That None Should Perish

That None Should Perish

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, (2 Timothy 2:1-8)

“The Lord is not willing that they should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” “God will have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth.” “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all.” God desires not the death or destruction of any but the welfare and salvation of all. Paul does not in this passage or in any other passage teach universal salvation. Paul teaches that God loves all men, in every walk and condition of life. God would have all men come unto the knowledge of truth, Christ and through Him experience God’s love. But the man who is reluctant to walk the highway of truth and through whom the hardness of his heart refuses to accept the Son of God, that one cannot experience God’s saving love. God has done all that He can do to bring about man’s salvation and at the same time not violate the freedom of man’s will.

“There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave His life a ransom for all.” God so loved man who was dead in trespasses and sin that He sent His Son to effect peace between God and man by paying through His death on the cross the penalty of man’s sin. “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.” However God may want one to be saved, that one cannot be saved until he reaches out and by faith accepts that which God has done for him in Christ. You may will to give everyone present tonight a glass of water. You turn on the tap, you provide a glass; you draw the water; you hand the glass to one present. But for the transaction to be complete that one must reach out and accept it. God in love for all men holds out to all men the gift of salvation and in tender mercy waits for man to accept it. God wants all to be saved and thus He has provided the means of salvation.

But not only has He provided the means for salvation, He has also provided the messenger of salvation. To those who have accepted salvation God says: Go to those who have not yet accepted my gift and tell them of Jesus. Jesus said to His disciples, “I have chosen you that you should go and bring forth fruit … As the Father has sent me even so I send you.” Paul has told us, “We are laborers together with God.” Annie Johnson Flint has written this poem:

Christ has no hands but our hands

To do His work today,

He has no feet but our feet,

To lead men in His way.

Christ has no tongues but our tongues

To tell men how He died;

He has no feet but our feet,

To lead them to His side.

Jesus Christ is dependant upon you and dependant upon me to make known the gospel. As you tell the story and as you bring others to the place where they can hear the story you have a glorious part in carrying out the purpose of God who would have all men be saved.

All who have not accepted the Son of God are without hope for all time and eternity. They are lost, lost in the wilderness of sin without chart or compass. They are lost in an airplane without its propeller or a ship without its rudder and are lost. They can’t find their way, they can’t get to their destination, and they are without hope. They are without hope until by faith they center their hope on Jesus. I wonder of we truly believe that men without Christ are lost? It is only reasonable to believe that they are. You come to me with your only son, the apple of your eye, the one in whom is centered your love, hope and aims by your side. You introduce your son to me and in response I say, “I do not want to know your son or to have anything to do with him,” and turn my back on him. What chance would I have of gaining your favor, your help? None whatever. What right do we have to expect that those who reject God’s Son will receive God’s salvation? But God has given to you and to me the privilege of bringing those who have not accepted Christ to Him that they may accept Him.

J. Wilbur Chapman related how some Abyssinians took a British subject by the name of Chapman, prisoner. They carried him to the fortress of Magalia and consigned him to a dungeon without showing cause for the deed. It took six months for England to discover this. Then she demanded an instant release, but King Theodore haughtily refused. In less than ten days, ten thousand British soldiers were on board ship, sailing down the coast to a point where they disembarked. Then they marched seven hundred miles under a burning sun up the mountain heights and unto the very dungeon where the prisoner was hidden. There they gave battle. The gates were torn down, the prisoner was lifted upon their shoulders and borne down the mountainside and hence to the ship. It cost the British government twenty-five million dollars to gain that man’s release. Such was the concern of the British government for the life of one man. How great is the concern for the life of your loved one?

We must be concerned now for others. “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” We must be concerned now, tomorrow may be too late. In the days of the French Revolution, the aristocrats who were in prisons under sentence of death, used to get up entertainment in the evenings. The night would be spent in singing and dancing and eating. On the morning the executioners men would come and pit a red mark on the door of some of the cells signifying that the occupants would that morning be executed. The night before none of them knew whether that night would be their last night on earth or not. But the night was spent in revelry. We do not know when the last night will come for our friends, our neighbors, are loved ones who are out of Christ. They are spending their last hours in sin and riotous living. Let us hurry and warn them that now is the time, tomorrow may be too late. We must be concerned for them today. To really become concerned, just pause to realize what it will mean to that loved one if he goes out into eternity lost, without Christ, without hope.

You bare with me the concern of making Christ know but you ask preacher, “How can I do it?” I could answer in the words of a seminary professor who would say, “The way to do it is to do it. Just go out and tell your friends what Christ means to you and would mean to them.” But now I recognize that such is the hardest thing to do. When you go to speak about this most vital subject your heat pounds, your tongue thickens and words just do not come. But let me tell you two things that each one of us ought to be doing every day of our lives. The first is prayer. Let us pray for the lost. I read recently of a man who prayed for a period of years for his lost brother. He said that as time went on his brother exhibited less and less interest in Christ and became more vehement in his determination to reject Him. One day the mother wrote concerning him: “Don’t worry I have prayed the rest of you into the kingdom and so I will do with him.” Some months later another Christian and a deacon in a little Church in British Columbia was sitting in his usual pew worshipping God with the rest of the congregation. Suddenly the door opened and to his utter amazement in walked the unsaved brother. Without waiting for sermon or invitation from the pulpit, he made his way to the front and motioned to the preacher and said,”Tell me sir, what must I do to be saved? I can stand this no longer and have come from the ranch in the mountains this morning to find God. Can you help me?” That morning the prayers of a mother and a brother were answered.

The second thing we can do is to bring others to the place where they can be found by Christ. Let us pray and bring our friends to Christ.

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

Fairview Chapel, June 6, 1946

React or Respond

React or Respond

Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip *came and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. Jesus Foretells His Death “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes.” Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. (John 12:20-33)

A person’s character is not determined so much by what life does to him but as to whether he reacts against or responds to life’s circumstances.

There are two sail boats of the same size and class on the lake. One is traveling south and one is traveling north. The same wind, blowing from the same direction is powering them both, one to the north the other to the south. That what makes the difference in the direction traveled is the set of the sail. The sail on the ship is set to react against the wind; the sail on the other is set to respond to the wind.

There are two people ill with the same infection. The doctor prescribes an anti-biotic. One begins to improve and the infection subsides. The other breaks out in a rash and the infection increases. That which makes the difference is this: one body responds to the treatment and the other reacts against the medicine.

Dr. E Stanley Jones tells of a missionary couple to India whose only child, a daughter contracted typhoid fever in India and died. At first the parents reacted against this, and rebelled against what they thought was unjust treatment on the part of God. They resigned from the mission, and began to pack and to return home. Then these servants of God in the “far country” came to themselves and said with Job: “the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” They submitted themselves to the will of God. They responded to the love of God and sought God’s will in the midst of untold circumstances. Through their tears they saw many Indian girls ill with leprosy. They said, “We do not want them to die as our daughter.” They laid the foundation of an institution which has grown to become one of the largest Leper Asylums in India.

The announcement of Dr. Vick’s resignation came as sad news to say the least. We rejoice with him that God has led him to a position of responsibility and trust that he is admirably qualified, and that God has opened before him as avenue whereby he may use God-talents to minister to many servants of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, and that his outstanding preaching ability will now benefit a greater amount of people. We are exceedingly thankful for sixteen years of dedicated leadership in the program of this Church, of talented preaching in ‘holding forth the Word of Life,’ and of a consecrated ministry to those in need. Naturally and rightfully so many are asking: What of the future? In part the answer to such a question depends upon us as individuals and as a Church react against or respond to this unhappy circumstance, ever recognizing that this event is within the providence and according to the will of God.

In the Scripture we read this morning we beheld our Lord on the eve of His passion. His public ministry was drawing to a close. Jerusalem and the cross were waiting. The dark appointed hour had come. This was neither an hour nor experience to be desired. The sum total of physical pain, mental anguish, and spiritual burden is beyond our ability to comprehend. If ever there was an adverse circumstance, this was it. If ever anyone had the right to feel that life was toppling in, that fate was picking on Him, the man, Jesus of Nazareth who had dedicated His life to doing good, and He had such a right.

Just for a moment, this man – bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh – seemed to shrink from it. In related passages in the other gospels we hear Him pray, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” For a brief time He seems to react against the cross. He said, “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Shall is say, Father save me from this hour, let this cup pass from me? Shall I make that my prayer? But how can I pray thus when I know that it was for this hour I came into the world? I cannot do to my will but the will of my Father who is in heaven. No to make that prayer would to be to contradict the whole purpose of my being. This alone shall be my prayer: father, glorify thy name. Not my will but thine be done.” Then “came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” So Jesus went to meet His destiny. He did not react against this circumstance of life, He responded to it. He did not rebel; He submitted and committed Himself to the will of His Father.

The good news of the gospel is that we, too, may find victory over distressing circumstances. We can overcome sickness, sorrow and suffering; pain, persecution and privation. We can rise above the heritage that is ours and the environment in which we find ourselves. Our lives should not be broken but molded by adverse circumstances. In the experience of Christ we behold a two-fold catalyst that transmutes a human reaction against difficulty into a divine response toward it. We find an alchemy that transforms the base metals of human experience into the pure gold of Christian character.

Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify thy name.” a commentary on this prayer is one offered in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Not my will but thine be done.” This is a prayer of commitment. Following the cross, Jesus gave himself in to complete trust to the love and the will of God. He kept back nothing. He asked that God would design to use Him and that which was happening to Him for God’s glory; and the rest He left with the Father.

In the midst of our Gethsemane, while facing our cross we must learn to pray His prayer and mean it – Father glorify thy name; thy will not mine be done. We beg not that we may escape that which threatens us, but that we may see it through with honor; that we may so bear ourselves that whatever befalls us, God may be glorified. If we would be made and not broken by that which happens within the Providence, not necessarily within the intention, but within the love and care of God, then this must be our prayer.

In response to this prayer of renewed commitment God gave reassuring response: “I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again.”

“I have glorified my name.” what did that signify? “The total activity of Jesus up to this point was included here: everything He had done, every word He had spoken, had been God glorifying His name. all the compassion that had healed the sick, the pity that had fed the hungry, the love that had cheered the lonely, the mercy that had sought the sinful, the power that had broken the fetters and shackles of habit and set the prisoners free, all the grace that had availed for Peter, for Zaccheus, for Matthew, for Mary Magdalene, for a host of others – all this had been glorifying His name, showing forth through Jesus the character of the eternal.” (James S Stewart)

“I will glorify it again.” What did that signify? In the days that still remain to you, I will glorify my name “by death and resurrection greater than that of Lazarus, glorify it by a mightier deed than the stilling of the storm ofr the feeding of the multitude, glorify it by a salvation that will reach out beyond the narrow limits of the land of Judea and the lost sheep of the house of Israel to embrace all nations of mankind, a gospel that will outlast the stars and stand towering o’er the wrecks of time forever! I have glorified My name through the short years of your ministry; and now supremely and forever, I am about to glorify it again.” (James S Stewart) So Jesus, strengthened by the voice to heaven, went forth to His last conflict like a conqueror.

If this is the words of the text meant to Jesus, let us now ask what they mean in the experience to the Christian today. “I have glorified my name.” Can you not look back along the way you have traveled and “trace the rainbow through the rain” and confidently testify “surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life?” There were difficulties that may well have left you bitter and disillusioned, hard and cynical, had not Jesus laid His hand upon you, just as He did on so many ailing folk in Galilee, and delivered you by His grace. There were joys so splendid and magnificent that you knew they came from heaven. Has not His grace proved to be sufficient and His mercies have not failed?

Then why doubt the future? “I have glorified my name, and will glorify it again” – through all you experience on the yet untraveled way. The God “in whom we live and move and have our being” is the “same yesterday, today and forever.” His mercies are new every morning, His compassion fail not. Has He not promised never to leave us, never to forsake us. Are we face tomorrow we need “an absolute, enthusiastic confidence in God,” who said, “I have both glorified my name in you and will glorify it again.”

It is in your power and no one else’s power what you do with your life. To this degree you are “the Captain of your soul and the master of your fate.” When the “woes of life o’er take you” you can react against them, wrap yourself in the garments of self-pity and become bitter and cynical. Or you can respond with a new commitment unto God and with confidence in His continuing faithfulness move out to “become more than a conqueror through Him who loved you” and gave Himself for you. In His strength you can rise above any of the beatings of life and overcome even as Christ overcame. The choice is yours.

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

First Presbyterian Church, Charleston W VA, March 11 1962

Our God – Given Man

Our God – Given Man

"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word." (John 17:6)

Last Sunday we talked about our God given work. We found that the general nature of our work is to glorify the Father in heaven, for we have been saved to serve Him. This task is to be performed everyday of our lives. We saw that Christ faithfully performed this work so that when He was near the end of His earthly life He was able to say, “I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou has gavest me to do. “ Christ by His every word, deed and action glorified His Father in heaven. One particular way in which Christ glorified God is told us in the words of our text, which is found in the sixth verse of the seventeenth chapter of the gospel of John, “I have manifested thy name unto the men thou gavest me.” This Phrase of Christ’s work consisted in making known unto His disciples the very nature of God.

The disciples passed through various stages of training. At first they were mainly believers in Jesus as the Christ and were His companions only on special occasions, such as feast days. Then they became true disciples of the Master, ones who sat at His feet to be taught the things of God. They were now with Him at all times and thus this involved abandonment of secular occupations. Sometimes this stage of their training coincided with the first stage. Finally they entered into their highest relationship with Christ, for He chose these twelve from out of the whole mass of followers and formed into a select band to be trained for the great work of the Apostleship. It was to be their peculiar duty to give to the world a faithful account of their Master’s words and deeds, a just image of His character and a true reflection of His Spirit. These men had been given to Him by God in order that He might train them to make disciples of others. He had said unto them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus trained these men so that they would be fitted to cast the net of divine truths into the sea of human souls and land them on the divine shores of the divine Kingdom. Jesus trained these God given men to be evangelist, to be ones who would go and tell others of the Christ and bring them to the Christ.

The crying need for the Church today is for evangelist, for men and women, boys and girls who have beheld the Christ in all His glory. The Church needs men and women like the woman by the well in Samaria. One day by the well outside the city Sychar she found the Christ, the one for who her soul had been longing. Having found Him she ran into the city and said,” Come and see a man that told me all things I ever did: is not this the Christ?” The Church needs those who know Him in such a joyous consciousness of a redeemed life that they will want to go and tell others.

As God gave unto Christ a band of men so He has given to each of us a group of God – Given Men. A Christian is in touch with encircling groups of other lives. They are the inner circle of our intimates. They are bound to us by ties of kinship, friendship, business relations, social fellowship, and a score of other ties and daily contacts. Because they are our little circle of intimates, and are the everyday folks with whom we mingle daily and hourly in the common sacredness and solemn experiences of life, God can reach them through us in a special way and with a peculiar power which no other individual possesses over them. Therefore He has, in a peculiar sense given them to us. They are in a true and profound sense our God –Given men. Let us talk a bit about them.

We have God – Given men through circumstances of life. Every day we come into contact with a group of people who know not the Christ. We number them among our close associates and because we are close to them and they close to us they are our God – Given men and it is our duty to say unto them, “Come and see, I have found the Christ.” These men may be our business associates, they may be members of our Sunday school class, they be members of our family or they may be members of our class in school. These close friends and associates are our God –Given men and God would make manifest His name unto them. If He cannot depend upon us to do so, upon whom then can He depend? If God cannot depend upon us to bring the gospel to men with whom we have hourly and daily contact upon whom then can He depend?

A young man of twenty-one sat in the death house of a prison in Pennsylvania. The day of his execution came and the warden of the prison who is a minister in the Presbyterian Church entered the cell of the boy to talk with him. During the course of the conversation the warden led the boy to Christ and to an experience of sins forgiven. As the warden left the cell the young man said, “If someone had been interested in my soul when I was a boy I would not now be facing the electric chair.” This young lad was someone’s God – Given man but that person had failed in his task. The boy had gone to Sunday school but his teacher had not been concerned for his soul. His mother was a Christian woman but she had failed to lead her son to Christ. No one had ever told him of the Christ who saves sinners.

Then we have God – Given men through the drawing of the Spirit. Have you never felt that gentle drawing of the Spirit urging you to speak to some companion concerning his soul’s salvation? I have and sometimes I have obeyed and at other times I have resisted that urging. All of our failures of service to God is to fail to speak the gospel when the Spirit urges us to do so. When the Spirit speaks in such a manner it means that God has honored us by choosing us as the channel by which He would have some lost soul know the love of Christ. The Apostle Philip was going one day from Jerusalem to Gaza and on the way he saw an Ethiopian eunuch sitting in his chariot reading from the prophet Isaiah. The Spirit of God spoke unto him and said, “Go near and join thyself unto the chariot.” Philip ran hither and explained unto the eunuch the Scripture he was reading and thus lead the man to Christ.

Do you accept such opportunities as they come or are you guilty of resisting the Spirit’s guiding? One day in a minister’s meeting a minister stood up and told how he had felt the urging of the Spirit to go and speak to his friend and neighbor concerning his soul’s salvation. But he had persistently postponed it. One day he went out on the bay on a fishing trip. He stayed all day. In the evening as he drew near to his home he saw a large crowd upon the lawn of his neighbor’s house. Upon inquiry he was told that his friend had fallen out of a tree and had been killed. A sobering quite fell upon the minister’s meeting for they all had realized that they too, had been guilty of resisting the call of the Spirit to the God – Given man.

God has honored us by giving us men and women to whom we are to make manifest the name of God. Are we to accept this honor? Is there a member of your family, is there one among your business associates, is there a friend of yours who knows not the Christ? They are your God – Given men, speak to them of Christ for Christ can reach that one through you better than He can through anyone else.

You ask, “How am I to make manifest the name of the Lord unto these men?” There are three ways in which Christ revealed God unto His disciples. The first and most important was that He told them of God. He was a voice unto His disciples. John the Baptist was content to be called the “voice of one crying in the wilderness.” We must be content to tell the message to those who know it not. We do not have to be especially trained to act as God’s messengers. We most need only obey the command of God to “Go and tell,” to make His name manifest unto our God – Given men. You may merely plant the seed while another waters it and God will give the increase. We can be a voice to our God – Given men with the assurance that the Word of God will not return unto Him void. We know not when, where or how the seed which we plant will blossom, our only responsibility is to plant the seed.

Then Christ prayed for His God – Given men. “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou have given me for they are thine.” The most blessed ministry that any Christian may have is that of praying for others. Christ ascended into heaven, where He sits upon the right hand of God and ever making intercession for us. We can have a part in that blessed ministry. Is there someone who resists and who is hostile to the gospel? About the only thing you can do for such a man is to pray. Pray that God will send the Holy Spirit to convict that God – Given man of his sin. We are told that the prayers of a righteous man Availeth much. Some have said, “If the veil of this world’s machinery were lifted we would marvel at what has been done in answer to the prayers of Christians. The prayer for that God – Given man may not be answered tomorrow but if you earnestly pray you can be assured that in the fullness of time God will answer. We sing on occasion “for you I am praying” but I wonder how many lost souls we are praying for?

Then Christ manifested the name of God unto His God – Given men by the manner of life He lived among them. He sanctified Himself that is, set Himself apart in order that they might be sanctified through the truth. He was not only their teacher but also their example. The truths that He taught them, He lived. The rule for our lives is: Never commit an act, never perform a deed and never otter a word that will make us ashamed to speak of God to our God – given man.

Why should we manifest the name of God unto these God – given men? The first and most important reason is that these men are lost, they are without God and without eternal life. When Amelia Earhart was lost over the Pacific Ocean the United State government spent over a quarter million dollars searching for her. If anyone in this community were lost in the woods everyone in this community would search for days if necessary in order that that one might be found. There are lost souls in this community and should we not expend time and energy seeking them out and leading them to God? A lost soul is more precious than a lost life and whatever the cost it should be paid in order that they might be found. God loves the lost soul. In the parable of the ninety and nine Jesus reveals unto us the love of God for the hundredth one that was lost. We are told that, “it is not the will of our Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish,” and that there shall be, “joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety – nine just persons who need no repentance.” God so loved that He gave Christ for the salvation of the lost. God loves the sinner, they are lost and we are the light that should find them.

It is the command of God that we should find the lost, the command is, “Go ye unto all the world.” Christ said, “As my Father sent me, even so I send you.” That is high authority and it must be obeyed, it must be obeyed now for the time is short for these God – given men. A minister friend of mine tells the story of how one day he called on a young member of his congregation. During the course of the visit the minister led the young man to Christ. The minister hadn’t been out of the house fifteen minutes when the young man fell down the steps in his house and was killed. The time may be just as short for some of our God – given men. Let us be faithful in telling them of the Christ who is mighty to save.

We never know what will be the influence of the one we win to Christ. Andrew brought Peter to Christ. Through the preaching of Peter three thousand souls were won for Christ on the day of Pentecost. At the time of his martyrdom Stephen sowed a seed in the heart of Paul. In the city of Damascus Ananias manifested the name of God to Paul. Paul became the greatest Christian missionary the world has ever known. A slave’s son won to Christ grows into the great leader, Booker T Washington.

Through the circumstances of life and through the drawing of the Spirit God has given unto us a band of men to whom we are to manifest the name of God. Let us be faithful in that task. We want to see this Church and the Churches throughout the world grow. It will grow in the proportion of our faithfulness towards are God – given men. It requires twenty Church members twelve months to win a convert. No business, no social or fraternal organization could survive such a death rate. The world is not clamoring at the Church doors for admission but like the Ethiopian eunuch said to Philip, the world is mutely pleading, “How can I expect some men to show me?” Christ said, “I must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work.” Paul says that we are to beseech folk in “Christ stead.” We have a partnership with Christ to manifest the name of God to our God – given men and yet many neglect our part. We are the ambassadors of Christ and we must take that appointment seriously.

One writer paints a picture of a supposed scene that took place in heaven upon Christ’s return. The Master and Gabriel went for a quick walk. The angel with eyes made tender by sympathy touched the nail prints and the scars made by the thorns and said, “The agony must have been terrible.” Jesus nodded assent and said, “I was glad thus to suffer to save the people.” Then Gabriel asked, “How is the world to know about this ‘so great salvation’? Jesus replied, “Andrew will tell Peter, Philip will tell Nathaniel, and they will tell others. Each individual will pass the news to another.” “But what if that fails,” Gabriel inquired. The Master answered sadly, “Then I will have died in vain for I have no other plan.” Will we perform our part in the plan of the Master?

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

First Presbyterian Church, Saint Albans, W VA, December 2, 1945

What Hast Thou

What Hast Thou

"Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves." Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" And she said, "Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil." Then he said, "Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few. "And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is full." So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they were bringing the vessels to her and she poured. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another vessel." And he said to her, "There is not one vessel more." And the oil stopped. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest." (2 Kings 4:1-7)

One day a woman came to the Prophet Elisha in great trouble. She was a widow; her husband had been one of the sons of the prophets. He had feared and trusted the Lord God of Israel. Before his death he had contracted a debt and had died before being able to pay it. And now the creditor had come to the woman and said, “If you cannot pay the debt I must take your sons and sell them for slaves.” Not only had she lost her husband but now she was in danger of losing her two sons. This was the problem that she brought to the prophet. The prophet was kind and willing to help her. He did not offer to pay the debt but told the woman that she must earn the money herself. But how was she to earn the money? “What hast thou?” asked Elisha. “I have nothing in the house but a pot of oil.” replied the woman. Then Elisha commanded the woman to and go to all her neighbors and borrow as many vessels as possible. After she had done this, Elisha commanded the woman to go to her house, and shut the doors. Then she was to take the oil and pour it into the empty vessels. This she did and to her utter amazement vessel after vessel until finely every vessel had been filled. God had caused the oil to increase and multiply as He had done for the oil and meal of the poor woman of Zarephath. “And now what must I do?” asked the woman. Elisha replied, “Go, and sell the oil, and pay the debt with the money, and then thou and thy children may live upon what is left.”

In this story of the woman and her pot of oil I find three lessons to which I draw your attention this evening. We see in the first place the woman went to the right source for instruction, then she did what she was told to do and finally, she used what she had.

This poor widow was faced with a great crisis. In the midst of her trouble and perplexity she took her problem to Elisha, the representative of God. Today when we are faced with problems, and cares and worries that seem to defy all solution, we, too, can take them to God through our great High Priest Jesus Christ and there leave them for solution.

Today people are busy running to psycho-analysts, psychologists, star-gazers and the like with their problems and cares with the hopes that a solution will be found. But these men are powerless to help us. There is one and only one who can aid, Almighty God. Are we not commanded to “cast our burdens upon the Lord” with the promise “that He will sustain us.” To whom do you go with your problems?

The life of Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission is one long testimony to the ability of God to help in time of need. In seventy years God provided the China Inland Mission with the enormous sum of 5,103,701 pounds sterling of unsolicited funds to carry out their work. The need as it presented itself was made known to God and He supplied it.

On the outskirts of Philadelphia is a home for orphaned children. This home is supported entirely by faith. One day they were without potatoes for the children. In the morning the workers through prayer made the need known to God. They were hardly off their knees when the telephone rang and they were informed that a load of potatoes was waiting for them at the front gate.

“Be not dismayed what ere betide, God will take care of you.” Yes God cares for His own. No matter what your need may be, take it and lay it at the feet of God. He is ready, willing and able to solve all problems for you. It may be that you are in financial distress; He who feeds the birds of the air will likewise care for you. It may be that you are in the depths of sorrow, He that sticks closer than a brother will comfort you. No matter what the problem may be, take it to the Lord.

Then we see that the woman did as she was commanded to do. In this obedience we see the true test of faith. Faith that will not admit of action is not faith at all. Faith is active it is not static, it is dynamic it is not passive. Faith that does not touch the well spring of action is not faith at all. The woman had faith that God would help her or she would not have gone to His servant. But that faith was useless until she put it to the test by doing that which was commanded of her.

Do you believe in the multiplication table? Do you really? If you do, then you will use it to solve your problems, and when you have so used it you will find an increased security in it.

If you have faith in your automobile, then you will be unafraid to start a long journey in it. Rather you will start with the joy and feelings of security for you believe in its ability to take you to your destination.

If you have faith in your doctor, then you will take his medicine and follow his advice. If you do not take his medicine, then you are proving to the world that you do not have faith in him. If you do not take his advice, then you show that you do not believe what he tells you to do to be necessary for your welfare.

The woman went to the right source for help but more than that she had true faith in the one to whom she went. She carried out his directions. God shows us what He would have us to do, but do we always prove that we trust Him by doing that what He commands?

Naaman the leper came to Elisha to be healed. In order that his might be affected, he was commanded to go and wash seven times in the river Jordan. But this proud Syrian general rebelled against washing in the dirty water of the Jordan. “Why must I wash in the Jordan?” can the waters of the Jordan cure me? I have better rivers in my own land of Damascus. Why can I not wash in them and be clean?” Because Naaman was unwilling to do the simple things that God commanded him, he was denied healing. It was not the waters of the Jordan that had the power to cleanse Naaman’s body, God alone had that power. But God wanted Naaman to do that which God wanted him to do. Because Naaman was too proud to obey the command of God, he went away with his body unhealed. But the servants of Naaman came to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had commanded thee to do some great thing, would thou not have done it? How much rather then what he said to thee. Wash and be clean.” Naaman listened to the wisdom of his servants, overcame his pride and went and bathed in the Jordan. The result was that his leprosy was cleansed. He obeyed God and received help.

When God commands us to do something, let us have faith in Him and do as He commands. It might be that He would have you teach a Sunday School Class, if you would be blessed of Him, do it. It may be that He wants you in full time service, do it. It may be that there is some secret fault in your life that He would have you cast out. By His power, cast it out. No matter what God would have you do, obey His command for only then will He be able to aid you in times of trouble. If we love Him, then we will do as He commands us.

Finally, we see that the woman used just what she had. She had only a small pot of oil but when used in accordance with the will of God it was increased and multiplied. A little is enough when God is honored. He takes us just as we are and builds us according to His purposes, He takes are talents and endows them with His power, He takes just whatever we have to offer and uses them to the honor and glory of His name.

When we come to God, He asks the same question as was asked the widow, “What hast thou?” and what ever we have to offer, that is what He uses. It may be only a grain of Faith, but He will use it and cause it to multiply. No matter how trivial a thing we offer God, He can use it. With God these small things of life count for the most. It was only a rod in the hand of Moses, but used for God it caused the Red Sea to roll back, and it caused water to come forth from a dry rock.

David had only a sling with which to face a giant who was clothed in heavy armor. But that sling, consecrated to the use of God was sufficient to cause the death of the giant.

The lad only had five loaves and two fish, but dedicated to Christ they fed five thousand people.

Not all of us have the same to offer to Christ. Some of us have many gifts, others have only a few. God knows are capabilities and our requirements. He knows that some of us are capable of only handling one talent, while others are capable of using ten talents. Whether we have only one pot of oil, or many vessels, God would have us use all of them as He directs. From those of us who have much, He expects much; from those of us who have little, He expects less. Therefore, we have no reason to feel puffed up with pride because we have much, or to be downhearted because we have only a little. Only give all to the Master.

If we use faithfully that which we have, then God will see that it increases. The foundations of colossal fortunes have been laid because their builders took advantage of little things. It was a long jump from the humble cabin wherein Abraham Lincoln was born to the White House, but it was made because he took advantage of his small talents and as a result others were added.

This principle is true in the spiritual world as well in the material world. When we use our spiritual gifts He will cause them to increase as did the pot of oil. Alexander Raleigh, one of the most outstanding of preachers in London in the nineteenth century began as a young man to take an interest in Sunday school. The faithful use of these talents drew the attention of the leaders to him and he asked to speak before the young people. His pastor took an interest in him and guided him through college and seminary and on out into the active ministry. By the faithful use of a few gifts, they were increase by God.

“What hast thou in the house, “asked Elisha. “Only a small pot of oil,” replied the woman. When we go to God with our problems He asked the same of us. “What hast thou? Only poor stammering lips, only a small faith, only an ability to pray, only the fag end of a misused life, only a life restricted by home ties and duties,” we will reply. What hast thou? It matters not what it may be. Only use it for Him to the honor and glory of His name.

Dr. Robert W Kirkpatrick

First Presbyterian Church, Saint Albins W Va, August 21, 1946