In my last post, we examined our desire for Jesus Christ and His unsearchable riches in light of the desire of the angels ~ which things the angels desire to look into (I Peter 1:12, KJV).

Though Peter addressed his first letter to the believers scattered in the Diaspora. The ESV combines verses 1 & 2, and renders it: "To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion." However, in this life, all Christians are, in reality, "elect exiles." "Elect exiles": a weighty phrase – reminding us that as we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, having been plucked from the fire and given Christ's robe of perfect righteousness so we might enjoy fellowship with the Holy, Holy, Holy God, we are now children of God and citizens of heaven, which makes us aliens in regard to this world and all this world has to offer. (The Greek word for "exiles" ("strangers" (KJV) / "pilgrims" (NKJV)) is parepidemos: "an alien alongside, i.e. a resident foreigner:--pilgrim, stranger" (Strong's Concordance).)

All the elect, all those who have been foreknown by God the Father and redeemed by the precious blood of the spotless Lamb of God are not only saved from God's just wrath (justification), but are also set apart by God  for obedience to God (sanctification) – that we might no longer live to ourselves but to live for Him through His indwelling Holy Spirit (II Cor. 5:14-15).

I Peter 1:1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2  according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood... (ESV)

I Peter 1:1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2  Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. (KJV)

Later in chapter 1, Peter reminds us that because we are now citizens of heaven, we're to live as pilgrims here and to conduct ourselves in fear, not being conformed to [our] former lusts (KJV) and the passions of [our] former ignorance (ESV) – but rather to be holy as our God who has called us is holy (1:13-21). Peter continues that teaching throughout his first epistle.

2:11  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12  Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

4:1  Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2  so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3  The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4  With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you...

In other words, because we who are Christians have been made new creations in Christ (II Cor. 5:17), our desires, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds ought to increasingly reflect that spiritual reality. If the root has indeed been made new, the fruit ought to be new also! If we have been born again, if Jesus Christ has truly made His Advent into our lives, the tree has been made good, and we ought to bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.

Jesus Christ described of the Kingdom of heaven and its citizens in this way:

Matthew 11:12 (KJV) And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

In Isaiah 5, the Beloved comes to examine His vineyard and laments because in place of the good grapes which He expected, He finds wild grapes. J.A. Alexander calls these disappointing grapes "acrid and unwholesome."

Are we bearing the spiritual fruit of a holy violence for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom:  an increasing and overwhelming love for God and delight in God, and an increasing and overwhelming desire and delight to do God's will? Do our desires, thoughts, words, and deeds reflect a holy zeal for our God? Are we taking His Kingdom by force? Do we show ourselves possessed with a holy violence? Are we striving to enter the Kingdom? Do our lives resemble the Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon 3?

3:1  On my bed by night
I sought him whom my soul loves;
I sought him, but found him not.
2  I will rise now and go about the city,
in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.
I sought him, but found him not.
3  The watchmen found me
as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
4  Scarcely had I passed them
when I found him whom my soul loves.
I held him, and would not let him go
until I had brought him into my mother's house,
and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

Or, instead, are we bearing "acrid and unwholesome fruit"? Are we lackadaisical and lukewarm toward Christ and His Kingdom? Do we bear a stronger resemblance to the Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon 5?

2  I slept, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My beloved is knocking.
“Open to me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my perfect one,
for my head is wet with dew,
my locks with the drops of the night.”
3  I had put off my garment;
how could I put it on?
I had bathed my feet;
how could I soil them?

How does our passion and zeal for our God compare with the passion and zeal of Black Friday shoppers? (For example, read here.)

It is, beyond expression, a thing to be lamented, that so small a number of men regard God, the author of their being, that so few live to him in whom they live, returning that being and life they have, and all their enjoyments, as is due, to him from whom they all flow. And then, how pitiful it is, that the small number who are thus minded, mind it so remissly and coldly, and are so far outstripped by the children of this world, who follow painted follies and lies with more eagerness and industry than the children of wisdom do that certain and solid blessedness which they seek after! Plus illi ad vanitatem, quam nos ad veritatem:  They are more intent upon vanity, that we upon verity. Strange! that men should do so much violence one to another, and to themselves in body and mind, for trifles and chaff; and that there is so little to be found of that allowed and commanded violence, for a kingdom, and such a kingdom, that cannot be moved (Heb. xii. 28); a word too high for all the monarchies under the sun.  

~ Robert Leighton’s “Commentary on First Peter” (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1972), 397.

Matthew 11:12 (KJV) And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Matthew Henry likens this heavenly violence to that "of an army taking a city by storm, or of a crowd bursting into a house," and he describes such souls engaged in this holy violence as...

An importunate multitude. This violence denotes a strength, and vigour, and earnestness of desire and endeavour, in those who followed John's ministry, else they would not have come so far to attend upon it. It shows us also, what fervency and zeal are required of all those who design to make heaven of their religion. Note, They who would enter into the kingdom of heaven must strive to enter; that kingdom suffers a holy violence; self must be denied, the bent and bias, the frame and temper, of the mind must be altered; there are hard sufferings to be undergone, a force to be put upon the corrupt nature; we must run, and wrestle, and fight, and be in an agony, and all little enough to win such a prize, and to get over such opposition from without and from within. The violent take it by force. They who will have an interest in the great salvation are carried out towards it with a strong desire, will have it upon any terms, and not think them hard, nor quit their hold without a blessing, Gen. xxxii. 26. They who will make their calling and election sure must give diligence. The kingdom of heaven was never intended to indulge the ease of triflers, but to be the rest of them that labour. It is a blessed sight; Oh that we could see a greater number, not with an angry contention thrusting others out of the kingdom of heaven, but with a holy contention thrusting themselves into it!

O, LORD our God, we confess that we often bear "acrid and unwholesome" fruit, for which Your Spirit is grieved and for which Your name is blasphemed among the nations. What more could You have done for us? Holy Father, we come to You in Jesus' name, and ask that You forgive us that we live so far below our blessed privileges as Your children and citizens of heaven. Forgive us for forgetting Whose we are! Forgive us, Father, for not giving earnest heed and neglecting such a great salvation which You wrought for us by sending Jesus Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners! Forgive us for receiving Your glorious grace in vain. Forgive us for thinking so lightly of Christ's precious blood. Forgive us for grieving Your Holy Spirit. Forgive us that our desire for You and for Your Kingdom is so weak and faint, while our desire for the earthly and temporal is often so strong and resolute. Forgive us for our spiritual sluggishness – so often we end up like the Shulamite woman, who would not be bothered to put on her robe or dirty her feet to get up to open the door to her Beloved as He knocked for her! How pathetic that our desires for You pale in comparison to the world's desires for trinkets, toys, and trivialities! Open the eyes of our hearts so we might see You for who You really are! O! LORD! Incline our hearts to fear Your name, and give us whole hearts to run after You and to open widely to You and to no other lover – for You are the chief among 10,000! Forgive us that we are so often put to shame by the zeal, activity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness of the children of this world. Forgive us for not valuing and treasuring You and Your Kingdom as we ought, for if we did, we would certainly explode and overflow with an unquenchable holy violence for You and Your Kingdom! Forgive us for wasting so much of our time running in the ways of the world and living for the lusts of men, rather than living to Your will. You know our frame and remember we are dust. Though we are Yours, our flesh continues to lust and battle against Your Spirit. Have mercy upon us, for the sake of Your New Covenant in Your Son's blood. Be gracious to us, strengthen us by Your Spirit, and enlarge our hearts that we might glorify You by showing ourselves to be children of wisdom and light. May we be filled up to overflowing with a holy violence that shows itself by resolutely setting our minds on things above, running in the way of Your commandments with a holy fervor, loving You supremely, and delighting to do Your will as our Savior did. May Your love constrain and compel us to a joyful, whole-hearted, single-eyed, complete, and zealous obedience. May Your Holy Spirit impart to us a holy violence for You that has no parallel or rival in the world, that we may show ourselves to be Your holy bride, sanctified by Your Holy Spirit and washed by the water of Your Word, bearing sweet and wholesome fruit to Your glory, for Your joy and for our joy! God forbid we be ashamed at Your coming, but rather when You return, may we be found neither sleeping nor sluggish, but violent and importunate, taking Your Kingdom by force! May we be diligent to make our calling and election sure! Work in us that holy contention that is well pleasing in Your sight, that we might be inflamed with a holy fire to run after You and Your Kingdom to the praise of Your glorious grace!

"A sight of Christ gains the heart, makes it break from all entanglements, both of its own lusts, and of the profane world about it." ~ Robert Leighton’s “Commentary on First Peter” (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1972), 396.

Romans 6:22  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

7:1  Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2  Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3  Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

4  Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5  For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6  But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.

I John 2:28  And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29  If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

Psalm 119:32  I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart! (HT: Leighton for the Scripture reference, p. 398)

The doctrine of justification by faith –– a Biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort –– has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be "received" without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is "saved," but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.

The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders of His world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word. We have almost forgotten that God is a Person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored.

All social intercourse between human beings is a response of personality to personality, grading upward from the most casual brush between man and man to the fullest, most intimate communion of which the human soul is capable. Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the Creating Personality, God. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.". . .

To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshipping soul:

We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still;
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

. . . How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of "accepting Christ" (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him we need nor more seek Him...

. . . Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present, or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.

Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.

~ A.W. Tozer, excerpts from Chapter I, Following Hard after God in "The Pursuit of God," first published in 1948.

* * *

Psalm 63:8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

Is your soul following hard after Him – or are you ensnared by the deadly foe complacency and tangled in the web of religious complexity?

"Those who think they have grace enough give proof that they have little enough, or rather that they have none at all; because, wherever there is true grace, there is a desire of more grace, and a pressing towards the perfection of grace." ~ Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Philippians 3:13.

O LORD our God, incline our hearts, souls, minds, and strength to follow hard after You, to cling to You, to hold fast to You, and not to let You go. God forbid we be too-easily-satisfied religionists at ease in Zion –– but rather may we be diligent to make our calling and election sure, and show ourselves to be Your purchased possession – children of the burning heart. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us that we might be found in the company of the Shulamite woman:– zealously and jealously pursuing, panting, and pressing on for You with a holy violence!

Song of Solomon 3:1  By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 2  I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not. 3  The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? 4  It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.

Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. 

"Note, They who would enter into the kingdom of heaven must strive to enter; that kingdom suffers a holy violence; self must be denied, the bent and bias, the frame and temper, of the mind must be altered; there are hard sufferings to be undergone, a force to be put upon the corrupt nature; we must run, and wrestle, and fight, and be in an agony, and all little enough to win such a prize, and to get over such opposition from without and from within. The violent take it by force. They who will have an interest in the great salvation are carried out towards it with a strong desire, will have it upon any terms, and not think them hard, nor quit their hold without a blessing, Gen. xxxii. 26. They who will make their calling and election sure must give diligence. The kingdom of heaven was never intended to indulge the ease of triflers, but to be the rest of them that labour. It is a blessed sight; Oh that we could see a greater number, not with an angry contention thrusting others out of the kingdom of heaven, but with a holy contention thrusting themselves into it!" ~ from Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Matthew 11.

 (Scripture quotations are taken from the KJV.)

What is a nominal Christian?
Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from Jonathan Edwards
Moderation in pursuing God? An answer from George Whitefield
How’s your spiritual appetite? (Jonathan Edwards)
consider … our ways, the great cloud of witnesses, Susanna Anthony
Amazing Grace . . . upon Grace ~ the 240th anniversary
Thank Him for a little grace, and ask Him for great grace ~ Spurgeon | letter 158 on assurance & joy

In his sermon "The Importance of Spiritual Growth," Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ML-J) cited these words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

"There is a point in grace which is as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling."

On August 21, 2012, as part of a reflective/retrospective post on my birthday, I wrote the following about those words of Spurgeon:

The following spring [of 2008], while away on a private retreat, I listened to a portion of Martyn Lloyd-Jones' sermon on Ephesians 3:16:

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man... (KJV)

There are many ways we can keep track of the Ebenezers in our lives. And included in those for me are my own personal journals and my blogging.

In my post dated May 29, 2008, I'd referenced a quotation which ML-J gave from Spurgeon in that sermon:

"There is a point in grace which is as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling."

This morning, I looked through my journals (my spiral notebooks which are "filed" in a cardboard box in the corner of the bedroom), and I found the notebook from that time with the quotation written down along with some notes I'd taken from the sermon. No, there was no lightning bolt at the time, but a seed was planted: a deeper desire and hunger and thirst for Christ had been imparted into my soul through the Holy Spirit. I vividly remember the day when I sat on the bed in that retreat center and listened to that sermon and then knelt down by the bed. I had heard something that day that did further shaking to my complacent, safe, self-sufficient, works-oriented, lukewarm Americanized Christianity. Even though I knew my present reality at that point in time was so very far from that point in grace, and even though I knew I was approaching holy ground to even consider such a possibility, yet all the same, that possibility began to captivate me and my hunger and thirst grew. I knew there was more to Christianity than I'd imagined... I was slowly coming to the realization, much like Oswald Chambers wrote:  "But I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud." (Please see my post here for more on that.)

* * *

I was only recently able to locate the Spurgeon sermon in which that quotation was found. I've included a few excerpts from that sermon below. (One note on the sermon: regarding the paragraph beginning with "The great policy of Satan..." – it's clear that the threats to the 21st century Church have multiplied beyond those at the time this sermon was first preached in 1869.) Before those excerpts, I've included Scripture, some other quotations, as well as a poem I've written. In presenting all these things to you, my prayer is that God might strengthen you to entreat Him for grace upon grace, that you would not be complacent with having received the former rain – that your Christianity would not be fraudulent – but you would seek God's face in earnest for the latter rain, so you might come to that point in grace which is as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling... Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

~ That we might increase our joy in the LORD, Karen

Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 

13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Zechariah 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

"See how ready God is to succour and relieve his people, how he waits to be gracious; as soon as ever they humble themselves under this hand, and pray, and seek his face, he immediately meets them with his favours. They prayed that God would spare them, and see here with what good words and comfortable words he answered them; for God's promises are real answers to the prayers of faith, because with him saying and doing are not two things."

~ Matthew Henry on Joel 2:18-27

Psalm 119:58
I intreated thy favour with my whole heart:
be merciful unto me according to thy word.

Once More I Entreat
(the Former AND the Latter Rain)
~ a birthday exultation (August 23, 2013) ~

(based in part upon Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon
"The Former and the Latter Rain" No. 880)

In vain I'd sought shadows and earthly gold,
Then Truest Treasure which waxes not old

Through the Spirit, given second birth,
Sight imparted to see my great dearth

With my whole heart did I entreat
Saving favor from the mercy seat

The former rain dropped at Thy Word
Before I spoke, my plea was heard

By Lamb's blood, the veil was rent
With full acceptance I made the ascent

But this be my greatest and chiefest regret:
Though two decades seated with Mephibosheth,

'Twas but a nominal supping, devoid of flavor,
Had nary a true taste or a sensible savor

Seeing but not perceiving – was this Life!?
Nay, only a pretense, counterfeit in disguise

"Ah! If this is Christianity, 'tis but a fraud!"
In Your kindness came chastening rod

Variegated trials, the whirlwind, Your billows
With Jacob, I struggled, and wetted my pillow

To behold Your Beauty – my one desire
O! To taste the Fount of baptismal fire!

For the latter rain I was importunately intent
I would not let Thee go, till the heavens rent

Achsah's cry ~ "the sure mark of grace":
Having found grace, I seek Thy grace!

With whole heart, once more I entreat
Latter rain from Thy mercy seat

My Rock, burst forth! O! Wellspring of favor!
Blessed are all who seek higher savor!

For my Bridegroom, I pant with mouth open wide:
To know Him - Ah! this is religion bona fide! 

My Beloved, be like a gazelle! O! Make haste!
Fill this thirsty pilgrim with grace upon grace!

Above the ordinary, for all the saints who dare
Welcome cross and brokenness – breathe rarefied air!

Ask, seek, and knock at His celestial door
Alarm you should feel if you desire no more

To prepare the corn for the time of harvest
Beg the latter rain to revive and refresh

Bountiful effusion of Christ, remarkable visitation,
'Tis nothing short of a second conversion!

Wrestling cry of God's elect: sweet incense arising
How can He spurn the groanings of His needy offspring?

For such a point in grace, bow down and earnestly entreat,
Our heavenly Father meets all who diligently seek

With favors in abundance ~ our Lord's delights ~
Succoring His children to leap on the heights!

"It is a sure mark of grace to desire more."
~ Robert Murray M'Cheyne ~

"In Jesus is our store,
Grace issues from his throne;
Whoever says, 'I want no more,'
Confesses he has none.
~ William Cowper ~

Hosea 12:4 Yes, he [Jacob] struggled with the Angel and prevailed; He wept, and sought favor from Him. He found Him in Bethel, And there He spoke to us – 5 That is, the LORD God of hosts. The LORD is His memorial. (NKJV)

Isaiah 29:17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? 18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. 19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Excerpts from Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon "The Former and the Latter Rain" (HT: http://www.ccel.org/print/spurgeon/sermons15/xxxiii, emphasis mine)

"Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest." - Jeremiah 5:24

It is very usual in the life of Grace for the soul to receive in later years, a second very remarkable visitation of the Holy Spirit, which may be compared to the latter rain. As I told you, the latter rain was sent to plump out the wheat and make it full and mature, ready for the after-harvest ripening. So there is a time of special Grace granted to saints, to prepare them for Heaven, to make them completely meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. To some, this is given in the form of what has very commonly, and I think correctly, been called a second conversion. "When you are converted, strengthen your Brethren," was Christ's remark to Peter, who was even then a converted man.

My Brothers and Sisters, there is a point in Grace as much above the ordinary Christian, as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling. Believe me, the life of Divine Grace is no dead level, it is not a low country, a vast flat. There are mountains and there are valleys. There are tribes of Christians who live in the valleys, like the poor Swiss of the Valais, who live in the midst of the mist, where fever has its lair and the frame is languid and enfeebled. Such dwellers in the lowlands of unbelief are forever doubting, fearing, troubled about their interest in Christ and tossed to and fro. But there are other Believers, who, by God's Grace, have climbed the mountain of full assurance and near communion. Their place is with the eagle in his eyrie, high aloft.

They are like the strong mountaineer who has trod the virgin snow, who has breathed the fresh, free air of the Alpine regions and therefore his sinews are braced and limbs are vigorous. These are they who do great exploits, being mighty men, men of renown. The saints who dwell on high in the clear atmosphere of faith are rejoicing Christians, holy and devout men, doing service for the Master all over the world and everywhere conquerors through Him that loved them. And I desire—oh, how earnestly I desire you to be such men and women! My craving is that all of you, my Beloved, who have been watered by the former rain, may also be refreshed by a more than ordinary latter rain which shall make you more than ordinary Christians—bringing you beyond the blade period and the ear period—into the full corn in the ear!

The great policy of Satan of late with the Church has been this—not so much to attack her with open infidelity—for really all the infidelity there is in England does not materially affect Churches worthy of the name except to an almost infinitesimal extent. There is a deal more made of skepticism in certain quarters than there is any need for. Skeptics seldom get among our Christian people. At least I do not meet with them in my enquiries, nor do I see them associating with Christians of my association. The plan Satan seems to have adopted is not that of attacking our doctrine, but that of
preventing, as far as he can, our raising in our midst a race of eminent and advanced Christians. Pharaoh said, "Destroy the male children." Satan seems to say, "Stop the male children from fulfilling their growth."

We are well enough in our way after the common run of manhood. We believe in Christ. We love Him and contribute something to His cause, We preach and we pray. We are a respectable sort of people, but we do not grow to maturity or attain "unto the first three." We have in this age but few giants in Divine Grace who rise head and shoulders above the common height—men to lead us on in deeds of heroism and efforts of unstaggering faith. After all, the work of the Christian Church, though it must be done by all, often owes its being done to single individuals of remarkable Grace. In this degenerate time we are very much in need of what Israel had in the days of the Judges—there were raised up among them leaders who judged Israel and were the terror of her foes.

Oh, if the Church, today, had in her midst a race of heroes! If only our missionary operations could be attended with the holy chivalry which marked the Church in the early days! If only we could have back Apostles and martyrs, or even such as Carey and Judson, what wonders would be worked! We have fallen upon a race of dwarfs and are content, to a great extent, to have it so. There was once in London a club of small men whose qualification for membership lay in their not exceeding five feet in height. These dwarfs held, or pretended to hold, the opinion that they were nearer the perfection of manhood than others, for they argued that primeval men had been far more gigantic than the present race and consequently the way of progress was to grow less and less, and that the human race, as it perfected itself, would become as diminutive as themselves.

Such a club of Christians might be established in London and without any difficulty might attain to an enormously numerous membership—for the notion is common that our dwarfish Christianity is, after all, the standard! And many even imagine that nobler Christians are enthusiasts, fanatical and hot-blooded—while we are cool because we are wise and indifferent—because we are intelligent. We must get rid of all this nonsense! The fact is, the most of us are vastly inferior to the early Christians, who, as I take it, were persecuted because they were thoroughly Christians and we are not persecuted because we hardly are Christians at all! They were so earnest in the propagation of the Redeemer's kingdom, that they became the nuisance of the age in which they lived.

. . .

Brothers [and sisters], be encouraged! A latter rain is yet possible. Seek it! That you need it so much is a cause for sorrow, but if you really feel your need of it, be glad that the Lord works in you such sacred desires. If you did not feel a need for more Divine Grace it would be a reason for alarm. But to be conscious that all that God did by you in the past has not qualified you to do anything without Him now—to feel that you lean entirely upon His strength now, as much as ever— is to be in a condition in which it shall be right and proper for God to bless you abundantly.

Please note: In addition to the ML-J sermon cited above, you can access for free over 1600 other audio sermons of The Doctor courtesy of the MLJ Trust here. You can also sign up for the weekly podcast through Living Grace Ministries at oneplace.com: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/living-grace/listen/. They're currently broadcasting sermons from ML-J's Ephesians series.

Related:

• my posts on nominal Christianity
• my posts on true and false religion