May, 1942
THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE SS
167
tion? It .is like unto children . . (Matt.'11:16), No word could better describe this generation than “childish.” Ameri cans pride themselves on their clev erness, but of all the fretful, petulant, peevish, hard-to-please generations, this one takes the prize. They were childish in Jesus’ day. They did not like John the Baptist* Who came fasting nor Jesus who came feasting. We encounter the same spirit today evpn among Bible Christians who have heard all kinds of preachers and end up discussing the relative merits of their favorite Pauls, Apolloses, and Cephases. The American people have b e e n enter tained for so long that they expect it from the pulpit, and even Bible meet ings can become glorified Chautau- quas and religious shows. One reason that there are so few real Christians among us is that we have become accustomed to being ministered unto and we find it hard to humble our selves and minister. It is not easy for the childish to become childlike! And how this childishness shows up even among the saints! It reveals itself in the spirit of Diotrephes who could work only at the top; in bellig erent souls whose speech is seasoned with vinegar instead of salt; in a soul with the martyr complex who, like Elijah under the juniper, im agines he is the Vanishing Saint; in porcupine Christians, who have lots of good points but you can’t get near them; in professional come-outers and veteran resigners, incurably anti minded, who never seem to realize that the contents of the bottle are not improved by changing labels. The only cure for all these distressed and distressing individuals is a genuine change from childishness to child- likeness. So, in our text, we come to the CHILDLIKE. Here is life’s true second childhood, the. childhood of the spirit. Ponce de Leon sought for a fountain of youth, and in Florida I drank from a so-called fountain of youth but came away none the younger. God can say again today, “My people . . , have forsaken me the fountain of liv ing waters, and hewed them out cis terns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13). Men have sought rejuvenation in fads and isms, tricks Of the subconscious, and the cure-alls of psychology. We have tried to make time turn backward in its flight and have sought the schoolgirl complex ion and the schoolboy heart. But in Christ Jesus alone is found the secret of eternal youth. Whoso ever lives and believes in Him shall never die, and as we live in Him, though the outer man perish, the in ner man is renewed from day to day. It is a life that is beautifully simple
and simply beautiful. And it is summed up in our text in conversion and childlikeness. Consider the sim plicity of it. The Simplicity of Conversion f Look first at the simplicity of con version. This is the human side, our side, o f regeneration. We are all God’s children in the sense that He has created us all. But if we are ever to enter the second childhood and the eternal youth gf the Spirit, We must be born again, born f r o m a b o v e through faith in Christ by the opera tion of the Holy Spirit, that we might become partakers of the divine na ture. That gives us eternal life, eter nal in duration because eternal in na ture, the very life of God Himself. . YoU see, this childlikeness requires a new nature capable of it. The Ghi- nese say, “You cannot carve rotten wood”-; and you cannot develop from corrupt human nature what our Lord had in mind in this text. There are attractive imitations of childlike faith and character on the market, but while they have whiteness, they do not have light; being born only of the flesh, tliey are still flesh. Yet how simple is Christian con version! There is plenty of mystery there. Nicodemus asked, “How can these things be?” (John 3:9). On God’s part it is sublime, but on our part it is simple. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should riot perish, but have eternal life.” It is a matter of turning from sin to the Saviour, receiving Him into the heart, depending on Him for sal vation. Then, after we Come in con version, we become as little children. The inborri new nature must be cul tivated and exercised, and we grow spiritually as we grow naturally by
food, rest, and exercise: the food of the Word of God, resting in the Lord, and exercise in Christian service. And what are these Characteristics of the childlike Christian? Not per fection, of course! A child is not per fect. But while a Christian is not faultless, he may be blameless. A child’s letter to his mother may not be faultless, but if that child wrote as best he could» he is blameless. One may get a perfect report in the third grade at school, but that same degree of achievement would not do for the fourth grade. We may live in the will of God up to the light we have, but there is always more .to learn. *A Life of Trust One mark of; the childlike Chris tian is simplicity of trust. Sometimes we misapply the word “ simple faith.” A certain grown-up Christian boasted that he still < prayed,:“Now I lay me down to sleep.” Now that is a good prayer for a child, but a grown-up Christian should have advanced to better praying than that. If you were to tell this individual that he had the mind of a child, he would be in sulted. If he had. the body of a child he would be a monstrosity. But he seemqd proud over having the spir itual development of only a child! A condition like that is not child likeness but childishness. Like the little boy who fell out of bed, he went to sleep too near the getting-in place. But there is a childlike confidence in the Father’s care. The Old Testa ment puts it, "Trust in the Lord, and do good” (Psa, 37:3). The New Testa ment states it thus: “Take no thought for your life, what ye Shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on . . . for your heavenly Father knoweth that [ Continued, on Page 174]
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