Ceredo Advance

The Wilderness Discipline
Why It Is Necessary and the Blessings That Are to Be Found There.

By the Highway and Byway Preacher.

Chicago, Sunday, Jan. 3, 1904.

Text:--"To-morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea."--Numbers 14:25.

Back to the wilderness instead of on into the Promised Land! Discipline, instead of blessing! Failure, instead of victory! Suffering and privation, instead of comfort and plenty! Sorrow, instead of joy! Weariness of the journey, instead of rest and peace of home! Doubtings and fears, instead of confidence and hope!

This was the penalty which fell upon Israel because of unbelief and rebellion. To-day they might have gone over into the Promised Land: to-morrow they must turn back into the wilderness. To-day the door of opportunity stands open before them; to-morrow it is shut and barred against them. To-day that which they left Egypt to obtain is within their grasp: to-morrow that hope has gone far down into the future.

Unbelief and rebellion could rob the children of Israel of the blessing of God, and unbelief and rebellion can rob the children of God to-day. And not only do they rob of blessing, but they delay the realization of the plans and purposes of God. Unbelief and the rebellion resulting therefrom pay the penalty of the wilderness journey. It is weary discipline, the way seems long and hard, but by and by, when the discipline is complete, the Lord leads out to the border of the Promised Land again. In Israel we find portrayed the experience of very many of God's children. They are faithfully led by God to the border of a land of great opportunities and possibilities. It is the will and purpose of God that they should go up and possess the land. God says: "Go forward." But the walled cities look so impregnable and the giants so mighty and terrible that the heart grows faint. Unbelief takes possession and urges flight back to the Egypt of former bondage. Self is chosen captain instead of God, and while rebellion is keeping the stubborn feet from going on into the Promised Land, the opportunity is lost, and the command of God is then heard: "To-morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness."

Then it is folly to attempt to rush on into the Promised Land. Disaster lies ahead; safety can only be found with God in the wilderness behind. Let us seek to learn with patience the lessons God would there teach us.

The purpose of this discipline was punishment, purification and preparation. And these are the reasons why God to-day drives His children back into the wilderness. Their sin of unbelief and rebellion must be punished. The dross of unholy desires and purposes must be burned out of their lives even as the gold is purified in the fire, and they must be prepared anew for entrance into the land of promise. Punishment for wrong doing is necessary and wholesome. It is a wise and loving parent who punishes his child for the evil deed. Many a child is ruined for time and eternity because the foolish, misguided parent believes that indulgence and the excusing and overlooking of sin is love. So was it with the sons of the Prophet Eli, a really godly man but a weak and indulgent father. See the awful fruitage of his lack of discipline through punishment. Behold David in anguish of spirit mourning over his son Absalom. How could such a godly man have such a wayward son? Why was it that Amnon and Adonijah, two others of his sons, wrought so disgracefully? Go back to the childhood and youth of these men. Indulgence instead of discipline. David a truly great and strong man when ruling a nation, but an indulgent and weak father. It was not love, real love, which withheld punishment. "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." And delay not the punishment, but "chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." Wrong doing must be punished. Love finds expression in punishment of evil. And so God punishes because He loves. The children of Israel must be punished for their unbelief and rebellion. God's children to-day must be punished for sin. But "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

Punishment is part of the wilderness discipline.

PURIFICATION was another purpose of the wilderness discipline. Israel must needs be purified from the element of unbelief before they could enter the land of promise. During those forty years of wandering one by one those who in unbelief and rebellion had thwarted the purpose of God perished in the wilderness. Not one unbelieving heart could possess the land. It is so with the child of God to-day. The wilderness experience comes that the heart and life may be freed from those things which thwart God's purposes and plans. One by one the fruits of unbelief and self-will must be plucked off and perish in the wilderness until the soul is free from all that hindered the entering into the Promised Land at the first. Purification is necessary. In our blindness and hardness of heart we may not realize it. The children of Israel did not realize it. The next day after their rebellion when they awoke to the fact that they had made a grievous mistake in not going forward in faith and obedience, they wanted to rush ahead. But it was too late! The opportunity was gone! The nation must now be purged before it could enter the land. But the people did not realize it. "They rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying: Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned." And despite all that Moses could do they persisted, and great numbers fell before the swords of the enemy.

And in similar manner to-day God's children often act. Conscious at last that sin has hindered a forward move for God; but not realizing that purification is necessary before they can go forward, they rush blindly ahead and meet with disaster and defeat. If the Lord is found now it must be in the wilderness of discipline where He commands His children to go. Back to the wilderness where you may be purified and prepared for the next opportunity of entering the promised land of service! Every night and every day of those long forty years in the wilderness were needed for the preparation of the children of Israel for entrance into the promised land. Every mile of the journey had its purpose. Every experience had its lesson which would prepare and fit for the entering into the land. And so it is with the Christian to-day. The wilderness disciplines may be long and hard and grievous, but it is all blessed preparation for the work and service lying just ahead. Refusal to turn back to the wilderness at God's command means unpreparedness which brings defeat. The wilderness discipline means preparation so that the Jerichos shall fall before our onward march and the hosts of the enemy shall flee in terror.

It was sad indeed to see Israel refusing to enter the blessed land of promise and being turned back into the wilderness, but after all the wilderness became a blessedly helpful place because the Lord was there.

THE wilderness with the Lord was better than the Promised Land without the Lord. The simple diet of manna which God gave was sweeter and more wholesome than all the milk and honey and fatness of Canaan without the Lord's blessing. The journey with the Lord through the wilderness was far better than to dwell in ease and comfort in a land apart from God. The Lord in the wilderness! Think of what that means! I may not be proud because of the sad necessity which brought me there, but being there, how glad I am that the Lord is there with me. Are you in the wilderness, dear brother, dear sister? Are you rebellious? Have you shut your heart against God under His discipline? In the wilderness many, many rebellious souls perished because they would not see God. The Lord was there, but they would not believe it. In your wilderness experience are you shutting your eyes to the Lord Who has been forced to lead you there for your good? Are you refusing to believe that He is with you in the suffering, the trial, the weariness, the hardship, the danger? Then remember the children of Israel. See how God made the wilderness a blessing to them. Because His children fail Him God does not banish them to the wilderness alone. No, blessed be His mercy and love and great faithfulness! He goes into exile with us. He, too, turns His back on the land flowing with milk and honey and abides with us in the wilderness until we are again ready to enter the land. The Lord in the wilderness with us means that the punishment will be no more severe or long than is for our good, it means that the miserable dross of unbelief and rebellion which barred the pathway to the Promised Land will be purged away, and that we shall be fitted anew for the opportunity of entering when the door shall again swing open.

BUT perhaps, like Caleb and Joshua and Moses, you are in the wilderness not because of your own failure, or unbelief, or rebellion. You are the innocent sufferer for others' wrong doing. Does it not seem hard that these three great men of faith and obedience should have had to suffer so? It may seem hard and unreasonable to you to have to suffer because of what others have done, but Moses and Caleb and Joshua were needed in the wilderness, and so, too, there may be a mission for you in the wilderness. There are two reasons, I believe, why these three men were glad to go back into the wilderness: First of all, because the Lord led the way and was to be found only in that place, and second, because it was the place where they were needed most. Think you that these three faithful servants of God were idle during those forty years of wandering? They had to encourage and help and strengthen the people all about them who had not so much faith as they had, who had not the patience which they possessed, who had not the courage and perseverance with which they were endowed. And you, dear Christian, may be in the wilderness with weaker Christians all about you with a similar mission to perform. The plan of God is larger than any two or three Christians. For Moses and Caleb and Joshua to have gone into the Promised Land would not have fulfilled the promises and purposes of God. These included Israel as a nation, and Moses and his two faithful compatriots must remain with Israel and wait until the nation was ready to move forward and take possession of the Promised Land. And does not this explain why so many times the child of God is shut up in the wilderness? He must wait until the large plan of God which includes all of God's children can be realized. And as he waits he has a ministry to perform in behalf of the weaker brother. It is blessed for even the Calebs and the Joshuas in the wilderness, for the Lord is there.

THE wilderness discipline delays but cannot thwart the plans and purposes of God. God forgive us as Christians because we so often by our conduct, by our lack of faith, by our willfulness, by our disobedience, delay the working out of God's plans. The devil is responsible for a good deal in this world. He never lets a chance slip to hinder and prevent the will of God being done in the hearts of men. But the slow progress of the Gospel in the world is not due wholly to his activity. The Kingdom of Christ suffereth violence at the hands of its friends. Christians hinder the Gospel. They delay the purposes and plans of God. I say, it is sad, indeed, that such is the case, and our hearts ought to breathe the prayer: "God forgive us! and help us to cease such conduct." But it is a blessed thought, and full of encouragement that we cannot thwart God's plans. We may fail God. We may even be so persistent in our rebellion that He will have to set us aside as He did Saul and choose a man after His own heart through whom to fulfill His purposes, but, blessed be God! not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the purposes or plans of God until all are fulfilled.

Forty years in the wilderness!--a long delay. They might have been better spent in clearing the land of the enemies of God and cleansing it from the foulness and filth of idol worship. But after all they were only years of delay. The Lord was victorious in the end through His people. They went in and possessed the land as God said they should. An entire nation in rebellion, except the two faith-inspired spies, was not sufficient to nullify those promises, or shorten the mighty arm of God. What God had promised came to pass, even though it took forty years longer to do it, and the loss of every unbelieving and rebellious heart. God cannot be thwarted in the glorious unfolding of His plans. The wilderness discipline marks delay but not defeat.

GOD has mighty and glorious purposes to fulfill through His children to-day. Not all the powers of hell, or the faithlessness of Christians, can defeat those purposes. Ah, the promised land of realization of the infinite purposes and plans of God always lies just ahead. Are we as Christians, or is the church of Jesus Christ, as made up of the true believers everywhere, wandering about through the wilderness of discipline? Has delay come? Then look not in discouragement and doubt upon the dreary wastes about you. Think not of the weary way and the uncertain path before you, but lift up your eyes until they rest upon the unfailing promises of God as they fill the distant horizon with their glorious light and mark the boundaries of that land of promise into which God will lead when the discipline of the wilderness is ended. Has God said: "Turn you, and get you into the wilderness." Ere long He will say to you: "Go forward."

The glorious Gospel of Christ shall triumph. God declared on the occasion when Israel failed Him and He had to turn them back into the wilderness in disgrace: "But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord."

The full realization of that promise is yet in the future. "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." "In the dispensation of the fullness of time (can you fathom all that means?) --in the dispensation of the fullness of time, He shall gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are on earth: even in Him." What glorious hope! When you get into the wilderness of discipline keep your eye on the cloudy pillar of God's presence, and wait patiently. Has God turned you back into the wilderness? Do not forget that some day: "Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Does his successive journeys run: His Kingdom stretch from shore to shore Tiil moons shall wax and wane no more."