GOD’S SUPERVISION OF HIS SAINTS.
“The steps of
a good man are ordered of the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he
stumble, he shall not be utterly cast down:
for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.”-Psalm 37:23,24.
CALVINISM has its
good features as well as its bad ones. Its institution meant the reaction of
noble Christian minds against a false doctrine. The fact that these
reactionists went to an extreme should not condemn them utterly, nor nullify
the good features of their teachings. It is customary for the pendulum of
thought to swing from one extreme to another, passing the central point of
absolute truth. Indeed, we have every reason to believe that this is a part of
the Adversary’s method in blinding the minds of those who are seeking truth.
He would lead as far away from absolute truth as possible, either in one
direction or the other in every reaction or reform; therefore, he seems to have
taken an interest to the extent of helping the reformers to an opposite
extreme.
During the “dark ages” the central thought of our text was lost sight
of-the thought of God’s care for each and for all of his consecrated people.
The thought inculcated and generally held was to the contrary of this; viz.,
that the average man, even though a consecrated believer, is too insignificant
for divine attention; that God had given over to the care of the Pope and the
clergy the souls of his people. To so great an extent did this teaching
prevail that the people subject thereto did not think of Jehovah as their
shepherd; nor even of Jesus as his appointed representative shepherd; and did
not think of approaching these in prayer, nor of having their divine oversight
and direction in their affairs. On the contrary, if they had sins to be
repented of, they were to go to the priest, make confession, and secure
absolution. Had they requests to make, they were to ask the priest; or in
prayer to approach some dead saint, requesting his mediation with some of the
dead apostles or with Mary, the mother of Jesus, that they, in turn, might
mediate with the Son Jesus, that he, in turn, might mediate with the Father,
and that thus they might be brought to the attention of Jehovah and possibly
get some fragmentary blessing as a crumb from the table.
The reaction of Reformation times was against all this sort of thing, and
the central teaching of Calvinism was that God has a direct interest in all
those who, through the merit of Jesus, become his children through faith and
consecration. It is difficult to estimate how great has been the blessing that
has come to the Lord’s people through the revival of this doctrine of the
primitive Church. We must ever feel grateful to John Calvin and his coadjutors
for the service they rendered to the household of faith in this
particular,-even though we must, at the same time, thoroughly repudiate that
feature of their teachings which passed to the extreme of declaring that as God
had foreknown an elect Church, the special and happy object of his care during
this Gospel age, and to be exalted ultimately to the heavenly state, he had, on
the other hand, predetermined the torture of all the remainder of the race, and
had made ample provision therefor. God permitted (we may even say, used)
Calvin and his associates in the presentation of an important truth, while at
the same time he permitted them to attach to it this awful, blasphemous,
God-dishonoring teaching respecting the non-elect. We thank God that, in his
providence, we live in the time when it is due that his gracious purposes
toward the non-elect should be clearly seen, and his character freed from the
evil aspersions of such a theory.
Papacy’s conception of the insignificance of man, even though a good man
in the Lord’s sight, is much nearer to the view of the natural, worldly man,
than is the thought that all the steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord.
The natural man finds it difficult to believe in a God at all; as he looks
about the universe his first thought of its immensity and intricacies, and of
the greatness of the one who created all these things is speedily offset by the
suggestion that possibly there is no God;-possibly there are “laws of nature”
which form themselves and which operate themselves, and under which all things are
and shall ever be. He is encouraged in this line of doubt by the views of
some, known as Scientists, Evolutionists and Higher Critics. Though none of
these have the temerity to declare point-blank that there is no God but nature,
they, almost without exception, show that this is the leaning of their minds,
the tendency of their thought. They have not yet discovered any form of life
which has not in some sense or degree been transmitted from some other living
thing. They are looking for this, however-earnestly looking for it and
expecting it, and quite ready, if they can find it, to claim that all life, all
being, is the result of a law of evolution, and needed no interference by a
Creator, even at the beginning. From this standpoint, and especially backed up
by the high authorities of our day, scientific and religious, the natural man
feels skeptical about a God at all, and concludes that if there is a God he is
so concerned and occupied in his own personal affairs and in the affairs of
other beings in other worlds, that the hundreds of millions upon this planet
are in his sight and estimation but as so many mites would be in man’s
estimation. These are little inclined to think that all the steps of a good
man are ordered of the Lord.
As Calvin’s day was a time of reaction from a wrong thought toward a right
one in this particular, so, today marks another crisis. We are living in the
time of reaction against the right thought on this subject, and in favor of the
wrong thought. In early times in all the theological seminaries, as well as in
the great colleges and universities of Christendom, the teachings were
distinctly adverse to the sentiment of our text, and at very most allow that
mankind as a whole is possibly under some kind of divine supervision and care;
though the sentiment seems to be that God knows and cares much less for the
poor groaning creation than did its theologians, publicists and reformers.
There is a reason for all this, to be sure. The wheels in the divine plan
are so large, and the hands on the divine clock move so slowly that the natural
man perceives no movement-fails to realize that God is working all things
according to the counsel of his own will. Lacking the instruction of the
divine Word, worldly wisdom sees not the purpose of the permission of “the
present evil world;” nor how the lessons and experiences which it is giving to
all mankind will eventually work out a great blessing, as part of man’s needed
instruction; to be followed by his instruction in righteousness in the
Millennial age, soon to be ushered in. Worldly wisdom sees not the object for
which the Church is now called out from amongst the world and shaped and fitted
and polished, by trials and difficulties and contact with evil, for the
glorious work of the future,-of blessing all the families of the earth. And not
seeing these things,-not seeing the object of the permission of evil, not
seeing why God has delayed the binding of Satan, the overthrow of his power and
the release of the bonds of superstition and blindness with which he has
enslaved the masses, it concludes that God is indifferent, and that all the
provisions and arrangements for social uplift depend upon the wisdom and the
benevolence of men.
How thankful should be our hearts, as we realize the divine favor which
has rescued us from this blindness which is upon the world, and particularly
upon the great and worldly-wise of Christendom! The knowledge granted us of
the plan of the ages saves us, not only from the bondage of priestcraft and
superstition of the “dark ages,” but it saves us also from the evolutionary
unbelief which is now sweeping over Christendom, and robbing all who have not
the light of the present truth of their joy in the Lord, their peace, their
confidence, their trust in him.
We thank God for the ability to grasp this blessed promise of our text
(and scores of others of similar import) and to rejoice in them, strong in the
Lord and in the power of his might; saying, “If God be for us who can be
against us [to any avail]?” If God so loved us while we were yet sinners, much
more does he love us now that we are his people. (Rom. 5:8,9.) He who has begun
a good work in us is both able and willing to complete it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. (Phil. 1:6.) Since we are the Lord’s, and have these various
assurances of his Word, “We know that all things work together for good to them
that love God; to them who are the called [ones] according to his
purpose.”-Rom. 8:28.
Let us not, however, apply our text carelessly; let us note carefully that
it does not apply to all mankind, but to the “good.” The thought here is
evidently in harmony with the statements elsewhere, to the effect that God’s
care is over the righteous, as when we read, “The Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” (Psa. 1:6.) “The
Lord knoweth them that are his.” (2 Tim. 2:19.) Looking about us in the world
we inquire: Who, then, are the righteous? who are so good as to be properly
called God’s people? Hearkening for direction from the Word of the Lord we
hear the answer, “There is none good, save one, that is God;” and, “There is
none righteous, no, not one.” These testimonies of the Word fully correspond to
our own findings; for in ourselves, as well as in others, we find
imperfection,-unrighteousness. But how can these testimonies of the Scripture
be reconciled?-that there are none righteous, none good of all the Adamic race,
and yet that God declares that all the steps of a good man, all the ways of the
righteous, are under his supervision? We answer that the Scriptures explain
how these statements are in full accord; that there is a class of people in the
world who, at one time, were children of wrath even as others, but who have
been reconciled to God through the death of his Son, their ransomer. These
have come into accord with God in the spirit of their minds, in their
hearts;-their wills are in accord with the divine will. Their deficiencies,
which are still known to themselves, and some of them sadly apparent to their
neighbors also, are not deficiencies of the will, of the heart, of the
intention; and the terms of the New Covenant being applied to these in advance
of the world, their blemishes are reckoned as covered in and by the merit of
their Redeemer’s sacrifice. Thus God declares that he can be just, and yet be
the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus-of him who trusts in Jesus, and
through Jesus, accepts forgiveness of sins and full reconciliation to God’s
will, so that he desires to sin no longer. These are the “righteous”; these
are “his”; these are the “good” of our text. Oh, blessed class! Oh, happy
people! A peculiar people, prospectively a Royal Priesthood unto God-the
“elect” Church.
If we call attention to the fact that none others than these righteous,
good people are under the divine supervision, and guaranteed that all things
shall work for their good, our object is not to discourage others; but to
rightly inform them of their position, and to remove from their minds any false
hopes and delusions they may have been entertaining-to the intent that by
proper acceptance of God’s favor in the ransom, and a full consecration to him,
they may at once attain to this position of reconciliation, and relationship of
sonship, and become heirs of this and all similar promises.
Who has not noticed that people who would not admit that they are God’s
children, who are not believers in the redemption, and not consecrated to the
Lord, will in times of trouble go to the Lord in prayer, and take from his Word
and apply to themselves such promises as this of our text? Yet this is all
wrong if they are still “children of wrath.” And if they have seen the open
doorway by which they might approach God and attain to membership in his
family, and if they have disdained these and neglected them, what effrontery it
is on their part to approach the Lord in time of trouble! and how great is
their credulity when they delude themselves into thinking that any of these
promises would be applicable to them! We are not seeking to hinder any from
coming to the Lord in a proper manner in their seasons of distress; but we are
wishing to be understood that sorrow, even sorrow for sins, is not repentance;
and that sorrow and trouble do not constitute doors of access to divine favor,
and that then, as ever, no man cometh unto the Father but by the Son-“through
faith in his blood.” We would encourage any who, passing through trying
experiences, and feeling the need of a Savior and a great one, come to God in
faith and in consecration, and thus put themselves under his protecting care;
but even then we would advise them that it had been better had they come to the
Lord before the trouble;-better had they calmly, deliberately, dispassionately,
thought over his goodness and greatness, and their own insufficiency and need,
and the reasonableness of their consecration and the privilege of accepting
God’s favor in Christ, and coming thus under his exceeding great and precious
promises to them that love him.
Some may here inquire: What constitutes justifying faith? We answer: It
is a faith in God, based upon and in harmony with all that he has revealed.
Abraham believed God and was justified by his faith; yet his faith was far less
comprehensive than the faith which justifies God’s people today; because, in
the meantime, God has unfolded and expanded his revelation. Abraham’s faith
took in all that God had promised; viz., the blessing of the whole world of
mankind through his posterity; and his faith evidently grasped the thought that
this implied a resurrection of the dead, not one which would concern his
posterity only, but which would embrace also the families of the earth which
had already passed into death. He could not do more than believe this, and in
some respects it was a severer test of faith than is our larger faith of
today. For he could not see how God could be just and yet be the justifier of
him who believeth in Jesus; while we, standing on this side of the great ransom
sacrifice, can see the modus operandi. Justifying faith today, however,
must believe the record which God has given us of his Son. It is not
sufficient that we recognize Jesus as one of the noble men of our race, nor
even that we should recognize him as the chiefest member of it. God’s revelation
is more than this, and, hence, our faith must be more. We must grasp by faith
that he was “holy, harmless, undefiled and separate” from the sinner race;-that
he left the glory which he had with the Father, and took the place and
condition of the first perfect man, in order that he might redeem him and all
of his race which had come under his condemnation to death. We must believe
further, that our Lord Jesus gave himself a ransom for all. We must believe,
further, that this was a satisfactory ransom, or purchase price for the
world-that it sufficed as an offset for our sins, and for the sins of the whole
world. We must believe that the Father evidenced or testified to this perfect
obedience, in that he raised him from the dead; that he ascended up on high,
appearing in the presence of God on our behalf, making mediation for our
iniquities, through the merit of his sacrifice; and that we are accepted in the
Beloved, whom God has highly exalted, and given a name, authority and power
above every name; and that he is Lord of all; we must accept him as our Lord,
our Master, and must, to the extent of our ability, seek to walk in his
ways-not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
But after we have attained this position, and after the promise of our
text, and all like promises, are ours, it requires time and a continual
application of faith, in order to rightly appreciate God’s promises, and to
appropriate them to ourselves; and this is Scripturally called “growing in
grace and knowledge.” We grow in knowledge as we take
note of the promises of God, and by faith apply them to ourselves, and seek to
discern in our lives the fulfilment of those promises; we grow in grace
simultaneously, for unless each item of knowledge be received into a good and
honest heart, and bring forth its measure of
obedience and righteousness (grace) we will not be prepared for the next step
of knowledge, and would be thus stopped, or possibly turned back. And as a
loss of knowledge would mean a measurable loss of grace, so also a loss of
grace would mean a corresponding loss of knowledge;-going into darkness, the
promises of the Lord’s Word becoming more and more dim and obscured, in
proportion as our goodness or grace would be lost in worldliness or sin.
The Christian, as a disciple of the Lord,
as a pupil in the school of Christ, is being fitted for a place in the
Millennial Kingdom-for a share in its glory, honor and immortality. It
is required of such pupils that they shall give diligence to learn to
appropriate the instructions of their teacher, else they will not be prepared
for the glorious things to which they are called-they will fail to make their
calling and their election sure. Hence, we see the
necessity for the frequent admonitions of the Scripture, that the Lord’s people
shall be awake;-not of those who slumber; not of those who are idle; not of
those who are overcharged with the cares of this life; but that they be fervent
in spirit, serving the Lord. Their service toward the Lord is primarily the
bringing of themselves into as close harmony with the Lord’s will, and into as
close likeness to the divine pattern as possible; and secondly, it is that by
precept and example they may help others of the called ones in the same narrow
way.
There is danger that some may misunderstand the meaning of our
text, and suppose it to teach that every incident in the life of God’s people
is what and as he intended it to be;-that God arbitrarily interferes in the
affairs of his people, sets aside their free agency, and forces them to take
this step or the other as mere machines. This is a serious mistake. No such
thought is contained in the words. God has shown us his good pleasure in such
matters; for, although he could have made us like wagons or wheelbarrows, to be
pulled or pushed regardless of any ambition of our own, he did not so make us,
and seeketh not such to be his children-the recipients of his favors. On the
contrary, he made man a free moral agent-in this respect a copy of his Creator,
free to will as he may please. Although we are not always free to do as we may
please, we are always free to will as we may please, and, as already seen, in
the present time the Lord is dealing with his people according to their wills.
And if God respects the will of the natural man, much more would he respect the
will of the new creature in Christ Jesus, begotten of the holy spirit.
Our text presupposes that in the class described the human will has been
transformed;-that the divine will has been accepted as instead of the human;
and that the child of God is seeking to walk in the ways of righteousness, in
which he has already started; and the proper thought to be gathered is that
thus seeking to walk in the Lord’s ways, God will not permit his imperfections
of judgment to work him any injury, but will supervise his affairs; will
overrule so that every step he may take, although it be taken of his own will,
his own volition-his consecrated will, however-shall be overruled for his good;
for his development as a new creature in Christ. If he shall err in judgment,
and bring upon himself the consequences of his error, the Lord’s wisdom and
power are such that he can fulfil all the provisions of this promise, and make
even his blunders and weaknesses to so react as to strengthen his character and
establish him in righteousness, developing in him by these and other
experiences the fruits and graces of the spirit, which will eventually fit and
prepare him for joint-heirship in the Kingdom.
Another Scripture gives us a suggestion respecting our part in the
ordering of our steps. It represents the Lord’s people as praying, in harmony
with the Lord’s provision, saying, “Order my steps in thy Word; and let not any
iniquity have dominion over me.” (Psa. 119:133.) This is the proper course for
the Lord’s people; to seek to walk carefully, circumspectly; to take heed to
the instructions of the Lord’s Word, so that thus their mistakes, their
blunders, may be fewer and fewer, as they grow in grace and grow in knowledge
of the Lord. But meantime, in connection with all of the weaknesses and
imperfections incident to our imperfect bodies, we all have need of special
comfort and consolation which the Lord has provided us in our text. It is the
source of weakness in many of the Lord’s people that they do not properly grasp
by faith this and similar promises; for only in proportion as they have this
faith and grasp these promises can they be buoyed up by this, and be encouraged
to press along the line for the mark. This means faith toward God, and we
readily admit that the “babes” in Christ cannot exercise as much faith in
respect to these promises and experiences as can those who are further
advanced; and yet we see continually that it is not years alone that tell in
Christian development; that the growth of the Christian in grace and knowledge
depends chiefly upon his faith, his love, his zeal.
“According to thy Word,”-should not be misunderstood to mean that God
orders the affairs of his people, only in the way of commands and advice given
them in his Word. Ah! had this been true, how many now rejoicing in the light
of the Lord’s favor might have become outcasts long ago! How many have failed
to take heed to the directions of the Word, whose steps, nevertheless, the Lord
has ordered or directed;-according to his Word;-according to his promise! When
the wrong path was taken, and the Word neglected, and the privileges of
Christian brotherhood neglected, and thus the way made ready for a complete
separation from the Lord and the truth,-then, perhaps, the Lord ordered the
way, according to his Word, in sending disappointments, financial or social, or
sickness of body corresponding to the sickness of the heart;-and thus, perhaps,
he brought back his wandering sheep, “according to his Word,” making
experiences and trials work out for his highest good.
Thus, in his Word the Lord promises the crown of life to the zealous
soldiers of the cross, and assures us that the careless shall under divine
providence have their steps so ordered that they shall receive “stripes,”
chastisements, to awaken and rescue them;-so that they may be “saved so as by
fire,” and come up through great tribulation,-even after they have failed to
gain the “abundant entrance” of the Kingdom class. Let us rejoice in thus having
our way committed to the Lord; but let us take earnest heed to our own steps
also, that we may walk in the footsteps of our Master in the narrow way, and
thus also inherit with him the glories promised.
Likewise we should expect the Lord’s guidance of our temporal affairs and
particularly in respect to our service of the truth. We should not only give
heed to the Word and its spirit, but additionally we should keep watch for the
leadings of divine grace;-opening or closing doors of opportunity, and thus
leading us, if faithful and obedient, not only into all truth, but also into
fuller liberties and opportunities for serving it to others.
We must not overlook the latter part of our text-the assurance that though
the child of God may stumble at times in the way, these will never mean to him
an utter fall, because his hand is still held by the Lord! What a comforting
thought is here! How well calculated it is to deliver the Lord’s people from
utter despondency in respect to themselves and each other! The all-important
thoughts to be kept in mind are, Am I still the Lord’s? Am I still trusting in
the precious blood? Am I still consecrated to the Lord and his righteous way?
If these can be answered in the affirmative we can still realize that we are
God’s children, and that our hands are still in his; that the spirit of
begetting and adoption, which began in us the new life, has not perished; and
that it is God’s will that we should recover ourselves as quickly as possible
from any stumbling, and looking well at the difficulties and trials which led
us into it, we should fortify our characters against those difficulties as
respects the future, and thus go on really stronger, because of our
difficulties, and yet all the while realizing that our recovery from the
difficulty was not of our own strength, but because of our trust in the arm of
the Lord, to which we are still holding.
The Scriptures which speak of the natural branches of the olive tree, and
also the ingrafted branches of the wild olive, continuing to be branches only
so long as they continue in the relationship of faith (Rom. 11:17-21), are not
to be ignored; neither should we forget our Lord’s words, when likening his
followers to the branches in a vine; saying, “I am the Vine; ye are the
Branches;” he, nevertheless, pointed out that “every branch in me” that
bears not fruit, the Father, the husbandman, taketh it away-it becomes refuse,
never to be re-ingrafted but destroyed.
These and other Scriptures most emphatically teach the possibility, not of
our stumbling as of accident, and being separated from the Lord, but of the
possibility of our being separated from him through wilful disobedience and
neglect of his Word and of the opportunities he has afforded us. He will not
let us go so long as we are striving to walk in his way; but will order our
steps so that they shall bring to us the best blessing possible, and will
recover us and help us in our stumblings, because we are seeking and delighting
to walk in his way. But if we lose this spirit, and become of a contrary one,
if we fight against God,-if we resist the leadings and guidance which he has
provided in his Word and by his spirit, and if we seek to walk contrary to him,
he will also walk contrary to us, and he will let go our hand; our stumbling
then would mean our fall-we would be utterly cast down, and that beyond
recovery, in the Second Death.
We do not, however, address those who are wilfully resisting the Lord and
seeking to walk after the flesh and not after the spirit. We address those who
are seeking the old paths; seeking to walk in the footsteps of Jesus; seeking
to know and to do the Father’s will, and whose discouragements are the result,
not of wilful wrong, but of the weaknesses of the flesh against which they are
continually striving. These the Lord would have us encourage, and draw to their
attention the precious promises of his Word, and his assurances that “as a
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that reverence him.”