Feb 11
19
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The Individual Believer
Eternal life is by the Seed being sown within us–Christ in you the hope of glory. We begin as babes. And children grow up. The Lord compared faith to a grain of mustard seed, we grow in faith. Believers are complete in Christ–it is not the measure of our faith that makes us complete–it is Christ in whom we are Complete. So it is that growth in grace is not growth in self-sufficiency or away from Christ but growing up into Christ, more dependent upon him (Ephesians 4:15; 2 Peter 3: 18). This growth will cause us not to think more of ourselves–but less of ourselves and more of Him! (John 3:30; Philippians 2; 1 Corinthians 14:20). Using those he has grown to be least is how he grows his kingdom to be the greatest–for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great (Luke 9: 48). Just as our Lord walked this earth, no man doing him harm until his hour was come, just as he called and maintained and grew his church, so he maintains and grows every individual child in his body. Growth of the kingdom of heaven is by the Power and Wisdom of God our Father through his Son Jesus Christ. Growth in grace is as much by the free, irresistible grace of God as the beginning of life which came by his irresistible grace. He shall grow his kingdom. So let this be an encouragement to us–despise not the day of small things. What a glorious word to encourage us-thy God reigneth! Clay Curtis
Every religion except one puts you upon doing something in order to recommend yourself to God… It is the business of all false religion to patch up a righteousness in which the sinner is to stand before God. But it is the business of the glorious gospel to bring near to us, by the hand of the Holy Spirit, a righteousness ready wrought, a robe of perfection ready made, wherein God’s people, to all the purposes of justification and happiness, stand perfect and without fault before the throne.” Augustus Toplady.
“For we who have believed enter into rest.” Hebrews 4:3
To rest is to ‘lean’ upon something. Is it not so spiritually? We need to lean upon something. The Lord himself has given us this figure. “Who is this that comes up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?” The figure of “a rock” on which the Church is built, “the foundation” which God has laid in Zion, points to the same idea, that of leaning or dependence. Now when the soul comes to lean upon Jesus, and depend wholly and solely on him, it enters into the sweetness of the invitation.
Have we not leaned upon a thousand things? And what have they proved? Broken reeds that have run into our hands, and pierced us. Our own strength and resolutions, the world and the church, sinners and saints, friends and enemies, have they not all proved, more or less, broken reeds? The more we have leaned upon them, like a man leaning upon a sword, the more have they pierced our souls. The Lord himself has to wean us from the world, from friends, from enemies, from self, in order to bring us to lean upon himself; and every prop he will remove, sooner or later, that we may lean wholly and solely upon his Person, love, blood, and righteousness.
But there is another idea in the word “rest”–termination. When we are walking, running, or in any way moving, we are still going onwards; we have not got to the termination of our journey. But when we come to the termination of that we have been doing, we rest. So spiritually. As long as we are engaged in setting up our own righteousness, in laboring under the law, there is no termination of our labors. But when we come to the glorious Person of the Son of God, when we hang upon his atoning blood, dying love, and glorious righteousness, and feel them sweet, precious, and suitable, then there is rest. “We who have believed enter into rest,” says the Apostle. His legal labors are all terminated. His hopes and expectations flow unto, and center in Jesus–there they end, there they terminate; such a termination as a river finds in the boundless ocean. J.C. Philpot
LEAST TO GREATEST
“It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me” (John 6:45).
Here is great encouragement for every believer. Our Lord assures us he shall cause his kingdom to grow: not by might, nor by power but by His Spirit. Our Lord shall add to his kingdom and make his children grow being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God (Philippians 1:11).
The Lord Jesus Christ
Christ Jesus the Son of God, is the Seed of Woman, the Promised Seed (Genesis 3: 15; Galatians 3: 16). He is the Man who took and sowed the seed (Hebrews 2: 16; John 12: 24). Those who think themselves something when they are nothing are called “cedars of Lebanon” “oaks of Bashan”. But he who is greatest came through the womb of a virgin (Psalm 139:15), a tender plant which grew up and we, who thought ourselves great, esteemed him, who is greatest, the least of all (Isaiah 53:2, 3; Luke 2:52). The Lord Jesus Christ manifest that which Holy God declares is the greatest of all when he willingly made him sin in the place of those the Father gave him. He declared God just and the Justifier and saved each particular member of his Father’s house by making himself absolutely the least. What greatness to willingly make himself least! But When It is Grown…God the Father is well-pleased with his Son. He has declared that the Lord Jesus Christ is THE GREATEST among all the plants of his field, the Holy One, the Faithful One, Lord of lords and King of kings (Philippians 2: 9-12). He is the one in whom all his children lodge without sin as birds lodge in a tree (John 15:5).
The Kingdom of Heaven
The Lord declares his kingdom, his church, is like a grain of mustard seed. The church began from very small beginnings; so small that it came without observation (Luke 17: 20-21). The King and his children born of his Spirit is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has been in the midst of this earth, since the beginning and carnal men never had any idea (Acts 7:38)–Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, the apostles and the first disciples called by Christ. The children of this world have always esteemed the Lord’s people as the least–called a “sect”, everywhere spoken against. Yet, the Lord has grown his kingdom in every age. He sent them from nation to nation and no man did them harm because his everlasting covenant to save those he has chosen in Christ can not be broken (1 Chronicles 16: 20-24; Psalm 105: 8-15). By his grace, we dwell in the eternal house of the Lord
Jesus Christ as birds in the branches (Psalm 23: 6; Hebrews 3: 6). And despite the attempts of Satan and evil men throughout time, the Lord has grown his kingdom. The work of the Gospel, the spread of God’s Church, the growth of his Kingdom is gradual, sometimes more sometimes less in each generation, but he has grown it consistently, adding to the church daily such as should be saved (Acts 2: 47). In the end of this world, we shall behold a number which no man can number (Genesis 13: 16).
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“From the end of the earth will I cry unto you. When my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2
There is something in this expression in our text, “rock,” which seems, to my mind, to throw a sweet and blessed light upon what Jesus is to the poor and needy. The rock must go down to the bottom of the deep waters, as well as rise out of them, to be a sufficient place of refuge for the shipwrecked mariner! If the rock did not go to the bottom of the deep, it would not be firm; it would be but a quicksand. Is not this agreeable to the Spirit’s testimony concerning the humanity of Christ? How deep that went into all our sorrows, into all our sufferings, into all our sins, into all our shame! However deep the waters may be, the rock is deeper than all; however deep the sufferings, sins, and sorrows of the Church may be, the sufferings and sorrows of “Immanuel, God with us,” were infinitely deeper. But the waves and billows beat in vain against the rock; they cannot move it from its place. So it is with the rock, Jesus. All the sins, temptations, sufferings, and sorrows of the elect, with the wrath of God, and the fury of hell, beat against that rock, but they never moved it from its place.
But this rock is spoken of in our text as “higher than I.” There we have the Godhead. For if Jesus were not God as well as man, the God-man, what support could he be to the sinking soul? what efficacy could there be in his atoning blood? what power and glory in his justifying righteousness? what suitability in him as a Savior to the utterly lost? But being God as well as man, yes, the God-man, the great and glorious Immanuel, he could descend in his human nature into the very depths of the fall, and rise up in his divine nature to the throne of the most High; and thus, like Jacob’s ladder, the bottom of it was upon the earth, but the top exalted to the clouds. Then will not, must not, this be ever, as the Lord is pleased to raise it up, the cry of our soul, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I?” No salvation anywhere else; no peace anywhere else; no consolation anywhere else. Buffeted by the waves, and well-near drowned by the billows, away from that rock; but if led there, brought there, kept there by the blessed Spirit, finding it a safe and sure standing for eternity. And what else but such a rock can save our souls, or what else but such a Savior and such a salvation, without money and without price, can suit such ruined wretches? J.C. Philpot.
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CHRIST IS ALL, AND IN ALL “The Lord is my portion, says my soul.”
“Christ is all, and in all.”–Col. 3:11
We close these devout meditations with a magnificent Doxology–Christ all, and Christ in all! It is an epitome, the substance, the consummation and crown of the whole. Each theme has been a wider opening of the Divine jewel box, presenting another and a closer glimpse of the precious, priceless gem it contained. We now uplift and remove the lid, and, lo! it stands before us in all its grandeur, luster, and completeness–CHRIST, ALL AND IN ALL. Language is exhausted, imagery supplies its last symbol, imagination drops her wing, for inspiration can bear it no higher–Christ is all, and in all!
“Blessed Jesus! You are all in all, in creation and redemption, in pardon, grace, and glory. You are all in all in Your Church, and in the hearts of Your people–in all their joys, all their happiness, all their exercises, all their privileges. You are all in all in Your word, ordinances, means of grace, the sum and substance of the whole Bible. Do we speak of promises? You are the first promise in the sacred word, and the whole of every promise that follows; for all in You are ‘Yes and Amen’. Do we speak of the law? You are the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes. Do we speak of sacrifices? By Your one sacrifice You have for ever perfected those who are sanctified. Do we speak of the prophecies? To You give all the prophets witness, that whoever believes in You shall receive the remission of sins. Yes! blessed, blessed Jesus, You are all in all. May You be to me, Lord, the all in all I need in time, and then, surely, You will be my all in all to all eternity!”
My soul! all that Jesus has is yours! Every perfection of His nature, every throb of His heart, every thought of His mind, every drop of His blood, every shred of His righteousness, every atom of His merit, is yours! How rich and vast the inventory! How precious and boundless the wealth! Draw largely upon His opulence–He will honor every draft–sink deeply into His fullness–He will supply every need–“for all is yours.”
But, my soul, Jesus is not only all to you, but He is in all that concerns you. He is in every event of your history, and He is in every circumstance of your life. He is in every affliction–sanctifying it; He is in every sorrow–sweetening it; He is in every cloud, brightening it–He is in every burden–sustaining it; He rides upon every storm and walks upon every billow, saying to the winds and the waves, “Peace! be still.” Oh, never meet an event or a circumstance in your daily life, be it sad or joyous, but let your faith exclaim, “Jesus is in this! He sent it, He comes with it, He will control it, and I shall prove the all-sufficiency of His grace, and He shall have every ascription of my praise!” And if the Lord has seen fit to remove from you the one you loved–the blessing you prized–the supplies you needed–the prop upon which you leaned, it is only that He Himself should be your all in
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, and tells us to ‘walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing’ Philippians 3. If you take this rule of Paul’s to be his pressing forward, or any of his attainments, it is answered, by faith he pressed forward, and by faith he attained; for else his pressing and attaining had been nothing but sin; for whatsoever is not of faith according to Paul’s doctrine is sin.
By faith Christ dwells in our hearts and by faith we dwell in him; and in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, which is Christ formed within us: ‘and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God,’ Galatians 6:15,16. Faith is the rule of life according to the revealed will of God in Christ Jesus: ‘and this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day,’ John 6:40. Thus faith appears to be the believer’s rule of life, according to the will of God in Christ Jesus and the letter of the law is the bond-children’s rule of life – ‘he that doeth these things shall live in them.’ Let him do according to this rule and he shall live. The law is not the rule of believing, but of doing; ‘the law is not of faith but of works, and the man that doeth them shall live in them,’ Galatians 3:12.
If to see the Son, and believe on him, entitles us to everlasting life according to God’s will, then faith must be the rule of that life; and one would think that, if he that liveth and believeth shall never die, faith must be a safe rule to live by.