GROWTH

^[p. 396] GROWTH

1 Peter 2: 2; Exodus 2: 11; 1 Samuel 3: 19: 20

I wish to speak about growth. I have begun with Peter who indicates in this first scripture how growth appears in Christians. He does not address us as babes, but as those who learn to take account of themselves in view of this matter, no matter however old we may be spiritually, according to what we are at the beginning of our spiritual history, that is, as new-born babes. It is not that they were all this, doubtless many of them were quite old in the truth, but each has to learn to go back in his history, and recall what a keen taste he had for the things of God. As we get old and older and older still we lose taste in a natural way for food, and the like, but that is not to be so spiritually. We cannot, by an act of will, go back physically to babe conditions, or boy conditions, or young man conditions: our bodies are not controlled by our minds. Our bodies depend upon automatic organs which, to a very great extent, are independent of our wills, and as they become old and weak, we cannot make them young by the mere act of will. We have to accept limitations humbly. But in spiritual things, Peter would indicate that we, at any time, may go back to early conditions when we had a keen taste for the things of God. It is always refreshing to come in contact with new-born babes, persons who have just been converted and in whom the work of God has taken effect. The same is true if we have been away from the Lord, and we get reconverted, for reconversion has the same character as a first conversion. There is a certain freshness and joy in the soul. That is what the apostle has in mind, dear brethren, in this verse: “as newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk”. The note to the word ‘mental’ indicates that there is an allusion to the word of God, ‘logos’. That is, the apostle is concerned at the moment about the mental growth of the saints. Of course, other features grow relatively but the mind is the controlling faculty in man. The man himself, of course, is the controlling faculty; he is an authority; he is a moral being. The mind is his leading faculty, the faculty which he controls, which he is to control, and it is imperative that he should control it. If it gets out of hand he is dislocated in his constituent parts.

So the apostle chooses his word clearly to indicate that he is dealing with the mental faculty of the believers. As I said, there are other things, such as conscience, such as heart, such as reins, and all the automatic organs, that are used to convey spiritual features to the believer. All of them have to be understood too. We are to learn to understand our make-up as to how the organs are affected spiritually and what the function of each is. So the apostle Peter is concerned for the moment about mental milk, pure mental milk of the word. That is, it is not strong meat yet that he is dealing with but milk, and it is mental milk “that by it ye may grow up to salvation”. If we fail in the mental side we shall be imperfect, of very little use in the organism, the body of Christ, in the way of certain affections. We shall be of very little use in that great working system, the greatest thing that God has reserved from before the foundation of the world, to be used and developed down here. The Lord would have us to be concerned, so as to have our minds in order, so as to join in in this matter, this great organism, called ‘the mystery’; that we should be capable of having part in it in its functioning capacity. It is called ‘the Christ’, one of the most remarkable things of the scriptures, in 1 Corinthians 12: 12, “So also is the Christ”, referring to the body composed of us, or millions or more millions and ^[p. 398] millions and millions of saints. When you come to the concrete presentation in scripture of this the measure is enormous, and it is a solid measure, as we have often remarked, in Revelation 21. It is a solid matter and when you come to think of it, it is all solid, all persons, not thrown together promiscuously, but as a functioning entity which God designed before the world was, even before creation. It is a greater thing than creation. Creation was never viewed as a mystery, but this is. God can seal it carefully when the time for it arrives, and in order to have part in it our minds must be nourished well. That is the basic thought that I had, dear brethren, the word ‘desire’. As the apostle says here, “As newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation”. Now, in order to confirm it, look at the note to the word ‘mental’; you see that it says, ‘The word here translated “mental” has the sense of “suited to the rational faculties” — the mind in contrast with the body — yet I believe there is allusion to logos, from which it is derived, and I have added “of the word” to mark this allusion’. There is a link between the word ‘logos’, and the word ‘mental’; so we take in the mind of God, conceived through our own minds; the ‘logos‘ is the mind of God, where expressed or otherwise as expressed. The word ‘of’ is there, you see; the Lord Jesus became The Word in order that He should be thoroughly, fully known to us, but it depends upon the faculty which God has given to us to take it in, and that is the mind. It is important to keep that before us; you say, Well, the mind is a dangerous thing, and so it is if it gets out of hand. It is then the most dangerous thing, but it should never get out of hand. The believer is the moral being in the world of God and he controls his mind. The Holy Spirit in him helps him to do that, so that we have the pure mind, which Peter speaks of, that can be safely stirred up. The mind of an unconverted ^[p. 399] man is polluted; it can never be stirred up; the theatres are intended to stir it up; the polluted mind of man corrupts the whole world. But the believer’s mind is not that; it is the pure mind. Peter says, “I stir up ... your pure mind”, 2 Peter 3: 1. How is that acquired? Well, the Holy Spirit helps us. The epistle to the Romans shows us that there is the renewing of pure minds: “That ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”, Romans 12: 2. The renewing of our minds is a word that runs through Romans and indeed through all the epistles, I might say; so pronounced is it that when the mind is mature in the christian, the apostle Paul says by the Spirit, “We have the mind of Christ”, 1 Corinthians 2: 16. Think of the greatness of that!

Well now, laying down these basic thoughts, I am seeking to show with the Lord’s help how we can grow and the effects of the growth, and I proceed to Moses. His history is given from babyhood. We get no more accurate history of any person than we do of Moses — put by his mother into an ark of bulrushes, carefully daubed with pitch so that it will not be lost in the waters of the Nile. The staunchness of the ark and the position of the vessel in which Moses was preserved, allude to the power of God. Baptism is no mere rite; it is not a mere service, religious rite or ceremony such as thousands and millions have taken on without any real meaning to it at all. It is the power of God that is in it. We have been buried with Christ in baptism, the apostle says, “In which” — mark that — “in which ye have been also raised with him”, Colossians 2: 12. That is the power of God; “In which ye have been also raised with him”. How are we risen with Christ by the faith of the operation of God who raised Him? It is not simply that we believe that there is such a thing as the operation of God, the power of God, but we have faith that that power is operative in the believer. That is the idea of the ark. You say,

^[p. 400] Well, had it gone out a little further in the Nile it would have been swept down and never been heard of again. Well, we might say the Lord Jesus was put into a grave maliciously made by wicked hands; but He was not — God saw to that, and God saw to Moses’ preservation and God sees to the preservation of every one that is baptised on the principle of faith. How can there be preservation? How can there be salvation except by the power of God? And that power is unlimited.

Well, the saviour came; the saviour, you say, what saviour are you talking about? Pharaoh’s daughter; she was the saviour. You say, How do you know she was a christian, a believer? Well, she opened the ark and looked at that babe and she was moved as she saw it weep. Her father would not have had feelings like that; she saved the babe; she saved that boy. God ordered her to do that; God controlled that, you see. Well, I am only alluding to that one point so that we might have clearly in our minds all that scripture speaks of as facts, facts for the believer to take in in faith. They are not mere useless incidents; they have a meaning and we are to understand their meaning. And so Pharaoh’s daughter gives him back to his mother and his mother looked after him and saves him, and then he comes back to Pharaoh’s daughter and grew up among the Egyptians. What influences he came in contact with! He was possibly one of the best athletes in Egypt. We are told that he was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, a well-known man, we may be sure, as he grew up, 35 or 40 years of age. Well, is that the growth that Peter is speaking about? No, that is not the growth that Peter is speaking about. There is no growth morally in a man who is brought up in the wisdom of the Egyptians. There is nothing moral in that at all; his companions were the royal family and they were no doubt brought up the same way. But one day something ^[p. 401] came into his heart. Where did it come from? It came from God, not from the schools of Egypt. It came into his heart to look on his brethren. That is growth. What a change in that young man! Not the cricket match, the football match, the tennis match, but it came into his heart to look on his brethren. God brought it in there; He put something in that heart that affected the whole race for thousands of years. A little grain was put into his heart, and it has worked and worked, up till the present moment. It is growth, and so the Spirit of God, commenting on it says, “When he had become great”, Hebrews 11: 24. Oh, you say, that is when he was a renowned cricketer or football player or musician or officer, or something like that, renowned in the classics and the like. No! When he became great was when it came into his heart to go down and look upon his brethren. He was full grown; he renounced for ever the joy, the pleasures of Egypt. He “refused to be called son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin”. A great man indeed! He did not have an equal in his day; he became great.

And now we can see, dear brethren, you young people here, how it applies: it is as soon as you begin to look on your brethren. Oh, you say, let the brethren look on me. That is your attitude sometimes, or you do not like them to look on you; you get out of their sight, to do your own will. It has never come into your heart to look on them and bear their burdens. Moses looked on them and their burdens, as if he would take them on. Why the change? That is real growth. That is a great man, dear brethren, in real growth. He looked on the brethren to see how they fared; it came into his heart to do so, and he did it. Stephen tells us things about him; it looks as if Stephen had Moses in his mind a great deal in his discourse. He tells us about him as a babe, and about Pharaoh’s daughter; and how he was educated in Egypt, how he knew the wisdom of the Egyptians, and how he went out to look on his brethren one day; he thought, Stephen says, that they would know that God was going to use him. His heart had been changed; he was thinking of his brethren. He was no longer thinking of being a great man in Egypt or of the crown. He had given that up for ever. He looked upon his brethren and thought his brethren would know what was in his heart. But they did not. But it was in his heart nevertheless, and we are not to be unobservant as to brethren who are able to serve us in any little way. If young men come forward and give a good address, do not fail to take account of that; maybe the Lord is going to use that young man. The next thing is to pray for that young man and encourage him in every way. It is well to have in your heart what may be in his heart; namely, that God is going to use him, and if God is going to use him, he is a treasure to be cared for.

Well, the brethren, two of them, were striving together, as is often the case, and Moses would set them at peace one with the other. Before that, however, one of them was overcome by an Egyptian, but I will not say much about that. Anyway, Moses took the side of his brother; he looked on his brethren. That is the point; he took the side of his brother. It does not say anything about his saving the Egyptian, but he was on the right line, you know, and the next day, he went out again to look on his brethren and this time two Israelites were quarrelling. It might be two sisters quarrelling or two brothers quarrelling. He did not like that. He did not attempt to kill them. He put that away. He said, as it were, to the one in the wrong, Ye are brethren. You can be sure that if there is a quarrel one is wrong, maybe both are, but usually one is very wrong, and the wrong one is sure to take issue with the saviour, with the person who would speak the ^[p. 403] truth to them both. How ready he is to take an issue, and so this one did with Moses. Stephen does not conclude the story until he comes to the time that Moses was commissioned to lead Israel out of Egypt. He says, “This Moses, whom they refused” (Acts 7: 35); the whole nation was debited with that, what that man said to Moses; that they rejected him. But in spite of their rejection of him, God used him. So that he really did become the saviour; he really did become the leader of the people out of Egypt.

Well, now I speak of all this to young men who are aspiring to serve, and it is a good thing to have a desire to be an evangelist or teacher. God honours it, and on the other hand, we who are served should have it as treasured in our hearts, for if he be what he seems to be, he is to be great, for right to the end of his days he will grow in value with the brethren.

That is my first illustration of growth; it is the case of a man who had every prospect in this world and something came into his heart from God which changed his whole life. He became the leader of God’s people; there was really growth, and the Spirit of God said of him that when he became great (meaning when he began to really grow) he went out to look upon his brethren, that, so to say, in his heart he loved his brethren, and as sure as possible, if the Lord is using you you will have it in your heart to love and care for them, for that is representation of God, caring for the Lord’s people.

Now I go on to Samuel to illustrate the point. Samuel is one whose history is given in detail, generally in relation to his mother, but more detail is given as to growth in him than we have even as to Moses. And one of the first points to notice is that he is seen as a very young child wearing a linen ephod, a linen one. He is going to be a real priest. And if you are aspiring to be servants, dear young people, you must take account of this word ‘linen’; it refers to influence that sobers and ^[p. 404] subdues. There are such influences. We may enquire what and how I am to know; it is a good thing to find out how to begin by accepting the obligation to know. If I accept it as an obligation I am always learning until I do know, and if I am an honest man, I will not fail to find out how the thing is to be done. And so the Lord Jesus says of the scriptures, ‘How do you read them?’. You are to learn how to read. So with many other influences; the knowledge exists; it is for me to know. It is my obligation to know, and if I accept the obligation I shall find out the way to know. So there are influences that promote sobriety in the world. There are influences that are against sobriety, all these influences, these institutions, that the devil has set up for the young and old are intended to promote lightness, frivolity, coarseness, blasphemy; do not think I am using hard words! They promote blasphemy; theatres and all these things that the devil has invented are intended to be against God. That is what they are. We have heard today of the man that speaks froward things, and there is the woman who flattereth. That is another feature of the theatre and the play-house, human flattery. It promotes corruption. So that there is a great need for sobriety, and this young boy is wearing a linen ephod at the outset. Now that is remarkable. The next thing you get in the record is that his mother brought him a little coat every year. Why did she do that? She is a godly woman; her name is Hannah. She is one of the most remarkable women in Scripture. Why did she wait until he had worn the linen ephod until she brought the coat? Well, what did the coat imply? Well, every time she brought it he had grown; he had a linen ephod and he is worth taking account of. You will find him reading the Bible sometimes and praying sometimes and talking to God’s people sometimes. He is worth taking account of, and so she brings him a little coat. Who is this that gets a little coat? Well, it is a godly young man, a ^[p. 405] godly boy, if you like; that is what he was. Godliness belongs to boys; why not if the Lord has His way with us from the very outset? It is remarkable how quickly a babe shows that he or she has the faculty of thinking, which you do not get in the lower creation at all. Well, as soon as that is active, God will come in, if possible. Sometimes He got in, and He got in in Samuel, although we are told definitely that he did not yet know the Lord, as if the Spirit of God would mark the time that the knowledge of God came into that boy’s heart. He is influenced by a godly mother and he is placed there in the temple where everything around him spoke of God, and as soon as he is wearing a linen ephod his mother brings him a little coat. He is worth taking account of every year; she brought him one, and it would be bigger every time. She came up there to Shiloh. The ark was in Shiloh in those days; that was the centre for God in those times, where He placed His name. She would come up there and the first person she would make for would be Samuel. How her heart yearned over the boy. She lent him to the Lord, but why lend him? Why not give him? Well, the Lord would say he is yours; the word ‘lent’ means you can come and take him, so that when the Lord laid His hand on the little children He departed, He left them. You say, Why did He do that? Because the father and the mother should look after them, and that is what Hannah did. You can be sure as soon as she got to Shiloh she would make for the little boy. How big is he now? He has still got the linen ephod; he is ministering to the Lord before the high priest, and she would say, Samuel, my boy, how are you getting along? He would tell her, you can be sure. There is no indication of any lightness with Samuel or any frivolity or any effort to get out of the tabernacle into the field. He is a typical boy, a typical young son; that is what he is and he has a coat, too. He is growing steadily in that way; he is not losing ground.

^[p. 406] He is as healthy as other boys in spite of their playgrounds and all that. Well now the point is that he grew: “Samuel grew, and Jehovah was with him”. He has got a wonderful companion now. Where is the boy that ever had a companion greater than the Lord? There is no such thing; the Lord was with him. What an incentive there is with young people to go in for these things! Whatever else you go in for, it is only for a few years; it is all over in a few years, but what about this? This is an eternal matter. The Lord is with you; He is with Samuel. Will He ever cease to be with him? Never! He will be with him for ever. “Thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me”, Psalm 23: 4. So Samuel grew and the Lord was with him, and “let none of his words fall to the ground”. A dear brother was writing to me this very week; he spoke of certain stock stories and he has come to see that there is really nothing in them at all to help him. Well now, that is a fine word, you know, from a brother who is older than I am, I think. He is growing. Well, I want to grow too on these lines, not to be occupied with trifles, with things that profit nothing, foolish talk and the like. It says of Samuel’s words that not one of them fell to the ground. Well, what words they must have been! Think of all the words that one of us speaks from the time he is born till the time he dies. Think of the words; think of the profitless things there are; the many that have fallen to the ground; the many that are buried for ever. But the ones that Samuel spoke did not fall to the ground; they were worth keeping. And that, dear brethren, is the word of the Spirit: “Let your word be always with grace, seasoned with salt”, Colossians 4: 6. Such is holy conversation. It says, “They that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed it, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written”, Malachi 3: 16. There were no trifles in this thing, but right talking. Not one of Samuel’s words fell to the ground. You will understand what I ^[p. 407] am speaking about. I have no doubt that Samuel had to speak of ordinary things that are not preserved for us, but what is in mind is what he said in ministry; undoubtedly he was constituted a minister; he was a prophet. God says to the brethren, to Israel in his day, Listen to what that young man is saying; do not let one thing that he says go without knowing about it; listen to it; it is worth keeping. How did God keep them from falling to the ground? He got them into the hearts of His people; that is what He intended; He intended that the hearts of His people (I do not know how many Israelites there were in those days, a good number possibly; in David’s time there would be eight million in Israel; I would reckon that from the census that was taken. About two million came out of Egypt through the wilderness into the land). Well, now, God says, these hearts, these children, they are all Mine; that is the right that God has: “My son, give me thy heart”. Well, what will God do with your heart? He will use it to contain words spoken through servants that they may have a resting place there and that you might be able to say something too that will not fall to the ground. That is how the testimony goes on. And then it says further in the passage I read: “And all Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, knew that Samuel was established a prophet of Jehovah”. You see they all knew. How did they know? They knew by hearing what was said. It was no mere hearsay; they heard the things. If my heart is containing the prophetic ministry, it is germinating there, I know who is giving it. Where did I hear that? Do you not know? It was when Samuel spoke of it; that is when I heard it. It remained in your heart, a sure evidence that it has been a prophetic word is that it remained in your heart, “All Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, knew that Samuel was established a prophet of Jehovah”. And not only that, it was established. God did that; God saw to it that not only ^[p. 408] had he the prophetic ministry, but He saw to it that the brethren knew. Wherever you went you would hear them say, Well, we thank God for Samuel; Samuel is going to be here today. One day he came to Bethlehem to anoint David. That was a wonderful meeting; that is one of, what you might call, the exemplary meetings of the service of Samuel. He would go around from where he lived, Ramah, Bethel, Mizpah and so on; he made a circuit every year. What day of the month is this? so and so, and so and so. Samuel is going to be here shortly. Let us all be ready for Samuel; the young women came down to one place where Samuel was and the two young men were looking for asses that were lost. They did not find them; they were poor servants, at least; the leader was Saul, and as they drew near to the town they found young girls there, maidens, come down from the town, and they enquired about Samuel. Is he here? Oh, yes, they knew all about Samuel. An excellent example for young girls and young boys amongst us. They knew all about Samuel. Where is he? Oh, you will find him at so and so; they knew all about Samuel. And that is how the matter was in those days: how God brought this boy, this babe, this young man into establishment as a prophet and how the saints received his words and how when he came to their localities they feared, for it is said in one instance that they feared greatly. He might have to rebuke us, but he came anyway. God established him a prophet in Israel, to be a prophet of the Lord; that is, he was a real representative of Jehovah; God had a real representative. Well, that is a great incentive to growth, dear brethren; who knows but that God has some one here who has great thoughts about us? He would bring them out and develop them and he is to be in it himself, to grow every day, every minute, every year, with a linen ephod. He is a real priest able to pray, to get to God about things. Presently he is set up from Dan to Beer-sheba;

^[p. 409] everybody knows he is a prophet of Jehovah. And then finally, “And Jehovah appeared again at Shiloh; for Jehovah revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of Jehovah”. The whole of Shiloh gets the good of the ministry of Samuel.

May God bless the word!