"And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." --Luke 15:31.
The words of the text are familiar to us all. The elder son
had complained and said, that though his father had made a feast,
and had killed the fatted calf for the prodigal son, he had never
given him even a kid that he might make merry with his friends.
The answer of the father was: "Son, thou art ever with me,
and all that I have is thine." One cannot have a more wonderful
revelation of the heart of our Father in heaven than this points
out to us. We often speak of the wonderful revelation of the father's
heart in his welcome to the prodigal son, and in what he did for
him. But here we have a revelation of the father's love far more
wonderful, in what he says to the elder son.
If we are to experience a deepening
of spiritual life, we want to discover clearly what is the spiritual
life that God would have us live, on the one hand; and, on the
other, to ask whether we are living that life; or, if not, what
hinders us living it out fully.
This subject naturally divides itself
into these three heads:--I. The high privilege of every child
of God. 2. The low experience of too many of us believers. 3.
The cause of the discrepancy; and, lastly, The way to the restoration
of the privilege.
I. THE HIGH PRIVILEGE OF THE CHILDREN
OF GOD.
We have here two things describing
the privilege:--First, "Son, thou art ever with me"--unbroken
fellowship with thy Father is thy portion; Second, "All that
I have is thine"--all that God can bestow upon His children
is theirs.
"Thou are ever with me;"
I am always near thee; thou canst dwell every hour of thy life
in My presence, and all I have is for thee. I am a father, with
a loving father's heart. I will withhold no good thing from thee.
In these promises, we have the rich privilege of God's heritage.
We have, in the first place, unbroken fellowship with Him. A father
never sends his child away with the thought that he does not care
about his child knowing that he loves him. The father longs to
have his child believe that he has the light of his father's countenance
upon him all the day--that, if he sends the child away to school,
or anywhere that necessity compels, it is with a sense of sacrifice
of parental feelings. If it be so with an earthly father, what
think you of God? Does He not want every child of His to know
that he is constantly living in the light of His countenance?
This is the meaning of that word, "Son, thou art ever with
me."
That was the privilege of God's
people in Old Testament times. We are told that "Enoch walked
with God." God's promise to Jacob was: "Behold, I am
with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest,
and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave
thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."
And God's promise to Israel through Moses, was: "My presence
shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." And in Moses'
response to the promise, he says, "For wherein shall it be
known that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is
it not that Thou goest with us; so shall we be separated, I and
Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the
earth." The presence of God with Israel was the mark of their
separation from other people. This is the truth taught in all
the Old Testament; and if so, how much more may we look for it
in the New Testament? Thus we find our Saviour promising to those
who love Him and who keep His word, that the Father also will
love them, and Father and Son will come and make Their abode with
them.
Let that thought into your hearts--that
the child of God is called to this blessed privilege, to live
every moment of his life in fellowship with God. He is called
to enjoy the full light of His countenance. There are many Christians--I
suppose the majority of Christians--who seem to regard the whole
of the Spirit's work as confined to conviction and conversion:--not
so much that He came to dwell in our hearts, and there reveal
God to us. He came not to dwell near us, but in us, that we might
be filled with His indwelling. We are commanded to be "filled
with the Spirit;" then the Holy Spirit would make God's presence
manifest to us. That is the whole teaching of the epistle to the
Hebrews:--the veil is rent in twain; we have access into the holiest
of all by the blood of Jesus; we come into the very presence of
God, so that we can live all the day with that presence resting
upon us. That presence is with us wheresoever we go; and in all
kinds of trouble, we have undisturbed repose and peace. "Son,
thou art ever with me."
There are some people who seem to
think that God, by some unintelligible sovereignty, withdraws
His face. But I know that God loves His people too much to withhold
His fellowship from them for any such reason. The true reason
of the absence of God from us is rather to be found in our sin
and unbelief, than in any supposed sovereignty of His. If the
child of God is walking in faith and obedience, the Divine presence
will be enjoyed in unbroken continuity.
Then there is the next blessed privilege:
"All that I have is thine." Thank God, He has given
us His own Son; and in giving Him, He has given us all things
that are in Him, He has given us Christ's life, His love, His
Spirit, His glory. "All things are yours; and ye are Christ's;
and Christ is God's." All the riches of His Son, the everlasting
King, God bestows upon every one of His children. "Son, thou
art ever with me; and all that I have is thine." Is not that
the meaning of all those wonderful promises given in connection
with prayer: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, ye shall
receive."? Yes, there it is. That is the life of the children
of God, as He Himself has pictured it to us.
2. In contrast with this high privilege
of believers, look at
THE LOW EXPERIENCE OF TOO MANY OF
US.
The elder son was living with his
father and serving him "these many years," and he complains
that his father never gave him a kid, while he gave his prodigal
brother the fatted calf. Why was this? Simply because he did not
ask it. He did not believe that he would get it, and therefore
never asked it, and never enjoyed it. He continued thus to live
in constant murmuring and dissatisfaction; and the key note of
all this wretched life is furnished in what he said. His father
gave him everything, yet he never enjoyed it; and he throws the
whole blame on his loving and kind father. O beloved, is not that
the life of many a believer? Do not many speak and act in this
way? Every believer has the promise of unbroken fellowship with
God, but he says, "I have not enjoyed it; I have tried hard
and done my best, and I have prayed for the blessing, but I suppose
God does not see fit to grant it." But why not? One says,
it is the sovereignty of God withholding the blessing. The father
withheld not his gifts from the elder brother in sovereignty;
neither does our Heavenly Father withhold any good thing from
them that love Him. He does not make any such differences between
His children. "He is able to make all grace abound towards
you" was the promise equally made to all in the Corinthian
church.
Some think these rich blessings
are not for them, but for those who have more time to devote to
religion and prayer; or their circumstances are so difficult,
so peculiar, that we can have no conception of their various hindrances.
But do not such think that God, if He places them in these circumstances,
cannot make His grace abound accordingly? They admit He could
if He would, work a miracle for them, which they can hardly expect.
In some way, they, like the elder son, throw the blame on God.
Thus many are saying, when asked if they are enjoying unbroken
fellowship with God:--"Alas, no! I have not been able to
attain to such a height; it is too high for me. I know of some
who have it, and I read of it; but God has not given it to me,
for some reason." But why not? You think, perhaps, that you
have not the same capacity for spiritual blessing that others
have. The Bible speaks of a joy that is "unspeakable and
full of glory" as the fruit of believing; of a "love
of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto
us." Do we desire it, do we? Why not get it? Have we asked
for it? We think we are not worthy of the blessing--we are not
good enough; and therefore God has not given it. There are more
among us than we know of, or are willing to admit, who throw the
blame of our darkness, and of our wanderings on God! Take care!
Take care! Take care!
And again, what about that other
promise? The Father says, "All I have is thine." Are
you rejoicing in the treasures of Christ? Are you conscious of
having an abundant supply for all your spiritual needs every day?
God has all these for you in abundance. "Thou never gavest
me a kid!" The answer is, "All that I have is thine.
I gave it thee in Christ."
Dear reader, we have such wrong
thoughts of God. What is God like? I know no image more beautiful
and instructive than that of the sun. The sun is never weary of
shining;--of pouring out his beneficent rays upon both the good
and the evil. You might close up the windows with blinds or bricks,
the sun would shine upon them all the same; though we might sit
in darkness, in utter darkness, the shining would be just the
same. God's sun shines on every leaf; on every flower; on every
blade of grass; on everything that springs out of the ground.
All receive this wealth of sunshine until they grow to perfection
and bear fruit. Would He who made that sun be less willing to
poor out His love and life into me? The sun--what beauty it creates!
And my God,--would He not delight more in creating a beauty and
a fruitfulness in me?--such, too, as He has promised to
give? And yet some say, when asked why they do not live in unbroken
communion with God, "God does not give it to me, I do not
know why; but that is the only reason I can give you--He has not
given it to me." You remember the parable of the one who
said, "I know thou art an hard master, reaping where thou
hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed,"
asking and demanding what thou hast not given. Oh! let us come
and ask why it is that the believer lives such a low experience.
3. THE CAUSE OF THIS DISCREPANCY
BETWEEN GOD'S GIFTS, AND OUR LOW EXPERIENCE.
The believer is complaining that
God has never given him a kid. Or, God has given him some blessing,
but has never given the full blessing. He has never filled him
with His Spirit. "I never," he says, "had my heart,
as a fountain, giving forth the rivers of living water promised
in John vii. 38." What is the cause? The elder son thought
he was serving his father faithfully "these many years"
in his father's house, but it was in the spirit of bondage and
not in the spirit of a child, so that his unbelief blinded him
to the conception of a father's love and kindness, and he was
unable all the time to see that his father was ready, not only
to give him a kid, but a hundred, or a thousand kids, if he would
have them. He was simply living in unbelief, in ignorance, in
blindness, robbing himself of the privileges that the father had
for him. So, if there be a discrepancy between our life and the
fulfillment and enjoyment of all God's promises, the fault is
ours. It our experience be not what God wants it to be, it is
because of our unbelief in the love of God, in the power of God,
and in the reality of God's promises.
God's word teaches us, in the story
of the Israelites, that it was unbelief on their part that was
the cause of their troubles, and not any limitation or restriction
on God's part. As Psalm 78th says:--"He clave the rocks in
the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to
run down like rivers." Yet they sinned by doubting His power
to provide meat for them--"They spake against God; they said,
can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" (vs. 15-19).
Later on, we read in v. 41, "They turned back and tempted
God, and limited the Holy One of Israel." They kept distrusting
Him from time to time. When they got to Kadesh-Barnea, and God
told them to enter the land flowing with milk and honey where
there would be rest, abundance, and victory, only two men said,
"Yes;" we can take possession, for God can make us conquer."
But the ten spies, and the six hundred thousand men answered,
"No; we can never take the land; the enemies are too strong
for us." It was simply unbelief that kept them out of the
land of promise.
If there is to be any deepening
of the spiritual life in us, we must come to the discovery, and
the acknowledgment of the unbelief there is in our hearts. God
grant that we may get this spiritual quickening, and that we may
come to see that it is by our unbelief that we have prevented
God from doing His work in us. Unbelief is the mother of disobedience,
and of all my sins and short comings--my temper, my pride, my
unlovingness, my worldliness, my sins of every kind. Though these
differ in nature and form, yet they all come from the one root,
viz, that we do not believe in the freedom and fulness of the
Divine gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and strengthen us,
and fill us with the life and grace of God all the day long. Look,
I pray you, at that elder son, and ask what was the cause of that
terrible difference between the heart of the father and the experience
of the son. There can be no answer but that it was this sinful
unbelief that utterly blinded the son to a sense of his father's
love.
Dear fellow believer, I want to
say to you, that, if you are not living in the joy of God's salvation,
the entire cause is your unbelief. You do not believe in the mighty
power of God, and that He is willing by His Holy Spirit to work
a thorough change in your life, and enable you to live in fulness
of consecration to Him. God is willing that you should so live;
but you do not believe it. If men really believed in the infinite
love of God, what a change it would bring about! What is love?
It is a desire to communicate oneself for the good of the object
loved--the opposite to selfishness; as we read in 1 Cor. xiii.
"Love seeketh not her own." Thus the mother is willing
to sacrifice herself for the good of her child. So God in His
love is ever willing to impart blessing; and He is omnipotent
in His love. This is true, my friends; God is omnipotent in love,
and He is doing His utmost to fill every heart in this house.
"But if God is really anxious to do that, and if He is Almighty,
why does He not do it now?" You must remember, that God has
given you a will, and by the exercise of that will, you can hinder
God, and remain content, like the elder son, with the low life
of unbelief. Come, now, and let us see the cause of the difference
between God's high, blessed provision for His children, and the
low, sad experience of many of us in the unbelief that distrusts
and grieves Him.
4. THE WAY OF RESTORATION--HOW IS
THAT TO BE BROUGHT ABOUT?
We all know the parable of the prodigal
son; and how many sermons have been preached about repentance,
from that parable. We are told that "he came to himself and
said, I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight." In
preaching, we speak of this as the first step in a changed life--as
conversion, as repentance, confession, returning to God. But,
as this is the first step for the prodigal, we must remember that
this is also the step to be taken by His erring children--by all
the ninety-nine "who need no repentance," or think they
do not. Those Christians who do not understand how wrong their
low religious life is, must be taught that this is sin--unbelief;
and that it is as necessary that they should be brought to repentance
as the prodigal. You have heard a great deal of preaching repentance
to the unconverted; but I want to try to preach it to God's children.
We have a picture of so many of God's children in that elder brother.
What the father told him, to bring about a consideration of the
love that He bore him, just as he loved the prodigal brother,
thus does God tell to us in our contentedness with such a low
life:--"You must repent and believe that I love you, and
all that I have is thine." He says, "By your unbelief,
you have dishonoured me, living for ten, twenty, or thirty years,
and never believing what it was to live in the blessedness of
My love. You must confess the wrong you have done Me in this,
and be broken down in contrition of heart just as truly as the
prodigal."
There are many children of God who
need to confess, that though they are His children, they have
never believed that God's promises are true, that He is willing
to fill their hearts all the day long with His blessed presence.
Have you believed this? If you have not, all our teaching will
be of no profit to you. Will you not say, "By the help of
God, I will begin now a new life of faith, and will not rest until
I know what such a life means. I will believe that I am every
moment in the Father's presence, and all that He has is mine?"
May the Lord God work this conviction
in the hearts of all cold believers. Have you ever heard the expression,
"a conviction for sanctification?" You know, the unconverted
man needs a conviction before conversion. So does the dark-minded
Christian need conviction before, and in order to sanctification,
before he comes to a real insight to spiritual blessedness. He
must be convicted a second time because of his sinful life of
doubt, and temper, and unlovingness. He must be broken down under
that conviction; then there is hope for him. May the Father of
mercy grant all such that deep contrition, so that they may be
led into the blessedness of His presence, and enjoy the fulness
of His power and love!
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