FAITH
David A Brown
Luke 8: 22-25
1 Peter 1: 6-9
Revelation 21: 10-11
Jeremiah 17: 7
I would like to speak very simply dear brethren about the test of faith, the proving of faith, the fruit of faith and the Man of faith. We live in a time when our faith is being tested, and it has always been that way for believers from the beginning of the dispensation. During the Dark Ages, the time of the martyrs, or at any stage in the course of the testimony (we should all have some knowledge of the history of the testimony) there have always been faith’s testings. For persons who commit themselves to the Lord Jesus their faith in Him will be tested. There are persons in this room who have experienced and are experiencing pressures in their circumstances; illness, family difficulties, employment, and indeed present assembly exercises. I suppose, and I can only speak from my own personal experience, we sometimes wish these obstacles to be removed but God does not work in the way we wish Him to. If God swept away every obstacle put in our way there would not be any need for faith in our pathway. The day to come would have already arrived! In Luke where we read we have a squall of wind bringing danger on the water. There will be no more trials like these in a day to come. In their place will be nearness to Christ, faith giving place to actuality. The present time is the time of learning and growing, and for the formation of the moral features which we find in that blessed Man our Lord Jesus Christ. So when the time comes for our translation, it is simply a matter of a change of our bodies of humiliation into bodies like unto His own body of glory. What a living and glorious prospect we have in His soon coming: the time of faith gone forever; the time when all these obstacles and difficulties and pressures are gone forever. Meantime, and in this waiting time, may we each be able to say that our path is “the path of the righteous” which “is as the shining light, going on and brightening until the day be fully come”, Prov 4: 18.
We read in chapter 8, and this incident took place on one of the days of the thirty three and a half years in which the Lord Jesus lived in this world. On every day of His precious life He lived according to the divine will. We have in Him the blessed pattern Man, for He Himself is “the leader and completer of faith”, Heb 12: 2. The Lord lived with His faith blessedly active in relation to His God and Father, as it says in Isaiah 50: 4, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”. What a Man for our contemplation!
“And it came to pass on one of the days, that he entered into a ship, himself and his disciples; and he said to them, Let us pass over to the other side of the lake; and they set off from shore”. For the comfort and encouragement of all the dear souls in this room, I believe that the Lord Jesus will never allow us to go through our exercises alone, as He is always with us in them. I suppose these disciples may have had doubts, but here the Lord is saying, “Let us pass over to the other side of the lake”. The Lord knew perfectly well what was going to happen with the sudden squall of wind. He knew absolutely what was in front of them but He says, “Let us pass over”. What was in the Lord’s mind at this point I believe was the period of faith which these disciples would enter into when the He left this scene for glory. There was a bond being formed which was going to remain with these men when Christ went on high and the Spirit came.
The Lord delights to be trusted in everything. If we do not trust the Lord, we really call into question the preciousness of His love and the blessedness of His grace. We know the folly of trying to plan things our way and to move according to our own natural propensities. The Lord Jesus would call forth active faith in Himself. The scripture says, “And as they sailed, he fell asleep”. You might wonder why the Lord fell asleep. He fell asleep because He was restful in His own soul, and restful in the knowledge that everything was in the divine hand. It is wonderful to contemplate the restfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ in circumstances which would agitate us naturally. I love to think of Him in this way. The Lord knew about this sudden squall of wind and when it would happen. We sometimes think, ‘Why does the Lord not remove this pressure, or why does He not operate in this way or that way?’. It is a test for our prayers to be according to the divine will, the divine promise, the divine way and indeed according to divine counsel.
Sometimes the Lord does not remove the obstacle. Did He remove the obstacle for believers who gave up their life for the truth, or did He remove the circumstances of tremendous pressure for Stephen? These persons proved divine love and grace in their circumstances, and as proving the reality of the Lord’s love for them gave their life for Christ. He wishes us to trust Him even though He may not remove the obstacle; but He gives us more grace to bear the exercise. Now it says, “and they were filled with water, and were in danger; and coming to him they woke him up”. Unbelief would wake the Lord up: faith would leave Him sleeping. Have we got our confidence in Christ? Do we have the faith in that blessed One, such that we can trust Him for everything? These disciples’ boat was filling with water, and you might well say what rightful concern they had. An open boat filling with water means that there was a danger of sinking. Think of the difficulties they would have in their own mind. They would say, ‘Why did the Lord bring us into these circumstances?’. The Lord was with them in these difficult circumstances. The Lord did not say to these men, ‘You go by boat, and I will take the journey overland and meet you at the other side’. He was with them in the boat. “Master, master, we perish”. The Lord could have remained sleeping to test their faith further but He woke up, such is His graciousness. If He thinks that matters are becoming too much for us to bear (and only the Lord Himself is the Judge of that), I think the Lord in His grace will come in as He did here and quell the wind and the raging of the water. “He, rising up, rebuked the wind and the raging of the water; and they ceased, and there was a calm”. How blessed is the grace and support of our Lord Jesus Christ. In John 17 the Lord does not demand for His own that they should be taken out of the world, but that they might have the resource to continue in His absence. “I do not demand that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them out of evil”, John 17: 15. At present the Lord is testing the reality of our faith and its activity. In the passage in Luke I think the Lord was calling forward this time of faith which these disciples were going to be initiated into in order that they might prove Him in a greater way. He said to them as He would say to us, “Where is your faith?”. What did he say to the woman in Simon the Pharisee’s house? “Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace”, chap 7: 50. There was really something greater at that point with that woman in Luke 7 than there was with the disciples in Luke 8. “And, being afraid, they were astonished, saying to one another, Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?” These men were giving glory to the blessed One who had come into their circumstances.
In Peter’s epistle, we have the proving of faith. The scripture says, “that the proving of your faith, much more precious than of gold”. The Lord said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you, to sift you as wheat; but I have besought for thee”, Luke 22: 31. It does not say, ‘that thou will not fail’, but, “that thy faith fail not; and thou, when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren”. In 1 Peter he is restored and he is confirming his brethren. He is writing to persons of the dispersion; it says, “Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ, to the sojourners of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia …”, v1. These were persons who had lost their homes, lost their employment, lost everything and had nothing. Peter is writing to them and he is writing to them in this manner: “for a little while … put to grief by various trials, that the proving of your faith, much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be proved by fire”. We have gone through a little in our own locality of the fire, the deep sorrow of death, and you can see the divine result in persons, something that is “much more precious than of gold which perishes”. There is a certain refining going on and this is to bring out purity in the saints. These sojourners were going through this refining process. Peter is not merely saying that he felt sorry for them in their circumstances. He could not change the circumstances, but what he is saying is that “your faith … be found to praise and glory and honour in the revelation of Jesus Christ”. So whatever we might go through is all in view of what is substantially for the heart and pleasure of God Himself. It says, “though it be proved by fire, be found to praise”. What is being placed in our treasuries? In a day to come what has been placed in our treasuries is going to come out in glorious display, and I will come on to that in Revelation. It is interesting that the faith mentioned here is compared to gold: “Much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be proved by fire”. I think what is being brought about here is an increase in what is in our treasuries. The poor woman who cast in two mites had a wonderful treasury, Luke 21: 2. Not according to this world’s estimation, but what she had in her heart and soul was according to God a great treasury. That is what Peter is seeking to bring out in these persons. “Whom, having not seen, ye love”: are we all lovers of Jesus in this room? It says, “whom, having not seen, ye love; on whom though not now looking, but believing, ye exult with joy unspeakable and filled with the glory”. How blessedly wonderful that the proving of the faith of these persons was to result in, “receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls”. What a complete matter that is. That is the full salvation that we have in our souls, but here I think what we have is really the fruit of what that proving is, that there might be “joy unspeakable and filled with the glory”. How blessedly true this is. So Peter could speak as one who went through this in his own experience.
So the blessedness of the fruit of faith is brought out in Revelation 21 which was written by the apostle John. It is really the collective result of individual exercise. The assembly is the blessed vessel into which individual exercises are placed so that what is collective may be established for God. It is the vessel into which all these exercises are deposited with a view to the formation of this holy and heavenly city, Jerusalem. Where Paul takes the church to heaven as the firstborn ones the apostle John brings the church down here as the holy city. John brings what is heavenly down here for display. He is a man for the last days and writes like no other. Read John’s gospel, and try to read it again: it brings the Lord Jesus Christ in as the Centre of God’s operations, the great Operator in the divine system, which is where the Father’s glory pervades, the Spirit gives power, and the Lord Jesus is the great Operator. It says, “coming down out of the heaven”. The origin of this holy city is heavenly, and we are heavenly too. “He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren”, Heb 2: 11. We are of His own stock and kindred, and really of God. That is why He is not ashamed to call us brethren. The blessed fruit of faith is all being gathered up now and will be presented in the time referred to in Revelation 21, the millennial day, the time of display. “Having the glory of God”: that is the blessedness of the work of God in each one of us. “Her shining was like a most precious stone, as a crystal-like jasper stone”. What is being wrought now in the hearts and souls of the dear saints, and I might say all believers who go through things rightly with God in their own exercise, is what will shine in a coming day. I love to think of this shining: no opaqueness but everything transparent and all of God; everything in this scene is radiant with features which we see in Christ. This holy city can take her place in glory by the side of Christ as indeed she can now. In a coming day she comes down having the glory of God, substantially.
The assembly is therefore brought so near to God, yet a creature vessel, and in that vessel divine Persons find their pleasure. Sometimes we can lose sight of the heavenly character of the assembly and of what there is going to be in a day of display, but this shining is like a most precious stone, like a crystal-like jasper stone. God desires, and will have, everything transparent. It goes on to speak of “a river of water of life, bright as crystal, going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb”, chap 22: 1. That gives the idea of purity and transparency. The day of display will be the fruit of faith, the fruit of faithfulness. We sang in our hymn, “faithful amidst unfaithfulness”, (Hymn 230). Christ is the Faithful One. How faithful are we in our own testimony and in our own localities? The time calls for faithfulness and that is why I read in Jeremiah.
We are reading Jeremiah at home just now and although it is quite a difficult book to understand there have been several verses which have caused us to pause and consider, Jeremiah 17: 7 being one of them. We read a scripture this morning in the house in which we are staying and I might just say in passing that it is a good habit for young households (and indeed all of us) to read our Bibles daily and to consider what is being read. If you have a young family just try to find a little time; I know how difficult that is in this area with early morning starts and the like but it is good just to take time together to read a little scripture, whatever the time of day. So we came across this verse recently in our daily reading, “Blessed is the man that confideth in Jehovah, and whose confidence Jehovah is”. I would like to ask everyone in this room, Do we confide in Jehovah?’. Is He the one that we find our confidence in? I would also like to relate this reference, “Blessed is the man”, to Christ. (The footnote to ‘man’ refers to the footnote in Job 3: 3: “There is a man child conceived” - ‘it refers to strength’.) Jeremiah is making a veiled reference to Christ Himself. We had a word recently in Edinburgh from Psalm 37 and a man who confides in Jehovah knows what restfulness means as waiting patiently on Him. One of the greatest tests for us is patience, and waiting on the Lord for a word or for direction in what scripture to read. When brothers are asked to preach it is a question of waiting on and confiding in the Lord for a suitable word. It says in Psalm 37, “Rest in Jehovah, and wait patiently for him”, v 7. It also says, “Fret not thyself”, v 1. There are many things that we might fret over in our daily lives and in our assembly life but as we realise that the Lord is in control we can be restful. It is His assembly and He will have the last word.
“Blessed is the man that confideth in Jehovah, and whose confidence Jehovah is”: it speaks of a Man of faith. Christ set faith on at the beginning of this dispensation and He will complete it when He comes to take His assembly to be with Himself. That is why we speak of the Lord as being the Leader and Completer of faith. For each one of us, let us be those who confide in Jehovah. That is Jesus Himself, and “whose confidence Jehovah is”. We have confidence in Him and as believers we cannot really operate outside of that blessed Man. May we know the blessedness of these things for ourselves. The day calls for reality and continuance; God tests our faith so that our treasuries might be enriched, and will contribute to the outshining in a day to come of that crystal-like jasper stone.
May it be so for His Name’s sake.
Witney
23rd February 2019