NEVER CONFIRMED LIKE THAT BEFORE

Part II

Indeed, when the need is the greatest, then deliverance is nearest. And God will not have His people tried above what they are able, but with the temptation, He also makes a way of escape. One of our English writers once wrote in a sermon about people who can always believe, and people who can never believe. He thought that both were wrong. He was writing there about the inward life of the soul.

Also Hugh Binning, one of the great lights which God gave His church here upon earth, wrote: “A faith that is not tried is no faith.” And when faith is tried then it is revealed how strong, or how weak it is. That is also the way it is concerning the life of the soul, and that is also the way it is to a certain extent, concerning an office in God’s church. Joseph came in prison; Moses in Midian; David in the cave; Job upon the dung-hill; Jeremiah in the pit; Paul in Arabia and in Syria. John in his old age still came upon the island of Patmos. And how blessed that was for their personal and official life! It was also a benefit for God’s church and we may still have the fruits of it today.

Strife and bonds are not desirable for flesh and blood, but it is unprofitable if we can always believe and always are sure that God has called us. God sometimes gives us into the hand of the enemy to awaken us out of our carelessness, to again examine ourselves; to need God again. He gives the confirmation of His own work in our soul, to be able to go on again with new strength and courage. We read in God’s Word in Ps. 92:10 “I shall be anointed with fresh oil” and in John 21:10: “Bring of the fish which ye now have caught.” God’s servants often need that to stay new, affording all manner of store. If there is no income, then there can be no disbursements. It is so profitable for ourselves that we shall break arms and legs, because then it can become true: “Blessed is the man whose strength Thou art, Thy ways are hidden in his heart, He treads the highway to Thy dwelling”. Paul wrote: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of God may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, in distresses, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

This will keep us from self-exaltation and from self-sufficiency in our ourselves and in our office. But it will always be a blessing for the congregation, and a joy for God’s people. If everything is so quiet then God also keeps Himself quiet. Time and gain ways must be opened so that we need God; and that God shall take the lead again to drive away the enemy and to glorify Himself in Christ, the great Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. He was the greatest office-bearer of the house and city of God. He testified in Ps. 129:2 “Many times have they affliceted me from my youth: yet have they not prevailed against me”. Christ is that great Servant of the Father, (Isa. 50). Who was strongly opposed but was not made ashamed.

When the way of that blessed Surety is laid open for us and our soul is enlightened by the Holy Spirit to learn to know a little of that blessed Person, then we see that He has endured the contradiction of the sinners. But how His soul, His pure soul, is pierced and wounded with all kinds of blasphemy! But the Father has crowned Him with honor and glory. He will uphold His servants and He will contend with him who contendeth with them. His eye is continually open over them in love and fastened upon them; and He shall be near them in all their adversities. Yea, and He will also cause all things to work for good to them. And those who have striven lawfully, shall also be crowned lawfully. It is not so easy for us, but so profitable when we can see no way out. Here we must continually perish and suffer shipwreck until the end so that we shall be nothing in ourselves, but fall away with everything, and that God shall be the strength of our heart and our portion forever.

Such was also the dying of that minister, about whom I wrote a few lines. His last prayer in the struggle of death was: “Father, may Thy child go to sleep and awake in Thy arms! Not as a servant but as a child; Thy child.” That was what remained, that did not fall away. For the gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. Another minister said on his deathbed: “Lord, Thou couldst have used me as a servant, but in the portals of death wilt Thou accept me as a child?” We shall not have the honor, but Thy Name, God’s Name shall eternally receive the honor. One thing and another of what I have written came again to my mind and I felt a desire to tell it to others. It happened many years ago, still I hope that the Lord may use it for such ministers, who cannot remain “minister”, who continually will need divine confirmation to remain standing against all temptations and strife, who in themselves can never come any further than “poor sinners”, who without the blood and righteousness of Christ cannot live nor die.

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