PART I

APPEARANCE AND REALITY 

Matthew 21:28ff.

Here is the parable of the two sons. One refused to go and work in the vineyard when asked; the other readily complied with this request, but did not in fact bother actually TO GO!

Which, asked Jesus, better served his father, did his will ? Is a verbal compliance, ‘yes’, no better or worse than an action ? In the latter case, the field is ploughed, though the tongue was rough. Words are a great realm, and when power is given with them, their controls are spectacular in potential. When however  the heart is subverted, the will stifled, what is the use of undertaking, built like cards in a storm, that does not happen!

That is one of the things absolutely wonderful about life. You can find millions of milling commands, all synthetic in interaction or operation or correlation with the rest to the point that, in the totality, they act as in a computer controlled factory, and actually produce new babies, or in specific cases, new skin, or tissue where it is torn, to make invisible mending, of the past, seem tame. In the brain, injured tissue sometimes means that there is a prepared re-organisation program which allows certain cerebral functions to be re-assigned. Such may happen after battles where head injury is sustained.

It DOES IT. It does not present you a prize set of volumes, but has the data, the information, the commands, the synthetic totality ON SITE, and there it WORKS OUT THE RESULT with the fidelity so great that when after thousands of years, something goes wrong somewhere, we note it with concern. Generations flow like the wind on a wet week-end; but they go on for millenia, with man comparatively witless, simply now learning more about how it is done. Even then, he does not do it. He is made by what he cannot do, in a wisdom and an enterprise which he cannot come near to duplicating.

So is each soul saved in the wisdom of God: it is given a new nature, a new power and a new place in the family of the Lord. The spirit of God is in the heart of such a person (Romans 8:9), so that if it were not so, neither would that be a Christian; but if it is true that a person is a Christian, then ALREADY that is so. It is heritage by new birth (cf. I Corinthians 12:13).

This being so, let the will of God be sought, prized and performed, by each living Christian, in whom the works of programmatic power from God have made him BE, so that now the unprogrammatic but personal co-operation with God makes him BEHAVE, and far more than this, be kind and merciful, courageous and willing, waiting on God with relish, since He is our rejoicing of heart and delight of spirit! What a joy to HAVE to do what we want to do!

Let us then go and occupy ourselves until He comes (Luke 19:13ff.).  

PART II   PATIENT PERSEVERANCE   Luke 11:5-8 

Matthew Henry on I Peter 4:12, says this:

Commit your souls to God by solemn dedication, prayer, and patient perseverance in well-doing, Rom. 2:7. (4.) Good people, when they are in affliction, have great encouragement to commit their souls to God, because he is their Creator, and faithful in all his promises.

I Peter 4:12ff. says this:

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,
as though some strange thing happened to you;
but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings,
that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

"If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

"On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer,
or as a busybody in other people’s matters.

"Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed,
but let him glorify God in this matter.
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God;
and if it begins with us first,
what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

"Now 'If the righteous one is scarcely saved,

Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?' "

Conjoined to this, in the second epistle of Peter, we find this ( Peter 1:5ff.).

"But also for this very reason, giving all diligence,
add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance,
to perseverance godliness,
to godliness brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness love.

"For if these things are yours and abound,
you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he who lacks these things is shortsighted,
even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

"Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure,
for if you do these things you will never stumble;
for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

"For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things,
though you know and are established in the present truth.
Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you,
knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

"Moreover I will be careful to ensure
that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease."

Here in II Peter 1, Peter is removing any sense that fickle faith has a part in the salvation of souls. In I Peter 1, he had made it very clear that to saving faith there is a place in heaven reserved for you; but he is showing that that is to faith, not opinion or other types of enterprise in the presence of God that do not include such a reliance on Him who saved, that you gain the place of a child in reality, not merely in appearance. There is utter certainty where faith receives it; but where works try to worm their way in, then according to your folly, so do you stammer!

Perseverance is another aspect of faith, for what CANNOT let go, does not; and what is the result of a new creation in the heart of man is not able to sever (I John 3:9ff.), for the practice of sin is a disjunction and while it is readily forgiven, its folly is so rich in the sight of converted eyes, that the horror of it sticks like a dagger into complacency, while reproof is welcome, with remittance.

v        It is necessary by PATIENT PERSEVERANCE TO POSSESS THE PROMISES OF GOD. Hebrews 11 indicated that those who lived earlier
did not receive the final promise of the Lord;
and then the Lord did come, and now that He has, perseverance is essential.
We may have wayward minds, thoughts, desires, ethics, patience, impenitence,
and may need much GROOMING before ready for service.
Patience is like having an operation. In vain would you complain
that you do not want the preliminary scrub up, the anaesthetic or the knife.
That is all PART of it, that the tumour may be removed, or the cancer or the obstruction!
 

v        Without patience, one is like a runaway colt; without perseverance,
one resembles a runaway truck, unwilling to keep to the road;
but by patient perseverance in well doing,
dedicated to God, consecrated to His service,
one comes to possess the promises and thus to be enabled at need, to use them,
deploy them even, WITH AUTHORITY.
 

v        You do not SUGGEST to the mountain that for the good of its health
it might do better to have a short sea trip. You SEND IT (Mark 11:21ff.). 

I Peter 1 continues at verse 19:

"Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God
commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator."

This is faith, entrusting its life to the Lord without swerving, believing God is faithful, knows what He is doing and needs to be followed, not led.

Again, consider Hebrews 11:37ff.

^"They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins,
being destitute, afflicted, tormented - of whom the world was not worthy.

"They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith,
did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us,
that they should not be made perfect apart from us."

How vast, how wonderful therefore is that 'something better’(cf. Hebrews 7:22-29)!  How it needs to be relished, how one should regale the heart with its glory, that the Lord of glory became gory, the King of Peace engaged in war on sin, and taking its best blows, countered through a death which turned the battle forever for every man, woman and child who believes in and receives Him, in the laboratory of the resurrection of His body! 

PART III:  POWER AND AUTHORITY  - Luke 11:17ff.

As with antibiotics, endeavour to use the power of God with due care, and not wantonly. Remember what happened to an indigenous tribe in Western Australia who evidently used antibiotics indiscriminately. CA-MRS-SA, invasive even in the most unexpected places, came into their midst and now this version of the golden staph plague is more readily found. Multiplied thousands die in the USA every year from it. It has been named the most promising plague for sheer horror that we have, surpassing AIDS.

There is a way to use power, and it is not loosely. When however there is call for the use of power - say a tractor to get a car out of a bog, or an aircraft to lift soldiers out of an ambush being prepared, then its use is warranted. Thus when the power of God is called for (cf. John 14:12), there should be neither delay nor doubt. Action taken in accord with the promises should be definitive and clear (cf. II Peter 1, Mark 11:22-26). 

As noted above, you do not SUGGEST to the mountain that for the good of its health
it might do better to have a short sea trip. You SEND IT. A man who lacks reality in faith will naturally and necessarily lack authority in action. This should duly be taken in the name of the Lord, using HIS power, and not artifice or subterfuge, as is the way with many who seek to make merchandise out of their flocks (cf. II Peter 2:1ff)! What perseverance confirms, faith knows at the outset.

Now it is to be realised that FORGIVENESS by the forgiven sinner is not idly put next to the power of God in the text of Mark 11. An unforgiving heart cripples, and may do so literally. Desire for revenge puts a hole in virtue and it leaks. Thus let God put people right, while we act aright. Self-discipline (II Peter 1) involves keeping things, including ourselves, in place. Then we do not get in the way (cf. Matthew 16:22-23), and the power of God may flow freely. Therefore notice the authority implicit in Mark 11:22ff., and remember this: It is a shame for the righteous to fall down before the wicked! (Proverbs 25:26). Act in this name, therefore, that of Jesus the Christ, with confidence.