PROGRESS ENTAILS EXERCISE AND FERVENCY
PROGRESS ENTAILS EXERCISE AND FERVENCY
There are two experiences in a quickened soul; one, the assurance of a gift conferred; the other, the comprehension of the value and effect of the gift, and an ever deepening acquaintance with it. With every gift that is accepted there is a sense of possession, but in order to know the value of the gift there must be study of it, and exercise, or there will be no progress. For example, the talent was a gift, but it was not to be hidden in a napkin, but put out to interest that it might be increased. It is quite a different thing to seek a talent, and to use one. There can be no using of the gift until it be possessed; and here there is often much delay and loss to the soul. It is seeking to ascertain the assurance of possession, instead of being able to use what is assuredly possessed. The power to see that every part of God’s purpose respecting us is simply grace, and as much grace as the forgiveness of sins, can be imparted only by the Spirit of God. It is not only at first that souls are legal; the legality of our hearts has to be encountered at every step. The sinner thinks he must do something to commend himself to God, and the converted soul often turns to some effort of his own to acquire rest; and so on with regard to every part of the purpose of God, instead of its being simply and heartily received as His gift. There is often merely a glimpse of it as a thing to be desired, and sometimes a real longing of heart for it, and at one time there is an assurance of one’s right to it, which at another time is lost, but still nothing else can satisfy the heart; because,
†The word “fervent”, or variations of it, is used five times in Scripture. Acts 26:7, “Instantly (or in intensity) serving”. Luke 22:44, “He prayed more earnestly”. Acts 12:5, “Prayer ... without ceasing”, literally intense. 1 Peter 4:8, “Fervent charity among yourselves”. 1 Peter 1:22, “With a pure heart fervently”.
[p. 192] through grace, it has a right to it, for it has been already conferred on it by the free grace of God.
Now this is a state of distress; and it may not arise from the question of sin not being disposed of. There may be settled assurance of that, and yet there may be distress from the heart not being assured of union with Christ in the glory which He has given us. (John 17.)
The heart, as I have said, craves it; because it is the spot of rest which alone can satisfy it, but it measures its possession and right to it by its enjoyment of it, instead of setting itself to use it because of possessing it. An Israelite in the early morning, doubtless longed for the manna, but when he possessed it, he had to make use of it in order to learn its value. Had he wandered to a part of the wilderness where it was not, he would feel that he had missed it, and be in a state of distress, because occupied with his need and loss, instead of with the advantages which he derived from it when turning it to account. The antitype of the manna is Christ. Christ is now our life. If I am occupied with seeking whether I have His life or not, I am in distress. I have in reality lost my way. I have missed the cloud as well as the manna; and though I may appear to be very devoted and earnest, it is in reality more the striving of a drowning man labouring to retain his breath, than the fervent happy toil of one using it. The difference between the two is very striking. An invalid may use every effort to acquire health, and be earnest as to the object he has in view, but it is not the earnestness of the strong man who is exerting all his energies to increase his property and resources. As an invalid has a relish for health, so has the renewed soul a relish for light; but there is always a check to its reception if there be legality, and this legality is so frequently commended for earnestness, that it is often long before it is renounced. It has to be encountered at every step, but when it gives way before the light, in the assurance that our portion in every part is simply God’s gift, the soul experiences a marvellous relief, and one [p. 193] quite as great as when Israel saw that a way was made for them through the Red Sea, without any effort on their part. When the soul has got into liberty (”where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”), there is the assured sense of possession. Like Israel entering the land, there is a joy and a quietude never known before, though much longed for. It is a land where “thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it”. There is hardly any moment of one’s history so peculiarly blessed, as when the heart is taught by the Spirit of God, that the glory of Christ claims me as its own, and transforms me into its order and beauty. It is such a moment of bliss, such a relief from the distress of seeking, tasting, and longing alternately; the heart pining for the joy and rest which known union with Christ can only confer; the love true, but unsatisfied and unassured. This may give one the beautiful traits of a Mary Magdalene, with all her manner of unrequited devotion, still restless and unsatisfied. But when the certainty of association with Christ, as His brethren, in relationship to His God and our God, His Father and our Father, is known, there is light inconceivable and unequalled joy. The soul is not in its true proper ground for action until it has reached this point. As the land was to Israel, so is this assurance to the soul of the saint. There can be no Gilgal, until this point has been reached - the gift of God has not been received. One must assuredly be inside with God, before one can be outside for Him in testimony or service. I must first see where the purpose of God sets me, as shown in Ephesians 1. If this be not seen, there can be no progress. But this being accepted by faith, do I stop there? No; then it is that the prayer in chapter 3 follows, that I may know the good of what I have received; and then, strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, I have to resist the assaults of Satan.
Now the certainty of possession is not without its dangers; and though it be a moment of untold blessing, Scripture connects a “beware” with it; for literally the saint’s labour and proper assiduities do not begin until this wondrous elevation has been reached; so that, instead of its being the finish, and ultimate point, it is really the starting point. From this all the acquisitions are to spring, and from here all the conflicts with wicked spirits in heavenly places are to be fought. The duties of a man come on with manhood. If it has its glory, it has also its responsibilities and its dangers. Self-occupied distress has given way to joy unspeakable and full of glory; but now the man of undoubted might is taxed and absorbed in an intense degree, with the great issues before him. They are a double nature. He has on the one hand to learn the answer to the prayer in Ephesians 3, to comprehend the immense scope of divine purpose disclosed to him, while his heart deepens in the “love of Christ, which passeth knowledge”, and is filled with the fulness of him that filleth all in all. What exercises and fervency would this side impart to one! And then on the other hand, there is in the whole armour of God, the unyielding resistance to every wile of Satan, alas, generally most successful after a distinct victory, when watchful dependence is dropped for a moment. How engrossing would be the occupation, how absorbed the manner of one progressing in these very opposite and wondrous engagements! There would not be merely the exultation of being brought to so great a place, but there would be constant jealousy over self, and fear, not of losing the place, but of not walking worthy of it.
There is no room here for a thought common to some, that if I could read my title clear, and were once in spirit in settled assurance of my portion in Christ, I should see war no more; and all exercises would be at an end. The contrary is the teaching of Scripture. This is not passing the time of our sojourning here in fear, but, as we see 2 Peter 1, when there is not adding, there is not an abundant entrance into His kingdom and glory. It is after the servant of God has reached the place of rest and assurance for himself, that his real exercises begin, that [p. 195] the full force of his life is exerted. Our blessed Lord’s path on earth deepened in exercise, zeal, and suffering, as it proceeded. He endured more of every kind after the transfiguration than before. On the holy mount He reached the meed that was due to Him personally, but when He descended, and all along to the garden of Gethsemane, it was one of continued exercise and fervency, until in the garden, “being in an agony he prayed more earnestly”. His sense of perfect favour with His Father did not save Him from exercise and zeal in His service and path here, but on the contrary it entailed still more upon Him.
And so it is with every servant. Moses has to be more exercised and fervent after the vision of the burning bush than before. See him before Pharaoh; see him in his plaints to God. Was ever pressure known by him in such a way before? Was he broken down by it? Was he not more and more valiant? What a moment when he descends from the mount and finds Israel turned to idolatry! What exercises and fervency are elicited from him before God in that trying juncture! What calmness before man! He faces the six hundred thousand of Israel as if they were less than one man, and pitches the tabernacle outside the camp. If he were not resting assuredly in God he never could have endured in that hour. His assured favour with God qualifies him for his deeper exercise and display of true energy. His progress entails it. I need hardly speak of others. Isaiah is fitted for the deepest suffering and the most devoted service, by being assured of his own acceptance in the glory of God. No servant is fit for work until he has found a base with God. From it he starts, but then his progress entails an exercise and an energy, commensurate with the position given him of God. If he advance in the divine side, he must also increase in the suffering side, in the expression of the vigour which has been imparted. The apostle Paul probably knew more of association with Christ in unfading light than any one, and hardly any one could [p. 196] have endured more than he did. He could say, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart”. “Cast down, but not destroyed”; “pressed out of measure, above strength”; “sorrowful, yet alway-rejoicing”. Progress increased his exercises as well as his devotion to the Lord’s service. His elevation to heaven, and the abundance of the revelations vouchsafed to him, made it necessary that he should have a thorn in the flesh. Thus a new and unlooked-for exercise is the consequence of his progress in the things of Christ.
But it is not only what is inflicted by the hand of the Lord, or by the violence of men, that he has to surmount; he subjects himself of his own accord to what I may call soul discipline. He writes, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection lest... when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway”; and, “I endure all things for the elect’s sakes”.
In conclusion, as the knowledge of Christ increases, and this the apostle was as much set upon to the last as if he had never attained to any of it, there must be exercise as to what is contrary to it. The knowledge of good entails the knowledge of the contrast. “Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil”. The man of God as he progresses in the things of Christ, has the corresponding obligation of maintaining what he knows of Him, and resisting everything that is contrary to Him; and this must always produce more exercise, more fervency, more prayer, more conflict, more self-surrender, more zeal.
The Lord grant that our experience may be, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up;” and this will be in proportion as we know what it is, and the One to whom it belongs.