In the mercy of God, we have met once again to bring to remembrance our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Many have waited for the consummation of the great purpose centered in him. We look back over 60 centuries of human time and behold the great cloud of witnesses encouraging us on. We have a mighty history upon which to reflect; a company of believers who in every age have been associated with the purpose of God; a multitude of overcomers whom no man can number.
God is accomplishing His great purpose to fill the earth with His glory. This purpose is sure beyond all doubt, for God has given the guarantee of His promise — the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was raised and glorified and ascended and will return. When he returns, what is our hope? Truly it is that we shall be with him and like him in the day of his power.
Children who should grow
Yet our personal participation in that hope is conditional upon our being under his influence now, while he is absent.
This was clearly laid before us when we were immersed into the hope that we share. We were born anew as children who were to grow; we were to desire the sincere milk of the word that we might grow thereby. We were not to remain in the condition of our emergence from the waters of baptism; we were to develop and mature.
Since our immersion, we have had many opportunities to bring forth the fruits of the spirit so necessary to our qualification for an entrance into the kingdom of God. To control opportunities placed in our lives is a prerequisite to being put in control of nations in the future.
To manifest God now
As we come to realize the manifestation of God is required in our hearts and minds and daily living ,we recognize how great the good fight of faith really is. We see how it has to be waged in various moods and circumstances, in weakness and weariness as well as in strength. Looking back on our own actions, we realize that failure has marked many occasions.
We see the heights of Zion in the experiences of Bible schools, study days and personal study; and we see the valley of the shadow of death in times of work pressure and the attacks of fleshly lusts that war against the soul.
God knows our frame and has provided for days of rallying our resolve. He gave Israel sabbath days and new moons and three feasts throughout the year. He has given us this first day of the week that it might be a time of examination and rededication throughout the years of our pilgrimage. Along with daily prayer, we need this time of reflection and introspection.
In our experiences, going on from stage to stage, we realize the truth of the apostle’s words: “when I would do good, evil is present with me…how to perform that which is good I find not” (Rom. 7:21,18). We find ourselves encompassed about with that same faulty nature as the apostle who exclaimed, “0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 7:23-24).
Overcoming natural impulses
When we consider the things we have to overcome in this regard, how many they are! Our eyes, our ears, our tongues and our hearts all require divine training. Our natural reactions present us with a host of enemies living in our very selves. We, therefore, have great necessity for coming under the influence of our Lord to overcome these foes. “Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 8:9). Consequently, the old man of the flesh must be put to death; he must be crucified.
Now the experience of doing this is nothing more or less than the great tribulation, out of which some will come and be accepted by our Lord Jesus Christ. The tribulation is trying and humiliating but we recognize it to be a necessary thing if we are to be fitted to be associated with Christ in the age to come: “as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation” (I Cor. 1:7).
The enemy today must be recognized as being in ourselves. On occasions like this, we must examine ourselves to see what progress we are making in overcoming the foe that dwells within us.
A standard to measure progress
The Lord Jesus provides the standard by which we can measure our own progress. He placed himself unreservedly under the control of God. His heart was not engaged with other matters; he was not distracted by unimportant things; he did not allow the circumstances of his environment to come between himself and God.
He committed himself to full-time service to God and he kept his commitment, whether he was at a carpenter’s bench or in the courts of the temple.
We look at him and ask, “What were his experiences in the days of his tribulation?” We see him despised, rejected and oppressed. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). We see him in the garden of Gethsemane with the coming agony bearing in on his sensitive mind. We see him desiring the companionship of his three closest friends; we see him pouring out his soul in prayer to his Father, pleading that the cup might pass. And we see him overcoming the urge of the flesh to be easy on himself and escape the will of God. We see him dealing firmly but gently with the disappointment that his friends fell asleep in his hour of need.
In all circumstances, he loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, his God and ours, anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows.
We hope to share his throne with him (Rev. 3:21). But we shall never be made a ruler with him if we have not striven to overcome ourselves. We should feel utterly out of place and unfitted for such a position if we, too, did not love righteousness and hate iniquity, if we, too, did not reject the promptings of the flesh in our lives.
Our example is our shepherd
He has left us an example that we should follow in his footsteps. We can look back by the eye of faith and realize the darkness, turmoil, misery, suffering and death he faced all along the way. We still find ourselves in the valley of the shadow of death, but we have Christ as our shepherd. He wants to lead us step by step into his glorious kingdom.
In having suffered, overcoming the flesh, he is ideally suited to be a loving and understanding shepherd of the sheep. He knows, too, that we are living at the crisis of this age. Because of that, we shall do well to take to heart his exhortation “Watch and pray!”
The watching is not limited to studying the signs of the times and the development of the nations in their political actions. The watching Christ referred to was being aware of our internal weakness, our human nature, for “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Lack of interest, ease, comfort, neglecting others in their problems are all characteristics inherent to us.
Yet we have the great consolation of a shepherd who knows the problems; we have the great comfort of a God who remembers we are but dust. As a father pities his children, so He will pity us if we pour out our hearts to Him. God knows what we require and has promised, “If ye draw near to me, I will draw near to you.” He will cause His angels to encamp about those who fear Him making all things work together for good for those who love and serve Him.
The return is near
We are living in the last days of the pouring out of the sixth vial and in the dying echoes of the sixth trumpet. There are no more vials to pour out nor trumpets to be blown before our Lord and Master returns from his far journey.
We see before us, by the eye of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ again in the earth. We see with him an assembled multitude who have been accepted at the judgment seat. We see them associated together as one glorious body constituting the great Elohim of the age to come. Through them, God’s great purpose to fill the earth with His glory will be fulfilled in the establishment of the kingdom.
Will we be there? It depends on our attitude and conduct now! We must realize who we are and what we have been called for; we must now let Christ dominate our lives; we must now seek to overcome the natural impulses that war against our eternal well-being.
We cannot judge one another, but we can exhort one another and pray for one another. We can strive more earnestly to follow our Lord Jesus Christ in thought, in word and in deed.
May he be gracious and merciful about the things we have left undone and the weakness that is still present. And may he find us among those of whom it is said: “He that holdeth fast and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations.”
Let us press forward toward the mark of our high calling for, in due time, we shall reap, if we faint not.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One