The Faithfulness of God.

Address by the Rev. W. T. Turpin at the Annual Meeting for Praise and Prayer, Central Hall, June 1, 1904. 
"WHEN they therefore were come together, they asked of Him saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? And He said unto them: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own authority. (Authority is a better word than power there.) "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (or, as the margin of our dear old Authorised Version renders it, "the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you"). "And ye shall be witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judæa and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." He did not say, "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me in the uttermost part of the earth, and in Samaria, and in all Judæa, and in Jerusalem"; but He did say—and the order is significant and important, "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem.”
I was privileged on Monday to take part in a very interesting meeting, which would be placed under the last part of our blessed Lord's missionary map. (I always look upon that verse in the first chapter of Acts, which was the promise of the Holy Ghost for the great work of missions, as Christ's own missionary map, given after His death and resurrection, and prior to His ascension into the heavens.) It was a meeting in connection with the China Inland Mission, which is carried on in simple faith in God, just as your own Mildmay Mission, or may I say our own Mildmay Mission is being carried on. It so happened that when I was sitting in that meeting and listening to the addresses of our dear brethren who had come from China, and who were speaking to us with such pathos and power and Holy Ghost persuasion, that I thought of this order, and I thought of it in a very special and very remarkable connection. I do not know whether you have ever noticed those remarkable words in the 22nd verse of the 11th chapter of the Gospel of Mark, in which, after the withering up of the fig tree, when the disciples called our blessed Lord and Master's notice to it as they passed by, He imprinted upon them a very great, precious and significant lesson. We have it rendered in our Bible, "Have faith in God"; but the words will bear a more literal and I think a truer translation than that. The words in the original are Echete pistin Theou, and I believe that they might be more truly and more correctly rendered, "Hold fast the faithfulness of God." I thought of our meeting here this afternoon as that great fact was being impressed upon us, that there is no object lesson given to us in the Word of God in which His intense faithfulness, in every direction and on every side, is more presented than the history of His beloved people Israel.
We have here in these people, on whose behalf we labour, a great object lesson given to us of God's faithfulness to His eternal purposes, to His unconditional sovereign covenant, to His oath, to His promises, and to His warnings. In all these, Israel stands out pre-eminently and prominently before us as the great illustration and the great evidence of God's unchanging faithfulness.
We also find in their history at the present moment and in their past history, that their present dispersion and scattering and their future divine restoration and conversion and blessing in their own land, are all brought into evidence in connection with God's unchanging faithfulness, to His purposes and to His promises. And I suppose that one great factor which has contributed perhaps more than anything else to obliterate this fact from the minds of God's people in time past has been well, shall I say it without any spirit of harshness—the violent way in which the Church has laid its hands on the promises that were made distinctly to Israel. It seems a little rough, but I cannot call the way in which the promises that God made to His people Israel from the first, to Abraham and then to his seed, and then renewed afterwards to Isaac, have been sought to be turned aside from their direct and distinct interpretation anything other than a policy of grab. I am quoting a passage which was used in another place very different from this; but it seems to me that it is simply and only that—a desire to grasp at what we may profit by in the way of application to ourselves, though it most unquestionably has a direct interpretation with respect to that people beloved for the Father's sake.
Now that is the first great point. I cannot say much on it, but I will only commend it to your prayerful and earnest consideration. It is that Israel at the present moment as well as in the past, and assuredly in the future (to which I will allude presently), are the great witness and the great verification of the unchanging faithfulness of God to His people. If I refer back to the passage in the Gospel of Mark, you will see what a different thing it seems. You will see what an inspiration there is in that passage. Instead of thinking of our own faith in God, how different it is to think of God's faithfulness to His own Word, to His own Truth, and to His people too. There is a power and there is a lift to the soul in that, when the Lord brings before His disciples the fact that He is unchanging in all that He purposes and in all that He promises.
Now Israel are scattered and dispersed, as we know, and their present dispersion is being used of God, I think, in a very remarkable way to test the faith of His people with regard to the truth of the promises that are made, because the promises that God made to that people—to Abraham and his seed, as the Apostle said in connection with the promises, have not been fulfilled or verified, and in all probability, as we walk by sight and not by faith, we stumble at the fact of Israel's dispersion. It is that which, to a very great extent, has led people to imagine that there must be some other fulfilment of these promises than Israel in their present state of dispersion and scattering abroad.
And not only does it test the faith of the people of God in His Word, His own unchanging Word—but it also has been used of God to call out the affection of His people, and to call out the love and heartfelt interest of His people among the Gentiles for His beloved ancient people —"Beloved for the Father's sake." And our Mildmay Mission here along with other missions has made proof of that fact. So that, notwithstanding that they have been scattered abroad because of their national departure from God and their national sin and their rejection of their Messiah, I can also see in the wonderful ways of God how He has used that which was a pain and grief to His own heart. You cannot read the prophecies of Jeremiah, and you cannot read the prophecies of Isaiah and of Ezekiel, without seeing how the heart of God was pained by what He was compelled and obliged to do in faithfulness to His nature and to His name as well as to His people in their dispersion and scattering. But still, He has turned it all round in that way as a test for faith and as an incentive to true affection to seek their blessing and seek their help in the time of their trial and national debt.
There is another thought in this chapter in the Acts to which I would like to draw your attention for one moment further. You will notice in the verse that we have read, a promise of power: "Ye shall receive power." And it is just that power that the people of God and the Church of God need to-day. It is not the quickness of human intelligence that does the work; it is not cleverness of intellectual prowess that carries it out; it is the power of God the Spirit. "Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you and ye shall be martyrs unto me"—as the word really is in the original—ye shall be witnesses or martyrs unto me—"Martyrs for My Name's sake; martyrs to Me for My honour and glory; and ye shall be that to the utmost parts of the earth." But it begins at the place where the grossest departure from God, and the most heinous sin that was ever witnessed in this world took place—the place of the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ our Lord. It begins at Jerusalem. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem and in Judæa, and in Samaria,"—and then in that defiled region, that outside place, Samaria, and then to the uttermost part of the earth. In distant China and in Africa and in India, and if there be any other place that comes more properly in the category of the utmost part of the earth, the power of the Spirit of God shall carry the witness in Divine energy—in Divine dynamite—according to His own will.
But there is one thing which is very striking, and I dare say others have noticed it before. I think that we ought always to be learning something further from God's Word, and not merely standing still, but in His Grace, going on. I have noticed that in a very remarkable way all through the Acts from the beginning of it, the Worker, Who is God Himself, is pre-eminent and prominent everywhere. You will find that it was the "Word of the Lord'' that was proclaimed. You will find that people were "added to the Lord." You will find throughout every part of the Acts, that God is put in the pre-eminent place and the vessels are only vessels and they are in the background. The vessels in the background are vessels of God, shaped by Him, formed by Him, cleansed by Him, filled by Him, but He is the doer of everything. Do we not want to have in our hearts more of the sense of God's pre-eminence and prominence in all the work that is carried on and in all the work that is done? The vessels, honoured, though they are by Divine grace as being of His election and of His choice, and of His sustainment and help, still are in the background; God foremost and the vessels behind. One step behind Him is the safest place for us all, and especially for those who are labouring in His interest and in His service.
One word more upon the future, and then I close. The future of Israel is beautifully depicted for us in the prophecy of Isaiah, as well as in other prophecies. Take, for instance, that beautiful chapter, the 35th of Isaiah, to which violence has been done by our dear old translators, who have put at the top "The blessings of the Gospel."  "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."  "Blessings of the Gospel," indeed! No, but the blessings of that people that have never been out of Jehovah's heart; the blessings of that people that are bound up in all His precious purposes from the very first, that live in His affection to-day, and shall live by Divine grace, not only restored and blessed, but missionaries to the Gentiles, to the nations, in the days when he puts forth His power and rescuing grace for them.
And then how is that to be brought about? We might think, "Oh, how could the wilderness and the solitary place be glad, and how could the desert bloom and blossom like the rose?" When I look at the matter now, and think of the state of Israel, how can that be accomplished? Brethren, the 42nd chapter of Isaiah comes in as the key to the accomplishment of the purpose, and there you will find in a very striking and very remarkable way a kind of interruption; and let me direct your special attention to it. It introduces Jehovah's servant: "Behold my servant."
Though after that chapter and on at least to the 48th chapter, it is Israel, here it is Christ: "Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my Spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: but shall bring forth judgment unto truth." He is the One that will do it. God has at His own right hand in the heavens to-day, One who is Israel's Messiah, Israel's Lord, Israel's King, and He will not be discouraged or disappointed in respect to any part of His work. What He takes in hand according to all the eternal purposes, He will make good for His people according to the riches of God's grace.
And so our hearts are encouraged. We can see that God will do it. Meanwhile, by Divine help and by Divine grace, we can be helpers of that poor, scattered, outcast, persecuted people individually, in seeking their blessing, until the moment when God will make good everything that He has promised.
"Trusting and Toiling" 1904