TRUSTWORTHINESS
Mark Grant
John 3: 35
Philippians 3:3
2 Timothy 1: 14; 2: 2
1 Corinthians 11: 28-31
I have been thinking about what is trustworthy. When thinking about what can be trusted, our thoughts would immediately be drawn to the Lord Jesus as the One who can be trusted. The verse we have read in John’s gospel speaks of how the Father has given all things to be in His Hand. It is a wonderful thing to contemplate that the Father can trust the Son and give all things to be in His hand. It would help us to trust that One, the Lord Jesus. Of course, as in everything, the Lord Jesus is the perfect Model for us; He trusted in God; the Psalms speak of that, the way He trusted in God. Scripture also speaks of Him doing the will of God: “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”, Heb 10: 7. The Father trusted the Son to do His will; the Son trusted the Father in the doing of it; He was here as a dependent Man. As I said, He is the perfect Model for us. He is perfect; we are not. There is that in us that cannot be trusted.
This is why I read what Paul says, as to not trusting in flesh, which is obviously the negative side; but we need that, and we need to come to it that we cannot trust in flesh. I was encouraged by what our brother who has spoken brought in as to Romans 7 and 8. We need to identify what there is in us that we can trust and what we cannot trust. We cannot trust any feature of the flesh; even its most refined features cannot be trusted. The Lord Jesus while He was here was “in likeness of flesh of sin” (Rom 8: 3), but He was here in perfection and sin apart. There was no feature in Him that needed to be judged, or that could not be trusted. He was altogether that which He said and did; every matter was perfect and fully in accord with the will of His God and Father. In that way, He is the perfect Model for us, but He is also the perfect Object for us, for our affections and our contemplation. In this section in John’s gospel it is put in the present tense and I think I am right in saying that the writer, John, puts this in: “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. That was true when John wrote it, and it is still the case at the present time; the Lord Jesus is in the position of all things being in His hand. In Revelation 1 it says, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades”, v 17-18. Even the keys of death and of hades are in the hands of the Lord Jesus. What follows, is that He “holds the seven stars in his right hand” and He “walks in the midst of the seven golden lamps”, Rev 2: 1. So everything that proceeds at the present time is also in His hands and under His control; there is nothing that proceeds that is not under His control. We feel tested as to that; I certainly do myself; sometimes we wonder why things are happening, or why things are allowed. It would help each one of us to see that the Father has entrusted all to Jesus, and we can too.
When we come to Philippians, I do not want to dwell on it too much, and there are other scriptures we could have read, particularly in Romans, but there is this simple reference that, “we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh”. What is of the Spirit and what is of the flesh, Scripture says, “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Gal 5: 17); they cannot be mixed at all, and our confidence is to be in Christ, not in ourselves according to flesh. My simple impression, in relation to ourselves, is that we are to be able to identify in a greater way the work of God in ourselves that can be trusted, and too, to come to a greater judgment of the flesh. It is easy to think that certain features of the flesh are more acceptable than others, but even the most refined features of the flesh cannot be trusted. I did not read it all, but what follows was also in my mind: Paul sets out the things that he could have trusted in; if anyone could have trusted in flesh, he could have. He says, “these I counted, on account of Christ, loss”, Phil 3: 7. He speaks too of counting them “to be filth, that I may gain Christ”, v 8. Even the most admirable features of the flesh, Paul has come to count them as filth that he may gain Christ. He must have come to it that he could not gain Christ fully unless he counted these things to be loss and to be filth, and so with us, we may not let go of some of the features of the flesh, and it may hinder us in our appreciation of the Lord Jesus and may hinder us in being more like Him. The more I have judged the flesh the more I will be able to appreciate Christ and what God has done in me. Of course, the more I appreciate the work of God in myself and the more I rely on the Spirit, the more I will be able to put aside the features of the flesh.
I was thinking of an example of this in Timothy. He was one to whom Paul entrusted certain things; he was one whom Paul could speak of as caring “with genuine feeling”, Phil 2: 20. We see, as our brother has referred to, that the moral basis and foundation was there. No doubt Timothy had been formed; not only did he know what Paul had said, but he had been formed by it, so that he could be entrusted with the good deposit, as Paul refers to here. Think of all that Timothy would have heard; it speaks later of “the things thou hast heard of me in the presence of many witnesses”. Timothy had heard much in the company of Paul; Paul could entrust these things to Timothy. It would be a good feature for myself and for all of us, to be more like this, to be persons who can be trusted; as was said, our Lord Jesus is the perfect Model for us in that.
At the present time, I am sure, divine Persons would be looking for those who can be trusted to carry forward the testimony, and to maintain the Lord’s rights here, and to be absorbed in Paul’s ministry, then also, as it says in chapter 2, to “be competent to instruct others also”. I am sure we all feel our weakness in that, but I think this competency would be based on a moral foundation; but also persons who are spiritual. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians speaks of the attractive features of a spiritual person. “The fruit of the Spirit” - it is put as singular as these features would blend - “is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control: against such things there is no law”, Gal 5: 22-23. You might say those features are so trustworthy that there is no law that applies to them. Being of the Spirit, they can be fully trusted. I was encouraged by what was referred to earlier by our brother in Romans 7 and 8, where the man comes to it; “O wretched man that I am” (Rom 7: 24), and “in me … good does not dwell”, Rom 7: 18. He is then immediately set free by the deliverance of Christ Jesus; he is set free in relation to all that the Spirit would bring us into. Divine Persons would be seeking this for us. The more we judge the flesh and the more we make way for the work of God in ourselves, the greater liberty we will have; liberty with each other, but too, greater liberty in the service of God.
This is why I read in the first epistle to the Corinthians. I used to think here of the proving in a negative way - the judging of ourselves. I was helped to see that it is not only judging what is of the flesh, but it is also proving what is of the work of God in yourself. “Let a man prove himself”: that would be one way in which we can be more trustworthy and become more spiritual. We may wonder how to become more spiritual. You can only become more spiritual in the presence of divine Persons, and that is where we would prove ourselves. It would be to be before the Lord in relation to what I might need to judge, but also to be before the Lord in relation to the work of God in myself, all that divine Persons are doing, all that the Holy Spirit is doing. Especially when we are younger, it easy to be occupied with our failings, and how weak we are, how unworthy we are, but divine Persons would love to set us free from all of that. As our brother has said, we need to go back to what we are as in Christ Jesus, linking on with what is positive in each other, and in ourselves. As doing so we will have greater liberty with one another, and in the service of God. The scripture here says, “as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”, v 26. Paul goes on to speak of eating and drinking “unworthily”; then, “But let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup”. I used to think of this as something you would do on a Saturday night, but I do not think that is the case. It should be a constant exercise to be before divine Persons and proving ourselves. It may involve self-judgment, but also proving what is of the work of God in ourselves. I feel for myself that I need divine help in doing that. We can perhaps think some features of the flesh are not as bad as others, but my simple thought is that only the work of God can be trusted. In looking to the Lord Jesus, and to all that He is to the Father, we can see, you might say objectively, there the thing is in perfection, and therefore we can be helped ourselves to work this out subjectively. The Roman teaching would clearly help in relation to this.
These thoughts may have been scattered, but I was just encouraged by what our brother brought before us as to being in Christ Jesus, and that to enjoy that position really we need to be able to identify the work of God in ourselves; and it can be trusted. That is a great matter for our encouragement - what God is doing in me can be trusted and relied upon.
May the Lord bless these thoughts.
Word in the Ministry Meeting, Grangemouth
21st November 2017