Satan’s first effort to destroy souls is with the “wayside” hearer (see Matt. 13). He catches away the Word of Life which may have been heard or read, and that before either the conscience or understanding is reached. In this way thousands are lulled to sleep and callous indifference.
His next effort is with the “stony place” hearer. In this case the Word is heard and received with joy. “Forthwith” sprung up the seed; but this very suddenness is Satan’s snare. It is rarely a good sign to find souls, without much trouble or exercise, instantly springing into joy, for be it remembered, that joy is not peace, for there may be the former where there is not the latter. Now, it is peace the sinner needs, and many a quickened one, too. The want of “root in himself” is the cause assigned in Scripture for this premature condition. There must be a thorough work done in the conscience ere peace can be had. Let the work be as speedy as you like, only let it be real and thorough. Now, peace with God is the knowledge that what I am, as well as what I have done, has been fully gone into, and righteously set aside; so that I can stand before God in Christ, blameless and undefiled. Thorough conscience work therefore is essential to peace with God. Joy may be founded on many things, without the question of sin being raised at all, the conscience searched, or the depths of one’s moral being reached.
Satan’s third effort is with the “thorn” hearer. Here the Word is heard, but choked, and unfruitfulness is the result. Satan is a perfect master in deluding and destroying souls. The poor are no more safe from his subtle wiles than the rich. With the one class he employs the gilt, glitter, and butterfly joys of the world, and alas; but too successfully, in neutralizing the power and effect of the “Word.” The Word is choked with riches. With the poor it is the “cares of life,” such as one’s family, business, daily toil, and so on. All, of course, right and proper in their place, but used by Satan as of last importance, whereas they are trivial matters compared to the great questions of the soul and eternity.
Now, all these attempts of Satan’s are, if possible, to prevent the conscience being plowed up by the sense of sin and its awful consequences; but should he be thwarted in this, he changes his tactics, and his subsequent efforts are directed to cloud the gospel, to dilute it—to dim and darken the mind of the seeking one; and this he endeavors to do by presenting an object to the soul of his own creation—anything, of course, save Christ and His finished work, the alone and sure resting-place of faith.
Christ alone is the object of faith. To Him the Holy Spirit points. To the inquiring and anxious, one unvarying testimony is ever rendered. It is to “look up”; not within, for Christ, faith’s object, is not there; not abroad, where all is distraction and confusion; but “up,” for the Christ who died and was buried, has been raised and taken to heaven. Yes, no one, save the Man Christ Jesus, reposing on the throne of God, is presented to the anxious inquirer. “Jesus only” is the utterance of the Holy Spirit, and the sum His, testimony to every seeker.
Now, one would suppose that nothing were easier or simpler of comprehension than this question of “believing,” or “looking.” But, so cunning is the arch-enemy of men, that he actually turns the simplest truth of Scripture into a positive hindrance and stumbling-block to souls. Many have been plunged into a perfect “slough of despond,” and for months, and even years, go on in deep perplexity and distress. I am quite satisfied that, in the majority of cases, it arises from not rightly understanding what faith is, and its relation to Christ. Let me give a simple illustration of this: I was lately visiting a young person supposed to be dying, and had no doubt whatever, from a little conversation, that the person had life, though not peace.
“Why have you not peace?” I said.
“Because I am so troubled.”
“What are you troubled about?” I inquired.
“Well, I don’t know whether I have faith or not, and if I have, whether it is the right kind—the faith of the head, or the faith of the heart.”
“And is this question of faith very much before your mind?”
“It is,” was the reply.
“Then I am not surprised that you lack peace, for your grand blunder is, that you are substituting faith, for its object, namely, Christ; now, the Holy Spirit does not witness to your faith, but to Christ and to His finished work. Who died for you?” I continued, “Christ, or faith—a principle, or a person? Where there is faith the soul sees only Him who bore its sins, and made peace with God. Faith looks at the gift, not at the hand stretched out to receive it. It is finely illustrated in the well-known wilderness scene referred to by Christ— ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life’ (John 3:14, 1514And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:14‑15)). The bitten and dying Israelite might have pondered long enough, both with his head and heart, and after all, the sure and certain result would have been death; but the moment he looked away from himself to God’s remedy—the brazen serpent—he lived. He got life in looking, but it was God’s remedy and object he looked at. Now, this is faith. Faith is looking off from self, from others, from all, to Jesus.”
No soul can have peace where faith assumes the prominence of a question before the mind; faith never thinks of itself, hence, when there is occupation with self (unless, indeed, to judge it), faith is not in exercise, and Christ is little thought of. All anxieties as to faith and such like questions, are proof that self is not done with, and, of course, until I am prepared to drop self, I am not sufficiently free to have Christ before me.
O, anxious one, look straight off from all below the sun, to Him who is above the sun! He is surely entitled to your heart’s confidence. Believe and live.