In a word, it is this: not judgment, but capacity as the Lord's
objective in His dealings with His own through suffering. Have you got
that?
Not judgment, but capacity, the enlargement of capacity for God,
the things of God, for spiritual, Divine things.
That is what God is
working at in His people through suffering, delivering from that
limitation which is always present when self in any form has a place.
Oh, I do hope that you see this, that when the Lord takes one of His own
redeemed and justified ones in hand with His own beneficent intention
of bringing them through to enlarged capacity...
The infinite peril which
is always right near at hand is that Satan should make us more
self-occupied by our sufferings than we were before.
There is nothing
more calculated, or as calculated, to make us self-occupied as
suffering.
It is a great thing to find a suffering saint not taken up
with themselves. Many years ago a servant of God (well-known all over the world) and I
were speaking at a convention in Wales.
He was a man who was regarded
by everybody to be more than half dead.
No one would have taken out an
insurance policy on his life.
His heart was supposed to be gone and I
knew this.
I met him on the way to the meeting and said to him, "How are
you today?"
"Oh", he said, quite brightly and cheerfully, "I don't
matter at all!"...
And yet I knew exactly how he was and what an effort it
was for him to get to that meeting.
But here was a wonderful detachment
from himself, "I don't matter at all!"
This impressed me, as you see;
it was many years ago.
This brother lived until last year, I believe
carried on by a Life not his own.
But I am saying that the great peril under suffering and in trial,
not necessarily physical, but any kind of suffering in the ways of God,
is to be more self-occupied...
And let us remember...that is exactly
what Satan is after.
Instead of being occupied with what the Lord is
after, we become occupied, engrossed, with ourselves, because of what
the Lord is doing with us and how He is doing it - the difficulty and
the suffering...
Just living in our own little world which becomes a very
miserable little world for ourselves and for everyone else. I know the
difficulty here and I know the battle of this matter.
But what I feel
the Lord wants me to say to you and to myself is this:
That you and I
can never be delivered from Satan in this matter until we get focused
upon what the Lord is after and not upon what we are going through...
Or
upon any suggestion of Satan that the Lord is dealing with us as He
deals with ungodly people in judgment.
No, not at all!
You see, there is this heavenly side.
Satan is in this matter. Satan
is making a terrific assault.
What is the ground of Satan's strength?
What, after all, proves to be the ground of Satan's strength in Job's
life?
Why, it is Job falling into the trap of self-justification,
self-vindication.
He fell into Satan's trap, and, poor fellow, he
wallowed in that mire for a long time.
He fell right in.
Oh, may the
Lord deliver us from that slough into which we can fall and wallow...
Satan's trap for us that, when the Lord brings us into trial and
suffering, whatever it may be, that it is because the Lord has a
controversy with us and is against us...
When all the time what the Lord
is after is not lessening, narrowing and curtailing, but capacity.
If
you and I would take hold of our adversities and our afflictions and say
before the Lord, "The Lord's intention in this is that I shall have
enlarged spiritual capacity, the end of this is going to be greater
usefulness and value to the Lord!"
If we keep on that line, we shall be
delivered from the devil.
Satan's power over us would be so largely
broken...
For Satan's strength with Job was not in Satan's ability to
afflict, but it was on the ground of Job's occupation with himself under
discipline.
Have you got the significance of this? I am not saying that the Lord never does judge His own people.
There
are sins into which the people of God may fall such as the sinner in the
Corinthian assembly...
And God does judge in the matter of specific
iniquity even His own children - not unto destruction, even so.
Delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit
may be saved" (1 Cor. 5:5); not unto final destruction but unto
salvation.
But we are not speaking of the specific case of the Divine
judgment of the child of God.
We are speaking of the general case of so
many of His people being brought into affliction and trial and being
emptied out.
What for?
To be all the more filled.
Keep your eye focused
upon this.
You have seen the end of the Lord - keep your eye on that,
the end of the Lord, what the Lord is after...enlargement.
That will
certainly be the outcome of every Divine work in His own people along
the line of suffering. You can resolve this meditation into just this one thing - the end of
the Lord is not destruction or judgment, but capacity, enlargement,
fulness...
And of course, going with that, is being brought into a place
where Satan's power can no longer operate.
It may be the cry of fire, or the noise of thieves, or fancied appearances, or the shriek of sudden sickness or death.
We live in the world of death and sorrow, we may therefore look for ills as well in the night-watches as beneath the glare of the broiling sun.
Nor should this alarm us, for be the terror what it may, the promise is that the believer shall not be afraid.
Why should he?
Let us put it more closely, why should we?
God our Father is here, and will be here all through the lonely hours;
He is an almighty Watcher, a sleepless Guardian, a faithful Friend.
Nothing can happen without his direction, for even hell itself is under his control.
Darkness is not dark to him.
He has promised to be a wall of fire around his people and who can break through such a barrier?
Worldlings may well be afraid, for they have an angry God above them, a guilty conscience within them, and a yawning hell beneath them;
But we who rest in Jesus are saved from all these through rich mercy.
If we give way to foolish fear we shall dishonour our profession, and lead others to doubt the reality of godliness.
We ought to be afraid of being afraid, lest we should vex the Holy Spirit by foolish distrust.
Down, then, ye dismal forebodings and groundless apprehensions, God has not forgotten to be gracious, nor shut up his tender mercies;
It may be night in the soul, but there need be no terror, for the God of love changes not.
Children of light may walk in darkness, but they are not therefore cast away, nay, they are now enabled to prove their adoption by trusting in their heavenly Father as hypocrites cannot do.
Though the night be dark and dreary, Darkness cannot hide from thee;
Thou art he, who, never weary, Watchest where thy people be.
Job 41:25 When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.
God
uses most for His glory those people and things which are most
perfectly broken.
The sacrifices He accepts are broken and contrite
hearts.
It was the breaking down of Jacob's natural strength at Peniel
that got him where God could clothe him with spiritual power.
It was
breaking the surface of the rock at Horeb, by the stroke of Moses' rod
that let out the cool waters to thirsty people.
It
was when the 300 elect soldiers under Gideon broke their pitchers, a
type of breaking themselves, that the hidden lights shone forth to the
consternation of their adversaries.
It was when the poor widow broke the
seal of the little pot of oil, and poured it forth, that God multiplied
it to pay her debts and supply means of support.
It
was when Esther risked her life and broke through the rigid etiquette of
a heathen court, that she obtained favor to rescue her people from
death.
It was when Jesus took the five loaves and broke them, that the
bread was multiplied in the very act of breaking, sufficient to feed
five thousand.
It was when Mary broke her beautiful alabaster box,
rendering it henceforth useless, that the pent-up perfume filled the
house.
It was when Jesus allowed His precious body to be broken to
pieces by thorns and nails and spear, that His inner life was poured
out, like a crystal ocean, for thirsty sinners to drink and live.
It
is when a beautiful grain of corn is broken up in the earth by DEATH,
that its inner heart sprouts forth and bears hundreds of other grains.
And thus, on and on, through all history, and all biography, and all
vegetation, and all spiritual life, God must have BROKEN THINGS.
Those
who are broken in wealth, and broken in self-will, and broken in their
ambitions, and broken in their beautiful ideals, and broken in worldly
reputation, and broken in their affections, and broken ofttimes in
health; those who are despised and seem utterly forlorn and helpless,
the Holy Ghost is seizing upon, and using for God's glory.
The lame
take the prey, Isaiah tells us.
O break my heart;
but break it as a field Is by the plough up-broken for the corn;
O break
it as the buds, by green leaf seated, Are, to unloose the golden
blossom, torn;
Love would I offer unto Love's great Master, Set free the
odor, break the alabaster.
O break my heart; break it victorious God, That life's eternal well may flash abroad;
O let it break as when the captive trees, Breaking cold bonds, regain their liberties;
And as thought's sacred grove to life is springing, Be joys, like birds, their hope, Thy victory singing.
Psalm 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
Yes, a true love for the great Book will bring us great peace from
the great God and be a great protection to us.
Let us live constantly in
the society of the law of the LORD, and it will breed in our hearts a
restfulness such as nothing else can.
The Holy Spirit acts as a
Comforter through the Word and sheds abroad those benign influences
which calm the tempests of the soul.
Nothing is a stumbling block
to the man who has the Word of God dwelling in him richly.
He takes up
his daily cross, and it becomes a delight.
For the fiery trial he is
prepared and counts it not strange, so as to be utterly cast down by it.
He is neither stumbled by prosperity - as so many are - nor crushed
by adversity - as others have been - for he lives beyond the changing
circumstances of external life.
When his LORD puts before him some great
mystery of the faith which makes others cry, "This is an hard saying;
who can hear it?" the believer accepts it without question;
For his
intellectual difficulties are overcome by his reverent awe of the law of
the LORD, which is to him the supreme authority to which he joyfully
bows.
LORD, work in us this love, this peace, this rest, this day.
Pro 15:33 The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.
Humiliation of soul always brings a positive blessing with it.
If we empty our hearts of self, God will fill them with his love.
He who desires close communion with Christ should remember the word of the Lord, “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
Stoop if you would climb to heaven.
Do we not say of Jesus, “He descended that he might ascend?”
So must you.
You must grow downwards, that you may grow upwards;
For the sweetest fellowship with heaven is to be had by humble souls, and by them alone.
God will deny no blessing to a thoroughly humbled spirit.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, with all its riches and treasures.
The whole royal treasury of God shall be made over by deed of gift to the soul which is humble enough to be able to receive it without growing proud because of it.
God blesses us all up to the full measure and extremity of what it is safe for him to do.
If you do not get a blessing, it is because it is not safe for you to have one.
If our heavenly Father were to let your unhumbled spirit win a victory in his holy war, you would pilfer the crown for yourself...
And meeting with a fresh enemy you would fall a victim; so that you are kept low for your own safety.
When a man is sincerely humble, and never ventures to touch so much as a grain of the praise, there is scarcely any limit to what God will do for him.
Humility makes us ready to be blessed by the God of all grace, and fits us to deal efficiently with our fellow men.
True humility is a flower which will adorn any garden.
This is a sauce with which you may season every dish of life, and you will find an improvement in every case.
Whether it be prayer or praise, whether it be work or suffering, the genuine salt of humility cannot be used in excess.
It was the fire of unerring and avoidable
discrimination.
Fire always finds things out.
As it creeps and encroaches and
overtakes, it makes one discrimination between things that it can devour and
things over which it has no power.
It puts them into those categories; the
finding out, the classifying, the deciding.
Look at the context, Luke 12:51 - "Think
ye that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather
division."
He goes on - "There shall be from henceforth five in one house
divided, three against two, and two against three.
They shall be divided, father
against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter
against her mother; mother in law against her daughter in law, and daughter in
law against her mother in law..."
Discriminating, setting things in the
category to which they belong. One category is that which can go on and abide
and endure because it is of God.
The other will be licked up by the fire, and
simply pass out of existence.
The fire shall try every man's work, said
Paul (1 Cor. 3:13).
The fire of unavoidable and unerring discrimination.
That
has ever been the effect of a work of the Holy Spirit; to put us into the place
to which we belong.
It is a kind of dividing thing all the time.
Are you for or
are you against?
Are you with or are you not with the Lord?
Are you going on
with the Lord, or are you not going on with the Lord?
The Holy Spirit is
pursuing that course all the time to find us out and to just classify us like
this, so that when the Holy Spirit has worked we are in definite categories.
Division has come, and it is unavoidable. It is no use, dear friends, our trying
to avoid this.
You see, here is a terrible statement. "I came not to send
peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10:34), dividing even families and households.
You cannot avoid it; it is no use trying to.
If you are going on with the Lord,
this sort of thing is going to happen, and in the world it is going to become
perfectly clear and pronounced where we are.
It is of no use just trying to keep
and avoid, you have got to yield to the work of the Spirit, and it is costly in
your own home with the clear division on the ground of whether the Lord is
having His way or not
Clear division in the family anywhere, everywhere - you
just cannot avoid it.
Isaiah 35:8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
The way of holiness is so straight and plain that the simplest minds
cannot go astray if they constantly follow it.
The worldly wise have
many twists and turns, and yet they make terrible blunders and generally
miss their end.
Worldly policy is a poor, shortsighted thing, and when
men choose it as their road, it leads them over dark mountains.
Gracious
minds know no better than to do as the LORD bids them;
But this keeps
them in the King's highway and under royal protection. Let the reader never for a moment attempt to help himself out of a
difficulty by a falsehood or by a questionable act;
But let him keep in
the middle of the high road of truth and integrity, and he will be
following the best possible course.
In our lives we must never practice
circular sailing nor dream of shuffling.
Be just and fear not, Follow
Jesus and heed no evil consequences.
If the worst of ills could be
avoided by wrongdoing, we should, in the very attempt, have fallen into
an evil worse than any other ill could be.
God's way must be the very
best way.
Follow it though men think you a fool, and you will be truly
wise. LORD, lead Thy servants in a plain path because of their enemies.
Act 18:10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. So long as the LORD had work for Paul to do in Corinth, the fury of
the mob was restrained. The Jews opposed themselves and blasphemed; but
they could neither stop the preaching of the gospel nor the conversion
of the hearers. God has power over the most violent minds. He makes the
wrath of man to praise Him when it breaks forth, but He still more
displays His goodness when He restrains it; And He can restrain it. By
the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone, till thy
people pass over, I LORD. Do not, therefore, feel any fear of man when you know that you are
doing your duty. Go straight on, as Jesus would have done, and those who
oppose shall be as a bruised reed and as smoking flax. Many a time men
have had cause to fear because they were themselves afraid; But a
dauntless faith in God brushes fear aside like the cobwebs in a giant's
path. No man can harm us unless the LORD permits. He who makes the devil
himself to flee at a word can certainly control the devil's agents. Maybe they are already more afraid of you than you are of them. Therefore, go forward, and where you looked to meet with foes you will
find friends. ~Charles Spurgeon~
Psa 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. Grace is what we need just now, and it is to be had freely. What can
be freer than a gift? Today we shall receive sustaining, strengthening,
sanctifying, satisfying grace. He has given daily grace until now, and
as for the future, that grace is still sufficient. If we have but little
grace the fault must lie in ourselves; for the LORD is not straitened,
neither is He slow to bestow it in abundance. We may ask for as much as
we will and never fear a refusal. He giveth liberally and upbraideth
not.
The LORD may not give gold, but He will give grace: He may
not give gain, but He will give grace. He will certainly send us trial,
but He will give grace in proportion thereto. We may be called to labor
and to suffer, but with the call there will come all the grace required;
What
an "end" is that in the text -- "and glory!" We do not need glory yet,
and we are not yet fit for it; but we shall have it in due order. After
we have eaten the bread of grace, we shall drink the wine of glory. We
must go through the holy, which is grace, to the holiest of all, which
is glory. These words and glory are enough to make a man dance for joy. A
little while - a little while, and then glory forever! ~Charles Spurgeon~
Isa 66:13 As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. A mother's comfort! Ah, this is tenderness itself. How she enters into
her child's grief! How she presses him to her bosom and tries to take
all his sorrow into her own heart! He can tell her all, and she will
sympathize as nobody else can. Of all comforters the child loves best
his mother, and even full-grown men have found it so.
Does Jehovah condescend to act the mother's part? This is goodness
indeed. We readily perceive how He is a father; but will He be as a
mother also? Does not this invite us to holy familiarity, to unreserved
confidence, to sacred rest? When God Himself becomes "the Comforter," no
anguish can long abide. Let us tell out our trouble, even though sobs
and sighs should become our readiest utterance. He will not despise us
for our tears; our mother did not. He will consider our weakness as she
did, and He will put away our faults, only in a surer, safer way than
our mother could do. We will not try to bear our grief alone; that would
be unkind to one so gentle and so kind. Let us begin the day with our
loving God, and wherefore should we not finish it in the same company? ~Charles Spurgeon~
Obedience brings a blessing on all the provisions which our industry earns for us.
That which comes in and goes out at once, like fruit in the basket which is for immediate use, shall be blest; and that which is laid by with us for a longer season shall equally receive a blessing.
Perhaps ours is a hand-basket portion. We have a little for breakfast and a scanty bite for dinner in a basket when we go out to do our work in the morning.
This is well, for the blessing of God is promised to the basket.
If we live born hand to mouth, getting each day's supply in the day, we are as well off as Israel; for when the LORD entertained His favored people He only gave them a day's manna at a time.
What more did they need? What more do we need?
But if we have a store, how much we need the LORD to bless it!
For there is the care of getting, the care of keeping, the care of managing, the care of using; and, unless the LORD bless it, these cares will eat into our hearts till our goods become our gods and our cares prove cankers.
O LORD, bless our substance. Enable us to use it for Thy glory, Help us to keep worldly things in their proper places, and never may our savings endanger the saving of our souls.
Mat 10:25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? We
ought, for instance, to remember this great saying in the frequent
hours when we are weary. Many of His servants have times of great
exhaustion in the work and welfare of the Kingdom. They would give much
to be always at their best, and perhaps they read of others who are so. There are those who claim never to have known weariness since they gave
themselves up to Him in full surrender. But the Lord Himself, who
yielded up His life in a way that no one else has ever paralleled, never
made any such claim as that. He was so weary once that He fell fast
asleep, with His head on the wooden pillow of a fishing boat. He was so
weary once, traveling to Calvary, that His cross was transferred to
Simon of Cyrene. And all this is written on the page of Scripture, not
only that we may see the kind of man He was, but that those who love
Him, and who seek to follow Him, might be delivered from the lure of
false ideals.
It would be a wonderful thing always to feel radiant, and
equal to every task the day may bring.
Never to grow weary in our
service would be to taste the joy of service in eternity.
But our Master
knew not that experience.
There were hours when He was utterly
exhausted.
And it is enough, He tells us, that we be like Him.
Possibly this text may not apply to one in a thousand of the readers of this little book of promises; but the LORD cheers that one in such words as these.
Let us pray for all such as are cast out wrongfully born the society which they love. May the LORD appear to their joy!
The text applies to truly gracious men who tremble at the word of the LORD.
These were hated of their brethren and at length cast out because of their fidelity and their holiness.
This must have been very bitter to them; and all the more so because their casting out was done in the name of religion, and professedly with the view of glorifying God.
How much is done for the devil in the name of God!
The use of the name of Jehovah to add venom to the bite of the old serpent is an instance of his subtlety.
The appearing of the LORD for them is the hope of His persecuted people.
He appears as the advocate and defender of His elect; and when He does so it means a clear deliverance for the God-fearing and shame for their oppressors.
O LORD, fulfill this word to those whom men are deriding!
