. He was told to wash but it says that he plunged himself seven times. How thorough he was! The word uttered by the little maid had reached his ears, then the word of the prophet, and then God is so patient that he had someone near him, one of his servant drew near to him and said to him, My father, is it not better just to do this? "If the prophet had bidden thee to do some great thing"; is not that just like us all? How ready we would be to do it, but how much rather when he says wash and be clean. It is the very simplicity of things that stumbles us. O, I would say to you, Take the plunge, commit yourself without reserve to Jesus, Jesus up there and His interests down here and be bound up with those who are prepared to walk in the reproach of Christ in the identification of all that stands related to the pleasure of God, worked out now in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. For His Name's sake.
STREATHAM LONDON
15 November 1981