"Would Ye Also Go Away?"

by G.K. Kennedy, Sydney, N.S.W. | Category: General | Jul 1971

A critical and vital decision is recorded by the apostle John of many who had been followers of the Lord Jesus:

"Upon this many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would ye also go away? Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast words of eternal life. And we have believed and know that Thou are the Holy One of God" (John 6:66-69, RVM).

Here was a sad time in the life of the Lord. Many of His disciples were turning away. And in so doing they were depriving themselves, for they walked no more with Him. Thus they became estranged from their Saviour and their Lord and the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother. They lost fellowship with Him, and so they were losing fellowship with God.

They went back. So it must be. Not to walk with Him is to go back. Yet once they had followed Him, they had turned from all else to be in His company and to learn from Him and to receive of His fulness. Can we not look back to happier days when we closely followed Him? Something drew us. Our happy experience was:

"Draw me; we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will make mention of thy love more than of wine" (S. of Songs 1:4).

There was a time when we were drawn by His love. It filled our hearts and our minds, and brought a joy above all earthly joys.

How great is the drawing power of divine love! Jeremiah says:

"The LORD appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee" (31:3).

How shall we repay the love shown to us? Let us not forget what we were stained with sin, and sick of heart because of our lost condition. Can we forget that once we were without hope, and without strength to save ourselves and that our miserable portion was to be mourners for ever in the eternal burnings? And whence came our hope? It came in the lovingkindness of an offended God. Is all this so easily forgotten? But it is not the lovingkindness alone. God says,

"I drew them with cords of a Man, with bands of love" (Hosea 11:4).

The cords of a man! The Man. Can we forget the head wreathed with piercing thorns, or be unmoved as we look upon that face from which the hair was plucked, then stricken with reeds and blows of men's hands, and then streaked with blood and sweat and tears and spit? We are going to see that face, see it against the background of the glory He so willingly left for the poverty of earth so that we might become joint heirs with Him.

"How shall I meet those eyes?"

And how shall we forget the awful pain of those six hours when the body's weight hung unrelieved upon the nails that went through His hands and feet, when all His bones were out of joint, while His back, opened like the ploughings of the field, hung against the wood of the Cross?

"Was it for me the Saviour died?"

But this is not all. For there was, beside and above all the pain inflicted by men, the punishment for sins which we, each one, had done. As we reflect on this scene, the question comes once more

"Would ye also go away?"

Shall we not rather respond with the Psalmist, "I love Thee, 0 LORD" (Psalm 18:1)?

There was a time when the light and truth of God's word led us, and the Psalmist's experience was also ours:

"0 send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me:

Let them bring me unto Thy holy hill,

And to Thy tabernacles,

Then will I go unto the altar of God,

UNTO GOD, THE GLADNESS OF MY JOY" (Psalm 43:3,4, RVM).

Was it not so with us? God was the gladness of our joy. Life, and peace, and forgiveness had come to us freely from Him. He had pardoned and raised us up. And we were able to say: "Thou hast put gladness in my heart" (Psalm 4:7). Let not this be forgotten or sent away from our minds. When first we followed Him we left other things behind, just as did the apostles who turned from their boats and family and toll places. We went forth to Him without the camp (Heb. 13:13). We had to. He was not to be found in the world or its things. And if we reverse our steps it will be to follow some other things-self and the world-while He will slip from our hearts. Sad, sad, if that is allowed to happen.

"Would ye also go away?"

Simon Peter could not go away. "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast words of eternal life". Peter made mistakes, but these words stand to his everlasting credit. "To whom shall we go?" That question demands an answer. To whom? To what? Who else has words of eternal life? Much later Paul wrote to Timothy: "Lay hold on the life eternal" (1 Tim. 6:12). Peter did that very early. You cannot lay hold upon the everlasting life in its practical outworking and turn aside from Him in whom it consists.

Then also the Lord said of Himself, "I am ... the Truth" (John 14:6); and Paul wrote, "truth is in Jesus" (Eph. 4:21). Outside of Him is only a lie and deceit. Do we wish to pass our years away in the service of a lie, deceived in our own souls? When we remember that the Scripture says that the house of God is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15) then we should realize that to leave that place concerning which we have been enlightened is to turn away from Christ. No one has ever left the house of God and become closer to the Lord in that outside position.

What, for example, can we do with the Lord's words, "This do in remembrance of Me"? There is a place for them in a divine order as set forth in Acts 2:41-42. Salvation, baptism, addition and then a faithful continuance in the breaking of the bread. Thus, Scripture shows that the breaking of the bread is proper to churches of God. The Lord's words remain to challenge our love and our conscience, "This do in remembrance of Me".

Departure needs to be seen in its true colours. Satan would try to minimize its importance, but God calls it "wickedness". For the psalmist says: "For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God" (Psalm 18:21).

In a similar manner the writer of the Hebrew epistle warns:

"Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God: but exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called Today; lest anyone of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:12-13).

So against all our reasonings, and perchance our pride, there comes the sharp searching of the Word of God. Departure is the outcome of an evil heart of unbelief hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. What shall we do? This calls indeed for tears and much prayer that our hearts may be restored and our bondage loosed. Whatever be the faults of others, whatever be the collective faults of each assembly, we find our own need greater, our own position more urgent.

"Would ye also go away?"

Oh no, no, no! Let us try our hearts and our ways. Let us be honest with ourselves before God. Let us humble ourselves to admit our own weakness. But let us not depart from Him who is Son over God's house.

When we turn to Acts 11:22-24 we find Barnabas at Antioch and there he exhorts them all "that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord: for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith". He gave good counsel because he was a good man. He encouraged them to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart. If the heart is not directed daily how to please the Lord, if it is left without purpose and left to drift, then departure will set in. But that good man gave good counsel which good hearts will heed

"Cleave unto the Lord".

Beloved, there may be much to disappoint you but departure is not the answer. It never was; it never will be. You can find reviving for your own heart when you humbly seek it from the Lord. Cleave unto the Lord.

G.K. Kennedy, Sydney, N.S.W. | Jul 1971
General