And he went a little farther . . . (Matt. .26 :39).
It seems to me, beloved, with the beginning of the New Year, God is stretching out a banner before our eyes and writing across it, in glowing letters:
Farther on, still go farther;
Count the milestones one by one;
Jesus will forsake you never;
It is better farther on.
“A little farther.” “Speak unto the people that they go forward.” Oh, let the call inspire our hearts. Let us hear the Master saying to us “It is high time to awake out of sleep. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Let me speak to you, dear friends, in a very simple way about this holy watchword that God is speaking to our hearts: A little farther.
Let this be a better year than the old year. Let its watchword be higher ground, farther on. We thank God for what the old year has brought us, but it is not enough. “Forgetting the things that are behind, let us reach forth unto those things that are before.” It is so easy to get into drifts, to get into ruts, and we grow apathetic, and we dislike to be disturbed just as much as we dislike being disturbed in the morning when the alarm bell rings, and it would be a perfect luxury to take another hour’s sleep, and there is many a stretch before you are awake. It is so easy to lie and slumber and fold your arms a little longer. It is so easy to be self-satisfied and just drift along in the old trend and in the old ruts. God wants us to know life is full of crises, full of epochs, full of breaks, full of new departures, and that He is saying, you have stayed long enough at this mount. Speak unto the people that they go forward. Arouse yourselves! Wake up! Stretch your limbs and open your eyes! Look around you and perhaps you will find all heaven is in the air, that the King is at the door, and it is high time to awake out of sleep.
It means that we must be willing to be shown our failures, the things that are not right. The very root and secret of progress is conviction, repentance, and self-searching. The reason we are satisfied is because we think we are alright. We need to have God’s white light shine in, and it will not shine unless we are willing. God will not force His revelations upon us. We must come to Him as the prophet Habakkuk came. “I will stand on my watch tower and listen what he will say unto me, and what I will answer when I am reproved.” Shall we be willing to let God reprove us, to search our hearts, to try our reins, the things back of our conduct, the roots of life, the motives, hidden sources of purpose and action, and see if there be any wicked way in us, any way of pain that hurts when God speaks, that hurts when God pushes forward and lead us in the way everlasting? Shall we, beloved, just let Him show us ourselves because He does it tenderly with the blood of cleansing, with the light of direction? He will enable us to rise above it, put our feet on the failure, and be the stronger and the better for it. Shall we let God speak to us and not be discouraged when any sin appears in the light of His holy, heart-searching presence? Shall we ask Him to show us the failure and be willing to see it, for out of this comes every forward advance?
There may be some honestly trying to fight the battle of life without the Lord Jesus, trying to be good men and women, or, at least, better men and women by the strength of resolution, trying to cleanse and fix up their own heart and lives. If you can do that much without Him, you can do the rest without Him, and you do not need Him at all. You need Him for the start. You need Him for the preparation. You need Him as the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega. He has provided everything for that better life. Oh, will you turn from your good works and your hard works, and take the Lord Jesus Christ for the whole of this year? It will cost Him nothing! He has already suffered for you whether you let Him save you or not. He went down into the judgment for your sins, and He bore them; and if you bear them, they will be twice borne. He has already redeemed you and atoned for your wrongdoing, and He just wants you to accept Him. The only reward He asks is that it shall not be in vain. If you are trying to fight the fight of life without the great Deliverer, come to Him. Take Him as your Saviour, and your Strength, and your Righteousness, and your Friend, and the Captain of your salvation. From that moment you are in a new world. “Only a step to Jesus; Then why not take it now?”
Some of you have taken that step, but you have become stalled; you are not going farther. He wants you to go a little farther. He wants to come into your heart and do as much there as He did when He pardoned your sins. He wants to take the evil out of you and put Himself there instead and be so real to you that you will think as He thinks, feel as He feels, and want to do as He did. He wants to be your Sanctifier. That word perhaps has frightened you. It seems a big theological scarecrow. It just means to have Jesus lead you moment by moment into victory over everything that is too hard for you. Beloved, it is for you. Just one step will bring you into it all. The Holy Spirit will come to you and you will be conscious that there is an infinite power in your life and that that sweet promise is true for you, “I will put my spirit within you, and I will cause you to keep my statutes, and ye shall keep my commandments and do them.” It is so delightfully simple, and yet so gloriously full and free! Will you not go a little farther? You that have been saved, will you not let Him save you to the uttermost?
Oh, beloved, this tremendous thing that Christ has brought us, eternal life, calls for something on our part that shows we think it worthwhile. It means response of all the strength of our being. Can we take all that from Him and give Him nothing in return?
And shall there be no cross for me
In all this life of mine?
Shall mine be all a path of flowers,
And all the thorns be Thine?
Oh, Lamb, of God, whose feet have trod
The blood-stained way for me,
Help me to take my cross and go
With Thee to Calvary.
Excerpted from A. B. Simpson’s “A Little Farther,” The Alliance Weekly, January 16, 1915