Dear Phyllis,
The next feature of Jesus that we consider is His legs.
His LEGS are as pillars of marble set in sockets of fine gold.
This one is fairly easy. Obviously, pillars are self-explanatory. Any
vertical structure has pillars or something to hold it up. In any
church, family, or organization there are pillars whether
they are acknowledged or not. A husband might say of his wife, “She is
the pillar of our family”. Or a pastor might say of his top deacon, “He
is the pillar of the church”. It isn't much of a stretch to say of
Jesus, that He is the pillar of The Church. It
all rests on Him.
I
don't think it is necessary to comment on marble. Marble is, of course,
the finest building material available. The finest buildings in the
world are made out of marble. In speaking of Jesus
there is no other material that you could use to describe Him. It is
only fitting that the Bible should say, “His legs are as marble”. There
is no one more capable that God could find or choose to be the pillar of
the Church than Jesus.
God
choose Abraham, Moses, and David to be pillars in their day. But for
the pillar of His Church, God has reserved that position and title to be
given to His Son. It might behoove pastors,
heads of missions and any Christian organization to realize that Jesus
is the pillar of the church, not them. That would take a lot of weight
off them and relieve them of the responsibility for making basic
decisions, True, they are under-shepherds and responsible
for the areas the Lord has appointed them to, but there is One who is
above them. And as for carrying weight, it sure takes a lot of the load
off leaders to let Jesus bear the weight rather than them. It was said
of Hudson Taylor, one time he was staying with
a friend when the missionaries of the CIM were in terrible danger. He
serenely had his morning devotions and was having breakfast; his friend
was amazed how he could act so calm. Taylor simply explained, “There is
nothing I can do. This is not my responsibility.
Jesus is responsible for His own workers.” Hudson Taylor was able to
cast all his care upon the Lord (1Pet. 5:7).
But
in addition to bearing weight, legs are for walking and standing. It is
a serious problem with many Christian workers that they won't take a
stand. It was never said of Eli that he would
take a stand. In every posture mentioned in the scripture of Eli, he
was either sitting or sleeping. This cost him his sons and his
priesthood. His boys were undisciplined and a terrible disgrace to the
office of priest. They loved raw flesh and had sex with
women in public. The problem was that Eli did nothing. The Lord said to
Eli, “You honor your sons above Me” (1Sam. 2:29). It is not spiritual
to look the other way when a situation calls for action. The sons of a
field chairman in Japan were two of the worst
kids in the country, and he stayed on as field chairman for 20 years.
The sons of a pastor in the states were so bad people told me that they
didn't want their children to sit near them to hear the filthy things
that they said during services. A missionary
from that church quit in protest, but the pastor stayed on. The same
missionary later resigned from his own church when his daughter did
something he thought was dishonoring to the Lord. When my wife went
south in sin, I said, “Well, that is the end for me”,
and for four years I sat in silence in the back of the church. There
are times when we must take a stand.
One thing that must be said about Jesus – He always took a stand. The first time, and perhaps the most important time, He took a stand was against the devil in the wilderness. It is
not surprising that the first thing Jesus had to face after His baptism was to say no to the devil.
This was a repeat of what had happened in the Garden 4,000 years previously.
It was early in the history of Adam and Eve that they had to make a
choice to say no to temptation or buy what the devil was suggesting.
They failed, but Jesus won. Not only
once, but the temptations of Christ were continual (Lk. 22:28). One of
the most amazing features of the life of Christ is that for 33 years He
held the line and refused to taste the fruit of temptation. We need to
take a similar stand against temptation, It
has been reported thtn75% of pastors watch pornography. Needless to
say, we should avoid compromise in our public life and live above
compromise in our hidden private life. This is a failure for an enormous
number of Christian pastors and workers. Jesus never
did.
He
refused to compromise on any issue, even when He brought the wrath of
the establishment on Himself. PC was not the guiding star of His life.
Billy Graham has been hailed as the greatest
evangelist of the 20th century, but he was the most PC
evangelist in modern times. The most distinguishing feature of his
ministry was unbelievable compromise. This caused perhaps the biggest
split of the past century. He was famous for having some
of the most disgusting Christ-denying liberals on the platform with
him, and call them men of God. He said of Norman Vincent Peal, “More
than any other man Norman Peal has had the greatest influence on my
life”; and it is questionable whether or not Norman
Vincent Peal was saved. In all his crusades he worked closely with
Catholics and sent seekers back to Catholic churches. He called the pope
the greatest revivalist of the 20th century. Oh my goodness,
shocking is not the right word. No reasonable
observable could question Billy Graham's Christian character. I believe
he was a man of integrity and outstanding character, but compromise was
the distinguishing feature of his life's ministry. Oh for men with
backbones who will take a stand against the forces
of evil.
I
went to a church here in Thailand for ten years. I liked the pastor very
much and we were close friends. But the rascal had a series going of
preaching his way through Nehemiah. Unbelievably,
I never once heard him say that Nehemiah was a wall builder. He
cautiously avoided mentioning that there was a wall. He flat refused to
draw the line and say there was a wall between biblical Christians and
Christ-denying liberals because there were a number
of liberal missionaries in his church. I couldn't handle it! Every
Sunday I came away from church furious because he wouldn't take a stand
against the devil's missionaries. I quit. Compromise was one word that
no one could say about Jesus. His legs were like
pillars of marble. His stand was one that all His followers must
emulate.
And
they were set in sockets of fine gold. We have said before that fine
gold is a term that is consistently used to designate deity. The stand
that Jesus always took was not for some organization
but for His Father. This is a tough one. What do we do? Frequently I
don't know. No organization is perfect. There is no place where we can
say we are 100% in agreement with every position that our church,
mission, or fellowship takes. The only answer I know
is to do what Jesus would do. Endless splits are not the answer. Jesus
recognized the priesthood. I never would say, “Do what they say, but not
what they do” (Mt. 23:3); but Jesus did. I never would have been near
that Temple, but Jesus taught there. I got
bent out of shape because Jesus stood in the midst of the Seven Golden
Candle Sticks (Rev. 2, 3). I would have gotten out of the church in
Thyatira and Pergamos right now. If someone was going to a church like
that, and asked my opinion what they should do;
I would say in a heart beat, “Get out!”. But Jesus stood in the midst.
When I asked Jesus why He did that, He told me that these churches were
not examplatory churches but
there was a remnant of overcomers, who were the real church, and He stood with them.
I
don't know, but I do know that Jesus has legs like pillars of marble set
in sockets of fine gold and He has a backbone like steel. He bears the
weight of the Church; He refused to compromise
on anything, and always took a hard stand for righteousness, All that
He did was to honor His father. Oh, He is beautiful.
bill
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