Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWorks of Arthur Pink: Pink, Arthur - Spiritual Growth: 04. Its Nature contd
TOPIC: Pink, Arthur - Spiritual Growth (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 04. Its Nature contd
Other Subjects in this Topic:
4. Its Nature cont'd
It is perfectly true that God is the Increaser as well as the Giver of faith, but it certainly does not follow from this that we have no responsibility in the matter. The littleness and weakness of my faith is entirely my own fault: due, not to God’s unwillingness to give me more, but to my sinful failure to use what He has already given me! to my not crying earnestly unto Him "Lord, increase our faith" (Luk_17:5), and to my woeful neglect in making a proper use of the means He has appointed for my obtaining an increase of it. When the disciples were filled with terror of the tempest and awoke their Master, crying "carest thou not that we perish" (Mar_4:38), He reproved them for their unbelief, saying "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?" (Mat_8:26): that was far from inculcating the deadly delusion that they had no responsibility concerning the measure and strength of their faith! On another occasion He said to His disciples "O fools and slow of heart to believe" (Luk_24:25), which plainly signified that they were to blame for their lack of faith and were to be admonished for their unbelief.
If I have surrendered myself to the Lordship of Christ and trusted in Him as an all-sufficient Saviour, then Christ is mine, and I may know He is mine upon the infallible authority of God’s Word. Since Christ is mine, then it is both my privilege and duty to obtain an increasing knowledge of and acquaintance with Him through the Scriptures. It is my privilege and duty to "trust in him at all times" (Psa_62:8), to make known to Him my every need and to count upon Him to graciously supply the same. It is my privilege and duty to make full use of Christ, to live upon Him, to draw from His fulness (Joh_1:16), to freely avail myself of His sufficiency to meet my every want. It is my privilege and duty to store up His precepts and promises in my memory that the one may direct my conduct and the other support my soul. It is the office of faith to obtain from Him strength for the former and comfort from the latter, expecting Him to make good His word "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Mat_7:7). It is my privilege and duty to "mix faith" (Heb_4:2) with every recorded sentence that fell from his sacred lips, and according as I do so shall I be "nourished up" (1Ti_4:6)—my faith will be fed, thrive, and become stronger.
But on the other hand, if I walk by sight, if I constantly take my eyes off their proper Object, and am all the time looking within at my corruptions, I shall go backward and not forward. If I am more concerned about my inward comforts than I am about by outward walk in the pleasing of Christ, in earnestly seeking to follow the example He has left me, then the Holy Spirit will be grieved and will cease taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto me. If I form the habit of attempting to view the promises of God through the darkened and thick lens of my difficulties, instead of looking at my difficulties in the light of God’s promises then defeat rather than victory will inevitably follow. If I turn my eyes from my all-sufficient Saviour and am occupied with the winds and waves of my circumstances, then like Peter of old I shall begin to sink. If I do not make it my daily and diligent business to resist the workings of unbelief in my heart and cry out to Christ for strength to enable me to do so, then faith will surely suffer an eclipse, and the fault will be entirely my own. If I neglect feeding upon "the words of faith and good doctrine" (1Ti_4:6), then my faith, will necessarily be weak and languishing.
We say again that the Christian life is a life of faith, and just so far as the believer is not actuated by this spiritual principle does he fail at the most vital point. But let it be said very emphatically that a life of faith is not the mystical and nebulous thing which far too many imagine, but an intensely practical one. Nor is it the monopoly of men like George Muller and those who go forth to preach the gospel in foreign lands without any guaranteed salary or belonging to any human organization, trusting God alone for the supply of their every need; rather is it the birthright and privilege of every child of God. Nor is it a life made up of ecstasies and rapturous experiences, lived up in the clouds: no, it is to be worked out on the common level of everyday life. The man or woman whose conduct is regulated by the Divine precepts and whose heart is sustained by the Divine promises, who performs his or her ordinary duties as unto the Lord, looking to Him for wisdom, strength and patience for the discharge thereof, and who counts upon His blessing on the same, is hiving a life of faith as truly as the most zealous and self-sacrificing preacher.
It is true we must be on our guard against unwarrantably exalting the means and making them a substitute for the Lord Himself. The doctrine, the precepts and the promises of Scripture are so many windows through which we are to behold God. It is our privilege and duty to look to Him for His blessing upon the means, and since He has appointed the same to count upon Him sanctifying them to us, expecting Him to make them effectual. But we must conclude our remarks upon this point by mentioning some of the evidences of a deepening and increasing faith. It is a proof of a stronger and larger faith: when the soul is more established in the truth; when there is a steadier confidence in God; when we make greater use of the promises; when we are less influenced and affected by what other professing Christians believe, resting our souls alone on a "thus saith the Lord" (1Co_2:5); when we live more out of ourselves and more upon Christ; when many of His unregenerate disciples are turning away from Christ and He says "Will ye also go away?" and we can answer "to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life" (Joh_6:66-69); when we have become more conscientious and diligent in the performing of our duties, for faith is shown by its works (Jas_2:8).
5. Spiritual growth consists of advancing in personal piety. This matter would be sadly incomplete if we omitted all reference to progress in practical godliness. As various aspects of this will come before us under the next branch of our subject, there is the less need now to enter into much detail. As the Christian obtains an enlarged spiritual apprehension of God’s perfections, not only is his heart increasingly affected by His wondrous goodness and grace, but he is more and more awed by His high sovereignty and ineffable holiness, so that he has a deeper reverence for Him and His fear a larger sphere in his heart, ever exerting a more potent influence in his approaches to Him and on his deportment and conduct. In like manner, as the Christian becomes better acquainted with the person, offices, and work of Christ, he obtains not only a fuller realization of how much he owes to Him and what he has in Him, but he is made more and more conscious of what is due unto Him and what becomes one who is a follower of the Lord of glory. The better he realizes that he is "not his own, but bought with a price," the more will he resolve and endeavor to glorify God in Christ "in his body and in his spirit" (1Co_6:19-20). longing more ardently for the time when he will be able to do so without let or hindrance.
If I have surrendered myself to the Lordship of Christ and trusted in Him as an all-sufficient Saviour, then Christ is mine, and I may know He is mine upon the infallible authority of God’s Word. Since Christ is mine, then it is both my privilege and duty to obtain an increasing knowledge of and acquaintance with Him through the Scriptures. It is my privilege and duty to "trust in him at all times" (Psa_62:8), to make known to Him my every need and to count upon Him to graciously supply the same. It is my privilege and duty to make full use of Christ, to live upon Him, to draw from His fulness (Joh_1:16), to freely avail myself of His sufficiency to meet my every want. It is my privilege and duty to store up His precepts and promises in my memory that the one may direct my conduct and the other support my soul. It is the office of faith to obtain from Him strength for the former and comfort from the latter, expecting Him to make good His word "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Mat_7:7). It is my privilege and duty to "mix faith" (Heb_4:2) with every recorded sentence that fell from his sacred lips, and according as I do so shall I be "nourished up" (1Ti_4:6)—my faith will be fed, thrive, and become stronger.
But on the other hand, if I walk by sight, if I constantly take my eyes off their proper Object, and am all the time looking within at my corruptions, I shall go backward and not forward. If I am more concerned about my inward comforts than I am about by outward walk in the pleasing of Christ, in earnestly seeking to follow the example He has left me, then the Holy Spirit will be grieved and will cease taking of the things of Christ and showing them unto me. If I form the habit of attempting to view the promises of God through the darkened and thick lens of my difficulties, instead of looking at my difficulties in the light of God’s promises then defeat rather than victory will inevitably follow. If I turn my eyes from my all-sufficient Saviour and am occupied with the winds and waves of my circumstances, then like Peter of old I shall begin to sink. If I do not make it my daily and diligent business to resist the workings of unbelief in my heart and cry out to Christ for strength to enable me to do so, then faith will surely suffer an eclipse, and the fault will be entirely my own. If I neglect feeding upon "the words of faith and good doctrine" (1Ti_4:6), then my faith, will necessarily be weak and languishing.
We say again that the Christian life is a life of faith, and just so far as the believer is not actuated by this spiritual principle does he fail at the most vital point. But let it be said very emphatically that a life of faith is not the mystical and nebulous thing which far too many imagine, but an intensely practical one. Nor is it the monopoly of men like George Muller and those who go forth to preach the gospel in foreign lands without any guaranteed salary or belonging to any human organization, trusting God alone for the supply of their every need; rather is it the birthright and privilege of every child of God. Nor is it a life made up of ecstasies and rapturous experiences, lived up in the clouds: no, it is to be worked out on the common level of everyday life. The man or woman whose conduct is regulated by the Divine precepts and whose heart is sustained by the Divine promises, who performs his or her ordinary duties as unto the Lord, looking to Him for wisdom, strength and patience for the discharge thereof, and who counts upon His blessing on the same, is hiving a life of faith as truly as the most zealous and self-sacrificing preacher.
It is true we must be on our guard against unwarrantably exalting the means and making them a substitute for the Lord Himself. The doctrine, the precepts and the promises of Scripture are so many windows through which we are to behold God. It is our privilege and duty to look to Him for His blessing upon the means, and since He has appointed the same to count upon Him sanctifying them to us, expecting Him to make them effectual. But we must conclude our remarks upon this point by mentioning some of the evidences of a deepening and increasing faith. It is a proof of a stronger and larger faith: when the soul is more established in the truth; when there is a steadier confidence in God; when we make greater use of the promises; when we are less influenced and affected by what other professing Christians believe, resting our souls alone on a "thus saith the Lord" (1Co_2:5); when we live more out of ourselves and more upon Christ; when many of His unregenerate disciples are turning away from Christ and He says "Will ye also go away?" and we can answer "to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life" (Joh_6:66-69); when we have become more conscientious and diligent in the performing of our duties, for faith is shown by its works (Jas_2:8).
5. Spiritual growth consists of advancing in personal piety. This matter would be sadly incomplete if we omitted all reference to progress in practical godliness. As various aspects of this will come before us under the next branch of our subject, there is the less need now to enter into much detail. As the Christian obtains an enlarged spiritual apprehension of God’s perfections, not only is his heart increasingly affected by His wondrous goodness and grace, but he is more and more awed by His high sovereignty and ineffable holiness, so that he has a deeper reverence for Him and His fear a larger sphere in his heart, ever exerting a more potent influence in his approaches to Him and on his deportment and conduct. In like manner, as the Christian becomes better acquainted with the person, offices, and work of Christ, he obtains not only a fuller realization of how much he owes to Him and what he has in Him, but he is made more and more conscious of what is due unto Him and what becomes one who is a follower of the Lord of glory. The better he realizes that he is "not his own, but bought with a price," the more will he resolve and endeavor to glorify God in Christ "in his body and in his spirit" (1Co_6:19-20). longing more ardently for the time when he will be able to do so without let or hindrance.