APPEARANCE AND REALITY - Oswald Chambers

Our Lord makes the test of goodness not only goodness in intention, but in the active carrying out of God’s will. Beware of confounding the appearance and reality, of judging only by the external evidence. God honors His word no matter who preaches it. The men Jesus refers to in v. 21 were instruments, but an instrument is not a servant. A servant is one who has given up his right to himself to the God whom he proclaims, a witness to Jesus, i.e., a satisfaction to Jesus wherever he goes. The baptism of the Holy Ghost turns men into the incarnation of what they preach, until the appearance and the reality are one and the same. The test of discipleship as Jesus is dealing with it in this chapter is fruit-bearing in godly character, and the disciple is warned not to be blinded by the fact that God honors His word even when it is preached from the wrong motive. (See Phil. 1-15).

The Holy Spirit is the One who brings the appearance and the reality into one in me; He does in me what Jesus did for me. The mighty redemption of God is made actual in my experience by the living efficacy of the Holy Ghost. The New Testament never asks us to believe the Holy Spirit, it asks us to receive Him. He makes the appearance and the reality one and the same thing. He works in my salvation, and I have to work it out, with fear and trembling lest I forget to, and thank God, He does give us the sporting chance, the glorious risk. If I could not disobey God, my obedience would not be worth anything. The sinless perfection heresy is that when I am saved, I cannot sin, that is a devil s lie. When I am saved by God s grace, God puts into me the possibility not to sin, and my character from that moment is of value to God because I can disobey Him. Before I was saved I had not the power to obey, but when He has planted in me on the ground of Redemption the heredity of the Son of God, I have the power to obey, consequently the power to disobey. The walk of a disciple is a gloriously difficult one, but a gloriously certain one. On the ground of the perfect Redemption of Jesus, I find that I can begin now to walk worthily, i.e., with balance. John ” looked upon Jesus as He walked. . .” Walk is the symbol of the ordinary character of the man, no show to keep up, no veneer. I perceive that is a holy man of God which passeth by us continually.

Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Human nature is fond of labels, but a label may be the counterfeit of confession. It is so easy to be branded with labels, much easier in certain stages to wear a ribbon or a badge than to confess. Jesus never used the word ” testify,” He used a much more searching word ” confess.” ” He that confesseth Me before men.” The test of goodness is confession by doing the will of God. If you do not confess Me before men, says Jesus, neither will your heavenly Father confess you, and immediately you do confess, you must have a badge, if you don t put one on, others will. Our Lord is warning that it is possible to wear the label without the goods, possible for a man to wear the badge of being His disciple while he is not. Labels are all right, but if we mistake the label for the goods, we get confused. If the disciple is to discern between the man with the label and the man with the goods, he must have the spirit of discernment, viz., the Holy Spirit. We start out with the honest belief that the label and the goods must go together, they ought to, but Jesus warns that sometimes they get severed, and we find cases where God honors His word although those who preach it are not living a right life. In judging the preacher, He says, judge him by his fruit.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? If I am used to cast out devils and to do wonder full works, surely, I am a servant of God? Not at all, says Jesus. Does my life bear evidence in every detail? Our Lord warns here against those who utilize His words and His ways to remedy the evils of men while they are disloyal to Himself. ” Have we not prophesied in Thy name . . . cast out devils . . . done many wonderful works” not one word of confession of Jesus, one thing only, they have preached Him as a remedy. In Luke X. Our Lord told the disciples not to rejoice because the devils were subject to them, but to rejoice because they were rightly related to Himself. We are brought back to the one point all the time an unsullied relationship to Jesus Christ in every detail, private and public.

And then will I profess unto you, I never knew you: depart from Me ye that work iniquity.” In these solemn words Jesus says He will have to say to some Bible expositors, some prophetic students, some workers of miracles ” Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” To work iniquity is to twist out of the straight, these men have twisted the ways of God and made them unequal. I never knew you ” you never had My Spirit, you talked the truth and God honored it, but you were never of the truth. Depart from Me,” the most appallingly isolating and condemning words that could be said to a human soul. Only as we rely and recognize on the Holy Spirit do we discern how this warning of Our Lord s works. We are perplexed because people preach the right thing and prove that God blesses the preaching, and yet all the time the Spirit warns No, no, no. Never trust the best man or woman you ever met, trust only the Lord Jesus. Lean not to your own understanding, ” ” put not your trust in princes, ” put not your trust in any one but Jesus Christ. This warning holds good all the way along. Every character if taken as a guide leads away from God. We are never told to follow in all the footsteps of the saints, but only in so far as they have obeyed God. Follow my ways which be in Christ.” Keep right with God; keep in the light. All our panics, moral, intellectual and spiritual come along that line, whenever we take our eyes off Jesus we get startled There is another man gone down, I did think he would have stood right. Look unto Me, says Jesus.