PROFIT

E. F. Woodford

John 11: 50–52; 16: 7, 8, 13, 14

I had in mind to say a word as to what is profitable. This scripture in John 11 is about the One, Jesus, who was prophetically spoken of as gathering together into one the children of God. Chapter 16 would give us some impression as to how that was to operate by the Holy Spirit being sent here. The thought of profitability is in this. Maybe we have not realised that the presence of the Spirit was to be more profitable even than if the Lord had remained here.

We may have thought that surely there could not be anything to compare with the Lord’s actually being here. How we would have rejoiced if today it had been the Lord Jesus who was to preach the gospel, the Lord Jesus who was to be working miracles here. Could there be anything greater than that? In one sense there could not, and yet the Lord Himself said there was something more profitable. But we will come to that.

Seeing people, bent on pleasure, going by outside reminds me of what is natural in all our hearts—to think of our own profit, what we would ourselves enjoy most. In commerce today what is uppermost in

persons’, minds is profit. It is far more in mind today than it was. There was a great deal done years ago in business that was not solely for profit. Goodwill was one of the important things in business in days gone by. The village shop was not exactly profit-conscious, but today in business, speaking generally, there is one objective and that is profit.

Now God would say that the things that are really going to profit you are not those things at all, because they end in death anyway; they are only for a time. There is a verse which says,

“What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?”, Mark 8: 36. People say, ‘Well, it is Sunday; I will profit my health and go down to the sea and enjoy God’s creation and profit by it’. God takes account of this, but He would say to you today, ‘I have got something that is far, far more profitable, and I want to interest you in it’.

The first occasion that profit is spoken of in Scripture is where a number of persons were thinking of killing their brother. There was a man whom they got very jealous about; he dreamed dreams and he was a favourite with his father, and they were jealous about this.

They had got their business—we could call it that—shepherding, and why should this man have a coat of many colours? Why should he have a favourite place? So they were jealous, and when he came to them they decided to kill him. They put him in a pit, but then one of them said, ‘Wait a minute, what profit will there be if we do kill him? We shall have got rid of him, but then we are no better off. I have a much better idea. We will sell him for some money. There are some traders coming down who will buy him and we shall get some money; that is much more

profitable’. So, you see, right in the very first book of the Bible we have the natural mind thinking of profit, even trading in human beings. If it is for profit we will do it, and man’s mind has not changed a bit. I do not want to dwell on this side because we are all conscious of this ourselves, but I just want to talk a little about what God has for your profit and mine.

So we come to John 11, and you may remember that in this chapter the Lord had done one of the most wonderful things in His life here. He had actually raised a man from the dead. You think of that! Men just could not take it in when He said that was His intention. Even those who knew Him and loved Him said, ‘But Lord he has been dead four days, his body stinks, how can You do anything about this?’. They did not know what Jesus could do. Well, He raised Lazarus from the grave; then some went to the Pharisees and they had a counsel and they could see that if they let things go on their position would be encroached upon, and where would they be? Here was One who was obviously taking the interest of the crowds, and the chief priests and the Pharisees—the religious element—were losing ground. So they say, “What do we? for this man does many signs? If we let him thus alone, all will believe on him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation” (John 11: 47, 48). That would be total loss. So what were they to do? One man rises up and says, “Ye know nothing”. ‘Do you not know that it is profitable for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish?’ There is not one other person anywhere who could save you, not one. Not one of us could save ourselves. But one Man could die for the people. Do you know about this one Man who could die for the people? O, friend, it is a thrill to speak about Jesus who

was prepared to die for the people, that you might live, that you might be free, that you might know God’s love. How could you know anything about God’s love if it was not for the Mediator?—“The mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”, 1 Timothy 2: 5.

So Caiaphas says, “It is profitable for you that one man die for the people, and not that the whole nation perish”. He prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, “and not for the nation only, but that he should also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad”. Even at that time it says they were scattered abroad; how much more today! But there is one Man who can bring them together, and I believe it is as He who died and rose becomes the centre. Salvation is only through one Man, and it is only through His precious blood that we can know the forgiveness of sins. O, friend, this is the attractive side of this profitability; it is profitable that one Man die for the people. Well, He has died, but how much does His death mean to us? You think of it; the Man who had Himself just raised Lazarus from the dead was about to enter into the very article of death, suffering the death of the cross. Oh what a death it was! What a witness He was as He went down into death. Death had no claim on Him, no one took His life from Him, but He went down into death, as ever obedient to the Father.

Death always has some effect although perhaps less moving to people today than it was for, along with the times in which we live, life has become cheaper; but even so, I think death is still a moving thing to most persons. There is something which halts persons in the presence of death. I shall never forget a tragedy which occurred when I had started work just a few weeks. In a village

where most knew each other a young lady in her late ‘teens was killed in a road accident. For days there was a hush in that village as the reality of that death, which occurred without warning, came home to the inhabitants. That was just one person in a little village. Now in God’s eyes, you know, the death of every person is vitally important. Today a number will die, and some without warning, but heaven will take account of every one. God will feel the death of every person today, because it means the end of life here, and their being ushered into eternity.

But now I want to go back to the death of Jesus, because heaven was never moved more than to take account of the One who belonged to heaven, at whose birth the heavenly host rejoiced, entering into death itself. I often think of how God must have felt as to the way His beloved Son was treated just before His death, the mockery, the unjust trial, and the way He was smitten, spat upon, and belittled. Oh how heaven must have felt it! Then the sufferings of the cross, and His entering into death itself; how heaven felt it! Friend, does it mean much to us, the sufferings and the death of Jesus? There is a book that is well worth reading, ‘The Sufferings of Christ’. The sufferings of Christ were not only at the hands of men, but also at the hands of a holy and righteous God, that the whole question of sin might be settled, never to be raised again for the believer. Personal acceptance of this is one of the things that is going to bring persons together. Jesus died for each one of us here, each one. It does not matter who you are or where you come from, Jesus died for you, and He died for me.

So it is more profitable that He die for the people than that the whole nation die. How true!

We just cannot begin to take in what would have

happened if Jesus had not died. If Jesus had not gone the whole way there would have been no hope for you or me. But He did, bless His name! And now it is left for you and me to believe. He has done the work. You cannot add to that work one iota; it is complete in itself.

But it is left for you and me to believe, and I feel it laid upon me to press the point as to what His work means to you and me. There is no question about it that He died. There is no question about it that He has been raised again, but perhaps there is a question as to whether we believe it; how much we feed upon it; how much it forms something in us. Are we each really sure that He has borne our sins in His body on the cross? Has anyone here any doubt that the holy and righteous God has forgiven them?

In John 16 we have this remarkable verse in which the Lord says it is profitable for them that He goes away, that the Comforter might come, and then the Lord speaks of what the Comforter would do. “When he is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth—for he shall not speak from himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak; and he will announce to you what is coming”. O, friend, do we value the Spirit enough? He has come and made His abode in us. He came in a most outstanding way, as we read in Acts 2, a most remarkable way, and His coming had a most unifying effect, so that even persons who spoke different languages were able to understand what was being said. I do not think that any other incident in the world’s history has done that. It was because of man’s efforts that God brought about the divergence of languages, but it was God’s action in sending the Spirit that for a moment united persons to such an extent that even those who spoke different languages could understand. The incoming of the Spirit in that sense united them, and that is a

remarkable thing. Well, that same blessed Person is here today, and I believe that will have the same uniting effect as we are subject to Him. But, you know, we must revere Him, we must value Him more, so, that He may have a greater place.

The Spirit of God takes a very lowly place. I could not say He does not assert Himself, for He does, but He retains a lowly position, even to the extent of your or my being able to grieve Him. That is a sorrowful possibility, that you and I could grieve Him, so lowly is He. Well, may we value more the presence of the One who has this uniting power, and there is something for us to do in keeping the unity of the Spirit. You may well ask, How do we do that? Well, it is not for me to say now, except to say that we should value the Spirit more, and that in itself will be helping to keep the unity of the Spirit. So there is one Lord, the One who died for us and shed His blood for us, was raised, and is ascended, who is there in heaven on our behalf; one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

The Lord’s coming and His death, and then the coming of the Spirit, have been profitable. As we accept these things, as we understand them, appreciate them, and value them more, may we enter into what, in God’s eyes, is more profitable, so that things here are related to that. It is not wrong at all to be making profits here, but you relate that to what is profitable in God’s eyes, so that what is natural is not the be-all and end-all, but is held in relation to what is profitable in God’s eyes, and what God has given for our profit, God has given us of His Spirit.

May the Lord make these things more real to us. We know these things, but how real are they to us

every day and in every circumstance? May we increasingly know the power and the comfort of the presence of the Spirit, for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Walton-on-the-Naze
8 August 1976