|
|
|
If you have found these messages useful and encouraging you may want to help in maintaining this site. For more information Please contact us by clicking here Our e-mail is thedivinepage@yahoo.com
|
Are you called Imagine that you are a soldier. Your commanding officer has ordered you to invade enemy-held territory, and you plan your attack to catch the opposition off guard by attacking when and where he least expects it. But as you move forward you discover that his fortifications are well constructed. What's worse, he has somehow learned of your plan, because suddenly, guns open fire, and you are blasted in retreat.
When you report back to headquarters your commanding officer asks, "Well, did you capture that position?" "No sir," you reply. "The enemy won't let me."
Do you think you could get away with that answer? That is not what warfare is all about. When a soldier receives an order, he is bound by his oath of allegiance to fight to the death to fullfil it. He will not let himself be stopped simply because the enemy is entrenched and armed to resist! He knows that before he starts on his mission. His commander knows it too. That obstruction must be overcome if the battle is to be won.
Exactly the same principle of allegiance and obedience applies to spiritual warfare where we have to respond to the call of Christ. Yet a lot of Christian soldiers seem to be saying to their Commander, "We cannot advance, or we cannot go forward because the enemy disapproves of our objectives and is not willing to let us succeed."
As Brother Andrew of 'Open Doors' wrote, "Isn't that ridiculous! Of course the devil disapproves; that is what makes him an enemy. Of course, he fights against the Lord’s army; that is what an enemy does! Why then are so many Christians amazed even immobilized, by the least sign of resistance to the gospel? Why are our feelings hurt when sinners scoff at our witness'? Why do we adjust our schedule and programs for serving Christ to conform to the regulations and restrictions of the enemy?
We have become so prone to obey rules and man-made laws that forbid the preaching of the gospel that we have forgotten who issued our orders. The basic principle for any Christian is this: the Lord Jesus Christ who crushed Satan and conquered death, commands us to invade this enemy-occupied world and reclaim it for God. We march under his exclusive authority. We make no deals with the foe and make no compromises with evil authority. We make no concessions and excuses to anyone who stands in the way of the gospel.
The Lord's call to repentance faith, salvation and service is for all time. As it was in the beginning so it shall be to us. Just as the biblical characters of old had discovered this awful truth, so it shall be for us in our days. The Lord never changes. How he dealt with the Church Fathers in ancient days, He does so right now. That is why it is always profitable to study the lives of the biblical character to learn how God works. In our study today we shall investigate three biblical characters. The first is Samuel, the young man who knew nothing of life.
Samuel was the last and greatest of the Judges (Acts 13:20) and the first of the prophets (Acts 3.24). In the Old Testament he was considered to be the greatest figure since Moses (Jeremiah 15:1). He was the son of Elkanah and Hannah. Hannah had Iong been childless and made a vow to God that if God gave her a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord's service. The Lord heard her prayers and in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son whom she named Samuel meaning 'a godly name'. Samuel 1:27 and 28 tell of the first part of Samuel’s calling…"I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.”
Here in the life of Samuel let us note a number of things. The obvious observation is that it was Hannah who prayed for this child. We see this in the dedication of Samuel's life to God's service. The act of praying for someone's life is not just the responsibility of parents. Jesus prayed for all the lives of believers. John 17:20 remind us that the Lord Jesus prayed for every believer. This included not only the disciples and apostles but also for those who were yet unborn. "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one. Father just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me". The spiritual principle is clear here. Each and every one of us has been prayed over by our Lord Jesus just as Hannah prayed over the life of Samuel.
Next we see that Hannah dedicated the life of Samuel to God. We read in verse 28 that Samuel was dedicated to the service of God for the rest of his life. So often as one read these few verses, one has the feeling that this is only for Samuel and has nothing to say of importance to our lives. A close examination of scripture reveals to us that Samuel’s calling is but a mirror of the life of every Christian. Not only is the life of a Christian prayed for by Christ but he is also prayed over so that he can be someone fit for his service.
In the passage of John 17 verses 20 and following to the end of the chapter, the phrase 'that you have sent me' occurs no less than three times. In other words when Jesus prayed for every believer born and yet unborn, He prayed that they would let the world know that it was God who sent Him for the salvation of all. Samuel’s life was prayed over and dedicated for his service. The life of every believer has also been prayed over and also dedicated to service. It is the service of letting the world know that God sent His son and that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16b).
Let me repeat. The spiritual principle is clear. Even as we are born into the family of God, adopted as his children, there are certain conditions that are built within this privilege. The book of John in the first chapter, verse I2 reads like a this…Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband’s will but born of God." In being God’s children, Christ has called or commissioned us for the task of making disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:I9) teaching and discipling all nations. Just as Samuel was called into the office of the priesthood, so it is for all of us who are called into his royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9).
The next phase of Samuel’s calling is an act of commissioninq. Here Samuel is called by God while he is in the temple where the ark was. 1 Samuel gives an account of what happened. God called Samuel and being ignorant as any young child would, Samuel mistook this for the voice of Eli. However, Eli understood what was happening and taught Samuel how to respond properly. Let us read the relevant sections, verse 1…The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare, there were not many visions. Verse 3…The lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was. Verse 4…Then the Lord called Samuel, "After three times, Eli discerned that it was God who was calling Samuel and taught him to respond as follows. "Verse 9...So Eli told Samuel, ‘Go and lie down and if he calls you say, speak Lord for your servant is listening’”.
Here in this account. Samuel was called while ministering in the Lord’s temple. Often, the Lord calls and commissions us while we are in the midst of serving him. This is very natural, as God calls us in the place where he is. Samuel being young and inexperienced did not discern God’s voice and mistook it for Eli’s. Matthew Henry comments, “God calls many by the ministrv of the word and they say as Samuel did, "Here I am" but not looking at God, nor discerning his voice in the call, the impression of it is soon lost, they lie down again and their convictions come to nothing.' Is this our experience How many of us have not heard God’s call because we have not had the spiritual discernment to listen in to his call or the mechanism to tune in to his wavelength. We thank God for the Eli’s in our midst who can discern and help us awaken our spirit to his calling. Samuel was aided in this respect by Eli, one who had experience in the ways of God. So also it is for us. Seek out those who are mature in Christ and seek counsel if one feels that God is calling one to a fuller and deeper service to him.
There is another dimension to this. While the Samuels in our midst should go to the elders in the faith to help in the discernment of the calling, there should be Eli’s in the Church who should be on the lockout for Samuels. In this respect the Church should therefore play an important role in seeking out those whom God is calling to full-time service for him. So often in our Methodist Churches we leave the calling to individuals. There is no active seeking out of young men and women who have the obvious gifts and fruits of the Spirit to serve in a full time capacity. Let us pray that the Elders in our Churches would begin to play this very important role. The right approach should be that the Church should take an active role in seeking out those to whom they feel have the gift of serving Him full time.
Eli spoke a very simple word. In verse 9 we read these words... Speak Lord your servant is listening. In this we discern three important elements. The obvious first word is that Samuel must put himself in the position of a servant. And not only the position of a servant, but a slave desiring to faithfully obey all that God spoke. Then he must desire to know the mind of God. Only when we are in such a position can we expect God to speak to us (Psalms 85:8).
Here again the spiritual principle is clear. When God calls young men and women and commissions them he calls them in the midst of service. And even though they may lack the ability to discern that God wants them to do his work, the Church should actively play this part. Just as Paul was prayed over by the Church to be sent out as a missionary, so also should the Church seek out young men and women who would avail themselves to the rigours and challenges of God’s calling. Give of the best to the master Give of the strength of your youth Throw your soul’s fresh glowing ardour Into the battle for truth Jesus has set the example Dauntless was He young and brave Give Him your loyal devotion Give him the best that you have Give of the best to the master Give of the strength of your youth Clad in salvation full armour Join in the battle for truth
Our next Bible character is in direct contrast to Samuel. This is Moses, the old man who knew too much of life. For our portion of scripture let us look at the book of Exodus. Moses was a great leader and lawgiver through whom God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt, constituted them as a nation for his service and brought them to within the reach of the promised land. The story of how Moses was brought out of the water and into Pharaoh’s court is well known. However we will concentrate on what happened when he became a man, mature in all things. Exodus 2:11 begins with these words, "One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his people were and watched them at their hard labour." Moses had the benefit of a great up-bringing in the court of Pharaoh. And being the son of a princess was destined to a high position and a life of luxury.
Research into the life of those who were in such a privileged position revealed that the training included reading, writing of the hieroglyphics, copying of texts, instructions in letter-writing and other administrative accomplishments. Princes were destined to serve in the armies of the Pharaoh, superintending great building projects and holding high priestly office in important provincial temples. To put simply, Moses had great potential. He was destined for high office and I am sure possessed the charisma of a great leader. Yet, in that flush of great intellectual and positional superiority, he committed the mistake of thinking that his personal power and personal resources was what God needed to help his fellow man. He did not realise that God would use a man totally devoid of his own resource and who would depend totally on God’s power to act.
We, read in verse I0b that he sided with the Jew and killed the Egyptian. Here was an act of bravery and no doubt he thought that in so doing, he would rally the people of Israel to his side and maybe take the Kingdom for own. Whatever the motivations he failed miserably.
For this deed committed in a rash of passion he had to flee. We are told that at this time Moses was about 40 years old (Acts 7:23). While to many life begins at 40, to Moses it would be the end. It was the end of his dream of ever living in Pharaoh's court. It was the end of his dream of ever living in ease and luxury and preparation for a good retirement. If we look into the psychology of Moses, we can guess what went on in his mind. The cause that he championed for the sake of his people and maybe God was found to be foolhardy. Not only had he lost his position in court, he was now a wanted criminal. To save his life he fled into the wilderness.
Can God ever use such a failure from a man’s point of view? Moses could have used his influence in the court of Pharaoh to do good. This would have resulted in the accomplishment of his aims of bringing a better life for his fellow countrymen in less destructive ways. Perhaps. But God had other plans. The great plans of God are not accomplished by great men and women sufficient in themselves but people who know what it means to completely depend on him and him alone. These would be people who are completely broken in the fibres of self-sufficiency and completely melted and welded into the sufficiency of God.
Moses marries and tries to make a life for himself in the wilderness. We read that he became a shepherd. What a come down. A man destined to high office now ends his day as a shepherd. What a failure. One who has become used to the devious ways of the administrative intricacies of the Egyptian court wandered for another 40 years in the wilderness. Many of us would have given up hope if we had suffered the fate of Moses and banished all thought of ever making it big in the world and in God’s sight. But no. The Lord felt that this wilderness experience for Moses was just the right thing for Him.
In the course of his wanderings along with his sheep, God appears to him in a burning bush. A bush we are told in Exodus 3:2 that though on fire did not burn up. Here God encounters Him and calls Him. Exodus 3:4. "When the Lord saw he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush. Moses, Moses. and Moses said here I am."
In this account we see two, very important elements in God’s call to a man who has had a great store of life’s wisdom. God calls him to holiness in the act of removing his shoes. God did not call him into wisdom or into a display of his pure refined character. No, God calls him to holiness in the first act of calling and commissioning. Thus we see as a matter of spiritual principle that service begins with righteousness and holiness. Until we have learned that we share in God’s holiness and righteousness we will never be able to move into his holy calling of true service to him.
Next God appears to those of us who has finally learned that it is not human strength that accomplishes great works but the Lord’s. Look at the humility of Moses in the face of the task thrust upon him! Exodus 3: 11 gives a glimpse of the man who has finally been broken of his self-sufficiency and totally reliant upon God. We read…”But Moses said to God, who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?
Again the spiritual principle is clear. God appears to those who finally surrenders their puny strength and take son the strength of God. For Moses, he learned it at just the right age of 80. What about you? Age is no barrier for work in the Lord. We may think we are too old for anything. Look at Moses and repent of the sin of self-pity. What God wants is not sacrifices but a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart (Psalms 51:17)
Next he calls us by name. Just as he called Samuel so also he called Moses by name. We are not the numberless thousands in a. multitude of saints! God knows each of us just as he knew Samuel and Moses. He knew of the inexperience and the glowing potential of a young life in Samuel, but he also knows of the sad, worn and bruised spirit of a man who has seen it all-Moses. Yes, the Lord knows each of us by name and knows to what extent we can be made use of. Let us therefore not make the mistake that God only calls the young and strong but he also calls the old and mature. The criteria is not in the strength we possess, but in the yielded spirit of a contrite nature, fully submissive to God’s leading.
Next, God telIs him to take off his shoes as a sign of cleansing. I am sure when Moses was face to face with God in the midst of the burning bush, and when God commanded him to take of his shoes, Moses became aware that in his service, all the accumulated debris of his long and eventful life must be made accountable to God, to be cast off as the shoes he was wearing was to be cast off and laid aside in order that the Lord can give him a new heart made of flesh rather than that of stone. When the Lord calls, he calls us to righteousness and holiness in order that we can be useful to him.
Something beautiful, something good All my confusion, he understood All I have to offer him was brokenness and strife But he made something, beautiful of my life
Our final study is in the life of Nehemiah. This man comes to us as a relevant character for study because it was a life lived in sacrifice for God’s purposes. Nehemiah was a man called from the midst of a successful career. And when God called, he gave up all to follow him. Let us examine the circumstances leading to his calling.
Who is Nehemiah? He breaks suddenly into the history of Israel as the builder of the walls of Jerusalem. Our knowledge of him comes from the book that bears his name. Nehemiah was cup-bearer to King Artaxerxes of Persia. This was a responsible position and could only be occupied by men of substance and considerable abilities. Nehemiah came from the remnant of the exiled ones who were taken to Babylon and Persia when the Kingdom of Judah fell. Since the Persians empire had its model on the Babylonian empire that preceded it, much of the practices and policies of the Babylonian empire regarding foreigners were absorbed into the administration. In the book of Daniel we read of certain young men who were specially chosen by the King to be trained as administrators at the King’s court. In the same way one would expect that Nehemiah could have belonged to a group of able men especially chosen for their abilities to serve in the court. And since the position of the cup bearer was one of authority because it was a position that was nearest to the King, Nehemiah must have been at the apex of his career when the account of the book of Nehemiah began.
Thus the picture here is not one of youth or old age but that of a man called at the height of his powers. Nehemiah was cup-bearer and we are told in Chapter 1 in the book of Nehemiah that he received a report from one of his brothers about the sorry state of the walls of Jerusalem. Verse 4 tells us that Nehemiah wept when he heard these things and he sat down, mourned, fasted and prayed to God.
God called this man to action through a report. What a let down in our ideas of the calling of God. Many of us have the wrong impression that God must call us in dramatic ways such as in the life of Samuel and Moses. In these instances, the calling was audible and dramatic. In the case of Nehemiah, the calling was through a simple administrative procedure-a report.
Are we also moved in such a way when we read missionary reports that so much more needs to be done in the way of evangelism for the world. Hudson Taylor was moved to go to China because he was aghast at the report that millions were going to hell every day without the opportunity of knowing Christ. Are we moved when we read reports of the deep spiritual hunger found in many lands. Are we moved enough to fast and pray and mourn and also then to plan to serve him?
The calling of God is not a mysterious force. It is the plain feeling of the pain of those who would burn in hell if they did not come to know Christ. Calling does not reside in dramatic Super spiritual experiences. Silas was called into missionary work in the most ordinary way. Acts 15:36 reads as follows. Some time later Paul said to Barnabas “Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached and see how they are doing. Verse 40. But Paul chose Silas and left. A simple act of wanting to see how the congregation were, made Silas a missionary. Nehemiah was moved by a report.
The principle is clear here. Not all calling is dramatic. And we should not expect this to be so. Some of us may have already had the gifts and are already serving the Lord with great effectiveness and are expecting the. call to come through. Are we indeed expecting no less than that God speak directly to us? Are we putting it as an imperative that unless the Lord calls in such a clear way and dramatically, only then we would pick up our roots and follow him?
Nehemiah was a man at the apex of his career. He would be expected to have a family and deep roots in the city of Susa. Probably he would have had to put down a very hefty down payment for a very expensive looking chariot and a house built of marble and gold. Yet when the report came, he was willing to give up all these treasures that rust and obey the call to rebuild the wall.
Nehemiah we are told in Nehemiah 2 that it was the Persian King who made it possible for him to be sent to fulfil his mission. What an interesting development. Nehemiah was sent on a spiritual mission by a secular power to do a job that had great spiritual significance. This is certainly tent-making ministry in the Old Testament. So, Nehemiah gets to go in this capacity and we are told in the book of Nehemiah that he accomplished his task with great success. But what of the man himself? Does he share in the same spiritual relationship as the other two characters. The answer is yes. He who serves God must be men who have been totally refined in the furnace of suffering until they come to a point of obedience and faithfulness.
Nehemiah's inward motivations can be seen in the prayers recorded in the book of Nehemiah. There is firstly the overwhelming concern for God’s Kingdom. Verse 4 of Chapter 1 tells us that he wept and fasted and mourned when he heard about the dismal state of God's dwelling place. Secondly there is that same attitude of servanthood displayed in verse 6 when he says.
Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayers, your servant is praying. The calling of oneself as the servant of Christ is one very clear indication of the servant spirit which is essentially in one who wants to serve God. Thirdly there was an overwhelming awareness of the destructiveness of sin in the lives of those who were his people. We see this in Nehemiah 1:6 where he confesses the sins of Israel. Nehemiah was certainly a righteous man. Just as Moses had to be brought to righteousness and holiness, and just as Samuel was brought to an understanding of his servanthood before God, Nehemiah understood these things before God in his prayer. Finally the prayer ends in verse 11b an appeal to have Success when he meets the King. This reveals to us that Nehemiah did not depend on his own influence and power but on God. It was with God’s power that he appealed to the King and it was from God that he received his power to do the impossible.
|
