October 8, 2013
11:15am. It seems as though another missions opportunity has been presented to me; the “World Race,” an eleven-month journey through eleven different countries in three continents to proclaim the Gospel of Christ and partake in the love and fellowship of believers has recently caught my attention. Resolved I am to go, yet I have not one penny saved toward such a trip, and I just began the week of fasting and seeking God for His good, acceptable, and perfect will in either sending me forth or keeping me back. In regards to the Great Commission, all too many Christians, though not reluctant to be part of so great a privilege, are yet hindered from performing therein by overmuch consideration to the specifics: “Where would God want me to live?” “How long should I stay?” “Who should I take to marry?” “Should I remain single on the mission field?” Here is what I see that our Lord tells us in the Great Commission passage in Matthew 28:19-20: 1) A command, ‘Go ye therefore’; 2) An assignment, ‘And teach’; 3) An audience, ‘All nations’; 4) A sacrament, ‘baptizing them’; 5) An authority, ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost’; 6) A distinct doctrine, ‘All things whatsoever I have commanded you’; and finally, 7) A most marvelous promise, ‘And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’
I must key in on the promise contained in this passage, that the Lord Jesus Christ promises to accompany me as I venture off into the Great Commission. I find this passage relating directly to Paul’s words in 1Corinthians 16:9, For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. Beloved, we cannot simply take the words before the comma and leave those which proceed it; if there is a door and effectual opened unto us, we must expect many adversaries to be there behind it, as Bunyan saw in the dream as Christian was on top of the hill after meeting Mistrust and Timorous:
“The Lions were chained, but he saw not the chains.”
And that should be our confidence that though there are many adversaries wherever we go to live for and serve the Lord, they hence cannot pass the decrees and bounds that have been set for their habitation, and they themselves are chained by the sovereign hand and purposes of God! And as I, with much fear and trembling, approach before the door to enter in, I hear a voice of assurance that settles my fainting heart: And, lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the world.
Would Noah, after a hundred plus years, rest his security and confidence in his mastery in ship-building, in his skill of creating a colossal ark made of gopher wood, and even in his knowledge of a future deluge that would come and change the entire face of the earth though he and his family would be left harmless on the boat? No, but we find that after he find grace in the eyes of the Lord, the Lord went before him into the ark and told him to come in, he and all his house, Genesis 7:1. Facing such contradiction of sinners on the outside, being a preacher of righteousness, doubtless Noah was a man who faced many adversaries in preparation of the ark. Yet Noah was not the wise man to glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man to glory in his strength, nor the rich man to glory in his riches, but Noah knew the Lord, and believed His promise to be with him on the ark! And in faith, he went inside, and the Lord shut them in.
Behold Gideon! God covers the grass with a blanket of dew one morning while the fleece of wool remains dry, and the next morning dampens the fleece of wool with dew while the grass remains dry, thus symbolizing God’s answer to Gideon’s prayer that He would be with him in battle. Now is Gideon marching with his troops to face the Midianites in the valley, a great valley of decision. I recall for a moment Lady Macbeth’s shrieking cry upon seeing her hand in the candle-lit room while she sleepwalked, saying “Yet here’s a spot!” Here was a spot, an incurable taint. And when Gideon’s troops marched into the valley, God cries out “Here is a spot in your host!” What was the spot? Their numbers were far too large: The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest they vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me, Judges 7:2. The Lord was telling Gideon to kill the lion while it was yet a cub; to prevent Israel from boasting in their own power and might as the means for the deliverance of the Midianites into their hands, God demanded that Gideon lop the troops down from 32,000 to only three hundred warriors to fight against the Midianites. It was the Lord’s battle, the Lord’s doing the whole time, and it shall be marvelous in our eyes! The Lord was no less with Gideon and his three hundred men army than He was when He led over six hundred thousand Israelites into war against their enemies in the wilderness. Why is that? Because numbers matter nothing to the Lord, for it is He Who fights our adversaries! And in faith, Gideon went, and the Lord delivered his adversaries into his hands.
“And what more shall I say? for the time would fail me to tell…of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.” – Hebrews 11:32-34.
And in faith I go, not knowing precisely where I ought, but remaining confident in the One Who prescribes and finishes my faith. My ark of rest is the Lord alone. Am I too strong in the flesh and not dependent enough upon Christ as I should be? The Lord rebuke and forgive me for my self-sufficiencies, I must decrease so that He may increase in me. My prayers then must be effectual and fervent, I pray also that my fellow brothers consider taking up this same cross and following the Lord with me to these distant lands.
“Difficulty is behind, Fear is before,
Though he’s got on the hill, the Lions roar.
A Christian man is never long at ease:
When one fright’s gone, another doth him seize.”
Close.
