“Spiritual Growth, Part 18” by Romans1:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy21vd6jSps
We are continuing in our Series, “Spiritual Growth.” This is Part 18 of this ongoing Series. As we have seen, the Word of God has much to say about our Spiritual Growth. I thought we would wrap it up last week, but here we are back again. As I write this, I can only say that when I have exhausted what is relevant and edifying to this Theme, I will wrap up the Series.
Our first consideration to review and examine, tonight, is that Spiritual Growth involves Prayer. But in the selected verse, Peter incorporates prayer as a summary statement, and a driving force to the behavioral changes that accompany our Spiritual Growth.
We read, “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing…
For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers...” (1 Peter 3:8-12a).
Of all of these points, Matthew Henry writes, “The apostle here passes from special to more general exhortations. I. He teaches us how Christians and friends should treat one another. He advises Christians to be all of one mind, to be unanimous in the belief of the same faith, and the practice of the same duties of religion;
and, whereas the Christians at that time were many of them in a suffering condition, he charges them to have compassion one of another, to love as brethren, to pity those who were in distress, and to be courteous to all. Hence learn, 1. Christians should endeavour to be all of one mind in the great points of faith, in real affection, and in Christian practice; they should be like-minded one to another, according to Christ Jesus (Romans 15:5), not according to man's pleasure, but God's word.
2. Though Christians cannot be exactly of the same mind, yet they should have compassion one for another, and love as brethren; they ought not to persecute or hate one another, but love one another with more than common affection; they should love as brethren. 3. Christianity requires pity to the distressed, and civility to all. He must be a flagrant sinner, or a vile apostate, who is not a proper object of civil courtesy, (see 1 Corinthians 5:11; 2 John 1:10-11).
II. He instructs us how to behave towards enemies. The apostle knew that Christians would be hated and evil-entreated of all men for Christ's sake; therefore, 1. He warns them not to return evil for evil, nor railing for railing; but, on the contrary, “when they rail at you, do you bless them; when they give you evil words, do you give them good ones;
for Christ has both by his word and example called you to bless those that curse you, and has settled a blessing on you as your everlasting inheritance, though you were unworthy.” To bear evils patiently, and to bless your enemies, is the way to obtain this blessing of God.
Learn, (1.) To render evil for evil, or railing for railing, is a sinful unchristian practice; the magistrate may punish evil-doers, and private men may seek a legal remedy when they are wronged; but private revenge by duelling, scolding, or secret mischief, is forbidden (see Proverbs 20:22; Luke 6:27; Romans 12:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15).
To rail is to revile another in bitter, fierce, and reproachful terms; but for ministers to rebuke sharply, and to preach earnestly against the sins of the times, is not railing; all the prophets and apostles practised it, (see Isaiah 56:10; Zephaniah 3:3; Acts 20:29).
(2.) The laws of Christ oblige us to return blessing for railing. Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those that persecute you. You must not justify them in their sin, but you must do for your enemies all that justice requires or charity commands.” We must pity, pray for, and love those who rail at us.
(3.) A Christian's calling, as it invests him with glorious privileges, so it obliges him to difficult duties. (4.) All the true servants of God shall infallibly inherit a blessing; they have it already in a great degree, but the full possession of it is reserved to another state and world.
2. He gives an excellent prescription for a comfortable happy life in this quarrelsome ill-natured world (1Pe_3:10): it is quoted from Psalm 34:12-14. “If you earnestly desire that your life should be long, and your days peaceable and prosperous, keep your tongue from reviling, evil-speaking, and slandering, and your lips from lying, deceit, and dissimulation.
Avoid doing any real damage or hurt to your neighbour, but be ever ready to do good, and to overcome evil with good; seek peace with all men, and pursue it, though it retire from you. This will be the best way to dispose people to speak well of you, and live peaceably with you.”
Learn, (1.) Good people under the Old and new Testament were obliged to the same moral duties; to refrain the tongue from evil, and the lips from guile, was a duty in David's time as well as now. (2.) It is lawful to consider temporal advantages as motives and encouragements to religion.
(3.) The practice of religion, particularly the right government of the tongue, is the best way to make this life comfortable and prosperous; a sincere, inoffensive, discreet tongue, is a singular means to pass us peaceably and comfortably through the world.
(4.) The avoiding of evil, and doing of good, is the way to contentment and happiness both here and hereafter. (5.) It is the duty of Christians not only to embrace peace when it is offered, but to seek and pursue it when it is denied: peace with societies, as well as peace with particular persons, in opposition to division and contention, is what is here intended.
3. He shows that Christians need not fear that such patient inoffensive behaviour as is prescribed will invite and encourage the cruelty of their enemies, for God will thereby be engaged on their side: For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous (1 Peter 3:12); he takes special notice of them, exercises a providential constant government over them, and bears a special respect and affection to them.
His ears are open to their prayers; so that if any injuries be offered to them they have this remedy, they may complain of it to their heavenly Father, whose ears are always attentive to the prayers of his servants in their distresses, and who will certainly aid them against their unrighteous enemies…
Observe, (1.) We must not in all cases adhere to the express words of scripture, but study the sense and meaning of them, otherwise we shall be led into blasphemous errors and absurdities: we must not imagine that God hath eyes, and ears, and face, though these are the express words of the scripture.
(2.) God hath a special care and paternal affection towards all his righteous people. (3.) God doth always hear the prayers of the faithful, John 4:31; 1 John 5:14; Hebrews 4:16.”
Our invitation to have intimate and even bold communication with God via prayer contributes greatly to our Spiritual Growth. Access to the very Throne of God is made available to us through Jesus Christ: We read, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).
Of this, Alexander MacLaren writes, “THE THRONE OF GRACE: In the context are three great exhortations which bear a very remarkable and distinct relation to each other: ‘Let us labour to enter into rest’; ‘Let us hold fast our profession’; Let us come boldly to the throne of grace.
It is a hard thing to labour to enter into rest. How is it to be done? The second exhortation helps us to answer, ‘Let us hold fast our profession,’ which being translated into other words, is this: our true way of labour is to cling in faith to Him whom we acknowledge;
but knowing the weakness of our own hearts, and how they waywardly fluctuate and pass away from the one confidence and happiest trust, it is with profound wisdom that the ultimate injunction is held out for the foundation of all - ‘Let us come to the throne of grace.’
There we get the strength that will enable our slack and benumbed fingers to grasp again the thing we hold. There we shall get that fresh grip of Christ which will quicken us for the labour of entering into rest. And so this portion of exhortation interposed between the doctrinal and theological parts of this letter is addressed to every one in the Christian profession.
I ask you, then, to look at this exhortation, which covers the whole ground of Christian duty and strength. Now, first, here is a very remarkable and beautiful expression - ‘the throne of grace.’ Grace, of course, as I do not need to explain, is the New Testament word for the undeserved favour and loving regard of God to man considered as weak, sinful, and unworthy; it is love which has its own motive, apart from any regard to worthiness in the object upon which it falls.
Grace is its own real impulse and motive, and grace is set in Scripture as the opposite of desert; it is of grace, not of works, and so forth. It is set as the antagonist of sin and unrighteousness and all evil, and so runs up to the idea that it expresses the unmerited, self-originated, loving regard of God to us poor miserable creatures, who, if dealt with on the ground of right and retribution, would receive something very different indeed.
But my text says the throne of grace is the throne of God. I wonder if it is too picturesque to take that word grace here as a kind of synonym of God? Think of the figure that was in the writer’s mind, as being that grace itself was the occupant of the throne, that there she sits, regal, sovereign, enthroned in the heart of the universe, queen of all things, and giving from her full and generous hand to every creature all that which the creature requires.
And then if we take the more prosaic notion - which perhaps is the safer one - and think that the metaphor is not that grace is queen and sovereign, but only that the throne is based and established, as it were, in grace, out of which this undeserved love flows in broad, full streams.
Even if we take the metaphor thus, we come to the same thought, that whatever else there may he in the divine nature, the ruling sovereign element in Deity is unmerited love and mercy and kindly regard to us poor, ignorant, sinful creatures, which keeps pouring itself out over all the world. God is King, and the kingly thing in God is infinite grace.
Then we can scarcely but bring into connection with this grand idea the other phases which the Old Testament gives to the same thought. Read such words as these: - ‘Justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne’ - ‘God sitteth on the throne of His holiness’ - ‘The throne of Thy glory.’
Yes, the throne of justice and of judgment. White and sparkling - cold and repellent. The throne of glory - flashing and dazzling, coruscating and blinding, glittering and shimmering - ready to smite the diseased eye. The throne of Thy holiness.
Yes, lofty, far up there, towering above us in its pure completeness, and we poor creatures, being ourselves blinded and dazed, and far away from Him, down amidst the lowlands and materialities, and all that majesty in the heavens - the justice and judgment, the holiness and glory - all that is only the envelope and wrappage, the living centre and heart of it is a pure, lambent glow of tenderness, and the throne is truly the throne of grace.
The ‘throne’ gives us all ideas of majesty, sovereignty, dominion, infinitude, greatness. The thought that it is ‘the throne of grace’ sheathes all these in the softest, tenderest, most blessed folds of love - unmerited, free, spontaneous - simply because He is God, and not on account of any goodness in us.
Bearing in mind this great conception of true love, ruling, dominant, the sovereign element in the divine nature, let us ask, How do we reach it? Are we warranted in believing it? Read the verses that come before: ‘For we have not a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.’
Turn that doctrinal statement into a statement of principle and it just comes to this: that our certitude that God’s throne is a throne of love and grace, is all involved in, dependent upon, and built upon, the work of Christ, the High Priest of our profession. That is to say, not ‘thank God’ that His work makes God’s throne a throne of grace - that is not the teaching of the Scripture - but that He, as High Priest, and, therefore, as the revealer to us of God as He is, shows us in His life and death, in the gentleness of His character, in the tenderness of His compassion, in the depth of His sympathy on earth, in the tenderness that touched the little children in their innocence and the harlots in their filth, and in the death He died upon the Cross for the sake of the world - the very heart of God is cut open, as it were, and the two halves fall apart as when we cut some rich fruit to lay bare the inmost pulp.
God is manifested to us, God declares Himself to us, in the sympathy of the humanity, in the life, in the death upon the Cross; and the Priest, in His sacrifice, and by His sacrifice, shows us that between the cherubim throned above the mercy-seat shimmers the Shekinah of power, with its white centre of love and peace. And then, on the other side, that same great thought of the priesthood of Christ influences this conception of the throne of God in another fashion still;
for, as it seems to me, there is no understanding of the depth and meaning of the work of Jesus Christ, our Lord, unless we heartily accept this, that His great sacrifice for us, in which mainly He is the Priest of our profession, is the means and channel and medium and condition through which all the love of God expresses itself to the world, and has communicated to sinful man all His goodness and all His pity and His tenderness, supplying all our necessities, and is all things to us through Christ our Lord.
Seen through Him the throne is white with tenderness; flowing through Him from the throne proceeds the river of the water of life, and so, in both ways, the throne of grace is such by reason of the priesthood of Christ. Look for a moment, in the next place, at the temper and disposition with which we come to this throne. ‘Let us come boldly.’ Now boldly is a somewhat incongruous word;
it neither conveys the original, nor does it correspond to our sense of propriety. The thought would be far more beautiful and far more naturally represented by a more literal translation - ‘Let us come with frank confidence’ to the throne of grace. The word literally means, if we go to the etymology of it, speaking everything.
You can easily understand how naturally that becomes an expression for the unembarrassed, unrestrained full out-pouring of a heart. You cannot pour out your heart in the fullest confidence to a person you do not respect, but if you get with some one you entirely trust, how swiftly the words flow. and how very easy it is to tell out the whole heart.
Just so with this great word of the writer of this Epistle, descriptive of the temper and disposition with which men are to go to God - with confidence, full, cheerful, and unembarrassed, and which expresses itself in full trust, exactly as one of the old Psalms says - ‘Ye people, pour out your heart before Him.’ Yes, let it all flow out, just as you would do to husband or wife, or lover, or friend, or the chosen companion to whom we can tell everything.
Ah, but there is no such person - there is nobody, not a soul, could stand the turning inside out of a man! There is no one able to do it to another, even supposing the other could bear it! But my text says ‘come,’ and is so gentle in its love, so strong in its grace, sweetly wooing us to the freest and frankest outpourings of all our hearts before the throne.
Let us then come with confidence, because Jesus’ work as our High Priest is in the writer’s mind. You remember the vision in the Revelation where the seer beholds the angel coming with a censer, and he takes incense from off the golden altar, and he goes on to say, that this much incense was offered in the censer with prayers of saints.
That is a picturesque and graphic representation of this same idea; my poor cry, the devotions of my trembling, unfaithful heart, the halting, limping approach of my sluggish spirit, these go along with, and are offered through, that Great High Priest.
‘Let the much incense of Thy prayer On my behalf ascend.’ Truly we have a loving High Priest; let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. Let us not use as a mere empty form those words ‘for Christ’s sake,’ but let us remember that these words do hold the very secret of all acceptable approach to God, and that’ no man cometh to the Father but by Me. There is reason enough, God knows, in your heart and mine, and in our poor, miserable, wretched, conventional, formal chatterings called prayers, for diffidence and distrust.
Well, then, let us fully look that fact in the face, entertain untremblingly the fullest consciousness of the insufficiency and unworthiness of all we do, and all we are, and all we feel, and all we seek, and then wrenching ourselves away as it were from the contemplation of our own selves, which only land us in diffidence {or, self-doubt} and despair, let us turn to Him, that we may have boldness and confidence in our access to the feet of Him who is our Great High Priest, passed into the heavens, and who now sits on the ‘throne of grace.’
And now, lastly, a word about the issue and result of this confidence of access to the throne of grace, the throne of spontaneous love. ‘That we may obtain mercy,’ says the writer, ‘and find grace to help in time of need.’ It is noteworthy, I think, to consider that the writer here is evidently thinking, not about a communion with God which is not prayer, but a communion with God which, on our side, is the lifting up of an empty hand, and on His side the bestowing a large, full gift.
There is no fellowship with God possible on the footing of what people call ‘disinterested communion.’ No, we have always to go to Him to get something from Him. The question is, What do we expect to get? My text tells us, not the temporal blessings, not the answers to foolish desires, not the taking away of thorns in the flesh, but mercy and grace to help - inward and spiritual blessings. But what are these?
Well, I don’t know whether it is too nice or too microscopic criticism to say that I seem to see a difference between obtaining mercy and finding grace. I take it grace is used in what I call its secondary sense, not meaning so much the love of God unmerited, but rather signifying the consequences of that love in the gifts bestowed upon us, and you know that is a usage of the word common in the New Testament, thus making the word into a plural, ‘graces’ - the manifold gifts that love bestows upon us.
So that, I take it, this word is here used in the secondary sense, and if that be so, we may shape a difference between the two phrases, ‘obtaining mercy’ and ‘finding grace.’ I do not think I can put that better than by using a metaphor. The one expresses the heart of God, the other expresses the hand of God.
We may obtain mercy as a suppliant coming boldly, confidently, frankly, with faith in the Great High Priest, to the throne of grace. There we get the full heart of God. I stand before Him in my filth, in my weakness, with conscience gnawing at me in the sense of many infirmities, many a sin and shortcoming and omission, and on the throne, if I may so say, is a shoot of tender love from God’s heart to me, and I get for all my weakness and sin pity and pardon, and find mercy of the Lord in that day.
And then in getting the full heart of God, with all its divine abundance and pardoning grace and tender, gracious pity, I get, of course, the full hand of God to obtain mercy, and find grace, the bestowment of the needful blessings, the obtaining of grace in time of need, the right grace, no blunders in the equipment with which He supplies us.
He does not give me the parcel that was meant for you; there is no error in the delivery. He does not send His soldiers to the North Pole equipped for warfare in Africa. He does not give this man a blessing that the man’s circumstances would not require. No, no; blessed be God, He cannot err. We fall back upon the words that precede my text, ‘And there is no creature concealed from His sight, for all things are naked, and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account.’
That may be, and is terrible, unless we take it along with the other word, ‘We have not a High Priest who cannot sympathise with our weakness.’ We see a divine omniscience shining upon us through the merits of the great High Priest, full of light and hope, and because all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him who is our High Priest;
therefore the right grace will be most surely given to me to help me in time of need, or, as the words may perhaps be more vigorously and correctly translated, find grace for timely aid, grace punctually and precisely at the very nick of time, at the very exact time determined by heaven’s chronometer, not by ours.
It will not come as quickly as impatience might think it ought, it will not come so soon as to prevent an agony of prayer, it will not come in time enough for our impatience, for murmuring, for presumptuous desires; but it will come in time to do all that is needed. Ah, and it will come before Peter has gone below the water, though not until Peter has felt the cold waves rise to his knees, and has cried out, ‘Lord, save me, I perish.’
‘Master, he whom Thou lovest is sick,’ and He abode still two days in the same place where He was, and when He came, ‘Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not died.’ ‘Said I not unto thee, that if thou didst believe thou shouldest see the glory of God.’ ‘God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved, the Lord shall help her, and that right early.’ Oh, my friends, ‘Let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace for every time of need.’”
NOTE: At this point, due to time considerations, I ended the “live” Discussion, but I include them, here, because they are insightful and profitable to us as a part of this Series,
The Sermon Bible adds to this: “(1) His exposure to temptation. Just as the light becomes tinged with the hues of the glass it passes through, so the unfathomable love of the Son of God becomes sympathetic towards men as it passes to them through the human heart, steeped in sorrow and agonised by the sufferings of the Son of man. Christ’s exposure to temptations gave His love the quality of sympathy.
(2) The other condition of His power of sympathy was His freedom from sin, notwithstanding His exposure to its temptations. The temptations of our Saviour were no shams. He was tempted like as we are. His temptations were as real to Him as ours are to us. Temptations to sin are of two kinds, direct and indirect; the first being solicitations, and the second provocations to sin. Christ endured both kinds...
Christ’s life, passing through the lake, so to speak of earthly existence, is clearly defined. It is one bright, holy, spotless stream from beginning to end—a life without sin. The dark waters of temptation and sin pressed round Him; but such was the force of will and power of holiness by which He was characterised, that not a drop was permitted to mingle with the pure stream of His life. He passed through unsullied.
III. Christ’s power of sympathy used as an encouragement to seek the blessings provided for us. The writer notifies (1) the blessings we are urged to seek—"mercy and grace in every time of need." (2) The place whence they are dispensed—"the throne of grace."
(3) The spirit of confidence in which, in view of the assurance furnished to us of Christ’s power of sympathy, these blessings should be sought. The boldness is the confidence inspired by a living, all-absorbing conviction of the deep and yearning sympathy of Him who occupies the throne.
With such an assurance, surely any shrinking hesitancy to come and seek is unreasonable and sinful. The word rendered boldly here may, with equal propriety, be rendered joyfully. So, then, we are right to seek mercy and grace with joy. The Christian man should come with joy to draw the grace which is to quench his soul-consuming thirst, and sustain the Divine life quickened by the Divine mercy in his soul. A. J. Parry, Phases of Christian Truth, p. 233.
Hebrews 4:16: I. We have here the idea of majesty. God is seated upon a throne. His estate is royal. To Him belongs kingly authority. He is to be approached as a monarch, with reverence and worship. The royal majesty of Jehovah rests not only on His power, but still more on His perfection, especially His moral perfection.
II. We have here the idea of sovereignty. The sovereign occupant of a throne acts not of constraint, nor merely as limited by law or promise, nor always as his subjects may desire or request; but in proportion as he is a sovereign he acts according to his own conclusions as to what is wise, and right, and befitting. Absolute sovereignty cannot safely be trusted to a creature. But to God absolute sovereignty belongs. In coming to God, then, we must bear in mind that we are coming to a sovereign.
III. We have here the idea of wealth or abundance. Plenty beseems the royal estate. Wealth properly surrounds a throne. Riches and honour are the fit {the paraphernalia} of a crown. In this respect the throne of God has its due accompaniment. To Him belongs the wealth of the universe. His kingdom ruleth over all. It is the privilege of the believer to remember this when he approaches God in prayer.
IV. We have here the idea of liberality or bountifulness. Great wealth does not necessarily imply great beneficence. It is only where the possessor is of a kind and generous spirit that his wealth becomes a blessing to others. Now in this respect God commends Himself to our admiring and grateful confidence.
His generosity is as boundless as His wealth. Let us cultivate just views of God as at once a King and a Father—a King almighty and glorious, and a Father full of compassion and tenderness.” ~ W. Lindsay Alexander, Sermons, p. 287. References: Heb_4:16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1024; R. Glover, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 88; H. W. Beecher, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 143; Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 329. Heb_5:1, Heb_5:2.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 229.
There IS more to share with you on the subject of Spiritual Growth. God Willing I will bring that more with you same time and place next week. I invite you all who are hearing or reading these words to join me then.
This concludes this Evening’s Discussion, “Spiritual Growth, Part 18.”
This Discussion was presented “live” on May 24th, 2023.
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