At the close of our studies, I would press upon us all the enormous weight of responsibility that rests upon those whose eyes have been opened to the realities upon which we have been dwelling. Where are Gideon, Jephthah, Barak now? Where are the apostles, martyrs, and confessors of the Church? They have gone. No longer can they stand in the breach, or uphold the standard of Christ. They rest from their labors, waiting to be rewarded for their faithful service.
But the enemy is still here, as we have been abundantly seeing; and the Church of Christ is still here with the testimony to the truth of God to be preserved in the face of abounding evil. Yea, alas, the spiritual bondages are a present fact – but who and where are the deliverers?
Do you look about, near or far off? Do you think of someone across the sea, or in a distant land, whose name and work you have heard? Ah, beloved, look nearer home. Do you sigh and cry over the desolations? Do you hunger for the word of God? Are you absolutely broken and helpless? Then why not you? Why may not God use you, in complete weakness, as an instrument for help and deliverance for His people?
Oh, the honor and dignity, the joy of being permitted to stand for Christ, for His Church and His truth in a day of rebuke and ruin! To stand, to confess, yea to die if need be, for Him. Have the mass succumbed? Have principles been abandoned, or has godly care relaxed? Then in Christ’s name, if there be but one to stand to the truth, let him stand. One mightier than the mightiest stands with him.
There is no reformation for the Church of Christ, there is no improvement for the people of God, there is no such thing as getting right, or being right, there is no such thing as obedience to the word of God, that does not have one controlling Person before the soul.
Beloved brethren, you can be coldly exact, theologically accurate, you may be ecclesiastically correct, you may point out wrong in this and in that system, the inconsistencies of professing Christians, you may get to be quite Pharisees in your conduct, but you are nothing unless you have this one commanding fact throughout, – Christ in His blessed Person, Christ in His all-sufficiency, the Lord Jesus in the fulness of His love and the attractiveness of His Person, is the only One who can control and lead and deliver His people, the One whom we long to see.
There is a joy of conflict, there is a joy in getting the truth of God; a joy in meeting the enemy even, if we meet him in faith; a joy in getting down and learning our own weakness; but, ah, all these joys after all are only but foretastes of that one great joy for which our hearts are waiting, waiting with Him, and that is to behold Him. And when we behold Him, and His Church beholds Him, when we are caught up to be with Him, we will then, and not till then, be conformed to His image. If we are to represent Him here, the measure in which He Himself controls thought, motive, desire, everything in our lives, so that we can say with Paul, "To me, to live is Christ," beloved, in that measure we will have practical likeness to Him, and be a practical testimony for Him.
How blessedly simply, how blessedly satisfying. In the midst of all the confusion in which we live, in the midst of all the desolation which man’s pride and selfishness has brought in, in the midst of Satan’s malignity and the world’s allurements, to be able to say:
"I have heard the voice of Jesus,
Tell me not of aught beside,
I have seen the face of Jesus,
All my soul is satisfied."
Are we satisfied with Him, beloved? Does He fill the soul? Does He take possession of us, do we walk in fellowship with Him? If we do, in spite of all the ruin that is about us, and in the face of all the heavy load of our responsibility, we will have a power that will enable us to meet them every one, – Christ and Christ alone.
Not one thing but Christ Jesus; not one thing but Himself; Himself, His word, His will, His headship, His authority, His honor; everything centering in Him, radiating from Him, and the link between Him and every one of His blood-bought people recognized, and we ourselves seeking to be simply the reflection of Christ. Christ reflected out of a broken life, a broken self. Do you crave the honour of representing Christ, of being filled with Christ?
"To me, to live is Christ." "Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus."
"O blessed, living Lord,
Engage our hearts with Thee,
And strike within some answ’ring chord
To love so rich and free!
To know Thy loving heart!
To cleave to Thy blest side!
To gaze upon Thee where Thou art,
And in Thy love abide!
To walk with Thee below!
To learn Thy holy ways!
And more to Thine own stature grow,
To Thine eternal praise!
Thyself our one Desire!
Thyself our Object here!
The goal to which our hearts aspire –
To meet Thee in the air!"