Sam Charlton – The Word of God – Tacoma, Washington – 1958

I suppose there is no doubt but that our conditions and needs vary quite a bit.  There are quite a variety of conditions existing, and there is one thing sure: the Lord knows all about that and is very anxious, able, and willing to meet all our present needs and fit us for better service in the future.  The Lord’s Word is a means provided by Him, the infinite wisdom of the great eternal Father in Heaven, brought down to this world through the marvelous love and sacrificing life of Jesus Christ set forth in the most effective and attractive manner that the Gospel could ever be set forth, leaving us a wonderful example and a means to an end.  I can hardly resist those words of Paul, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” – a four-fold means to one end, “that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:16)  God is more interested in works than words, but words are a wonderful medium of conveying His will to this world.
Jesus came from the Father as an Apostle, with a message from the heart of God to the heart of man, understanding it clearly in His own mind, and perfectly willing that there would be submission and obedience to it in His own life.  “Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, but a body Thou has prepared Me.” – Hebrews 10:5.  “A body Thou hast fitted Me.”  Jesus was satisfied with the Father’s arrangement in giving Him a human body.  He said, “It is a good fit, Father” – a body Thou hast fitted Me.  God is a trinity and man is a trinity – body, soul, and spirit.  It has been very wisely planned by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Heaven.  They had a private conference and the subject was, “Let us create man in Our image.”  God has paid us a wonderful compliment in creation.  He took Himself as the model.  It is a marvelous thing that we have the image of God stamped upon us in creation, and that is only an example of what He wants to do for us in a spiritual sense – to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Paul says all Scriptures–from Genesis to Revelation.  It is profitable for doctrine, first of all.  I don’t know how sound you are in doctrine, but I am sure you have heard a little about it and see it in God’s servants.  It is a good thing when we have our eyes anointed to see, our ears anointed to hear – two avenues that God has given to reach our hearts:  the eye avenue and the ear avenue.  Jesus gave His disciples some good teaching in Matthew 5 and possibly a year later could commend them for carrying out His suggestions so profitably.  In Matthew 13, Jesus said, “Blessed are your eyes for they see.”  It would be a wonderful thing if in a year’s time you and I could have advanced in spiritual wisdom and understanding.  Man has been making a muddle of things, undervaluing the spiritual things, and overestimating the material things.  For doctrine – plain, simple teaching of God’s Word with regard to how we can get into the Family of God, grow up and increase in knowledge and wisdom, and become more useful.  A child becomes a problem in a family if he doesn’t increase in knowledge and usefulness.  We should guard against being a problem child.  Instead of a question mark in the mind of God about you, there should be a mark of assurance.  God found David “a man after mine own heart.”  He said, “I have been looking for one like that.”  He passed over all of those who had disappointed the Father in Heaven.  It required some attention on the part of David – he wasn’t a man after God’s own heart by nature, but he enquired in mind and heart and spirit after the Will of God, and to get acquainted with God.
There are a wonderful lot of good things within your reach and mine if we get acquainted with the Father of mercy and the God of love.  “Acquaint now thyself with God and be at peace.”  We will never know peace apart from becoming properly acquainted with God and making use of that acquaintance.  “He is not a disappointment!  Jesus is far more to me than in all my glowing daydreams I had fancied He could be.  And the more I get to know Him, the more I find Him true, and the more I long that others should be led to know Him too.”  If that longing in our hearts is as definite as it ought to be, we will find out a means to the end – not in talking about it, but getting some of these things into our lives and behaving in such a manner that simple, honest onlookers will recognize that person has something that I would like to have.  God adjusts the supply to meet our ever-increasing needs.
It is profitable for doctrine, and it is profitable for reproof.  I suppose you find there is very seldom any meeting but there has been reproof, that gentle reproof of the Holy Spirit, which assures us that He is very deeply interested in us, watches what our needs are, our progress, our neglect, and He would love for us to take that message to treasure it in our souls.  It was a simple means that Jesus used to cleanse the temple and bring it up to Heaven’s requirement.  He made a whip of small cords – a simple contrivance, but it accomplished wonderful things.  It is the gentle reproof of the Holy Spirit as the message is spoken to you and to me.  No preacher knows your conditions exactly, no one knows except the Holy Spirit, but He knows.  Jesus said, “If I go away, I will send the Holy Spirit.”  This means to every individual in this meeting this evening.
We are here on business.  The first words Jesus spoke that we have recorded were, “I must be about My Father’s business.”  He attended to that business and He finished that business, putting the finishing touches upon it that made it possible for Heaven’s doors to be thrown wide open and for the Father to give Him a royal welcome home.  He made it possible for every member of the human race to find a place in the Family and Fold of God, to bask in the sunshine of God’s Presence, to feel perfectly at home with Him forever and forever.  God has destined that for you.  Let us see we prove worthy of the confidence God has put in us, to be His children on earth, and His companions in Heaven forever.  That is why Jesus was willing to leave Heaven and become the Babe of Bethlehem, the young boy of Nazareth, the poor homeless preacher of the Gospel.  Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.”  Don’t ever think He said that complainingly.  He was giving a living demonstration of what was in the Word of God, something that we can trace right back to the heart of God.  God said of Ephraim, “What shall I do unto thee?”   God was perplexed to know what to do.  It is a pity if we would bring perplexity to the heart of God instead of bringing joy.  We need ears to hear, and eyes anointed to see.  Exodus 29:20, the blood was to go on the thumb, on the toe, and on the ear.  We need to have these parts all consecrated to one cause – to find out the things to do and to be as a loving child to the Heavenly Father.
Instruction in righteousness–Jesus is made unto us wisdom and righteousness.  We need to become better acquainted with the definition of righteousness and godliness in the life of Christ Jesus.  With that aim, we ought to be on our knees every day with our eyes and ears shut to the things of the world, and open to what we see in the life of Christ.  We should be grateful every day for our Father’s last will and testament, Jesus Christ, “That the man of God may be throughly furnished,” not just partly furnished.  There is work to do.  The Holy Spirit would like to look into these lives and hearts of yours and mine and see furnished apartments, where all of the furniture has been imported from Heaven.  We are very favorably circumstanced.  Heaven’s storehouse has been made wide open for you and me.  It would be a terrible pity if we would be blind to our privileges, and keep these precious things crowded out with a lot of trashy stuff that is not worthy, in our hearts and lives.
Isaiah 6 – Isaiah means “Jehovah is Salvation.”  He was a person who was willing to go through any experience to get better acquainted with God and willing to mix and mingle with the people of God to find out their need, and to bring a supply and put it before them.  He had in his own life the things that he was seeking to put before others.  A lot of people are offering things that will not be acceptable on the resurrection morning, things of no spiritual value.  King Uzziah was first cousin of Isaiah.  One was God’s faithful prophet and the other God’s faithful king.  Two men representing Christ, and doing it well.  Satan was hanging around, and Uzziah fell victim to Lucifer, to the pride of a lost eternity.  He got into the mind of Uzziah that he was proud and good enough to fill any office.  If the devil tries to get you down and very low, he will get lifted up and very high.  There is a medium between two extremes where God’s people have flourished in every age.  They never get their feet off the earth and their heads in the clouds, and they’re not always down in the dumps, either.  If we can strike a happy medium, we will be a people that both God and man can put a lot of confidence in, though we wouldn’t be very big about it.
1 Corinthians 12, Find your place, fill your place, and keep your place.  That is a big order, but it can be done.  It can never be done if you don’t keep in living workable touch with God.  I do a lot of talking to Sam.  I have to keep a tight rein on this fellow.  You might find there is quite a lot of bronco disposition in you.  If there is, keep a tight rein on yourself.  The most important person in all this universe, as far as you and I are concerned, is the person we see in the glass.  That is the person we are going to be responsible for on the resurrection morning.  “My own vineyard have I not kept.”  If he had kept his own vineyard, he might not have had so much done for others, but his example would be better than his precept.  Isaiah said, “I saw also.”  It is well for you and me to be interested in, and be taking all the example we can from our brothers and sisters, and for us to raise our sights and keep our eyes on God.  When Uzziah died, the earthly king was gone, but the Heavenly King was within the range of Isaiah’s vision.  Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men.”  You and I can give Jesus a lift up.  The greatest drawing power in the world tonight is the Christ lifted up in a humble life, and you can be that life.  Jesus was God’s certified grain of wheat, with the power of reproduction, producing and reproducing Christ wherever that seed falls.  Matthew 13 is a simple illustration of the entire purpose that He had in coming into the world.  God has given you and me a body, and we ought to recognize that it is God’s great purpose to have the seed of Heaven planted in a good and honest heart under the direction of the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of righteousness, of love, joy, peace, etc.
What a wonderful lot of possibilities in your life and mine as we maintain contact with headquarters.  “I saw also the Lord.”  I suppose some of the people thought the bottom had fallen out of everything, but Isaiah raised his sight and looked beyond Uzziah and saw the King sitting on the throne.  The presence of God filled the entire temple.  He saw the seraphims with six wings – two to cover their face, two to cover their feet, and two to fly with – twice as much to efface themselves with as there was to serve with.  They were showing to Isaiah that day the possibility of serving and worshipping God on earth the way He was being served and worshipped in Heaven.
Matthew 6 is a manifestation by Jesus of the very same thing.  “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”  There is only one way of doing it, whether on earth or in Heaven.  There was the same loyalty in His heart and confidence in the wisdom of God, in spite of the devil and all his forces.  Jesus was a wonderful character. People should be ashamed if they don’t love Him.  Talking about falling in love, but to love Jesus is no fall; it is a climb up into love with the most lovable character that either God or man has ever seen.  “God so loved.”  His love couldn’t be described in either quality or quantity.  “God so loved the world” – that is God’s side.  Our part is “Whosoever believeth in Him.”  He has given us a chance to set our lives in the will of God.  If you and I will dwell a little more on the evidence and manifestation of the love of Jesus, it would react and produce in us that love.  “We love Him because He first loved us.”  Love is never causeless.  The psalmist said, “I love the Lord, because…”  I was down and I told God about my desires and what I would like to do, and He heard my supplication and met my needs, and I love the Lord for that.  If you and I have transacted a little business with the Lord, we will have good reason to love Him.
“Know ye not that your body is the temple of God?”  “I will dwell in them, and walk in them.”  It is one thing to dwell in a house and another thing to walk around into any room in the house.  Does God feel at home to walk around in you?  If He took a little walk into your mental apartment, or your heart apartment, would He find them furnished with furniture from Heaven?  Our needs ought to move us to action.  When Isaiah looked and saw the kind of service that God was getting there, he said, “I am undone.”  He thought he had been getting along pretty well, and had had great liberty in criticizing those people, but now he was undone.  When you and I get a vision of what God is like and the service that we should be giving Him, it makes us feel like Isaiah did.  He felt if God could ever stoop so low to see so little and use it, well, “Here am I, send me.”  The harvest is great and labourers few.  The devil is reaping an awful harvest.  It would be a wonderful thing if young men and women could recognize the whisper, “Who will go for me?” and like Isaiah, answer, “Here am I, send me.”  If you can use me, I will go.  I would like to be God’s show window to show forth the virtues of Him who hath called us from darkness into light.  It is a marvelous thing that these poor human lives of ours could be brought into the place where we could be show windows for God.  With the grace of God in our lives, we could be adorning the doctrine of God and showing forth His glory.  I wish I could become more of an adornment to the doctrines of Jesus Christ.  Give it an attractive setting in your life in all your dealings.  The devil will take people down to a lost eternity if you don’t counteract it with a proper manifestation of Christ.
We need longsuffering.  Jesus never flew off the handle.  You say, “I fly off the handle.”  You do?  You need to keep in closer touch with God.  Matthew 11 tries to get the situation into your mind and heart.  Do you think Jesus would say, “I wish I could get a thousand miles away?”  He said, “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden.”  He said some plain things, but He loved them in spite of their unrepentant attitude, and left us an example.  “Come unto me, take My yoke.”  To be broken to double harness and pull with Jesus Christ is the greatest honour that could ever be conferred on a man or woman in this world.  This yoke had two places–Jesus on one side and we can be on the other.  Try to keep step with Him.  It is a real man’s, a real woman’s job to keep step with Jesus, “Across the will of nature, leads on the path of God.  Not where the flesh delighteth, the feet of Jesus trod.”  We are not in this world to take very much stock in what our human nature suggests to us.  Jesus was never a victim of circumstances.  Man doesn’t need to be a creature of environment.  We need never to bring a lot of apologies to the world, flesh and devil.  We need not hang our heads, but be men and women in God, our heads high, honest, not in the spirit of fear, but in the power of love and a sound mind, the mind of Christ instead of our own, a disciplined mind.  These seraphims had twice as much to efface themselves with as to serve.  If we would do God’s will on earth as it is done in Heaven, we need to do a lot of effacing of ourselves.  They were not taken up by their own good deeds, but they didn’t forget to fly in service with the other two wings.  They were singing, “Holy, holy, the whole earth is full of His glory.”
Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God, etc.”–David’s meditation; Isaiah 6 – Isaiah’s vision; Matthew 6 – Jesus’ manifestation.  David was a man after God’s own heart, and it was so rare that God gloried in holding this up.  Is it rare today?  How many of us could really recognize, “I am a man after God’s own heart?”  Jesus spoke of 30, 60, and 100-fold, and I suppose that would be almost 100-fold.  Let us not be too easily satisfied with present accomplishments and let stagnation take place; stagnant water is germ-laden. There is no germ found in the natural sense, but it can be found in the spiritual.  If we are satisfied with as little as possible sacrifice and service for God and others, we are just a germ-carrier, making it harder for others to serve God as they should.
“The heavens declare the glory of God,” etc.  To whom?  To the man after God’s own heart!  The first revelation that God gave to the world was in the laws of nature.  Romans 1, He has left the world without the least excuse by His creation.  God is not looking for an excuse to condemn us, but He is looking for ways to help us.  There is no conflict between the truth in nature and the truth in the Bible.  Neither scientists nor theologians understand their subjects very well.  Jesus was getting very near to the cross when He said to His disciples, “Ask of Me, that your joy may be full.”  The nearer Jesus got to the cross, the nearer the Father was to Him and the more He saw the opportunity to give an offering that would profit all mankind.  He said He could have 36,000 angels come to His rescue.  Thirty-six thousand angels couldn’t keep Jesus back from the cross, but one angel could help Him to face it!  The more you conform to the character of Jesus Christ, the more you love Him.
The woman hid the leaven in three measures of meal, typical of body, soul, and spirit, all brought under the leavening effect of the love of God.  The heart is the distributor for the spiritual life.  Psalm 19:1-6 – perfect order, submission, and service to God.  The proof that we are interested in a subject is our attention to details.  The Holy Spirit is the best teacher in the universe, ready to bring us up a grade.  If we knew what our grade was in the eyes of the Holy Spirit, it might move us to more activity – perfect order, submission, and service in a natural sense.  Verses 7-9 give us a six-fold appreciation of the presence and dealings of God with a life.  The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul into the channel where we ought to be, walking in fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  If you and I could have our lives converted, brought between the banks of ungodliness, flowing on to serve as a glorious channel, we could bring this living water.  Christ gave Himself for the church that He might present it without spot or wrinkle.
The Word of God has wonderful cleansing properties, but there needs to be a personal application.  If we are kind of half-dead and half-alive in this thing, we will never get anywhere and just be a problem to our brothers and sisters and to God.
The testimony of the Lord makes wise the simple.  Simple, sincere, honest, appreciative people have been the backbone of God’s Kingdom from Abel to the end of Revelation.  Whatever is the Father’s will, they say, is just right.  It is better when we speak and pray that we remember we are rendering service and praise to God.  If others want to listen, it is all right, but we are talking to God.  When you read the statutes of God, there should be that response in your heart, “Just right.”  The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.  Do you wish you could see things a little clearer?  We need to keep the commandments of Christ.  Matthew 5 tells us what that would mean in our lives.  These are the means that would give us spiritual vision and a sense of knowing the beauty of eternal things.  The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.  Talk about permanent – endure forever!  His judgments are righteous altogether.  It is not our physical presence that means much here.  If your mind is somewhere else, you are not giving God or anyone else a chance to do anything for you.  “More than gold.”  What is the greatest need in the world today?  You might say more work, better housing, etc.  The greatest need in the world today is the same as it was 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ invaded this earth with the gospel.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the great power of God unto salvation.  You and I could never have tasted this honey if Jesus had not taken the sting.  Romans 14:5, He deprived death of its sting, and gave us the honey.  Read John 19 to see how badly He was stung.  He took the sting gladly because He expected you and me to appreciate the honey.  The debt of sin was paid on the middle cross of Calvary.  The debt of love is for us to pay.  If there is any gratitude in your heart, show it in action.  “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”  He offered us the best bargain that ever could be made.  I hope He will not be disappointed in us.