LIVING BY EVERY WORD OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.
“Man shall not
live by bread alone; but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”-Matt.
4:4.
BREAD is a general
name for food; for that which satisfies the cravings of hunger; for that which
builds up and strengthens; for that which enables the continuance of life. It
was appropriate, therefore, that the Lord should use bread as a symbol, or
figure of that heavenly sustenance which God has arranged should now upbuild
and strengthen his people, and eventually, by the first resurrection, impart to
them life everlasting. Divine truth is represented as being such spiritual
food; and our Lord himself, because in the divine plan he is the channel of the
truth,-“the way, the truth, the life,”-is spoken of as being also “the bread of
life” for his people. We are to eat, or partake of the life-giving qualities
which he freely gives us in himself, if we would reach the goal of our
hope-eternal life.
Our text is our Lord’s reply to the Tempter when he was in the wilderness
fasting and hungry. The Tempter had suggested the use of the powers which Jesus
had received a few days previous when, at his baptism in Jordan, he received
the holy spirit, and with it the gifts and powers which subsequently enabled
him not only to heal the sick, but to turn water into wine and to feed a
multitude by increasing the two barley loaves and the two small fishes. The
Adversary’s proposition was that the Lord should use this power for the
gratification of his own appetite. He said, “Command that these stones be made
bread.”
However pleased the Lord was to have these divine powers communicated
through the holy spirit he had received, however glad he was, at appropriate
times, to perform the miracles incidental to his ministry, he knew that the
powers were not given him for any selfish use, for any self-gratification; and,
therefore, he declined the suggestion and his reply is our text. In passing,
we note that there is a lesson here worthy of the attention of all God’s
people; that spiritual and divine things are not to be used in a mercenary or
selfish manner. So far as they can discern matters, the Lord’s people are to
keep separate and distinct their own personal preferences, desires and
appetites, from the heavenly and spiritual things; and not use the latter for
the services of the flesh, however pure and good the fleshly desires may be.
Our Lord’s words accept the suggestion that bread, food, necessary to
human sustenance under present conditions; but they carry the thought
further-they draw our attention to a higher life than the present one. The
present life is not really life, but death: the world is under divine sentence
of death; and only those who have come by faith into relationship with God have
“passed from death unto life;” as our Master on another occasion said, “He that
hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son shall not see life.” And
again he said to one who was thinking of becoming his servant, his
follower-“Let the dead bury their dead, follow thou me.”
From this standpoint we see that man cannot live by bread alone. He has
the divine sentence against him, “dying thou shalt die”; and he can find no
kind of bread, no kind of food, that will produce life in the full and complete
sense of that word-that will swallow up death in life. He must look for
another kind of “bread of life” than any earthly food; he must have another
kind of “water of life” than any earthly drink. It is this heavenly food or
supply to which our Lord refers; saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
But how is it possible for us to live by the words that proceed out of the
mouth of God? What did Jesus mean? How can God’s words give us life?
He meant that all hopes of eternal life depend upon God-upon the divine
plan and its promises. Looking into these promises we can see distinctly that
the divine plan, dating from before the foundation of the world, is that all of
God’s creatures, created in his likeness and abiding in faith, love and
obedience, in harmony with him, shall have life everlasting. This is God’s
general word upon the subject; namely, that obedience is the condition of life
everlasting. This is, undoubtedly, what our Lord had in mind in using the words
of our text: he may also have had the thought that he had come into the world
upon a special mission, to do the Father’s will, and that his understanding
from the beginning was that his perfect obedience to the divine will would
insure him glory, honor, immortality with the Father, eventually; but that any
disobedience would mean the forfeiture of divine favor, and would involve the
sentence of disobedience; namely, death.
Our Lord’s prompt decision, therefore, was that to disobey the Father’s
will, and thus to secure bread for the sustenance of his body, would be a great
mistake; that food thus secured could sustain life for but a little while;-that
his better plan would be to trust in the Word of God, the divine promise
that those who love and serve and obey him shall ultimately come off conquerors
and more, and have eternal life with God. And this, our Master’s conclusion,
is full of instruction for us who are his disciples, seeking to walk in his
footsteps. We are to learn the lesson that a man’s
life consists not in the abundance of things which he possesseth-food and
raiment-but that his life in the fullest, grandest, highest sense, is dependent
upon his complete submission to the divine will-his careful attention to every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
The words of God’s mouth to us are not exactly the same as to our
Lord Jesus and to the holy angels; -because we are by nature children of wrath
even as others-sinners: we must, therefore, be addressed from a true standpoint
to begin with. Thus it is that we hear the words of God’s mouth in different
languages at different times in our experiences.
(1) The first word of God’s mouth to us is the message of
justice-informing us that we are sinners, imperfect, helpless, as respects our
own restoration to the divine image. This first word which proceedeth
out of God’s mouth to us is alarming; he declares us to be under a sentence or
curse of death because of sin;-that “the soul that sinneth shall die”; that
“the wages of sin is death.” It tells us that by nature we are “children of
wrath even as others,”-strangers and foreigners, aliens from God and all his
blessings, which are held in reservation for those who love him and obey him
and maintain the perfection in which they were created. It is necessary that
we should hear this voice; necessary that we should be alarmed and feel fearful
of the penalty of death; and necessary that we feel lonely and discouraged in
our separation from God and our alienation from his gracious provisions for
those who love him and whom he loves. This fear and dejection are necessary in
a general way to prepare us for the next word which proceedeth out of the mouth
of God; namely,
THE WORD OF GOD’S PITY AND AID.
(2) The message that God, while manifesting his absolute justice
and the immutable integrity of his first word and sentence, is, nevertheless,
kindly disposed toward us-that he pities us in our fallen condition. This word
is not to the effect that divine pity will admit us as sinners into divine
favor, present and future; but that divine pity contemplated in advance a
ransom-price which, meeting the claims of divine justice, would permit of man’s
recovery from his condition of sin and death,-back to a condition of holiness
and life everlasting-as though he had never sinned, had never been sentenced.
This word which proceeded out of the mouth of God, prophesying a
blessing and opportunity for recovery to as many as will accept, was first a voice
to Abraham saying, “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth
be blessed.” As this hope begins to dawn in the heart of the penitent one,
seeking life-eternal at the fountain of grace and truth, the ears of his
understanding listen intently for other words of life from his Creator and he
hears (Acts 10:36),
THE VOICE OF GOD “SPEAKING PEACE BY JESUS CHRIST.”
(3) The message of peace is that God has already provided the
ransom price for sinners;-that Jesus Christ by the grace of God tasted death
for every man”; that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and
rose again for our justification.” This word from God’s mouth informs us
that through this transaction, which is entirely his own without our
instigation or aid, “He may be just and yet the justifier of those who believe
in Jesus.” (Rom. 3:26.) Oh, what joy, what hope of life comes into our hearts
as we hear this word which proceeded out of the mouth of God! We
exclaim with the Apostle, “If God be for us who can be against us?” If God so
loved us while we were yet sinners, much more does he love us since we are
seeking him, desirous of returning to fellowship with him, and since we accept
the provision of his grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus to all who accept the
atonement which is in Christ Jesus, through his blood, God indeed speaks words
of grace and peace-forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy, love, kindness.
GOD’S WORD TO RECLAIMED SONS.
(4) Another word or message proceeds from the mouth of God,
to such as have heard of his grace in Christ and have accepted it. He calls
them children- not now “children of wrath,” not now “children of the Evil One,”
but he addresses them as reclaimed children, as his own, as those to whom he is
pleased to give his blessings upon certain conditions which he specifies;
saying, “My son, give me thine heart.” This call for the heart is a call for
full consecration, for complete setting apart to the Lord and to his service.
Our will is the center of our intelligence, our being; if the heart, the will,
be given to God, it carries with it the title to every action, word and
thought. It is such only as delight to respond to this Word or message from the
mouth of God that he is pleased to own in the special sense of sonship which
pertains to this Gospel age-sonship in the house of sons, of which Christ
Jesus, our Lord, is the Head.
“THE WORD OF PROMISE.”
(5) In our ignorance of the greatness of our Heavenly Father and the
richness of his grace toward us in Christ Jesus our Lord, we might fail to
appreciate the necessity or desirability of a full consecration of our hearts
to him. In our ignorance we might prefer to say,
“Some of self and some of thee.” Knowing this, God, in his
compassion, has been pleased to set before us certain features of his plan, and
hence we hear his voice again in the “exceeding great and precious promises” of
his Word. In these he points out to us the wisdom of a full consecration and
complete obedience to him-assuring us in these promises that by obedience to
them we may become partakers of the greatest of all blessings,-the divine
nature. (2 Pet. 1:4.) Oh, how wonderful that the great Creator should
condescend not only to redeem sinners but to urge, to entice them to receive
his bounties and blessings! From the time the consecration begins a measure of
the holy spirit is granted, that the consecrated one may, by application-by
hungering and thirsting for the words which proceed out of the mouth of God,
and by feeding upon them,-be enabled to “Comprehend with all saints what is the
breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which
passeth knowledge.” (Eph. 3:18,19.) Ah, yes! those who have heard and have fed
upon “the words which proceed out of the mouth of God” thus far, find indeed a
new life begun, a new vitality, a new energy,-new hopes, new aims, new
ambitions, “old things are passed away,” everything is tinged with the glories
of the heavenly things which “eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath
entered into the heart of man to conceive”-the things which God hath in
reservation for them that love him;-an understanding and appreciation of which
God, in some measure, gives to such by his spirit, which “searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God.”
FEEDING ON THE WORD OF ADMONITION.
(6) Hearkening further for the words which proceed from the mouth of
God-“Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life”-we hear a word
of admonition. The Father instructs us, that the glorious things to which he
now calls us cannot possibly be ours unless our consecration to him and
submission to the influences of his providences and promises shall change,
transform, renew our minds;-so that the things once loved we will hate, and the
things once hated we will love. As a father spareth not the rod of
chastisement from the son whom he loves, so the Lord will not spare the rod of
affliction and chastisement from those who are truly his; because he loves
them, and because he desires to develop in them such a character as will be
pleasing to him, and as will permit him eventually to make them his sons on the
plane of glory, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, their Lord.
This word respecting the necessity of chastisement and our
correction in righteousness, that we may become conformed to the image of God’s
dear Son (Rom. 8:29), is accompanied with assurances of love from the Father-assurances
that “Like as a Father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
reverence him.” He says to us also, through another apostle, “Faint not when
thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth.” He explains that such discipline is not prompted
by anger towards us, but by his love, and if we are rightly exercised by the
disciplines, trials, experiences of life, they will “work out for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory;”-they will work out in us such
characters as the Lord will be able to use in the service to which he hath
called us-the service of the Millennial age-the service of the royal
priesthood, to be associated with Christ in the work of judging and blessing
the world of mankind. The proper response of all who have the true spirit of
sonship is expressed in the language of our Lord and Master, “Not my will but
thine be done,” O Lord; “I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is
within my heart.” Such as thus respond to the chastisement of the Lord, step
more and more into divine favor, and hear other words of comfort, of grace, of
help.
“YE HAVE NEED OF PATIENCE.”
(7) God’s Word or message of patience is, “Let patience have her
perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (Jas. 1:4.)
How necessary to our perfection is this divine counsel-this Word which proceeds
from the mouth of God! We might imagine that we had received sufficient
testing and proving to indicate our loyalty to the Lord, to the principles of
righteousness, long before we had been sufficiently proved according to the
Lord’s standards in the testing of character. He therefore graciously explains
to us how necessary patience will be, that we should not think it strange
concerning the fiery trials which must test us, as though some strange thing
had happened unto us. (I Pet. 4:12.) On the contrary he points out to us as we
grow in grace and in knowledge and in ability to comprehend-that the glory,
honor and immortality to which he has invited the Church of this Gospel age, is
so high, so grand a position, that those who would share those honors must
expect, necessarily, to be severely tried and tested that their absolute
loyalty to the Lord and to the principles of his righteousness-justice, truth,
love-shall be beyond question. Our characters must become crystallized along
these lines, firm as adamant, before we shall be ready to be received as the
“overcomers” who shall inherit all things, and share the kingdom and glory with
the Captain of our salvation. He points out to us, further, that if it was
necessary for the Captain of our salvation to be tempted and tried, tested and
proved, much more reasonable is it that we who were children of wrath, and justified
only through his grace, should be thoroughly proven as respects our loyalty.
WORDS OF CONSOLATION FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD.
(8) We might well be exercised with the strictness of the divine
requirements as respects this overcoming class, and might say to ourselves,
Others may attain to such glories and blessings; but we are too weak in the
flesh through the fall and cannot hope to come off victors-cannot hope to stand
the trials and tests which the Lord would impose. And here the Lord speaks
again, a gracious word of comfort, consolation and encouragement,
informing us that the perfection he is expecting is not a perfection in the
flesh and of the flesh which is weak and imperfect, but a perfection of the
heart, of the will, of the mind, of the intention. He informs us that he is
not judging us as human beings according to the flesh, but as new creatures
according to the mind, the new will. He informs us that although he will expect
the new mind to do its very best in the matter of controlling the flesh and
bringing it into subjection, yet, nevertheless, he knows that the flesh being
imperfect, perfection according to the flesh is an impossibility to any of the
fallen race: and that, therefore, his arrangement through Christ under the New
Covenant is, that the imperfections of the flesh which are not assented to by
our wills are not counted as ours. They are covered by the merit of Christ’s
sacrifice, and are ignored in the Heavenly Father’s reckoning with us. He
assures us that we are to be judged according to the spirit (will, intent) and
not according to the flesh.
What comfort and consolation are in these
assurances! These are wonderful words of life, indeed! They inspire us with
hope. If God will accept perfect heart-intentions, as instead of the absolute
perfection of the flesh,-then indeed we have hope of attaining to the standard
which he has marked for us,-the standard of
perfection. We can be perfect in intention, in will, or, as the Master
expresses it, “pure in heart”, even though we cannot be perfect in the flesh.
We hear through the Apostle the word proceeding out of the mouth of God
to this effect, “The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after
the flesh but after the spirit.” (Rom. 8:4.) We
can walk after the spirit, though, so far as our mortal bodies are concerned,
we cannot walk up to the spirit’s requirements. Our minds can walk up to the
spirit, our intentions can be perfect; and this is what our Heavenly Father
seeks in us, perfection of intention.
THE WORD OF RESURRECTION.
(9) A further word from the mouth of God assures us that he
knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust-under sentence of death,
“Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return”-weak, imperfect, dying; and
that it is not his purpose that we shall always be in conflict with
ourselves-perfect will against imperfect body,-that he has provided that in the
resurrection we shall have new, perfect bodies in full accord with our new
minds. He assures us that he is able and willing to do all this, and that he
proposes to give to his “elect” bodies of a still higher order than the
human-that he will give us spiritual bodies. They shall have a part in the
first resurrection, and thenceforth be able to do the Father’s will perfectly
in every respect-as they now show themselves desirous of doing his will so far
as they are able. Oh, gracious provisions! O wonderful words of compassion,
inspiring us to wonderful hopes of eternal life and glory! It will be to such as
thus overcome in spirit, in faith (I John 5:4), that the Lord will give the
final word of his mouth-“Well done good and faithful servant, enter thou
into the joys of thy Lord.”
Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God-every admonition, every encouragement, every promise, is necessary to the
development of those whom God is now calling to eternal life as joint-heirs
with his Son in the Kingdom. The eating of natural food could not bring
this life-eternal, nor its attendant glories; but the eating and appropriating
of these words from the mouth of God can bring to us all these blessings which
we crave. Let us then, more and more, as the
disciples, pupils, of the Lord Jesus, keep in memory and act upon the
suggestion of the words of this text, “Man shall not live by bread
alone: but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”