Papers for Young Christians: No. 26: Restoration, Part 2

 •  5 min. read  •  grade level: 5
 
No. 27
RESTORATION
Part 2
God loves to have His people in His presence, that we might be there able to commune with Him. It is blessed to see the way the Lord comes in to remove the hindrance when anything intervenes to put us out of communion.
Sin is always the working of the will of the creature. If the will has wrought, sin has come into activity, communion with God is destroyed, and then there is distance.
The only way I can get back to God, if I have slipped away from Him, is by the application to my soul, in the power of the Holy Ghost, of the wonderful truth of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When it was a question of my sins being put away, or access to God, it was by blood. Then in the restoration of a saint, who has gone aside from the Lord, the striking thing met with again is the blood (Num. 19).
You must observe, the blood here is not for you. There can never be any re-application of the blood of Christ. The blood is sprinkled, not on the defiled person, but before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times (v. 4). It is to be under the eve of God. He ever remembers the value of the atoning death of His beloved Son.
Now, when you and I have taken our own way, and the conscience has been defiled, what is the way back? O, you say, I will go back as a poor sinner, and be washed again in the blood of Christ. You will never get back that way, for it is not God’s way; and not seeing this has kept many an erring child a long time out of restoring grace. How must you come back?
Beautiful words! The Advocate is Jesus; He restores me to the Father. If I have sinned and got away, I cannot come back to God as a sinner. I must come to the Father as a child, a naughty child it may be, but a child.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:99If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9).
You are thus practically purged, through confession to God. If there be anything burdening your soul, you must go and confess it. You will never be right till you have made a clean breast of it.
“God knows all about it,” you say. That is quite true, but you will never be right till you have confessed it to Him. Then comes the sense of what grace is, but you will never be right till you have told the Lord everything.
My friend, let me implore you, do not sleep till you have made a clean breast of it all to God. If you are going to be happy and useful, there must be no reserve. There have been no reserves on His side, let there be none on our side.
You may hear as much about the Lord’s grace, and the Lord’s love as you like, but there will never be anything in your soul of real restoration, till you and He get all alone and have it out together. May the Lord indeed make His love more and more precious to all our souls for His Name’s sake.
Christ’s way of meeting the soul is always perfect in tenderness and careful consideration. There is nothing lacking in it. There is nothing so blessed as the grace of Christ. And although we may have often grieved that grace, thank God the grace is there still.
“No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ the Church.” Eph. 5:2929For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: (Ephesians 5:29).
“Cultivate nearness to Christ.” Cultivate in your souls the sense that if you wander the least bit from His side, He misses you, and would fain have you back again.
Have you a treasure in the heavens? Perhaps you may say, “I have been trying to make Christ my treasure.” Did you ever find out that Christ has a priceless treasure here on earth? The moment you find out that He has a treasure on earth, and that you are that treasure, you will be able to say truly, He is my treasure in heaven. It is the reciprocity of love. You cannot help it.
As the sense of His love, and what He has suffered for you, comes before you, your heart will be fairly captured. Your heart, however, will never be fairly captured till you find that you are His treasure, and then that will make Him yours. There will be no effort.
If He is your treasure, would you not like to see Him? Surely, you reply. But when would you like the Lord to come? Tonight. Really now, would you? Are you ready, and watching for Him, ready to “open to Him immediately?” Are you looking up now, watching for Him, longing to welcome Him back?
“Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” Luke 12:3737Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. (Luke 12:37).
There is something deeper than the glory the love that brings us there. We are not yet in the glory, but we are in the love that will bring us there.
The Lord give us to know what it is to be in the abiding enjoyment of that love for His Name’s sake. Amen. (Concluded)