The Means of Growth
THE MEANS OF GROWTH.
FourTH DAy.
—_0—_ The Means of Growth.
' Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.'
2 Pet. iii. 18.
HE very thing we are longing to do, and perhaps mourning over not doing, and perhaps praying every day that we may do, and seeming to get no answer!
But when God has annexed a means to the fulfilment of a command, we cannot expect Him to enable us to fulfil that command if we are not using His means.
In this case the means are wrapped in another command: 'Desire the sincere milk of a Pets i. 2 the word, that ye may grow thereby.'
Real desire must prove itself by action; it is no use desiring the milk and not drinking it.
'Wherefore criest Ex, xiv. 15 thou unto Me? speak unto the children er
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ROYAL COMMANDMENTS.
of Israel, that they go forward"
Let us to-day, and every day henceforth, 'go forward,' and use in faith and honest earnestness this His own great means of growth.
By the word we shall 'grow in grace.'
The beginning of grace in our souls asst ad. was by the same; for it is written, ' Of His own will begat He us with the word r Pet. i. 23. | of truth ;' 'Being born again,
. .'. by the word of God.'
At every step it is the same word which developes the spiritual life.
The young man shall Ps. cxix.9. | 'cleanse his way' by it.
The entrance ib. cxix.130. | of it giveth light and understanding.
The result of hiding it in our hearts is, ib. cxix. 1x. | that we 'might not sin against Thee ;' and how often by His word has He Gen. xx. 6. | 'withheld thee from sinning against Me!'
Again and again we Ne said, Ps. cxix. so. | 'Thy word hath quickened me.'
For « Thess.i. 5. | it comes to us 'not in word only, but in power and in Sie Holy Ghost, and 2Tim its. | in much assurance.'
It is 'able to make thee wise unto salvation,' and its ib. iii, 26. intended effects of reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, rise to
THE MEANS OF GROWTH.
what would seem a climax of growth, 'that the man of God may be perfect, | 2 Tim. iii-r7. throughly furnished unto a/Z good works.'
And yet there is a still more glorious result of this 'word of God, | x Thess. ii. which effectually worketh also in you | ** that delieve;' for by ' His divine power' | 2 Pet. i. 3.
'are given unto us exceeding great and | ib. i. 4. precious promises, that dy these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.'
This is indeed the climax, for what can rise beyond this most marvellous effect of this blessed means of growth in grace!
Oh, to use it as He would have us use it, so that every day we 'may grow thereby'!
By the word we shall also grow in the knowledge of Christ.
The mere surface of this is obvious.
For how do we come to know more of any one whom having not seen, we love? is it | x Pet.is. not by reading and hearing what he has said and written and done?
How are we to know more of Jesus Christ, if we are not taking the trouble to know more of His word P He hath said, 'Search the Scriptures ; | John v. 39.
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ROVAL COMMANDMENTS.
for .
. they are they which testify of Me.'
Are we really searching, or only superficially reading, those Old Testament Scriptures of which He spoke?
He says they testify of Him, z.e. tell us all about Him; are we acting as if we quite believed that?
Luke xxiv, 'Beginning at Moses and all the ra prophets, He expounded unto them in ALL the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.'
Then there are things about Jesus in a@// the Scriptures—not just only in the Psalms and Isaiah, but in every book!
How very much there must be for us to find!
Let us ask John xvi. 15. | the Holy Spirit to take of ¢hese things of Jesus and show them unto us, that Eph. iv. 13. | we may grow in ' the knowledge of the Son of God.'
John vi. 63.
'The words which I speak unto you, they are spirit, and theyare life'-—quick- . ening and continually life-giving words,
We want to. be permeated with them ; Col. iii, 16. | we want them to dwell in us richly, to be the inspiration of our whole lives, the very music of our spirits, whose meloLuke ii. x4. | dious overflow may be giory to God and
THULE MEANS OF GROWTH.
goodwill to man.
Jesus Himself has given us this quick and powerful word of God, and our responsibility is tremendous.
He has told us distinctly what to do as to it; He has said, 'Search!'
Now, are we substituting a word of our own, and merely reading them?
He did not say, 'Read them,' but ' Search!' and it is a most serious thought for many a comfortable daily reader of the Bible, that, if they are only reading and not searching, they are distinctly living in disobedience to one of His plainest commands, What wonder if they do not ' grow thereby'!
John XViL14, John v. 39.
Isa. xxxiv.16
Let me then be always growing, Never, never standing still, Listening, learning, better knowing Thee, and Thy most blessed will ; That the Master's eye may trace, Day by day, my growth in grace.
ROYAL COMMANDMENTS.
a FietTH Day.
—_—o —fAental oor.
Isa. ly. 2.
'Wat ye that which is good.'
Ps, Ixxiii, 22. | § O foolish was I, and ignorant : I was as a beast before Thee,' or this commandment would not have been needed.
Good, wholesome, delicious food set plentifully before us, and yet we have to be told to eat that which is good, and to let rubbish and poison alone!
Is it not humiliating ?
We know too much about feeding on that which is not good, and what profit Rom.vi.2r. | had we in those things whereof we are now ashamed?
The Lord has had Isa. xliv. 20. | to testify of us, 'He feedeth on ashes,'
Hos. xii. x. | 'feedeth on wind,' ' feedeth on foolishProv. xv. x4. | ness.'
Most gracious was His decree, Hos. iv. 10. | ' They shall eat, and not have enough ;'
Mic. viir4. | 'Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied.'
He would not JZef us be satisfied.
MENTAL FOOD.
And now, if we have tasted that the |: Pet. ii. 3
Lord is gracious, we cannot be satisfied with the old ashes and wind.
But what about our daily practical obedience to this command?
How much are we going to eat to-day of that which is good, in proportion to that which satisfieth not?
Will it be a question of minutes for the word by which we live, and hours for | Matt. iv. 4. books which are at best negative as to spiritual nutriment?
What is our present obedience to the parallel command, ' Destre the sincere milk of the | : Pet. ii. 2 word, that ye may grow thereby'?
What about our appetite for the ' strong | Heb. v. 12, meat,' 'the deep things of God'?
If | tGoniito. other books contain 'necessary food'
| Job xxiii. 12 mentally, and we are called to use them, so that by study of His works, His providences natural, mental, moral, we may be more meet for the Master's | 2 Tim. ii. 2x use, do we practically and consciously esteem the words of His mouth move?
Can we say, they are 'in my mouth as | Ezek. iii. 3. honey for sweetness'?
But perhaps we are even purposing ot tees
ROYAL COMMANDMENTS.
to eat that which is zof good.
We may argue that there is no harm in certain readings, and that if we don't read what others do we shall get narrow and lose conversational influence, and that people will think nothing of our opinion if we can't say we have read such and such books, and so forth.
But all the time, do we not know, down in our heart of hearts, that this is all sophistry?
We know, though we do not like to acknowledge, that the books in question do blunt our spiritual appetite and hinder our close communion with Jesus ; that the influence we profess to want is not purely desired 'for Jesus' sake only,' and to be used 'ai for Jesus,'—in short, we ke the reading, and we do not want to resist pleasing ourselves.
And so we deliberately disobey the command to eat that which is good, excusing ourselves by pretending that we 'saw that the tree was good for food,' when the truth was that we simply saw that it was Job xiii. 7.
John xii. 9.
Isa. ii. 6.
Rom. xv. 1-3.
Gen. iii. 6.
Eas ' pleasant.'
MENTAL FOOD.
We are solemnly responsible for the mental influences under which we place ourselves.
'Take heed what ye hear' must include 'take heed what ye read.'
'Lead us not into temptation' is ' vain repetition' when we walk straight away Mark iv. 24.
Matt. vi. 7, 13> into it, hoodwinking our own eyes because we are drawn away and enticed by our own desires.
Jase.
Do we feel that we are not strong enough to resist?
'The way of the Lord is strength to the upright ;' and His 'way to escape' is, 'Eat ye that which is good.'
Perhaps, if Eve had fully availed herself of God's permisProv. x. 29.
EB Corax, 13 sion, ' Thou mayst freely eat,' she would not have been so ready to disregard Gen. ii. 16.
His prohibition.
If we 'eat in plenty '
Joel ii. 26. of 'angels' food,' of course we shall not care about the 'onions and the Ps, Ixxviil.
25.
Num. xi. 5. garlick.'
Just fancy wanting chem / When we are 'satisfied, of course, Jer. xxxi. 14. there is no craving.
The devil is very fond of persuading us that we have 'no leisure so much as to eat' when it is a question of Bible study.
He never says that if we have Mark vi. 31,
ROYAL COMMANDMENTS.
1Cor.xv. 47. | a novel 'of the earth, earthy, or a clever magazine of 'modern thought' on hand!
He knows better.
He wants us not to '4?' our souls delight themselves in fatness.
Prov, ix. 5.
Jesus, our Wisdom, says, 'Come, Cant.v.r | eat of AZy bread;' 'Eat, O friends.'
One is utterly ashamed that it should ever be an effort to obey this loving invitation.
How weak we are!
But His hand touches us, and He says, aL ee 'Arise, and eat.'
May He open our eyes to see and rejoice in the provision Isa. xxv. 6. | so close beside us, the feast that He has made for us.
Not only His word, but the happy Johniv.34 | doing of His will shall be our meat,
Lev. xxii. 7. | and we shall 'afterward eat of the holy things, because it is His food.'
He Rey. ii. 7,17. | will give us to eat of the tree of life and of the hidden manna.
And He will Sg vi st, | give us Himself, the living Bread which came down from heaven, saying, 'He that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.'
Is not this enough ?