June 25, 2009

• Are you getting up into the high mountain or have you become lukewarm?

  From Charles Spurgeon's "Morning and Evening," June 25, Morning:

  "Get thee up into the high mountain." — Isaiah 40:9
  
  Our knowledge of Christ is somewhat like climbing one of our Welsh mountains. When you are at the base you see but little: the mountain itself appears to be but one-half as high as it really is. Confined in a little valley, you discover scarcely anything but the rippling brooks as they descend into the stream at the foot of the mountain. Climb the first rising knoll, and the valley lengthens and widens beneath your feet. Go higher, and you see the country for four or five miles round, and you are delighted with the widening prospect. Mount still, and the scene enlarges; till at last, when you are on the summit, and look east, west, north, and south, you see almost all England lying before you. Yonder is a forest in some distant county, perhaps two hundred miles away, and here the sea, and there a shining river and the smoking chimneys of a manufacturing town, or the masts of the ships in a busy port. All these things please and delight you, and you say, "I could not have imagined that so much could be seen at this elevation." Now, the Christian life is of the same order. When we first believe in Christ we see but little of Him. The higher we climb the more we discover of His beauties. But who has ever gained the summit? Who has known all the heights and depths of the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, "I know whom I have believed," for each experience had been like the climbing of a hill, each trial had been like ascending another summit, and his death seemed like gaining the top of the mountain, from which he could see the whole of the faithfulness and the love of Him to whom he had committed his soul. Get thee up, dear friend, into the high mountain.

  
  (mountains in Colorado, not Wales...)

  When I read this portion of Spurgeon's words

  Paul, when grown old, sitting grey-haired, shivering in a dungeon in Rome, could say with greater emphasis than we can, "I know whom I have believed,"

  I began to ask, "Was Paul really content at that point with the knowledge he had, with his relationship to Christ? Did he really believe he'd arrived? Had he stopped pressing on? Did he believe he knew all he needed to know?" Second Timothy was most likely the last letter Paul wrote and he didn't have much time left on earth.

  We can look back a few years to Paul's words in Philippians 3.

  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

  As Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, had Paul really stopped hungering and thirsting to know Christ more and the power of His resurrection to share in the fellowship of His sufferings? Had he let up in his pursuit? Had Paul become tired? Had Paul come to the point where he was saying, "I know Christ. I've arrived. That's enough. I'm done pressing on. The end is near. I'll be with the Lord soon enough"?

  We read these words in II Timothy 4:

  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

  Wait! Is this really it for Paul. Has Paul hung it up? Is he no longer pressing on? Did he have such an eye on heaven that he'd let up in pursuit to know Christ?  Is Paul really saying here, "I know Christ. I've arrived. That's enough. I'm done pressing on. The end is near. I'll be with the Lord soon enough"? Was Paul content with his present knowledge and his current relationship with Christ?

  No! No! We only need read ahead a few more verses. See what he writes in verse 13. (This little portion of Scripture is one of those personal allusions we might be tempted to overlook, but see how it which gives us real insight into Paul's perseverance in pressing on to know the Lord.)

  When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

  Look! Here is Paul nearing the end of his life, and yet what is he asking for?

  The books . . . and the parchments.

  What were these books and parchments? This from the ESV Study Bible:

  Books refers to scrolls of papyrus, while parchments would be vellum sheets made of animal skins. The papyrus scrolls may have included writing materials, official documents, or Paul's personal correspondence. It seems most likely that the parchments would have been books of some kind, quite possibly a copy of the OT in Greek. In any case, Paul is expecting to die soon, he is still concerned about getting his "books [and] parchments," so that he continue to work for the sake of the Gospel.

  I would agree that Paul was indeed continuing to work for the sake of the Gospel, but I would go further than that and say that Paul was still pressing on to know Christ with the same passion he'd written about a few years earlier in Philippians 3:

  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

  Paul was still pressing on to know Christ! He knew he had not yet obtained it or had been made perfect. He was pressing on to know Christ even more intimately! Therefore he wanted the books and ... the parchments.

  In Ligon Duncan's talk "Finishing Well," given at the 2009 Gospel Coalition conference, he made it a point to highlight II Timothy 4:13:

  When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.

  Duncan quoted from one of Spurgeon's sermons:

  "Even an apostle must read."

  Even an apostle must read! If an apostle must read, how much more so must we read? Consider that Paul had a direct revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road, Paul had an experience of being taken up to the third heaven and Jesus spoke to Paul in a vision at Corinth. And now Paul had been preaching for thirty years. Yet what do we have here at the end of his life? We find that Paul, even an apostle, wanted to read and keep reading! He knew he must read if he wanted to know Christ more!

  Duncan added, "The man who never reads will never be read," and then quoted Spurgeon once more:

  "The best way to spend your leisure is either to be reading or praying."
  
  

  How are you spending your leisure?

  Can we say we love Christ and not spend time with Him?

  Can we say we love Christ and leave our Bibles sitting on the bookshelf?

  Can we say we love Christ and not spend time with on our knees in prayer?

  Are you pressing on to know Him with the same passion you had when you first came to know Him?

  Are you pressing on to know Him even if you've known Him 10, 20, 30 years or more?

  Have you become lukewarm in your pursuit of Him?

  Have you become content to stay in the valley or are you continuing to get up into the high mountain?

  I'm 50 years old now and here at Xanga/Revelife I have become acquainted with some older brothers in the faith who are continuing to press on in the same way Paul was. I'm talking about Norm and Frank. I have found it a pure pleasure and joy to get to know them a bit, especially now as I'm getting older, there are fewer people around who are older than me! And I only pray that in 20-25 years, if the Lord gives me that much time here, by the grace of God, I will be pressing on as they are today!

  (While at the conference I had a conversation with a young man who was still in seminary. We discussed which seminars we would be attending. I mentioned I'd signed up for Erwin Lutzer's "Finishing Well in Life and Ministry." He said that had sounded good, but figured he didn't need to take something like that at this point in his life. That made me simultaneously sad and scared. Often, though not always, the younger we are, the more naive we are. When we're young (or when God first calls us to ministry, which for some of us may be when we're older), we're pretty much on top of the world. We have a vision and a passion. We are ready to take the bull by the horns so to speak. Our dreams our big. Our bubble hasn't burst. But there will come a day when opposition will come and the bubble will burst. We'll trip up in the race. We'll be tempted to stop running the race set before us. We'll become tired and weary. We'll want to hang it up. We'll become disgusted and disenchanted. And all the more so for those who are called to ministry for it is well-documented that a large portion of those who enter the ministry do not end up finishing in the ministry. So by the grace of God, we must resolve and strive to continue to press on, in spite of how we're feeling.)

  God forbid that we would hear Jesus speak to us words like He spoke to the Laodicean church:

  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

  May our God keep reminding us how wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked we really are so we might keep coming to Him to buy His gold, be clothed with His garments and eat daily of the living Bread and drink daily of the living Water! Amen.

  ---

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