A life full of blessings

[AI translation] The day before yesterday I was talking to someone about today's communion. The man asked if he could come to the Lord's table, although he felt very unworthy, because he had already promised at the last communion, had already sworn to the question, that he would henceforth devote his whole life to the Lord, and would live in this present world as His redeemed one, for His glory. If you now examine yourself, you will be forced to conclude that there has been no improvement, no elevation, no progress, no strengthening of your spiritual life since then. That is, he has simply not kept his promise and vow to the Lord. To the first three questions, concerning faith in Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and the certainty of eternal life, he dares to say in good conscience that he believes and confesses. But after his sad experience so far, can he dare in good conscience to answer the fourth question, I promise and I receive? How many times have you promised and sworn, and yet nothing has come of it? Consoling himself, he is still there today, struggling with the same spiritual problems as before. Can God take seriously the promises and vows that come from his mouth after so many past failures and on the eve of foreseeable new ones? I think it is a common, miserable experience, not only for him who said it this way, but for most of us. Even those who have already become believers - that is, who have already accepted by faith Christ's death for the forgiveness of their sins and resurrection for their justification - that is, awakened souls, always remain powerless babes, unable to grow strong and firm in the life of Christ as they would like to. They are as destitute of actual spiritual blessings as before they became believers. The fruits of Christ's death, this spiritual sowing, are enjoyed by few.I rejoice in this Word because it sheds heavenly light on this very problem. God speaks here of the possibilities of a life full of His spiritual blessings. Listen to His words, "Bring ye all the tithes into my storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me with them, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the channels of heaven for you, and if I will not pour out blessings upon you abundantly. And I will rebuke the pest for you, and he shall not destroy the fruit of your ground, neither shall your vine be barren in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a desirable land, says the Lord of hosts." (verses 10-12)
Do you know what that means? It means that God Himself is waiting to shower His spiritual blessings on us in a far greater way than we can even begin to accept. We forget that God is a rich God with an inexhaustible abundance of all those spiritual gifts: love, joy, peace, etc., without which we can only be destitute and live in misery. God, seeing His powerless, believing children, His Church neither cold nor hot, this Christianity mixed up with the world, knows very well that He could change everything if we would only let Him, if we would only let Him do His work! God is waiting, longing, to open the channels of heaven for us, as He says in this Word, and to pour out His heavenly blessings in abundance, so abundantly that we could hardly resist accepting them! This is what God would have us do with our individual spiritual lives as well as with our turning in His cause, our service.
Where are we, as believers today, in our individual spiritual lives, from the standard Jesus set for us, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5,48) Reflecting on this requirement of Christ, I have often thought that surely Jesus set such a high standard so that no matter how high one has reached towards the goal, one should not say, "I have already reached it," but there should always be a higher level towards which one should always and at all times, until the end of one's life, grow. I have believed that this requirement of Christ is unfulfillable, and many believe it, and despair of it, or in some way evade it, because it is easier than believing that God never gives a commandment, never desires a commandment, which He does not see to its proper fulfilment. So, if He desires us to be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect, then He Himself will see to it that this is possible for us! And perhaps that is where we can get it wrong, that we want to provide for it ourselves, rather than asking and receiving that perfection from Him. We do not rely enough on the Lord God's grace, on His opening the channels of heaven and showering us with His blessings. We become desperate, we become discouraged, seeing how much sin still reigns over us, and we gather all our strength, yet we cannot be cleansed from any of it. No! Nor will we advance a single step in the spiritual life until we see the heavens opened above us, and marvel that where sin has increased, grace is much more abundant.
The New Testament not only declares to us the requirement of a holy God that His people should be holy and perfect, but also shows us the practical possibility of a perfect and holy life. In the book of Acts we find countless examples of this. The disciples were filled with faith, overflowing with joy, with the Spirit of Christ, with fire, with the Holy Spirit. This is the radiant, overflowing, powerful life of Christ that God wants to give. Of course, even in such a state there remains the possibility of another fall. The holy life, the life full of blessings, is not a mechanical thing, not a well-prepared, well-oiled and well-stretched structure. Nor is the born-again person in a state where he is no longer able to sin, but experiences that he is able by the Holy Spirit not to sin. But it is precisely this ability to be able to sin no more that is the blessing that flows from the opened heavens. The moment you trust yourself and think that you yourself are able not to sin, the moment the channel of heaven is shut off, and you immediately fall again! For this ability to be able not to sin is the ability to do good: it is not a human ability, but a gift from God, a gift of grace. And God is waiting to pour out this blessing on you right now, this very moment.
The very first thing to remember now is that God's word is the true word, and He is telling us now: Look, I am waiting to open the channels of heaven for you and pour out my blessings upon you in far greater abundance than you can even hope or expect! But then, if this is so, we may ask, involuntarily, why are not those heavenly channels opened over us? Why is God still waiting? Obviously there is some obstacle or condition for God to truly act according to His heart towards us! Yes, our Word makes this very clear. It is almost offensive and hurtful, the light that shines from these words of God: 'Can man deceive God? And you say: Wherewith shall we deceive thee? By tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, and yet ye deceive me: the people as a whole! Bring in all the tithes into my storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and try me with them, saith the Lord of hosts, if I do not open the channels of heaven for you, and if you do not shower blessings on you in abundance." (verses 8-10) It is terrible even to hear God say, "You have deceived me! Perhaps an even more accurate translation would be: you have stolen from me. This is for us: can this accusation be made against us, who are here at His feet, longing for His blessings, and worshipping? What have we robbed you of?" asked the people, almost to their astonishment. And then God answered, 'With tithes and offerings. Then it meant that the people had taken for their own use what should have been God's alone. They were using food, clothing, animals in their own households that they were supposed to dedicate to God as tithes and offerings. They took from God what belonged to God! In the end, that is what it is today: taking back for ourselves and for our own use what is due to God!
We are stealing from God in so many ways. Most people steal God's money on a regular basis. Anyone who has never taken seriously the fact that he owes God a sapphic account of his money and all his material possessions, who has never made an account to God of how much of his monthly earnings he can spend on himself and how much he can spend for God's glory, is stealing from God every month. But this is so great a question that we shall have to discuss it some day quite apart from the light of God's Word. Let us now try to answer another question: Are we not stealing from God with time? How easy it is to do so, and how impossible to repay! Missed quiet hours, missed time and opportunities for God are an irreplaceable loss in our lives forever. No amount of busyness, no amount of devotional service, no amount of zealous zeal in the Lord's cause can make up for the quiet time of the day, the time of alone time alone with God. I think we steal from Him in this respect, in terms of time devoted to God, more than in any other! When we miss our quiet hour, or when we rush our brief moments of communion with God, we don't take seriously that we have now stolen from Him. In hasty prayer, God cannot be given the honor and praise He deserves. We cannot learn from Him the guidance He wants to give. So you can never set your heart aflame with divine fire in the few moments you pray each day. Nor can your heart be warmed by the nearness of God, in the hurried silence, no time for the Lord to open the channels of heaven and fill your soul with the blessings He has for you. I am sure that when we have finished this earthly existence, we shall be astonished to see what the Lord would have given us if we had given Him that time in persevering prayer.
The reason this is so serious, brothers and sisters, is because when we steal from God in terms of time for quietness, we are actually stealing from ourselves - from Him. Only in solitude alone with Him can we truly know Him and ourselves. It is only in this silence that we can give ourselves to Him, surrender ourselves completely to Him! Do you know what you are risking by stealing from God your time of quiet time each day? You are closing the channels of heaven and the blessing will not come. Is it worth it? Isn't it? Well then, from today onwards, let's stop stealing from our very long-suffering Lord, at least stop stealing time!
Finally, the Lord says, "Bring all the tithes into my storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and with them you shall test me, says the Lord of hosts, if I do not open the channels of heaven for you, and if I do not shower blessings on you in abundance." (verse 10) Do you understand what this means? Give to God what is His, even in time! And with this test me," says the Lord of hosts. Can you imagine what would happen in this congregation if all of us here were now to take seriously this call of God to test Him in this way - for the time being, nothing but a very serious daily quiet hour dedicated to Him. Such spiritual forces would be released here that the whole Reformed community of Budapest would feel the effect. A whole world would be astonished at what God can do through the life of a man who is totally dedicated to Him. For God does not deny Himself, He keeps His promise. So if we now test Him by bringing all the tithes into His storehouse, then even if we do not see the channels of heaven opened according to His promise, they will most certainly be opened and the Lord will shower His blessings on us in abundance! "Try me with this," says the Lord. "Me!" - so test the Lord! Do not try yourself, strive henceforth to devote your whole life to Him, and to live as His redeemed for His glory, for again you will fail! But try Him! So that He may daily pour out upon you from the opened heavens the powers of the holy life of Jesus through His Holy Spirit.
With the faith that He will succeed in you what you have failed to do - you can answer the fourth question of the Lord's Supper with good hope. And then He, the Lord of blessing, will say to you: so be it!
Amen.
Date: 31 August 1947.