“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”–Amos 3:3.
The believer is agreed with God. The war between the most holy God
and his offending creatures is over in the case of bloodwashed sinners;
not suspended by a truce, but ended for ever by a peace which passeth
all understanding. The believer is fully agreed with God concerning the
divine law: he confesses that “the law is holy, and just, and good”: he
would not have it altered if he could. He rejoices in the way of God’s
testimonies more than in all riches; yea, in his precepts doth he take
delight, praying evermore, “O let me not wander from thy
commandments.” He joyfully acknowledges that the Judge of all the
earth rules mankind by a law in which there is no injustice, by statutes
which subserve the best interests of the governed, while they secure the
glory of the great Governor. The Christian “consents unto the law that
it is good.” He is agreed with God, moreover, that a breach of the law
should be visited with penalty: he would be unwilling that sin should go
unpunished. He feels that the sanctions of law, however terrible, are
absolutely necessary, and require to be severe. Above all, he is agreed
with God in that great atonement for sin which God himself has
ordained and provided in the person of Jesus Christ. Gazing upon the
matchless sacrifice of Calvary, while the Lord is content, the believer is
satisfied; where God finds satisfaction for his injured honour, the
believer finds the noblest object of admiration and adoration. Thou
lovest Golgotha, O thou Judge of the earth; and thy people are perfectly
agreed with thee in this. Henceforth the Christian is at one with God in
his love of holiness: he delights in the law of God after the inward man.
Sin, which is abhorrent to the Most High, is obnoxious to the Christian
in that measure in which he is enlightened and conformed unto the
image of Christ. Great God, thou hast unsheathed thy sword, and
bathed it in heaven, for the destruction of all evil, and thy redeemed are
on thy side, abhorring that which is evil, and resolving to fight under
thy command till the last sin shall be cut off. Thou hast uplifted thy
banner because of the truth, and around thy standard the soldiers of the
cross are rallying; for thy battle, O Most High, is the battle of the
Church; thy foes are our foes, and thy friends are the excellent of the
earth, in whom is all our delight.
I trust that most of us who are here met in the name of Jesus, feel a
deep, sincere, and constant agreement with God. We have been guilty
of murmuring at his will; but yet our newborn nature evermore at its
core and center knoweth that the will of the Lord is wise and good; and
we therefore bow our heads with reverent agreement, and say, “Not as I
will, but as thou wilt.” “The will of the Lord be done.” Our soul, when
through infirmity she is tempted to rebellion, nevertheless struggles
after complete resignation of her wishes and desires to the will of the
Most High. We do not covet the life of self-will, but we sigh after the
spirit of self-denial; yea, of self-annihilation, that Christ may live in us,
and that the old Ego, the carnal I, may be altogether slain. I would be as
obedient to my God as are those firstborn sons of light, his messengers
of flaming fire. As the mercury feels the mysterious changes of the air,
and sensitively moves in accordance with the atmosphere, so would I
being surrounded by my God, evermore perceive his wish and will, and
move at once in obedience thereto. Our strength shall be perfect when
we have no independent will, but move and act only as we are moved
and acted on by our gracious God. I hope that at this hour we can truly
say, that notwithstanding our many sins, we do love the Lord our God;
and if we could have our will this morning, we would follow his
commands without the slightest departure from the narrow path. We
are in heart agreed with God.
The text reminds us that this agreement gives us power to walk with
God. May we be enabled to claim this privilege which divine grace has
bestowed on us: power to walk with God in daily, habitual, friendly,
intimate, joyous communion. Believer, you can walk with God this very
day. He is as near to thee as he was to Abraham beneath the oak at
Mamre, or Moses at the back of the desert. He is as willing to show thee
his love as he was to reveal himself to Daniel on the banks of Ulai, or to
Ezekiel by the streams of Chebar. Thou hast no greater distance this
day between thee and thy God, than Jacob had when he laid hold upon
the angel and prevailed. He is thy father, as truly as he was the father of
the people whom he covered by day with a cloud, and cheered by night
with a pillar of fire; and though no Shekinah lights up a golden mercy-
seat, yet the throne of grace is quite as glorious and even more
accessible than in the days of old. He shall hide thee in his pavilion, as
he did his servant David; yea, in the secret of the tabernacle shall be thy
hiding-place. Enoch’s privilege was not peculiar to him; it is thy
birthright: claim it. Noah’s high honour of walking with God was not
reserved for him alone; it belongs to thee also, shut in as thou art in the
ark of the covenant, and saved from the deluge of divine wrath. It
should be the Christian’s delight to be always with his God; walking
with him in unbroken fellowship. Enoch did not take a turn or two with
God, as Matthew Henry observes, but he walked with him four hundred
years. O that we might cease to be with our God as wayfaring men who
tarry but for a night: may we dwell in God, and may he dwell in us.
Walking implies action; and our actions should always be in the Lord.
The Christian, whatsoever he eateth, or drinketh, or doeth, should do
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks unto God and the
Father by him. Walking has in it the thought of progress; but all our
progress should be with God. As we are rooted and grounded in Christ,
so we must ask to grow up in him; ever abiding in our highest moments
with God, and never imagining or conceiving any progress which shall
remove us from humble confidence in him. Beloved brother in the Lord,
it may be that thy heart is agreed with God, and yet thou hast lost for a
time thy walking with him; be not at ease in thy soul till thou hast
regained it. Search thine own heart by the light of the Word and of the
Holy Spirit; and when thou knowest thyself to be agreed with God,
through Him who is our peace, hesitate not to draw near with holy
confidence to thy Father and thy God, notwithstanding all thy past
wanderings; for he welcomes thee to walk with him, seeing that thou
art agreed.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
