FAITHFUL AMIDST UNFAITHFULNESS
G Bruce Grant
2 Timothy 2: 1-4
2 Samuel 11: 10-11
2 Samuel 19: 24
Numbers 3: 25-26
In our hymn we sang of One, the Lord Jesus, who was ‘faithful amidst unfaithfulness’, Hymn 230. That was always true of the Lord Jesus; He as a Man here had so much against Him, and yet He was faithful in bringing out the truth as to His God the Father. It says in Psalm 40, “I have not hidden thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation”, v 10. It says, “I have published righteousness in the great congregation: behold, I have not withheld my lips, Jehovah, thou knowest”, v 9. He is faithful at the present time; He is a merciful and faithful High Priest in things relating to God. How thankful we are for His service in that way. How much Paul suffered and yet “the Lord stood by him”, Acts 23: 11. He was not faultless, but the Lord stood by him. He said, "Be of good courage; for as thou hast testified the things concerning me at Jerusalem, so thou must bear witness at Rome also”. The Lord was faithful; He supported him with priestly support. How much suffering Paul went through, but he knew the service of the merciful and faithful High Priest. The Holy Spirit is also faithful; we see that in His never leaving us; He indwells the believer but He never leaves, always available when you turn to Him. The Holy Spirit is serving faithfully throughout the whole dispensation. God is faithful: the apostle tells us that a number of times. We know that in the simple matter of having what we need as God’s creatures: He provides for us. He is faithful to His purposes, His promises; we can trust what God says. In regard to His purposes, He will soon bring them in in finality. We enjoy something of these things already but the fulness of them will soon be brought in. So divine Persons are faithful. It is a feature of the manhood of Christ.
Then the matter comes down to ourselves. We are at the end of the dispensation, and Timothy was the assurance, you might say, that the testimony would continue. He was Paul’s true child and Paul was nearing the end of his course; and he was concerned that what he had taught, what the Lord had given to him, would be continued. So he says to Timothy, “be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus”. That grace is there, and I think we prove that grace by staying close to the Lord Jesus, abiding in Him. How gracious He is! We have to go to Him, be near Him to prove it, His support and strength. He “has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion”, 2 Tim 1: 7. Paul says, “the things thou hast heard of me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also”. And then it goes on, “Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Faithfulness - as we see in the Lord Jesus - involved suffering for Him, and so it involves suffering for us. It says, “take thy share in suffering”; it does not say take thy share in fighting but, “take thy share in suffering”. How the Lord Jesus suffered to uphold all that God was. He suffered unto death, and He suffered like no other one in an uncomplaining, unresisting, meek spirit. He was faithful to His God and Father, and whatever suffering was needed He was prepared for it. It is the Lord who determines how much we suffer; He knows what we are able to bear.
I thought of Urijah as a good soldier. It was Urijah’s simple, uncomplicated faithfulness that confounded David: nothing heroic. He just would not be turned aside from what he knew was right, and David could not understand it. The enemy was defeated by simple faithfulness on Urijah’s part. It is a terrible story - I do not want to go into it. Think of the callousness of David, writing a letter to Joab: it says in verse 14, “it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by Urijah”; and Urijah carried that letter, and it involved his own death. But Urijah had God’s things before him: the ark, Israel and Judah. David relinquished his responsibilities, but Urijah did not: he was morally greater than David at this point. The safe and right way is always “pursue righteousness”, 2 Tim 2: 22. It is the way of being blessed and prospered. Later in Samuel we get the lists of thirty seven mighty men, and Urijah is the last one, 2 Sam 23: 39. The Spirit of God could not leave out Urijah; Urijah would not have known he was on that list but he was there. And why is he the last one? So our minds focus on him, and see what he stood for in simple faithfulness. He was subject. Joab told him to go and he stood in the place where all the valiant men were, and he was killed, but he was subject and he was serving loyally; and he gave his life for it but God honoured him. He will be honoured in a coming day, although he was just an ordinary soldier.
There is only one Commander, one Captain: we are all on the same level, ordinary soldiers, all under Christ. He is in control; He is in command; He knows what He is doing. It falls to all of us to confess the Lord Jesus: that is a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It is a simple thing; no one else needs to know about it, but you are being faithful to the Lord. You are owning He has got a right over you. What power comes into the soul when you do that. It means much to the Lord Jesus. There were these other mighty men that were listed - all before Urijah. But none of them is in the list of Christ’s genealogy in Matthew 1, only Urijah: it says, “David begat Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Urias”, v 6. Bathsheba’s name is not even mentioned, but Urijah is mentioned by name. Her distinction was that she had such a husband, one who was faithful. It shows how God, the Lord, honours and appreciates this feature of faithfulness.
I read in chapter 19 regarding Mephibosheth. He was one that was loyal and faithful to David, in the time of his reproach. What made Mephibosheth so faithful and true and loyal to David? I think in the first place it was grace. Now we have all been reached through grace, the grace of Christ, the grace of God that has come towards us in Christ. That is what made Mephibosheth faithful. He was brought from Lodebar; he was of the house of Saul and he was brought in amongst the king’s sons to sit at the king’s table. What grace that is! He enjoyed the best at the king’s table; that made him faithful to David. He enjoyed that so much he had no other life: that was his life. It all depended on David’s goodness to him: that made him faithful. Think of the whole system that was around David at that time: Mephibosheth appreciated it. We should appreciate initial grace and the continual grace that comes towards us. The Lord Jesus has done for us what none other can do. He cares for us, His eye is upon us, His interest is in us: constant grace, support. Mephibosheth said he was “a dead dog” (2 Sam 9: 8); he had no claim whatever but was brought into the greatest of circumstances; that was unmerited favour. What favour we have been brought into, “taken … into favour in the Beloved”, Eph 1: 6! God’s greatest thoughts, His sovereign goodness and grace, made Mephibosheth faithful so he enjoyed that life. He was waiting for David to come back, and he was faithful in David’s absence.
I thought a number of times recently in the service of God, that it is fresh, living and enjoyable. David set on the service of God in song which is so uplifting: it is for the pleasure of divine Persons, and we are there as sons enjoying it, Christ’s brethren. I have said to myself a number of times, ‘I would never want this spoiled’. The enjoyment of these things is life. Now faithfulness is needed in view of maintaining that. Mephibosheth was faithful because of how he had been treated. David showed him the kindness of God in such a remarkable way, and we have all experienced that. Not one of us, as a believer in the Lord Jesus, could say otherwise; therefore we need to be true to Him, here for Him. We gather to remember the Lord in His absence; that is being true to Him, that is being loyal to Him: that is affirming our loyalty to the One who has been rejected here. We “announce the death of the Lord, until he come”, 1 Cor 11: 26.
Then I read in Numbers. These families, the Gershonites, the Kohathites and the Merarites each had a different charge. What we are corresponds to all the things these families had and one flows into another, but they are distinguished here in the scriptures for us. They were given these charges in relation to this whole tabernacle system that was going through the wilderness. It is called a charge and it is also called a service: it says, “cometh to labour in the work, to perform the service” (Num 4: 23); so there was an actual charge; they actually had to perform it and carry it out. The Gershonites had this charge, the coverings, the curtains, the hangings of the court. That was heavy work so they were given oxen and waggons to help them. Then there are the Merarites, who carried the boards and what holds the boards together; and then there are the Kohathites, who carried the most precious things, the inner side of things. I would like to point out that the Merarites were never put first: the Gershonites were put first, and sometimes the Kohathites, but the Merarites are never put first. In times of conflict, I think the Gershonites come first. It is true to say that if you put the Merarites first - what they carried refers to persons -, or if you do not put the Gershonites first - their service relates to what speaks of divine principles - you will lose the truth and the persons. It is instructive that you get the Gershonites put first time and time again. Divine principles (the expression is not in scripture; but principles are, that word “principle” is in scripture) relate to divine requirements. An example of a divine requirement is that if you are going to get the blessing of the gospel, come to God’s great thoughts for you, you have to come in by way of - or on the principle of - faith and repentance. There is no other way; that is a divine requirement. God commands repentance; and so there are things that cannot change.
In the chapter where we read in 2 Timothy, it is like the Gershonite service: “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”, chap 2: 19. You go on with what is right, pursue what is right: that is the way of blessing, that is the way of preserving all that is precious to the Lord. These are very simple words to say, but sometimes it is very testing to perform, actually to carry out these things with the needed grace, patience and wisdom.
Then you get the judges. Sometimes you learn by negatives and Jephthah was a judge: he is actually named in Hebrews 11. The negative there is, I think, that he was not formed and he was unspiritual; he spoke rashly with his mouth, but God used him. In taking up responsibility, in seeking to be faithful to the Lord’s matters and interests, these moral features of spirituality and priestliness are needed. One thing about him was that he knew the truth as to the matter; he knew the facts as to the matter. He sets it all out clearly in chapter 11, he knew he was on right ground and that gave him his power, but he lacked in other ways.
Samson too: the end of Samson’s life was his greatest victory. All the lords of the Philistines were killed when he brought down the pillars, but in very humiliating circumstances. His eyes were put out, he was bound by chains and he had already given up the secret of his power, his hair had been cut; but the hair of his head began to grow so there was life there. We might wonder why matters go on so long; it is humbling. Samson was there in humbling circumstances. One thing in it might be the Lord wants us to feel humbled and dependent on Him to come in. We need to be kept humble, we have much to keep us humble; and these extended exercises keep us humble, they draw us nearer to the Lord Jesus. Yet God gave Samson the power to bring down those Philistines at that time. So you might say he was a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Paul speaks of those who have been enlisted; it is not optional, we have been called to it and there is available in Christ what is needed to give us the strength and the grace to be faithful, “entrust to faithful men”; that is what is needed. The soldier does not entangle himself with the affairs of life: Urijah did not. What is righteous we have to proceed with and that is very important. We please Him who has enlisted us as soldiers; this is what is needed for the present time. You want to please the One who has enlisted you. Communion makes you faithful. Moses was in communion with God: he spoke mouth to mouth, and he was faithful in all God’s house. Nearness to a person - it is like a husband and wife, you know that person - so you are faithful, you appreciate that person; you would not want to do anything against them, that which is not pleasing to them.
Lydia was one who was faithful. The Lord gave Paul so much in the way of truth. The Lord says, “I will build my assembly” (Matt 16:18), but the Lord did not open up the truth of the assembly in His ministry on earth. His own could not have understood it or borne it, He says of many things that “ye cannot bear them now”, John 16: 12. He left it to Paul to bring out the truth as to the assembly. He gave him so much, and Lydia’s heart was opened - and that word “opened” means fully opened, fully opened “to attend to the things spoken by Paul”, Acts 16: 14. She was faithful. Are our hearts fully opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul? Ever since Paul’s ministry has come out it has been the test for believers but it needs protecting.
May we be encouraged on this line. It is open to every single believer and you can start when you are young, to be true to the Lord Jesus because of what He means to you. May the Lord bless the word.
Buckie
9th September 2017