GOING ON TO FULL GROWTH

Hebrews 6:1(to “full growth”),9-12; Genesis 13:14-18;

Numbers 13:26-33; 14:1-10; Judges 1:12-15

What is before me, beloved brethren, is suggested by the verse in Hebrews, “let us go on to what belongs to full growth”. The thought as to going on is repeated through Scripture, a going forward known in the souls of people as well as in their actions, in their movements. It almost becomes a theme for believers, that we are to go on.

There is a time for standing still. When the children of Israel approached the Red Sea, fearful as they found the sea ahead of them and the enemy approaching behind them, the call of Moses was, “stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah, which he will work for you to-day”, Exod.14:13. But then very quickly, Jehovah spoke to Moses, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward” (v.15). There was a blessed moment to contemplate the greatness of that time when God’s power made the sea go back and made a way through for them. We know that bears upon our salvation and we are very thankful for that, but then “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward”.

Then Genesis 24 speaks so prophetically and uniquely about the assembly in type coming to light in relation to what she is and what she fills out in this present time, as represented by Rebecca, and the key to it is at the end where the question to her is, “Wilt thou go with this man?” (v.58). It is not only a question of the truth of it, the blessedness of it. There were those of the family who would have detained her; “Let the maiden abide with us some days, or say ten” (v.55), but there was urgency in the voice of the servant, typical of the Holy Spirit, as he said, “Do not hinder me”. When her brother and her mother asked, “Wilt thou go with this man?”, Rebecca said, “I will go” (v:58). The enemy wants us to become static in our spiritual lives, but we need to go on in relation to the truth, in relation to our Christian faith.

It is something that we might think of at the present time. Sometimes we may have to pass through sad days or difficulties in our lives, but I believe that the answer to all these pressures is for us to go on, to seek grace to go on with what is of the truth, into the fulness of it. We go on as building on what is basic in every one of us here as believers. Most of us here, perhaps all, would have a link with the Lord Jesus, and it is a blessed thing to rest in that, in the relief and the peace of knowing what it is to have forgiveness, to have proved the blessing of God in relation to our condition and state. We must never forget it, but then we are to move on in the truth, not that we ever leave behind the appreciation of our salvation. Paul says as to his commission in relation to going to the nations, “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”, Acts 26:18. There are many here who know what it is to have remission of sins, but do we know what the inheritance among the sanctified is? That was Paul’s commission from the Lord to those of the nations “sanctified by faith”. What a thing that is. I would like to encourage the brethren, especially the younger ones here, that not only are we to know what it is to come into Christian salvation and blessing, but we need to go in for it fully, go in for the truth and become established and grow in it.

There were two young men who wrote hymns in the 1830s. Mr John Newman wrote: