I'm very grateful to Mr. Bryson and Mr.
Ramer for their kindly words of welcome, certainly
a great joy for me to be back
in Italy.
I remember with great thankfulness to God the
times of fellowship that we enjoyed together on
that previous occasion, and it will certainly be
wonderful to meet many of you again personally
and to renew fellowship in our Lord Jesus
Christ.
As on the previous occasion, we shall seek,
as God enables us, to examine spiritual principle,
and to that end, it is essential that
each night should, in a sense, be dependent
on the preceding evenings, so that we may
be exposed to the accumulative evidence of the
Word of God.
And so I do urge, insofar as it
is, humanly speaking, possible, for your presence each
evening to come regularly, night by night, so
that we may build up truth upon truth,
precept upon precept, and come to understand something
of the basic principles of divine action.
I think most of you who took part
in this series of meetings last year will
appreciate that the purpose of this campaign, if
you like to call it that, or convention
or conference, is primarily that Christians themselves may
enter into the fullness of God's purpose for
their lives.
It may well be that those who have
not yet come to know Jesus Christ as
their Savior will be present in the meetings,
and we have supreme confidence in the power
of the Holy Spirit to lead such to
a saving knowledge of Christ.
But primarily the purpose of the meetings will
be that each one of us, as Christians,
may enter into that relationship to the Lord
Jesus that will make it possible for him,
through us, to reach out and bring blessing
into the lives of others.
That we may not only have our inheritance
in Christ, but that Christ may have his
full inheritance in us.
Mr. Khrushchev, in his major policy speech a
few days back, boasted of the fact that
there were now some 40 million card-carrying
communists in the countries of the world.
If the card-carrying communists were as committed
to the Communist Party as the card-carrying
Christians are committed to Christ, then there would
be little cause for worry, and we could
relax.
But the tragic truth is that 40 million
card-carrying communists know a dedication to the
party policy which is almost unknown within the
context of the Christian Church.
The dedication of a card-carrying communist to
the purposes for which the party exists are
almost overwhelming.
And I believe if there's one thing that
is of more paramount importance today than another,
it is that those who profess to be
Christians may come to an intelligent understanding of
what they believe and enter into a relationship
to Christ, the quality of which will
far exceed the total dedication that is evidenced
by so many who are completely committed to
a political program.
In the second chapter of John's Gospel, John
chapter 2 and verse 23, now when the
Lord Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover,
in the feast day, many believed in his
name when they saw the miracles which he
did.
And on the face of it, we might
be highly gratified at such a statement.
Perhaps if we had loved Jesus Christ in
those days and been anxious to see him
acclaimed and trusted by the mass of the
people, we would have been highly excited at
the apparent enthusiasm with which he was accepted
as he entered the city.
Many believed in his name when they saw
the miracles which he did.
There was no question that there was wild
enthusiasm, and the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to
be in high fame with the multitudes on
the street.
But the next verse tells us this, but
Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because
he knew all men, and he needed not
that any should testify of man, for he
knew what was in man.
In other words, although it seemed that they
were committed to Christ, Christ was not committed
to them.
And I'm going to ask you to give
this your sober consideration tonight.
When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover
feast, many believed on his name after seeing
his signs which he was doing.
But Jesus, for his part, did not trust
himself to them, because he knew all men,
and he did not need that anyone should
witness concerning man.
He needed no evidence from anyone about man,
for he himself knew what was in human
nature.
He could read men's hearts.
In other words, you may be committed to
Christ in such a way that Christ is
not committed to you.
There is a quality of commitment that falls
hopelessly short of God's standards.
And I believe that it is from this
particular disease that the Church of Jesus Christ
today is suffering, that we can become wildly
enthusiastic about apparent response on the part of
men and women, and boys and girls, to
Jesus Christ, and yet tragically overlook the fact
that the quality of their commitment to Christ
is not such that Christ can be committed
to them.
I wonder what the quality of your commitment
to the Lord Jesus Christ is.
You see, it's one thing for you and
for me to say, I trust Christ.
But the more important question is this.
Does Christ trust me?
It's one thing to persuade other people that
I'm committed to him, and it's comparatively easy
to give that impression.
But the salient question is this.
Is Christ committed to you?
In other words, what will be the valid
acid test of your commitment to Christ?
The only valid test of your commitment to
Christ is whether Christ is committed to you.
Of what possible value can it be that
you and I are credited with committal to
Christ if Christ is not committed to us?
And I trust that during the course of
these days that we spend together, we may
come to understand rather more fully what is
involved in that quality of committal to Jesus
Christ that will merit his committal to you
and to me.
What is committal to Christ?
Why was it that the committal of these
people to the Lord Jesus did not merit
his committal to them, but Jesus did not
commit himself unto them?
In spite of all their enthusiasm and in
spite of all their excitement and apparent loyalty
and apparent dedication and apparent faith, he remained
totally unmoved, unimpressed.
And I'm afraid that in the face of
much of what we call our enthusiasm for
Jesus Christ, God remains unimpressed.
In spite of what we may, alas, all
too often elicit as a response to Jesus
Christ, God remains unimpressed.
Because by and large, the quality of our
commitment is such that it is quite impossible
for God on that basis to commit himself
to us.
It was certainly in this particular instance, although
it declares that many believed in his name
when they saw the miracles which he did,
it wasn't very long before the same people
were crying crucified and stood milling around the
cross upon which he was named.
That is why Jesus Christ did not commit
himself to them, because he knew all men.
What was the basic error in their commitment?
Well, it's simply this.
They were not committed to Christ for that
to which Christ was committed in them.
In order that we may understand the true
nature of committal, we need, as in every
other instance, to turn to the Lord Jesus
himself.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the final exegesis,
exposition of all truth about God, about man,
and about man's relationship to God.
And it is in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ that we discover, personified and
demonstrated in action, the nature of true committal.
These men and women, for all their excitement
on the street, were committed to Christ for
the entertainment they were enjoying when they saw
the miracles, they were there.
But the disciples were also apparently committed to
Jesus Christ.
And yet at this stage of their committal
to the Lord Jesus Christ, he wasn't committed
to them.
Because for the same reason, they were not
committed to him for that to which he
was committed in them.
If you glance with me at the 16th
chapter of Matthew, with which I'm sure you'll
be familiar, Matthew chapter 16 and verse 13.
When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man,
am?
And they said, Some say that thou art
John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye
that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and
blood hath not revealed unto thee but my
Father which is in heaven.
One might imagine that this was a committal.
Whom say ye that I, the Son of
Man, am?
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God.
Peter as the spokesman committed himself, and by
their consent he committed to the other disciples,
to the person of Jesus Christ as God's
Son.
Was their quality of commitment to Jesus as
the Son of God and as the Christ
of God such that Christ could commit himself
to them?
One might imagine they were now highly qualified
to become his emissaries to the uttermost ends
of the earth, to publish the good tidings
that the Messiah had arrived, God's promised Savior.
But verse 20 tells us this, Then charged
he his disciples that they should tell no
man that he was Jesus the Christ.
No sooner had they acclaimed him to be
God's Son and the Christ of God, the
promised Messiah, than the Lord Jesus placed a
total prohibition upon them and forbade them to
tell anybody that he was Jesus the Christ.
Because although they professed to trust him, he
didn't trust them.
Why didn't he trust them?
Because they were not committed to Christ for
that to which Christ was committed.
Verse 21, From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he
must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things
of the elders and chief priests and scribes
and be killed and be raised again the
third day.
And he gave to his disciples a preview
of the messianic mission to which he was
committed.
The purpose for which he was born was
to live and die and rise again from
the dead.
That as God's incarnate Son he was to
accomplish the redemption of a fallen humanity by
the sacrifice of himself.
To this end was I born and for
this cause came I into the world, to
lay down my life a ransom for many.
He gave them a preview of that program
that was to be implemented by his total
obedience to the Father.
Verse 22, Then Peter took him and began
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from
thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee.
This can't happen to you.
And immediately, having once acclaimed the Lord Jesus
to be God's Son and the Christ, he
repudiated the purpose for which God had sent
his Son to be the Christ.
He professed to be committed to Christ but
he was not committed to that to which
Christ was committed.
So Christ was not committed to him.
Therefore, if I want to know the quality
of your commitment to Jesus Christ and if
I want to know the quality of my
commitment to Jesus Christ, the question that needs
to be answered is this.
Are you committed to Jesus Christ for that
to which Christ is committed in you?
Am I tonight committed to Jesus Christ for
that to which Jesus Christ is committed in
me?
Because however enthusiastic I may be, however sentimental
my affection and love or loyalty, Christ will
not be committed to me.
If I am not committed to him for
that to which he is committed in me,
he will repudiate my commitment.
They didn't want the cross.
They refused to have the cross.
What kind of a Christ then was it
to which they were committed?
A Christ without a cross.
The Lord Jesus turned and said to Peter,
Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an
offense unto me.
Thou savest not the things that be of
God, but those that be of men.
And looking through his sincerity, looking through his
loyalty, looking through his affection, looking through his
enthusiasm as an ardent devotee of Jesus, the
Son of God, God's Christ, the Lord Jesus
looking through all that, he looked straight into
the face of the devil himself.
And the man whose lips at one moment
had been the mouthpiece of the Father in
heaven, were the next moment the mouthpiece of
the devil, the archenemy of God.
Any challenge to Peter's sincerity?
None.
Any doubt cast upon his personal affection to
Jesus Christ?
None whatever.
Had he not forsaken all things to follow
him?
Yes, he had indeed.
And yet in spite of his loyalty, sincerity,
willingness for sacrifice, his committal to Christ was
not such as would allow Christ to commit
himself to him.
You see, the disciples at this stage had
a completely false concept of the purpose for
which the Lord Jesus Christ had come to
the world.
They imagined that the Lord Jesus Christ would
be committed as the Christ to the emancipation
of the Jews from the Roman yoke, that
they would once more be raised up to
be a mighty influential nation in the world.
They imagined that Jesus Christ was committed to
their own immediate, contemporary, parochial needs, aches and
pains, that the Lord Jesus Christ had to
repudiate their false concept of his messianic mission.
In so many words he would have to
say to them, I'm not committed to you.
I'm not even committed to your generation.
I'm not committed to your nation.
I'm not committed to your political situation.
I am committed only to my Father and
I'm committed only to that to which my
Father is committed in me.
And in my commitment to my Father and
to all that to which my Father is
committed in me, I am committed to all
men in all time and every generation, all
that precede and all that succeed this generation.
This was the nature of Christ's commitment.
He was committed to the Father.
Jesus Christ as the Redeemer was not committed
to the salvation of sinners.
He was not committed to any need.
He was not committed to any particular period
in the history of man.
He was not committed to any local situation.
The Lord Jesus Christ in his perfect, sinless,
utter humanity was committed only to his Father
and to all that to which his Father
was committed in him.
And this involved for the Lord Jesus Christ
a constant, unrelenting attitude of total availability to
his Father that found itself expressed in total,
complete, and unrelenting obedience.
But in this confidence that the Father to
whom he was committed, for all that to
which the Father was committed in him, he,
the Father, was totally competent to fulfill that
to which he was committed.
Now, I want to say that again because
this is vital.
The Lord Jesus Christ was committed to the
Father only, exclusively, and to all that to
which the Father was committed in the Son.
In the supreme confidence that the Father was
completely competent to implement that to which he
in the Son was committed.
And the Lord Jesus Christ said, as my
Father sent me, so send I you.
And this is to be the quality of
our commitment to the Lord Jesus.
I am committed to the Lord Jesus and
to all that to which the Lord Jesus
Christ is committed in me.
In the supreme confidence that Christ in me
is totally competent for all that to which
he in me is committed.
If once we came to this position, there
would be no other basic issue to face,
none.
This is total and absolute commitment.
The moment we're committed to the Lord Jesus
Christ on this basis, no further issues have
to be faced, simply decisions of direction.
And there can be no substitute for this
quality of commitment.
Satan is very subtle, for he will persuade
us to be committed to everything and every
body other than Christ for that to which
Christ is committed in us.
He'll commit us to needs.
He can even persuade you to be committed
to the will of God in such a
way that you're not committed to God.
Did you know that?
The devil can persuade you to be so
committed to the will of God that you
will frustrate all the purposes of God in
your committal to God's will.
Can you think of an illustration?
God said to Abraham, in thy seed shall
all the famines of the earth be blessed.
And God promised to Abraham a son.
Of this son there was to be begotten
a race, of which race there would be
born to the world the Christ, the Messiah.
So what was the will of God for
Abraham?
A son.
So Abraham immediately committed himself to the will
of God, dedicated himself wholly, completely to the
will of God.
The will of God for me is that
I shall have a son.
At all costs, for God's sake, I must
have a son.
But humanly speaking, a son was impossible.
He was an old man, and Sarah, his
wife, an old woman who was barren, who
was never born.
But in his fervent dedication to the will
of God, Abraham determined at all costs, for
God's sake, he must have a son.
And so he gets into committee with Sarah,
and in the name of God's will, to
which they are now totally committed, they agree
that Hagar, the bondwoman, should be brought into
the home, and that of this woman, Abraham,
should bear a son.
And then God would be presented with a
little boy in fulfillment of God's will, and
Ishmael was born.
Ishmael was the by-product of a man's
total dedication to the will of God that
repudiated all God's purposes in Isaac, the promised
seed.
And for 15 solid years, Abraham tried to
make Ishmael a blessing, who had been born
out of a false dedication.
Ishmael, the father of the Arabs, and the
only reason today that Palestine is surrounded by
hostile, arid nations, a 20th century flashpoint in
human history, is that Abraham was dedicated to
the will of God, and not to God
himself.
Fifteen years later, according to God's program, Isaac
was born.
Then God said to Abraham, take him up
the hill and slay him.
For God wanted Abraham to learn his lesson.
You are to be committed to me and
to all that to which I am committed
in you.
You are not committed to my will, you
are committed to me.
Because if you are committed to my will
and not committed to me, you will interpret
my will your way, and you will try
to implement my will man's way.
But when you are committed to me and
all that to which I am committed in
you, I interpret my will my way, and
I implement my will my way.
Now take Abraham and slay him, lest you
be committed to the blessing itself, and not
the blesser.
And Abraham had learned his lesson, and he
went up the hill with Isaac, and as
the knife flashed in the sun, and Abraham
in his heart was saying, God, I don't
understand this.
If I kill this Isaac, I don't see
how your promise can be fulfilled, but I've
learned my lesson.
I am to be committed to you and
to all that to which you're committed in
me, and if you tell me to kill
him, I'll slay him and God take the
consequence.
And at that point God said, thank you
Abraham, that's all I want to know.
Now throw the knife away.
Now I know that you're committed to me
and to all that to which I'm committed
in you, in the supreme confidence that I
am competent to implement that to which I
am committed.
And at that moment Abraham became the friend
of God, for he had learned the first
principle of a living faith.
I need hardly remind you of the occasion
when Moses was committed to a need.
We've discussed this, some of us, together before.
Over 400 years before he was born, God
had conferred with Abraham about the ultimate destiny
of this people that should be born of
Isaac, and whom the seed should come into
the world.
He had told Abraham 400 years before that
they would come under a hostile Pharaoh, but
God had said, I will raise up a
deliverer for them.
And it was God that preserved Moses in
the bulrushes.
Because it was God that gave him that
magnificent education so that he was mighty in
word and deed and all the wisdom of
the Egyptians.
And at 40 years of age, Moses committed
himself to a need, but not to God.
Wasn't it God's plan that Moses should deliver
Israel?
Yes, indeed it was, but you see Moses
looked this way and Moses looked that way,
but he didn't look God's way, and he
went out to become a murderer and not
a missionary.
Because he was committed to a need, a
task, and then he fled for 40 years,
useless to God or man, the backside of
the desert.
You and I are not committed to needs,
movements, men, or missions.
We are committed to Jesus Christ, with no
strings attached, and to all that to which
Jesus Christ is committed in us.
In the supreme confidence that he is competent
to implement that to which he is committed.
I wonder if you appreciate how basic this
is.
Supposing you come to this place as a
Christian, and I were to come up to
you and say, are you prepared to go
to the mission field, you'd say, don't ask
a silly question.
I am committed to Jesus Christ, and to
all that to which Jesus Christ is committed
in me.
If the Lord Jesus Christ happens to be
committed in me to go to the Amazon,
or Borneo, or anywhere else in the world,
I am committed to Jesus Christ, and to
all that to which Jesus Christ is committed
in me.
Why ask me whether I'm prepared to go
as a missionary?
Your question has become totally superfluous.
This issue has already been faced, of course.
That's why if you came to the place
where Jesus Christ is given right of way
in your life, totally, utterly, once and finally,
and for all, it would be completely unnecessary
from any time on to ask whether you're
prepared to go to the mission field.
Would you see this quality of commitment is
hard to know.
That's why out of every 100 young men
and women who stand offering themselves for the
mission field, not more than three ever get
to the mission field, and 50% of
those three come back after the first term,
never to return to the field.
And yet I've seen people come away from
a missionary convention where two or three hundred
people have stood, wildly enthusiastic, and they said,
wasn't that a tremendous meeting?
Do you see all those young men and
women standing on their feet, willing to go
to the mission field?
Three hundred of them!
What did it represent?
Three hundred men standing on their feet, prepared
to go to the mission field, meant nine
who would get there, of whom four or
five would return, back home, never to go
back.
Do you think God's unduly impressed?
Of course he isn't.
It's a pantomime.
That's just a pantomime.
But men and women, it is upon this
basis that we have been deceiving ourselves for
decades, while 40 million card-carrying communists are
totally committed.
In life or death, we're satisfied to put
on a show.
When the show's over, everybody goes away congratulating
themselves.
But in the final analysis, the spiritual consequence
is almost negligible, because we have learned to
deceive ourselves by outward expressions of devotion, without
any corresponding inward spiritual abandonment to the totalitarian
sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
If you're committed to Jesus Christ and to
all that which Jesus Christ has committed in
you, and I say to you, would you
be prepared to invest all the money you
have in the service of Jesus Christ?
You would respond in exactly the same way,
you'd say, don't be so stupid.
Why ask me unnecessary questions?
I am committed to Jesus Christ and to
all that to which Jesus Christ has committed
in me.
If Jesus Christ, who lives within me, is
committed to spending every penny I ever had,
or every penny I ever will have, that
issue has already been faced.
There is no further decision to be made.
Have you come to this place in your
Christian life?
Quite frankly, are there any issues still to
be faced in your Christian life?
Or has the issue been fairly and finally
and squarely faced?
If not, your commitment to Christ is not
such that Christ can be committed to you.
Because this is the only standard that meets
with God's approval and satisfies his basic minimum
requirements.
And we're going to go on throughout these
days that we spend together, examining the spiritual
issues that are involved, the spiritual principle that
is involved.
That really is what is truth.
Truth isn't a creed, truth isn't a dogma,
truth isn't a philosophy or a theology.
Truth is basic principle.
Truth is unalterable.
Truth never changes.
Truth is applicable to every situation and every
changing time factor.
The truth about our relationship to Jesus Christ
won't change in five years' time or ten
years' time.
There's only one basic principle upon which God
operates, whether it's in the Old Testament or
the New Testament.
And it is of imperative importance that you
and I should discover the principles of divine
action.
And I'm going to invite you to join
with me throughout these days as we explore
together, recognizing that the Holy Spirit alone is
the one who takes the things that are
Christ's and reveals them unto us, who alone
can bring us to this place of total
commitment that makes our whole humanity available to
God, so that body, soul, and spirit, mind,
emotion, and will go, as it were, once
more into orbit around the person of Jesus
Christ, our whole lives reorienting, until
it is possible for Jesus Christ alone to
behave in terms of our humanity.
And that, ultimately, is what it means to
be a Christian.
A Christian is Christ behaving, clothed with the
humanity of a forgiven sin.
May God give us an understanding of these
things and lead us into that place in
our relationship to Jesus Christ that gives him
absolute right of way.
And then very wonderful things will happen, for
the world will witness not what we can
do for Christ, but what Christ can do
through us.
And this is what the world is waiting
for.
For the world is rather tired of witnessing
men trying to be man-sized for God.
God is waiting for the opportunity to be
God-sized in man.
That is what is involved in total commitment.
Now let's just bow our heads in prayer.
Lord Jesus, we thank thee for thy complete
and absolute availability to the Father.
We thank thee that thou wast a beating
unto death, even the death of the cross.
Thou didst turn neither to the right hand
nor to the left, setting thy face like
a flame.
Totally committed to the Father, to all that
to which the Father was committed in thee,
and in the supreme confidence that the Father
was confident.
How we thank that thou hast given to
us the same privilege in this our day
and generation, in the wicked, dangerous days in
which we live, that our bodies might become
a habitation of God through the Spirit, filled
and flooded with God himself, so that we
may become wholly available for thee to behave
and act in us and through us.
Bring us to the place where there's no
further issue to be met, because we have
yielded completely.
O God, we believe that nothing less than
this can ever satisfy thy demands upon us,
and thou wilt.
We ask it for thy name's sake.
Amen.