If I bring to you a number of fragments of the Word of God, it is not because I am going to say a lot to you. Indeed, the message will lie deeper than anything that can be said.
I shall only do little more than make some statements, and leave the Lord to speak out of those statements to your own heart.
The passages—and first of all, the one that has been running right through this whole conference—are from Isaiah 53:10-11:
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He hath put Him to grief:
When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed,
He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see of the travail of His soul,
And shall be satisfied.
Isaiah 66:7-8:
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day?
Shall a nation be brought forth at once?
For as soon as Zion travailed,
She brought forth her children.
Zechariah 1:14:
So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts:
I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
Zechariah 8:1-2:
And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,
Thus saith the Lord of hosts:
I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy,
And I am jealous for her with great wrath.
Hebrews 12:22:
But ye are come unto Mount Zion,
And unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
Mark 14:34-36:
My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
And He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass away from Him.
And He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; remove this cup from Me: howbeit not what I will, but what Thou wilt.
Ephesians 5:25:
Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it.
All these passages, in principle and in ultimate meaning, relate to one thing. In them and by them, certain things altogether inexpressible, incomprehensible, are brought to our hearts.
In the first place, did you notice? They all have to do with the travailing love of God in Christ, the passion of God in Christ, and therein the mystery of the infinite value of the object of His travail.
There just must be something that justifies this. There must be something of preciousness to Him. “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” “I am jealous for Zion with a great jealousy.” Jealousy, wrath—telling of the heart of God toward this thing.
Something of infinite preciousness and value must be in view. Of course, this is all centred in the Cross, as we know. The Cross is linked with that which is of eternal, supreme importance to the heart of God. It is linked with His inheritance in a thing.
It is not a thing. It is not some inanimate interest. It is quite clearly a heart relationship, something of the nature of that which tears your very being to pieces—not an objective interest in something.
Here it is a very part of Himself. That is borne out, as you will see, by these Scriptures: a part of Himself. Not to have that would mean that a very part of His intent would be missing.
It is a heart matter. It is something that touches all the sensibilities of God, like that of a living thing.
Paul speaks of it as corresponding to the wife. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it.” The law that governs that relationship is, “They shall be one flesh.” Divide them, and you tear one thing apart, in pieces and death.
The relationship here, of course, is of such a character as transcends any human analogy. The eternal is here.
Well, my statement is that all this—about His travail, His love, His suffering—implies, at least, if it does not declare with a very loud voice, that the object of it all is of infinite value to Him.
What is it? “He shall see of the travail of His soul.” It is this of which we have been speaking all through this conference: this represented by that great company, a people for Himself.
It is beyond us—altogether beyond us. We might hear it and have some kind of an objective acceptance of it, and say, “Yes.” But when it comes to that—you and me—the infinite preciousness that you and I are to Him, I say, it is beyond us.
I do not know about you, but I know very well about myself over this. The one thing that is the greatest difficulty to believing it comes to myself.
There are two things, in the main, that constitute difficulty in believing a thing like this. First, just what we are in ourselves. We know ourselves—our sinfulness, our worthlessness.
We really, let us not put on language, not be pretending—really true—when we know our utter worthlessness, we do come to feel it abjectly. Worthless we are.
You tell me that all this is true, and that it relates to and applies to me? You are presenting me with a problem. You are calling upon me to believe something not easy to believe.
But you see, I can work that out in the Bible and show how, after all, it is not impossible.
I wonder what is the most comforting fragment of Scripture to you in the Bible. Can I tell you what it is to me?
1 Timothy 1:15:
Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Brought right down to the person. Well, there are lots of comforting things in the Bible, but you cannot get deeper than that. You cannot get behind that. There it is: all this infinite passion and travail for such as we.
The Bible says it. The Bible brings it down, focuses it down. I told you I could define, explain, and make statements, but there it is. And that is one reason why we find such difficulty in believing and accepting.
The other difficulty probably is the mystery of God’s ways with us. So often, in the mystery of His ways, we are sorely tempted to wonder whether anything like this can be true.
It may be true of some people, but His ways with us do not seem to bear it out at all. A love like this? Unto death? An estimate of the soul to this degree? Really, really, it is not borne out by strange, mysterious dealings of government.
There is darkness, perplexity, problems, disappointment, and all of it. Oh, Satan is always at our elbows to say, “That is not His love for you.”
And I am not here to argue that philosophically, or even from the Scriptures. I am here to make the statement: the Bible says it.
Here it is. What is all this? Here it is—all this about the travail of His soul. What is it called? “His seed.” Well, His seed: those who have believed on Him unto eternal life.
Oh, that we could believe it. I could believe it at all times: that in all the mystery of His ways, the strangeness of His dealings, all the bewilderment and perplexity as to what it is He is after, I can believe that behind it is such another thing.
There it is. The second thing: the infinite suffering behind our belonging to the Lord, the infinite suffering behind our whole salvation. And that whole travail is yours. Oh, my, what a thing!
Peter draws this contrast:
Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers;
But with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.
And you know that the word “blood” is synonymous with soul. When He poured out His blood, He poured out His soul. The soul is in the blood, in biblical symbolism.
Yes, He thought it of infinitely transcendent value above treasures of gold and silver. He has given that for our redemption. That travail lies behind your belonging to the Lord and my belonging to the Lord.
What am I trying to do? To redeem this whole thing from cheapness. Nay, salvation too cheap and too easy—pulled down to such a low level. Here is the infinite cost, the suffering which lies behind the salvation of one soul.
Further, the infinite love which Christ has for His own. The apostle seems to make some tremendous statements. Sometimes they almost sound like exaggeration.
“Who shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus?” And then he catalogues every conceivable thing that might be thought capable of doing that, and he says, “No.” Putting them all together, he says, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors.”
None of these things. In them all and over them all, the love will triumph.
The love that He has for those who are His own—when He has got them. Is it not? No, it is not only if He has them, but when He has got them.
Sometimes we are prepared to believe or think that the gospel of our salvation is based upon all of this, to get us. And then, as we go on a bit, we wonder: Does He still love us now as He did at the beginning? Is He still as concerned to have us now as He was then?
Am I talking something that I ought not to be saying? You know what I mean. Many of us are just like this.
No, there is a wonderful picture of this in the Old Testament, in that temple of Solomon—the most magnificent structure perhaps ever built. The predominant feature of that temple was gold: overlaid with gold, pure gold. Everywhere gold—gold, gold, everywhere.
Something that the Lord has got now, which in symbol and type was that upon which He had set His heart. Only in symbol and type, nevertheless, it is true in principle. The Lord has got what He has been working toward all the time with His people: a place in which He can dwell.
Everywhere it is simply covered and smothered with gold. And gold is always the figure of divine love. He has got it. It is to Him more precious than gold.
It is the preciousness of what He has got, when He has got it to Himself, and it is wrought everywhere lavishly—all the lavishness of that gold in the days of Solomon. All love: God’s love for what He has got when He has got it.
No, His love does not change after He has come into possession. The same. I make the statement; I will explain it. There it is.
So that is the next thing: the infinite importance attached to the church.
If Zion is only another word, a title, for His bride or His temple, they are all in reality the same thing. Then they all come into this: the infinite importance attached to the church.
A lot of people, I am afraid, think that church is teaching—what they call “church teaching.” You know, there is nothing that makes me shudder, my skin go more goosey, than when I hear people use that phrase: “church teaching.”
I have even heard people speak about the church teaching of Paul. Church teaching! The Lord save us. The church is not a truth. It is not a teaching. It is not an idea.
The church is Gethsemane. The church is Golgotha. The church is the cry of a broken heart from the Cross. The church is the pouring out of His soul unto death.
The church is the great heart of God in this universe. Now, I am not exaggerating. That is not mere words. I take you to the prophets, and I will show you there that all that is true.
Oh, go back to some of those prophets. Hear Hosea, if they speak: “O Ephraim, how shall I give thee up?” They wept and cried over the Lord’s people as an unfaithful bride, a wayward daughter, a prodigal son, a family repudiating the best of fathers.
These are similes on the lips of the prophets about the Lord’s people, and God is broken-hearted—just broken-hearted.
Do not talk about church truth, church teaching. Oh, no. “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it.” “I am jealous for Zion with a great jealousy, and with great wrath.”
Dear friends, we are not here to give church teaching and church truth. We have seen something. We have seen something.
Not just a subject of interest to which we return again and again. No, no. This is something of a burden on our hearts and a passion in our lives, for which we suffer not a little.
It is not for the truth. If it were just the teaching, well, we would not go through with it. It is the church: the infinite importance to Him of His church.
Again, I say I cannot explain it, but there is the truth. Oh, that you and I should see through the truth and the doctrine and the teaching—just see the reality.
See that this is the thing in that ruptured heart, in that agonised cry, in that sweating, as it were, great drops of blood. It is for the church. That is not a thing, not a theory, not a line of truth. That is something tremendous.
Then what does it lead to? Finally, the infinite motive for our response to the Lord.
First response, yes. If there is someone who has not made the response to begin with, there is an infinite motive why you should. No less motive than all this.
The infinite motive for our response to the Lord on all matters. Why should I set controversy with the Lord on any matter? Why should I set aside my own personal interests? Why should I disconnect? Why, why, why not?
In the light of this, is there anything, really, really, that you can set against this? There is an infinite motive for going on with the Lord, responding, being obedient, giving Him everything.
And it is the infinite motive of service. Why should we give Him a life in service? Just for this reason.
In those early days of the Moravian brethren—and everything so pure in those roots—the Lord used them tremendously over this one thing. Oh, what a wonderful thing happened.
John R. Mott said at the Edinburgh Conference in 1910 that if the Christian church had proceeded on the lines of the Moravian brethren, the whole world would have been evangelised long ago.
There is a wonderful story—a wonderful story—of sacrifice, of suffering, of giving themselves. One missionary for every ten members of their fellowship. Wonderful.
What was the secret? They had a motto. They had a motto. It was written on everything. They took it wherever they went, and their motto was this:
To win for the Lamb that was slain the reward of His sufferings.
That is the infinite motive: the reward of His sufferings for the Lamb that was slain.
I made my statement, and so I leave it. It is altogether beyond us, but there it is. This is what is here, typically, is it not, in all these other things?
If this is true, He is not going to give us up very easily. He is not going to abandon His purpose. He is going to return to it again and again. “I have returned unto Zion.” He will come back again, again, again, for His heart is set upon it.
But oh, may we have something of this thing: the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.