Lord, What wilt thou have me to do?

The Acts of the Apostles is that factual story of the triumphal progress of the faith once delivered to the Saints from Jerusalem — the centre of Judaism — to Rome — the centre of Paganism. There are many wonderful sayings in this part of Scripture; but, to me, ONE stands out. It is found in chapter 9:6. Saul, as he was known then, was on his way to Damascus, there to hound the faithful, when he was stopped by the Risen Christ, who asked the question: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” When Saul realised that it was Jesus who was speaking, he, trembling and aston­ished, said: “LORD, WHAT WILT THOU HAVE ME TO DO?”

This question is one which, if not always in the mind of each one of us, is sure to rise to our lips when a crisis in our lives is reached. It would be well if the believer were always in the frame of mind indicated by the question. It would show that we, too, are like those who served under the centurion, when he said to Jesus: “I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it”.

The simple question Saul put to our Lord is a whole volume in itself, and I think — and trust that you do also — that it will be time well spent in looking a little more closely into it.

dence of faith in His reality and of humble submission to His will.

When a man looks up to heaven and says: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” he is either a hypocrite, or a lunatic, or a man who believes that he is appealing to a sentient Being, whose ear is open to his cry. And this is what is wanted — namely, a clear appre­hension of the Living Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and upon whose word we should rest.

Those who contend that under the dispens­ation of Grace the believer has nothing to do, are SADLY lacking. “Whatsoever he saith unto you”, said Mary at the wedding feast, “DO IT”. It may have seemed a waste of time filling the pots with water, when the scarcity of wine was the question, but when obedience to the command delivered the host and his guests from an awkward situation, it was shown how that ready response to the command was made the means of quite un­expected blessings. So we can never tell what results may follow from obedience to the com­mands of Him who knoweth the end from the beginning. Ours not to reason why: ours but to do whatsoever He may tell us.

That we call Him Lord and Master, we do well, for so He is; but let us beware lest the reproach which He uttered be found to apply to any of us, “Why call ye me Lord, and do not the things that I say?”.

Now it must be evident to any student of Scripture that the Lord’s commandments are easily divisible into the general and the par­ticular. By that, I mean that there are general commandments and precepts that are incum­bent upon everyone who has been called: whereas there are other instructions, either given direct by the still small voice of the Spirit to them that have ears to hear, or indi­cated to the spiritual intelligence by the provi­dence of God and the operation of His hands. That is to say that there are some of the Lord’s commandments whose sound has gone through­out the whole earth, while there are others that come at particular times and places —to one here and another there, of the household of Faith.

The distinction I am seeking to draw will be made a little clearer if I call to your memory what the Lord said to Saul of Tarsus, while he stood trembling and astonished on the Damascus road. “WHAT WILT THOU HAVE ME TO DO?”, said Saul; and the Lord said unto him, “Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”. Now the same Lord might speak to any one of us and say, “Go to St. Kilda” or “Go to Fitzroy”: but it is very unlikely that He will say to us, as He said to Saul, “Go to Damascus in Syria”. From the very fact that this distinction can be drawn, from the fact that many names of places in our vicinity are not inserted in the sacred page, we sometimes have difficulty in ascer­taining the answer to the question when we put it to the Lord.

“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”, I feel sure, is the cry of many an earnest bro­ther or sister. It is the cry of many a one in the hour of uncertainty and doubt. It is the cry of many a one who would give anything, just to hear the voice of the Master speak and plainly tell them what He would have them do. I am convinced that, mainly, the chief problem lies in this other difficulty, of discov­ering what is in the mind of the Lord. If that could be made clear, the hesitation to do what He wills them to do would vanish. But neither in this, nor any other matter, has He left us comfortless; nor has He left us to sail the pathless ocean of life without a compass or a guiding star, by which to steer our course.

Let us notice the means whereby the Master acquaints us with the way we ought to take, and what we ought to do, especially if it is something out of the ordinary; something which is His will concerning us in particular. God may speak to a man straight, even as He spoke to Abram at Ur of the Chaldees; but I should imagine that is not the usual way with Him these days. In Abram’s day, there seemed to be no other way open for God to communi­cate with the son of Terah. In a similar way, He dealt with Moses, who either spoke with the Lord face to face, or else heard a voice speaking to him out of the burning bush, or from between the Cherubim over the mercy seat when he went into the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle.

Yet He is found indicating His mind and His will with regard to individuals through the mouths of others. The most striking example of this is to be seen in the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles of Christ. Paul says himself it is, “As though God did beseech you, by us; we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God”. If the world, which is hurrying on to certain destruction, would sud­denly stop and say, “Lord, what wilt thou have us to do?”, His ambassadors, unto whom He has committed the Word of reconciliation, are authorised to say, “Repent and be baptised”. Look again at the cases of Saul of Tarsus and Cornelius of Caesarea.

When Saul was arrested in his mad career against the church of God, when he was con­fronted with the glory of the Risen Christ and heard His voice, he did not get a direct answer to his anxious question! For the Lord said to him, “Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”, and he went and found in Damascus a certain disciple named Ananias. He it was who revealed to Saul what the Lord required of him.

The other case in point is that of Cornelius, who saw in a vision the angel of the Lord coming in to him, and was afraid and said, “What is it, Lord?”, and He said unto him, “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and call for one Simon, whose sur­name is Peter, and he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do”. It is recorded how Peter, in response to this call, went and preached Christ unto them in the house of Cornelius, and they gladly received the Word and were baptised.

Have you never felt, after a time of waiting upon God, that the answer to your prayers came through someone who was quite unaware of the request you had made at the Throne of Grace, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”. You had presented your petition and made your request, and you were waiting expect­antly for an answer, when someone in your company dropped a word which came to you like a revelation, and you saw in a moment what the Lord would have you to do. Or, again, after asking the Lord for guidance, you were at a meeting, and in the readings or the hymns or the exhortation, you heard the mind of the Lord, regarding you, as plainly as if He had stood in the midst and spoken the words?

It is very evident that to the great majority of His people, the Lord speaks by deputy. There are many instances of this in Scripture, and I am sure that in your own experience you have seen it adopted over and over again. He, who is working in us to will, and to do of His good pleasure, so arranged His provi­dence that we are thrown into the company of one who can make known to us the way of the Lord — more fully than we happen to understand it. The Lord could stand by our side, and with His own lips speak the word of exhortation, and who will say that He does not do so.

God acted this way to Adam and Noah, to Abraham and Moses; and Christ to Peter and Paul and John, and, for all we know, He may still so act towards men; but much more frequently is He found speaking through the mouth of others. His angels are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation; and there are men and women who are appointed in the lives of us all, to instruct and to teach us in the way we should go. Let us hear the words of the wise, let us suffer the word of exhortation, let us be quick to follow the advice of those who are taught of God.

But, without doubt, the great depository of truth, the full and complete revelation of the mind of God; the only rule of faith and prac­tice, the lamp to our feet, the light to our path, the final court of appeal to every question, is the Bible, the Word of God, and with it in hand, and the Spirit to expound it, we have no need that any man should teach us.

We have dwelt rather long on the par­ticular, but we never leave out of consideration the general instructions that are incumbent

upon everyone who puts on the name of Christ. About some of God’s requirements there should not be any doubt, and he that seeketh can read. Many a one is inquiring diligently of Christ and saying, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”, when the answer to his question can be found in the Word of Truth. There are scores of actions and dozens of duties in which the word very plainly indicates what we ought to do, and for which there is not the slightest need for doubt or uncertainty. Hear what the Lord God has spoken, and blessed are they who are not only hearers, but doers of it. We fail so very miserably, don’t we?

“Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” “Honour thy father and thy mother.”

No ifs and buts here!

“Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.”

Not SOME of them, but ALL of them.

“Watch and pray lest ye enter into temp­tation.” “Provide things honest in the sight of all men.”

I wonder sometimes if we do!

“BE STEADFAST, IMMOVABLE, ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF THE LORD.”

Would to God that we were!

“Endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” — a sad commentary of the present days!

These are but a few of the general com­mandments.

When we approach the Table of Remem­brance, may He reveal to us more and more of what He would have us do, and may we be found at His appearing proving our love for Him in the way He commanded, “If ye love me, keep my commandments”. Yes, let us hear the word spoken so long ago resounding in our ears, and as we hear it, let us ask for the grace that is in Him, who is our strength as well as our Redeemer, for what was said in the days of old is the word for all time —”WHATSOEVER HE SAITH UNTO YOU, DO IT.”