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WHAT IS PURE

I was encouraged, dear brethren, to say something about what is firm. My simple impression was that we grow up to salvation, if indeed we “have tasted that the Lord is good”. These two scriptures speak of what is pure. There is nothing that can be found in the world which is pure, only that which comes from God. I am sure that must be true. There are impurities in everything else, and if we look within ourselves, we will find that which is impure. It is good tonight that there are many young people here, because the scripture may help you to relate to it a little. Like newborn babes, we are to desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word.

We have to lay certain things aside. We all have to do that, but I think that those who are older would say with real assurance that it is well worth your while to leave certain things aside and to grow up to salvation. You cannot run the two together. You cannot run with these thoughts of malice and guile and hypocrisies and envyings and evil speaking, and still grow. You need to lay these things aside; it might be what is natural to you, the things which oppose, the things which offend. We need to leave them to one side, but I think that will come as a consequence of tasting that the Lord is good. Everything that we do in our Christianity comes as a consequence of tasting that the Lord is good. Every believer who first comes to trust in Jesus through the preaching of the gospel has tasted that the Lord is good. That is the first step in your Christian pathway, and it is something that enlightens your heart. It may be one word in the gospel, and you taste that the Lord is good. There is a Man who has died for you and He has shed His precious blood for you and given everything for you when you deserved nothing. You have tasted that the Lord is good.

But then you move on. The Lord speaks to you in His grace. He has spoken to me many times and I have turned my back on His speaking, but He continues to speak. Then you come to it that you have to lay certain things aside, because we cannot grow in divine things, we cannot understand divine things, if we go on with what is natural to us and put our own propensities and our own goodness and our own self-will in the way of it. One thing that I believe we need is to be subject; we need to give ourselves over to the Lord, to listen to the word of this blessed One, and to come and hear. It says, “as newborn babes desire earnestly …”. Even a newborn babe knows where to find the food supply. Someone likened it to Mary sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to His word; that which was given to her was not taken from her. You may receive an impression sitting tonight in this occasion, and I hope that all of us will get a touch from the Lord, maybe a touch in His grace giving you something that will help you and strengthen you in your faith to go on. We all need strengthening, we need to keep going on despite the difficulties that arise. It is wonderful to see that such a touch as this can be an encouragement to us, that we may grow up to salvation. There is stability in believers when we grow up to salvation. We taste that the Lord is good, and we are prepared to set other things to one side. The Lord in His grace gives us some impression as to the goodness not only of Himself, but the boundaries, you might say, of the environment over which He is Head and is Lord, and the great kingdom which He is over, and that involves the saints.

It is a wonderful thing when you come not only to love the Lord Jesus, but to love your local brethren and to see that there is a value which the Lord puts on them. That is another step in your Christian path. It is something that you feed on. It is good to feed, and taste that the Lord is good. He helps you in that, and I believe that there is something very commendable and very structured about a dear brother or sister who has grown up to salvation. There is something there of substance within that believer which the Lord can commend and lay His hand on. It is not something that the enemy can push to one side. There are many ways in which the enemy can come and push us to one side. But if you grow up to salvation, you have come to see the structure of Christianity, you have come to see what you are as reconciled before a righteous God, what you are as redeemed. You have come to see the glory of the kingdom, you have come to see the glory of the assembly.

There are many aspects to that structure, and you come to see that you have a part in it. You become a stone that is ready to be fitted into this wonderful structure. Someone said that it is a sealed structure – there are no joins in it, there is no cement or mortar. How wonderful it is to see that there is a structure. As we come along, dear young friend, and all of us, we see how we fit together into this wonderful structure which is being built up, and it happens to those who desire the pure mental milk of the word. It is something that is pure. There is nothing diluted in it; it comes in purity from God and it comes through the power of the Spirit. But I say for myself anyway, I need to set certain things aside. I cannot go on in my Christian path, seeking the guidance and help and direction of the Spirit and seeking some revelation of the glory of the Man in heaven, if I am going on in my own self-will, if I am going on in my own independence, if I am going on thinking my things. The Lord only directs His people, and the Spirit only directs God’s people, down one path. We need to set our own wills to one side and find the strength and the grace and the help that comes from divine Persons.

Then every one of us, down to the youngest who has a desire, will find something pure that fills our souls. There is nothing greater than a word from the Lord Jesus, a simple word. He may say something simple to you tonight, but something that is pure, and it edifies you and it builds you up, it nourishes you and it helps you in your path. You may have had a difficult day at work or at school or university or college or wherever you have been, but such a word would help you in your path, it would strengthen you for one more day. It would help you, not only in your individual path but when we come together collectively, to see what the structure is. You see what you are as fitted together into this wonderful structure, and it helps and encourages us.

I read this passage in Timothy because not only are you fitted in, but you are serviceable, you are a person that is commendable; not only commendable to the local brethren, but commendable to the Lord. The Lord can use such a soul, young or old, brother or sister, whatever the service may be. If you purify yourself, you become a vessel, as it speaks of here; “separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”. It is important to separate yourself from the things it speaks of here. I am not going to go into these negative things because it is good to be positive and to keep our mind on what God is doing. There are many things which can trip us up and with which we can be disappointed, but let us be encouraged to see what the Lord is doing, to see what He is building up, and to see what He is strengthening. The testimony of that is here tonight with young and old gathered together. He is building the saints up, He is giving us food, and He is strengthening us.

I would say again to the young and to all of us, find your part in it. You will never be disappointed in this wonderful structure and the Lord will use you, by whatever means He may, to further the testimony. Then not only that, but as it goes on to say, “youthful lusts flee” and so on, “with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. You will find others who are of the same mind, those who have the same desire. It is a wonderful thing, when you sit down in a company, that the Spirit of God is in liberty to bring out the great things of God, because everyone there desires to have pure hearts, pure motives, right desires and have the Lord and the saints in their hearts.

May the Lord bless the word, for His name’s sake.

Word in a meeting for ministry, Grangemouth

4 July 2017

D. Spinks

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