GRACE, AND ITS EFFECTS
[p. 152] GRACE, AND ITS EFFECTS
Luke 10: 1 - 42; Luke 11: 1 - 54; Luke 12:1 - 59
We are exhorted to seek the kingdom of God; and I desire to show how the kingdom of God is established in our hearts, and the practical result. In other words, to speak of grace, and its effects in those who receive it.
Luke 10: 30 - 37 illustrates the principle of the new covenant. The law, represented by the priest and the Levite, could not help the poor half-dead man. Indeed the only thing the law could do for a sinner was to kill him outright. The principle of grace is that God acts from Himself, and all is the outcome of what He is, and what He does.
The only thing that commended this man to the notice of the Samaritan was his need. He had brought his distress upon himself, and deserved it all, but his need became the subject of divine compassion.
I have been interested in connecting several Old Testament scriptures which have reference to the new covenant with this incident in Luke 10. For example, in Jeremiah, God tells His people, “Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, to bind up thy wound; thou hast no healing medicines ... . thy sorrow is incurable; for the greatness of thine iniquity, because thy sins are manifold, I have done these things unto thee”. Then He goes on to say, “For I will apply a bandage unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith Jehovah” (Jeremiah 30: 12 - 17). Then again we read that they “shall flow together to the goodness of Jehovah, for corn, and for new wine, and for oil, ... and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not languish any more at all ... . and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith Jehovah” (Jeremiah 31: 12 - 14). All this grace is seen in “a certain Samaritan”. The Son of God came here to bring all the grace of heaven to [p. 153] those who had lost everything and come into the deepest misery by sin. “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14: 17). In binding up the poor man’s wounds we get a figure of righteousness, and in the oil and wine we see typified peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Have we known what it is to taste, as this man did, that the Lord is good? “My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith Jehovah”. It was no question of what the Samaritan found, but of what He brought. All His own resources were ministered freely to the subject of His compassion. Do we know what it is to have all our need met and our souls satisfied with “the fulness of the blessing of Christ”? (Romans 15: 29). He administers all the grace and goodness of God in perfect blessing as, in figure, Joseph did in Egypt. The moment we realise this our hearts bow before Him. The grace that is in Him wins and bows the heart, and He thus gets His place as Lord in our hearts, so that He not only commands the blessing for us, but He commands us for the blessing.
So long as we are occupied with ourselves we cannot have any true knowledge of grace. But we are entitled to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to find that all the favour of God is secured to us in Him. He is righteousness for us, for He went into death to glorify God in the removal of our sins, and all our unsuitability to God as in the flesh. The effect of righteousness is peace. Every question is settled, and the Holy Spirit ever bears witness to this. God says, “Their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more” (Hebrews 8: 12), and “Therefore having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5: 1). Knowing the fulness of grace that has come out to us, “we are making our boast in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ”, so that we have “joy in the Holy Spirit”. God thus brings our hearts under His own blessed sway. We come under the lordship of Christ, and are [p. 154] commanded by Him. He has brought the grace of heaven to us, and in tasting that grace we touch a new life which has its spring outside everything here.
This brings us to chapter 10: 38 - 42. He commanded Mary.
The sense of who He was, and of all that He brought, was great in her heart. She knew that He was here to minister, not to be ministered to. He came into Martha’s house; in that sense He came near to them in their circumstances, but His object was to withdraw them from their circumstances into the circle of divine love. Mary responded to Him; she was commanded by Him; she “having sat down at the feet of Jesus was listening to his word”.
Martha was busily engaged in promoting His interests according to her own thought of what was needed at the moment, and she was annoyed that Mary did not take the same course. But the one thing needful was to obtain the knowledge of God, and Mary chose “the good part”. She sat down under the shadow of Christ with great delight. I think we may say that her eye was single, and her whole body full of light. She gave great pleasure to the Lord.
The other Mary in John 20 was also commanded by the Lord, and her eye was single. “They have taken away my Lord”. He had brought the grace of heaven to her for the satisfaction of her heart, and now she was entirely commanded by Him. The world, judaism, the apostles were all as nothing to her since He was gone. And the result of her devotedness was that she was brought into the knowledge of most blessed things even before the apostles. She was sent to them with the wondrous message, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”.
Then in Luke 11: 1 - 13 we see that on our side exercise is needed, of which prayer is the expression. It is need and exercise that teach us to pray. A man in real need knows how to pray, and comes to the point at once. “Friend, let me have three loaves”, is a very definite petition, and expresses a distinct need. True prayer is never vague and general; it is [p. 155] always definite and importunate.
Ministry and reading will not do us much real good if they do not produce exercise, and turn us to God in prayer. Christians often hear most blessed ministry without making much spiritual progress because they lack prayerful exercise. It is God’s way to prepare us for spiritual blessing by making us feel the need of it. He fills the hungry with good things, and satisfies the longing soul. If God presents His own blessed things to us in ministry, it is in order to awaken exercise about them in our hearts. We have to pray our way into these things, if we desire to make them our own.
A beloved servant of the Lord, now with Christ, told me that it had been God’s way with him all his life to give him definite exercise about one thing at a time, and I believe if we were more with God we should have more definite exercise. We should pray about a thing until we get it.
God first gives us a glimpse of what there is for us, so that we see there is something worth going in for. Then we have to find that our flesh is a great hindrance. Many are scarcely conscious of the evil of the flesh, because they are so little set for spiritual blessing. But if God’s things become attractive to us, we soon find that there is that in us which is a great hindrance. The Lord convicts and chastens us. He brings home to us the evil of the flesh so that we may judge it, and He chastens us so that we may be morally apart from it. When we see that the flesh is a hindrance, and we desire to be free from it, God comes in to break it down. And while all this is going on we pray, because we really desire that God’s work should proceed in our souls.
We are sure to get the spiritual blessings that we pray for. I might ask for something connected with this life, and it might not be God’s pleasure to give it; it might not be good for me to have it. But it is God’s pleasure to give me spiritual blessings, and it is good for me to have them. So “every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it will be opened”. “If therefore ye, being evil, know [p. 156] how to give good gifts to your children, how much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
For us who live in the Spirit’s day, it is not only a question of praying for the Holy Spirit, but for things of that order — “the things of the Spirit of God”: those blessed “things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit”
(1 Corinthians 2: 9, 10). There is not the smallest doubt that if we go in for these things we shall get them. What we need is the single eye, the simple and steady purpose of heart. Mary had a single eye, and the man who went for the three loaves had a single eye, and they each got what they were set for. Now are we set for the things of the Spirit — those things which are connected with a risen and glorified Christ?
If we ask for those things we shall get them, though it may be through much exercise. We have to be formed spiritually for the knowledge and reception of divine things. It is not that there is any reluctance on God’s part to give these things; they are “freely given to us of God”; but it may take a long time to form us spiritually so that we may truly receive and hold them.
The Prime Minister might be asked to bestow a place in some government office on a youth, and the favour might be freely given, but the youth would have to be formed for the post in education etc. before he could enter upon it. He must be fitted to receive the gift. In like manner we have to be spiritually formed to receive those blessed things which God delights to bestow freely upon us. We cannot apprehend or appropriate, or even appreciate the things of God, except as we are spiritually formed through exercise and discipline.
The Corinthians were carnal, and were not able to receive the deep things of God. Paul had to feed them with milk and not with meat.
Now I want to say a few words as to the result which [p. 157] follows from having a single eye. God enlightens us that we may become luminous for His praise (Luke 11: 33 - 36). God gives light in the hearts of His saints that there may be a light for Him in this world. The result of tasting that the Lord is good, and of being nourished by the pure mental milk of the word, accompanied by prayerful exercise, is that we become luminous. “The lamp of the body is thine eye: ... If therefore thy whole body is light ... it shall be all light as when the lamp lights thee with its brightness”.
A Christian thus luminous is clothed with “the armour of light” (Romans 13: 12). There is that about a spiritual man which forbids the approach of evil suggestions and wickedness. Men feel instinctively that they cannot approach him with suggestions of sin and folly. They hush their lewdness and blasphemy in his presence. He is encircled by the protective power of God’s light. He thus escapes many a snare that is laid for the feet of the half-hearted and the worldly believer. The life-testimony of a saint never fails to tell upon men’s consciences, however much they may profess to scoff at the whole thing.
The Lord warns us against the influence of five things which ever tend to dim or extinguish the light.
Firstly, “He began to say to his disciples first, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy” (Luke 12: 1). The leaven of the Pharisees is the desire to appear better to others than we really are. The Pharisee is also marked by being particular and scrupulous about little things, while he neglects matters much more weighty. He also loves pre-eminence, such as the first seats in the synagogues, and covets a reputation for piety while his secret life corresponds little therewith. We need constantly to watch and pray against the spirit of all this, for it is natural to our flesh.
Secondly, there is the spirit of the doctors of the law: “Ye lay upon men burdens heavy to bear, and yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers” (Luke 11: 46). It is so easy to lay down the law for others, and to expect more [p. 158] from them than we render ourselves. The flesh finds a certain pleasure in this, but to its own condemnation. I have no moral right to claim from anybody, even in my mind, what I am not rendering myself. The great thing is to be displaying what is right, not to be demanding it. The true spirit of the Christian is not to impose burdens but to “bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfil the law of the Christ” (Galatians 6: 2).
Thirdly, there is the fear of man: “Fear not those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do” (Luke 12: 4). The worst that men can do, if their enmity is allowed to go to its full extent, is to send us to heaven!
Fourthly, covetousness is a great hindrance if it gets place in our hearts: “Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness ...” (Luke 12: 15 - 21). The desire to increase possessions here is a terrible blight upon spirituality; it quickly puts the extinguisher upon God’s candle. It is not so much what one has that hinders him, but what he desires to have. If the heart is set upon things here the soul cannot prosper. A man’s business is for discipline, that he may provide things honest in the sight of all men, not to promote covetousness.
Lastly, a saint may be hampered and hindered by fears and cares about his circumstances. This is an opposite snare to the previous one. The Lord says, “Consider the ravens, that they sow not nor reap ...” (Luke 12: 24 - 30). If a believer gets anxious and full of care about his circumstances he cannot be shining very brightly. It often happens that believers are afraid to let their light shine for fear of possible consequences. But the God who thinks of a sparrow will not forget a saint, especially a saint who may be suffering for Christ’s sake. He has put a number on every hair of our heads, and His faithfulness can never fail. In most cases, saints who are anxious about their circumstances are not in extremities, but they are afraid that they will be. David proved that Jehovah not only saved him out of all his troubles but delivered him from all his fears (Psalm 34: 4 - 6).
[p. 159] The result of keeping free from these things, which tend to dim or extinguish the light of God in our souls and in our testimony, is that we are “like men who wait their own lord” (Luke 12: 35 - 37).