The Word of God

      “For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:12-15).

      The apostle sets before us the instrument that God employs to judge the unbelief and all the workings of the heart that tend to lead the believer into departure from the position of faith, and that tend to hide God from him by inducing him to satisfy his flesh and to seek for rest in the wilderness.

      To the believer who is upright in heart this judgment is of great value, for it is that which enables him to discern all that has a tendency to hinder his progress or make him slacken his steps. It is the Word of God which, as the revelation of God and the expression of what He is and of what His will is in all circumstances that surround us, judges everything in the heart that is not of Him. It is more penetrating than a two-edged sword. Living and energetic, it separates all that is most intimately linked together in our hearts and minds. Whenever nature—the soul and its feelings—mingles with that which is spiritual, it brings the edge of the sword of the living truth of God between the two, and judges the hidden movements of the heart respecting them. It discerns all the thoughts and intentions of the heart. But it has another character: coming from God, it brings us into His presence, and all those things that it forces us to discover it sets in our conscience before the eye of God Himself. Nothing is hidden; all is naked and manifested to the eye of Him with whom we have to do.

      Such is the true help, the mighty instrument of God to judge everything in us that would hinder us from pursuing our course through the wilderness with joy. What a precious instrument this is: solemn and serious in its operation, but of priceless and infinite blessing in its effects and consequences.

      It is an instrument that, in its operation, does not allow “the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Eph. 2:3) liberty to act. It does not permit the heart to deceive itself. Rather it procures us strength, and places us without any consciousness of evil in the presence of God to pursue our course with joy and spiritual energy.

Our Great High Priest

      But there is another help, one of a different character, to aid us in our passage through the wilderness. We have a High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. He has in all things been tempted like ourselves, sin apart, so that He can sympathize with our infirmities. Christ of course had no evil desires. He was tempted in every way, but apart from sin. Sin had no part in it at all. But I do not wish for sympathy with the sin that is in me; I detest it; I wish it to be mortified—judged unsparingly. This the Word does. For my weakness and my difficulties I seek sympathy; and I find it in the priesthood of Jesus. It is not necessary, in order to sympathize with me, that a person should feel at the same moment that which I am feeling—rather the contrary. If I am suffering pain, I am not in a condition to think as much of another’s pain. But in order to sympathize with him I must have a nature capable of appreciating his pain.

      Thus it is with Jesus when exercising His priesthood. He is in every sense beyond the reach of pain and trial, but He is Man. Not only has He the human nature which in time suffered grief, but He experienced the trials that we have to go through more fully than any of us has. Thus His heart, free and full of love, can entirely sympathize with us, according to His experience of ill, and according to the glorious liberty that He now has to provide and care for us. This encourages us to hold fast our profession in spite of the difficulties that beset our path, for Jesus concerns Himself about those difficulties according to His own knowledge and experience of what they are, and according to the power of His grace.

      (From Synopsis of the Books of the Bible.)

The night before He was crucified, the Lord Jesus prayed a high-priestly, intercessory prayer to His Father concerning His disciples. He prayed, “Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given me, that they may be one, as We are” (John 17:11). Jesus knew there would always be a tendency—aided and abetted by Satan—for His disciples to go their separate ways and start their own independent ministries and congregations. So He expresses, not only for His Father’s “ears” but for those of His disciples as well, His desire that His disciples remain united in spirit after His departure.

      The Lord does not stop there: “Neither pray I for these [twelve disciples minus Judas] alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word; that they all … may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (17:20,21). This unity desired first for His disciples was to extend to all believers in Christ. One very practical effect of such a unity would be its testimony to the watching world that Jesus Christ had truly been sent by God (“Thou hast sent Me”).

One Body

      In answer to this prayer, the Holy Spirit came down and baptized the believers in Christ “into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13; see also Rom. 12:4,5; 1 Cor. 10:16,17; 12:12-27; Eph. 2:16; 4:4; Col. 3:15).

      I have heard or read it expressed a number of times: “God has arranged the Church into many different denominations so that each believer may select the one with the kind of pastor, manner of worship, scheme of church government, or variety of activities that best suit his/her needs or personality.” NOT SO! By no means is God responsible for the many denominations and divisions of the Church! Sinful man is!

      In the early years of the Church, there was indeed one body in every sense of the word. There were no divisions, no denominations. It is true that there were assemblies of believers in many different countries, states, cities, and villages. But the New Testament clearly shows that a strong unity existed among these assemblies. There existed what is sometimes termed “a circle of fellowship.” The Church, the whole body of believers, did not consist of many independent local assemblies but of interdependent assemblies, geographically separated but united together as a complete and entire organism. Let us look at various Scriptural evidences of this unity.

      The Use of Letters of Commendation. When brothers or sisters from one assembly visited another assembly, they carried with them letters of introduction and commendation from their home assembly, or from a well-known believer (such as the apostle Paul), to the assembly being visited (see Acts 19:24-28; Rom. 16:1,2; 2 Cor. 3:1 for examples). Alternatively, Barnabas personally commended Saul of Tarsus to the believers in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26,27).

      The Ministry of Paul. The apostle Paul did not confine his ministry to one assembly. In addition to helping to establish assemblies of believers in many places, he revisited most of these plus many others in order to build up the saints through ministry of the Word of God. He also wrote letters (called “epistles” in our Bibles) to a number of them, addressing problems specific to each one. In his epistles to the assemblies, Paul often sought to remind the saints of their unity with all of the other assemblies in the Church as a whole: “The churches of Christ salute you” (Rom. 16:16). “Paul … unto the church of God that is at Corinth … with all who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1; see also 1 Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 16:1).

      The Help of Assemblies One for Another. A particular manifestation of the interdependence of assemblies in the early Church was the way the different local assemblies helped each other (see 1 Cor. 16:2,3; 2 Cor. 8:1-15; 9:1-15; Phil. 4:14-18).

      The Uniting of Believers of Various Ethnic Backgrounds. The earliest members of the Church were Jewish converts to Christ. The first were 120 or so disciples of the Lord (Acts 1:15) upon whom the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. These were soon followed by 3,000 more Jewish men and women who responded to the preaching of the apostle Peter (Acts 2:41). Later, the gospel went out to the Samaritans and the Greek and Roman Gentiles, with many of these saved and added to the Church as well (Acts 8:5-17; 10:45,46; 16:34).

      While a longstanding animosity existed between Jews and Samaritans and between Jews and Gentiles, God worked things out to show clearly that the same Holy Spirit who brought the Jewish believers into the Church, the body of Christ, brought the Samaritan and Gentile believers into that same body.

      The apostle Paul emphasizes the oneness of Jewish and Gentile believers: “He is our peace, who has made both [that is, Jew and Gentile] one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us … to make in Himself of two one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body … For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:14-18).

      There is not one body or Church for Jews and another for Gentiles; not one Spirit for Jews and another for Samaritans; not one Lord for whites and another for blacks; not one faith for males and another for females; not one baptism for Americans and another for Asians. Rather, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:1-6).

      The Resolving of Differences Between Assemblies. The unity of assemblies in the early Church was further demonstrated when “certain men who came down from Judea [to Antioch] taught the brethren and said, “Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). A delegation of brothers from the Antioch assembly, including Paul and Barnabas, went to Jerusalem to discuss this matter with the believers there (Acts 15:7-9). After the brethren of both assemblies resolved that the Gentile believers should not be required to be circumcised, the assembly at Jerusalem sent a delegation to the assembly at Antioch confirming the satisfactory agreement reached on the controversial question.

      In this account we find a wonderful example of the care, concern, and unity that should exist among the local assemblies in the Church, the one body of Christ. Satan hates this unity of God’s people, and does all he can to disrupt and destroy it. What a credit to both the Antioch and Jerusalem assemblies that the brothers took great pains to resolve the conflict rather than deciding to split and divide over their disagreement.

“That They All May Be One”

      Given the sad history of the Christian Church over the past 2,000 years, its unity having been tragically smashed into thousands of divisions, sects, and denominations, we might throw up our hands in despair and cry, “What’s the use?” But the Lord, knowing full well what the history of the Church would turn out to be like, nevertheless prayed “that they all may be one.” Let us then, each one of us, look within ourselves to see if there is any attitude or behavior that could be used by Satan to foment even more divisions within the body of Christ.

      Let’s face it. Being part of a local church or assembly of believers for any length of time can be a very trying experience. It shouldn’t be so if all truly have been saved from their sins by the precious blood of Christ and are seeking to be followers of Christ (Eph. 5:1,2). But many of the selfish habits, behaviors, and attitudes (such as the want of meekness, humility, and mutual forbearance) that are responsible for the disgracefully high divorce rate in Western society have become painfully evident in the local church as well.

      Ideally, members of a local church meet together one and maybe several times a week to study the Bible, pray, worship, work, and make plans and decisions together. But while these experiences ought to be a foretaste of heaven, sadly they often are the farthest thing from it. However, considering the variety of personalities that may be joined together in the local church—males and females, nonagenarians and teens, blacks and whites, Jews and Gentiles, elementary school dropouts and college graduates, rich and poor, aggressive types and laid-back types—and that all are still carrying around our old sin nature, perhaps it is a wonder that local churches function as well as they do.

      Let us each ask ourselves:

      1. Is there someone in the congregation whom I don’t like, and particularly, with whom I am not on speaking terms?

      2. Do I find myself wanting to have everything my way in the local church, always shooting down the suggestions and proposals made by other people?

      3. Do I find myself frequently grumbling and complaining about any of the following: teaching and preaching by those who are poorly prepared or simply not edifying? prayers and praises that are rote recitations rather than the Spirit-led outpouring of a heart that is close to the Lord? quality of the singing and/or the hymns selected for singing? the outreach programs? the lack of outreach programs? management of finances? anything else?

      4. Do I consider myself to be spiritually superior to, and/or more advanced in knowledge of the Scriptures than, everyone else in the assembly?

      5. Do I become impatient with brothers and sisters in Christ who are not as advanced spiritually as I am?

      6. Do I find myself to be in conflict with others in the local assembly concerning a matter of church discipline?

These, I believe, are a few of the things that Satan and his host of emissaries are looking for when deciding what group of Christians to attack and rip apart next.

      Let us confess and exterminate any un-Christlike behaviors and attitudes before Satan is able to get an advantage over us (2 Cor. 2:11). Let us seek to do everything in our power, in accordance with Scripture and by the leading of the Holy Spirit, to fulfill our Lord’s earnest prayer, the night before He laid down His life for us, that we “all may be one” (John 17:21).

Healing of Past Divisions

      We cannot close this consideration of the unity of believers without asking what, if anything, can be done to heal the divisions that already exist. The Scriptures give instruction only for restoring an individual who has been put away because of wicked doctrine or behavior (compare 2 Corinthians 2:1-11 with 1 Corinthians 5). If a division or separation has occurred in a fellowship due to the allowance of wrong doctrine or practice, and if individuals associated with the evil come to see their wrong, they should—upon their confession and forsaking of the wrong—be received by those who separated from them.

      The merging of two entire bodies of believers, while the idea seems commendable on first thought, lacks Scriptural authority. When such has been attempted, it generally results in dropouts from both fellowships and even more divisions. Also, the leaders’ eagerness to push the union to completion may often result in failure to inform fully every individual in each fellowship of all of the details of the proposed  merger, or to provide adequate time for consideration and discussion by all. In the absence of clear Scriptural instruction for effecting such mergers of entire fellowships, it would seem best for God’s people to adhere to their primary focus of living day to day and week to week to the glory of God, and to seek to avoid further division by endeavoring, “with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love … to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2,3).

      The Church, when viewed according to the mind of God, is a unity, a single body—the body of Christ—formed and connected with its living Head by the Holy Spirit sent down to abide here on earth. Thus formed into oneness in and with Christ, it is separate from the world, is heavenly in its character, and is to have its place down here as a witness for an absent Christ and as waiting His return to take it to glory. The gatherings of the Church are to be “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” only (1 Cor. 5:4); the smallest number thus gathered have His presence and His administrative power in their midst (Matt. 18:20).

The Body of Christ

      The characterization of the Church as the body of Christ is, no doubt, a figure, but it is one that the Holy Spirit constantly employs in order to show the union of members with one another as well as with Christ, their dependence upon one another as well as upon Christ. If the Church is the body of Christ, believers are “one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Rom. 12:5). Therefore, “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:21). Furthermore, if “one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it” (verse 26). Therefore, the body is a figure used to show the closest possible union among believers. However, since the Church is one body, the body of Christ, part of the testimony which it is called upon to bear is the manifestation of this oneness on earth.

“That They May Be One”

      Thus Jesus prays the Father, “Keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We are” (John 17:11). Here oneness is asked, oneness of a most blessed character—a transcript of that transcendent oneness of the Father and the Son. The oneness of nature is, indeed, a depth which man’s intellect can never fathom, but the oneness of purpose and of love has been divinely manifested. This oneness, at least, believers are to exhibit to the world.

      However, it may be objected that this oneness was not to be outward and visible, but only in spirit, as seen by God. But let us look at another text: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me (John 17:20,21). Here Jesus prays for all “who shall believe on Me through their word.” Surely each believer will eagerly claim his part in this. But if all believers are included, the Lord’s request for them all is that they may be made one even as He Himself was one with the Father. And this oneness—far from being invisible to the world—was to be the evidence to the world of the Father’s having sent the Son. If God meant it to be a testimony to the world, He must

have meant it to be something that the world could see. Therefore, if the oneness of believers is not visible to the world, the Church has failed in its testimony. There may be abundant individual testimony that the Father has sent the Son; but the testimony here named, the testimony that was to be borne by the manifest oneness of believers, cannot come from a divided Church.

      How earnestly the appeal is over and over again repeated to oneness of heart and mind. “Be perfect,” says the apostle to the Corinthians, “be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you” (2 Cor. 13:11). He entreats the Ephesians to walk in love, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” and adds, “there is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. 4:3-6). In like manner the gifts bestowed by our ascended Christ are distributed “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come, in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (verses 12,13). Wherever we look, the oneness that belongs to the Church in the mind of God is expected to find its manifestation here on earth.

      It is important to note the priority that the exhortations to unity possess in the teaching of God’s Word. When Christ prays for the disciples He was about to leave, the first request He makes for them is “that they may be one, as We are.” When He enlarges the circle and embraces in His petitions “those also who shall believe on Me through their word,” the first thing He asks for them is “that they all may be one.” So, when, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, believers are exhorted to walk worthy of their vocation, the first way in which this walk is to manifest itself is by “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And where, as among the Corinthians, there has been a want of that lowliness and meekness, that long-suffering and forbearance in love which are needful to the preservation of unity, the first of the many errors which the apostle selects for rebuke and remonstrance is the “division” that had appeared in their midst. Thus, the manifestation of unity was far from being a secondary or indifferent matter in the mind of Christ or in the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

Division Condemned

      Nowhere in Scripture do we find the slightest trace of the modern philosophy that defends sects as securing variety in unity, that says, “Let men have their own thoughts on all matters but the great essential truths of salvation.” Sects are utterly condemned as the divisions of Christ, and every thought is to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Divisions are a result of carnality, disobedience, and self-will.

      In Christendom today, division and sectarianism have ceased to be looked upon as disobedience, and have been quietly acquiesced in as either a positive good or a necessary evil. But if God’s Word condemns it, as we have seen, it certainly cannot be good. Is it, then, a necessary evil? In other words, are believers obliged to act in disobedience to God’s directions? Surely the bare suggestion refutes itself. God has marked out a way for His people to walk in obedience. Our ignorance may fail to find it, but God’s faithfulness has not failed to provide it.

Division Condemned, Separation

from Evil Enjoined

      Here an important question arises. Are believers to hold together whatever evil doctrine or practice is tolerated? Or, if not, how is division to be avoided? The Word of God is perfectly clear. Division is condemned, while separation from evil is enjoined. Where false doctrine or immorality has shown itself, separation is to take place. Thus, when there was immoral conduct at Corinth, the leaven was to be purged out (1 Cor. 5:7); if a person preached another gospel than the one Paul had taught the Galatians, “Let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8,9); and when Hymenaeus and Alexander made shipwreck concerning the faith, they were “delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme” (1 Tim. 1:20). However, this was not division. It was united action, shown in separating from evil. Even if large numbers had supported Hymenaeus and Alexander, and had gone out with them—in fact, if all the assembly had upheld them except two or three who in faithfulness to Christ withdrew from them—the act of these latter would merely have been godly separation from evil, and the division which had occurred would have been the act of those who followed the false teachers, not of those who, in obedience to the Lord’s mind, separated from them. As far as these were concerned, whether few or many, the principle of the oneness of the Church would have been maintained, and no departure from the divine order would have occurred. They would have remained on God’s ground, and would have constituted the outward manifestation of His Assembly or Church.

      Suppose a teacher tells his pupils that he does not wish them to be scattered, and therefore they are all to remain in the playground. The playground then becomes the place where their oneness is to be shown. If some wander away from the playground, the manifested oneness is gone, but which of the pupils maintain the principle of it—those who go away, or those who remain where they were told? Even if those who remain are but two or three out of two or three hundred, they have not caused the division, and their separation from those who disobeyed the teacher by leaving the playground, so far from breaking up the oneness, keeps them in the only place where the oneness which the teacher desired could have been exhibited. Therefore, godly separation from evil is not division and sectarianism, for the truth of God cannot contradict itself. Separation from evil never makes sects, and is a necessary step in delivering ourselves from sects.

      In conclusion, sects and denominations are entirely contrary to God’s Word. Does it make matters any better that they are of centuries standing? “God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent” (Num. 23:19). What He has once declared evil cannot become good by long continuance. Now, what am I to do if I find myself involved in that which God condemns? I am bound to search His Word to learn how I can escape from it, and I am entitled to reckon with the most absolute confidence that He has provided such a way for those who faithfully seek it.

      (From The Lord’s Coming, Israel, and the Church.)

(Ed. note: The article, “Christ’s Teachings on Prayer,” that appeared in the March-April 2007 issue of Words of Truth, was Mr. Ridout’s introduction to his following thoughts on Christ’s high-priestly prayer given to us in John 17.)

The Divisions of John 17

      This marvelous prayer of our Lord shows us His deep longing for His own who are in the world. First, I want to mark out the three major divisions of this wonderful chapter. In the first five verses our blessed Lord speaks in view of His going to the Father, of having all power committed to Him, and of entering into His glory. In verses 6-21 we have the main part of the prayer. It is His desire for His own who are in the world. Then from verse 22 to the close of the chapter we have the glory into which He is entering, and which is our eternal home.

The Beginning Section:

Christ Glorified

      His prayer begins with “The hour is come” when He is to be glorified, and at the end of the chapter He has entered His glory and we are to share it with Him. Whatever comes in between is marked by the character that belongs to those two great parts of His prayer. At the beginning it is His entering into glory with all power given to Him, including that of giving eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. Here there is no sense of feebleness! With us prayer is often the expression of our own feebleness in confession. How different with the Lord! “Glorify Thy Son … as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He might give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.” He is the Giver of eternal life, and only He leads us into it. He fills our hearts with that vital principle, never to be lost, which links us with Himself and the glory into which He has gone.

      But what a standard for prayer! When we in our feebleness get on our knees, what a blessed thing it is to realize that the Lord is on high, all power being given to Him, not merely to give us the little trifles of food and meat and clothing, but to give us all that the blessed term “eternal life” means. It is not merely the impartation of that which never can be lost, but more, the enjoyment of it, fellowship with the Father and the Son, companionship with Them, sharing Their thoughts, enjoying the holiness that belongs to Them, partaking of that holiness. This is realized power.

      As we listen to Him there, pouring out His heart in supplication, we may be in all the consciousness of what has been given to Him. There is no uncertainty, there is no thought that an answer will not be given, because He already has the power to give it to as many as the Father has given Him.

“The Hour Is Come”

      But I must not pass over the Lord’s words, “Father, the hour is come.” It had not come at the beginning. To His beloved mother—and He honored her and obeyed her in her place as mother, but she could never intrude between Him and the Father—He said, “Woman, what have I to do with you? Mine hour is not yet come” (John 2:4). Until that time He would not act. Again, “No man laid hands on Him, for His hour was not yet come” (John 7:30; 8:20) and then, later, “This is your hour” (Luke 22:53). Now, at the beginning of His prayer He speaks of it as come, that hour of which He had said, “What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name” (John 12:27,28). It meant the cross for Him, the anguish of suffering unto death for us, the bearing of the wrath of God for us.

      But He is not thinking merely of the hour of suffering. “Glorify Thy Son.” “For the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). He passed through Gethsemane, endured Calvary, entered the grave, but rose in life to sit down at the right hand of the throne of God!

      Now why did He pray to be glorified? Did He have some selfish motive? Was it in order that He might be displayed? “Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee.” He was here in this world for one purpose—to glorify the Father. Why is He in heaven? To glorify the Father. Blessed be His name! There is no selfishness in Him there, any more than there was here! It is the glory of the Father that is the one purpose ever engaging Him, His one desire.

Eternal Life

      Then, from out of that suffering, from out of that cross, the power is wielded to give eternal life. What is eternal life? I am not going to do more than point out what it is that marks eternal life: the knowledge of “the only true God,” to whom He is speaking, and “Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” What does it mean to know Him, to know God? Does it mean merely that you believe there is a God? Does it mean merely that you believe there was such a historical person on the earth as Jesus of Nazareth, or even Jesus the Christ, or even Jesus the Son of God? Is it merely to know about Him in that way? Is that eternal life? This is life eternal, to be acquainted with, to have a conscious knowledge, to have a living and vital knowledge in my own soul of Him, the only God, God over all; not man, not the creature, but the living God, and He who has manifested God, Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

      Let us not be afraid to speak freely and fully of these blessed themes; let us not be afraid to discuss eternal life. Life eternal brings me into relationship with God; life eternal introduces me into the family of the Father and the Son. Truly our fellowship is with Them. It is a holy theme and a most blessed one. Blessed be His Name, He has given that eternal life to all whom the Father has given to Him!

Glorifying God

      Just another word: “I have glorified Thee on the earth!” How perfectly He did it! Do you not love to trace His footsteps here? The apostle writes that we “have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21). He is the personal exhibition of the truth in all of its holy character. It is not merely Christ risen, but it is the truth as it is in Him, in that life which He lived here upon earth. Thus the eternal life that was with the Father was manifested to us, indeed, exhibited in its perfection. Therefore He says, “I have glorified Thee on the earth,” and then, “I have finished the work that Thou gave Me to do.” The Father had committed a stupendous work to the Son, none other than that of bringing back a rebel world to God, vindicating His righteous character. This had been entrusted to Him as having humbled Himself to take the servant’s form, even the lowest place. I love to think of that little Babe in His mother’s arms, entrusted with the glory of the Father, now grown to manhood and about to go to the cross and into eternal glory. Looking forward, He can say, “I have finished the work that Thou gave Me to do.”

      As we contemplate that one great feature of this work, the redemption which He accomplished on the cross, what place has doubt, fear, or unbelief? Shall I not look at Him and say:

      “Clean every whit, Thou said it, Lord;

            Shall one suspicion lurk?

      Thine surely is a faithful Word,

            And Thine a finished work.”

                                                                                                                                    (Mary Bowley)

      And so He has gone on high, blessed be His Name; angels, principalities and powers are subject to Him. He is Lord and Master of all. Our Great High Priest  who has entered the holiest of God’s presence on high to appear for us has obtained eternal redemption.

The Concluding Section: Christ’s

Glory Given to the Believers

      Now let us turn to the close of the chapter, and afterwards we will consider the middle part. At the commencement He prayed, “Glorify Thy Son.” Then in verse 22 He says, “The glory that Thou gave Me I have given them.” That into which He has entered, He gives to us. We are joint-heirs with Christ. He will not be in glory and leave us behind. As surely as He has entered into His glory, so surely will His people enter into it with Him. Here in this dark world in sin and weakness, we soon will be with Him in glory. Notice what goes with this: “That they may be one, even as We are.” What will become of our petty divisions, parties, and alienations? What will become of our poor little pittance of personal dignity and pride? We will be one in the glory there. Surely our place is to show the reality of that in our lives here on the earth! But it must be on the basis of His glory; it is just in proportion as the sense of it fills our hearts that earthly things will fade out of sight.

      May His glory be supreme in our hearts. That will prevent our being apart; that will draw us together according to the attraction of the glory and the power of the blessed nature that is already ours, and in the power of which we are to live. A man-made union of all the Christians in the world would not be the answer to the Lord’s prayer. Were all to vote that henceforth and hereafter there would be no more sects and parties, no more divisions among Christians, but we would all be members of one vast body, that would not be the answer to His prayer. Why? The glory would be lacking. Only as Christ supreme in His glory is our object, and we live for that glory and in order that He may be glorified, can unity be realized. There is a pathway of unity for the people of God. It is to our common shame that we do not manifest that unity, but the reason for it is that His glory is not shining in and shining out in our lives, for this alone can produce it.

      You cannot legislate Christian behavior. You cannot legislate Christian unity. These come through the power of the Holy Spirit, and a genuine revival of the reality of the truth of what Christ is to us. That will draw us together and hold us together as we live in the light of our inheritance in the glory. The Lord grant us to know how in the light of that glory we may be blessedly drawn together so that the power of the enemy is set aside.

With Christ in Glory

      Yet another thought as to that glory: “Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” Heaven for us is to be with HIM. Beloved, is that your idea of heaven? If it is, you are ready to go now and you will be glad to go. You can say,

      “To Jesus, the crown of my hope,

      My soul is in haste to be gone.”

                                                                                                                               (William Cowper)

      Is that our thought of it: “Let me be with Thee where Thou art” (Charlotte Elliott)? Wherever He is, that is heaven for us.

      Complete in itself as this appears to be, yet He adds a marvelous, wondrous thought as to “the glory.” Is it, “That they may share My glory?” No, something better than that, for He will see that we share His glory, but, “That they may behold My glory, the glory that I had with Thee before the world was”! That matchless glory which was His with the Father in all eternity, is now given to Him as Son of Man, victorious, triumphant on high. To behold Him in His glory, that will be our heaven. Oh, beloved, have we seen that glory? Have we beheld it in such a way that our whole souls are satisfied that He is glorified? Is our joy such as Peter speaks of, “unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet. 1:8)? That will eliminate selfishness from us; in the power of this alone can we realize the blessedness of this prayer.

The Middle Section:

Our Lives in This World

      We have seen the heavenly opening and closing of this prayer, now let us look at what we might call the earthly part of it. First, He is entering into His glory with all power and dominion in His hand; then He is bringing us into that glory to share it with Him and to behold His glory and worship Him. What in the meantime is Christ’s desire for His people? “I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me.” He is about to depart, and what is His thought as He is leaving? “I am no longer here, but they are here. My loved ones are here, those for whom I died. Oh, Father, keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me.” He had manifested the Father’s name to them; they had heard the Word; they had believed it; they had kept it; they were His because they were the Father’s, and He was glorified in His own. And the way He is glorified in us is that we shall be kept. When He was here He kept His own; not one of them who was truly His was lost, only the one that would fulfil the Scripture, the son of perdition, who knew not Christ, nor loved Him; he is the only one outwardly connected with Him who was lost. But all the others, though feeble in themselves, were kept.

Having Christ’s Joy

      “And now come I to Thee, and these things I speak in the world that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” His joy! Do you think the Lord Jesus was happy when He was here? Do you think He had joy and communion? Do you think that ever a shadow passed between Him and the Father in all that holy life? No, it was a life of perfect communion, and that is what He desires for us. It is His high-priestly prayer for us, and that is why He washes our feet, that His joy should be fulfilled in us.

      This is to be in the world, for His prayer is not that we should be taken out of the world. The heart sometimes may leap over all thought of the present and say, “Oh, that I could be with Him up there!” Yes, blessed it would be, but He does not ask that we should be taken out. He has left us here, as He says, “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” We are sent as His ambassadors, His light-bearers, His witnesses in the world. What He desires is that the Father should “keep them from the evil” that is in the world. “They are not of the world.” Mark that. He does not say we ought not to be of the world; He does not say we shall not be of the world, but “They ARE NOT of the world.” Every one who is saved has the seal upon him that he is not of the world, no more than Christ was of the world. Beloved, I belong to Him, and therefore my life is as much out of the world as His is, and, dear brethren, how it comes home to our hearts: “If that is what I am, does my life answer to it? Is my life an unworldly life?” How far beyond mere moral integrity that goes! This thing of having a high talk and low walk is dishonoring to the Son of God.

      One may have a clean ledger, live a very moral and upright life outwardly, and yet be intensely worldly and belong to this world. No! “Not of the world” means that our hearts are where He is; our treasure where Christ is. If you would peel off all the outer coverings of our life, layer after layer, business life, public life, social life, family life, personal life, getting down, down, down to the center of it, it would be found true, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” That is His desire for us.

Sanctified through the Word

      But He has not left us merely with that thought of it for He adds, “As I am not” of it. Then He speaks of the work needed for the realization of this, namely, sanctification. It is not sanctification by new birth, nor yet sanctification by His own blood; the latter gives us a perfect position and standing before God, the other a perfect life. But here it is sanctification by the truth, by the Word of God filling and controlling the heart and life.

      Therefore how necessary it is that the Word of God should be our meat and drink. It is the vehicle for our sanctification. He says, as it were, to the Father, “Thy Word, which is truth, is power to sanctify My people.”

      Then one other word: “I sanctify Myself.” Need I say that this does not have to do with anything in the personal character of our Lord? Nothing whatever. He was holy essentially; He needed no sanctification; but ah, He takes His place outside of the world to set Himself apart to God; He has entered into the glory, for what purpose? That we might be linked with Him outside of the world, to have our portion with Him.

Concluding Thoughts

      Well, I have given you only an outline. May this prayer be repeated by the Holy Spirit in our supplications, our hearts rejoicing that He is in that place of glory and power, rejoicing too to think of our share in that with Him, and that we shall behold His glory. Meanwhile we are left here in the world, kept by the Father from the evil. May we realize our Lord’s purpose for us as sent into the world to be His witnesses and messengers, sanctified by His truth, and so growing in likeness to Him who gave when here the perfect expression of what such sanctification means for us. This will link us with Him in heaven, and give a heavenly tone to our lives. This will not make us neglectful of duty, nor forgetful of the trifles and amenities of life; rather will it make us more careful of others and truly self-forgetful.

      It is said of one of the old monks who was walking along the great mountain rim that surrounds the Gulf of Naples and makes it such a lovely, entrancing scene, that he took no notice of this great natural beauty because he was so engaged with the Lord. That may appear wonderfully heavenly; but I believe, beloved, if we were engaged with the Lord we would see that beauty and glory of His creation, and we would see Him in it.

      I remember when I was in Naples, passing through deep, deep exercise, and I was talking to some friends from this country. As we looked out on that same lovely scene, presented by the Gulf of Naples, I quoted the lines:

      “All around, in noonday splendor.

            Earthly scenes lay fair and bright,

      But mine eye no longer sees them

            For the glory of that light.”

                                                                                                                                  (Frances Bevan)

I thought at the time that this was quite a lofty thought, but I don’t think so now. I want to look at the glory there; I want to see “in noonday splendor those scenes so fair and bright” and to see the hand of my blessed Lord who made it all, to see My Father as the Owner of it all, and to realize that I am the joint-heir with Christ. Thus I wish to look out upon His fair creation and say: “These are Thy works, Thou Creator of all good.” And I am sure, dear brethren, that at some time you have stood and looked on some fair earthly scene, and seen its radiant splendor like the very day of heaven begun on earth, and then hasn’t an involuntary sigh risen from your heart? What was that sigh? “He is not here!” It is that alone, beloved, which makes us pilgrims: Christ is not here!

      So let us pray to be faithful, loyal, diligent in every true path of duty, but in it all to be kept from the evil of the world, to be sanctified by His truth and to have our hearts linked with Him, and we will be waiting to go home to glory with Him.             (From “None of Self … Christ Is All, a Memorial of S. Ridout,” in Help and Food, Vol. 48.)

Jesus, His disciples, and His mother Mary were invited to a wedding. We can imagine Mary talking with her friends, catching up on the latest news. Someone comes by and says that there is no more wine. Mary immediately gets up, finds Jesus, and takes Him into the kitchen. She tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. So Jesus turns the water into wine.

      Now, I wonder what prompted Mary to do what she did. The Bible tells us, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25).

      Let us consider the life of Jesus before He began His ministry. Some traditions tell us that Mary’s husband Joseph was older than she was, and he died, leaving her with a family to raise. Jesus as the oldest child, and being perfect in every way, would have helped Mary by working in the carpentry shop and guiding the younger children. Mary would have spent thirty years observing the contrast between the attitudes and behaviors of the Lord Jesus and those of His younger half-siblings and of other children and young men who lived in Nazareth.

      Mary doubtless also remembered the marvelous words spoken of her firstborn Son by the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:31-33), Elizabeth (Luke 1:41-45), the shepherds (Luke 2:16-19), and Simeon (Luke 2:28-33). So when Mary, at the wedding, heard that there was no more wine, she might have reasoned within herself, “Jesus would want to fix that, and He probably has the power to do so.”             Although Jesus never married, He was acquainted with the problems that families face today. So we can take all of our problems to the Lord Jesus Christ, realizing that He knows what we are going through and that He sympathizes with us. He gives us wisdom, comfort, and help when we need it (Heb. 2:17,18; 4:15-16).

Q. What means “The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26)?

      A. The meaning of the passage appears to be this: we do not know what to pray for as we ought, and therefore the grace of God gives us, not only an Advocate on high for us, but the Holy Spirit within us to identify Himself in grace with our sorrowing, suffering condition, so as to put us in fellowship with God as His redeemed ones in bodies withal and a creation not yet redeemed. He accordingly intercedes for us—within us of course—according to God, so as to give a divine and sympathetic character to what otherwise would have been but selfish sorrow. Thus we are entitled to know that our very groanings as Christians are not without the Spirit, though these cannot be expressed in words, and they rise up acceptable to God, and will be surely answered by the revelation of the glory by and by, for which we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, and all creation also, wait. How sweet to think that the Holy Spirit, who gives and directs the joys of our hearts and makes us bid the bridegroom “come” (Rev. 22:17), takes equal part in our present griefs and travail of spirit! And if we do not know what to ask for, we do know that all things work together for good, as the apostle proceeds and proves so triumphantly to the end of the chapter.

      (From The Bible Treasury, Vol. 16.)

We read throughout the history of the Gospels, again and again, of our blessed Lord being engaged in prayer. For this purpose He went out “a great while before day” (Mark 1:35). What an example! From it we can learn that in the midst of all confusion and activity of service, we should never forget prayer. If we neglect it, if in the activity even of ministering the Word of God we fail to be in the sanctuary alone with God, we will lose the power to present the precious truth. Luther once said, “To have prayed well is to have said well,” and on our knees we will gain instruction and knowledge; it is the place from which we will go forth in power to set forth the truth of God.

Christ’s Example

      So in the midst of all His activities, with multitudes pressing and thronging Him, though going here and there in untiring service, our Lord would rob the night of its sleep in order to be alone with His Father. If He, the Son of God, did that, oh, how much more do we, poor feeble creatures, need to be alone with Him who is the source of all our strength!

      We read that “He continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). What did He pray for? When He came down from that holy vigil with His Father, He selected the twelve apostles. May we not believe that in this administration of His service, He considered with His Father the character of each to be selected—the impulsiveness of Peter, the loyalty of John, the boldness of others, and alas, the awful, awful treachery of one who knew Him not nor cared for Him? Then having reviewed it all with His Father in that night of prayer, He came down from the mountain and unflinchingly selected each one according to the will of the Father.

      Thus He has given us not only a glimpse into His own holy life, but also the secret of how to be guided in the order and government that God may have put into our hands.

      In passing, let me refer to the necessity of this in all the discipline and government of the house of God. It is so easy to get into a spirit of strife, so easy to seek our own wills, our own vindication, or even, alas, to vent our own displeasure! Oh, beloved, if we are alone with God in the sanctuary in prayer, He will guide us as to the administration of the government that He has entrusted to us.

      Again, we read of Him in prayer on the Mount of Transfiguration, just as at His baptism (Luke 3:21; 9:28). How the Father must have delighted in the outflow of the heart of His holy Son to Him, so much so that He opened the heavens to declare, as it were, “This is He, this One here on His knees, this One praying in dependence on Me, this One who has no thought but My glory; He is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” (see Matt. 17:5). May we ask what He was praying about on that mount? Was He asking for the glory? Do you think He was asking to be introduced to it? We know what Moses and Elijah spoke of with Him while there on the holy mount. It was the decease that He should accomplish at Jerusalem! I think that prayer of the Lord at the time of His transfiguration, when the glory shone out from Him and shone around about Him, all from God, I think it must have been that He too poured out His soul to His Father as to that decease, for which He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. Only by way of the cross could He enter that glory of which the Transfiguration was the anticipation.

Asking in Christ’s Name

      I have been much impressed with the fact that in John 13-17 the Lord is bringing His people into communion with Himself, and that in various parts of it He emphasizes the spirit of prayer. For example, “Whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (14:13). In this He shows us the secret of what He says to those whom He is leaving here: “He who believes on Me… greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto My Father” (14:12). It is prayer. Notice, too, how in the Lord’s references to prayer in these chapters you find “in My name” mentioned with each one. What does “in My name” mean? Is it something like what you write at the close of a letter, “Yours respectfully,” or “Yours sincerely,” or whatever it may be, as a matter of courtesy? Are not perhaps many of our prayers closed with that courteous expression, if I may so say, “In the name of Thy dear Son?” I am sure we do not mean it as formality, but sometimes it almost seems like just an appendix to the prayer. No, beloved; to ask in His name means rather to be taken by the hand and led to prayer by Him; it means, may I say, His kneeling by our side and His desires flowing through our heart.

      “In My name.” His name is what He is, His nature, and therefore to pray in the name of Christ must mean to pray according to His blessed will. Can I pray for evil in the name of the Son of God? What I pray for should really be an expression of His nature. Can I do that in prayer? Prayer should breathe the power of the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ, the desires of Christ in us and for us. The Lord teach us more and more to pray in His name. We would not think of closing a prayer without the very words, “In the blessed name of our Lord,” but then the whole supplication should be infiltrated and permeated by the blessed name of Jesus—all according to that name.

Seeking the Father’s Glory

      There is another thing: “That the Father may be glorified in the Son” (14:13). Is that why we pray, dear brethren? Not for ourselves, but “that the Father may be glorified in His Son”? What a holy and blessed motive under the power of which to guide our intercession and supplication! How it searches the heart! Let it test us. Is this our first thought of prayer? Am I asking this for the Father’s glory in the Son? This will eliminate a thousand selfish, fleshly, superficial requests! What will it leave? The glory of Christ, the glory of the Father. It will make us join with the Lord in the supplications of His heart.

Asking Anything

      Again we have in 14:14, “If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Anything? There is no limit here because we have asked in His name. Because the glory of the Father in the Son is in view, God can not deny the glory of His Son; He can not deny His own glory. If we are praying in the name of Christ, according to the mind of Christ our Lord, we are praying His own thoughts and His own desires. “If you shall ask anything in My Name.” Have we tried it, beloved? Are we living in that atmosphere of prayer? I know for myself, beloved brethren, prayer is a conflict, and by that I mean, not that it is difficult, one may say, to have the regular seasons of prayer, but to instinctively, without effort, turn to God in prayer about everything.

Prayer and Fruitfulness

      Now in 15:16, “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He will give it you.” A fruitful life flows from a life of prayer. A soul growing in grace is one that pours itself out in prayer. I know there are dangers; sometimes intemperate expressions are used, for instance, that we should read our Bible less and pray more. There is no need for such a statement, for the more you read your Bible the more you are going to pray. The more you feed on it, and let your soul be filled with it, controlled by it, your very thoughts conformed by it, the more you will pray.

      A prayerful life is a fruitful life. Even the ordinary normal affairs of life, our meat and drink, are sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. They go together. And so when “Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His Word,” the next chapter, in immediate connection with that lovely incident, shows the Lord praying and His disciples saying, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 10:39; 11:1). Beloved, the more you have His Word abiding in you, the more you will feel your need of prayer and the more you will be compelled to pray. Through the exercise it leads to we learn our nothingness, our helplessness; our own shortcomings and failures pass before us; and because of this we will be forced to turn and cry to Him in prayer. The Lord grant that the fruitfulness that He desires may be realized, but let us remember that for this prayer is essential.

Truth Without Prayer

      As we come under sound teaching and become acquainted with the truth of His Word, we need to be warned of the great danger of holding the truth in a prayerless way. This means holding it without communion with God, and so without corresponding power in our lives. How vain to talk about the coming of the Lord without truly waiting for that coming; to talk about our complete standing in Christ without delighting, with adoring hearts, in that standing; to talk about knowing the Father, about having the Spirit, without having our whole lives bowed with gratitude and adoring worship because of such wondrous blessing. Oh, I pray for myself and for all of us, that we might not lose the mellowness, the holiness, the earnestness, and the prayer that go along with the marvelous endowment of truth! I believe that our failures, our shortcomings and inconsistencies—and alas, they are only too manifest—can be traced individually and collectively to a lack of true prayer among the people of God. I believe it to be so much so that I desire more and more to have my life marked by a spirit of prayer, and for that reason I speak of these things in introducing the wondrous, holy prayer of our blessed Lord.

Prayer to the Father and the Son

      Look now at 16:23: “And in that day you shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.” The Lord had said, “I will give it you;” now He says, “He will give it you.” “I and My Father are One” (John 10:30). How completely is the Lord in the place of supremacy, and how perfectly He draws out our prayers to Himself and to His Father! I find myself—do you?—praying to the Lord Jesus again and again, and I find, thank God, that I pray to the Father. Some have taught that we ought not to pray to the Lord Jesus, but in the light of this Holy Word you can pray and praise directly to Him. Then, on the other hand, it is our holy, happy privilege to pray to the Father as well, and give thanks to the Father, who “has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12). Perhaps you say, “Why not pray to the Holy Spirit?” For a very blessed reason: we pray in the Holy Spirit. “You, beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit …” (Jude 21). It is prayer in His power. “We know not what things we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26). The Holy Spirit leads out our hearts in prayer, and He is with us and therefore we do not pray to Him; He prays in us and through us to the Father and to the Son.

      How blessed, thus, to find the whole Trinity, the divine fullness of God, engaged in prayer. We read on, “Hitherto you have asked nothing in My name; ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full” (16:24). Beloved, joy is the power of our lives; joy and love go hand in hand, and they are both the fruit of a life of prayer. Oh, brethren, I speak to the younger believers and to all of us: snatch time for reading the Word early in the day, the first thing in the morning; and add to it that which belongs to it, namely, praying. The privilege of prayer is a wonderful, amazing privilege of pouring out our hearts to God, individually and unitedly. What are our prayer meetings, beloved? Is there any savor of dullness about them, any bit of formality, any holding back? Does some dear brother say, “I am not gifted with prayer?” Oh, there is nobody “gifted with prayer”; it is the power of the Holy Spirit in us. A man may have a gift of evangelizing, or teaching, or pastoral care, but I read not a line of having a gift of prayer. That is the mark of all the people of God, and we want to use our holy, happy privilege.

      Our final verse is 16:26: “At that day you shall ask in My name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God.” We do not have to use the Lord as an intermediary; we are brought to the Father, we can speak directly to the Father, and because we can do that we never omit the Son. But then “the Father Himself loves you.” We look at ourselves; how unworthy of love we are, and yet our blessed Lord assures us that “the Father Himself”—the Father of glory, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Possessor of heaven and earth—“the Father Himself loves you.” Therefore we can ask what we will according to the blessed nature and name of our Lord Jesus, and the answers will surely be given.             (From “None of Self … Christ Is All, a Memorial of S. Ridout,” in Help and Food, Vol. 48.)

“The earnest expectation of the creature [or creation] waits for the manifestation of the sons of God…. The whole creation groans and travails in pain together unto now…. We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body…. The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:22,23,26).

      All creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. Then shall its deliverance come. We who have the Spirit know that all creation groans in its estrangement from God, as a woman in labor, yet in hope. When the glory shall set the children free, creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption and partake in the liberty of the glory.

      The Holy Spirit, who makes us know that we are children and heirs of glory, teaches us by the same means to understand all the misery of creation; through our bodies we are in connection with it, so that there is sympathy. Thus we also wait for the adoption, that is, the redemption of the body. For as to possession of the full result, it is in hope that we are saved. Meanwhile we groan, as well as understand, according to the Spirit and our new nature, that all creation groans.

      It is not creation only that groans, being in bondage to corruption in consequence of the sin of man; but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit—which God has given in anticipation of the accomplishment of His promises in the last days, and which connects us with heaven—we also groan, while waiting for the redemption of our body to take possession of the glory prepared for us. But it is because the Holy Spirit who is in us takes part in our sorrow and helps us in our infirmities. Dwelling in us, He pleads in the midst of this misery by groans that do not express themselves in words. We have a sense of the evil that oppresses us and that is all around us, and the more conscious we are of the blessing and liberty of the glory, the more aware are we of the weight of the misery brought in by sin. We do not know what to ask for as a remedy; but the heart expresses its sorrow as Jesus did at the grave of Lazarus—at least in our little measure. Now this is not the selfishness of the flesh which does not like to suffer; it is the affection of the Spirit.

      We have here a striking proof of the way in which the Spirit and the life in us are identified in practice: God searches our hearts and finds there the affection of the Spirit, for He, the Spirit, intercedes. It is my heart—it is a spiritual affection—but it is the Spirit Himself who intercedes. United to the creation by the body and to heaven by the Spirit, the sense that I have of the pain and misery of things around us is not the selfishness of the flesh, but the sympathy of the Spirit, who feels it according to God.

      (From Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, Vol. 4.)

The Epistle of James, in its five chapters, has more direct teaching upon the causes of failure in prayer than any other single book in the New Testament. It has three references to prayer—in the first, fourth, and fifth chapters.

Causes of Failure in Prayer

      In the first chapter we have a hint of two causes of the lack of power in prayer—the lack of faith and the lack of patience. In the fourth chapter we find two additional causes—selfishness in motive, and worldly alliance. In the fifth chapter we have likewise two causes of failure, found in the lack of importunity or persistence, and in not maintaining the level of faith in waiting for answers. This is very comprehensive, but all we can do is to outline the subject as presented in this Epistle. These are no theoretical matters that we meditate upon, but the most intense business that the child of God can engage in, for the secret of prevailing power in prayer lies at the bottom of everything else in the Christian life. There is no subduing of sin and no relief from darkness without it.

Lack of Faith and of Patience

      In James 1 we find two difficulties in the line of profitless prayer to which reference is made: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering: for he who wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (Jas. 1:5-8). Here are the two difficulties—a lack of faith and a lack of patience.

      Lack of faith is virtually making God a liar. Let us look at the fact exactly as it is. If God promises to the praying soul, in unequivocal terms and in a multitude of forms, absolutely sure answers, then to doubt God’s promises is to make Him a liar; no blessing can come to any man that impugns the veracity of God. But the faith must be a patient faith that knows how to wait. Here is one of the most remarkable similes in Scripture: “He who wavers is like a wave [or literally surge] of the sea,” the foam on the top of the wave, “driven with the wind, and tossed.” At the seashore when the wind is blowing, we see two motions: one to-and-fro that is called “fluctuation,” and one up-and-down that is called “undulation.” The apostle James refers to both motions. “Driven with the wind” is fluctuation; “tossed” is undulation. The peculiarity of a wave is that it cannot stay anywhere; wherever it goes it falls back. If it gets ahead it recedes and we call it a receding wave; if it gets up it goes down and we call it a falling wave.  A double-minded man is exactly like it—mere foam, for foam is most easily moved up-and-down, and to-and-fro, of anything about the water.

      The difficulty is that if a man who has no proper faith is propelled ahead, back he goes to his other and former standards. Or if he is lifted up in ecstasy and exaltation, he cannot stay there and down he goes. He is in the trough of the sea five minutes afterwards, just like the surge of the sea, fluctuating and undulating, with no power to hold on. There can be no prevailing prayer without this power to hold on. Hundreds go and commit a thing to God one minute and take it back the next. They are afraid that God cannot take care of it for any length of time; they must give God their aid.

Abraham

      When God revealed to Abraham that in his old age, when Sarah was past bearing, they should have a son of promise born to them, we are told that “he believed in the LORD, and He counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). This was a great triumph of faith! But look in the beginning of chapter 16 and see how long the triumph lasted. Abraham made an iniquitous connection with Hagar, an Egyptian maid, and the child born to him was one of the greatest curses that ever came on the earth. Why could not he have left it sublimely where faith committed it, to the miracle-working God? Even the father of the faithful failed at the time of crisis.

David

      In the crisis of David’s kingdom, when Ahithophel was counselor, and he and other conspirators went over to the side of Absalom in the rebellion, David had no man to cope with Ahithophel, and he prayed: “O Lord, I pray Thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness” (2 Sam. 15:31). Why did he not leave it there? Read on. As David was going up he met Hushai, the Archite, and said, in essence, “You pretend to be a traitor, and go over to Absalom’s side, and make believe you are faithful to him, and watch and see what Ahithophel says, that you may defeat the counsel of Ahithophel” (see 15:34). That is the trouble with us: we commit a thing to God in a sublime act of faith one moment, and the next moment we take it out of God’s hand, and put it in man’s hand, or try ourselves to take care of it—just like the surge of the sea, up-and-down, to-and-fro, never staying anywhere.

Selfishness

      In the fourth chapter of James we see two other obstacles put before us. “You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts” (verse 3). Lusts there do not necessarily mean vicious, sensual, abominable desires, but simply the carnal desires of self-indulgence, as when a man asks for money because he wants the gratification money brings; or for pleasures of the appetite, because he wants his stomach to be satisfied; or for rewards of ambition, because he wants to have power and influence over men. How many things we forfeit because we ask for them in a wrong spirit, because self is at the bottom instead of God being the object in all. You can even ask for spiritual gifts and blessings, for the anointing of the Spirit, in order that people may say, “See how holy that man or woman is,” or “What remarkable power goes with this or that person!” You never get the anointing when it is sought in that way.

      Let us observe that if God gave us some things that we asked for, they would be a great curse to us and not a blessing. Remember Kibroth-hattaavah in Numbers 11. The people, complaining and murmuring about having to eat the disgusting manna every day, asked for God to give them flesh to eat (verse 13). God said: “[I] will give you flesh, and you shall eat … until it comes out at your nostrils” (verses 18-20). Then “before [the flesh] was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague” (verse 33). “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul” (Psa. 106:15).

      Do you want God to send leanness into your soul in sending fatness to your body, feeding your carnal and starving your spiritual nature? If that is not what you want, be careful that you do not ask from selfish, lustful motives. Agrippina, the mother of Nero, asked of her gods that they would set her son upon the throne, and the first thing he did when set upon the throne was to plan the death of his own mother. Hezekiah, when told that he should die and not live, turned his face to the wall, and began reciting his good deeds before the LORD, and pleaded for life, and the LORD spared him fifteen years (Isa. 38:1-5). But they were years of disgrace. He foolishly showed the Babylonian officials all of the treasures of his house, incurring a prophecy of judgment against his house (2 Ki. 20:13-18), and he lived long enough to beget Manasseh, who was the greatest curse that Judah ever had. He was the Ahab of Judah, and the afflictions and captivity of Judah were mainly due to the sins of Manasseh. How much better if Hezekiah had died when the LORD gave him notice—better for him, for Judah, and for the whole world! Look out for selfishness of motive in your praying. That is one reason why God keeps you waiting until He refines away your carnality, and gets you up on the high spiritual level in which you can pray in the Holy Spirit.

Worldliness

      “You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will he a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (Jas. 4:4). Think of a woman, married to an honorable, upright, and holy man, walking through the streets in broad daylight, arm in arm with one who is attempting to supplant him, and then going to her husband for a special favor! When God sees you walking arm in arm with the world that crucified Jesus, and identified with the world before men, how can He hear your prayer? Your prayers are an insult. All alliance with the world implies the predominance of the carnal, and the carnal can never pray acceptably. All power in prayer depends on a vision of the Eternal, on communion with the Eternal, on the atmosphere of the Eternal, and, if you are engrossed and absorbed in the temporal, how can you breathe the atmosphere or have a vision of the Eternal? how can you lay hold upon the powers of the age to come? There is no difficulty in accounting for failure in ten thousand cases, because the prayers are those of essentially worldly people who know almost nothing of coming into real touch with the Eternal Spirit of God.

Lack of Persistence

      In James 5, additional lessons are taught with regard to the secrets of prevailing power in prayer and of the lack of it. “Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are” (verse 17). Thank God for that! He got under a juniper tree, as you and I have often done; he complained and murmured, as we have often done; was unbelieving, as we have often been. But that was not the case when he really got into touch with God. Though “a man of like passions as we are,” “he prayed earnestly.” He kept on praying. “He prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. “And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit” (verse 18).

      What is the lesson here? You must keep praying. Come up on the top of Mount Carmel and see that remarkable parable of faith and sight. It was not the descent of the fire that now was necessary, but the descent of rain; the man who can command the fire can command the rain by the same means and methods. We are told that he bowed himself to the ground with his face between his knees—that is, shutting out all sights and sounds (1 Ki. 18:42). He was putting himself in a position where, beneath his mantle, he could neither see nor hear what was going forward. He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” He went, and came back, and said one word—“Nothing!” What do we do under such circumstances? We say, “It is just as I expected!” and we give up praying. Did Elijah? No he said, “Go again.” Again, “Nothing!” Seven times this was repeated. By and by the servant came back and said, “Behold, there arises a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.” A man’s hand had been raised in supplication, and had left its shadow on the heavens, and presently down came the rain. Ahab had not time to get back to the gate of Samaria with all his fast steeds.

      That is a parable of faith and sight—faith shutting itself up with God; sight taking observations, and seeing nothing; faith going right on, and praying earnestly, with utterly hopeless reports from sight. Do you know how to pray that way, how to pray prevailingly? Let sight give as discouraging reports as it may, but pay no attention to these. The living God is still in the heavens, and He has done whatsoever He has pleased. Even to delay is a part of His goodness.

Not Maintaining a High

Level of Faith

      Look still further. Elijah kept on the height of the mountain till he got the answer to his prayer. Do you know what it is to maintain the high plane and level of faith till the answer comes? What great mistakes are made! When the Lord lifts us up to a high level of faith and expectancy, we offer prayer on that level; but we hasten to get down to the carnal level, as if we supposed that answers could be given to the prayer of faith on any other than the plane of faith! I have had no idea impressed on my mind from the Word of God in connection with prevailing prayer more inspiring and rebuking than this: Answers to the prayer of faith can only be received and recognized on the plane of faith. Get up into the heavenly levels to talk with God; He is not coming down to the carnal level to talk with you; He wants you to stay there till He has given you His answer. Hence the typical significance of Elijah staying up on the mountain, sight taking observations over and over again until the answer of God had come. It is a great thing to keep praying, and to continue in a frame of holy expectation until the blessing comes.

      Monica, the mother of Augustine, besought God for many years that Augustine might not go to Rome, because Rome was then, as now, the center of all the iniquity of the Continent. Augustine was a profligate, and she felt that his going to Rome would ensure his rapid ruin, and she besought God not to let him go. He did go to Rome. Did she give up? Not at all. She said, “If the Lord does not grant me what I ask, He will grant me something better.” His going to Rome was the means of his coming into contact with Ambrose of Milan, and that was the means of his becoming converted, and afterwards a great leader and defender of the faith, one of the fathers of the early Church. So God, in refusing the literal request of Monica, fulfilled her heart’s great desire.

      What a great blessing my late friend, Dr. William Moon of Brighton (England) has been—the developer of the well-known Moon system of embossed letters to help the blind to read the Word of God, the best of its kind ever devised. When 23 years of age, he was struck with total blindness. He besought God when the symptoms were coming on, that He would deliver him from this calamity. He was an educated, cultivated man, at the beginning of his true service for God and man. But the blindness continued. What did he do? He looked up to God, and said, “My heavenly Father, I thank Thee for the talent of blindness. May I so invest that talent that at the coming of the Lord Jesus He may receive His own with usury.” Is not that sublimely heavenly? The Lord soon taught him that He had permitted the blindness that he might minister to the millions of blind people in the world; and Dr. Moon used his inventive faculties and devised this system, containing only a very few characters in combination. According to recent accounts that system has been utilized in nearly 500 languages and dialects. So that, when this man went to heaven a few years ago (this account was written in 1907), he must have found thousands who had gone to heaven through reading the raised characters by which he made it possible to commune with the Word of God. By taking blindness as a talent from God, and using it for God, he accomplished far more for God and man than he ever could have done if he had followed the devices and desires of his own heart.

      The love of God quite as often withholds as grants. Hence the necessity of trusting God to do His own way. He always gives what we ask, or something better. He consults our needs, not our wishes, like a wise and loving Father. His delays are not denials. Delay may discipline faith, teach us patience, and fit us for blessing. Moreover, there are blessed indirect answers to prayer. Prayer is answered most emphatically when God keeps you praying, when God keeps you in a tender state, when He leads you to trust Him absolutely in the absence of all outward signs of answer. The most sublime triumph of prayer is to trust God absolutely when you do not get any sensible answer whatever. There is no other triumph of prayer so great as that. We should all like to live by faith and sight together; but somehow they are incompatible.

Twelve Levels of Prayer

and Answer

      May I sum up what I conceive to be the teachings of the Word of God, by what I call the twelve levels of prayer and answer. The first four levels are the levels of vain praying; the next four, the levels of prevailing prayer, and the next four the levels of divine answer.

Vain Praying

      Level 1. Down at the very bottom is the level of known sin. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psa. 66:18). When sin is enthroned and enshrined in the heart, prayers are worse than vain.

      Level 2. The second level is selfishness, when you are asking for reasons of self-indulgence, self-gratification, something terminating upon yourself, and not the glory of God.

      Level 3. This is the level of form. “This people draw nigh to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matt. 15:8). God does not care one bit for prayers that have no heart in them. The mere externals of worship, He says, “I cannot away with; it is iniquity … they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them” (Isa. 1:13,14).

      Level 4. This is the level of unbelief, where there is no expectation of receiving, no faith in God as the Giver.

Prevailing Prayer

      Level 5. Above those levels we rise to those of prevailing prayer, and the lowest is that of spiritual desire. You want something, and it is right that you should, and you ask simply from the impulse of a strong yearning. Perfectly right! “Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7).

      Level 6. A higher level is that where you appreciate the Fatherhood of God and your relation as His child, and set up a child’s claim to a Father’s blessing. The desire is emphasized by your conscious relation to God as His child.

      Level 7. The third level of prevailing prayer is that in which you appreciate your position as a disciple in Christ, and claim in the name of Jesus Christ what you dare not claim in your own name. You have felt desire and you have added to it a consciousness of filial relation. In addition, you have the consciousness of the disciple’s relationship to Christ, unknown except as we touch John 14—the first time that Christ ever spoke about praying in His name, and repeated seven times between chapters 14 and 16. “Hitherto have you asked nothing in My name” (John 16:24). Up to that time no Old Testament saint or New Testament saint had ever prayed in His name.

      Level 8. The final level in this section is where the Holy Spirit working in you unhindered, groans after God. This is the highest level of prayer, indicated in Romans 8, where we are told that the Spirit Himself groans within us unutterably (verse 26). No words will express it, but God hears and cares far more for that than for any words, however well framed.

Divine Answer

      Level 9. We come now to the levels of answer. The lowest is where you get what you ask in the way that you ask, like Eliezer, who made the specific request that the maiden who should give the camels drink might be the one appointed for Isaac, while he was praying, Rebekah came and did what he asked, and he did not seem to have been surprised, which is a delightful feature (Gen. 24:14-21). He did not say: “It is a wonderful answer!” Rather let us wonder that God should not do what we ask or as we ask.

      Level 10. The next level of prayer is where the answer does not come at the time, or in the way, perhaps, that we expect, or is both delayed and disguised. In the case of Elijah on Mount Carmel it was delayed. The most marked instance in the New Testament is the Syrophenician woman. She was under the ban of the curse; she did not belong even to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”; she had not a promise to take hold of. “He answered her not a word.” Then, when He did speak, He refused, and reproached her with the only apparently reproachful term He ever used. But look at the logic and wit of her importunity! She said, essentially, “You call me a little dog, and make that a reason why I should not have the children’s bread. I make that a reason why I should have it, for the little dogs under the table do get the crumbs” (Matt. 15:27). Of course, in response to such a wise and humble response, He had to give her the blessing. She made His argument against it a reason for it, and it is a most remarkable case. He seems to have gone all the way from the Sea of Galilee to the shores of the Mediterranean, and back, just for the sake of that woman, for there is no record of any other act performed on the way to and fro. He went to meet this woman whom He treated with silence, then with refusal, and then apparent reproach; but He gave her what she asked, and it is not irreverent to say He could not help it.

      Level 11. Notice, again, that sometimes the answer is denied, and here is yet a higher level. But compensation comes with the denial, just as in the instances of Monica and Dr. Moon. The apostle Paul prayed about what is described as a “thorn,” but Paul would not have made such a fuss over a thorn: it was a “stake in the flesh,” and he prayed to God that it might be taken out of the way (2 Cor. 12:7,8). Probably he thought it was affecting his usefulness to men. The Lord distinctly denied the request, but more than made up for the denial with overwhelming grace, saying, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (verse 9). It was not merely, “Your weakness shall be made an opportunity for the display of My strength,” but, more than all, the only way to make God’s strength perfect is for us to get into a condition of absolute destitution of soul.

      Level 12. The last and highest of all the levels of answer is where the answer is not only delayed, not only disguised, not only apparently denied for a time, but after your praying, God seems to preserve an absolute and obstinate silence. No answer comes, you live and, perhaps, die, and never get an answer; but you have not a doubt of the prayer-hearing God. I asked Mr. George Muller a short time before he died if he had asked anything of God that had not been granted, and he told me he had prayed over 62 years for two men to be converted, neither of whom was converted, and there were no signs of it. I said: “Do you expect God to convert them?” ”Certainly. Do you suppose that God would put upon His child for 62 years the burden of two souls if He had no purpose of their salvation? I shall meet them in heaven certainly.” Shortly afterwards he died, and I was preaching in Bristol and referred to this occurrence. As I was going out a lady said: “One of those men was my uncle, and he was converted, and died a few weeks ago.”

      I have read of a most godly man who spent 40 years in one church, and agonized in prayer for worldly people in his congregation, who resisted all his efforts to bring them to Christ. He not only prayed for them, and preached the Gospel to them, but lived before them in a remarkable way. He was a saintly man, moving up and down in the community with the fragrance of God upon him. But he died without his prayers being answered; there was not a man of them all brought to Christ during his ministry. But when he died, and his body lay in the coffin, and the funeral service was being held, those men were brought to Christ in the presence of that dead body—a remarkable instance of God answering prayer in a wonderful way, after it was impossible for the suppliant soul to see on earth the triumphs of prayer.

      Our spiritual sight is good for nothing. Sometimes we are too far-sighted, sometimes too near-sighted, and never accurate. Let God judge for you. Bring your cause and commit it to Him, leave it in His hand, go away from the throne of grace with absolute repose in the fidelity of a prayer-hearing God. Do not let unbelieving disciples, and that father of liars, the devil, rob you of your confidence that God is true. Believe Him, trust Him, reckon upon Him, rest in Him; and if you do not see the answer, believe that He will show you the answer, though it may be after many days.

      (From A Spiritual Clinique, Gospel Publishing House, New York, New York, 1907.)

“How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!” (Psa. 139:17).

Unbounded Patience

      “How shall I give you up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver you, Israel? how shall I make you as Admah? how shall I set you as Zeboim? My heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of My anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God and not man, the Holy One in the midst of you, and I will not enter into the city” (Hos. 11:8,9).

      What a tender unfolding of the heart of God is here! It is the yearning thought of the fondest of Fathers over a nation of wayward prodigals. How grievous had been their ingratitude. He speaks in the beginning of the chapter of His loving thoughts to Israel when “a child” (verse 1), His especially gentle upbringing of Ephraim, even “as a nurse cherishes her children” (1 Thess. 2:7). “I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms…. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love”(Hos. 11:3,4). Yet what is the return for all this lavish, endearing tenderness? “My people are bent to backsliding from Me” (verse 7).

      Surely the next entry in the divine record must be the sentence of righteous retribution: “Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone.” No! it is rather a burst of fond parental love, such as, at times, is dimly pictured on earth when we see a mother with breaking heart and eyes dim with weeping, locking in her embrace the prodigal boy who has wounded her, embittered her existence, and scorned her tears.

      Listen to the tender words, “How shall I give you up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver you [that is, give you over to the vengeance of the enemy], Israel?” He remembers “the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah” of a former age, and “their sin [which was] very grievous” (Gen. 18:20). The iniquity of Israel and Ephraim can be compared in turpitude only to that of these inhabitants of the plain, on whom “the LORD rained … brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven” (Gen. 19:24). Admah and Zeboim were two adjoining cities in the Valley of Sodom which were involved in this terrible overthrow (Deut. 29:23). “How,” says He, “shall I make you as Admah? how shall I set you as Zeboim?” Then, when He sums up with the declaration, “I will not return to destroy Ephraim,” He gives as the reason, “for I am God, and not man”!

      Yes, truly, Thy thoughts, O God, are not as man’s thoughts, and Thy ways are not as man’s ways; had they been so, long before now how many of us would have been “given up” and have had judgment executed against us because of our obstinacy and rebellion against God. But in spite of all this, His anger is turned away from us; His hand of mercy is outstretched still! Well may we say, with the stricken monarch of Israel, “Let us fall now into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man” (2 Sam. 24:14).

      Backslider, return! Though you may have tried the patience of your God by years of provocation, yet He still “keeps silence” (Lam. 3:28); He waits to be gracious; He is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Pet. 3:9). Let His goodness and patience, His tenderness and longsuffering, lead you to repentance (Rom. 2:4).

      Trembling penitent, bowed down under a sense of your base ingratitude, your prolonged alienation, fearful lest a guilty past may have cut you off from the hope of pardoning mercy—return! You are saying, perchance, in the bitter reproach of self-abandonment and despair, “I am given up”—delivered over to the tyranny of my spiritual enemies—and the Lord has cast me off forever and can be favorable no more (Psa. 77:7)!

      No! hear His wondrous, precious thoughts—the musings of the infinite Heart that you have wounded, “How shall I give you up? Man would crush his enemy, but I am God, and not man. I will not destroy, I will save.” Elsewhere He says, “Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you could [that is, they could not have been worse],” yet goes on to appeal, “Turn unto Me” (Jer. 3:5-7)! “Return, you backsliding children,” says the LORD, “and I will heal your backslidings” (Jer. 3:22).

A Gracious Alternative

      “Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me” (Isa. 27:5).

      God had just spoken of the certain destruction that would overtake obstinate and incorrigible sinners. These He describes under the similitude of briars and thorns set against him in battle. “I would go through them,” says He, “I would burn them together” (verse 4). He guards us, by a preliminary statement, against entertaining the supposition that He has any delight in the exercise of such stern retribution: “Fury is not in me” (verse 4). There is with Him, whose nature and whose name is Love, no vindictive passion, no capricious wrath, no wayward impulses of anger analogous to those in man. His thoughts, in this respect too, are not our thoughts. His hatred of sin is a principle. It is the deliberate recoil of His own infinitely holy nature from iniquity—that iniquity which His justice and righteousness require Him to punish. Let us beware of a harsh and repulsive theology that would assimilate God to the avenging deities of the heathen. He is “slow to anger, and of great mercy” (Psa. 145:8). Judgment is “His strange work” (Isa. 28:21). While He visits iniquity “unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate [Him], He shows “mercy unto thousands [of generations] of those who love [Him]” (Exod. 20:5,6).

      At the same time, neither must we forget that He is “glorious in holiness” (Exod. 15:11). To that very revelation which He made to Moses of His name and memorial as “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” He appends the solemn statement, “and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Exod. 34:6,7).

      Oh, most solemn, most terrible thought to those who are still as “briars and thorns against [Him] in battle,” who are still enemies by nature and wicked works. They cannot escape His wrath. They cannot elude His righteous retribution. If they continue in sin, they can know only in their bitter experience what “a fearful thing” it is “to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). He “would burn them together.” He is to all such “a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29).

      But our motto-verse contains a wondrous alternative of mercy. At the very moment when sinners are rushing with blind madness against their sovereign God, He whom they have made their enemy has a thought in His heart of loving reconciliation. Listen to the gracious proposal: “Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me.”

      Who is “the Strength of God”? Let Scripture answer: “Let Thy hand be upon the Man of Thy right hand, upon the Son of Man whom Thou made strong for Thyself” (Psa. 80:17). Christ is “the Power of God” (1 Cor. 1:24)—“the Daysman [or Mediator] between us, who might lay His hand upon us both” (Job 9:33). He, also, is “our peace” (Eph. 2:14). “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God” (Rom. 5:1). Peace, “not as the world gives” (John 14:27), was His parting, special legacy. It is a sure and well-grounded peace, purchased by His atoning blood, and secured and perpetuated by His continual intercession. Hence the gracious Proposer of reconciliation adds the assurance, “And he shall make peace with Me” (Isa. 27:5). It is a glorious certainty. Take hold of that arm, and salvation is sure. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). It is a present peace, a sure peace, a permanent peace, peace now, and peace forever. The Lord Jesus says concerning His sheep, “They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:28).

      “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD” (Isa. 51:9). “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou who leads Joseph like a flock …. stir up Thy strength, and come and save us!” “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end [or a future and a hope] (Jer. 29:11).

Tender Dealing

      Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her [back] her vineyards” (Hos. 2:14,15).

      “Therefore” has a strangely beautiful connection in this verse. God’s people had been grievously backsliding. He had been loading them with mercies and they had been guiltily disowning His hand. They had taken the gifts and spurned the Giver. “She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold” (Hos. 2:8). No, more, she had shamelessly gone after her lovers—she had deliberately preferred the ways of sin to the ways of God. What will His thoughts be towards this treacherous one? Can they be anything else but those of merited retribution—casting her out and casting her off forever?

      We expect when we hear the concluding word, “therefore,” that it is the awful summing up of His controversy—the turning of the Judge to pronounce righteous sentence. We listen, but lo! utterances of love are heard instead. “I will allure her … and speak comfortably [or tenderly] to her.”

      This is the way He deals with His people still. They often forget Him in the glare and glitter of prosperity. He hushes the din of the world—takes them out into the solitudes of trial—and there, while they are abased, humbled, and chastened, He unburdens in their ear His thoughts of love, forgiveness, and comfort. Oh, what infinite tenderness characterizes the dealings of this heavenly Chastener! How slow He is to abandon those who have abandoned Him! Every means and instrumentality is employed rather than leave them to the bitter fruits of their own guilty estrangement.

      The kindest human thoughts toward an offender are harshness and severity compared with His. What were the thoughts and deeds of the watchmen in the Song of Solomon towards the bride as she wandered disconsolate in search of her heavenly Bridegroom, and that in consequence of her own unwatchfulness and sloth? They tore off her veil. They smote her, reviled her, loaded her with reproach. But when she finds her lost Lord, though she has kept Him standing amid the cold dews of night, He does not smite her, He does not upbraid her, no angry syllable escapes His lips. He brings her into the wilderness and speaks comfortably unto her, and the next picture in the inspired allegory is the restored one coming up from that wilderness leaning on her Beloved.

      Reader! is God dealing with you by affliction? Has He blighted your earthly hopes, caused “all [your] “mirth to cease,” destroyed [your] vines and [your] fig trees” (Hos. 2:11,12), and made all around you a desert? Think what it would have been, had He allowed you to go on in your course of guilty estrangement—your truant heart plunging deeper and deeper in its career of sin! Is it not mercy in Him that He has dimmed that false and deceptive glitter of earth? You would not listen to His voice in prosperity. You took the ten thousand precious gifts of His bestowing, but there was no breathing of gratitude to the infinite Bestower. You sat, it may be, sullen, peevish, proud, ungrateful, at the very moment when His horn of plenty was being emptied in your lap.

      He has brought you into “the wilderness.” As Jesus did with His disciples of old when He would nerve them for coming trial, He has taken you to “a high mountain apart” (Matt. 17:1), “a solitary place” (Mark 1:35), apart from the world. He has there humbled you and proved you. He may have touched you in your tenderest point, severed close friendships, leveled in the dust clay idols, but it was all His doing. He leads us into the wilderness, He leads us up, and He leads us through.

      As He gives us our comforts—our oil, wine, wool, and fig trees—so when He sees fit He takes them away. Whatever be the voices He may be now addressing to me, may it be mine to recognize in them the thoughts and utterances of unalterable love, and to say, “I will hear what God the LORD will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and to His saints” (Psa. 85:8).

The Spirit Himself enters into this groaning condition by joining His help to our infirmity (Rom. 8:26). In conditions of trial, sorrow, and uncertainty, our weakness is made fully evident, but that only opens to us more the heart of God and produces in us a healthy dependence upon Him every step of the way. In connection with the Spirit helping our infirmities, prayer is that upon which the apostle dwells. Prayer is the expression of dependence and of the creature-place that we have with God. It is the expression, also, of our confidence in God. Prayer is thus a large part of the Christian life. We often do not know what to pray for as we ought. How blessed to know that here we have a divine Intercessor; as we have Christ before God for us, so we have the Spirit of God in us, and He makes intercession for us according to God. The prayer that He makes is, of course, absolutely according to God; yet as wrought in our hearts it may be on that very account simply a groaning that cannot be uttered intelligibly. It is a wonderful thing to realize that these groanings which are the evidence of our own infirmity may, nevertheless, be the fruit of the Spirit within us, speaking intelligently in the ear of God and in absolute accordance with His mind concerning us, and in complete accordance with His thought and character. While the Spirit’s intercession for us may go beyond our intelligence, how gracious of Him, our Comforter, to come and join His help to our infirmities, and to carry us along the lighted road that leads to God.