"DAILY"
"Daily" There are many here tonight who are young in the
faith; they have not long taken upon their lips the confession of the Lord
Jesus. I speak with an earnest desire to help and encourage such, an I should
like to bring before you six things that will have a place in your everyday
life if you go on with God. The first of them is brought before us in Acts
17:10-12.
DAILY SEARCHING OF THE
SCRIPTURES
It is of great importance to the welfare of your soul
that you should have, and cultivate, an appetite for the Holy Scriptures. But
everything depends upon the spirit and attitude in which we approach the
Scriptures. It is possible to study the Bible in schoolboy fashion, and to
learn divinity just as people learn geology or botany. I do not want to
encourage you to do that; there is already to much of it. We are not only told
that the Bereans "searched the scripture," but we are told why they searched.
They heard the preaching of Paul and Silas, and "received the word with all
readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were
so." Wonderful things were brought to their ears, and they were not skeptical
or indifferent, they "received the word with all readiness of mind," and they
searched the Scriptures because they had received the word of the apostles.
They searched, not like the antiquary who pores over an old will with curiosity
or scientific interest, but like the person who has been told, and who has
received the report, that a great legacy is bequeathed to him in it. I thank
God that many of you have received the report of the marvelous blessing of His
grace, but I fear that some of you have not been sufficiently interested in
them to search the Scriptures daily, whether these things are so. The result is
that yu are not so stable as you ought to be; and if you were challenged as to
some of the blessings which you think you have received, you might not be able
to give a very good "reason of the hope that is in you." There is often a
carelessness amongst the children of God as to divine things which has no
parallel in the ordinary affairs of life. If a man buys an estate he does not
content himself with the bare word of the vendor; he will have the deeds
searched with the utmost care to be quite sure the title is good. If a man has
property left him in America, and a detailed account of it is sent to him, you
may be sure that he will read it carefully through, and that more than once. If
I were to go to some wealthy merchant and tell him that the King had conferred
upon him the honor of knighthood, he would insist on seeing the official
documents which would verify the statement. The more important a thing is, the
more anxious people are to be sure about it, and I think if we got a right
sense of the immensity of the very smallest bit of Christian blessing, we
should go to the Scriptures as the Bereans did to make quite sure that these
things were so. I think where there is carelessness as to this, it indicates
that we have not a right sense in our hearts of the greatness of Christian
blessings, or they would become matters of more earnest and anxious inquiry.
These things are so important--the issues at stake are so vital--that we should
take nothing on trust, even if the speaker be an apostle.
I am often
surprised that Christians who have listened for years--apparently with interest
and attention--to the ministry of the word know so little of divine things.
They seem to enjoy the ministry, their faces are bright in the meetings, and
yet when you come to talk to them you find that very little of it has got into
their souls. I believe the secret is that they listen to what is said, but
value it so little that they do not take the trouble of going to the Scriptures
to verify it for themselves. Ministry has its own blessed and important place,
but I do not believe that any ministry will be of permanent profit to our souls
if it is not followed by searching of the scriptures.
Timothy, Paul's
child in the faith, was exhorted by the apostle to "give attendance to
reading," and to "mediate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that
thy profiting may appear to all," 1 Tim 4:13-15. Further, as a servant he was
to be a "workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth"; and as a man of God he was to know that "all scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be
perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works," 2 Tim 2:15; 3:16, 17. In
connection with this there is an exhortation in 2 Tim 1:13, to which we might
do well to take heed--"Hold fast the form of sound words," or as a new
translation gives it--"Have an outline of sound words." Timothy was to have in
his mind an outline of the truth so that it was clear before him. When I was at
school we had sometimes to draw outline of maps from memory, and very strange
outlines used to be presented, that would have puzzled anyone to tell what
country they were intended to be like. Now suppose someone asked you to give an
outline of the truth of Christianity, could you do it? It is the will of God
that we should have a clear outline of the truth before our minds, and we
cannot have this without searching the Scriptures. Otherwise our thoughts on
divine things will be vague and indefinite, and we may become the prey of some
plausible system of error, of which there are such endless varieties at the
present day. If we desire to be tenacious of the truth, it is more than ever
necessary that we should search the Scriptures "daily."
SEARCHING
gives the idea of a definite object being in view. A great deal of Bible
reading is profitless because aimless. The reader is seeking for nothing and
finds it. I believe that we profit most when our souls are interested in
certain subjects, and exercised before the Lord about them, and we turn to the
Scriptures to search whether these things are so. There are surely many things
with each one of us that we are more or less anxious to have divine light upon.
Many of us do not know the doctrines of Scripture very clearly: questions arise
as to practical details in our walk: surely each one of us has exercise as to
our soul-experiences; and all these things should constrain us to "search the
scriptures."
And remember it must be DAILY! I press upon every young
Christian here the necessity for the daily study of the Scriptures. You cannot
maintain a vacuum in your mind; if it is not occupied with divine things it
will be with human or earthly things. The habit of searching the Scriptures
grows upon you as you go on with it, but if you neglect it you soon lose a
relish for it. I have heard Christians say something like this--`I wish I could
enjoy the word of God more. When I read my Bible I don't get the blessing that
some people do. I hear So-and-so say how his soul is refreshed by the word, but
I don't get it.' I like to ask such persons, How often do you read the Bible?
Once a week? Or once a month? The one who reads his Bible most is the one who
enjoys it most, and who turns to it with the greatest delight. On the other
hand, if you neglect the Bible today you will have less taste for it tomorrow,
still less the day after, and so on until it becomes a dry book to you. You
must make a point of it that you are in company with the Scriptures every day.
It is not a question of a great deal--you perhaps have not time for that --but
you must have it DAILY.
2. "Blessed is the man that heareth me,
watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. Fo whoso findeth
me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord," Prov 8:34, 35.
You
will get very little blessing for your soul, and you will make no spiritual
progress, even by daily searching of the Scriptures, unless you are also
DAILY WATCHING AT WISDOM'S
GATES.
The great central Figure of Scripture must be the Object
of your affections, or you will read to little profit. In short, Christ must be
before your heart, or you will miss the kernel of every truth in Scripture. The
allusion in these verses is to an Eastern court, where certain favored ones are
admitted to the privilege of being near the monarch. In the first of Esther we
read of seven princes who "saw the king's face." Others may read his commands
and hear about him at a distance, but these stand in his presence and hear his
voice. Are you going in for this, beloved young Christians? The glorious Person
who gave full delight to the heart of God has set His love upon us! He has
revealed Himself to us as the One who has found His delight in us. Is that
Person so holding your heart--are you so delighting in Him--that your whole
inner life consists in hearing Him, in watching daily at His gates, and waiting
at the posts of His doors? The grand secret of spiritual freshness and
soul-prosperity is to have Christ so before the heart that we are attracted to
Himself, with intense longing to know Him better. Now, beloved, let us
challenge our hearts as to this! Are we on the alert to improve our
acquaintance with Christ? The great defect of modern Christianity is that there
is so little affection for Christ. Many hear what is called a clear gospel, and
trusting the Person and work of Christ they get the assurance of the Scriptures
that they will never perish, and this seems to satisfy them and they settle
down upon it and go to sleep. There is not the earnest longing after
Himself--the watching daily at His gates. Did it ever occur to you that Christ
values your affections? You belong to Him; you are the object of His love; you
are "His own." Your heart is Christ's property: is it His dwelling-place? His
love counts on your giving Him a place in your affections, so that He may dwell
in your heart "by faith." If He does dwell there, you may depend upon it that
you will be watching daily at His gates--not only seeking His benefits, but
longing after Himself, and finding it the deepest joy of your heart that you
are admitted to personal acquaintance with Him.
Look at Mary of
Magdala--in her day a lovely example of this precious affection for Christ!
Apostles did not attract her heart; she let them go to their homes without her.
Angels--the highest order in creation--speak to her, but leave her unsatisfied.
She does not even turn to look properly at the supposed gardener. She has
forgotten herself--a weak and defenseless woman--as she says, "Sir, if thou
hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him
away." It was Himself that her devoted heart longed after with all the
intensity of its affection. She watched at His gates and waited at the posts of
His doors; and did she not "obtain favor of the Lord"? No such message of
divine love as that which she carried was ever entrusted to human lips before.
Andrew and John knew something of what I am speaking of, when the
longing of their hearts was expressed in the question--"Rabbi, where dwellest
thou?" John 1:38, 39. They wanted to be in His company; they were in their day
found watching at His gates and waiting at the posts of His doors. And what
favor they obtained! "He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where
he dwelt, and abode with him that day." Was it not a royal day for them? Do you
think they will ever forget it? It is a glorious day for the heart when it
makes personal acquaintance with Christ. I dare say there are some here tonight
who could tell you that the deep joy of that hour was infinitely greater than
the joy of the hour when they learned the perfect efficacy of His work. Nor
would the Lord have this to be a transient experience. They "abode with him
that day" --a day typical of the whole present period--and though He is no
longer in the world He would have us abiding with Him. His love could think of
no sweeter portion for us that ot have a part with Him, and no service of His
love is more precious to a devoted heart than that washing by which He removes
the defilement fo the world from our feet, that we may have a part with Himself
where He dwells with the Father (John 13). Does not your heart long to taste
more deeply the blessedness of the one who watches DAILY at His gates, and
waits at the posts of His doors?
Paul is another example of this when
he tells us that he counted all things but loss, for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, and that he counted all things but dung
that he might win Christ to know him. To attain this he was pressing on as a
man wholly absorbed by one object. To use once more the words before us, he was
watching daily at His gates, and waiting at the posts of His doors. And did he
not "obtain favor of the Lord"? Was it a small thing to be able to say as an
experimental reality, "our citizenship is in heaven"? Or to say, "I have
learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be satisfied in myself"? Or to say, "I
can do all things, through Christ which strengtheneth me"? He did indeed verify
the blessing spoken of in Proverbs 8:34, 35. May our hearts be very much drawn
after that blessed Person in glory, that we may verify it too!
3. "I
cry unto thee daily," Psalm 86:3. I wish to remind you of the great importance
of
DAILY PRAYER
and I purposely
left the subject of prayer until I had said a little about the affections of
the heart being after Christ, because nothing will be more changed than your
prayers if you are really after Christ. If Christ is before our hearts we feel
the hindrances and the difficulties, and we understand the need for prayer in a
very different way from one who has not Christ as his object. There never was
upon the earth a man who was so continually in the spirit of prayer as the
blessed Lord, for there never was one whose heart was so devoted to God. It was
the very excellence of His devotedness to God that made Him so entirely
dependent--that made Him so pre-eminently the Man of prayer. The more our
hearts are set upon Christ in glory, the more we are devoted to His interest
here, and the more do we feel our weakness and dependence. We feel that
everything here is against us; we are conscious of the opposition around and
within, and we become more and more men of prayer. I think you will allow that
the apostle excelled all other saints in devotedness to Christ, and there never
was one so saturated with the spirit of prayer. I am sure of this, that if our
hearts are set upon Christ in glory the effect will be that we shall be much on
our knees.
Allow me to give you a few practical words as to your
prayers. Keep clear of the unprofitable habit of merely saying your prayers.
Christendom is full of solemn warnings as to the tendency of our hearts to drop
into a routine of religious forms. It is a very great loss to the soul, to get
into the habit of repeating substantially the same words in prayer every day.
It is not real prayer at all. We read--"In everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." Phil
4:6. How can you do that if you are using the same form of words day after day,
and week after week? Today is not like yesterday, and tomorrow will not be like
today. If you are really with God you will be sensitive to the fresh needs of
every day. God delights to have our confidence as to every need and care. Then
let us cultivate a child's confidence, and a child's simplicity as we come to
Him in prayer. Bring the trying circumstances of today, and the expected
difficulties and perplexities of tomorrow, to the blessed God who tells you to
cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Be simple: give up the long
preface: do not feel it necessary to quote a dozen scriptures: ask as a needy
and confiding child would ask its parent. If I might venture to say one word
about the prayer meeting it would be this: I do not believe any brother should
take part unless he has some definite petition to present. I have been in
prayer meetings where I have felt as if brothers began without knowing a single
thing they were going to ask for, and discoursed about every subject that
happened to come into their minds. This may be profitable religious exercise,
but it is certainly not prayer.
Then if we are really set for Christ,
as I said before, we realize our dependence in a deeper way, because our faith
connects the glory of His name with everything in our daily life, and we become
sensible that it is only as we are maintained by divine power that we can be
for Him here. Such a one has many an exercise that others miss who are less
devoted, but he enjoys oftentimes the deep blessedness of communion whth God,
while they are living and walking "as men". The more your heart is set for
Christ, the more you will be characterized by humility and dependence, which
will find their expression in daily prayer.
4. "Give us this day our daily
bread." Mt 6:11.
I suppose that we all believe the
DAILY BREAD
here referred to is that which
meets the need of the body. Those who know not God seek after what they may eat
and drink, and what they may put on. Their concern is all about the body; we
can rejoice that our Father knows we have need of these things, and He cares
for us in every detail of that need. Bit I wish to use these words tonight to
impress upon you the importance of having your soul nourished every day. We
need food convenient for our bodies every day, and it is not less needful to
have something fresh from the Lord for our souls. Now, come, what have you had
from the Lord today? `I have been reading a very good book, and part of one of
the periodicals.' I am glad to hear it, but did you get anything from the Lord?
`I have read one or two chapters in the Bible.' I am very thankful for that,
but still you might read many chapters without getting anything from the Lord
to meet the present need of your soul. Reading and hearing are like looking at
the food, but it is another thing to get the good of it. Food is that which
satisfies a craving--a felt need--and unless we have an appetite there is not
even the desire for it. It is one of the great principles of God's ways that He
"satisfieth the longing soul," and fills "the hungry with good things." Hence
the subject of the soul's daily bread is a deeply experimental one. The food of
which I speak is the gracious supply to our souls of that which answers the
exercises, and meets the need of which we become conscious in our experience
day by day. I do not mean your external need, but the need of your heart and
spirit, in the various experiences of your soul.
One of two scripture
illustrations may perhaps serve to make my meaning clear. On the night of the
passover in Egypt the children of Israel had--as we often hear--the blood of
the lamb to make them safe and the word of Jehovah to make them sure; but they
had also the lamb roast with fire for their food. The soul in the position thus
typified has a perfect shelter from judgment in the precious blood of Christ,
and a perfect assurance in the word of God, but has he no longings, no
exercises, no experience? He has escaped the judgment, it is true, but he feels
how near it has been to him; he is conscious how truly he deserved it. It is a
solemn hour for him; he has no doubt as to his safety, but still it is a solemn
hour, for God in His holiness is passing over. Is there no food for him? Is
there no gracious supply of the very thing which will meet his present need?
Indeed there is: he feeds with self-judgment ("with bitter herbs they shall eat
it") on the Lamb "roast with fire." He appropriates to himself, and takes into
his moral being, the precious fact that Christ has fully borne the judgment of
God, and this meets the hunger of his soul. He loves to think of the spotless
perfection of the Victim, of the love that made Him willing to bear the
judgment, and of the infinite value of that divine work which has exhausted for
ever the judgment under which he lay. The meaning of Calvary's darkness, of the
cry of the Forsaken One, of the triumph shout, " IT IS FINISHED ," becomes
great and real. The soul enters into it, takes possession of it by faith, feeds
upon it. I trust we all know something of this.
At another stage of
their experience the children of Israel were found in the wilderness--the place
of no human resources--but they had food there, and they had it every day.
Those who have seen the salvation of God, and have escaped from the
judgment-land by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, find themselves
in the wilderness; that is, in a place where they have fresh needs and
exercises every day, without any human resources to satisfy those needs or
answer those exercises. Alas, the perverseness and rebellion of Israel only too
well represent our own. How often have our hearts refused the sessions of the
wilderness, and sought to find a more pleasant and easy path where daily
exercises of soul might be avoided! In Egypt we had no such exercises, and to
escape them have we not often been ready to make a captain of our own choice
and go back to be sustained by human resources? How truly is the wilderness the
place where we learn what is in our heart! Deuteronomy 8:2.
But the
manna fell every day. If they had fresh hunger every day they had also fresh
food every day. And, beloved brethren, for the renewed needs and exercises of
every day we may have renewed supplies of heavenly grace to sustain us in the
path of faith. There is One in glory who knows every bit of the wilderness, for
He has been through it. He is out of it now, but from where He is in glory we
may have the daily supply of grace suited to our wilderness experiences, from
One who know well what wilderness circumstances are. Paul would have liked to
escape from the exercise caused by the thorn for the flesh (2 Corinthians 12),
but he was better off with it that without it, for along with it he got what I
think answers to the manna--"My grace is sufficient for thee." I am sure if you
have known anything at all of this you will say that it is infinitely better to
have the exercise and the grace than to be without them. As I said, this is
very experimental, and when we come to experimental things we find out where we
are. Doctrines will not help you in your everyday needs and exercises; you must
have the supply that is suited to them fresh from heaven. You must have daily
bread. The manna that sustained you through yesterday's experience will not do
for today. You must have fresh grace from the Lord in glory for every hour of
need. Thus the heart's intercourse with heaven is kept up from day to day, and
our affections become more and more attracted to the Person and the place from
whence our supplies come.
We have all passed through some stages of
divine experience. We have been--through grace-- awakened, converted, led to
trust in Jesus, and brought into peace with God on the ground of Christ's death
and resurrection, but at this point many seem to stop. They have got all they
want and they settle down and go to sleep--that is, they live more or less on
the same principles as unconverted men. I ask you young believer, whether it
would not make a great difference in your life, if you were to accept a path
where human resources cannot sustain you, and where you have to look
continually to the Lord in glory for the supply of daily grace to carry you on.
You cannot get on, as a Christian, on your own resources. Your only strength
lies in "the grace that is in Christ Jesus," and you may have it fresh as the
food of your soul every day and hour. This would keep us out of all ruts and
formalities--there would be nothing humdrum or mechanical about our
lives--because every day would bring fresh experiences of the grace of Christ,
and the sense of His interest in us would knit our hearts more and more to
Himself. May the Lord preserve us from becoming insensible to our daily need,
or indifferent to the present grace that His love delight to supply as our
daily bread.
5. "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily, and follow me," Lk 9:23. I am quite sure that you
would shrink from the
DAILY CROSS
if you did not know something of the grace of which I have been speaking.
It is feeding on the daily bread that enables us to sustain the daily cross,
just as in Luke 14 you get the Supper first and then the building and the
fighting. How could you build or fight unless you were first fed? In a similar
way in Hebrews 13:10 you are first fed from the altar and then (verse 13) you
are called to make a journey. When God was going to send Elijah a long journey
He fed him first. 1Kings 19. You must feed upon the heavenly grace that comes
from Christ, or you will never have the heart to "go forth unto him." It is
when you have learned that all your supplies come from Him that you are willing
to go forth to Him in the place of shame and reproach, which answers to the
DAILY CROSS of Luke 9. You take up a path that exposes you to shame and
contempt every day. If a man was seen bearing his cross everybody knew that he
had done with the world, and as long as he remained in it he was an object of
reproach. To bear the cross is to accept the reproach of being connected with
that which is mean and despicable in the eyes of men. A crucified man was
inconceivably despicable to both the Jew and the Greek, and we must not forget
that though the cross is so highly honored now in name, it is not really one
whit more acceptable to men; and if we are true to the Man who died on the
cross we shall be targets for the taunts and the scorn of the world. The daily
cross is not bodily affliction or the ordinary trials of life, as so many
suppose, for these things are not peculiar to Christians, they are the common
lot of mankind. The daily cross is the acceptance day by day of a path and a
portion which, so far as this world goes, is one of dishonour and reproach.
You may depend upon it that it will never be easy to the flesh to
follow Chirst and to bear His reproach. How much we need to remember those
words of the Holy Spirit--"forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the
flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in
the flesh hath ceased from sin!" 1 Peter 4:1. If we are true to Christ it will
involve the surrender of much that we naturally esteem--the praise of men. And
the honours of life in this world. When our eye gets off Christ we shirk the
cross, and try to avoid the scorn and the sneers of the world. It is a long
time since I read Pilgrim's Progress, but I have not forgotten that Shame was
one of the worst enemies he met with. A great soul-winner said that it cost him
a struggle to give away a tract; and you may be sure that every bit of tral
testimony for Christ will cost you something. If you are acting in the flesh of
course you will escape this, for he is not ashamed of his doings, and you may
be very well pleased with yourself and your service. But true testimony
involves the denial of self, and the daily cross, fo discipleship will never be
a path of liberty to the flesh. As you keep your eye upon Christ you do not
seek to gratify the flesh but to walk in the Spirit, and you are able to sing
from your heart:
"Savior, I long to follow Thee,
Daily the cross to
bear."
The child of God walking in the Spirit does not dread the
cross, he longs for it. Like Moses, he esteems the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he has respect unto the recompense of
the reward. As you take up the daily cross you will have a present reward in
the sense of the Lord's approval; and by and by it will be your immeasurable
gain in the thousand years of kingdom glory, and your joy for ever. May the
Lord encourage all our hearts in this matter!
6. " Exhort (encourage)
one another daily," Hebrews 3:13.
There is immense need for such an
exhortation as this, for there is a constant tendency in our hearts to be "
discouraged because of the way." The young especially need
DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT,
and it is a great
privilege from the Lord to be able to "encourage one another:" I am afraid that
many souls backslide and drift away simply because we are not near enough to
the Lord, and have not sufficient affection to give them a word of
encouragement. It is no use trying to set the old man down; you may lecture and
hammer at him with all your might, but he can stand all the blows that you give
him. You must keep your eye on that which is of God in the saints, and lay
yourself out to encourage that. There is no other way to help one another.
There is something which is of God in every saint; it may be very weak and
small, but we must build on that--we must encourage that. You will see what I
mean in the epistles. Take the Galatians; they were in an awful state, in
danger of leaving the very foundations of Christianity, and yet Paul says, "I
have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise
minded," Galatians 5:10. We have to look at the saints from a divine
standpoint, and we shall then recognise, as Balaam did, what they are in God's
thoughts and purposes, and we shall count upon His Spirit's work in them, in
spite of much that would turn our hearts from them if we judged after the sight
of our eyes and the hearing of our ears. We must count on the work of God in
the souls of His saints, and seek to help and encourage that which is of
Himself in every way. As the Spirit's work in the soul prospers, CHRIST
supersedes and displaces the flesh and the world, and this is the way of true
sanctification.
Let none of us think that this is only for teachers
and ministers of the word; we are to "encourage one another." This applies to
every one of us in our individual contact with each other. I have often been
encouraged by simply meeting a brother in the street. A kindly word of interest
and of cheer often goes a long way. A hearty grip of the hand is in itself an
encouragement; when Paul says, "Great one another with an holy kiss," he refers
to the common salutation of the country, which answers to our shake of the
hand. We might have thought a reference to such a thing beneath the dignity of
Christianity, but not so the Holy Spirit. There are a thousand ways in which we
can "encourage one another," if we are near the Lord ourselves.
And,
remember this is to go on DAILY. We are not to be spasmodic. It is an easy
thing to make a flash like a meteor, but if we are to be fixed stars shining
with a steady light from day to day for the encouragement of others, we must
ourselves DAILY abide in Christ, and walk in the Spirit. Then, instead of there
being a falling off as to this, we should be encouraging one another, and so
much the more as we see the day approaching (Hebrews 10: 25).
May God
write these things on our hearts, that we may be more distinctly FOR CHRIST as
we wait for His coming ! Amen.
Next: The
Nazarite's Vow