Pastor W.J. Seaton

Dear Friends,

How often the Word of God can drive people either into honesty or dishonesty – into transparent examination of themselves under its searching truth, or into a form of brazen behaviour which, if not checked and cured, ultimately exposes the true hypocrite that lurked in the Christian clothing of profession.

One of the most vivid examples of this is found in the Bible’s account of our Lord’s announcement that one of the number of those disciples is about to betray Him. Immediately, we are told, the twelve began to ask the Lord, “Lord is it I?” And that identical response to the Lord’s words exhibits that ready potential of the human heart either to play the man or the hypocrite when the truth of God comes forcibly to it. It is easy, of course, to write off that incident by remembering that it was Judas Iscariot who was to betray the Lord, and so acted the hypocrite. But there is another side to the incident which speaks to the Lord’s people in all generations, and that is the attitude of those eleven sincere disciples who also asked, “Lord, is it I?” Surely, if Judas played the dishonest hypocrite under that word of Christ, then the rest of the disciples “played the man” when that word of truth came so authoritatively into their midst that night.

What they showed was that healthy spirit of self-examination that belongs to the child of God under the infallible dictates of the word of truth. This is the principle involved in that night’s proceedings. Most certainly they look to their own hearts first, and that, in itself is a good principle of conduct. Too often we look outwith our own hearts and lives for the explanation to those things that hinder and threaten the church of Christ in our day. Remember the spirit of McCheyne? “Lord, does the church need reviving? Then, Lord begin with me!” But, true and all as that principle is, there is an even more basic principle involved in those disciples’ words. You see, It was Jesus who said that one of them would betray Him, and they believed Jesus. It is as simple as that. If He said that one of them would betray Him, then that word was beyond disputing and the course of self-examination was inevitable.

One of those who asked (in John’s gospel) was the apostle John himself – “that apostle whom Jesus loved.” Who can understand the full nature of that sentence? Did Jesus love one disciple above the rest? The scriptures certainly single out John along those lines. But, here is the point, surely, John knew of that unique position that he held in the heart of Christ, yet, he, too, took his place on the witness stand – “Lord, who is it? Lord, is it I?” Even the knowledge of the Saviour’s love so strangely shed abroad on that apostle of love couldn’t for one minute eliminate that incontrovertible statement of Christ, and John must place himself under the umbrella of that statement until events display who the real betrayer is, because John is “one” of them of whom the Lord has spoken when He has said, “One of you shall betray me.”

The lesson is a humbling one, and yet, ever essential for our spiritual well-being. It becomes us ever to examine ourselves, remembering the potential of our human hearts for the hypocritical garb. But, above all things, we are duty-bound to examine ourselves in the light of God’s infallible word which we claim to believe and be guided by. Does the word of God not say, “Take heed … lest ye fall”? Does it not say this in essence, in numerous places on its pages? Yes it does; and it says it to the Lord’s own people – indeed, “Loved” by Him from before the foundation of the world. And the personal application is beyond dispute: “Take heed lest ye fall …” Who? Believers! And, if I am a believer, then I am under obligation to “take heed”, and not to imagine that I could never be found wanting in the things of salvation and witness and testimony.

We show our respect for, and our belief in, this Holy Word of God by giving serious attention to all that it has to say to us on this subject of our soul’s salvation. To brush off the irksome challenges is not to be of that admirable spirit of these eleven saints of old at that particular point in their Christian calling, and to give only a lip-assent is, surely, to have too much of the Iscariot spirit lurking within us. It will always be to our spiritual advantage to read those “warnings” of the word of God well, and to adopt that humble self-examining spirit – Who could be capable of these things? “Lord, is it I?”

This we should be more than enabled to do if we know anything at all about these old deceitful and wayward hearts of ours. But, again, far and beyond our human experience – valid and all as it may be in its own limitations – stands that impregnable rock of Holy Scripture, and when it speaks, let us listen well and so show our real and full acceptance of all its precepts and all its words of life.

Yours sincerely,

W.J. Seaton

From The Wicket Gate Magazine, published in the UK, used with permission.

Jack Seaton was born in Belfast, North Ireland in 1933. He was converted in 1958, and married Catriona, a Scot, in 1960. They settled in Scotland in 1961. Jack Seaton served with “Open Air Mission Evangelistic Society” for a year. After studying at the University of Glasgow and the Baptist Theological College, Glasgow, he was called to be the pastor of Inverness Baptist Church in 1966. He founded the Inverness Reformed Baptist Church in 1970, and retired as the pastor in 2002. He continues to be an elder of the church, engaged in preaching at home and abroad. He produced the “Wicket Gate” magazine for 35 years, out of which came the booklets, “The Five Points of Calvinism”, “An Introduction to Christian Baptism”, and “A Short History of the Baptists in Scotland”.