J.C. Ryle: Spiritual Thirst (Part 1 of 2)

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (John 7:37-38)

"Bodily thirst is notoriously the most painful sensation to which the frame of mortal man is liable.  Read the story of the miserable sufferer in the black hole at Calcutta.  Ask anyone who has traveled over desert plains under a tropical sun.  Hear what any old soldier will tell you is the chief want of the wounded on a battlefield.  Remember what the crews of ships lost in mid-ocean, tossed for days in boats without water, go through.  Mark the dreadful words of the rich man in the parable, 'Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame' (Luke 16:24).  The testimony is unvarying.  There is nothing so terrible and hard to bear as thirst.

"But if bodily thirst is so painful, how much more painful is thirst of soul?  Physical suffering is not the worst part of eternal punishment.  It is a light thing, even in this world, compared to the suffering of the  mind and inward man.  To see the value of our souls and find out they are in danger of eternal ruin; to feel the burden of unforgiven sin and not to know where to turn for relief; to have a conscience sick and ill at ease and to be ignorant of the remedy; to discover that we are dying, dying daily, and yet unprepared to meet God; to have some clear view of our own guilt and wickedness, and yet to be in utter darkness about absolution; this is the highest degree of pain - the pain which drinks up soul and spirit and pierces joints and marrow!  And this no doubt is the thirst of which our Lord is speaking.  It is a thirst after pardon, forgiveness, absolution and peace with God.  It is the craving of a really awakened conscience, wanting satisfaction and not knowing where to find it, walking through dry places, and unable to get rest.

"And surely it is not too much to say that all of us ought to know something of this thirst, if not as much as Augustin, Luther, Bunyan or Whitefield.  Living as we do in a dying world; knowing, as must do, if we will confess it, that there is a world beyond the grace, and that after death comes the judgment; feeling, as we must do in our better moments, what poor, weak, unstable, defective creatures we all are, and how unfit to meet God; conscious as we must be in our inmost heart of hearts, that on our use of time depends our place in eternity, we ought to feel and to realize something like 'thirst,' for a sense of peace with the living God.  But alas, nothing proves so conclusively the fallen nature of man as the general, common want of spiritual appetite!  For money, for power, for pleasure, for rank, for honor, for distinction - for all these the vast majority are now intensely thirsting.  To lead forlorn hopes, to dig for gold, to storm a breach, to try to hew a way through thick-ribbed ice to the North Pole, for all these objects there is no lack of adventurers and volunteers.  Fierce and unceasing is the competition for these corruptible crowns!  But few indeed, by comparison, are those who thirst after eternal life.  No wonder that the natural man is called in Scripture 'dead,' and 'sleeping,' and 'blind,' and 'deaf.'  No wonder that he is said to need a second birth and a new creation.  There is no surer symptom of mortification in the body than the loss of all feeling.  There is no more painful sign of an unhealthy state of soul that an utter absence of spiritual thirst.  Woe to that man of whom the Savior can say, 'You know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked' (Rev. 3:17)."  (Holiness, J.C. Ryle)

Spiritual Wholeness

Recently, I found a puzzle piece in the cushion of our chair at home.  The piece came from one of my children’s puzzles, which had been thrown out months before.  Why did we throw out the puzzle?  It wasn’t complete.  It wasn’t whole.  The purpose of a puzzle is to put it completely together in order to enjoy the whole picture.  But a puzzle that is incomplete is not fulfilling its purpose as a puzzle and so isn’t worth putting together.

Over the past number of months we have been wading through the book of James and have addressed issues from listening to and doing the Word of God, showing favoritism, taming the tongue, submission to God, and prayer.  Like a puzzle without all its pieces, so a disciple of Christ is not whole or complete without addressing each of these issues in their life.  Unlike a puzzle without all its pieces, God does not throw us away.  Instead, He works through trials and circumstances to create the pieces needed to become whole.  This week we will attempt to bring the words of God through his servant James together to help us as disciples of Christ to understand what it means to be spiritually whole and spiritually mature.

But we must all be warned, for growing into spiritual maturity is humbling, difficult, time consuming, and painful.  But in the end the disciple of Christ will be made whole.  Not by our own effort or merit, but by the work of the Spirit within our hearts and lives.

Join us this week as we discover God’s command to grow into spiritual maturity and wholeness.  May God use this time together to bring us to Him in a deep and mighty way, for His glory and greatness alone.

The Pursuit of Spiritual Wholeness

As we begin our message series on the book of James I feel it necessary to remind us all of the implications which we are about to encounter.  James, the half-brother of Jesus, is not one to beat around the bush or candy-coat his words.  And in so doing he very easily goes directly to the heart of many matters.  In studying this book in-depth we will encounter the actual state of our faith, hearts, thinking, and priorities.  This encounter may very likely cause us to become uncomfortable, defensive, or perhaps even angry through the conviction of God’s words through His servant James.  But those experiences should not discourage us but encourage us.

As we discovered a few weeks ago, the main focus of the book of James is the spiritual wholeness of the believer.  As James 1:2-4 tells us, this wholeness comes at a price.

Gold is a natural metal which does not come in a pure state.  The purer the gold the more it is worth, but to make gold more pure takes high temperatures, time, great effort, and a special devise called a crucible.  This crucible is made of metal or clay which can withstand great heat.  The gold is placed into the crucible and the temperature is raised to great amounts in order to melt the gold into a liquid form.  Once liquefied, the impurities found within the gold float to the top where they can be removed thus making the gold more pure.  The gold is cooled and if needed or desired run through the process a second, third, or fourth time.

James 1:2-4 speaks of trials in our life as a crucible where the end goal of this process is spiritual wholeness.  So, what is spiritual wholeness?  How can I be sure that the crucible of my life leads

towards spiritual wholeness and not bitterness or spiritual immaturity?  What is my role as a believer in this process?

May God speak to each of us who are His children and disciples to use this passage in our personal spiritual growth as well as our corporate growth as His church.  May we be prayerfully prepared to hear God’s Word and act upon His call for our lives.