SPIRITUAL MATURITY
[p. 34] SPIRITUAL MATURITY
For a moment I would speak of what is abiding, I would speak of our sister as she would love to be spoken of on such an occasion, as the subject of the grace and work of God. Perhaps it has not been the experience of many of us to take part in the burial of a saint to whom the words in Job 5, would more appropriately apply, “Thou shalt come to the grave in a ripe age, as a shock of corn is brought in in its season”.
It suggests a long life in which there has been matured some fruit for the garner of God. Such a life begins by hearing and receiving His word, and that is why I read the word in Mark 4. Our sister heard and received that word long years ago and it gave her the knowledge of forgiveness; it set her in peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; for long years she knew Him so as to trust Him and praise Him. We know this to be a reality, for the word of God has brought to us the knowledge of God revealed in love through the Lord Jesus Christ, and when it comes into the heart it cannot be unfruitful. It continues to be developed, until the work of God is matured and there is what is spoken of in Job 5:26, “a shock of corn ... brought in in its season”.
Every circumstance contributes to it; the ways of God promote its growth. The favourable south wind and the testing north wind, our sister knew them both; tears and joys, prayers and praising, some prayers perhaps unanswered even yet, but they are all recorded on high; they are not forgotten.
In the end maturity is reached; not that all are alike, for it says, “one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred fold”. Whatever the measure, all is matured and then the saint is buried in view of resurrection. The burial of a saint is another sowing, in view of resurrection when everything will come out to have its place permanently in the garner of God, everything secured through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[p. 35] Every saint is the fruit of the precious death of the Lord Jesus, and His resurrection and glorification are the sure pledge of the resurrection and glorification of every saint.
A Word given at a Burial