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  (A LARGER CHRISTIAN LIFE) 4. THE LARGER LIFE
  by A.B. Simpson
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CONTENT
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"Be ye also enlarged." 2 Cor. vi: 11. The law of growth is a fundamental
principle of all nature and redemption. Whatever ceases to grow begins
to die; stagnancy brings corruption; the corpse belongs to the worm; a
self-contained pool becomes a malarious swamp. Vegetation springs from a
seed, the seed grows into a tree, and the tree into a forest. Human life
commences in infancy and develops to maturity. The word of God has all
unfolded from a single promise. The great plan of redemption has been a
ceaseless progression, and will be through the ages upon ages that are
yet to come.

The experience of the soul is a growth. True, it must have a starting
point. We cannot grow into Christianity we must be born from above and
then grow. And so sanctification is progressive, and yet it has a
definite beginning. Christ is completely formed within us, but He is the
infant Christ, and grows up to the maturity of the perfect man in us
just as He did in His earthly life.

It is here that the enlargement of our text meets us. It is only the
truly consecrated Christian that grows. The other treads the ceaseless
circle of the wilderness. But he has crossed the Jordan and begun the
conquest of the land and the progressive experience of which it was the
beautiful pattern and symbol. No book in the Bible has more progress in
it than the book of Joshua, and yet from the very beginning it is the
life of one who has wholly died to self and sin and has taken Christ for
full salvation and is walking in the heavenly places in Him.

And even the book of Joshua only begins its highest advance when it is
almost ended. It is after the whole land is subdued, that the call
comes, "How long are ye slack to go up and possess all the land? There
remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." And then it is that old
Caleb, who has the weight of eighty-four years on his honored head,
steps forth and claims the privilege of entering upon the boldest and
hardest campaign of his life, the conquest of Hebron and the Anakim. It
is to us then, who know the Lord Jesus in His fullness, that He is
saying, "Be ye also enlarged."

I. WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ENLARGED. We need a larger vision. All great
movements begin in great ideas. There is no progress without a new
thought as its embryo. China has remained the same for three thousand
years because China has not accepted a new idea. Her teacher is a man
who lived long before Christ, and for nearly thirty centuries she has
followed the ideas of Confucius and is just the same to-day as she was
thirty centuries ago. Let China receive the American idea or the
Christian idea, and she will be revolutionized at once.

So the first step in our advance must be a new conception of the truth
as it is in Jesus and a larger view of His word and will for us. We do
not need a new Bible, but we need new eyes to read our Bible and
brighter light to shine upon its deep and pregnant pages. We need to
see, not simply a system of exegesis or a system of Biblical exposition
and criticism; a thorough knowledge of the letter and its wondrous
framework of history; geography, antiquities and ancient languages; but
a vivid, large and spiritual conception of what it means for us and what
God\

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/ab-simpson/a-larger-christian-life-4-the-larger-life/
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