WHY is it that the peace of God are not in full enjoyment of the gospel? Many whom one recognizes as fully the Lord's have but little joy in the Holy Ghost, because they have either never had a clear view of the gospel, or because, having been clearly seen, it has not been sustained in power for their own comfort and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In- this Scripture different classes of saints are brought before us. We read of both " little children " and " children." The former is a particular class; the latter, the whole family. As to particular classes we find babes, or little children, young men, and fathers; and in the details given in connection with " babes " and "young men," an answer is presented to this question as to the want of peace in any cases.
We find a, certain thing is known to the babes; they have a certain power and a certain place, and, in that place, they are as able to walk and to please God as are the fathers in their place.
The babes have a certain knowledge as to two things. The Christ is come. They know the gospel: that God anointed His holy servant Jesus, sent Him into the world as the head of a people; " and ye," says the apostle, " have heard " of "Antichrist " too'; the man indwelt of Satan instead of by God. The babes know these two heads. Satan is working the whole family of man, as far as he can, up to a certain, point, and that, the setting up of one to be worshipped instead of God. That is Satan's aim. But God has stepped in and set His Son, virgin-born, at His right hand, and that which belongs to that Christ in the world has a master spirit in it above the master spirit of the world. There are but the two powers; each soul is either subject to Christ and led of the Spirit, or under the dominion of the spirit of darkness.
He says, " Ye know the truth; and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." Here I get what gives my. soul firmness. If I fail as much as Peter, or more than any other, the truth is that Christ is still sitting. at the right hand of God for me; all my inconsistencies cannot change that eternal truth- of God. And you cannot set aside Christ Without setting aside the Father toe, this Son of the Father who is connected with all the plans and affections of the Father. What had they " heard from the beginning? " " That Jesus is the Christ." Here I have perfection as God sees it and gave it to me. If people talk of development I say they are going beyond God, for He has given me Jesus as the expression of His mind, and I cannot get beyond that: " Him that was from the beginning."
This is the marrow of peace when the soul is tried; God's certificate to my soul that the value of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, belongs to it individually. People often say, It is mine, because I have had such deep experiences. God has not said that. He has said that there is the testimony of His Christ, and that if that dwells in me I shall continue in the Father and in the Son. You have lost peace. Why? Because doubtless you have forged a link of your own, and not one of God's making, so that directly happy joy or sense of experience is gone you are miserable. Keep fast hold of the testimony of God about His Christ. There is not a single bit of rest apart from the person of the Lord Jesus and God's testimony about Him, and nothing could be more gracious than God not allowing peace apart from the way He has given it, for nothing else has sanctifying power. Though only fit for. Antichrist, God has taken me up and connected me with His Christ, but if I turn away from Him how can I know it all mine?
Very step of the way you walk with God you find he has a path of His own. The " babes " were, as it were, closeted in the nursery where they were to " desire the sincere milk of the word, that they might grow thereby." They had to learn how everything was shut up for them in Christ, and when they had got this they had to leave the place of being babes. Suppose one happy in the gospel goes. forth without any idea of what is in his own. heart and in the world, that system opposed to the sphere apart from nature in which grace has set him, human tastes and the like will act upon him and he will fall into association with what is in direct opposition to God. He cannot then have peace, for he has failed in carrying out God's thoughts about him in, connection with His plans in Christ.
God's plan is to have a people on earth connected with Himself in heaven, His. house on high their dwelling place, and they acting here according to the position in which God has placed them, though having the flesh within_ with its lusts and desires. Can the babes come out of the nursery, and go and connect themselves with that which crucified the Son, of which the " friendship is enmity with God," without losing as an immediate result peace of heart and conscience? Why does my peace all Ooze out? Often does the answer come, " Because I am walking carelessly through the world, forgetting it is the place where Christ was crucified." A. child of God may go as far as Lot did, but joy cannot be then sustained. " Can two walk together except they be agreed? " My cup of joy can never be full if the world where God is not the center is the place where I am found and in the, spirit of which. I am walking.
What is the world? There are definitions of it past all calculation, but. God's answer is, " If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the—eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will, of God abideth forever." "All that is in the world! " What all the pomp of the great city, its chariots, its horses, its revels? No 1 Lust! And what is lust? Desire after a thing, it is answered; but that is no definition. In one sense no heart ever desired glory, honor, and pomp as Christ did, for God has promised them to Him.
Lust is the stretching forth the hand to take something for self. If God- says, Take, it is no lust to take; but if the very crown prepared by God for you were there, and you Were to take it yourself unbidden by Him, it would be lust. God has sheltered us in Christ. Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. The Spirit seeks the things of God; the things that are the best for us, and that are for the glory of God. Lust is taking for myself,- and the better the thing the worse it is. Lust is the very essence of the world, and " Lo, I come to do thy will " His way. Wherever there is " Thus saith the Lord," though, "it be going to the stake you will find a joy and a calmness never found in stolen waters taken for self. A path utterly unblameable may be pursued, and yet God' may say, I did not put you there. And this comes in to interfere with the sustainment of quiet peace in the heart. Am I walking as thou wouldst have me Lord? is the question for each heart. " Lo, I come to do thy will," simple obedience to God, is the one great thing for the soul.
(G. V. W.)