PRACTICE EXPOUNDS A TRUTH
PRACTICE EXPOUNDS A TRUTH
The difference between human and divine knowledge is that the former is merely information, the latter is formative. Human knowledge does not alter me, but develops my natural state. The word of God forms me anew. I am born again of incorruptible seed, even the word of God. It is a new existence, entirely superior to the old existence, and receiving no help or countenance from it; on the contrary, it is hindered and checked by the old, and from the very start it assumes an independent course and derives all its strength from the Spirit of God. “As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby”. It is only as I practically accept and live in what the word communicates [p. 390] that I can know what it confers, because I have no idea of the order of nature of the new creation except as I am consciously in it. I have natural instincts as to that for which I am naturally fitted, be it to walk, or read, or sing. There must be natural ability; human teaching cannot impart the ability, though it can cultivate, increase, and develop it. But the word of God by the Spirit forms an entirely new creature, and this is as distinct in its new order from the old one as the butterfly is from the caterpillar. In the new creation everything is conferred according to the measure of grace; and hence no idea can be known except as an action is produced.
There is no convincing a person born blind of the nature of light, because the power of sight is unknown to him, and no reasoning or description can explain it to him; but the moment he sees, all the mystery is solved, and the difficulty is at an end.
It is useless to reason with an unconverted person. All seems an impracticable theory until the light has broken in on him and he believes; then he understands what before was wholly beyond him. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”. Faith not only admits the truth, but it sees; there is power to produce a practical acknowledgment of it, and the faith is certified by this acknowledgment. God in grace sends the word; the moment it is accepted through the Spirit there is an act, and the act of faith makes what was before incomprehensible simple and clear. When you act as one really believing, you not only confirm your faith, but you are assured of the simplicity and reality of the truth you have believed, because it is truth. The woman in Luke 7 believed the report of verses 16 and 17; and in acting on it, in following the Lord into the Pharisee’s house, it became plain and intelligible to herself that Jesus was her Saviour; the practice which followed the faith explained and confirmed the truth to her. Faith without works is dead.
[p. 391] The real cause of our lack of intelligence and power is that there is so little acting in answer to our faith. Had this woman in Luke 7 contented herself with believing that Jesus was her Saviour, how great would have been her loss, both as to the confirmation of grace to herself, and the testimony to the fact to others. Her boldness in braving the Pharisee’s taunts not only obtained for her an interview with the Saviour in whom she believed, but ensured to her the confirmation of His grace from His own lips, while the devotedness of her acts established in her own heart the full confidence of faith. She was convinced of the beauty and value of the One in whom she believed.
Many in the present day believe that the blood of Christ, like the blood on the lintel in Egypt, is the only shelter from the judgment of God. But there is neither confirmation of this truth to their own souls, nor open testimony to the fact, because there is no feeding on the lamb, on Christ, in secret; no outward manner and bearing, with loins girt, shoes on their feet, and staff in their hand, proclaiming that they are not only safe in the place of judgment, but that they are openly and avowedly going away from it; Exodus 12.
The rescued mariner, although transferred from the wreck to the lifeboat, must sigh for shore, and the more so the more perilous his position has been. It is not possible to convey to a soul the blessedness of leaving the world until he has acted on his faith, and sought the Lord within closed doors, having openly packed up and prepared to journey away from all here. Who could explain to another what walking on the water means, who had never tried to do so? Even in natural things it is so; no one can swim who will not venture into the water. Now if the loss from not acting in faith be so palpable in the very infancy of the new life, how much more must it be so in the higher truths. The real cause of dullness of apprehension of truth, and consequently of the frequent opposition to it, is that the truth presented [p. 392] has never been reduced to practice. Sometimes it has been listened to and discarded as impracticable, because it has not been subjected to the test of practice; and sometimes, even when the truth is accepted, the acceptance merely amounts to an acquiescence as to its being true, instead of a conviction that it is a truth which is materially to affect one’s whole state; and when this last is not the result, there is an indifference to it in the heart.
It is at once fearful and surprising, the amount of truth which lies inactive without budding in our hearts, even in what is really admitted, admired, and prized, because there has not been any attempt to shape oneself to it. This is the real cause of the weakness in the conversions in the present day. Never was there a day since the apostles’ time when so much truth was in circulation, and yet never a day when conversions were of so feeble a type. When there was less truth, every convert impressed his companions with at least the deep work in his soul by his retirement from worldly pleasures and his strict observance of duties; but now, with the clearer knowledge of grace, there seems to be no apprehension of higher responsibilities, and the idea is that as it is all of grace, there need be no works at all. There is the admission of being rescued from judgment, without any sense of having received a new nature, to discharge higher functions and to express greater sentiments than could be known to the old one. There is the sense of being delivered from a penal death, but no sense of the fact that an entirely new condition of life is conferred, more different from the old than that of the butterfly from that of the caterpillar. Possibly the preachers fail in pressing home the utter and deplorable ruin of the old state, and consequently do not insist in spiritual earnestness on the great, distinct, and marvellous qualities of the new. However that may be, it is evident that, though faith may accept the means of salvation, there is no real knowledge of what salvation [p. 393] is, except as there is taken a step or steps which confirm or corroborate the faith. And if this be the case with elementary truth, how much more must a saint be hindered by not attempting to practise the higher truths which he does not deny.
I have already noted that some escape the edge of this remark by at once refusing the truth as impossible. In their ignorant prudence they are like a man refusing to enter the water until he can swim. As to this class I will only add, May the Lord in His mercy open their ears to hear!
But I will suppose, for example’s sake, those who have accepted the truth that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ. Now this class I divide into four varieties. The first — which are the least enlightened — meet you with this difficulty: ‘I see what is presented in Scripture that heaven is our present portion, but I do not feel that it imparts anything to me; I wish it did. On the contrary, while I admit the truth, I find I can enjoy the earth in many ways’. It is evident by their own showing that those who comprise this section have never by faith entered on this new ground. Their faith is dead. They have not gone in and set their foot on the place given to them. Practice would soon clear away this difficulty, and the delight of possession would disabuse their minds of the impracticability of the heavenly truth, but there is not purpose of heart to practise, because of the attractions here. Now the second class accept the truth as orthodox, and are not diverted from it by unwillingness to give up enjoyments here. On the contrary they maintain, and that with great truthfulness, that all real solace must come from the Lord; but instead of taking the actual position of being dwellers in heaven, and coming from there to earth, they only look up to heaven for help as to their walk on earth; and their thoughts and labours are always influenced and dictated by the state and order of things on earth; and instead of pressing upon man the mind of the [p. 394] Lord as learned in heaven, they are occupied with the blessing of man on earth.
The difficulty of exposing this state is great, because, with the acceptance of heavenly truth, there is genuine zeal and devoted service for man’s blessing on earth, but only as a pilgrim going on to heaven, and no real practical consciousness of being, as a heavenly man, at home in heaven now. Hence the idea is avowed that there would not be the same extent of practice if the higher truth were adopted. It is true that the heavenly truth does not produce a practice as visible or as easily discerned as the doctrine which makes man very prominently the object. What commends itself to the mind of man is preferred to the heavenly and declared to be the better, and thus the “testimony of the Lord” and “of me, his prisoner” (Paul) is practically neglected.
The third variety are those who have seen and admired heavenly truth, but fearing the narrow path and circumscribed service and fellowship in labour to which it would reduce them, they veered away in order to be more visibly and extensively useful, and with a larger circle of companions; but they never progress, and they suffer in their souls as well as hinder the testimony.
The fourth are those who not only accept the truth and adhere to it, but study to be practically in it; and as they do so, every difficulty is perfectly solved, and the path, because divine, becomes clearer every day. They go from strength to strength, empowered for still greater advance, because of the very power which has enabled them to make so much progress. I may illustrate these four states by four conditions of a bird’s life. The first resembles a bird in the nest where its natural maturing is in order that it may be able to leave the nest, but in opposition to its own nature wishing to prolong its stay there. The second is like a bird with a broken wing, which can only move on the earth. The fourth alone enjoys in a wide expanse the wondrous abilities with which it has been endowed, simply because [p. 395] it uses the power that has been conferred on it. Thus practice explains to oneself in one’s own soul, and to others in testimony, the nature and qualities of the power of grace, otherwise inexplicable, and never comprehended until one acts as one believes; for this is the work of faith with power, and faith is thus made perfect.