WORKING WITH GOD

WORKING WITH GOD

(Part of a message given at a Conference of evangelists)

Roger T. Forster

I THINK that the most obvious Scripture to be considered by those who want to learn about working for God is Second Corinthians, because in that letter Paul exposed his problems, his trials and difficulties, yes, and his own soul to those whom he loved and who were the fruit of his ministry.

It is significant to note that all through the epistle Paul stressed the importance of power. [54/55] None of us who are Christian workers ever get to the place where we do not long to have a greater experience and a fuller expression of the power of God. We are aware that we need God's power. God is the one who at the beginning commanded light to shine out of darkness; and in the new creation, in seeking to bring forth God's work in the new creation, the same power, if not more, is required. And we know our own failures. We long to know more of the power of God. This letter speaks of it all the time. From Paul's first reference to God's resurrection power (1:9) he continually focused on this matter until he closed with the passage which speaks of living by that same power (13:4).

His other theme -- in stark contrast with this one -- is that of weakness. From his confession of despairing inadequacy (1:8-9), through to his final claim that it was when he was weak that he was strong (12:10), the apostle stressed the fact that the gospel treasure is committed to earthen vessels, explaining that in conveying this treasure the Christian worker is conscious of being persecuted, pursued, perplexed and knocked down (though not knocked out!). We therefore conclude that the person who is working with God must know much of human weakness if he is to experience divine power.

This incredible paradox of man's sense of weakness and the exhibition of God's power is resolved in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, as all such paradoxes are: We read: "For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives by the power of God" and find ourselves linked with Him in that: "we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God" (13:4). So this double line of experiences, these two conflicting kinds of knowledge, meet in the person of the Lord Jesus. It is the man or woman living in Christ who can begin to see these two things coming together in a productive, creational power which brings forth to the new life and new light of the new creation. We ourselves have no such creative power; with all our intellect, with all our emotion and with all our activity, there is no energy which can command light to shine from darkness for the production of spiritual life.

In directing us back to the actual creation scene, Paul pointed to the controversy of the gospel (4:6). There is the contrast between the old creation and the new, between the power of the devil and the power of God. Paul found himself in the tension of standing with God between the darkness of the world and the light of life, as if he had one hand on God and the other striking at Satan's kingdom of darkness. At the beginning of the creation there was a conflict; on one side chaos and darkness and on the other side God commanding that there should be light. So in the new creation there is a separation of light from darkness, with the servant of the Lord standing between the two and, as he does so, he knows the reality of his own weakness and insufficiency, but also proves the superiority of the power of God. It is painful, this tension of experience, but all true life is involved in tension, for there is always something to be overcome. So we are reminded of the two spheres of existence; there is the realm of darkness, blindness, unbelief and perdition under the rule of the god of this age, and there is the light and glory of a personal experience of Jesus Christ. And amid these two spheres of existence, the servant of God stands boldly to bring the one into the other.

Four wills are involved; there is the will of the worker, the will of the enemy of men's souls, the will of the captive who needs to be released into the liberty of the Spirit, and then lastly there is the will of God Himself. This last is all-important for, after all, whatever the servant of the Lord may will, and however much Satan's will is thwarted, and however much the captive will may be released, unless God takes a hand and Himself shines light into the darkness, there will be no spiritual, supernatural re-birth. Our consideration now, however, relates to the first of these wills, that is the responsibility of the worker with God between the two realms of light and darkness. We find here five 'don'ts' and five 'dos', which together make a sort of ten commandments for those working with God.

1. We do not give up (v.1)

This claim that we do not 'cowardly surrender' is repeated in verse 16. So there must have been times in Paul's experience when he was tempted to give it all up and throw in the sponge. This business of spreading the gospel, of bringing forth new creation, is such hard going and its pressure so great, that God's servant may well feel scared and ready to give up. But although Paul must have felt like this, he did not succumb, and he found that it was the mercy [55/56] of God which kept him going. This faint feeling was a part of his human weakness -- and ours -- and we do well to recognise it. Once we do this, we can laugh at the enemy, but if it creeps up on us unawares, we may imagine that it is something else, something to do with failure on our part, and lose our confidence in God because we have such feelings. Many people are discouraged from doing things for God because they are overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy. They truly love the Lord and want to express their gratitude to Him, but when the opportunity comes, they allow themselves to be put off. Once we accept that this faint feeling is a part of the cost of being in the business of a worker with God, we understand ourselves better, lay hold afresh on mercy and do not cowardly surrender.

2. We do not use questionable methods (v.2)

We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, or the underhand methods. We are not going to use methods to convey our gospel which are in any way underhand, or in any way questionable. Now any means of communicating the truth of Jesus are legitimate as long as they do not confuse the message which we are trying to convey. Thank God that we can use any channel available unless that medium being used is going to compromise our message. But the medium or manner of conveying our message will always colour what we are trying to put over, and Paul said that we should be on our guard lest the means we use confuse the message which we are bringing. The question to ask is: 'Does this give a true image of the Lord Jesus? Does it adequately represent the gospel?' The manner in which we convey our message is bound to give colour to that message, so that people will consider the method and say that it is the message. It is most important, therefore, that our methods never cloud or misrepresent the gospel, making people think that it is something different from what it is.

3. We do not use craftiness (v.2)

We do not use the Word of God deceitfully, peddling it, using craftiness in the way that we put it over. There is a craftiness associated with the devil's operations; he is crafty, using the things of God for his own ends (11:3). As shown by his encounter with the Lord Jesus in the wilderness, he can so handle the Scriptures that they prosper his purposes rather than God's. It is not that he utters obvious untruths, but rather that he uses something which seems to be true, just twisting it so that it serves his own ends. There is an element in all of us which would make us use what is of God to bring credit to ourselves. Not least in the matter of our own piety do we tend to abuse the grace of God for personal aggrandisement. The servant of the Lord will never walk in craftiness, pretending to be an angel of light while in fact there are dark and unworthy motives in his heart.

4. We do not handle the Word of God deceitfully (v.2)




I have already referred to the phrase about 'peddling the Word of God'. This means to use it in some way which brings profit to us. The pedlar often tries to exaggerate his wares, to attract customers by pretences. We do not so handle God's Word, tampering with it in such a way as to leave out the parts which we do not like and over-emphasise those we do. 'Handling the Word of God deceitfully' carries with it the idea of cleverness, being just that bit too clever. I have heard it said, and I think that it is true, that when you are preaching the gospel the degree in which you display your own cleverness is the measure in which people will fail to see the Lord Jesus. This does not mean that the Lord is not clever, but that God's intention is that the gospel should be so elementarily simple that all can understand it. If we parade our own cleverness, then people will not see Christ but be distracted by our arts. We must therefore repudiate any tampering with the Word of God.

5. We do not preach ourselves (v.5)

This is very closely related to what I have already mentioned. We do not put ourselves forward nor promote our own interests. Of course there are times when we have to use personal experiences, and Paul was certainly not averse to incorporating in his message the account of his own conversion. There is a sense in which his experience was very closely connected with this creation passage, since God who commanded light to shine out of darkness certainly shone into his heart. The God who brought light to introduce His creation activities shone on the Damascus road and into the dark chaos of the life of Saul of Tarsus. It was so close to Paul's own experience that he could easily have used the story to illustrate what he was saying. But he did not do so. Was this perhaps [56/57] because of some divine restraint? Might it have been an unnecessary parading of himself? After all, we are not here to preach ourselves: we are here to preach Christ and to concentrate men's attention upon Him. It is not for us to offer ourselves as rather superior examples of Christianity, but only to magnify Him.

Now against these five negative things which we repudiate, there are five positive things which we practise.

1. "Manifestation of the truth ..." (v.2)

We make it our business to provide an open statement of the truth. Now the truth belongs to God, and it is given to us in trust. We are not permitted to pick and choose parts of the Bible, nor to put any slant on the Scriptures. Before we were converted, some of us hated humanity. We did not like people, so consequently we spent our time criticising them, running others down and emphasising their faults. Unhappily after our conversion we tend to do the same thing, only in theological terms, following our unregenerate tendencies to criticise and condemn. In doing this we may ignore the Bible's stress on the love and mercy of God. There are others of us who were kindly disposed towards people, even before we were converted, so afterwards we take pleasure in the sweeter, softer side of the Scriptures and tend to avoid mentioning such matters as sin and judgment. Both tendencies are wrong. It is true that Paul called the message "my gospel", but not for one moment did he ever forget that the gospel is God's good news, and must not be accommodated to any natural thinking of ours. We make an open statement of the truth. There are parts of it which we naturally dislike, but our likes and dislikes must never be allowed to obscure the truth.

2. "Commending ourselves to every man's conscience ..." (v.2)

We direct our message to the consciences of men. Of course we have to aim at their minds for understanding, and their wills for response, repentance and obedience, but supremely the gospel is directed to the conscience. This involves ability to realise in what direction different men can be made to feel shame. People may be conditioned by their birth and upbringing to react differently; some are sensitive on one point and some on another which is quite different. The man who walks with God needs to find by the Holy Spirit a divine way of bringing home a sense of guilt to the conscience of his hearers. One thing he must never do, and that is to turn aside from people as though they were hopeless and incapable of being reached. He does not let himself be governed by outward appearances, but seeks God's aid to pierce through the dense darkness and so to reach not just the understanding of desires, but the conscience "of every man".

3. "... in the sight of God." (v.2)

All planning and preparation, all speaking to folk or praying for them, and all preaching must be done under the oversight of God. Nothing must be regarded as out of the sight of God. Even as you talk to a fellow man you should be vividly aware of the Lord's nearness to you both. If I am only going to talk to people as in the sight of God, then I must obviously pray much more about what I am going to say. I must also pray about whom I am to speak to, and when, and how. I remember a German Christian who had been imprisoned by the Nazis for two and a half years saying to me: 'Brother, spend as much time talking to God as you do talking to men.' He also said to me: 'If you have two invitations to speak on the same day, always choose to go to the poorer.' It is a searching challenge, this claim to do all our work "as in the sight of God".

4. We preach the lordship of Christ (v.5)

This is our message, not ourselves but Jesus as Lord. The effect of such preaching, whether to non-Christians or to believers, is that it inevitably contains a challenge. The Word of God requires a response, because it comes through Jesus Christ and as He is Lord, He speaks from an authoritative position. We preach only Jesus, but we preach Him as Lord. We are not advertising ourselves; we are not promoting a philosophy; we are not propagating some good, ethical ideas; but we are proclaiming a person. Our gospel is intensely personal -- it is concerned with the face of Jesus Christ.

5. "... and ourselves as servants ..." (v.5)

So the fifth qualification for a worker is that he does not behave like a lord preaching the [57/58] servanthood of Jesus, but expresses Christ's lordship by himself becoming a servant of those to whom he goes. We have no right to go to the world with anything but service: we are here to serve. If we present ourselves as lords of the situation, either by the ecclesiastical involvement which we try to force upon our hearers or by our personal demeanour, even our tone of voice, people will sense that we are trying to be superior and will close their hearts to the gospel. Christ was the great Servant of God; He served His fellow men; He healed the sick; He fed the hungry and ministered to the needs of those around Him. So the man who is seeking to stand in this tension position between the world of darkness and the world of light, will find himself instantly being checked by the Spirit as to whether he is really acting as a servant to those to whom he goes, or whether he is trying to foist his superiority upon them. It is this servant demeanour which commends the gospel of Christ.

So much for the will of the worker with God. His efforts are directed all the time to securing a response from the will of the hearers, who can never take the veil off their own hearts, and would be no better off if they could, since they would still be facing in the wrong direction and therefore be in darkness. Their only hope is to turn to the Lord (3:16). Satan has blinded them and exerts all his will to keep them in darkness, but he cannot prevent them from making the simple act of turning to the Lord. At this point the will of God takes over, defeating Satan's will and accepting responsibility for the removal of the satanic veil. He can do this because He has annulled the darkness of Satan's kingdom because He invaded it in the gospel of the glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 

Two thousand years ago the Lord invaded the realm of darkness and wrested the enemy's authority and grip from him, so that now there is a greater authority. Previously we were under the devil's authority: he could keep the veil on our hearts. And now we have turned to the Lord and acknowledged His authority, and when a man does that the devil cannot say yea or nay about it. Christ has ripped the veil away because of what He accomplished at Calvary where He bore our sins and made an open show of Satan, triumphing over the powers of evil. So the supreme will is God's will, divinely, supernaturally operating to bring on to the scene the Holy Spirit who gives liberty and a saving light of the face of Jesus Christ. 

The worker cannot bring in the light. He can only cooperate with God in the ways which we have considered, making an open statement of the truth so that men may turn to the Lord and find the Spirit authenticating his message and delivering captive souls by an emancipating revelation of the face of Jesus Christ. 

Those who realise that they have this ministry, keep their eyes on the face of Christ and do not faint. They are working together with God.
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