THE STATE OF SOULS THE GUIDE TO SERVICE
THE STATE OF SOULS THE GUIDE TO SERVICE
However abundant the resources with the most beneficent heart, they are practically of no avail unless they are suited to the state of the receiver.
The most abundant clothing is of little or no avail to a hungry man; plenty of every kind of food is of no use to a sick one. It is not enough to have supplies of every [p. 326] kind, it is necessary also to know the particular thing required at the time by those to whom the benevolence extends. The great virtue of the Lord’s ministry by the word is that it supplies the lack of the soul concurrently with exposing it. Blessed be His name, He not only abounds in every resource, but He knows the state so perfectly that He supplies the very thing required, and as it is required. Thus He uses the ministry of His word, when sent by Himself through any channel. The servant who is a pastor is not only a channel for the word, but can suit the word to the state of an individual soul. It is interesting to mark the way the apostle refers to and is influenced by the state of souls; “that I might know your state” was the great anxiety of his heart in his service for the saints.
There are two parts of the grace of God to us: one, the completeness of deliverance which has been effected for us by the work of Christ; the other, the greatness of the things which God hath prepared for us. And there are two lines of teaching: one is relative to the first part of grace, the completeness of our deliverance; this must be insisted on by the servant of Christ, whatever the state in which the believer is found. This first part of God’s grace is a whole in itself; though it is not satisfied without the other, it is distinct and definite in itself, just as a man’s life is distinct from the place or society where it could find perfect and unceasing enjoyment. This first part of grace, I repeat, must be insisted on; however low the state of the believer, the efficacy of Christ’s work to deliver him from all his ruin should be presented to him, though, like a serpent-bitten Israelite, he only lifts his eyes to the brazen serpent that he believes could relieve him. The faithful servant presses on souls the fulness of grace which awaits them. The danger is lest the servant should mistake a lesser state for the true one, and then either fail to set forth and press the true and full christian state, where only there would be vigour and health, or - as is the case with some earnest teachers - attempt to [p. 327] lead them into the second part of grace, feeding them with meat before they are able to bear it; and this is of great injury to them in many ways. It is therefore of great importance that the servant should know the effects or the characteristics of the true state.
I suggest that Exodus 15 in a very striking way defines the characteristics of the first part. It is a song. There is joy in the heart in reciting and expressing the blessed effects of the grace of God. First there is triumph, because the Lord hath triumphed gloriously. It is the Lord who is before the heart, and His triumph; the simple and assured evidence of the brightness and heartiness of faith. It discerns Him where He is, the triumphant One in glory; the heart sings in blessed consciousness of this. It is the experience of Stephen; he looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus. No eye can rest on Jesus there without the sense and assurance of triumph pervading the soul. We derive from Him who represents us there; and thus we represent Him here. “As he is, so are we in this world”. This is one characteristic.
The second is that an entirely new interest now opens out to our heart. It is no longer our own distinction or concerns here; it is the glory of God. “I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him”. If I have been fully and triumphantly delivered from all the consequences of sin and judgment, and all the power of evil, surely it is but meet and right that in the place of my deliverance, like David in his day, the Lord’s house should commemorate the spot where His grace so blessedly reached me. If I have been gloriously cleared of all the evil, where the evil is, what less could I do than be occupied with God in that very place? “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”, Psalm 132: 4, 5.
The third characteristic is the assurance and confidence of heart of entering into God’s place. “Thou shalt bring [p. 328] them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established”. There is the sense of unqualified supremacy over every obstruction, of which Stephen is the great pattern. “Till the people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased”.
These characteristics, though very great, and most blessed, mark the only true christian state. I find several states of soul between the moment of conversion and this, but I cannot accept as the right one any other than this, however interesting and commendatory it may be. Hence, I cannot allow any state to be the true one but the one which is marked by these characteristics. I should not make light of any lesser state of soul; but as I know the state of real health, I cannot, as an honest physician, allow anyone to suppose he has reached it when he has not. I prescribe for health, and though rejoiced at any and every progress towards it, I cannot allow souls to call a lower experience by the name of a higher one. There is hardly anything more mischievous than that one should be deluded into the idea of possessing a great benefit which he does not possess; for he is thus prevented from seeking or accepting it, though all the while it is at his very hand, because he is labouring under the delusion that he already has it.
If I find a soul thankful that he is under the shelter of the blood of Christ, as Exodus 12 typifies, I have to cheer and encourage him by the fulness of grace in chapter 15. I know that he will have to pass through all the stages between chapters 12 and 15 eventually; but my service is to present to him the Lord who has triumphed gloriously, Himself crucified having cleared the ground; and I keep pressing the first part of grace in its full and perfect measure. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”. I am not to deceive myself that he is in the true christian state because he [p. 329] breathes. If I deceive myself I am sure to deceive him, and many who would not be deceived in this first state might be so by some of the subsequent ones. For instance, how touching and interesting is one in real condition of soul eating of the roasted lamb, dwelling on Christ as the Sin-bearer. Such an one, though very exemplary for piety and devotion, is yet not in the deep-toned melody of Christ’s triumphs. Again, I may see others bravely and persistently walking away from the world, their loins girt, their staff in their hand, and their shoes on their feet, eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, in their purpose to get clear of the judgment on Egypt; but they are not yet in triumph, and they have none of the characteristics I have spoken of.
Again, others can truly and rapturously speak of the manner in which salvation has been wrought out. They literally see the salvation of God; they see by faith how the blessed Lord entered into death, and they see Him combating with unchecked power all the mighty deep. They are assured of salvation and deeply affected at the manner of His grace; but yet they are not in the song that celebrates His finished work and describes the effects produced by it.
Now if it be incumbent on the servant to keep the first part of grace before the soul of the believer, and not to let him rest in anything short of life, and that in its vigour or health; it is also his duty, and of the greatest moment for the soul’s blessing, not to present the other part of grace until the soul is able to bear it. Paul says of the Corinthians, “I... could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able”, 1 Corinthians 3: 1, 2. In the former chapter he says, with reference to wisdom, “we speak wisdom among them that are perfect”. The Corinthians were babes because, though they had learned the fulness of grace as to their place before God, they had not accepted the [p. 330] cross practically; they were not consistently breaking off all connection with Egypt, and the associations pleasing to the flesh. They were drawn aside by this doctrine of Balaam. Wisdom would have been as unsuited to them as “a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout”. There is always a preparation of heart by various processes, to fit one for the reception of wisdom, and yet wisdom is as much the gift of God’s grace as is the first part of His grace. If the earth is disquieted when a fool is filled with meat, how much more the church of God! In order to escape making shipwreck, the faith must be maintained with a good conscience. If the grace be received by faith, unless the conscience is good, unless the claim or the responsibility of the truth be observed, there will be a greater downfall than if it had never been accepted, as was the case with Lot accompanying Abram. Better for him in every way had he remained where he was conscientiously, unless when he had accepted the right ground he had answered to its responsibilities, and thus preserved a good conscience. A man of age is one whose senses are exercised to discern good and evil; such an one is ready for the second part of grace, and the servant finds that “as an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear”.
Edification is the great object of the servant, and this never occurs but as the thing needed most is first supplied, as the Lord in His grace always does. Happy is the servant who is so led by Him that he always presents the measure of truth suited to the state of souls, and refuses to supply the knowledge that puffeth up, because he will not minister to the extent of his own knowledge, but what will edify and meet the state of souls. “This also we wish, even your perfection”.
May the state of souls be more before the heart of each of the Lord’s servants, for His name’s sake.