Message 63
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 19:10-24; 20:19-21; 32:1; Rom. 5:13, 20; 7:7-8, 13; Gal. 3:19; Rom. 3:19; Gal. 3:23-24
In my experience with the Lord I have learned a particular secret, and I would like to share it with you. The secret is whenever you find that the Bible tells you to do a certain thing, do not say, “Lord, I’ll do this. I just ask You to help me do it.” Instead, tell Him that you love Him, but that you are not able to fulfill His requirements. For instance, a young person may say, “Lord, I love you. The Bible tells me to honor my parents. Lord, I must confess that I cannot honor them. But I do love You and Your Word. I want to stay with You according to Your Word. Lord, I just want to be here with You.” Then the Lord will assure that young person that although he cannot honor his parents, He Himself will do this in him. We should simply say amen to the Word of God. Then the Lord will do in us what we could never do ourselves. How marvelous!
This matter of telling the Lord that we love Him and His Word, but that we are not able to do what the Bible says surely is not a natural concept or a religious concept. However, it is according to God’s economy. Should the Lord require you to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the uttermost part of the earth, you should say, “Lord, I love You, and I love the Word. But I must tell You, Lord, that I am not able to preach the gospel to the person next door, much less to the uttermost part of the earth. But, Lord, I love You, and I want to stay with You.” If you say this to the Lord, you will have the conviction deep within that even though you cannot fulfill this requirement, the Lord will do it in you and through you. As long as you love the Lord and His Word and as long as you stay with Him, He will do in you what you cannot do yourself.
When I read the Bible many years ago, I said, “Amen! I’ll do whatever the Bible says.” Now when I read the Word, I say, “Lord, I love the Word and I love You. But, Lord, You know that I can’t do what the Bible says. Now I know that whatever You tell me to do, You will do for me. I know what is on Your heart. You have no intention for me to do anything. Although You tell me to do certain things, Your desire is that You do these things in me. You simply want me to love You and to stay with You. The more I stay with You, love You, and tell You that I cannot do anything, the happier You are.”
The Lord likes us to tell Him again and again that we cannot do what the Word tells us to do. He wants to keep us with Him. The more we stay with Him and tell Him that we are not able to do anything, the happier He is. God wants us to stay with Him so that we, like Moses on the mountaintop, may be infused with Himself. This is what God desires today.
God has not only given us the Ten Commandments and certain ordinances and precepts; He has given us the entire Bible. Shall we presume to think that we can do all the Bible says? Certainly not. Instead, we should stay with the Lord and tell Him again and again that we love Him and His Word, but that we cannot do what the Bible says. The Lord is eager to do for us and in us what we cannot do ourselves.
We have pointed out that the decree of the law differs according to the different categories of people. When the law was given, Moses was on the mountaintop experiencing the divine infusion, some were on the mountain afar off worshipping, and the majority were at the bottom of the mountain trembling. Neither those who worshipped afar off nor those at the foot of the mountain could fulfill God’s purpose. God’s purpose could be fulfilled only through Moses, the one who experienced His infusion. Only he could fulfill the desire of God’s heart.
Because Moses was infused with God, he became a man of God, even a God-man. Just as iron can be infused with fire and mingled with it, so Moses was infused with God and mingled with Him. We are like the iron, and God is like the fire. Just as iron can be burned by fire until it glows, God wants us to be burned by Him, infused and mingled with Him, until we shine with Him. This is God’s intention.
No matter where we may be reading in the Bible, we need to say, “Lord, I love You, and I want to stay with You. Lord, I receive whatever You say. But, Lord, I cannot do it. However, now I know Your strategy. You will do everything for me and in me.” If a brother tries in himself to love his wife, he will not be able to do so. But if, instead of trying to love her, he stays with the Lord and is infused with Him, he will love his wife automatically. She may be greatly surprised at the love her husband has for her.
I can testify that many times I have made up my mind to do certain things, only to fail miserably. But at other times I simply opened to the Lord to be infused with Him. Then I found that the Lord would do in me what I was not able to do myself. This is what God is seeking today.
At this point we need to say a word concerning the function of the law on the negative side. The law exposes our sinfulness (Rom. 5:13, 20; 4:15; 7:7-8, 11, 13; Gal. 3:19). The Bible also has the function of exposing our condition. Apart from the law, we cannot know sin. But when the law comes, sin is exposed.
If we are right with God, the law will not only expose us, but will also subdue us (Rom. 3:19). When we are exposed and subdued, we shall become humble before God. We shall say to Him, “Lord, I am sinful and unclean. How I thank You, Lord, for Your redemption. I love You, and I thank You for the blood which cleanses me and for Your Spirit which purifies me.” By nature we all are proud. If we did not have the law, we would never realize how sinful we are, and we would never be subdued. We are proud before others and even before God. But the law, and the Bible as well, shuts our mouths. We have no way to justify ourselves or to vindicate ourselves.
According to Galatians 3:23-24, the law also functions to guard God’s chosen people and to bring them to Christ. Once we have been brought to Christ, we shall receive the blessing. After we have been enlightened, subdued, guarded, and brought to Christ, we may receive Christ as our life. Then if we stay with Christ, we may enjoy Him as our person.
Christ is the embodiment of God. When we have Him, we have God. When we stay with Him, we stay with God. When we are one with Him, we are one with God. If we remain one with Christ, spontaneously we shall live Christ. We shall be able to say with Paul, “To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). This living of Christ is equal to shining forth God as a result of being infused with Him. When the element of God is transfused into us, our face shines with God, and when we stay with Christ, we spontaneously live Him.
It is not God’s intention in giving commandments that we should do things for Him. The concept of doing things for God is a fallen human concept. It is also a religious concept. After God created man, God did not charge him to do many things for Him. Instead, He gave man a commandment related to his eating. God placed the man created by Him in front of the tree of life and warned him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God’s intention was that man would eat of the tree of life and thereby receive God into him.
The Bible reveals that God created man as a vessel to contain Him. God did not ask this vessel to do anything for Him. Who would make a vessel and then expect it to do things? A vessel is a container. The Bible says that we are vessels of honor unto glory (Rom. 9:21, 23). Since God alone is honor and glory, to be a vessel of honor and glory is actually to contain God. Man was created by God to take God in and to contain Him. God did not create man with the intention of having man do things for Him.
To contain God is to express Him. If a glass jar is filled with red liquid, it will express the redness of that liquid. A clear glass container will always be the expression of its contents. This is a basic and crucial principle in the Scriptures. If as vessels we contain God, we shall automatically express Him.
After the fall of man, God came again and again to do things for man. When God appeared to Adam after the fall, it was not for the purpose of telling him what to do. Instead, according to Genesis 3:15 the Lord prophesied and said to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” The Lord promised that one called the seed of woman would come to bruise the serpent’s head. After speaking further to the man and the woman, the Lord God made “coats of skins, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). Because man had fallen, he needed a covering. The coats of skins with which God covered Adam and Eve point to Christ as the real covering. This covering was a sign that one day God would put fallen man into Christ. According to the New Testament, when we are baptized into the name of Jesus Christ, we are placed into the very Person of Christ (Gal. 3:27). The point here is that in the book of Genesis God did not appear for the purpose of telling man what to do. Instead, God came again and again to make promises, promises which indicate that God’s intention was to do everything for man. On our part we should simply turn to Him, seek Him, love Him, be one with Him, and stand with Him in His interest. Then He will do everything for us. This was the situation with Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. These men received God’s promise and they experienced Him coming to do things for them. God’s intention is to do everything for His people.
In the first nineteen chapters of Exodus, we see God coming to fulfill the promises He made in Genesis. We have pointed out that in 19:4-6 God spoke a sweet word of grace to the people, telling them that He had borne them on eagles’ wings and had brought them to Himself, that they would be His personal possession, and that He would make them a kingdom of priests. However, the children of Israel did not know the desire of God’s heart and declared that they would do whatever God required. This made it necessary for God to give certain commandments to them.
Many Christians have the concept that the Old Testament is a book of commandments, but the New Testament is not a book of commandments. Actually there are strong commandments in the New Testament as well as in the Old Testament. Consider how many commandments are found in chapters five, six, and seven of the Gospel of Matthew. The commandments given by the Lord in His message on the mountain are both deeper and higher than those found in the Old Testament. These commandments are so strict that no human being can possibly fulfill them. In the Epistles more commandments are given. If we read the New Testament carefully, we shall see that the commandments given through Moses are repeated in the Epistles. This is true, at least in principle, even of the commandment about keeping the Sabbath day. The book of Hebrews speaks of the coming Sabbath rest. Thus, the commandment about keeping the Sabbath is repeated not in the old way, but in a new, deeper way.
From the time of Exodus 19 onward, the Bible became a book full of commandments. Again and again, God comes to command and to make requirements. What is God’s purpose in doing this? His purpose is that we take Him into us. God has called us with the intention of infusing Himself into us. However, fallen man does not have this concept. The natural concept of fallen man is that of doing things for God. Since this is man’s concept, it is necessary for God to show us how high His requirements are. His standard reaches to heaven. There is utterly no way for us to fulfill it. When we consider God’s standard and then look at ourselves, we shall be subdued and say, “Lord, I cannot do it.” When we say this, the Lord will answer, “I realize that You cannot do it. Let Me come in to fulfill My requirements for you and in you. I am willing to do everything for you, but you must allow Me to come in. If you close the door to Me, there is no way for Me to do anything in you to fulfill My commandments. In order for Me to do these things for you, I must be in you.” Eventually, we are constrained to open ourselves to the Lord and to receive Him.
As an example of the Lord’s requirements, consider His word in Matthew 5:48: “You, therefore, shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Are you able to fulfill this word? We can only say, “Lord, I am fallen and sinful. How could I ever be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect? This is absolutely impossible for me. I just cannot do it. But, Lord, I love You, and I love Your Word.” If this is our attitude toward the Lord, the Lord will have a way to come into us and to fulfill this requirement for us and in us. Our responsibility is to love Him, receive Him, stay with Him, and spend time with Him so that He can infuse Himself into us. Do not worry about fulfilling God’s requirement. Simply open and receive Him.
Because they are blinded with pride, many Christians today do not see God’s intention. Instead, they have a religion of work and self-effort. In fact, all religions instruct people concerning how to do things, how to work, how to behave, and how to improve themselves. The emphasis in the Bible, however, is that we need God to come into us and do everything in us and for us. If we read the Epistles in this light, we shall have a much better understanding of them. For instance, in Philippians 2:12 and 13 Paul says, “So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only as in my presence, but now much rather in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.” In verse 12 Paul charges us to work out our own salvation. The standard of this salvation is Christ, the One who emptied Himself, humbled Himself, was obedient unto death, and who has been exalted to the third heaven. Are you able to work out such a salvation? We must admit that it is impossible for any of us to do this. We may receive God’s salvation, but we are not able to work out our own salvation. This is the reason Paul says that God operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure. In ourselves we are not able to work out our own salvation. But God is operating in us. We need to open to Him, cooperate with Him, and work with Him. On the one hand, in the Epistles there are many commandments. On the other hand, God’s desire is to come into us and fulfill all the requirements He makes upon us.
In a very real sense, Paul was a greater lawgiver than Moses. The commandments given by Moses are not as deep and demanding as those given by Paul. For example, did Moses require a husband to love his wife, or a wife to submit to her husband? Moses gave no such commandments, but Paul issued them. A Pharisee could mistreat his wife and still boast that he had kept the commandments given through Moses, for Moses did not explicitly command a husband to love his wife. Likewise, a woman could insist that she kept the law in the Old Testament even if she refused to submit to her own husband. This indicates that Paul’s commandments are more difficult to keep than those given through Moses. When we read all these commandments in the New Testament, we need to open to the Lord, receive Him into us, and allow Him to do everything in us and for us. Let us learn to listen to the Lord’s word and then say, “Lord, I love You, but I simply cannot fulfill this word. I would like to do it, but I can’t.” Then the Lord will say, “I only ask that you open to Me so that I can come into you and do this for you.” The truth of God coming into us to do everything for us and in us is the central concept in the Bible concerning the giving of commandments.
I am very grateful to the Lord for the picture of the giving of the law in the book of Exodus. In this picture we see one, Moses, called by God to receive His law. However, God did not first give Moses the law. Rather, He first spent time to infuse Moses with Himself. Day after day for a period of forty days, Moses was infused with God. Before God gave the law to Moses, God gave Himself to him. This clearly portrays God’s intention. God does not want us to be like the children of Israel trembling in darkness at the bottom of the mountain. Although they were religious, they did not know God or have a heart for Him. Eventually they asked Aaron to make idols of gold for them to worship. God’s intention is that we be on the mountaintop experiencing His infusion. The more we are infused with Him, the more He will have a way to do everything in us and for us to fulfill the commandments He gives to us.
