The Utter Call
Ξ May 9th, 2007 | → | ∇ Theology, Christian Living |
The thought just came to me in a somewhat logical progression :
“When it comes down to it, a man’s trust is either in God or in himself. There is no middle ground. Anyone who believes otherwise is still blind and does not know his own heart.”
It is startlingly true, I fear. Jesus told us as much when He said :
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
Matthew 6:24
The ground upon which our every decision is based leads back to a single source - not two sources. The basis upon which our lives are lived out is driven by one source. Influences may come, but the ultimate driving force behind or lives is ultimately either God or man. This should make us tremble. We should be sure of the foundation of our very being. For if out of the heart flow the issues of life, then the keeping of it should be entrusted to the only One who knows it inside and out. The only One who can see all the dangers that would imperil a life abundant in Christ. With Paul, we must be able to say - without hesitation and with absolute confidence in each and every word :
“For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
2 Timothy 1:12
Do we know whom we have believed? Do we honestly know the Lord? Do we fellowship with Him more closely than our closest friend or relative? Are all things counted as dung when compared with the richness of a life lived in Christ or do we try to claim fleshly blessing as our right when God desires our spiritual enrichment? For those that would live GODLY in Christ Jesus WILL suffer persecution. It is not what we have that is important, but who do we know best? What do we read most? Where is our meditation day and night?
“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”
Joshua 1:8
” Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
Psalm 1:1,2
Joshua was given a ground for trust - absolute trust - in the Lord. It was to do His will. The following verse is God telling Joshua, after instructing him in the way he should go, that the result of obedience is one of courage in the face of apparent disaster and loss. Trust in the Lord Almighty when flesh fails and the visible declares defeat. For then, and then alone, can that man have delight day and night. In the face of enemies he can stand - having done all that the Lord has bid him do.
But even if we have believed, are we persuaded? Is our heart utterly devoted to God or is it divided between God and us? Do we reserve a little place of self-service that no man can discern but of which the Spirit of God would say “You have denied me my claim. You are not Mine alone.” And if not His alone, we are not His at all. We cannot serve both God and “me”. We may not be persuaded to trust. We may not trust, but not because we have reason to doubt. If any can say they have reason to doubt God, I say he not only does not know God but he knows nothing ABOUT God. He is an infidel and a blatant unbeliever. So why not trust God? The only reason is self-deceit. Yes, it may be the adversary Satan, and it may be external forces, but we are instructed to overcome. There is NO excuse. So why, again, do we not FULLY and UTTERLY trust God TOTALLY in ALL SITUATIONS and at ALL TIMES? Unbelief. Yes. The deceitful heart has said “I can acknowledge the Lord, I can accept His counsel and I can even follow His dictates.” but that same heart says “There must be allowance for me. After all God loves me.”. Oh, but this is an awful place. It is a place of complacency and acceptance of a partial faith. And what faith is a partial faith? It is none at all! It is the mingling of truth and error. It is Babylon erected in the heart - calling itself “of Christ” but playing the harlot.
But trust in God, real trust, is utter. It penetrates beyond the mind, beyond the heart - deep into the inner recesses of the man that needs complete regeneration! The deeper into the depths of man that the Spirit examines, the clearer it becomes that the throne of the heart is not a single seat with self dethroned, but many levels with many “small” idols that, in themselves, appear insignificant, but together comprise all those things that the heart cannot or will not relinquish. But trust in God allows the idols to be smashed and the high places cut down. Even amidst the shattering, breaking, smashing and rending that the heart needs to be prepared to be devoted to the One True God - even then the man submits. It is a mystery to the flesh, but the spiritual man knows and treasures the times God has overturned his idols and upset his plans. For he knows by experience and seeking that the Lord has a plan far beyond and above his own and that this plan will not only glorify God but it will satisfy himself beyond anything that this world can even conceive. But the temple must be cleansed. Anything short of perfect cleansing is unacceptable to God.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me
This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.”
John 6:53
Jesus spoke these things in the synagogue. He taught. These were not offhand remarks spoken informally, but plainly spoken so as to have their full effect. None could confuse his speech for anything but authoritative words. But He advocated cannibalism! As He was in the synagogue in the flesh, His presence was an affront to the polytheistic temples of the hearts of the Pharisees. The letter of the covenant had only served to harden their hearts and elevate their pride. Their rough places were rougher and their high places exalted to the heavens. So the appearance of the One to whom they should have been led only offended them even more. They could not tolerate even a threat to one of their idols. They had not bowed to the Law but had imagined it bowed to them. It had been given a place of submission to their wills and hearts when Jesus testified to what they should have already known - that it would lead them to He who could fulfill it perfectly. Sure, the words Jesus used were strong and hard to understand, but see what He told His disciples :
” Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
John 6:60-70
He would not tell the Pharisees of the inconsequence of the flesh. He would not tell them of the Spirit that led Him. He knew their hearts and He knew their idols. It was not that the disciples were perfect, but nothing mattered but the Lord. Their trust was fully in Him. They literally left homes, families, jobs - everything that the natural man rests in - and followed Jesus. Would we? Are we not then Pharisees? Do we take comfort in the hindsight that the scriptures afford us and say “We will not make the same error?” and yet miss the division Christ makes between full disciples and those who have not been called? Those who try to do so of their own accord on their own strength? Notice, it wasn’t the supposedly cannibalistic claim that drove many supposed disciples away, it was the necessity of the Father’s call that drove them away. The call must echo in the heart and One voice must be heard - not the clamour of many voices vying for supremacy, but the temple must be indwelt by One alone so that the voice is single and Supreme. The Father must be All. It must be sought in the Father. There can be nothing of the strength, will, or plan of man left. The supposed disciples could not match up. They had some claim on their own hearts and could not offer themselves as dead before God. They knew the judgment on their hearts. They knew the wickedness of their deeds - no matter how “good” - and the waywardness of their beings. And Jesus’ words placed the judgment upon them in no uncertain terms. And since their righteousness, their works their plans, their very hearts (!) could not play a part, could not lead them to Jesus, they could not submit to death even as Isaac did.
That death is one of lonliness and total emptying. There must be a place of awareness of the heart and the deeds and a full-faced stare into the wretched evil of man’s heart. It is in all of us. There is no exception. But to the one who can submit to all the just judgments of God on his ungodliness, perversity, waywardness and hatred of all that is truly good - to him who can lay open before a pure, holy God and share in the sufferings of Christ - to him comes the call. This is not a place of expiation or atonement. This is a place of the action of the cross on the life of a man. The sinful man must be crucified and that requires something of us. Not to “do”, but to die a death of confrontation, judgment, submission and lonely following of the Lamb of God outside the camp. Confronting the utter lack of ability and inclination to follow or please God in the heart. Judgment being the judgment of God on such a condition. Submission being the submission of a vessel to fall upon the rock and be broken. The cross being applied to the flesh. That lonely following must ever be to the death of the flesh and an awareness that is increasingly outside the realm of the senses. This Jesus made clear in verse 63 when He said that the flesh profits nothing, but it is the spirit that quickens. That same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead MUST dwell in you for you to be alive in Him. There is no other way. And if it is, then you will know it. You will know the warring of the flesh and the spirit. You will know the longing for spiritual bread and meat that allows self NO glory in any way. Oh…such a lonely way.
But many cannot face that lonely way. They see the demands and try to meet them all at once. The flesh has risen up again. They have looked away from the Master and allowed the enemy a foothold instead of taking no thought for the morrow. The Lord provides bread and wine with His own body. Our meat and drink more and more should become being beholden to Him - to do His will and speak His words. Our every moment should be lived in anticipation of His next word. The disciples recognized this. Beyond any influence of the flesh and any desire to work their own works came something inside that dispelled all that and brought them to trust entirely on the One who came to seek and to save that which is lost :
“Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”
John 6:68
