The Scripture instructs us in one beautiful character of strength in obedience, in the 103rd Psalm, "Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word."
It is this "hearkening and doing," refusing to admit second thoughts to our counsels.
EPHESIANS 5: 18-21.
"Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Ver. 20.)
This is the portion on which I purpose to dwell this evening. A man must be conscious of having a good portion who can rejoice always in all things, who can give thanks always for all things. The natural man cannot receive such a word as this. The joy which marks such a spirit is not joy in the flesh; so far. from its being dependent upon prosperity, it is found in highest exercise under afflictive circumstances. God seems to say in this passage, My child, you will never be in any circumstances, or in any position, in which you have not cause to give thanks. Giving thanks is the response in us for what we see in God: it is the happy expression of our sense of what we have found in God! This giving of thanks, -- it is not one or two links of a chain, as it were, and then broken off; no, it is continuous and unbroken, and enduring.
In the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Job, we shall find much illustration of this passage in the way of contrast. In Matthew 11 we witness in Jesus His triumph in giving thanks in the midst of the most humbling circumstances. Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, had just rejected His claim; and John, too, sends a message, which tells Jesus that John's faith had failed him; yet here, in this very crisis, we find Jesus saying, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth," etc. Jesus could always drop back into the bosom of God His Father. Just observe the blessed subjection of His soul to God -- the hanging in dependence upon God; He says, "Yes, all may fail here, but not thou! Thou canst not fail!" Again, His meekness and lowliness of heart! The blessed Lord was walking in heaven, and in God the Father, whilst on earth. The blessed yieldedness of His soul in that ready dropping back into His Father's counsels, sinking upon His Father's bosom: then He would take the place of the witness for the Father. How blessed the fruit of that subjection was to the soul of Jesus! He became revealer of the Father. How can the Son of David, He who was heir to the throne of David, 'give thanks' under such humiliating rejection? But He does: He exclaims, "I thank thee, O heavenly Father!" and instantly after He takes the place of revealer of His Father to all them that are weary and heavy laden. We see one here who could give thanks in all things; and the secret was, He walked in heaven and in God. There was the secret spring of His power; and will He keep the secret to Himself! No; He says, "That spring I have opened to you. I would have you enter into my secret of giving thanks for all things, at all times. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Job's failure stands as a sort of dark background to the perfections which shine forth in the Son of God. (Job 1: 13-21.) Here we see, though Job bows, he does not thank God for his trials. In chap. 3 the secret comes out; Job, in prosperity, was rejoicing, not in the Lord, but in his prosperity; he was living in circumstances; he was constantly saying to himself, Ah! there are those precious things -- I shall lose them, perhaps, some day -- sons and daughters, my camels, etc. I always used to be trembling at the thought of the privation, and "the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me; I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet, yet trouble came upon me." God had seen Job rejoicing in his circumstances. Job had not attained that elevation of soul of one walking above circumstances: there is the uncovering of the real root of Job's failure; he was occupied with circumstances, and not with the God of circumstances; and he was found, when the circumstances were touched, to be cursing.
If circumstances overmaster us, it is because we are not living as children, "in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ" Job's example is instructive, as well as a warning to us. What more common than to hear a child of God say, "I do not see how I could give thanks for that" (some unexpected trial, perhaps, which has cast him down): what is that but because you have not been walking with God, and in Him. Some may exclaim," Oh! we never complain; -- we are always willing to take what God sends, and thank Him for it." Is it truly so? can't you remember some scene, even within the last week or so, to which God could point and say, "Was that a giving of thanks?"
There is exceeding preciousness in the words which close this injunction as to giving thanks "unto God and the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." These are the pillars by which the truth in its power is brought down to the soul. Whatever the force of the tempest, let the storm rage as it may, God has spread as it were a canopy over you, and these words are the four pillars which support the canopy. It is the Father bringing in your title of sonship, your standing in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ; so that you are able to say, when some cross comes, "There is some blessing intended in this; there is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ there; don't touch it. Today, perhaps, the voice may have reached you, Follow thou me, pointing to some strange place. Those bars, those ravenous lions, would you think of going there? says the flesh, looking at the circumstances as very terrific: in these, too, the word applies, "Giving thanks always in all things, unto God and the Father, in the name of the lord Jesus Christ." The whole of this, be it remembered, is addressed to those walking in service; never did a soul take God's estimate without finding blessing. Perhaps there is some rankling sore or boil -- something God sees in a proud heart -- some tumour that must have vent by discharge of the humours: if we won't learn the lesson within the veil, we must learn it without. If we don't judge ourselves in the secret of His presence, the evil will work out. David would never have had the severe chastisement that he was visited with, if the evil could have been subdued by gentler means. God will use the failure in our case, as He did in David's case, to cleanse us, "that we may be partakers of his holiness." He says to us in it all, "You see what sort of relationship and intercourse I have established between you and me. I am your God, and ye are my servants; I am your Father, ye are my sons; I am always meaning good in the thing I send, and you will find your blessing in connecting it with me, as your God and Father, and with the Lord Jesus Christ."
Dear brethren and sisters in the Lord, can we think of the Lord Jesus renouncing His own will, and we be bent upon following our will, when God has seen fit to cross us? No; in all these harassings of our will, let the thought be, "God has put me here as one who is to have no will at all. God has sent me this to mow down all the crops I had planted."
