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