Indecision is a great hindrance in the Christian path. As long as a man does not consider responsibilities of the question before God, Am I for this world or for that? Satan will amuse him with something or other here, while the Spirit of God alone will satisfy him if he desires to go on in faith.
No doubt all Christians say, "Christ for my sins"; but you cannot say you have Christ for the path, apart from the ministry of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, I do not doubt, has come down not only to conduct the bride, the Church, across the desert to Christ, but also to satisfy and fill her heart all along that path. This is foreshadowed for us in Gen. 24, where we see that the servant comes into Mesopotamia to guide Rebekah through the desert to Isaac. But an important question has to be answered before there can be any start along the path, and it is this that I will consider a little.
Evidently Rebekah might have got a very clear understanding of the grace that had chosen her, and might have spoken of it too, without taking the path which led her on to him whose heart she was called to know, and whose wealth she was called to share. She might have said to any acquaintance, "Have you heard about it? I am the recipient of wonderful tidings from Canaan. Isaac is the heir to all Abraham's wealth, and I am selected to be his bride." All this she might have said without showing by her actions in everyday life that (as much as in her lay) she was making this news her own in practical reality. It cannot, I think, be disputed that a soul might say, "I belong to Christ, and some day I am going to heaven," and yet not be taking daily steps in that direction, as seen in their life here. There would be little proof in some that Christ and heaven are the objects of their daily course, had we not the assurance that it is so from their own lips!
Lips without life will not suit Abraham's servant, nor will it suit the Holy Spirit. He is here with one definite object, and whether that object is accomplished in you and in me or not, He will not tarry here. He will commence His journey at once, for He must return to His Master. He is here in grace, in the world as it is, but not to sanction it, and surely not to rest in it. No, neither of these; but He is here to lead out of it.
The crucial question is the one that was asked when, in solemn conclave, Rebekah was assembled together with her relatives, in the presence of this Canaanite stranger. This is the question then for each of us to face today. It cannot be avoided by anyone calling himself a Christian. "Wilt thou go with this man?" Will you begin your journey this day in the company of the Spirit of God? Remember, you must be chosen first, and know it, and then the journey only begins if we have affirmatively answered this question. There are many souls around us who will doubtless spend their future eternity with the Lord, who are not spending their present time in the enjoyment of the communion of the Holy Ghost. They are undecided about this question.
"Peradventure," says the servant, when on the eve of undertaking his all-important mission, "the woman will not be willing to follow me"! O my reader, is this your case?
It is, I doubt not, the case of thousands of people who will be in heaven. I do not say that they are not converted. It is no question of their conversion. No; but they will not "go with" the ministry and leading of the Holy Spirit, and will not allow the home of Mesopotamia with its attractions to give place to the desert sands and those untrodden paths, known only to the Canaanite stranger, the Spirit of God! To be under the guidance of the Spirit, and no other, is manifestly to have begun the journey.
O my reader, has this solemn meeting of which I speak ever been held in the history of your soul? You are a Christian, and you know well where and what the terminus of that is. But it is not of the terminus that we speak at this time. What is the thesis—the question? It is of the company or path that leads to the terminus. Better this meeting should be held at once. Let us weigh all that can be said. Call in your business, your friends, your prospects, your pleasures—all that you have ever counted on and lived for in this world. Let us hear what each has to plead, in order that you should not undertake this journey. Then let us hear what the heavenly Stranger has to say to us about Him whose Messenger He is, so that this question being fairly argued out, your soul may go forth from this moment, and from this solemn meeting, unshackled and unimpeded, to commence its heavenward journey in the company of the Spirit of God!
Now note that His business is urgent. You cannot afford to say, Well, I will think about this matter; I require a little time for consideration. You surely want rest here on earth - rest of soul, and this question decided; in the company and by the means of the ministry of the Spirit, you shall get it. Do not be content to say, There is rest only in heaven. Christ spoke of our finding rest on earth. He says, "Take My yoke upon you,... and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Many a one finds true rest in heaven, w h o nevertheless had no rest on earth, because of not going with this Man (v. 58).
"I will go." This is the only right answer from the chosen bride. Remember the Lord says, "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you." We are chosen by Him. Have we one and all responded (the matter being fairly argued out), "I will go"? We are all poor failing beings, but in all honesty of purpose are we going "with this man"? Are our hearts set only upon this? And if they are, then all along our course in this world we shall find for our comfort that this reply will come up again and again. Amid the responsibilities of the household, as well as in the assembly, the house of God, "I will go" will meet every difficulty which arises. I have His company through the waste, and He has only one Object to speak to me of—the One to whom I belong, and for whom He will of necessity care for me, all along the desert path. I am to share and know all that is the portion of the only Son.
What are all your surroundings worth, my reader, that there should be with you, or indeed with any of us, one moment's hesitation about going "with this man"? We hear the question, "Wilt thou go?" It is good to weigh the value of things in the light that God casts upon them. Are you distressed in spirit, cast about, as it were, by the tumultuous sea of this world? Ah! Why is it? Have you honestly faced the question which I have here feebly tried to put before you? and have you answered it? To be really happy you must be consciously in the company of Him of whom Abraham's servant was only a type; and it is only therein that you will be happy. He who wants both heaven and earth, enjoys neither the one nor the other.
"I will go." May this language be truly the utterance of all our hearts. We shall not then need to tell people that we are going to heaven. They will see it. As these desert days come and go one after the other, there will always be a full supply for each, and no looking back. Farther each day from Mesopotamia. But you must make a beginning. It is not conversion, as I have said. Do not be content to think that if you are converted you have said, "I will go."
It is a great mistake. But if you have said it once, you will by grace be continually saying it. I go forth today, a day that I have never lived in this desert before, a day the intricacies of which I have no knowledge at all; but by grace "I will go" with this man, and He will suffice me (see John 4:14; 7:3814But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14)
38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)). The Spirit is leading the bride through the desert to Christ. Will He allow her to famish? No, He will not.