revival6
LECTURE XXI
THE BACKSLIDER IN HEART
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways. – Proverbs
14:14.
I cannot conclude this course of lectures, without warning converts
against backsliding. In discussing this subject, I will show:
I. What backsliding in heart is not.
II. What backsliding in heart is.
III. What are evidences of backsliding in heart.
IV. What are consequences of backsliding in heart.
V. How to recover from this state.
I. WHAT A BACKSLIDING HEART IS NOT.
- It does not consist in the subsidence of highly excited religious
emotions. The subsidence of religious feeling may be an evidence of a
backslidden heart, but it does not consist in the cooling off of religious
feeling.
II. WHAT BACKSLIDING IN HEART IS.
- It consists in taking back that consecration to God and His service, that
constitutes true conversion.
2. It is the leaving, by a Christian, of his first love.
3. It consists in the Christian withdrawing himself from that state of entire
and universal devotion to God, which constitutes true religion, and coming
again under the control of a self-pleasing spirit.
4. The text implies that there may be a backslidden heart, when the forms
of religion and obedience to God are maintained. As we know from
consciousness that men perform the same, or similar, acts from widely
different, and often from opposite, motives, we are certain that men may
keep up all the outward forms and appearances of religion, when in fact,
they are backslidden in heart. No doubt the most intense selfishness often
takes on a religious type, and there are many considerations that might
lead a backslider in heart to keep up the forms, while he had lost the
power of godliness in his soul.
III. WHAT ARE EVIDENCES OF A BACKSLIDDEN HEART.
- Manifest formality in religious exercises. A stereotyped, formal way of
saying and doing things, that is clearly the result of habit, rather than the
outgushing of the religious life. This formality will be emotionless and cold
as an iceberg, and will evince a total want of earnestness in the
performance of religious duty. In prayer and in religious exercises the
backslider in heart will pray or praise, or confess, or give thanks with his
lips, so that all can hear him, perhaps, but in such a way that no one can
feel him. Such a formality would be impossible where there existed a
present, living faith and love, and religious zeal.
2. A want of religious enjoyment is evidence of a backslidden heart. We
always enjoy the saying and doing of those things that please those whom
we most love; furthermore, when the heart is not backslidden, communion
with God is kept up, and therefore all religious duties are not only
performed with pleasure, but the communion with God involved in them
is a source of rich and continual enjoyment. If we do not enjoy the service
of God, it is because we do not truly serve Him. If we love Him
supremely, it is impossible that we should not enjoy His service at every
step. Always remember then, whenever you lose your religious
enjoyment, or the enjoyment of serving God, you may know that you are
not serving Him aright.
3. Religious bondage is another evidence of a backslidden heart. God has
no slaves. He does not accept the service of bondsmen, who serve Him
because they must. He accepts none but a love service. A backslider in
heart finds his religious duties a burden to him. He has promised to serve
the Lord. He dare not wholly break off from the form of service, and he
tries to be dutiful, while he has no heart in prayer, in praise, in worship, or
in any of those exercises which are so spontaneous and delightful, where
there is true love to God. The backslider in heart is often like a dutiful, but
unloving wife. She tries to do her duty to her husband, but fails utterly
because she does not love him. Her painstaking to please her husband is
constrained, not the spontaneous outburst of a loving heart; and her
relationship and her duties become the burden of her life. She goes about
complaining of the weight of care that is upon her, and will not be likely to
advise young ladies to marry. She is committed for life, and must therefore
perform the duties of married life, but it is such a bondage! Just so with
religious bondage. The professor must perform his duty. He drags
painfully about it, and you will hear him naturally sing backslider’s
hymns:
Reason I hear, her counsels weigh,
And all her words approve
And yet I find it hard to obey,
And harder still, to love.
4. An ungoverned temper. While the heart is full of love, the temper will
naturally be chastened and sweet, or at any rate, the will keep it under, and
not suffer it to break out in outrageous abuse, or if at any time it should so
far escape from the control of the will as to break loose in hateful words, it
will soon be brought under, and by no means suffered to take control and
manifest itself to the annoyance of others. Especially will a loving heart
confess and break down, if at any time bad temper gets the control.
Whenever, therefore, there is an irritable, uncontrolled temper allowed to
manifest itself to those around, you may know there is a backslidden
heart.
5. A spirit of uncharitableness is evidence of a backslidden heart. By this, I
mean a want of that disposition that puts the best construction upon
every one’s conduct that can be reasonable – a want of confidence in the
good intentions and professions of others. We naturally credit the good
professions of those whom we love. We naturally attribute to them right
motives, and put the best allowable construction upon their words and
deeds. Where there is a want of this there is evidence conclusive of a
backslidden or unloving heart.
6. A censorious spirit is conclusive evidence of a backslidden heart. This is
a spirit of fault-finding, of impugning the motives of others, when their
conduct admits of a charitable construction. It is a disposition to fasten
blame upon others, and judge them harshly. It is a spirit of distrust of
Christian character and profession. It is a state of mind that reveals itself
in harsh judgments, harsh sayings, and the manifestation of uncomfortable
feelings toward individuals. This state of mind is entirely incompatible
with a loving heart, and whenever a censorious spirit is manifested by a
professor of religion, you may know there is a backslidden heart.
7. A want of interest in God’s Word, is also an evidence of a backslidden
heart. Perhaps nothing more conclusively proves that a professor has a
backslidden heart, than his losing his interest in the Bible. While the heart
is full of love, no book in the world is so precious as the Bible. But when
the love. is gone, the Bible becomes not only uninteresting but often
repulsive. There is no faith to accept its promises, but conviction enough
left to dread its threatening. But in general the backslider in heart is
apathetic as to the Bible. He does not read it much, and when he does read
it, he has not interest enough to understand it. Its pages become dark and
uninteresting, and therefore it is neglected.
8. A want of interest in secret prayer is also an evidence of a backslidden
heart. Young Christian, if you find yourself losing your interest in the
Bible and in secret prayer, stop short, return to God, and give yourself no
rest, till you enjoy the light of His countenance. If you feel disinclined to
pray, or to read your Bible; if when you pray and read your Bible, you
have no heart; if you are inclined to make your secret devotions short, or
are easily induced to neglect them; or if your thoughts, affections, and
emotions wander, you may know that you are a backslider in heart, and
your first business is to be broken down before God, and to see that your
love and zeal are renewed.
9. A want of interest in the conversion of souls and in efforts to promote
revivals of religion. This of course reveals a backslidden heart. There is
nothing in which a loving heart takes more interest than in the conversion
of souls – in revivals of religion, and in efforts to promote them. 83
10. A want of interest in published accounts or narratives of revivals of
religion, is also an evidence of a backslidden heart. While one retains his
interest in the conversion of souls, and in revivals of religion he will, of
course, be interested in all accounts of revivals of religion anywhere. If you
find yourself, therefore, disinclined to read such accounts, or find yourself
not interested in them, take it for granted that you are backslidden in heart.
11. The same is true of missions, and missionary work and operations. If
you lose your interest in the work, and in the conversion of the heathen,
and do not delight to read and hear of the success of missions, you may
know that you are backslidden in heart.
12. The loss of interest in benevolent enterprises generally is an evidence
of a backslidden heart. I say, “the loss of interest,” for surely, if you were
ever converted to Christ, you have had an interest in all benevolent
enterprises that came within your knowledge. Religion consists in
disinterested benevolence. Of course, a converted soul takes the deepest
interest in all benevolent efforts to reform and save mankind; in good
government, in Christian education, in the cause of temperance, in the
abolition of slavery, in provision for the needs of the poor, and in short, in
every good word and work. Just in proportion as you have lost your
interest in these, you have evidence that you are backslidden in heart.
13. The loss of interest in truly spiritual conversation is another evidence
of a backslidden heart. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). This our Lord Jesus Christ announced as a
law of our nature. No conversation is so sweet to a truly loving heart, as
that which relates to Christ, and to our living Christian experience. If you
find yourself losing interest in conversing on heart religion, and of the
various and wonderful experiences of Christians, if you have known what
the true love of God is, you have fallen from it, and are a backslider in
heart.
14. A loss of interest in the conversation and society of highly spiritual
people, is an evidence of a backslidden heart. We take the greatest delight
in the society of those who are most interested in the things that are most
dear to us. Hence, a loving Christian heart will always seek the society of
those who are most spiritually minded, and whose conversation is most
evangelical and spiritual. If you find yourself wanting in this respect, then
know for certain that you are backslidden in heart.
15. The loss of interest in the question of sanctification is an evidence of a
backslidden heart. I say again, the loss of interest, for, if you ever truly
knew the love of God, you must have had a great interest in the question
of entire consecration to God, or of entire sanctification. If you are a
Christian, you have felt that sin was an abomination to your soul. You
have had inexpressible longings to be rid of it forever, and everything that
could throw light upon that question of agonizing importance was most
intensely interesting to you. If this question has been dismissed, and you
no longer take an interest in it, it is because you are backslidden in heart.
16. The loss of interest in those newly converted, is also an evidence of a
backslidden heart. The Psalmist says: “They that fear Thee will be glad
when they see me; because I have hoped in Thy word” (Psalm 119:74).
This he puts into the mouth of a convert, and who does not know that this
is true? There is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner
that repenteth, and is there not joy among the saints on earth, over those
that come to Christ, and are as babes newly born into the Kingdom? Show
me a professor of religion who does not manifest an absorbing interest in
converts to Christ, and I will show you a backslider in heart, and a
hypocrite; he professes religion, but has none.
17. An uncharitable state of mind in regard to professed converts, is also
an evidence of a backslidden heart. Charity, or love, “believeth all things,
hopeth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7), is very ready to judge kindly and
favorably of those who profess to be converted to Christ, and will
naturally watch over them with interest, pray for them, instruct them, and
have as much confidence in them as it is reasonable to have. A disposition,
therefore, to pick at, criticize, and censure them, is an evidence of a
backslidden heart.
18. The want of the spirit of prayer is evidence of a backslidden heart.
While the love of Christ remains fresh in the soul, the indwelling Spirit of
God will reveal Himself as the Spirit of grace and supplication. He will
beget strong desires in the soul for the salvation of sinners and the
sanctification of saints. He will often make intercessions in them, with
great longings, strong crying and tears, and with groanings that cannot he
uttered in words, for those things that are according to the will of God. Or,
to express it in Scripture language, according to Paul: “Likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what
is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26, 27). If the spirit of prayer
departs, it is a sure indication of a backslidden heart, for while the first
love of a Christian continues he is sure to be drawn by the Holy Spirit to
wrestle much in prayer.
19. A backslidden heart often reveals itself by the manner in which people
pray. For example, praying as if in a state of self-condemnation, or very
much like a convicted sinner, is an evidence of a backslidden heart. Such a
person will reveal the fact, that he is not at peace with God. His
confessions and self-accusations will show to others what perhaps he does
not well understand himself. His manner of praying will reveal the fact
that he has not communion with God; that instead of being filled with faith
and love, he is more or less convicted of sin, and conscious that he is not in
a state of acceptance with God. He will naturally pray more like a
convicted sinner than like a Christian. It will be seen by his prayer that he
is not in a state of Christian liberty – that he is having a Seventh of
Romans experience, instead of that which is described in the Eighth.
20. A backslidden heart will further reveal itself in praying almost
exclusively for self, and for those friends that are regarded almost as parts
of self. It is often very striking and even shocking to attend a backsliders’
prayer meeting, and I am very sorry to say that many prayer meetings of
the Church are little else. Their prayers are timid and hesitating, and reveal
the fact that they have little or no faith. Instead of surrounding the Throne
of Grace and pouring their hearts out for a blessing on those around them,
they have to be urged up to duty, to “take up their cross.” Their hearts do
not, will not, spontaneously gush out to God in prayer. They have very
little concern for others, and when they do, as they say, “take up their
cross and do their duty,” and pretend to lead in prayer, it will be observed
that they pray just like a company of convicted sinners, almost altogether
for themselves. They will pray for that which, should they obtain it,
would be religion, just as a convicted sinner would pray for a new heart;
and the fact that they pray for religion as they do, manifests that they
have none, in their present state of mind. Ask them to pray for the
conversion of sinners, and they will either wholly forget to do so, or just
mention sinners in such a way as will show that they have no heart to
pray for them.
I have known professed Christian parents to get into such a state that they
had no heart to pray for the conversion of their own children, even when
those children were under conviction. They would keep up family prayer,
and attend a weekly prayer meeting, but would never get out of the rut of
praying round and round for themselves. A few years since I was laboring
in a revival in a Presbyterian Church. At the close of the evening sermon I
found that the daughter of one of the elders of the Church was in great
distress of mind. I observed that her convictions were very deep. We had
been holding a meeting with inquirers in the vestry, and I had just
dismissed the inquirers, when this young lady came to me in great agitation
and begged me to pray for her. The people had mostly gone, except a few
who were waiting in the body of the church for those friends who had
attended the meeting of inquiry. I called the father of this young lady into
the vestry that he might see the very anxious state of his daughter’s mind.
After a short personal conversation with her in the presence of her father,
I called on him to pray for her, and said that I would follow him, and I
urged her to give her heart to Christ. We all knelt, and he went through
with his prayer, kneeling by the side of his sobbing daughter, without ever
mentioning her case. His prayer revealed that he had no more religion than
she had, and that he was very much in her state of mind – under an awful
sense of condemnation. He had kept up the appearance of religion. As an
elder of the Church, he was obliged to keep up appearances. He had gone
round and round upon the treadmill of his duties, while his heart was
utterly backslidden. It is often almost nauseating to attend a prayer
meeting of the backslidden in heart. They will go round, round, one after
the other, in reality praying for their own conversion. They do not so
express it, but that is the real import of their prayer. They could not
render it more evident that they are backsliders in heart.
21. Absence from stated prayer meetings for slight reasons, is a sure
indication of a backslidden heart. No meeting is more interesting to
Christians than the prayer meeting, and while they have any heart to pray,
they will not be absent from prayer meeting unless prevented from
attending by the providence of God. If a call from a friend at the hour of
meeting can prevent their attendance, unless the call is made under very
peculiar circumstances, it is strong evidence that they do not wish to
attend, and hence, that they are backsliders in heart. A call at such a time
would not prevent their attending a wedding, a party, a picnic, or an
amusing lecture. The fact is, it is hypocrisy for them to pretend that they
really want to go, while they can be kept away for slight reasons.
22. The same is true of the neglect of family prayer, for slight reasons.
While the heart is engaged in religion, Christians will not readily omit
family devotions, and whenever they are ready to find an excuse for the
omission, it is a sure evidence that they are backslidden in heart.
23. When secret prayer is regarded more as a duty than as a privilege, it is
because the heart is backslidden. It has always appeared to me almost
ridiculous, to hear Christians speak of prayer as a “duty.” It is one of the
greatest of earthly privileges. What should we think of a child coming to
its parent for its dinner, not because it is hungry, but as a duty. How
would it strike us to hear a beggar speak of the “duty” of asking alms of
us. It is an infinite privilege to be allowed to come to God, and ask for the
supply of all our wants. But to pray because we must, rather than because
we may, seems unnatural. To ask for what we want, and because we want
it, and because God has encouraged us to ask, and has promised to answer
our request, is natural and reasonable. But to pray as a duty and as if we
were obliging God by our prayer, is quite ridiculous, and is a certain
indication of a backslidden heart.
24. Pleading for worldly amusements is also an indication of a backslidden
heart. The most grateful amusements possible, to a truly spiritual mind,
are those engagements that bring the soul into the most direct communion
with God. While the heart is full of love and faith, an hour, or an evening,
spent alone in communion with God, is more delightful than all the
amusements which the world can offer. A loving heart is jealous of
everything that will break up or interfere with its communion with God.
For mere worldly amusements it has no relish. When the soul does not
find more delight in God than in all worldly things, the heart is sadly
backslidden.
25. Spiritual blindness is another evidence of a backslidden heart. While
the eye is single the whole body will be full of spiritual light, but if the
eye be evil (which means a backslidden heart) the whole body will be full of
darkness.
Spiritual blindness reveals itself in a want of interest in God’s Word, and
in religious truth generally. It will also manifest a want of spiritual
discrimination, and will be easily imposed upon by the insinuations of
Satan. A backslidden heart will lead to the adoption of lax principles of
morality. It does not discern the spirituality of God’s law, and of His
requirements generally. When this spiritual blindness is manifest it is a
sure indication that the heart is backslidden.
26. Religious apathy, with worldly wakefulness and sensibility, is a sure
indication of a backslidden heart. We sometimes see persons who feel
deeply and quickly on worldly subjects, but who cannot be made to feel
deeply on religious subjects. This clearly indicates a backslidden state of
mind.
27. A self-indulgent spirit is a sure indication of a backslidden heart. By
self-indulgence, I mean a disposition to gratify the appetites, passions, and
propensities, to “fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind”
(Ephesians 2:3).
This, in the Bible, is represented as a state of spiritual death. I am satisfied
that the most common occasion of backsliding in heart is to be found in the
clamor for indulgence of the various appetites and propensities. The
appetite for food is frequently, and perhaps more frequently than any
other, the occasion of backsliding. Few Christians, I fear, apprehend any
danger in this direction. God’s injunction is: “Whether therefore ye eat, or
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians
10:31). Christians forget this, and eat and drink to please themselves,
consulting their appetites instead of the laws of life and health. More
persons are ensnared by their tables than the Church is aware of. The table
is a snare of death to multitudes that no man can number. A great many
people who avoid alcoholic drinks altogether, will indulge in tea and coffee,
and even tobacco, and in food that, both in quantity and quality, violates
every law of health. They seem to have no other law than that of appetite,
and this they so deprave by abuse that, to indulge it, is to ruin body and
soul together. Show me a gluttonous professor, and I will show you a
backslider.
28. A seared conscience is also an evidence of a backslidden heart. While
the soul is wakeful and loving, the conscience is as tender as the apple of
the eye. But when the heart is backslidden, the conscience is silent and
seared, on many subjects. Such a person will tell you that he is not
violating his conscience, in eating or drinking, or in self-indulgence of any
kind. You will find a backslider has but little conscience. The same will
very generally be true in regard to sins of omission. Multitudes of duties
may be neglected and a seared conscience will remain silent. Where
conscience is not awake, the heart is surely backslidden.
29. Loose moral principles are a sure indication of a backslidden heart. A
backslider in heart will write letters on the Sabbath, engage in secular
reading, and in much worldly conversation. In business, such a person will
take little advantages, play off business tricks, and conform to the habits
of worldly business men in the transaction of business; he will be guilty of
deception and misrepresentation in making bargains, will demand
exorbitant interest, and take advantage of the necessities of his fellow-men.
30. Prevalence of the fear of man is an evidence of a backslidden heart.
While the heart is full of the love of God, God is feared, and not man. A
desire for the applause of men is kept down, and it is enough to please
God, whether men are pleased or displeased. But when the love of God is
abated, “the fear of man,” that “bringeth a snare” (Proverbs 29:25), gets
possession of the backslider. To please man rather than God, is then his
aim. In such a state he will sooner offend God than man.
31. A sticklish ness about forms, ceremonies, and nonessentials, gives
evidence of a backslidden heart. A loving heart is particular only about the
substance and power of religion, and will not stickle about its forms.
32. A captiousness about measures in promoting revivals of religion, is a
sure evidence of a backslidden heart. Where the heart is fully set upon the
conversion of sinners and the sanctification of believers, it will naturally
approach the subject in the most direct manner, and by means in the
highest degree calculated to accomplish the end. It will not object to, nor
stumble at, measures that are evidently blessed of God, but will exert the
utmost sagacity in devising the most suitable means to accomplish the
great end on which the heart is set.
IV. THE CONSEQUENCES OF BACKSLIDING IN HEART.
The text says, that “the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own
ways.”
- He shall be filled with his own works. But these are dead works, they
are not works of faith and love, which are acceptable to God, but are the
filthy rags of his own righteousness. If they are performed as religious
services, they are but loathsome hypocrisy, and an abomination to God;
there is no heart in them. To such a person God says: “Who hath required
this at your hand?” (Isaiah 1:12). “Ye are they which justify yourselves
before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). “I
know you, that ye have not the love of God in you” (John 5:42).
2. He shall be filled with his own feelings. Instead of that sweet peace and
rest, and joy in the Holy Ghost, that he once experienced, he will find
himself in a state of unrest, dissatisfied with himself and everybody else,
his feelings often painful, humiliating, and as unpleasant and unlovely as
can be well conceived. It is often very trying to live with backsliders. They
are often peevish, censorious, and irritating, in all their ways. They have
forsaken God, and in their feelings there is more of hell than of heaven.
3. They will be filled with their own prejudices. Their willingness to know
and do the truth has gone. They will very naturally commit themselves
against any truth that bears hardly upon a self-indulgent spirit. They will
endeavor to justify themselves, will neither read nor hear that which will
rebuke their backslidden state, and they will become deeply prejudiced
against every one that shall cross their path, who shall reprove them,
accounting him as an enemy. They hedge themselves in, and shut their
eyes against the light; stand on the defensive, and criticize everything that
would search them out.
4. A backslider in heart will be filled with his own enmities. He will chafe
in almost every relation of life, will allow himself to be vexed, and to get
into such relations with some persons, and perhaps with many, that he
cannot pray for them honestly, and can hardly treat them with common
civility. This is an almost certain result of a backslidden heart.
5. The backslider in heart will be full of his own mistakes. He is not
walking with God. He has fallen out of the Divine order. He is not led by
the Spirit, but is walking in spiritual darkness. In this state he is sure to
fall into many and grievous mistakes, and may get entangled in such a way
as to mar his happiness, and, perhaps, destroy his usefulness for life.
Mistakes in business, mistakes in forming new relations in life, mistakes in
using his time, his tongue, his money, his influence; indeed, all will go
wrong with him as long as he remains in a backslidden state.
6. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own lustings. His
appetites and passions, which had been kept under, have now resumed
their control, and having been so long suppressed, they will seem to
avenge themselves by becoming more clamorous and despotic than ever.
The animal appetites and passions will burst forth, to the astonishment of
the backslider, and he will probably find himself more under their influence
and more enslaved by them than ever before.
7. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own words. While in that
state, he will not, and cannot, control his tongue. It will prove itself to be
an unruly member, full of deadly poison. By his words he will involve
himself in many difficulties and perplexities, from which he can never
extricate himself until he comes back to God.
8. He will be full of his own trials. Instead of keeping out of temptation,
he will run right into it. He will bring upon himself multitudes of trials that
he never would have had, had he not departed from God. He will complain
of his trials, but yet will constantly multiply them. A backslider feels his
trials keenly, but, while he complains of being so tried by everything
around him, he is constantly aggravating them, and, being the author of
them, he seems industrious to bring them upon himself like an avalanche.
9. The backslider in heart shall be full of his own folly. Having rejected the
Divine guidance, he will evidently fall into the depths of his own
foolishness. He will inevitably say and do multitudes of foolish and
ridiculous things. Being a professor of religion, these things will be all the
more noticed, and of course bring him all the more into ridicule and
contempt. A backslider is, indeed, the most foolish person in the world.
Having experimental knowledge of the true way of life, he has the infinite
folly to abandon it. Knowing the fountain of living waters, he has forsaken
it, and “hewed out to himself cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no
water” (Jeremiah 2:13). Having been guilty of this infinite folly, the whole
course of his backslidden life must be that of a fool, in the Bible sense of
the term.
10. The backslider in heart will be full of his own troubles. God is against
him, and he is against himself. He is not at peace with God, with himself,
with the Church, nor with the world. He has no inward rest. Conscience
condemns him. God condemns him. All that know his state condemn him.
“There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isaiah 57:21). There is
no position in time or space in which he can be at rest.
11. The backslider in heart will be full of his own cares. He has turned
back to selfishness. He counts himself and his possessions as his own. He
has everything to care for. He will not hold himself and his possessions as
belonging to God, and lay aside the responsibility of taking care of himself
and all that he possesses. He does not, will not, cast his cares upon the
Lord, but undertakes to manage everything for himself, and in his own
wisdom, and for his own ends. Consequently, his cares will be multiplied,
and come upon him like a deluge.
12. The backslider in heart will be full of his own perplexities. Having
forsaken God, having fallen into the darkness of his own folly, he will be
filled with perplexities and doubts in regard to what course he shall pursue
to accomplish his selfish ends. He is not walking with, but contrary to
God. Hence, the providence of God will constantly cross his path, and
baffle all his schemes. God will frown darkness upon his path, and take
pains to confound his projects, and blow his schemes to the winds.
13. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own anxieties. He will be
anxious about himself, about his business, about his reputation, about
everything. He has taken all these things out of the hands of God, and
claims them and treats them as his own. Hence, having faith in God no
longer, and being unable to control events, he must of necessity be filled
with anxieties with regard to the future. These anxieties are the inevitable
result of his madness and folly in forsaking God.
14. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own disappointments.
Having forsaken God, and taken the attitude of self-will, God will
inevitably disappoint him as he pursues his selfish ends. He will frame his
ways to please himself, without consulting God. Of course God will frame
his ways so as to disappoint him. Determined to have his own way, he
will be greatly disappointed if his plans are frustrated; yet the certain
course of events under the government of God must of necessity bring him
a series of disappointments.
15. The backslider in heart must be full of his own losses. He regards his
possessions as his own, his time as his own, his influence as his own, his
reputation as his own. The loss of any of these, he accounts as his own
loss. Having forsaken God, and being unable to control the events upon
which the continuance of those things is conditioned, he will find himself
suffering losses on every side. He loses his peace. He loses his property.
He loses much of his time. He loses his Christian reputation. He loses his
Christian influence, and if he persists he loses his soul.
16. The backslider in heart will be full of his own crosses. All religious
duty will be irksome, and, therefore, a cross to him. His state of mind will
make multitudes of things crosses that in a Christian state of mind would
have been pleasant in a high degree. Having lost all heart in religion, the
performance of all religious duty is a cross to his feelings. There is no help
for him, unless he returns to God. The whole course of Divine providence
will run across his path, and his whole life will be a series of crosses and
trials. He cannot have his own way. He cannot gratify himself by
accomplishing his own wishes and desires. He may beat and dash himself
against the everlasting rocks of God’s will and God’s way, but break
through and carry all before him he cannot. He must be crossed and
recrossed, and crossed again, until he will fall into the Divine order, and
sink into the will of God.
17. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own tempers. Having
forsaken God, he will be sure to have much to irritate him. In a backslidden
state, he cannot possess his soul in patience. The vexations of his
backslidden life will make him nervous and irritable; his temper will
become explosive and uncontrollable.
18. The backslider in heart will be full of his own disgraces. He is a
professor of religion. The eyes of the world are upon him, and all his
inconsistencies, worldly-mindedness, follies, bad tempers, and hateful
words and deeds, disgrace him in the estimation of all men who know him.
19. The backslider in heart will be full of his own delusions. Having an evil
eye, his whole body will be full of darkness. He will almost certainly fall
into delusions in regard to doctrines and in regard to practices. Wandering
on in darkness, as he does, he will, very likely, swallow the grossest
delusions. Spiritism, Mormonism, Universalism, and every other ism that
is wide from the truth, will be very likely to gain possession of him. Who
has not observed this of backsliders in heart?
20. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own bondage. His
profession of religion brings him into bondage to the Church. He has no
heart to consult the interests of the Church, or to labor for its up-building,
and yet he is under covenant obligation to do so, and his reputation is at
stake. He must do something to sustain religious institutions, but to do so
is a bondage. If he does it, it is because he must, and not because he may.
Again, he is in bondage to God. If he performs any duty that he calls
religious, it is rather as a slave than as a freeman. He serves from fear or
hope, just like a slave, and not from love. A gain, he is in bondage to his
own conscience. To avoid conviction and remorse, he will do or omit many
things, but it is all with reluctance, and not at all of his own cordial
goodwill.
21. The backslider in heart is full of his own self condemnation. Having
enjoyed the love of God, and forsaken Him, he feels condemned for
everything. If he attempts religious duty, he knows there is no heart in it,
and hence condemns himself. If he neglects religious duty, he of course
condemns himself. If he reads his Bible, it condemns him. If he does not
read it, he feels condemned. If he goes to religious meetings, they condemn
him; and if he stays away, he is condemned also. If he prays in secret, in
his family, or in public, he knows he is not sincere, and feels condemned.
If he neglects or refuses to pray, he feels condemned. Everything
condemns him. His conscience is up in arms against him, and the thunders
and lightnings of condemnation follow him, whithersoever he goes.
V. HOW TO RECOVER FROM A STATE OF BACKSLIDING.
- Remember whence you are fallen. Take up the question at once, and
deliberately contrast your present state with that in which you walked
with God.
2. Take home the conviction of your true position. No longer delay to
understand the exact situation between God and your soul.
3. Repent at once, and do your first works over again.
4. Do not attempt to get back, by reforming your mere outside conduct.
Begin with your heart, and at once set yourself right with God.
5. Do not act like a more convicted sinner, and attempt to recommend
yourself to God by any impenitent works or prayers. Do not think that
you must “reform, and make yourself better” before you can come to
Christ, but understand distinctly, that coming to Christ, alone, can make
you better. However much distressed you may feel, know for a certainty
that until you repent and accept His will, unconditionally, you are no
better, but are constantly growing worse. Until you throw yourself upon
His sovereign mercy, and thus return to God, He will accept nothing at
your hands.
6. Do not imagine yourself to be in a justified state, for you know you are
not. Your conscience condemns you, and you know that God ought to
condemn you, and if He justified you in your present state, your
conscience could not justify Him. Come, then, to Christ at once, like a
guilty, condemned sinner, as you are; own up, and take all the shame and
blame to yourself, and believe that notwithstanding all your wanderings
from God, He loves you still – that He has loved you with an everlasting
love, and, therefore, with loving-kindness is drawing you.
LECTURE XXII
GROWTH IN GRACE
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
- 2 Peter 3:18.
I MUST conclude this Course of Lectures by giving converts instructions
on the subject of Growth in Grace. I shall pursue the following method,
showing:
I. What grace is, as the term is here used.
II. What the injunction to “grow in grace” does not mean.
III. What it does mean.
IV. The conditions of growth in grace.
V. What is not proof of growth in grace.
VI. What is proof of growth in grace.
VII. How to grow in grace.
I. WHAT GRACE IS.
Grace is favor. The word is often used in the Bible to signify a free gift.
The grace of God is the favor of God.
II. WHAT TO “GROW IN GRACE” DOES NOT MEAN.
It does not enjoin the gradual giving up of sin. Strange to tell, it would
seem that some have so understood it; but we are nowhere in the Bible
commanded to give up sin gradually, we are everywhere commanded to
give it up instantly and wholly.
III. WHAT IT DOES MEAN.
It enjoins upon us the duty of growing in the favor of God, of growing in
His esteem – in a worthiness of His favor.
IV. CONDITIONS OF GROWTH IN GRACE.
- Growth or increase in anything implies a beginning. Growth in the favor
of God implies that we have already found favor in His sight, that we are
already indebted for grace received, and that we are already in grace, in the
sense of having a place among His favored ones.
2. Consequently, growth in grace implies that we have already repented of
our sin, have actually and practically abandoned all known sin. It cannot
be that we are in favor with God if we are still indulging in known sin
against Him. Being in favor with God implies, of course, that we are
pardoned and favored by Him, for the sake of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Pardon is favor, and implies the renunciation of rebellion against
God. The conditions of the Divine favor, as revealed in the Bible, are
repentance and abandonment of all known sin, and faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ. I said, as a condition of growth in grace we must have the
commencement of grace; in other words, we must be already Christians,
must be in a state of acceptance with God, must have accepted Christ, so
far as He is understood, must be in a state of obedience to all the
recognized will of God. Without this, we cannot be in a state of grace, or in
the favor of God. But being in this state, there is room for everlasting
growth. As we know more of God, we shall be capable of loving Him
more, of having a more universal and implicit confidence in Him. And there
can be no end to this while we have any being, either in this or any other
world. Our love and confidence in Him may be complete, so far as we
know Him. This love and confidence will secure His favor; but there will
be no end to our growth in knowledge of Him, and, consequently, there is
room for eternal growth in grace. The more we love God, the more we
believe, the more we know of Him, if we conform to this knowledge, the
more God must be pleased with us, the higher shall we stand in His favor,
and more and greater gifts He will continue to bestow upon us.
3. Of course, growth in the knowledge of God is a condition of growth in
His favor. We might grow in knowledge, without growing in His favor,
because we might not love and trust Him in accordance with this increased
knowledge. But we cannot love and trust Him more perfectly, unless we
become more perfectly acquainted with Him. If our love and faith keep
pace with our growing knowledge, we must grow in His favor. But growth
in knowledge must be a condition of growth in love and faith.
4. Growth in the knowledge of God, as revealed in Christ Jesus, must be a
condition of growth in His favor. It is in and through Christ Jesus that
God reveals Himself to man. It is in Christ Jesus that we get the true idea
of the personality of the infinite God. Hence, the text says: “Grow in
grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
5. Growth in grace is conditioned on increased knowledge of what is
involved in entire consecration to God.
True conversion to God involves the consecration of ourselves and of all
that we have to Him, so far as we understand what is implied in this. But,
at first, converts are by no means aware of all that is involved in the
highest forms of consecration. They will soon learn that there are certain
things that they did not think of, and that they did not give up to God. At
first, perhaps, all that was in their thought was, to lay their naked soul
upon the altar, and give up their whole heart to God. But soon they may
learn that they did not think of all their possessions, of everything that
was dear to them; they did not surrender all, leaving “not an hoof behind”
(Exodus 10:26). They surrendered all of which they thought, but they
were not fully enlightened, they did not think, nor could they think, at the
time, of every appetite, passion, propensity, of every desire and affection,
and of everything dear to them, in the whole creation, to make a thorough
surrender and delivery of these to God.
To gain such knowledge is a work of time; and growth in the favor of God
is conditioned on making a full surrender and consecration to God of
everything we are, and have, and desire, and love, as fast as these objects
are presented to thought. As long as we exist, and knowledge increases,
there is no doubt that we shall be called upon to grow in grace, by
consecrating to God every new object of knowledge, of desire, and of
affection, that we may come to know, and desire, and love, to all eternity.
As you get new light, you must enlarge your consecration from day to
day, and from hour to hour, or you will cease to grow in grace. Whenever
you stop short, and do not lay and leave everything that you are, that you
possess, or that you love, upon the altar of consecration, that moment you
cease to grow in grace. I pray you to let this saying sink deep into your
hearts.
6. Another condition of growth in grace is intense earnestness and
constancy in seeking increased religious light, by the illumination of the
Holy Spirit. 84 You will gain no effectual religious light except by the
inward showing and teaching of the Holy Spirit. This you will not obtain
unless you continue in the true attitude of a disciple of Christ. Remember,
He says: “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he
cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33). He will not, by His Holy Spirit, be
your Divine Teacher unless you renounce self, and live in a state of
continual consecration to Him. To obtain and preserve the teachings of
Christ, by the Holy Spirit, you must continually and earnestly pray for
this Divine teaching of the Spirit, and watch against resisting and grieving
Him.
7. Another condition of growth in grace is a constant conformity to all the
teachings of the Holy Spirit, keeping up with our convictions of duty and
with our growing knowledge of the will of God.
8. A more and more implicit faith in God is a condition of growth in grace.
By implicit, I mean an unreasoning faith, a confidence in God’s character
so profound that we trust Him in the dark as well as in the light, as well
when we do not understand the reasons of His dealings with us, or of His
requirements, as when we do; a faith like that of Abraham, who “staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief” (Romans 4:20), though the
thing promised seemed irrational and impossible. An implicit faith is an
unwavering, unquestioning faith, a state of mind that will rest in God, in
His promises, in His faithfulness, in His love, whatever appearances may
be and however trying and apparently unreasonable His commands or
providential dealings may be. Abraham’s faith is often commended in the
Bible. God had promised him a son, but did not give him the promised
seed until he was a hundred years old, and Sarah was ninety. But
notwithstanding, Sarah was past age, and he as good as dead, he believed
that God was able to fulfill His promise. Then, when he had received his
beloved son, with the assurance that this was to be his heir, and that
through him the promise was to be fulfilled through all generations, God
tried his faith severely, by commanding him to offer his Isaac as a burnt
sacrifice. Yet he obeyed, without the least hesitation, believing “that God
was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Hebrews 11:19). He made
all his arrangements to obey this trying command, with such calmness that
neither Sarah nor Isaac suspected that any such thing was in
contemplation. This was an instance of the exercise of implicit faith.
Growth in grace, or in the favor of God, is conditioned upon growth in
implicit confidence in Him.
9. A more thoroughly sanctified sensibility is a condition of growth in the
favor of God. By the sensibility, I mean that department of our nature that
feels and desires, to which belongs all that we call desire, affection,
emotion, feeling, appetite, passion, propensity, lust. The sensibility is an
involuntary power, and moral actions and qualities cannot, with strict
propriety, be predicated of it. The states of the sensibility have moral
character only as they derive it, directly or indirectly, from the action of
the will. The nature of man, as a whole, in his depraved condition, is in a
very unlovely state, and although the will may be given up to God, the
sensibility may be in such a state as to be very unlovely in the sight of
One that looks directly upon it, and knows perfectly every excited desire,
passion, propensity, lust. It is through the sensibility, mainly, that we are
assailed with temptations. It is through this that the Christian warfare is
kept up. The Christian warfare consists in the battle of the will with these
various appetites, passions, propensities, and lusts, to keep them in
subjection to the will of God. If the will maintains its integrity, and cleaves
to the will of God, the soul does not sin in its battle with the excited states
of the sensibility. But these rebellious propensities embarrass the will in
the service it renders to God. To keep them under occupies much time,
and thought, and strength. Hence the soul cannot render to God so
complete a service, while exerting the full strength of the will to subjugate
these propensities, as it otherwise might and would render.
These appetites, passions, and propensities, although not sinful in
themselves, have been regarded and spoken of as indwelling sin. Strictly,
they cannot be sin, because they are involuntary. But they are often a
great hindrance to our growth in the favor of God. “For the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary
the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would”
(Galatians 5:17). This means that we cannot do for God what we
otherwise would, because we have to battle so much with the states of the
sensibility, to keep them under. As the sensibility becomes more and more
subdued and in harmony with the will’s devotion to God, we are left free
to render to God a more unembarrassed service. Therefore, the more
thorough the sanctification of the sensibility, the more thoroughly we are
in favor with God.
10. A growing thoroughness and universality of consecration, of spirit,
soul, and body, is the condition of more and more growth in the favor of
God. It is common, at first, for the steadfastness of the will’s devotion to
God to be overcome by the clamor of the excited appetites, passions, and
propensities, or by the various states of the sensibility. Whenever the will
yields to these excited states, you sin. But, in such cases, the sin is not
willful, in the sense of being deliberate and intentional; it is rather a slip,
an inadvertency, a momentary yielding under the pressure of highly excited
feeling. Nevertheless, this yielding is sin. However excited the states of the
sensibility may be, if the will does not yield, there is strictly no sin. Still,
while the will is steadfast, maintaining its consecration and obedience to
God, the appetites originating in the body, and the various propensities of
the soul, which inhere in the sensibility, may be so ajar, in such confusion,
and in such a state of morbid development, that the soul may be unfitted
for the employments and enjoyments of heaven.
11. Hence, the taking on of a greater fullness of the Divine nature is a
condition of growth in the favor of God. Both the will and the sensibility
of God must be in a state of utmost perfection and accord. All of His
desires and feelings must be in perfect harmony with His intelligence and
His will. Not so with us, in our state of physical depravity. The depravity
of sensibility must be physical, because it is involuntary. Still, it is
depravity, it is a lapsed or fallen state of the sensibility. This lapsed
department of our nature must be recovered, sanctified, or completely
restored to harmony with a consecrated will, and an enlightened
intelligence, or we are never fitted for heaven. As we become more and
more the partakers of the Divine nature, and of the Divine holiness, we are
more fully sanctified in spirit, soul, and body, and of course grow more
and more in the favor of God.
12. A greater and more all-pervading fullness of the Holy Spirit’s residence
is another condition of growth in the favor of God. You cannot have it too
thoroughly impressed upon you that every step in the Christian life is to
be taken under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The thing to be attained is
the universal teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that in all things
you shall be led by the Spirit of God. “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). “If ye through the Spirit do
mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”(Romans 8:13). “To be carnal
minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans
8:6). Always remember, therefore, that to grow in grace, you must grow in
the possession of the fullness of the Holy Ghost in your heart.
13. A deeper personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ, in all His
official work and relations, is a condition of growth in grace. His nature,
work, and relations are the theme of the Bible. The Bible presents Him to
us in a great variety of relations. In my “Systematic Theology” 85 I have
considered some sixty or more of these official relations of Christ to the
human race, and these are presented rather as specimens and illustrations
than as covering the whole ground of His relations to us. Now, it is one
thing to know Christ simply on paper, and as spoken of in the Bible, by
reading or hearing of Him, and quite another thing to know Him
personally, in these relations. The Bible is the medium of introduction to
Him personally. What is there said of Him is designed to lead us to seek
after a personal acquaintance with Him. It is by this personal acquaintance
with Him that we are made like Him. It is by direct, personal intercourse
with His Divine mind that we take on His image. “We all, with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2
Corinthians 3:18). “Faith cometh by hearing” (Romans 10:17) and faith
secures for us a personal acquaintance with Christ. Christ has promised to
manifest Himself personally to those who love and obey Him. Do not
stop short of securing this personal manifestation of Christ to your souls.
Your growth in grace will depend upon this. Think not of stopping short
of personally knowing Christ, not only in all these relations, but in the
fullness of these relations. Do not overlook the fact that the appropriation
of Christ, in each of these relations, is a personal act of faith. It is a
putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ, a taking of Him as yours, in each of these
relations, as your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption;
as your Prophet, to teach you, your King, to govern you, your High
Priest, to atone for you, your Mediator, your Advocate, your Strength,
your Savior, your Hiding place, your High Tower, your Captain and
Leader, your Shield, your Defense, your Exceeding Great Reward. In each
of these relations, and in all other of His official relations, you need to
appropriate Him by faith so as to secure to you personal intercourse with
Him in these relations. Growing in a personal acquaintance with Him, in
these relations, is an indispensable condition of growth in His favor.
V. SOME SIGNS THAT ARE NOT PROOF OF GROWTH.
- Growth in knowledge is not conclusive evidence of growth in grace.
Some degree of knowledge is indispensable to our being in favor with God;
and growth in knowledge, as I have shown, is a condition of growth in
grace; but knowledge is not grace, and growth in knowledge does not
constitute growth in grace. A person may grow ever so much in
knowledge, and have no grace at all. In hell, they cannot but grow in
knowledge, as they grow in experience, and in the knowledge of God’s
justice. But there, their growth in knowledge but aggravates the guilt and
misery of hell. They know more and more of God and His law, and their
own guilt, and the more they know, the more wretched they are. From
their increased knowledge they never learn piety.
2. It is not certain evidence that an individual grows in grace, because he
grows in gifts. A professor of religion may increase in gifts, that is, he may
become more fluent in prayer, and more eloquent in preaching, or more
pathetic in exhortation, without being any more holy. We naturally
increase in that in which we exercise ourselves. And if any person often
exercises himself in exhortation, he will naturally, if he makes any effort or
lays himself out, increase in fluency and pungency.
But he may do all this, and yet have no grace at all. He may pray ever so
engagedly, and increase in fluency and apparent pathos, and yet have no
grace. People who have no grace often do so. It is true, if he has grace, and
exercises himself in these things, as he grows in grace, he will grow in gifts.
No person can exercise himself in obeying God, without improving in
those exercises. If he does not improve in gifts, it is a true sign he does not
grow in grace. But, on the other hand, it is not sure evidence that he grows
in grace because he improves in certain exercises, for he will naturally
improve by practice, whether he is a Christian or a hypocrite.
3. It is not proof that a person grows in grace because he thinks he is doing
so. One may be very favorably impressed with regard to his own progress
in religion, when it is evident to others that he is not only making no
progress, but is, in fact, declining. An individual who is growing worse and
worse, is not ordinarily well aware of the fact. It is not uncommon for
both impenitent sinners and Christians to think they are growing better,
when they are growing no better.
This results from the very nature of the case. If any person is growing
worse, his conscience will, for the time being, become more and more
seared, and his mind more and more dark, as he stifles conscience and
resists the light. Then he may imagine he is growing better, just because he
has less sense of sin; and while his conscience continues to sleep he may
continue under the fatal delusion. A man will judge of his own spiritual
state as he compares himself with a high or low standard. If he keeps
Christ before him, in His fullness, as his standard, he will doubtless
always, at least in this state of existence, have but a low estimate of his
own attainments. While at the same time, if he sets before himself the
Church, or any member of the Church, as a standard, he will be very likely
to form a high estimate of his progress in religion, and be very well
satisfied with himself. This is the reason why there is such a difference in
people’s views of their own state arid of the state of the Church. They
compare themselves and the state of the Church with different standards.
Hence, one takes a very humbling view of his own state, and complains of
that of the Church; another thinks such complaints of the Church
censorious, for to him the Church appears to be doing very well. The
reason why he does not think the Church cold, and in a low state, is that
Christ is not his standard of comparison. If a man shuts his eyes, he will
not see the defilement on him, and may think he is clean, while to all
around he appears loathsome.
VI. WHAT IS PROOF OF GROWTH.
- The manifestation of more implicit and universal trust in God is an
evidence of growth in grace. The exercise of greater and more implicit
confidence, as I have said, is the condition of growing in the favor of God.
The manifestation of this implicit and universal confidence is proof that
this growing confidence exists, and is, therefore, satisfactory evidence of
growth in the favor of God. If you are conscious in your own soul that
you do exercise more implicit and universal confidence in God, this is
conclusive proof to you that you are growing in grace, and as you manifest
in your life, and temper, and spirit, this growing confidence, you prove to
yourself and to others that you are growing in the favor of God. For as
you grow in implicit confidence in Him you must grow in His favor.
2. Another evidence of growth in grace, is an increasing weanedness from
the world. The will may be in an attitude of devotion to God, while the
world’s seductive charms very much embarrass the healthy action of the
Christian life. As the soul becomes crucified and dead to the world, it
grows in the favor of God.
3. Less reluctance of feeling, when called to the exercise of self-denial, is an
evidence of growth in grace. It shows that the feelings are becoming less
and less despotic, that the will is getting more the mastery of them, that
the sensibility is getting more into harmony with the devotion of the will
and the dictates of the intelligence.
4. Less temptation to sins of omission, is another evidence of growth in
grace, e.g., less temptation to shun the cross, to neglect unpleasant duties;
less temptation to indolence, to the shirking of responsibility, to neglect of
prayer, to reading the Scriptures, and. to private and family devotions; in
short, less and less temptation to shun the performance of any duty is
evidence of growth in grace. These temptations consist in the excited
states of the sensibility. As these become less in strength and frequency,
we learn that our sensibility is becoming more completely subjugated to
the law of the intelligence and the decisions of the will, and consequently,
that the work of the sanctification of the spirit, soul, and body is
progressing, and that therefore we are growing in the favor of God.
5. A growing intensity and steadiness of zeal in promoting the cause of
God, is evidence of growth in the favor of God. Sometimes Christian zeal
is comparatively cool, at other times deep and intense; sometimes it will
be steady, at other times fitful and evanescent. As Christians grow in
piety, their zeal becomes deep, intense, and steady, and as you are
conscious of this, and in your life and spirit give evidence of it to others,
you have, and give, proof that you are growing in the favor of God.
6. Losing more and more the consciousness of self, and respect to self, in
every action of life, is an evidence of growth in the favor of God. Some
have so much consciousness of self in everything, and so much respect to
self in everything they say and do, as to be embarrassed in all their
Christian life, whenever they attempt to act or speak in the presence of
others. As they lose this self-consciousness, and have less respect to self,
their service of God becomes more free and unembarrassed, and they are
all the better servants by how much less they think of self. Sometimes
young converts cannot speak or pray, or perform any public duty,
without being either proud or ashamed, as they think themselves to have
performed their duties with more or less acceptance to those around them.
While this is so, their piety is in a feeble state. They must lose sight of
their own glory, and have a single eye to the glory of God, to find
acceptance with Him. But as they lose sight of self, and set God always
before them, having an eye single to His glory they grow more and more in
His favor.
7. Consequently, a growing deadness to the flattery or censure of men, is
an evidence of growth in grace. Paul had grown in grace so much that he
counted it a light thing to be judged of man, he only sought to commend
himself to God (1 Corinthians 4:3, 4). As you find yourself growing in this
state of deadness to the flatteries or censures of men, you have evidence
that you grow in grace.
8. A growing cordiality in the acceptance of the whole will of God is
evidence of growth in His favor. Some rebel against His will as revealed in
His Word and in His providence. Others, under trying circumstances, will
barely tolerate His will; but those who are growing in grace find it more
natural to embrace His whole revealed will with greater and greater
cordiality.
9. Growing calmness and quietness under great afflictions give an evidence
of growth in the favor of God. There is evinced a more explicit faith, a
fuller and more cordial acceptance of the will of God, as revealed in these
afflictions; the soul is shown to be more steadily and firmly at anchor
upon its rock, Christ.
10. A growing tranquillity under sudden and crushing disasters and
bereavements, is an evidence of growth in grace. The more tranquil the soul
can remain, when sudden storms of providence come upon it, sweeping
away loved ones, and blighting earthly hopes, the greater is its evidence of
being under the particular favor of God. The tranquillity is both a result
and an evidence of the favor of God.
11. Growing patience under much provocation, is an evidence of growth in
the favor of God.
12. “Longsuffering with joyfulness” (Colossians 1:11) is an evidence of
growing in favor with God. When you cannot only tolerate, but accept, the
will of God, as revealed in calling you to suffer; and especially when you
can accept these sufferings, and endure them long and with joyfulness, you
have evidence that you are growing in the favor of God.
13. A growing cordiality and joyfulness under crosses and
disappointments and severe pain, is evidence of growth in the favor of
God.
14. An increasing deadness to all that the world has to offer, or to threaten,
is an evidence of growth in the favor of God.
15. A growing repose in, and satisfaction with, all the allotments of
Providence, is evidence of growth in grace.
16. Less temptation to murmur or repine at any allotment of Providence,
is evidence of growth in grace.
17. Less temptation to fret, when we are crossed or disappointed in any
respect, is an evidence of growth in grace.
18. Less and less temptation to resentment, and the spirit of retaliation,
when we are in anywise insulted or abused, is evidence that the sensibility
is becoming more and more thoroughly subdued, and consequently, that
we are growing in favor with God.
19. Less temptation to dwell upon, and to magnify our trials and troubles,
to think of them, and speak of them to others, is evidence that we think
less and less of self, and accept our trials and troubles with more and more
complacency in God. It is sad to hear some professedly good people,
dwelling ever upon, and magnifying, their own troubles and trials. But, if
they grow in grace, they will think less and less of these, and be more
inclined to think of them as “light afflictions.” The more we grow in grace,
the less stress we lay upon the evils we meet with in the way. Said a good
man to me once, who was really passing through what the world would
call very severe trials and afflictions (he had lost a beloved wife, and his
children had died one after another): “I have many mercies, and few
afflictions.” When, under such circumstances, a man can say, “The lines
are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage” (Psalm
16:6) he has the most satisfactory evidence that he is growing in the favor
of God. For this state of mind is both a result and an evidence of the favor
of God.
20. A growing disposition to make light of our trials and to magnify our
blessings, is an evidence that we are growing in the favor of God.
21. Less and less anxiety and carefulness about the events of Providence,
and especially about the things that nearly and deeply affect ourselves, is
evidence of growth in grace. This is an evidence of a broader and more
implicit faith, of a more submissive will, and of a diminishing tendency to
self-seeking; and is, therefore, an evidence of growing favor with God.
22. Being less and less disturbed and troubled by the events of life,
especially those that go counter to our own plans, and hopes, and
expectations, and desires, and that thwart our most cherished aims, is an
evidence of growth in grace.
23. A growing and realizing confidence in the wisdom, benevolence, and
universality of the providence of God, a state of mind that sees God in
everything, is evidence of growth in grace. Some minds become so spiritual
that they hardly seem to reside in the body, but appear continually to
perceive the presence of God in every event, almost as if they were
disembodied, and beheld God face to face. They seem to dwell, live, move,
and have their being, rather in the spiritual than in the natural world. They
are continually under such a sense of the Divine presence, agency, and
protection, as hardly to appear like inhabitants of earth. They are a living,
walking mystery to those in the midst of whom they dwell. The springs of
their activity are so Divine, their life is so much hidden in God, they act
under influences so far above the world, that they cannot be judged by the
same standards as other men. Carnal minds cannot understand them. Their
hidden life is so unknown and so unknowable to those who are far below
them in their spiritual life, that they are necessarily regarded as quite
eccentric, as being mystics or monomaniacs, as having very peculiar
religious views, as being enthusiasts, and perhaps fanatics. These persons
are in the world, but they live above the world. They have so far escaped
from the pollutions that are in the world, that they can truly and
understandingly say, with Paul: “But God forbid that I should glory, save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto
me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14). Such persons are evidently
growing in the grace of God.
24. Being less and less disposed to dwell upon the faults and foibles of
others, is an evidence of growth in grace.
25. Being less and less disposed to speak severely, or to judge
uncharitably of others. A growing delicacy, or tenderness, in speaking of
their real or supposed faults, behind their back, is an evidence of growth in
grace.
26. An increasing reluctance to regard or treat any one as an enemy, and an
increasing ease and naturalness in treating them kindly, in praying for them
heartily, and in efforts to do them good, is an evidence of growth in grace.
27. Less and less temptation to remember an injury, and the abatement of
all desire to retaliate when injured, is an evidence of growth in grace.
28. A growing readiness and cordiality in forgiving and burying an injury
out of sight, and a kind of moral inability to do otherwise than seek the
highest good of those who have injured us most deeply, is an evidence of
growth in grace.
29. When we find in our own experience, and manifest to others, that it is
more and more natural to regard all men as our brethren, especially to drop
out of view all sectarian discriminations, all ideas and prejudices of caste,
and of color, of poverty, and of riches, of blood relation, and of natural,
rather than of spiritual ties, and to make common cause with God, in
aiming to do good to all men, to enemies and friends alike, we have then
ourselves, and give to others, the highest evidence of our growing in the
favor of God.
30. Especially is it true, when we find ourselves very cordial and
full-hearted in making great sacrifices for those that hate us, and having a
willingness to lay down our lives for the promotion of their eternal
salvation, that we have evidence of growth in grace.
31. Still more especially, when we find ourselves less and less inclined to
account anything a sacrifice that we can do for God, or for the souls of
men. When we can account our lives not dear unto us, if called to lay them
down to save the souls of enemies; when, for the joy of saving them, we
can “endure the cross, and despise the shame,” or any sacrifice that we are
called to make, we have evidence that we are growing in favor with God.
32. Again, when we find ourselves more and more inclined to “count it all
joy when we fall into divers temptations” (James 1:2), and when we are
disposed to look upon our trials, vexations, losses, and crosses in such a
light as to lay less and less stress upon them, we have evidence that we are
growing in patience, and therefore in favor with God.
33 When we find less and less reluctance to making full confession to
those whom we have injured, when with increasing readiness we lay our
hearts open to be searched, when we take home conviction of
wrong-doing, when, in such cases, we cannot rest till we have made the
fullest confession and reparation within our power, and when to “own
up,” and confess, and make the fullest satisfaction, is a luxury to us, rather
than a trial and a cross, we have evidence that we are growing in the favor
of God.
34. When we are more and more impressed and affected by the mercies of
God, and by the kindnesses of our fellow-men and those around us, when
we more deeply and thoroughly appreciate manifestations of kindness in
God, or in any one else, when we are more and more humbled and affected
by these kindnesses, and find it more and more natural “to do justly, and
to love mercy, and to walk humbly” (Micah 6:8), and live gratefully, we
have evidence that we are growing in favor with God.
35. When we find ourselves drawn, with increasing earnestness, to follow
on to know more of the Lord, we have evidence of growth in grace.
36. When we find ourselves more and more readily impressed and affected,
quickened and stimulated by religious truth, and when we find an
increasing harmony in the action of all our powers, intellectual, voluntary,
and sensitive, in accepting, and resting in, the whole will and providence of
God, however afflictive they may at present be, we have evidence that we
are growing in grace.
37. A growing jealousy for the honor of God, for the purity and honor of
His Church, for the rights of God, and for the rights of all men, is evidence
of growing in conformity to God, and, of course, of growing in His favor.
VII. HOW TO GROW IN GRACE.
- Fulfill the conditions noticed under the fourth head of this Lecture.
- Remember that every step of progress must be made by faith, and not
by works. The mistakes that some good men have made upon this subject
is truly amazing. The custom has been almost universal, to represent
growth in grace as consisting in the formation of habits of obedience to
God. Now, it is quite surprising that so many good men have fallen into
this mistake. The fact is, that every step of progress in the Christian life is
taken by a fresh and fuller appropriation of Christ by faith, a fuller
baptism of the Holy Spirit. As our weaknesses, infirmities, besetting sins,
and necessities are revealed to us, by the circumstances of temptation
through which we pass, our only efficient help is found in Christ, and we
grow only as we step by step more fully appropriate Him, in one relation
or another, and more fully “put Him on” (Romans 13.: 4). As we are more
and more emptied of self-dependence, as we more and more renounce all
expectation of forming holy habits by any obedience of ours, and as by
faith we secure deeper and deeper baptisms of the Holy Ghost, and put on
the Lord Jesus Christ, more and more thoroughly, and in more of His
official relations, by just so much the faster do we grow in the favor of
God. Nothing can be more erroneous and dangerous than the commonly
received idea of growing in grace by the formation of holy habits. By acts
of faith alone, we appropriate Christ, and we are as truly sanctified by
faith as we are justified by faith. In my “Systematic Theology,” in
pointing out the conditions of entire or permanent sanctification, I have
noticed some sixty of the official relations of Christ, as I have before said,
and have there insisted, as I here insist, that growth in holiness, and
consequently, in the favor of God, is secured only by fresh, fuller, and
more thorough appropriations of Christ, in all these official relations. If
you would grow in grace you must do it through faith. You must pray in
faith for the Holy Spirit. You must appropriate and put on Christ through
the Holy Spirit. At every forward step in your progress, you must have a
fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit through faith.
REMARKS.
- We see, from this subject, the vast importance of rightly instructing
young converts. In many cases, they have very little instruction suited to
their experience and degree of Christian intelligence. By some, such views
are taken of the Perseverance of the Saints, that it is assumed that babes in
Christ will grow without nursing, and without that sincere milk of the
Word, by means of which they must grow. Some, taking it for granted that
they need instruction, unwittingly give them false instruction, and set
them to work outwardly and zealously, without paying much regard to the
strengthening and developing of the inward life. They do not teach them
how to appropriate and live on Christ as their life, but continually press
them to “do their duty, to labor for God, and labor for souls,” while not
sufficiently impressing upon them the idea that their doing is of no
account, unless it proceeds from the life of God in their own souls. The
result of this is a bustling, outward activity, while the inward spiritual life
is decaying. This must end in disgust at one’s own want of heart, and a
settling back into apathy and neglect.
2. Sometimes there is a mistake made in the opposite direction. They are
taught to rest in Christ, in such a sense as to take on a type of quietism
and antinomian inactivity. They are exhorted to exercise faith, but they are
not earnestly impressed with the conviction that it must be a faith that
works, and works by love, that purifies the heart, and overcomes the
world. The result is, they do nothing in religion. Sinners are allowed to
sleep on in their midst, and go to hell, and they make no effort to save
them.
3. We see the importance of a Holy Ghost anointed ministry. The great
want of the Church is a minister so thoroughly anointed by the Holy
Ghost as to know how to lead the Church onward and upward, to the,
fullest development of Christian piety. In order to instruct converts, and
keep the Church progressing in holiness, the minister must progress
himself. He must be a truly living, growing Christian. I have good reason to
know that the Churches in many places are deeply pained by the want of
living piety and growth in their ministers. Their ministers are intellectual,
literary, philosophical, theological, in their teaching, but they are sadly
deficient in unction. They have but little power with God or with man.
They instruct the intellect to a certain extent, but they do not meet the
wants of the heart. Converts starve under their preaching. They preach an
intellectual, rather than a spiritual Gospel They preach religion as a
theory, a doctrine, a philosophy and not as a real living experience. It is
often exceedingly painful to hear ministers preach who manifestly do not
know what they say, or whereof they affirm They speak of religion as an
inward sentiment, instead of heart devotion to God; as an emotion, a
feeling instead of an all-embracing and efficient love, a voluntary state and
attitude of the mind, from which necessarily proceeds a holy life. They
speak of faith as; mere intellectual state or conviction, and not as an act of
trust, and of committal of the whole being, to do and suffer all the will of
God. They speak of repentance as if were a mere involuntary sorrow for
sin They do not teach that repentance is a change of mind toward God, a
renunciation of the self-seeking spirit, and a turning of the whole mind to
God. They speak of holiness as if it were a state utterly unattainable in
this life. Indeed, I say it with sorrow, but I must say it, the teaching of a
great many ministers is but a stumbling block to the Church. Under their
instruction, converts do not, and cannot get so established in grace as to be
greatly useful, or to live lives that are honorable to Christ. Just think that
in the Nineteenth Century ministers preach to converts that they must
grow in grace by works. Be heaven and earth amazed at this! Such teachers
do not know how to grow in grace themselves. Shall I be accounted harsh
if I say: “They be blind leaders of the blind”?
4. We see the reason of so much backsliding. Converts will of course
backslide who are led by false instruction. If, on the one hand, they are set
to work out sanctification by works, their works will soon become dead
works, and not be the result of that faith that works by love. If, on the
other hand, they are crammed with abstract notions and doctrines, and
taught to rest in an antinomian faith, they will sink into supineness and
inactivity. I fully believe that in nearly all cases where there has been
disastrous reaction after a revival, it has been owing to the want of timely
and proper instruction. But to be timely and proper, it must be anointed
instruction.
5. The Theological Seminaries need to pay vastly more attention to the
growth in grace of their students. They need a professor of experimental
religion, who has experience and power enough to press them along into
those higher regions of Christian experience which are essential to their
being able to lead the Church on to victory. It is amazing to see how little
effort is made to cultivate the heart of young men studying for the
ministry. 86 We must have a change in this respect. A much higher standard
of Christian experience must be required as a condition of ordination. It is
painful to see how carefully men will be examined in regard to their
intellectual attainments, while the accounts they give of their Christian
experience will barely allow us to hope that they have been converted.
How sad it is to set such young men to feed the Church of God.. How do
old Christians mourn, when they see the appointed leaders in the Church
of God but spiritual babes.
6. I have never been present at the examination of a candidate for
ordination where anything more than simple evidence of conversion was
required of him. I never heard them questioned touching their progress in
Christian experience, and regarding their spiritual ability to lead the flock
of God into green pastures and beside still waters. I never heard them
questioned in a manner that manifested the slightest conception of what
are the indispensable spiritual qualifications of a man who is to stand forth
as the leader and spiritual instructor of the Church of God. More hours are
spent in ascertaining the intellectual attainments of a candidate than
minutes to ascertain his spiritual and experimental attainments. The whole
examination will plainly indicate that the ordaining body lay very little
stress on this part of a minister’s education. Is it any wonder that the
Church of God is so feeble and inefficient, while the leaders and teachers
are, many of them, mere children in spiritual knowledge, while a ripe
Christian experience is made no part of the indispensable education of a
minister? Why, this is infinitely more dangerous and ridiculous than to
entrust men to lead an army in the field, while they merely understand
mathematics, and never have had any training or experience in military
matters.
In this respect, too, there must be a great change. Churches should refuse
to ordain and receive pastors, unless they are fully satisfied of their having
made much progress in Christian experience, so as to be able to lead on,
and keep the Church awake.
They should insist upon the education of his heart as well as his head;
upon his ability to take young converts, and conduct them on to those
deep experiences that will make them stable and efficient workers in the
cause of God. Think of Theological Seminaries, where the leaders of the
Church of God are taught that sanctification or growth in grace is attained
by works and not by faith! Tell it not in Gath! Alas for Zion, when her
great and good men fall into such mistakes!
THE END.
FIRES OF REVIVAL
http://www.concentric.net/~fires/