One or two fragments of the word.
Firstly, in the book of Genesis.
Book of Genesis, chapter three, verses
sixteen and seventeen.
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.
In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.
Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he shall rule over thee.
Unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened
unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree of which I commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it.
Caste is the ground for thy sake.
Toil shalt thou eat of it all the
days of thy life.
The letter to the Romans, chapter eight, at
verse twenty-two.
We know that the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now.
Not only so, but ourselves also.
The gospel by John, chapter sixteen, at verse
twenty-one.
A woman, when she is in travail, hath
sorrow, because her hour is come.
But when she is delivered of the child,
she will remembereth no more the anguish, for
the joy that a man is born into
the world.
The letter to the Galatians, chapter four, verse
nineteen.
My little children, of whom I am again
in travail, until Christ be fully formed in
you.
It is not the first time that we
have spoken on this matter here, but I
feel quite sure in my heart that it
is the Lord's word for this time.
This law of travail is written deep in
creation, and perhaps mostly in human history.
It is one fact which no one can
deny.
It is there.
We cannot get away from it.
It is forcing itself upon our consciousness and
recognition all through our lives.
The Bible, as we have seen, begins with
the establishment of this law, both in human
life and in the natural order.
The Bible ends with the abolition of that
law, its complete removal from every realm of
creation.
It can be traced through the whole Bible.
In almost every book of the Bible, this
law of travel can be found.
And in the last book, the book of
the Revelation, which is the culmination of all
the things that are in the rest of
the Bible, we find that the outstanding feature
of that book is this law of traveling.
In every connection and direction, it is a
book of traveling.
The church is in traveling.
The overcomers are in traveling.
The nations are in traveling.
All the heavenly bodies are in traveling.
It is the culmination of this law which
has been operating all the way through history.
It began with the birth of the first
child.
It ends with the birth of a new
heaven and a new earth.
It is therefore a very important thing that
we should understand the meaning attached to this
law, why God introduced it and established it,
and has never lifted it, and never does,
but holds all history of individuals, of families,
of society, of nations, and peculiarly of the
church to this law.
I say it's very important that we should
understand the divine meaning attaching to travel.
What did God mean man to learn by
it?
Of course, this morning we are not so
concerned with man in general, or even with
the world, although it would be instructive.
Were we to see what God is doing
in nations, and in society, and in industry,
and in science, and in every other realm
by this law, for it's there, but that
is not our present object.
If the church is what we are given
to understand that it is, the central object
of God's concern, of God's interest, the center
of his concentrated activities, then the church has
something to learn from this law.
Because there is no doubt about it, that
however true it is in every other realm,
the church has the very center of its
history, the walking out of this law, traveling.
There is a concentration, it would seem, of
this law in the church.
Whenever God has done anything that had the
church in view, that is, an elect, a
people for his name, on every occasion of
his fresh movements in that direction, it took
place through travel.
I have only to hint at some of
the experiences of the men of God in
the early phases of history.
What travel they went through in relation to
the purpose of God.
Individually, I mean.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, Moses, and all
the others.
In the people, Israel.
Lord said, I have seen the affliction of
my people.
I have heard their cry by reason of
their taskmasters.
I am come down.
It was out of travel that Israel was
born as a nation.
Deep, terrible anguish.
Same is true in the recovery of the
remnant from captivity.
You know that this is the word that
the prophets used about Israel in that connection.
They are always speaking about Israel's travel, Zion
traveling.
The birth of the remnant from exile came
through the terrible travel of the seventy years.
In some degree, I think it was true
when the Lord Jesus was born, there was
Simeon, Anna, and others waiting for the consolation
of Israel.
The indications are that they were in this
state of the bathrooms of a new age.
It was not out of relation with their
prayers and their faithfulness and their sufferings that
Christ was born into this world.
We know what happened when he was born.
Prophecy fulfilled the voice of weeping for Rachel,
weeping for her children that are not.
It was a state of travel through which
he came.
But of all these instances, perhaps the greatest
was the travel of the cross.
What an anguish was the cross to the
disciples, to those believers.
They were not a small company altogether.
The cross was a terrible experience of anguish,
of pain, of suffering.
Out of it came the church.
The church was born out of that suffering.
And so we go on to the end
and find the same thing obtained in the
final emergence of creation and church and nations
by the coming of the Lord.
What does the Lord mean us to learn?
Why did he introduce that law at the
beginning?
Well, briefly and simply, and yet, dear friends,
with such depth of meaning for us here,
as well as for all the Lord's people.
The main lesson, as I see it, is
this.
The Lord introduced and established that law of
travel in order to bring about a deep
and an adequate appreciation of divine values.
Man was given everything that the heart could
desire at the beginning.
He was blessed with every blessing.
He was surrounded with everything that he could
wish for.
And he seemed to take it so much
as a matter of course, so much for
granted, and he held it so cheaply, so
lightly, so superficially, as to forget the greatness
of the love of God in the giving
and in his creation.
To forget how wonderful it all was that
God had done that, and what God had
done, and to be ready at the slightest
offer of something for his own gratification to
just let it all go.
You can see quite clearly that that was
the trouble.
No real heart appreciation of God and God's
love, and God's greatness, and of all this
that God had given.
He took it so easily.
Easy come, easy go.
I think the heart of that sin, wrong,
and tragedy was just that ease with which
man can turn from God.
From what God had said.
God said that, well, what does it matter?
God said it.
The ease with which he can turn away
from it and let it go for some
bribe, some way that would be to his
self-pleasure.
And the Lord brought in this Lord Travail
to recover the sense of values.
And you can see exactly how that works
out.
You know, if you don't suffer for a
thing, you don't value it.
If it costs you nothing, then it means
little.
If you have really suffered agonies and anguish
for anything, for anyone, over any matter, that
thing is of infinite preciousness.
You're going to fight for that.
You're going to watch over that with keen
jealousy.
That is something very precious.
And is not that just how the Lord
Travail works?
Yes, it's like that.
If it comes without travel, without any cost,
well, it's taken too lightly, isn't it?
Far too lightly.
It doesn't mean all that that means, which
has cost you almost your very life.
And the Lord introduced this factor that in
every birth it's a question of life or
death.
Life and death are in the balances every
time.
Big governing question.
How is it going?
You're held in tension.
And when it's all right, how
the heart goes out.
Thank God.
Worship.
God comes into his place.
Very often with those who have never given
him any place before, they relate this as
spontaneous.
Thank God.
You see the principle.
See how true it is.
And so God established this, ah yes, this
painful way, this suffering way, as the only
way in which he could recover and establish
the law of values, of preciousness, and save
man from his superficiality.
With regard to the most costly things.
He did it in order to secure a
heart relationship with himself and with everything that
comes from him.
A heart relatedness.
That is love.
Love.
Love that is far removed from despising the
Lord or anything of the Lord.
Love that involves the very life itself.
That if its object is lost, then life
itself goes with it.
See.
Like that.
Every divine deposit.
Every divine deposit is on that basis, dear
friends.
Sooner or later, every divine deposit will take
on this value.
Anything that comes from God will sooner or
later pass into the realm of suffering.
Into the realm of travail.
To find out how much value we put
upon it.
How much it really means to us.
How much we have seen of God in
it.
It will become a matter of life or
death under this law.
All divine things have been put upon this
basis.
Take the matter of fellowship with God.
Our very union with the Lord.
This relatedness that he has brought about between
us.
I venture to say, dear friends, that there
is nothing in all the range of our
lives as God's people which causes us so
much exercise and sometimes so much travel as
this matter of our communion and fellowship with
God.
Lose the consciousness of the nearness of the
Lord.
The consciousness of fellowship with the Lord just
for a moment.
Just for a day.
And what anguish it brings, that lost consciousness
of the Lord.
The Lord does not depart and does not
forsake his promise never to do it.
But that does not mean that the Lord
does not allow us to go through times
when we have not the consciousness of his
presence.
When the clouds gather around and he seems
to have gone far away and left us
alone, then what happens?
Does it matter?
Can we go on?
Just the same.
Oh no.
So everyone who is really in union with
the Lord goes into travel over that and
can never, never come to rest until that's
recovered and the Lord is saying, this thing
has got to be kept upon the basis
of preciousness.
And that's the only way of doing it.
Through suffering, is it not?
Our very fellowship with God has to become
at times a matter of life and death.
We have only we could take the time
to illustrate, you know, Moses and the Lord
having that controversy with the Lord over Israel.
Well, it seems to me sometimes the Lord
does play a part, play act.
The Lord said to Moses, stand aside and
let me destroy this people.
Let me wipe them out and make it
other people.
What does Moses do?
Oh no, he's not having that.
He reasons and argues with the Lord.
Blot me out of thy book if you
don't forgive them.
What was the Lord doing?
I believe that the Lord was only doing
this in the place where he got that
man Moses in union with his own heart.
And I think in his own heart the
Lord said when Moses uttered those words, that's
where I wanted to get you.
That's what I've been after.
Find out how precious my people are to
you.
How precious my interests are to you.
How precious my investment in this people is
to you.
I must have somebody with me in my
travail that gives a due value and that
will not, not let go easily with whom
it is a matter of life and death.
Blot me out.
Life or death, you see.
That's the heart of God.
The heart relationship.
Matter of the values of the cross of
the Lord Jesus.
Oh, are you tired of the cross and
hearing about the cross?
Shortly before he went to America, Brother Harrison
told me that the time that he had
spent with a group of students in a
retreat, he had spoken on the cross and
they had said, oh, we are so tired
of hearing about the cross.
Haven't you something else to talk about?
Talk about something else, not the cross.
Are those values of the cross a matter
of life and death to us?
Do we hold them lightly?
Is it just a teaching, a truth, or
of infinite value and preciousness?
What about the matter of divine life?
Divine life is not the Lord trying all
the time to bring us to the point
where we will recognize the infinite value of
divine life.
Physically, yes.
It may be that behind much of our
physical suffering is the secret, the Lord seeking
to bring us to the place where divine
life is everything to us and we lay
hold on it.
We have a tremendous appreciation of divine life.
Spirit, for soul, for body.
The Lord throws us into situations where if
it isn't his life then there is no
surviving.
If we do not now prove the tremendous
value of divine life, we are finished.
We are finished.
This is the end.
If we do not know him again in
the power of his resurrection, it is not
a theory, a teaching, something that has come
right into our very history as a part
of our being.
Divine life, yes, without it we will not
survive.
It is that or it is death.
But you see, the Lord works in relation
to that to make it real.
Oh that you realize that, dear friends, and
rose up on this matter and saw the
infinite value of the life that he has
given because so many, so many Christians just
say, yes, I have received eternal life in
Jesus Christ.
But what does it mean as a practical,
everyday reality for the whole man, spirit, soul
and body, divine life?
God meant it to be so for us
all.
The word of God.
When I say much about the value of
the word of God, though do we not
get tremendous exercise about this?
You never traveled for a word from God?
Never been on your knees and on your
face, oh, that the Lord would speak out
of his word for me in this situation?
And has not his speaking out of his
word to you been birth out of trapping?
Has he not brought you into a situation
where only if he speaks can you get
through?
Only if he gives you a word can
you go on?
It just doesn't come easily.
You know quite well it isn't just a
matter of opening the book and reading.
No, you have to travel for something from
the word.
It's got to become so precious as to
be of the value of life without which
you die.
Man shall not live by bread only, but
he shall live by the word of God.
Live, live, what's the alternative?
To die for the word of God.
Our life hangs on the word of God.
That's what it's to be to us.
And what about the church?
Oh, here, dear friends, we touch something that
we all need to be very, very clear
on and very strong about.
It's a matter of the church.
Oh, we have so much teaching on the
church.
We've got all the church truth and doctrine.
Perhaps you're tired of hearing about the church
and the body of Christ and relatedness.
You know, dear friends, there are believers, there
are children of God who would give all
that they could, that they possess, and all
that this world could give them if they
had it, in order to know something of
the fellowship which is so cheap with us.
Oh, for an hour with the Lord's people.
Oh, for a day within the communion of
the saints.
Oh, to be able to be there amongst
them.
As they know, through travel, something of the
value of the church.
And in our experience, and we do speak
out of experience, we have learned the truth
of the church, not only from the Bible,
but in this way, the absolute necessity to
our very life of the people of God.
Had it not been for the people of
God, we should not have got through.
No, it's like that.
So, the Lord takes us into experiences where
only the church can save us, if I
may put it like that.
Only the church can be our salvation.
Only relatedness can be our life.
Don't hold this lightly.
Don't throw it away easily.
Believe me, dear friends, I'm not a prophet.
But believe me, that if you have been
brought in any vital way into relation to
the truth of the church, sooner or later
in your life, that's going to be a
matter of life or death to you.
God granted it may never be too late.
Come to the end, and oh, if only
I had more value and cherished the great
gift of the church, with all the values
bound up with it of covering and help,
I would not be today where I am.
I am here now because I have held
too lightly the precious things that God gave
me.
I say again, sooner or later, God grant
it may not be later or too late,
you're going to come in a very practical
way up against the truth that God has
given you.
And then it's going to be your life
or your death.
God has given you much.
Oh, be not like Adam, and make it
necessary for the Lord to take you into
deep anguish and suffering in order to teach
you the value of what he's given you.
Suffer that word.
It has cost him everything to bring us
where we are.
Let us not put too little value on
it.
But I won't stop there.
I refer to John 16, 21.
There are the two sides there, the woman
when she's in trouble and so on.
The other side.
But, the issue, when it's all over, child
is born, she forgets about the travail, in
a joy that a man is born into
the world.
The Lord never meant suffering to end with
itself.
He never meant travail to be the last
word.
He never intended that the end should be
death.
Though death is always in the balances of
this thing, he never intended it to be
like that.
He took the little family in Bethany into
anguish, into deep anguish.
But he said, not unto death, but for
the glory of God.
There is written in the very law of
travail, the law of hope.
The law of a new prospect.
And all I'm going to say about that
this morning is this.
We, individually, or as a people, may go
through times of deep suffering, trial, and everything
seems to be in the balances.
How's it going?
Is it life or death?
We're in the grip of this crisis?
Oh, let us believe with all our hearts
that although we come this way again and
again in our history, under the hand of
God, it's unto something new.
It's unto something better.
It's unto a new hope.
It's unto something better.
It's unto a new hope.
With a new expectation.
Don't you believe that the end is shame,
is remorse, is disappointment.
God never established the law of travail, that
that should be the end, but that there
should be a birth of something infinitely precious.
And it happens again and again, doesn't it?
Every new emergence of something of the Lord
is more precious than what was before.
But it's costly.
It's costly.
I may say so, dear friends.
It may be that we here have been
going through travel.
We're in the time of suffering, and perhaps
we're inclined to feel that it's an end.
Is it going to be loss?
No, that's not the Lord's way.
The Lord has so worked that, isn't it
strange, we come into experiences in life where
it's the most terrible experience we've ever had,
and now and now, of course, this is
the end.
This is going to put finish to everything.
And it is the most terrible suffering.
And when it's passed, the strange thing about
human nature, about something, is that we forget,
we forget the anguish.
That is, it passes, but what it has
brought is the thing that governs and dominates
everything, isn't it?
The values that have come.
Supposing we were always living in all the
anguishes that we'd ever had.
Life would be unbearable.
But that passes.
But we are living in the values.
Well, I think that's all I've got to
say.
We do remember that cheapness in relation to
the things of God will only end in
disaster.
Unbelief will end in despair.
The faith in God in the dark and
difficult day will produce something new and something
better.
If we are too easy-going about our
spiritual values, nothing substantial will be effected.
The Lord give us a due sense of
the value of everything that he has given
us and brought us into.
We will not be able just to discard
it and throw it away as though it
didn't matter.
May we be saved from death and have
this law of love, infinite love for him
and all things that are in him written
deep in our hearts.