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The Golden Candlestick No. 140, July 2008, God’s Methods and Means in Times of Spiritual Peril
God’s
Methods and Means
in Times of Spiritual Peril
part 1
T.
Austin-Sparks
chapter 1
THE
REINFORCEMENT OF SPIRITUALITY
In the life of the people of
God, whether individually or corporately, there constantly
occur times of crisis, or turning-points. The Bible
describes many such times of particular and peculiar peril
in the life of the Lord’s people, and shows how God
moved to meet the situation at such times.
This has been true in the history of the church again and
again, ever since New Testament times, and it is true in
the life of any local company of the Lord’s people.
When, for some reason, conditions are critical, and a
turning-point has been reached, at such times it is very
important to know how the Lord would meet the situation and
the need.
Reinforcing
the turning-points
May
I remind you of a provision which the Lord made in the
construction of the tabernacle. The Lord gave instructions
that in the erection of the boards of the tabernacle, at
the corners there should be an extra board, reinforcing the
turning-points. Of course, corners are always delicate
things, perilous things; turning-points are always fraught
with tremendous possibilities. You come up to a point where
a turn is going to be made, a new course is going to be
followed, and that turning-point needs to be negotiated
with much wisdom. Something extra must come in there to
cover it. And in that infinite wisdom of God in the
recognition not only of the weakness of a corner in natural
things, but of the perils connected with turning-points in
spiritual life the Lord makes a provision, covers it,
prescribes for it. As in the boards of the tabernacle,
there must be some real reinforcement at that delicate and
dangerous point of crisis.
Let us dwell for a moment or two upon the tabernacle. You
know that it was, in type, the shrine of God’s
testimony. It was called the “tabernacle of
testimony” or “The Testimony”. In type it
was what Paul calls in his letter to the Colossians
“the mystery of Christ”, the shrine of the
mystery of Christ into which no natural eyes may peer. And
in this shrine of the testimony of God concerning His Son,
Jesus Christ, there are these turning-points. They are
— as we have said, and because this testimony is
involved — always precarious places and times.
If something goes wrong at this juncture it will have very
serious effects in the future. The next phase of things is
going to be affected by what happens as we turn this
corner, by just how far we negotiate this present difficult
situation, whether in our lives, or in the work of God, or
in the history of the Lord’s people, locally or
generally; the future is involved.
We have come up to this point: here are the boards all
leading up to it, and from this point onwards a new course
has to be taken; but this new course has got to be very
carefully safeguarded. All that has been in the past, all
the labour, the work, the suffering and the cost, may be
hazarded at a point of crisis by any weakness or lack of
care. All the future may be made unsafe, weak, clouded by
regrets, if this turning-point is unguarded. A
turning-point in the history of the church
Now it is with such a turning-point in the church’s
history, and with the Lord’s way of handling it, that
we are confronted when we take up Paul’s two letters
to Timothy. We find ourselves at one of the major
turning-points in the history of the church, a
turning-point fraught with momentous issues; and those
issues have thrown their shadows right down the centuries
to the present day. We need to know what God’s
provision was to meet that which came in at the turn of the
road then. For the values that we have given us here in
these two letters (and you will never call them
‘little’ letters again) were meant to cover
this whole age, because the Holy Spirit, who gave these
letters through Paul, saw the far-reaching effects of what
was happening. And what is of general and comprehensive
importance here has its application to all those minor
crises in our own personal lives, or in our life together
as God’s people.
Such a crisis was the occasion of Paul writing these two
letters to Timothy. And may I say again, for I do want to
make this very clear: this is an inclusive and
comprehensive example of all crises in the spiritual life,
an example in principle and in nature. It has all the
features of any spiritual crisis, and it therefore contains
all God’s methods and means of meeting any such
crisis. We are not just dealing with church history; we are
dealing with our own history. We need to be met at that
very point in our own spiritual lives.
Reinforcement
of fundamental realities
Inclusively,
then, the divine method of meeting any critical situation
is the reinforcement of fundamental and essential
realities. That is what these two letters contain. In the
reinforcement of the boards at the corner is God’s
inclusive method of dealing with any threat, or any
possibility of any actual change in the course of things.
And there is one all-comprehending fundamental reality of
true Christianity, and that is spirituality, its
essentially spiritual nature. So that God’s method in
meeting any critical situation in the Christian life is to
reinforce spirituality, or to recover it.
For true Christianity, at its very beginning, in all its
growth, and in its final perfecting, is wholly spiritual. A
true Christian is fundamentally and essentially, by his
very being and existence, a spiritual person. Then all our
growth in grace is not the growth of time, of years, or of
the acquiring of knowledge about the things of God. True
growth is just our own spiritual growth, and before God
there is no other stature, no other growth. God takes
infinite pains to see that our growth is spiritual growth
and the consummation and the perfecting of the life of the
Christian is a wholly spiritual thing. For the consummation
is a spiritual body. “If there is a natural body,
there is also a spiritual body … that is not first
which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that
which is spiritual” (1 Cor. 15:44,46). Those words,
as you know, apply to the resurrection body. “It is
sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual
body”(verse 44). So it requires a spiritual person to
occupy a spiritual body; and if the spiritual body is the
consummation of the Christian life, then the Lord would
have, not a poor little spiritual person occupying a
consummate body; He would have us full-grown, so that the
perfecting of the Christian life is in keeping with its
consummation; it must be spiritual.
Everything else in the Christian life is spiritual. As the
people are spiritual people by their very birth by the
Spirit, so their work and service are spiritual. It is not
only a matter of how many things we do, but it is the
spiritual quality of what we do. There can be tremendous
spiritual value intrinsically in a ‘small’
thing done in the Holy Spirit, while very little may come
of a vast amount of feverish activity in what is called
Christian work. Everything is judged in heaven by its
spiritual value. The warfare is spiritual; you have no need
to be reminded of that. “For our wrestling is not
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities,
against the powers, against the world-rulers of this
darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Our knowledge and
understanding as Christians are spiritual; our fellowship
is spiritual; our relationship with one another is a
spiritual relationship, in the unity of the Spirit.
All government among Christians is spiritual: it is not
autocratic, it is not official, it is spiritual. Very few
Christians today are able to discern and discriminate
between human government and spiritual government in the
House of God. They confuse the two, and thereby bring in
many complications. Government in the Christian realm is
spiritual government. Guidance is spiritual guidance
— “led by the Spirit” (Rom. 8:14). The
methods and the resources of the church, of Christians, are
spiritual methods and resources. All this makes up the
comprehensive truth that the fundamental reality of the
true Christian life is spirituality, that is, that it is
all of the Holy Spirit.
In one of the closing chapters of the prophecies of Ezekiel
(47:1-12), there is brought into view the river rising in
the sanctuary, broadening and deepening on its way, and on
its banks trees, bearing fruit every season, and the leaf
unfading. I believe that to be a foreshadowing, a
prefiguring, of what we have in the book of the Acts. The
trees are men, planted by God, drawing their life from the
river of God. How that river broke out in the sanctuary in
the book of the Acts! And how we see the men, planted then
by God on the banks of that river and how abundant was the
fruit! Trees, sustained by heavenly life, carrying on a
heavenly testimony: in a word, spiritual people, men and
women whose life and resource and everything was the Spirit
of God, for it was the Spirit of God who broke out in the
sanctuary on the day of Pentecost. God’s testimony
down the whole course of the river requires spiritual
people, drawing upon spiritual resources, and that is what
we have there beginning at Pentecost.
Troubles
— due to loss or lack of spirituality
All
the troubles in Christianity are due to loss or lack of
spirituality. God’s method, ever and always, in
getting over some trouble in us personally or in us
together, locally or in His church, is always a
reinforcement of the spiritual life. We never get over any
trouble without some strengthening of our spiritual life.
Is that not true? When we are faced with crisis, we are
just not going to be able to patch up, put it right, do
something about it outwardly; we have got to come into a
new spiritual position about this. We shall never get
through until we have got a new spiritual position, or
until our spiritual measure has been increased.
It is futile to try to get rid of any troubles in
Christianity at large, or locally, or in ourselves, along
any other line but God’s line. This is a crisis and
everything in the future depends upon how we get round this
awkward corner, this difficult situation. All the past is
going to be jeopardised if we do not negotiate this
spiritual situation triumphantly. How will it be done? By
an extra board, by the reinforcement of what has been in
the past against the future, holding everything intact by a
strengthening of our spiritual life. So the divine
safeguard, or remedy, for every trouble is the
reinforcement or recovery of spirituality.
Spiritual
strength
Just
look again at those boards of the tabernacle. They were
made of acacia wood, which is known for its great strength
and power of endurance. They were of considerable height
— ten cubits — which is higher than any man
naturally: this is something of greater stature than you or
I who comprise the House of God. And they were upright,
standing on their feet. Those three things are very
significant. Here is something that needs strength that is
more than ordinary strength, for endurance. Here is
something that means stature that is more than ordinary
human stature, to rise above. Here is something that must
really be established.
Now you have the New Testament crowded into those few
things. And these letters to Timothy — from which we
have momentarily digressed — are just full of those
very things. How wonderful these things are seen to be in
the beginning, are they not? For you know, even at the
beginning of the church’s history, it was a
tremendous corner that was being turned. The coming of
Christ Himself represented the biggest crisis in all
history. It was a universal turning-point; from that time
onwards things were going to change. And into that
tremendous crisis right at the beginning the church was
thrown, and it was a delicate, dangerous, perilous time.
All the succeeding generations would be coloured by how the
church behaved and navigated through those critical days.
Look at the strength of the ‘boards’. Was it
just superhuman strength? Think of Peter only a very little
while before: how much could he endure in that courtyard by
the fire, with the finger of the maid pointing at him? He
just crumpled under it! But look at him — and the
others — now! Are these men on their feet? Are they
standing upright? They are not only standing on their feet
in the Lord, they are putting other people on their feet!
Look at that poor fellow who has been lying there at the
gate all those years, unable to use his feet (Acts 3).
Peter takes him by the right hand, and up he comes; he is
on his feet right enough. Again later, the same thing
happens (Acts 14:8): they are putting people on their feet.
And out of that grew this rich ministry of the New
Testament about being established, just standing up.
You and I will be no good to the testimony of the Lord
unless we are spiritually on our feet. When we lose our
feet, when we break down, when we let go, it means that the
testimony is let down. If you have lost your feet, been
knocked off your feet, if you have not been on your feet
for a long time, or if you have been up and down over a
long period, you will have to have a crisis over this, you
have got to get around that corner. All that has gone
before is in the balances with this present issue; all that
the Lord would have in the future is made impossible, or
will be all wrong, unless you get round this corner
quickly, and get your feet in the Lord.
You know what I mean by ‘getting your feet in the
Lord’; it is having what Paul calls “full
assurance”, assurance about your salvation. For these
boards, as you know, were founded in two sockets, two basic
things, made of silver. Now silver signifies redemption,
and the double testimony under their feet emphasised or
reinforced this thing twice over. Two is always sufficiency
of testimony, is it not? And they were in that. We need to
have assurance of our salvation, certainty about this
matter. Until that is so, there is no strength, and there
is no uprightness and there is no endurance, stature or
measure. And that applies to many other things besides our
foundation, our confidence, our faith, our certainty with
the Lord. These are things which must really characterize
the true Christian. These are the constituents of a
spiritual man, or a spiritual church.
A
dispensational crisis in Timothy’s day
If
you have been thinking about Timothy’s letters, if
you know these letters at all, does it not all come back to
you? Paul’s Lord was making him write those letters
on these very things at a time of tremendous crisis. The
whole crisis in Christianity at this turning-point in its
history was focused in this young man himself. These
letters to Timothy are nothing less than dispensational in
their significance. They contain far more than those
favourite texts, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good
soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:3),or “Fight
the good fight of the faith” (1 Tim. 6:12), or
“That the man of God may be complete, furnished
completely unto every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17), or
“a vessel unto honour, sanctified, meet for the
master’s use, prepared unto every good work” (2
Tim. 2:21). How we like these fragments! Yes, but do
remember, that every one of them is set in a background of
a crisis for the dispensation, for, until you recognise
that, you have not really got the value of the fragments.
Why “take your share of hardship as a good soldier of
Christ Jesus”? Because the dispensation hangs upon
it, Timothy! This is not only for you, but for the future.
Why be “a vessel unto honour”, why “lay
hold on eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:19), why “fight
the good fight”? There are far-reaching issues at
stake, right on to the end of Christianity’s history,
that is why! These letters were not written to Timothy,
just for Timothy’s sake, to help this young fellow
along in his own Christian life. And they were certainly
not written just to give us nice fragments for our own
Christian life. These letters were written at a most
critical time in Christianity’s history, and all
their fragments relate to that.
Paul’s
imminent departure
Look
at the fragments in the setting and they acquire new
meaning, new significance. You will understand why Paul is
so serious in his appeals, his exhortations, his repeated
“O man of God” (1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 3:17). Was
there a crisis on? Well, there are plenty of proofs in the
letters themselves of that fact. You can pick out some of
the indications. First of all, be reminded that these were
the last writings of the apostle. The second letter was
probably the last thing that Paul ever wrote, and he wrote
it perhaps within hours of his execution. Paul is going,
Paul is passing from this scene; Paul’s personal
ministry, in word and in writing, is coming to a close.
There is going to be a real loss and a real gap, a
tremendous loss to the church. It is a crisis. If God takes
away any servant of His through whom He has met His people
in some rich, full way, there is a great gap, and that gap
does not become smaller as time goes on. You are always
wishing that that servant of God were back to help; you are
always saying, ‘Now what would he say, what would he
do?’ I am not exaggerating the point. This letter
contains this. Paul says, “I am already being offered
up” (2 Tim. 4:6). This is a crisis and we need
something from the Lord, Paul, to meet this situation. The
Lord must reinforce us at this turn in the road.
And the letters do that! You see that, as we go on. Ah, but
not only so the letters reveal a secession from Paul. He
cries, “All that are in Asia turned away from
me” (2 Tim. 1:15). And although we know that some did
leave him because it was too costly to stay with him, and
that the peril of his death was overshadowing any
association, it is difficult in looking into this whole
matter not to conclude that the turning from Paul by all
those in Asia was on doctrinal grounds. You say,
‘Where do you have the evidence for that?’ The
evidence is abundant, and will be brought forward
presently. There is a secession from Paul because of his
teachings, his line of things, because of the standard that
he has raised, because of the level that he has insisted
upon. They cannot go on with Paul, and that is a crisis.
Anticipating somewhat, we may go further, and say that the
first chapters of the book of the Revelation are the
outcome of that secession from Paul. The condition of the
very churches in Asia that Paul had been used to bring into
being — beginning with Ephesus, of which Timothy was
the overseer —as shown in the first chapters of the
Revelation is seen to be resultant upon their turning from
the man whom God had used to bring them into being. It is a
very critical thing to let go something that God has done,
to lower your standard. We shall come back later to
consider how terribly the standard was lowered. It
represents a most dangerous, tremendous crisis, to weaken
on anything that the Lord has shown to be His will. So,
they were leaving Paul.
And then, look at the change in the nature of things
indicated by these letters. They are just full of a
lowering level of spiritual life, in every way, a loss of
spirituality, a decline. It is a crisis. All I will say at
this point, without going into details, is this: that,
where God has given richly, where God has given in any
fulness, where God has called to anything more than the
nominal and shown His mind to be spiritual fulness, the
peril is always present of losing, letting go, declining,
dropping away onto some lower level, perhaps because of the
cost of going on, or for some other reason. The peril is
always present.
Now I come back, for a moment, to where we started:
reinforcement. The Lord is always seeking to strengthen our
spirituality in order to guard against these threats and
perils which are ever imminent, never far away. And is it
not impressive that, when there is a time of danger, peril,
threat, or a crisis in the spiritual life, the Lord puts us
into such a state of agony and suffering and distress that
we have got to get a new position with Him altogether, or
we shall not get through? How faithful He is! Because of a
threat, because of a danger, He may plunge us right into a
sea of difficulty and trial, in order to strengthen our
swimming powers, to get us into some fuller measure, so
that we shall not so easily be caught there again. When
anything like that reappears, we shall recognise it for
what it is, and know that we have got to keep our feet,
keep our balance, keep steady.
So these letters are just full of exhortations to Timothy:
“Be strong” (AV), in other words “Be
steady”; “Take your share of hardship”;
“Lay hold on eternal life”; all because of what
Timothy signifies in the whole dispensation.
chapter 2
THE DIVINE
REACTION
Paul passes
his ministry on to Timothy and others
Let
us consider a little further some of the indications of the
existence of a real crisis when Paul wrote these letters to
Timothy. We have noted the first feature of that crisis in
the imminent departure and withdrawal of Paul himself from
the scene. Undoubtedly the apostle was writing largely for
that very reason. The things he was saying to Timothy were
largely because he was going. These things needed saying,
because the responsibility was going to be left to others,
and to Timothy in a particular way. It constituted a very
big change and Timothy and the faithful men (mentioned by
the apostle in 2 Tim. 2:2), were to take up the work and
the responsibility, to stand in the place that Paul had
occupied. And so the apostle was laying the burden very
heavily upon Timothy and the others, because his departure
was at hand.
Then we took note also of that secession from himself to
which he refers. All those who were in Asia had turned from
him; they were no longer prepared to follow Paul, no longer
standing with him in the truth and purpose for which he had
given his life, no longer faithful to the great revelation
which God had given him. Perhaps they did not have an
adequate apprehension of how great a thing had come through
Paul, for it is difficult to believe that anyone who had an
adequate apprehension of the greatness of things could turn
away like this. However, they were leaving Paul, which
meant they were leaving what Paul had sought to realise.
Spiritual
depreciation
Further,
we were beginning to note the change in the nature of
things, a real state of spiritual depreciation, indicated
by the content of these two letters. I will not turn you to
every fragment and every passage in the letters indicative
of these things, but it does not take very long to read
them, and I would suggest that, after having had it pointed
out, you take up these letters anew and read them
carefully. Read them again and again. The apostle refers to
some things which are worse than sad or grievous. They are
quite evil, things creeping in and having a place among
Christians, such as moral laxity, carelessness in moral
conduct and relationships; truly a sign of a lowering of
spiritual temper, temperature and standard. The beginnings
of it, so far as the church, so far as Christianity was
concerned, are traceable in these letters. The apostle is
saying, in effect, these two things cannot go together:
spirituality, a real, true spiritual life and moral laxity.
Perhaps you think that that is a terrible subject even to
mention. I do not know whether that is so, but the world is
a terrible place, morally, and we all have to live here.
The atmosphere is full of it, the papers are full of it,
and it is not always easy to keep that atmosphere, if not
that kind of life, altogether at bay. It insinuates itself,
and it is a very persistent means employed by the devil to
ruin the spiritual life. The enemy will not scruple to
catch Christians on the line of moral laxity, and if he can
do it with the people of God, he has ruined their
testimony.
You remember that we began our last chapter by referring to
the tabernacle as the shrine of the testimony of God, and
to God’s recognition of the need to reinforce the
corners, the turning-points, that is to say, to reinforce
spirituality against the perils and the danger of turning a
corner. You see, it is the testimony
that is involved.
And let me say this, that, rather than being the least
involved, or the most immune, Christian people are more in
danger of this very thing than anyone else. If the enemy
can get a Christian on that low level of life, at that
point, he has struck a master blow. If he can get a servant
of God overcome there, he has surely consolidated his
ground against the testimony of Jesus. Therein is a long
and terrible history. It explains much. Hence Timothy,
Timothy, “flee youthful lusts” (2 Tim. 2:22);
beware of the encroachment and inroads of this moral laxity
that is in the world; flee from it. Is that an unnecessary
word? Forgive me, if you think so. But we have to reinforce
against anything like that for the testimony’s sake.
But that is not the whole of it. I must say some things
that I would rather not say, and if they do not apply to
you personally, your enlightenment and being made aware may
be helpful to some others in danger. For another feature of
the change and the lowering level of spirituality marked in
this letter is unbecoming behaviour in the House of God.
The House of God is mentioned here, and one of Paul’s
emphatic words is “how men ought to behave themselves
in the house of God” (1 Tim. 3:15); that is why he
wrote this. There is such a thing as unbecoming behaviour.
And he touches upon the women with unbecoming dress, or
lack of it. Now that is not something that we like to
mention, but should it not be mentioned? It is a mark of
poor spiritual life when that happens, of low spiritual
level; these things are a barometer of spiritual life, for
spirituality is pre-eminently practical. When we speak of
‘spiritual’ and ‘spirituality’,
sometimes people make a joke of it and say, ‘Oh, they
are so spiritual!’ Well, if you can think or talk
like that, you have not any idea of what spirituality is.
Spirituality is tremendously practical; it touches your
dress, it touches your behaviour, it touches your conduct
as a Christian! Spirituality says, ‘You will not
overdo it and you will not underdo it; you will have a
proper, dignified mien.’ That is what is here.
But is it not a pity that these things which Paul wrote,
concerning women, sisters, for instance, have been taken
out and made subjects in themselves, so that Paul has been
reproached that he ever said such things? That is a
complete mishandling. Why not recognise that this is set in
a decline of Christianity, and that these things are marks
of spiritual decline? That is why they have to be spoken
about; they are not things in themselves. Naturally, you
may have your feelings about them. You might be called
old-fashioned, for instance; not up to date; you have not
moved with the times. But if you are spiritual, you will
have another kind of argument. You will not be behind the
times, and you will not be moving with the times. You will
be moving with heaven, and that is a different standard
altogether.
The beginning
of formalism
Let
us note another indication in these letters which is the
beginning of an altogether new situation with Christianity
itself. We here have quite clearly indicated the beginning
of ecclesiasticism, clericalism, formalism, officialdom in
Christian orders. It is all here, it has started. Paul
died, was executed, and there was a period of some
twenty-five years without any historical record of what was
happening. Then we come to the writings of John, followed
by silence again, and then men began to write, and we have
the writings of men called the ‘fathers’, and
what do we find? Immediately they begin to write at the end
of the first Christian century, we find that clericalism is
in full force and so is ecclesiasticism. The whole
principle of spiritual men as overseers has been resolved
into a system of prelates, bishops, and what not, a non-New
Testament system. This is officialdom, men in high position
ecclesiastically, governing in an official way; it has
come, here are the beginnings. That which was spiritual,
spiritual men, men of God, functioning as overseers of the
church and of the churches, has now given place to men who
are officials, ecclesiastics, clerics, and so on. A
tremendous change has taken place, and it has come right
down through all church history.
The Christian ordinances were changed and the Christian
doctrines were changed. The ordinance of baptism, for
instance, was changed at the end of the first century. I am
not going to enlarge upon these things, I am taking them as
indications of a change, the turning of a corner, the
coming in of something organized in the place of that which
was organic, something institutional in place of that which
was spiritual. It is the movement away from what was
spontaneous; and how spontaneous it was! In the early days
the church was just springing up and pressing on and
expanding and growing by the sheer life that was in it; now
it is organized, now it is a self-conscious entity, making
its own appointments, and so on. The change led to infinite
loss of power and all the unhappy conditions that we have
today.
The point is that the Holy Spirit saw this encroachment,
saw this thing beginning, and sought to react to it.
Through Paul He wrote these letters that taught that elders
and overseers in the church must be essentially spiritual
men; they must be known for their spiritual life as well as
for their spiritual measure, their moral character.
Everything in the house of God must be spiritual in its
nature and value, not official. The Lord’s word then,
now and ever is: If you want to recover the power of
testimony in this world, to recover spirituality; if you
want to have that impact and registration which was known
at the beginning, you must recover the spiritual state
which existed at the beginning. Everything must be like
that, not like this. Where God is concerned a man’s
position in the house of God depends on his spiritual value
and nothing else. You may dress him up and decorate him and
‘lord’ him, and call him by this name or that,
but with God it is only that man’s spiritual value
that counts, and no more.
And what is true in the realm of those in positions of
responsibility is true of everyone. Paul calls Timothy
“man of God”; indeed, he makes it personal and
says, “O, man of God”, because of
Timothy’s particular position of responsibility; but,
mark you, Paul uses that phrase of all others too in the
same writing. Why are the Scriptures given and to whom are
they given? Are they only given to Timothy and to overseers
and to men in particular responsibility? Not at all.
“Every scripture inspired of God is profitable
for” this and that, “that the man of God
…”. Who is that? Everyone to whom the
Scripture is given is called a ‘man of God’.
So, if you have the Scriptures, you come into that
category, under that designation; you are supposed to be a
man of God, a woman of God. We are all supposed to be
‘God’s men’. What are God’s men,
the men of God? Again, that title belongs only to those who
are in a spiritual position, not in any formal, official
position. They are where they are because of their
spiritual life, measure and value. We cannot underline that
too strongly.
We thus see something of the crisis involved in this change
from everything being what was inward to everything being
outward; offices and functions and positions and titles
— the introduction of formalism. Paul is bringing it
back to where it ought to be, to the person himself, the
person herself. That is where he fastens it. In order to
safeguard, to recover, to protect, it must be spiritual men
and women.
These are indications of the course of things, of the
change that was coming over Christianity, and as I said
earlier, there is so much proof of this. Paul went, but
somewhere John was going on. You know that Paul went in the
terrific holocaust of persecution that led to John’s
exile. John is somewhere and then he writes his Gospel, the
Gospel of pre-eminent spirituality. You do not need that I
should stay to show that the Gospel written by John was
written with the object of bringing things back to
spiritual principles. And then he wrote his letters, and
John’s letters are just full from beginning to end of
spiritual essentials, are they not? In life, light, love,
and so on, spiritual essentials. And when we come to his
Revelation and read those chapters containing the
Lord’s challenge to the churches in Asia,
Paul’s churches, what do you find? Full development
of those things of which we have been speaking! Moral
laxity: “thou sufferest the woman Jezebel.”
Formalism, empty show and so on: “Thou hast a name
that thou livest, and thou art dead.” The thing has
come about, but, again, what is the Lord’s reaction?
Recovering
and maintaining spirituality
It
is a reaction to a spiritual position. What are
‘overcomers’? Overcomers are simply those who
have recovered or maintained spiritual ground. It is not
easy, in a world like this, in the present course of
things, in Christianity as it has become, to recover or to
maintain purely spiritual ground. You will suffer for it,
so the Lord said. I venture to say that it is far more
difficult to keep a clear, straight spiritual course in the
Christian life, than it is to live just as a Christian in
this world. It may be difficult to live as a
Christian in
the world, but you
will find that there are difficulties in Christianity which
you will never encounter from
the world. Am I
right? Yes, “a man’s foes shall be they of his
own household” has a very much larger meaning. A
spiritual course in Christianity is exceedingly difficult
because of Christians themselves.
‘Christianity’ has become very largely the
enemy of spirituality.
These are strong things to say, but, you see, it is a
matter of the effectiveness of testimony, the purity of
testimony. I am not at the moment touching upon the
doctrinal side of things in these letters. A large part of
these letters is given up to departure from former
doctrine, and I may come to that in some measure later on.
What I am concerned with just now is to demonstrate two
things: firstly
that this kind of
crisis happens; it is the kind of thing that happens again
and again. It is a besetting peril all along the line, to
drop from the full, high, spiritual level to which the Lord
has called, to something lower and something less.
Secondly,
that God has ever and always reacted and still does react
by trying to get His people on to a more spiritual level of
things, to increase their spiritual measure, their
spiritual life. It is the only way to overcome, it is the
only way to get through and to be able at the end (to come
to the letters again) to hand back the deposit to the Lord
unspoilt. “O Timothy, guard that which is committed
unto thee” (1 Tim. 6:20). Hand it back at the end,
unsullied, unspoilt, undiminished, intact. Paul, on that
very matter, says, “I have finished the course, I
have kept the faith” — ‘Timothy, take it
up and do the same.’ That is the effect of it.
“Guard that which is committed to you” —
the deposit of God.
Timothy as a
sign
Now
let us come to the divine reaction more particularly and
specifically, and I would ask you to take note of this.
Timothy himself is at this point being marked out as the
instrument of the divine reaction to the existing trend of
things. And Timothy therefore assumes the role of a
sign.
Now, that is not a new idea in the Bible, is it? Ezekiel
was told by the Lord that He had made him a sign for the
house of Israel (Ezek. 12:6,11; 24:24,27). And Timothy
comes into that position or function, as a sign, so that he
must himself be indicative of what spiritual features are,
of what spirituality is. Let us then look at Timothy, first
of all, shall we say, negatively, remembering that he
himself is a symbol of things essential to recovery. We are
going to find much comfort and help here, all of us. What
are these things?
1)
Weakness
First of all, weakness. You can
despise Timothy, if you like; they did that when he was
alive. Paul said to him: “Let no man despise thy
youth.” Naturally despised; in weakness. Then
dependence. It looked as though Paul was providing him with
a set of crutches to help him to keep on his feet! So much
of what Paul wrote to Timothy indicated these things about
him. Speaking of Timothy naturally, you might say that he
was evidently a very timid, nervous sort of young man, who
needed all the time to be bucked up. Surely, Timothy must
have been very weak, seeing all these things were
necessary!
Look
at it that way, if you like; but there are other ways of
looking at it. This is the most suitable and promising
ground for spirituality — indeed, it is absolutely
essential to the thing that God is after and Paul was
after! And what about Timothy? Paul thought a lot of him,
Paul made a lot of him; Paul, who did not usually err in
the matter of wisdom and discretion, put Timothy into a
very important place. Timothy was an apostle, although he
was never called that. Timothy was an elder, although he
was never called that. But Timothy was more. There was in
Timothy a combination of all the functions from an
evangelist to a church-builder. “Do the work of an
evangelist.” He was the elder amongst the elders of
the church at Ephesus. Was Paul thinking of sending someone
like Timothy to put things right at Ephesus, to take charge
in Ephesus, to correct and to build in Ephesus?
Preposterous to send a young fellow like that, of this
kind!
Well, spiritual and natural abilities are in altogether
different worlds! And when God reacts to recover, or acts
to provide against a threat, a peril, a danger that has the
characteristics we have noted, He brings his instrument
down to nothingness, and He empties it out and makes it
more conscious of its weakness and of its dependence than
of anything else. In this greatest of all works of God of
maintaining His testimony in absolute purity and truth
there is no place whatever among those who are concerned,
for assumption, for assuming that you are something, or
assuming that you can do something, or assuming that you
are called to this or that. There is no place for
presumption — that is, running ahead of God, running
ahead of the Spirit. There is no place for self-importance,
for self-sufficiency, for self-assertiveness, no place for
any of these things. If you and I are going to be used for
spiritual purposes, God will take us in hand to drain us of
the last drop of anything like that, until we know that of
all men we are the most unfit and unsuited to the thing to
which God has called us; that from all natural standpoints
we have no right to be in that position at all. That is
God’s way of making spiritual men and women.
If you are acute in your mental activity, you may have
thought you are catching me out on this, because in these
letters Paul is telling Timothy he must be strong, and I
have just said he must be weak! Paul is as good as telling
him he must be full, and I have said he must be empty! Ah,
yes, but if Timothy was to be all that Paul said he must
be, then it would be all spiritual and not natural. Is that
borne out by the context? Of course it is! “Be
strong”, but it does not stop there. “Be strong
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1).
That is not self-strength, that is not natural strength of
any kind. “The grace that is in Christ Jesus”,
be strong in that. So we see what is the strength in the
case of Timothy, as the symbol of God’s reactionary
method and means in a day of declension. The strength is to
be spiritual strength.
That works both ways. It is a word of encouragement to
those who are conscious of no strength, who only feel their
weakness; as though to say, ‘Look here, how weak you
feel is not the criterion at all: the criterion is
“the grace that is in Christ Jesus”.’ And
it works the other way. If any of us should feel that we
can do it, and press into the situation or into the
position, and take it on, assuming or presuming, then we
are in for a bad time under the hand of God — that
is, if we are going to be of any use to the Lord. Any such
attribute is going to be emptied out.
2) Youth
“Let no man despise thy
youth.” Well, then, what is to be the reaction of
Timothy when he finds men despising him? Suppose you are a
young man, and I said, ‘Don’t you let them
despise you! Don’t you let them have that attitude
towards you!’ What would you do? How would you react?
You could act very much in the flesh, couldn’t you?
You could begin, as they say in America, to be
‘chesty’, (peacockish they mean) and spoil it
all by a false dignity, by an artificial personality that
is not yourself. Authority is spiritual in the house of
God. There is authority about a man or woman who has real
spiritual measure that weighs, that counts, and has
influence. They may naturally be despised, but let
spiritual measure be found with them, and you will find
that in times of difficulty they are the one to whom people
turn. We may touch again upon spiritual authority later.
The
knowledge and the understanding are to be spiritual. The
office, if you like to use that word, whether it be elder,
overseer, teacher, evangelist, or whatever it is, is to be
spiritual, not official. You do that because you
are
that. It simply
comes out because that is how you are spiritually
constituted — it is how the Holy Spirit has
constituted you. And it is a poor thing to try to be an
evangelist or a teacher if the Holy Spirit has not
constituted you one. Oh, what tragedies we have seen
through people trying to be teachers, or whatever it may
be, because they like it, it appeals to them, and the Holy
Spirit has not qualified them for it. It is just like the
peacock’s tail when it has gone — still
strutting about, but there is nothing behind it! Is there
anything more pathetic? What is the good of it all, if it
is not of the Holy Spirit? And so it is with Timothy.
3)
Endurance
“Endure hardness —
hardship — as a good soldier” (2 Tim. 2:3 A.V.)
Endure. Just think for a moment what Timothy was called
upon to endure at that time. You perhaps do not have any
idea of the situation. I have reread lately the account of
those persecutions of the Christians, which came about
through Nero, and of the Jews; the unspeakable horrors of
cruelty to men, women, children, to families. I would shock
you if I mentioned the inhuman indescribable atrocities
that literally hundreds of thousands of Christians suffered
at the hands of those Roman Emperors. When Nero commanded
the burning of Rome, a scapegoat had to be found upon whom
the blame could be laid, and it was laid upon the Jews; and
the Jews said, ‘No, it is the Christians’, and
so the Christians were taken. You are not surprised at the
sufferings of the Jews, are you? Not only Christ, but
hundreds of thousands of His precious children were
tortured in unspeakable agony, for many decades.
Timothy was in the presence of
that growing shadow. He knew that his father in Christ was
in prison and shortly to suffer death. He knew that those
who had been near Paul in Rome had left him. And Paul said,
“At my first defence no one took my part, but all
forsook me” (2 Tim. 4:16). Timothy was in the
presence of that! Endurance! Who could
endure but by the
mighty power of the Spirit? You require spiritual measure
for that, you need the enduring power of Christ for that;
that is spiritual endurance, not just natural courage.
We see, then, that the Lord, at all times of peril to His
church, all times of danger, when things are threatening,
and a change seems to be coming about, the Lord first of
all always tries to get His people onto higher spiritual
ground; He always seeks to increase spiritual measure, to
bring things over from the merely professional and formal
onto the ground of spiritual life. And secondly, He seeks
to remind us that we are “God’s men”, we
are not the men of a system, not men of the world, not men
of our own natural ambitions; we are God’s men. It is
significant, is it not, that Timothy’s name means
‘honouring God’. That is the key to everything,
with him, with us; that is spirituality.
to be continued