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This is volume tthree in a three volume series
Believed to be in the Public Domain
Vol. I. The Person and Work of Christ
Vol. II. The Relation Between Christ and
the Christian
Vol. III. The Believer's Response to the Holy Spirit's Inworking
Life On the Highest Plane
Volume Three
The Believer's Response
To the Holy Spirit's Inworking
Life On the Highest Plane
By RUTH PAXSON
Complete in three volumes
Vol. I. The Person and Work of Christ
Vol. II. The Relation Between Christ and the Christian
Vol. III. The Believer's Response to the Holy Spirit's Inworking
Life On the Highest Plane
A Study of the Spiritual Nature and Needs of Man
By RUTH PAXSON
Volume III
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CONTENTS, VOLUME III
I. The Spirit-Filled Life - 7
II. The Prerequisite to Fulness--Cleansing - 22
III. The Believer's Part in Becoming Spirit-Filled--Yielding - 30
IV. The Believer's Part in Becoming Spirit-Filled--Faith - 58
V. The Believer's Part in Remaining Spirit-Filled--Obedience - 87
VI. The Believer's Part in Remaining Spirit-Filled--Bible Study - 112
VII. The Believer's Part in Remaining Spirit-Filled--Prayer - 152
VIII. The Works of the Spiritual Man - 183
IX. The Relationships of the Spiritual Man - 220
X. The Hope of the Spiritual Man - 261
XI. The Story of Salvation Told in Five Chapters - 307
Bibliography - 309
DIAGRAMS: Facing Page (omitted in this file)
XII. The Unyielded Life - 57
XIII. Hope of the Spiritual Man - 275
XIV. The Story of Salvation - 307
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I. THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE
IN our studies so far we have considered God's wondrous plan of
salvation as wrought out in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have seen what
Christ came to do for us, to be in us, and to work through us. We have
faced what life in Christ may be and, therefore, ought to be in every
Christian. Let us now honestly face its real worth to us individually.
Is God's salvation in Christ perfect? Can anything be added to
it? Can anything be taken from it? Surely the answer will quickly come
from any life in vital relationship with the Lord Jesus, "Yes,
God's salvation is perfect; it provides for every need; it satisfies
every desire; it furnishes an all-sufficient Saviour. As I look into
my life's deepest need I can think of nothing to add to it nor of
anything that could be taken from it. God's salvation wrought out in
Christ for me is of infinite worth through its perfection."
But is it practical? Is it possible for an ordinary person to
live a life in Christ such as God seems to expect? I can imagine the
answer of some to be, "The truth regarding a life lived on the highest
plane is Biblical and logical but it does not match my experience nor
the experience of many Christians of my
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acquaintance. Is not God's plan of salvation too perfect to be
practical for such a world as this? Is not life on the highest plane
possible only to those who are called into special Christian service?"
Everything in God's Word contradicts this suggestion. God's plan
of salvation is not only perfect but it is practical and possible for
every individual believer. The Good Shepherd spoke concerning every
sheep within His fold when He said, "I am come that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundantly." Whoever has
Christ's life in any measure may have it in its fulness.
Col. 2:9-10, R.V., "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily, and in him ye are made full, who is the head of all
principality and power."
John the Baptist in two wonderful proclamations declared the
entire scope of Christ's work in salvation when he said, "Behold, the
Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world" and "He that sent
me to baptize in water, the same is he that baptizeth in the Holy
Ghost" (John 1:29, 33). Christ would do a twofold work for those who
trust Him as Saviour; He would take away their sin and He would
baptize them in the Spirit. Thus John the Baptist states that part of
Christ's work is to bring the believer into as definite a relationship
to the Holy Spirit as he bears to Christ, although it is to be a
different relationship.
What John the Baptist had said Christ corroborated in two
remarkable invitations which He gave to sinners to come to Him and
drink of the Water of Life.
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John 4:14, R.V., "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him
shall BECOME IN HIM a well of water springing up unto eternal life."
John 7:37-38, R.V., "Now on the last day, the great day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. ... He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath
said, FROM WITHIN HIM shall flow rivers of living water."
Jesus Christ promised to bestow a gift upon the one who believed
in Him as Sin-bearer which would bring perfect satisfaction and
sufficiency within the believer's inmost life and which would then
overflow in rich and abounding blessing into the lives of others.
Christ's offer to the Samaritan woman was a gift which would change
her source of supplies from a water pot to a well and then convert her
life into a channel through which rivers of this Living Water would
flow.
The Holy Spirit--Christ's Gift to the Believer
We are left in no doubt as to what this gift was for the Lord
Jesus states most explicitly that it was the gift of the Holy Spirit.
John 7:39, R.V., "But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they
that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet
given; because Jesus was not yet glorified."
Please note that in this verse the Lord Jesus tells us three
things:
(1) What the gift was--"This spoke he of the Spirit."
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(2) To whom it was to be given--"Which they that believe on him
were to receive."
(3) When the gift was to be bestowed--"Jesus was not yet
glorified."
It is evident from these words that His finished work as
Sin-bearer must first be accomplished and then as the glorified Lord
in Heaven He would bestow this wondrous gift upon every believer which
would make real within him that abiding and abounding Life which
Christ had made possible for him.
Still further light was thrown upon the nature of this gift in
Christ's last conversation with the disciples on the eve of His
exodus. He told them He was to live in them as an abiding spiritual
Presence; that there would be a divine inflow of Life supernatural in
quality, and a divine outflow of Life supernatural in power. They were
to live as He lived and to work as He worked. To provide power for
such a life He promised that "another Comforter" would come to take up
His permanent abode in them.
John 14:16-18, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit
of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not,
neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and
shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to
you."
"Another Comforter"--these words are descriptive and defining and
very significant. The "Comforter," "Paraclete," means "one who is
called alongside of
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another to help." "Another" means one just like Himself. Some One was
to come to dwell in each of them in perpetual presence and through His
indwelling Christ Himself would be brought back to live within them.
The One who was to abide in them was the Spirit who had indwelt,
infilled and empowered the God-man when He was upon earth. Christ
promised that upon His return to glory He would send back this same
Spirit to indwell, to infill and to empower them. This He did on the
day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down to form the Church,
the mystic body of Christ, and to dwell in it on earth. On that day
the disciples who tarried in the upper room were baptized in the
Spirit.
From that day, as the divine record shows, every one who through
faith in Christ as Saviour, has been organically and vitally united
with the living Lord as a member of His body, has received the gift of
the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38, "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for [because of] the
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
Acts 11:15, 17, "And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on
them, as on us at the beginning. ... Forasmuch then as God gave them
the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?"
The moment one receives the Sin-bearer as his Saviour he is "in
the Spirit" and the Spirit is in him. Whatever
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his spiritual condition the Holy Spirit indwells every Christian as an
abiding, perpetual Presence. It is impossible to accept the Son and to
refuse the Spirit.
Rom. 8:9, "But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so
be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
1 Cor. 3:16, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
In the divine plan there is as definite a purpose in the gift of
the Spirit as in the gift of the Son. Through the Son the sinner has
life; through the Spirit the believer has life more abundant. Through
the Son the sinner leaves the sphere of the natural and enters the
sphere of the spiritual. Through the Spirit the believer is lifted to
the highest heights of life on the spiritual plane. God has a purpose
for every Christian--a life of true, deep, vital, growing
spirituality--and the Holy Spirit lives within every believer as God's
gracious provision for the accomplishment of this very purpose.
But do not let us think for a moment that the Spirit works apart
from the Son. Life more abundant is by the Spirit. He shares with
Christ the Head of the body, His intense desire that the fulness of
life in the Head in Heaven shall be manifested in the body on earth.
But the believer must know that that fulness is for him, he must
desire to have it, and there must be a means of communicating it to
him. All this is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is His task to
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reveal Christ in all the perfection of His heavenly, holy life to the
believer; to unfold to him the unsearchable riches which are his as an
heir of God in Christ; to create within him a desire to possess his
possessions; and then, to act as the channel through which the
abundant life of the glorified Lord in Heaven is communicated to him.
John 16:14-15, "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine
and shall show it unto you. ... All things that the Father hath are
mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it
unto you."
Rom. 8:16-17, R.V., "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our
spirit, that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs;
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified with him."
It is the Holy Spirit who works within the believer to bring him
to make the choice between self and Christ. But as He works He is
opposed, thwarted, challenged and resisted every step of the way by
that bitter opponent. "The flesh" works as diligently to keep the
believer fleshly as the Spirit works to make him spiritual.
Gal. 5:17, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh: for these are contrary the one to the
other."
Romans seven records the victory of "the flesh" and we see the
Holy Spirit ignored, silenced, thwarted and quenched. Romans eight
records the victory of the Holy
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Spirit and we see Him victorious, active, regnant and supreme. We are
compelled to believe that some advance in relationship to the Holy
Spirit has taken place which has given Him this wonderful victory and
we are constrained to ask God to show us what it is.
The Spirit-filled Life
In one terse, concise command God shows us the highest point the
believer can reach in his relationship to the Holy Spirit.
Eph. 5:18, "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be
filled with the Spirit."
You, who have the Holy Spirit in you, give Him full right of way
in your life; let Him dominate your whole being; let Him who dwells
within you fill you from the center to the circumference of your life.
You are in the sphere of the Spirit, therefore let the Spirit live out
His life in you. Through regeneration God has endowed you with Himself
and in the Person of the Spirit He dwells within you. Allow Him now to
work out His perfect will unhindered through the undivided control of
your whole being. Permit Him to energize you with His almighty power
through filling you with Himself.
"Be filled with the Spirit" is a command given to every believer.
No Christian is refused the blessing of such a precious experience and
none is exempt from its responsibilities. As the refusal of life in
Christ is the greatest sin of the unbeliever so the refusal of life
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more abundant in the Holy Spirit's fulness is the greatest sin of the
believer. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is not the privilege of a
few but it is the prerogative of all believers. Since it is a command,
it is not optional, but it is incumbent upon every Christian to be so
filled.
Acts 4:31, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where
they were assembled together and they were ALL filled with the Holy
Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness."
"Be filled with the Spirit"--"Filled."
"Full of the Holy Ghost"--"Full."
"That ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God"--"Fulness."
These words suggest that there is an infinite, exhaustless
fulness which the believer may receive according to his receptive
capacity. He may be "filled" today yet tomorrow he shall need to be "
filled" again so that his life may be habitually "full"; and the
process of continuous infillings will need to continue as long as he
lives since the source of supply is "all the fulness of God." A life
"full of the Holy Ghost" should be and may be the normal life of every
believer. "We may be always full, yet ever filling, the first
reception of the fulness being a crisis that leads to a process."
Acts 6:3, "Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men
of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and wisdom, whom we may
appoint over this business."
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Acts 11:24, "For he (Barnabas) was a good man, and full of the
Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord."
To be spiritual, then, one must be filled and be kept filled with
the Holy Spirit. The habitual fulness of the Holy Spirit is the divine
provision for a life lived on the highest plane. The Holy Spirit is
the divinely appointed means of communication of "the abundant life"
of the ascended, glorified Lord in Heaven to the believer on earth.
There is a threefold manifestation of the Holy Spirit's infilling.
The realization of Christ's abiding presence. Is not this the
greatest need as, I dare say, it is the deepest desire of some of us?
He said, "I will come unto you" and with our intellect we believe He
has come but our hearts cry out for a deeper realization of His
blessed presence within. The lives of the early Christians seemed
fairly surcharged with such a joyous, vivid consciousness of the
presence within them of their living, glorified Lord. He was so real
to them that He seemed to be the home of all their thoughts and the
horizon of all their affections. Is the spiritual presence of the
living Lord such an intense reality to you? Are you occupied with
Christ? Are you satisfied in Christ? Can you say from your heart,
"Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find"?
To have Christ abiding in us in all His fulness is to have every need
supplied, every desire fulfilled, every
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hunger satisfied, every thirst quenched. It is to have our whole life
perpetually refreshed and replete in Him. Such a realization of His
abiding presence in its fulness is one of the rich rewards of a
Spirit-filled life.
Eph. 3:16, 17, 19, R.V., "That he would grant you, according to
the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power
through his Spirit in the inward man; ... That Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith. ... That ye may be filled unto all the
fulness of God."
The reproduction of Christ's holy life within the believer is
another unspeakably precious benefit of the Spirit-filled life. Who of
us has ever had a real vision of the Lord Jesus who has not abhorred
his own sinfulness and longed passionately for Christ's holiness? Who
has ever really seen the King in His beauty and not longed intensely
to be like Him? But His is a life that defies imitation. No
counterfeit is ever so quickly detected and so heartily detested as a
counterfeit of the Christ. There is no possibility of likeness to the
character seen in Jesus Christ except through the reproduction of His
life in us.
To communicate the life of the living Head in heaven to the body
on earth, making the visible part of Christ of the same character as
the invisible part, is the work of the Holy Spirit. To reproduce the
life of the Lord Jesus in us in a growing perfection is the mission of
the Holy Spirit and His ability to perform this task is in proportion
to the freedom given Him to do it. The Spirit-filled Christian is the
one who is most like his Lord.
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2 Cor. 3:18, R.V., "But we all with unveiled face beholding as in
a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."
Gal. 5:22-23, R.V., "But the fruit [singular] of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, self-control: against such there is no law."
Compressed into these nine exquisite graces is a marvellous
word-picture of the character of Jesus Christ in its essential beauty,
symmetry and perfection. Such character can never be produced through
human effort for it is not the product of human nature but the fruit
of the divine nature. Only the divine can produce the divine. "As
without the sun the photographic image cannot be printed upon the
sensitized film, so apart from the Holy Spirit, the moral glories of
the Lord Jesus can never become ours in any sense save that of
desire." But, when the Holy Spirit is permitted to fill us, He brings
forth His own fruit in a character of growing likeness to that of our
Lord.
The reenactment of Christ's supernatural power through us is the
third outstanding mark of a Spirit-filled life. All power belongs unto
God and He has delegated this power to His Son and the Son in turn
transmits that power to the one whose life is united with His. When He
gave that last commission to the disciples He said, "All power hath
been given unto me in heaven and upon earth, go ye therefore and make
disciples of all the nations."
The "therefore" fully implies that, as He sent them forth to
accomplish such a superhuman task, He promised to endue them with
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supernatural power. Just before His ascension He told them to wait
until they were "endued with power from on high" and in giving this
command He reiterated His promise to send forth to them the Holy
Spirit upon His return to glory (Luke 24:49). So their enduement with
power and their reception of the Holy Spirit evidently had a vital
connection. The last words He spoke, as He was lifted up out of their
sight, declared this.
Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost
is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth."
A study of the book of Acts shows us that those who were filled
with the Holy Spirit were full of power. They had power to suffer and
to sacrifice; to teach and to preach; to witness and to work.
Thousands of souls were born into the Kingdom of God and blessed
through their ministry. But this work of grace was not wrought through
human energy, zeal, wisdom or eloquence, but through the power of the
ascended Lord poured forth through Spirit-filled lives.
Have you the power of the Holy Spirit? Through you is He working
mightily to convict men of sin, to constrain them to believe in
Christ, and to conform them to the image of the Lord Jesus? If not, is
it because you are not filled with the Holy Spirit? Wherever He is in
fulness He manifests Himself in power. "In order to have the Holy
Spirit's competency we must have His control."
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One day while rowing I noticed a break in the bank and a
veritable river was flowing out of the lake through the adjoining
fields making everything round about rich in foliage and fruitage.
Inquiring of one of my companions why with such a continuous outflow
of water the lake did not go dry, he replied, "Oh! there are
innumerable springs in the bottom and as much water as flows out
through the river flows in through the unseen springs." Such inflow
and outflow symbolizes a Spirit-filled life.
"In him a well," the Holy Spirit in His fulness is Christ's gift
to every believer. He dwells within, a well of Living Water, a
continuously upspringing fountain. With Him within there is no need
for dearth. The promise is he "shall never thirst." The supply will be
commensurate to the need. Satisfaction and sufficiency characterize
the Spirit-filled life.
"Out of him rivers." The inflow demands and provides an outflow.
Satisfaction in Christ means the overflow of Christ. The Holy Spirit
in complete, continuous control is a well of Living Water within us
constantly springing up in ever increasing fulness until there are
rivers of Living Water flowing into other lives. Thus the
Spirit-filled life is one of perennial freshness, fragrance, fulness
and fruitfulness.
Is such a life yours? If not, do you desire it? It is available;
it is obtainable; it is for you if you thirst. "If any man thirst." Do
you know there is more of the Holy Spirit for you than you have yet
claimed? Have you enough of Him to make you want more? Then listen to
the invitation freely extended to you.
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"If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink." Drink until
you are satisfied, until you are full, yea, until you are overflowing.
The fulness of the Holy Spirit is for every one who thirsts for it and
who will meet God's simple and clearly stated conditions.
"Our blest Redeemer, ere He breathed
His tender, last farewell,
A Guide, a Comforter, bequeathed
With us to dwell.
And every virtue we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are His alone."
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II. THE PREREQUISITE TO FULNESS
Cleansing
"GOD hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness," and
if we measure up to our calling as saints, all uncleanness must go.
The infilling of the Holy Spirit demands the cleansing of the life.
Two commands given to Christians in regard to their relationship to
the Holy Spirit reveal this fact very strikingly.
Eph. 4:30, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are
sealed unto the day of redemption."
Grieve is a love word. You cannot grieve one who does not love
you. You can hurt him or anger him but you cannot grieve him. To
grieve the Holy Spirit means that we are causing pain to Some One who
loves us. What, then, in us causes this divine One grief?
He is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17) so anything false,
deceitful, hypocritical, grieves Him.
He is the Spirit of faith (2 Cor. 4:13) so doubt, unbelief,
distrust, worry, anxiety, grieve Him.
He is the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29) so that which is hard,
bitter, ungracious, unthankful, malicious, unforgiving or unloving,
grieves Him.
He is the Spirit of holiness (Rom. 1:4) so anything unclean,
defiling or degrading, grieves Him.
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He is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph. 1:17) so
ignorance, conceit, arrogance and folly, grieve Him.
He is the Spirit of power, love and discipline (2 Tim. 1:7) so
that which is barren, fruitless, disorderly, confused and
uncontrolled, grieves Him.
He is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2) so anything that savours of
indifference, lukewarmness, spiritual dulness, and deadness, grieves
Him.
He is the Spirit of glory (1 Pet. 4:14) so anything worldly,
earthly or fleshly, grieves 'Him.
He dwells within us to enable us "to grow up into Christ in all
things" (Eph. 4:15); to bring us daily into conformity to Christ's
image (2 Cor. 3:18); until we have reached "unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13); so anything in us which
hinders Him in carrying out this purpose grieves Him. Knowingly, wilfully, to permit anything which is
contrary to what the Holy Spirit Himself is to remain in your life,
now His domain, must mean that you love sin more than you love Him.
Such unfaithfulness grieves Him. Refusing obedience to God's revealed
will constitutes a rejection of Him in favor of His enemy.
Spirituality depends upon an harmonious and happy relationship
with our divine Helper and Advocate. Sin, then, which impairs such
relationship must inevitably hinder any true spirituality. As long as
we are indulging known sin we are living in the same abode with a
grieved Spirit who is thereby hindered from manifesting Himself fully
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in and through us. It is clear, then, that if one is to be filled with
the Holy Spirit all conscious, wilful sin must be put away. "God does
not require golden vessels, neither does He seek for silver ones, but
He must have clean ones." To be filled one must be cleansed.
1 Thess. 5:19, "Quench not the Spirit."
We "grieve" the Spirit when we say "yes" to Satan when he lures
us into sin. We "quench" the Spirit when we say "no" to God when He
woos us into sanctification and service. To bring the believer to will
to let God's will have absolute sway over the entire being is part of
the Spirit's work, perhaps it is His hardest task. Self-will is a
latent thing in every one of us which is prone to manifest itself in
secret if not in open rebellion against God.
The only cure for self-will is a deliberate, determined choice to
do God's will in all things, at all times, at all costs. If is to have
one's heart firmly fixed upon the doing of God's will as the rule for
daily life and to permit no exception to this rule. "So a yieldedness
to the will of God is not demonstrated by some one particular issue;
it is rather a matter of having taken the will of God as the rule of
one's life. To be in the will of God is simply to be willing to do His
will without reference to any particular thing He may choose. It is
electing His will to be final, even before we know what He may wish us
to do. It is, therefore, not a question of being willing to do some
one thing; it is a question of being willing to do anything,
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when, where and how it may seem best in His heart of love." ("He
that is Spiritual" L.S. Chafer, page 113)
God's first man had the right to will and the power to will
Godward. But he chose to will Satanward. God's second Man had the
right to will and the power to will Godward which He invariably did in
every choice. If you are a Christian, you are God's new man in Christ.
You have the right to will and the Holy Spirit dwells within you to
enable you always to will Godward. But if you say "No" to God at any
point you have allied yourself with the evil forces which are in
rebellion against God. Such resistance and rebellion is sin and the
Holy Spirit cannot occupy fully His abode in your life until you are
cleansed.
The indwelling Spirit longs to fill the life of each one whom He
indwells. So He is constantly working toward the purifying of the
life. Indeed He is there for that very purpose. In a darkened room
there would be much of dust which would pass unnoticed but, when the
sun shines in, it is all brought out into the light. The more fully
the light fills the room the more perfectly the dust is revealed. The
Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer brings out into the light the sin
in the life and the more fully He indwells the more perfect will be
the revelation and recognition of sin. The nearer God comes to us the
more sensitive to sin are we made. Some things which five years ago or
a year ago or a month ago you would not have called sin you now
acknowledge to be sin. The Holy Spirit who dwells in us is there to
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purify our hearts and to sanctify our lives. "Giving them the Holy
Ghost, purifying their hearts by faith."
The Means of Cleansing
1 John 1:7, "... The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin."
For sinner and saint alike nothing but the blood of Jesus
suffices to cleanse from sin. For the unsaved sinner it removes the
guilt of sin. For the sinning saint it removes the defilement of sin.
The Christian is in constant contact with sin and the very tense of
the verb used in this verse "cleanseth" shows that he never gets
beyond the need of the cleansing blood of Christ.
The Method of Cleansing
The grieved Spirit will let us know that He is grieved and what
it is that grieves Him. He will convict us of the sin that thwarts and
throttles Him and He will point us to the cleansing blood of Christ.
He will open the Word to 1 John 1:9 and show us what our part is. Then
our responsibility begins. God requires but one thing of us--a frank,
full confession prompted by a true heart repentance.
1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
But, while He requires only this simple, honest confession, He
will accept no substitute for it. Regret and remorse because of
suffering from sin's punishment
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is not confession; a forced acknowledgment when caught in some offense
which is in reality merely the admission of transgression rather than
of the sin of the transgression, is not confession; prayer in which a
short, vague, half-concealed acknowledgment of sin is overshadowed by
a long accompaniment of justification and vindication of self, will
not pass with God for a bona fide confession from the heart.
Confession of sin is made primarily to God and often only to Him. But,
if one has wronged another and sin has placed a barrier between them,
confession of that sin before the other may be required to remove the
barrier. God's cleansing of us may await our confession to a brother.
But this precious promise does hold out to us the blessed assurance
that, when honest confession of known sin is frankly made to God, He
instantly forgives and cleanses. We are thereby brought into perfect
adjustment to an ungrieved, unquenched Spirit and every hindrance to
His infilling is removed.
The Measure of Cleansing
The measure of cleansing is from all defilement of both flesh and
spirit. Separation from every defiling thing is a prerequisite to
the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
2 Cor. 7:1, "Having therefore these promises dearly beloved, let
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
God demands a cleansing that reaches from the innermost desire to
the outermost deed; that goes from the core to the circumference. He
asks us to take His conception of sin which regards a lustful look as
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truly sin as a lustful act; which calls hate in the heart sin as much
as murder by the hand; which sees in irritability of spirit the seed
of the outburst of temper. God asks for the cleansing of both the
inner and outer part of the temple which He indwells. Even after we
have "cleansed ourselves" by deliberately putting out of our lives
everything which we know to be sinful there will be much when once He
fills the life which the Holy Spirit will convict us of as unclean and
unholy.
God's withholding of His presence in power from His own children
until sin is put away is very strikingly revealed in His dealings with
the children of Israel over Achan's sin. They had gained a marvellous
victory at Jericho. The city and all that was in it had been
delivered to them by the Lord. God had told them beforehand that
everything in the city was accursed and that no one of them was to
take anything of the spoils for himself or he, too, would be accursed.
Achan, coveting gold, silver, and a Babylonish garment, took them and
hid them under his tent. No eye but that of the all-seeing God saw him
do it. The children of Israel, rejoicing in the signal victory over
Jericho, marched against the smaller city of Ai with absolute
assurance of a similar victory, only to meet with an overwhelming
defeat. Joshua fell on his face before God and offered a prayer in
which he charged God with blame for such humiliation before their
enemies. But God commanded him to stop praying and told him that He
would continue to withhold His presence from the children of Israel
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until the accursed thing was taken away from among them. Not until the
man who had coveted, stolen and deceived, was found and confession of
sin was made, did God again dwell in victory and in power among the
children of Israel.
Perhaps you have been praying fervently for the fulness of the
Holy Spirit while all the time there has been the continued indulgence
of some known sin, the wilful disobedience of some known command, or
the deliberate resistance to God's clearly revealed will. If so, God
is saying to you just now, "Get thee up, wherefore liest thou upon thy
face. Thou hast sinned, neither will I be with you any more except ye
destroy the accursed from among you. Up, sanctify yourselves, thou
canst not stand before thine enemies until ye take away the accursed
thing from among you" (Josh. 7:10-13). So long as you are living with
a grieved or a quenched Spirit you cannot be filled. To be filled one
must be cleansed.
I looked the other day upon the snow-clad summit of the
Silberhorn as it glistened in the sun. It was a marvellous symbol of
purity. What was the cause of its spotlessness? There was nothing
between it and the Heaven above. It lay open to receive the unstained,
unsullied snow sent down from Heaven. Oh! that your heart and mine
might be as pure. And they may be if there is no known sin between God
and us and our lives lay open to the moment by moment infilling of the
blessed Holy Spirit.
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III. THE BELIEVER'S PART IN BECOMING SPIRIT-FILLED
Yielding
IN the two wondrous gifts of His Son and His Spirit God has made
perfect provision for a life of true spirituality. God's twofold gift
to us was not a partial gift. When He gave Christ He gave all of
Christ; when He gave the Holy Spirit He gave all of the Holy Spirit.
He withheld nothing from us. Love not only gave its best but its all.
When God gave Christ to us He gave Him in all the fulness of His
perfect life and His perfected work. When God gave the Holy Spirit He
gave Him to indwell, to infill and to empower. God is not a niggardly,
grudging Giver. In the glorified Christ through the fulness of the
Holy Spirit He has given all that He has to give to make us spiritual.
This is the perfection of grace, the acme even of divine giving.
God has made the provision but you must make the decision whether
you will be Spirit-filled or not. There is a place in God's dealings
with men beyond which He cannot go. He Himself set this boundary line
in man's right to will. He sets the feast before you but He cannot
compel you to eat. He opens the door into the abundant life but He
cannot coerce you to enter. He places in the bank of God a deposit
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that makes you a spiritual multimillionaire but He cannot write your
checks. God has done His part, now you must do yours.
The responsibility for fulness or lack of fulness is now in your
hands. He will be limited in the giving of the fulness of His Spirit
by one thing only--the room given to Him to fill. "You may have all
the fulness you will make room for." To be Spirit-filled requires your
active, hearty cooperation with God. You have a very clearly defined
part in becoming spiritual.
Yielding--The Believer's Part in becoming Spirit-filled
The basic principle in a spiritual life lies in its control. The
life of the natural man is wholly in the control of "the old man"; the
life of the carnal Christian is partially in the control of self. If
one determines to become a Spirit-filled Christian the right to reign
must be taken altogether from "the old man" and given into the hands
of the Lord Jesus. What the Holy Spirit wishes the believer to do and
what He works to bring him to do, is to cooperate with Him in this
matter by refusing deliberately the further reign of self and by
choosing voluntarily the sovereignty of Christ over his life, yielding
to Him as Lord and Master.
Rom. 6:16, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin
unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness."
Rom. 6:19, "I speak after the manner of men because of
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the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now
yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness."
To yield the life unto God is the first step in a continuous walk
in the Spirit. This step takes us by our own choice out of the realm
of self-will into the realm of God's will. It takes us back to our
God-intended, God-provided center. It gives us a base for all future
growth in spiritual things. It furnishes us with new headquarters from
which all our future life will be directed. In yielding to Christ we
definitely align ourselves with the perfect will of God and choose it
to be the rule of our lives in all things forever afterward. We adopt
the language of Christ which, whether in the great crises of life such
as those in the wilderness, in Gethsemane or on Calvary, or in the
ordinary walk and work of daily life in the carpenter shop and the
home, was invariably "Thy will be done." In yielding to the
sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ we deliberately choose from that
time on to do His will instead of our own in all things and for all
time.
The Life Yielded--Why?
There are two quite diverse motives that lead people to yield
themselves wholly to the Lord. Some make the approach to a yielded
life along the avenue of their own need. They hunger and thirst for
more of Christ. They long to realize more perfectly their inheritance
in Him.
Eph. 1:11, "In whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
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being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will."
Others come into a yielded life over the pathway of Christ's
claim. They recognize the loneliness and yearning of Christ's heart
for more of them. They desire to have Him possess to the full His
inheritance in them.
Eph. 1:18, "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what is the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."
Both our need of Him and His of us call for the yielding of our
lives to Him. Every relationship which Christ bears to us is made
ineffectual in an unyielded life. It is impossible for Christ to
become all that He designs and desires to become apart from a wholly
yielded life. He is handicapped and hindered in all He would do in and
through us by our unwillingness to have it done; as Saviour He cannot
save us from sin we insist upon retaining; as Head of the body He
cannot direct a stubborn member; as Lord He cannot reveal His will to
one who does not want to know it or to obey it; as Life He cannot fill
what is already filled with a totally different substance; as
Sanctifier He cannot separate us wholly unto Himself when we prefer to
live unto self and the world; as Captain He cannot use us to defeat
the enemy when we ourselves already have allowed him to defeat us.
Christ is checked at every turn in an unyielded life and rendered
practically impotent. The realization and enjoyment of
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our precious inheritance in Him and of His purchased inheritance in us
depends upon our unconditional yielding to Him.
There is a basic motive in the yielding of the life to Christ
which when discovered is both convincing and compelling. To His glory
may I share with you the way in which God graciously led me to this
discovery and the revolutionary change it wrought in my relationship
to the Lord Jesus.
Becoming a Christian when a girl I experienced deep and real joy
in the consciousness of the forgiveness of sins and in the fellowship
of Christ. I truly loved my Lord and longed to live so that others,
especially members of my family, would see that He was indeed my
Saviour. Though born again I knew nothing of a yielded life and
consequently some of the old sins continued to manifest themselves in
the same old way. One of the most outstanding was temper. Over and
over again it was lost and hasty, unkind words said even to those
nearest and dearest. Having what often accompanies a quick temper, a
sensitive, affectionate heart, I would go apart after an outburst and
cry as though my heart would break. Times without number the resolve
was made never to lose my temper again and the attempt was made to
conquer it by will power, but all to no avail, and I continued in a
life of constant defeat and miserable failure. Conscious of the
evident hypocrisy in such a life, all the joy experienced in
conversion left me. Truly loving the Lord I hated myself for the
caricature of Him I was giving to others.
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One day, thoroughly discouraged and disheartened by an
overwhelming sense of defeat, I sought the quiet of my own room and
shut myself in with the Lord determined to stay until something
happened. I told the Lord that either He must show me what a truly
Christian life was and how to live it or I would renounce my
profession of Christ and ask to have my name taken from the church
roll. I was desperately in earnest and God always meets one who truly
seeks Him. He graciously met me that day and answered both my
questions.
Two verses from His Word He used to flood my soul with light. My
prayer is that again He may use them to bring similar joy and peace to
others discouraged and defeated.
1 Cor. 6:19-20, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are
not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body and in your spirit, which are God's."
Through three unforgetable invincible statements of truth God
unveiled the essence of a yielded life and revealed its basic motive.
"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost?" No, until that day I did not know that my body had any
relationship whatsoever to my conversion neither did I know that the
Holy Spirit had taken it to be His temple. That God laid claim to my
body for His habitation and that the Holy Spirit had already made it
His home was to me a startling
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revelation. Think for a moment what that means--God, the Holy One
actually dwelling in your human body! Suppose some earthly king would
send word that he wanted to spend just one day in your home. What a
house-cleaning would take place! How all the best and loveliest things
would be taken out to use! What preparation would be made that
everything would be exactly fitting and worthy of such an honoured
guest! But oh! what an unclean, unfit, unworthy place we often ask the
King of kings and Lord of lords to live in, not for a day but for a
lifetime! What an unholy, desecrated temple we offer to the Holy
Spirit!
"But I have given the Lord my soul, what need hath He of my
body?" was the question that came into my mind. I saw faintly that day
but with growing clearness every day since why God asks for our
bodies. Dare we say it--it is His need of a channel through which He
may give to a world that knows Him not a revelation of who He is and
of His yearning love for men. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us" and men saw and knew who the Father was by the presence of the Son
on earth. Christ is now in Heaven. But oh! isn't His presence needed
here on earth? Isn't He needed in your city? In your church? In your
school? In your office? In your social circle? In your home? And how
is the glorified Christ to presence Himself here on earth? In what way
will He reveal Himself to men now?
Christ has just two ways of making Himself known; one is through
His Word. But countless thousands do not
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even possess a Bible, and countless millions could not read it if they
did. The other way is through us in whom He dwells as the Life of our
life. Oh! do you not see how He needs your body to be wholly His?
Today He needs eyes, ears, lips, hands, feet, minds, hearts, wills and
all that makes up a human personality for the manifestation of Himself
on earth as truly as these things were needed when He dwelt as the
incarnate Son in a human body. When Christ was upon earth it was not
merely His teaching and preaching that won men to Him. It was His
Life, His Personal presence, Himself. So today men need to see Christ;
to feel His presence; to be brought face to face with Him. The Lord
Jesus showed me that day that He wanted and needed my body with my
entire human personality to indwell and to use as a medium of
revealing Himself to others.
There was something wondrously beautiful in the thought that the
Lord of glory could ever have need of me. I knew only too well how
desperately I needed Him. Moment by moment I needed to draw all my
life from Him as the branch lives in the life of the vine. But to
think that He needed me! that there was fruit to be borne that could
only be borne on a branch! that some life somewhere would need to see
Christ in me! It was a marvellously convincing appeal yet, I am
ashamed to record it even now so many years afterward, I hesitated to
yield.
Was my life not my own? Was it not asking a great deal to turn it
over to the absolute sovereignty of another? Should I relinquish all
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right to its possession and control? Was it safe to do so? Was it
reasonable? Was it needful? Oh! the feasible, plausible arguments that
self advanced to retain the kingship over my life!
All this reluctance was anticipated by the Lord and He was
prepared to meet it. "What? Know ye that ye are not your own?" Like a
sharp two-edged sword these words penetrated to my innermost being and
lodged there. How they cut into shreds every argument advanced against
such a wholesale yielding of myself to God! "Know ye that ye are not
your own?" How they severed the undergirding beneath all my thinking
concerning my rights in myself! "Know ye that ye are not your own?"
How they brought to light the hitherto disguised hypocrisy of my
profession as a Christian in saying that I belonged to Jesus Christ
yet all the while retaining in my own hands the reins of government!
"Know ye that ye are not your own?" How these words went straight to
the very heart of the issue like an axe laid at the root of the
tree--the enthronement of Jesus Christ as Lord over my life or the
continued reign of self!
A flood of light entered my soul through that simple but
imperative question of the Lord. I was convinced of the rightfulness
of God's claim upon me but I was not yet constrained to yield to it.
Oh! the incredible, unthinkable stubbornness to resist and refuse in
the light of such clear conviction! Oh! the infinite, unwearying
patience of the divine Heart to continue to woo and to work in the
face of such wilfulness!
I was not only stubborn but fearful. If I let go
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and put myself wholly and unconditionally in His possession and
control what might He not take from me? What might He not ask of me? I
was in the same state of mind as was the college girl who said she
would like to yield herself wholly to God but she was afraid He would
take advantage of her. To put the truth very bluntly I would have been
glad to have turned over to the Lord for His possession and control
all the unpleasant, unmanageable, uncontrollable part of myself if He
would have left the rest to me!
But God dealt very gently and tenderly with me, drawing me closer
and closer to Himself by the cords of love. To master my will He had
to melt my heart. "What? know ye that ye are not your own for ye are
bought with a price?" Bought! Not my own because bought! Here again
was something new. I had been thinking that by yielding to Christ I
would be conferring the ownership of my life upon Him, that I would be
making an outright gift to Him. But God showed me that day that I
already belonged to Christ by the right of purchase and that Christ's
claim to the undivided possession and control of my life was an
absolutely legitimate one. Who could deny one the right to that which
He had purchased?
Convinced again and still not constrained to yield. "Ye are not
your own for ye are bought with a price." Oh! THAT PRICE! "Redeemed
not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." The
precious blood of Christ the price paid for me! The life of the
spotless, stainless, sinless Son of God
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laid down for my paltry, insignificant, sinful, selfish life! ALife
given for a life!
2 Cor. 5:15, "And that he died for all, that they which live
should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died
for them, and rose again."
Life for a Life
"Oh, hands, outstretched upon the tree,
Nail-pierced by shameless cruelty!
Why, blessed Christ, had this to be?
A voice most loving said to me:
'Dear child, these hands of Mine were bruised
That thine in ministry be used
In loving service such as Mine;
My hands were given to purchase thine.'
"Oh, feet of Christ, so rent and torn!
How could such suffering be borne?
In life, so often spent and worn,
In death, must they be given to scorn?
'On mercy's errands thine may go,
A free, glad helpfulness to show;
It was for thee,' the Saviour said,
'My feet for thine so sadly bled.'
"Oh, head of Christ, with thorn-wrought crown!
In grief and agony bowed down;
Why didst Thy heavenly renown
Exchange for earthly jeer and frown?
'My child, beneath those thorns I bought
Thy intellect and all its thought;
The glory-crown was left for thee,
That thou mightst give thy mind to Me.'
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"Oh, heart of Christ! Oh, wounded side!
Oh, Man of Sorrows, crucified!
Who in such anguish, sinless, died,
Hast Thou done aught for me beside?
'Ah, child of mine, my heart was riven
That thou mightst live and love in Heaven;
That all thy heart, thy life, might be
Surrendered joyfully to Me.'"
I had been saying "Must I give myself to Him?" But on that day
kneeling in spirit at the foot of the Cross of Christ I said from the
depths of my heart "May I yield all that I am and have for time and
for eternity to Him who gave all for me?"
And what was the basic motive in the yielding? It was the joyous
response of love to Love following the spiritual apprehension of the
reasonableness and rightfulness of Christ's claim upon my life and the
use He desired to make of it.
Then let us define yielding. Yielding is the definite,
deliberate, voluntary transference of the undivided possession,
control and use of the whole being, spirit, soul and body from self to
Christ, to whom it rightfully belongs by creation and by purchase. In
yielding to Christ we crown Him Lord of all in our lives.
"Consecration does not confer ownership, it presumes it. It is not in
order to be His, but because we are His, that we yield up our lives.
It is purchase that gives title; delivery simply gives possession. The
question is not, 'Do I belong to God?' but 'Have I yielded to God that
which already belongs to Him?'" (The Surrendered Life, J.H. McConkey,
page 17)
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In a city in North China there was a Girls' School. The students
grew in numbers which necessitated more buildings. Adjoining the
school were just the buildings needed, the property of a Chinese
family. After much bargaining a sale was effected. The papers were
drawn up and the purchase price paid. In the autumn the school fully
expected to open work in the new buildings. But they were unable to do
so. Why not? The Chinese family had not moved out. Purchase gives
title but only delivery gives possession.
Christ has the title deed to your life. The price was paid nearly
two thousand years ago. It is His by the right of purchase. Have you
moved out that He may move in and occupy what He already possesses?
Christ has the right to exempt you from His property; He is Lord
and He has the right to command you to yield. But Christ's way is to
constrain by love rather than to conquer by force. So He beseeches us
by the innumerable mercies of God of which we are daily the recipients
to yield ourselves to Him.
Rom. 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service."
Yielding is the glad, joyous, willing response of love to Love.
"We love him because he first loved us." Bought with a price,
"therefore" we gladly glorify Him in our body and spirit, which are
His. "I beseech you"--I have given My life in death for you, will you
not give yours in life for Me? True yielding is just
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the utter abandonment of love. It is the call of the Bridegroom "Rise
up, my love, my fair one, and come away," to which the bride joyfully
responds, "I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me."
Oh! my friend, does this not take the "must" out of surrender for
you? Does it not answer the question "Is it safe?" Have you only
thought of yielding in the light of what you would have to give up? To
yield does involve a giving up but it means giving up what really is
not yours; it means giving up something only to get something of
infinitely greater worth; yes, it means giving up something that He
needs for His use to the One we love best; more than all it means
giving up something to the One who loves us with a love so great that
He died for us and now waits to bestow upon us all the exhaustless
treasures that are ours in Him. Can we not trust "the Man who died for
us"?
Rom. 8:32, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
1 Cor. 3:21-23, "Therefore let no man glory in men. For all
things are yours; Whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or
life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."
"Surrender taken alone is a plunge into a cold void. When it is a
surrender to the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me it is
the bright home coming of the soul to the seat and sphere of life and
power."
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The Life Yielded. What?
We have seen what yielding is--the transference of the ownership
and control of the life from self to Christ. But self will relinquish
nothing except under compulsion. So it is necessary to understand at
the outset just what the full measurement of a yielded life is.
May we clear the atmosphere by saying what yielding is not. It is
not mere subscription to a creed; nor is it a giving of one's self to
a certain kind or field of service; nor is it merely stripping the
life of certain evil or questionable practices. How many a person has
said, "I am afraid to yield myself wholly to the Lord for I know He
will make me believe something I can't believe, or will ask me to go
somewhere that I do not want to go, or will rob me of something that I
want to keep." To such yielding is altogether a negative thing while
in reality it is essentially positive. God wants us. It is the whole
of ourselves that He asks us to yield to Him that our whole life may
be lived unto the will of God.
Rom. 6:13, "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God."
2 Cor. 8:5, "And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave
their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God."
1 Pet. 4:2, "That he should no longer live the rest of his time
in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."
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Then God specifies the measurement a bit more explicitly lest we
be satisfied merely with "the saving of our soul" or "the giving of
our heart to the Lord." It is the easiest thing in the world to use
the phraseology of consecration while missing the reality of it. It is
possible to deceive ourselves by surrendering the invisible and
intangible thing while holding on to the visible and tangible. So God
asks for the body as well as for the spirit and soul. Read again Rom.
12:1.
God leaves no loophole in this matter of yielding. He knows full
well how the beauty of a life may be marred and its testimony
nullified by the unyieldedness of even one member of the body. Who can
read the Epistle of James and not know that many a life fails of
complete surrender through an unyielded tongue? What possibilities for
covetousness through an unyielded eye? What paths of wickedness and
worldliness are open before unyielded feet! What a catchall for
gossip, slander and idle talk, is an unyielded ear! What a loss to God
in His service is an unyielded voice! God specifies the measurement of
surrender and it reaches out to include every member of your body.
"Yield your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."
"Yourselves"
"Your bodies"
"Your members"
It is all-inclusive. Nothing is omitted and nothing is exempt.
God has sanctified our whole personality. He has set it all apart as
His own personal possession and for His own use. Our consecration is
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the counterpart of God's sanctification. God has taken us to be His
own: He has said, "Thou art mine." We yield ourselves as those
belonging unto Him and sanctify Christ, as Lord, in our hearts and
say, "Lord, I am Thine, what wilt Thou have me to do?"
1 Thess. 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly;
and I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Pet. 3:15, R.V., "But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord."
The measure of our yielding is the measure of our human life. It
includes everything inside, spirit, mind, heart, will, affections. It
includes everything outside, home, children, possessions, occupation.
It includes everything allied, friendships, time, money, pleasures,
life plans.
It includes our past, present and future. No matter what the past
has held of sin, sorrow or self it is all handed over to Christ in a
once-for-all committal. But some can surrender the past who find it
difficult to yield the present to Christ's control. There is the
desire to reserve a bit of ground. Others can surrender the past and
present because driven to it by disheartenment or desperation but they
are fearful to put the future wholly into His keeping. How do they
know that God can be trusted to be faithful or that they desire to
live under His absolute sway for all time?
When giving a message on the yielded life at
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a Conference I noticed the anxious, troubled face of a woman on the
front seat. I said, "You are able to trust July to God but fearful to
put September into His keeping." Her face lighted up with a smile
which was in truth an acknowledgment of being caught in the very act
of worry. After the meeting she said, "That remark about committing
September to the Lord hit me. I could be very happy here now but I
must have an operation in September and I have only half enjoyed this
beautiful place because I am worrying over September!"
Yielding includes our worst and our best. Some find it very
difficult to believe that God can accept or want them because there is
so much of "the worst" that persists in their lives. But "Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" is an invitation extended to
the sinning saint as truly as to the sinner. Grace abounds from the
beginning clear through to the end of our lives. So no matter how
often we have repeated the same sin if we come yielding ourselves
unconditionally to Him He waits to receive us, and the blood of Jesus
Christ is equal to any demand made upon it for cleansing.
Others find no difficulty in bringing to God the dregs of sin in
their unyielded lives but find it extremely hard to yield their best
to Him. In fact they see no necessity to do so. Here is some one with
very excellent judgment. The superior quality of it is recognized by
the possessor who almost believes in his infallibility on all matters.
The result is a domineering, overbearing person with whom it is
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exceedingly difficult for others to work. This point was mentioned
once before a group of Christian workers. Afterward a missionary said,
"You talked about me this morning! I am that person with the good
judgment and I am sure I have made things difficult for my
fellow-missionaries. I see now that even my good judgment must be
yielded to the Lord."
Here is another who is very efficient and she holds the same
opinion of herself that a young business woman held who said, "Why do
I need to ask the Lord how to do something when, if I use my own good
sense, I know as well as He how to do it?" That is putting it very
crudely but is not our failure often due to a similar self-trust?
Perhaps here is one with a charming personality who is extremely
popular and easily draws a crowd about her. She can see the need of
some homely, unattractive person yielding herself to the Lord to be
made inwardly beautiful. But why should she do so? Does she not
attract people already? Oh! but to whom? To herself or to her Lord?
Our best can hinder the revelation of Christ through us as truly as
our worst.
In taking the measure of our surrender to the Lord Jesus it
should be a settled matter that there can be no reservations. We
cannot set aside any part of our lives and earmark it "reserved." If
Christ is to be Lord, He must be Lord of all. We must let Christ begin
at the center and go to the circumference of our lives laying hold of
all in His path and bringing it under His dominion.
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It should also be understood that there can be no substitutes
offered to the Lord. We cannot buy God off with money or bribe Him to
accept our time, talents or service in lieu of ourselves. Having once
offered ourselves in a glad, willing yielding to the Lord, all that we
have in the way of natural endowment, acquired skill or bestowed
wealth will accompany such surrender but can never be accepted by God
as a substitute for it. God wants first of all "not yours" but "you."
Let it be understood also that we cannot bring just the
troublesome, unmanageable parts of our lives to God asking Him for
spiritual repairs while we withhold the will, the heart, the mind. How
much we are like the man who took the hands of his clock to the
jeweller and asked him to regulate them as they did not keep time.
"Bring me the whole clock," said the jeweller, "the cause of the
inaccuracy is not in the hands." "No!" said the owner, "you will take
it all to pieces and it will cost me a lot! It is the hands that go
wrong!" The measure of our yielding is the measure of our life; the
refusal to yield any part of it, however small or insignificant it may
seem to us, is an act of rebellion and will make impossible the
fulness of the Holy Spirit in our lives. These lines we would do well
to repeat frequently:
"Have Thine own way, Lord,
Have Thine own way;
Thou art the Potter,
I am the clay.
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Make me and mold me
After Thy will,
While I am waiting
Silent and still."
The Life Yielded. How?
Perhaps some reader has been brought to say, "Lord, I will yield
to Thee. I see why I should yield, and what but now tell me how."
Because salvation from beginning to end is through God's pure grace,
He always takes the initiative in bringing us into a fuller experience
of our inheritance in Christ. So the Lord Jesus stands outside every
unyielded part of your life and knocks and waits for your response. He
wishes to come in and fellowship with you in every part of your
spiritual life but in between the knocking and the entering something
must take place, for Christ never forces entrance. If He enters, the
door must be opened.
Rev. 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man
hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup
with him, and he with me."
Yielding to Christ is a definite act. It is not a mere expression
of a pious desire but it is the declaration of a purposeful
determination. It is not an oft-repeated wish but it is a decisive act
of the will. To yield is to acknowledge Christ's claim to the perfect
possession, complete control and unhindered use of one's whole being
and then to act upon such an acknowledgment by a definite surrender of
it to Him. Desire becomes decision and decision crystallizes into
action.
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In A Memorial of a True Life by Dr. R.E. Speer is recorded such a
definite act of surrender by Hugh Beaver, a young man of rare
spirituality whose life was very marvellously used among college
students in a few brief years of service before God called him Home.
"Kutztown, Pa., Nov. 16, 1895.
"'Just as I am,--Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.'
This 16th day of November 1895, I, Hugh Beaver, do of my own free
will give myself, all that I am and have, entirely, unreservedly,
unqualifiedly to Him, whom having not seen I love, on whom, though now
I see Him not, I believe. Bought with a price, I give myself to Him
who at the cost of His own blood purchased me. Now committing myself
to Him who is able to guard me from stumbling and to set me before the
presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy, I trust myself
to Him for all things, to be used as He shall see fit where He shall
see fit. Sealed by the Holy Spirit, filled with the peace of God that
passeth understanding, to Him be all glory, world without end. Amen.
Phil. 4:19. Hugh Beaver."
Have you by such a definite decisive act of the will yielded
yourself, all that you are, and all that you have, to the Lord Jesus?
If not, will you not close this book for a moment and do it now?
Yielding to Christ is a voluntary act. We do not yield because we
have to but because we want to. It is
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not a matter of coercion but of consecration. The Lord Jesus stands
outside the door of that unyielded portion of your life and knocks but
He will not force an entrance. It would mean very little indeed to be
allowed to enter if He did not find fellowship and comradeship with
the one within. It is Love that desires to enter but unless Love is
met by love the entrance would bring heartache rather than joy. "What
fragrance is to the rose, colour to the sunset sky, spotlessness to
the falling snow, voluntariness is to the surrender of the life." Of
His own free will He joyously, gladly lay down His life for us. With a
smile and a song He wants us to open the door to Him.
Yielding to Christ is a final act. Such a yielding of the life as
we have been considering is irreversible; it need not be repeated. If
it has been done honestly it is for time and eternity. Great
perplexity of heart has come to countless souls over this matter of
repeated surrender so let us be clear as to what has been done and
then we shall see how irrevocable the act has been.
Through yielding to Christ we have acknowledged that we are not
our own and we have transferred the ownership of our life from self to
Christ. Henceforth the life is no longer ours. A re-surrender implies
that the transfer had not been honestly made.
Of course one does not know all that is involved in this initial
act of surrender or all that it will require of one. When you begin to
live only and wholly for God there will be constant revelations of
portions of the life still virtually held by self as its own
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possession. The heart will be made conscious of unwillingness to
relinquish certain rights and privileges so long enjoyed. What, then,
must one do as these revelations come? Does one need to make a
surrender of the life over again? No, that was done once for all.
Simply say, "Lord, this thing which I am still claiming and holding as
my own was part of that whole which I yielded to Thee. It, too,
belonged in that initial surrender. I thank Thee for Thy faithfulness
in showing me that it is unyielded and just now I give it into Thy
possession and place it under Thy control."
There is an initial act of yielding that is to be followed by a
continuous attitude so that as we come to know God and His will better
through daily communion we yield instantly to Him any unyielded place
or thing. Some one has tersely said, "Surrender is a crisis that
develops into a process."
May I use a very homely illustration? A man and woman through
mutual faith and love yield themselves to each other in marriage.
Neither of them knows then all that is involved in this surrender to
each other. The wife knew that her time must be given to making the
home but she had not realized how little opportunity would be left for
the things she had formerly done. She rebels and uses time for things
which necessitates neglect of home duties. Misunderstanding and
estrangement follow. Or the husband knew that money would be required
to care for his wife and supply the needs of the home but he did not
know what extravagant tastes she had nor what a poor manager she was.
So he has to use money he wished to spend
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on his business or his own pleasure. He rebels and trouble ensues.
What do this husband and wife do? Do they remarry each time such a
misunderstanding or disagreement comes? Even the idea is absurd. If
they are sensible and truly love each other they will acknowledge that
there was more in the marriage vows than they realized at the time;
each will recognize that all, not a part, was given in the mutual
surrender and each will be willing to yield unselfishly and gladly to
whatever makes for their mutual interest and welfare. Happy and
harmonious married life demands not only an initial act of yielding
but a continuous attitude of yielding.
We who have loved the Lord and believed in Him are united to Him.
"Ye also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ, that ye
should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the
dead." But no one of us ever knew when we entered into oneness with
Christ all that would be involved in such a union. But as we live with
Him we learn more of His desires, His will, His purposes, His plans,
and we see many things in our life contrary to these. This does not,
however, necessitate another surrender but only an instantaneous
yielding of the thing to Him.
From the human standpoint the first condition for a life lived on
the highest plane is the definite, voluntary, final yielding of the
life to Christ as Lord. The primary requirement for the fulness of the
Holy Spirit has been met. "When we surrender our sins and believe we
receive the Holy Spirit; when we surrender our lives and believe, we
are filled with the Holy Spirit. The
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receiving of the Spirit is God's answer to repentance and faith; the
fulness of the Spirit is God's answer to surrender and faith. At
conversion the Spirit enters; at surrender the Spirit, already
entered, takes full possession. The supreme human condition of the
fulness of the Spirit is a life wholly surrendered to God to do His
will." (The Threefold Secret of the Holy Spirit, J.H. McConkey, P. 43)
I once visited a college to conduct evangelistic meetings. I was
entertained in a home in which the guestroom was over the kitchen and
was approached by an outside stairway. Very soon my trunk arrived. I
was alone in the house. As it was raining very hard, I decided to have
the trunk put into the downstairs. I started to open one door but
could not--it was locked. I went to another door as there were three
in a row, and put my hand on the knob to open it but could not--it too
was locked. I tried the third door but with no better success--it also
was locked.
Suddenly seized with a strange sense of aloneness I rushed
upstairs to the little back-room guest chamber--the only place in the
house I was expected to use. To be a bit more conscious of the warm,
living, loving presence of my Christ I kneeled by the bedside to pray.
Instantly He spoke to me, saying, "Do you not know that is the way
thousands of people treat Me? They invite Me into their lives and then
they put Me away in a little back guest chamber and there they expect
Me to stay. But I long to enter into every room of their lives and
share all their experiences."
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Oh! my friends, where have you put the Lord Jesus Christ in your
life? Have you any locked doors? Have you put Him away in some little
hidden corner and given Him no freedom in your life? Has He longed to
get into the social hall of your life where all your pleasures are?
Has He put His nail-pierced hand on the door, longing to enter, but
could not--for it is locked from the inside? Has He wanted to enter
into the room where your business was carried on and share in both its
projects and profits? Has He been denied entrance because shady,
crooked practises went on there which His all seeing eye would detect?
Has He longed to enter into the room where life plans were being
shaped and to help in the fashioning of them? And He tried the door
but entrance was denied--locked from the inside? And has He who
longs to fill and to bless you gone back to His little upstairs back
room with a grieved and sorrowful heart?
I went from that college town to another. My hostess there was
a dear widow. Her home was very humble. We ate in the kitchen but oh!
such hospitality I have seldom enjoyed. Every good thing which her
frugal means would permit her to provide she had for me. The first day
she said to me, "Miss Paxson, my home is very humble but while you are
here it is all yours. Go where you want to and do just what you want
to--just make yourself at home." And I, who travelled constantly, oh!
how I spread out over that whole house and made it mine the few days I
was there!
Oh! friends, is the Lord Jesus living within you? Have you ever
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said to Him, "Lord Jesus, I have only a very simple life to offer you
as a dwelling place but while you are here it is all yours. Go where
you want to, do what you want to--just make yourself at home!" He
waits for just such an invitation. How quickly He will accept it when
once honestly offered and how He will spread out over the whole
life--truly making Himself at home. If you have not unlocked all the
doors from the inside and given Him a gracious and glad invitation to
enter, will you do so today? (Diagram XII. omitted)
"I believe on the name of the
Son of God,
Therefore I am in Him:
Having redemption through His blood
And life through His Spirit.
And He is in me, and all fulness is in Him.
To Him I belong
By purchase: conquest and self-surrender.
To me He belongs for all my hourly need.
There is no cloud between my Lord and me
There is no difficulty inward or outward, that
He is not ready to meet in me today.
The Lord is my keeper."
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IV. THE BELIEVER'S PART IN BECOMING SPIRIT-FILLED
Faith
IT may be some reader is saying "As far as I know I have yielded
my life unconditionally to Christ yet I have not the life more
abundant which He came to bring. There are still the evident marks of
the carnal Christian. Is it possible for one to be yielded and still
not be filled with the Holy Spirit?" The emptied life must be filled
and waits for faith to claim the fulness.
S.D. Gordon tells of a little girl who was praying and who said,
"Jesus, I hear you knocking at the door of my heart. Come in Jesus!"
Then rising from her knees she said, "He's in!" Surrender, kneeling at
the foot of the Cross, says, "Lord, I am not my own; I yield myself
unto Thee; I present my body a living sacrifice." Faith, looking up to
the ascended Lord at the Father's right hand, says, "Christ liveth in
me; to me to live is Christ." Surrender says, "Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do?" Faith says, "I can do all things through Christ which
strengthened me." Surrender opens the door; faith believes that Christ
enters, fills, abides. You may have crowned Him Lord and yet not have
appropriated Him as Life.
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"And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy
Ghost." The spiritual man is one full of faith.
Faith is the Complement of Grace
Did you ever see a perfect rainbow? Looking out over the ocean I
once saw distinctly both ends of a rainbow coming up out of the
water, as it were, and forming an unbroken arch. Through this
beautiful symbol the Holy Spirit interpreted to me a passage of
Scripture which revealed the place of faith in the Christian's life in
a new and telling way.
By grace Through faith
"And that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
God's arch of salvation is all of grace and it is all of faith.
From the Godward side it is all of grace; from the manward side it is
all of faith. God's grace is always perfect and its work is clear and
distinct. But oh! how imperfect is man's faith. Grace has provided in
Christ Jesus all that is needed for man's salvation even unto a life
of habitual spirituality. But such a life cannot become experimental
until faith appropriates in full the provision of God's grace in
Christ. Faith is the complement of grace.
Rom. 4:16, "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace."
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With no exception everything in the Christian's life is a gift.
Grace gives and faith takes. "Faith is man's one activity." Faith must
reach up and lay hold upon all that grace has sent down and bestowed
in Christ. Grace provides: faith possesses.
This truth stands out crystal clear in the history of the
children of Israel. As an outright gift the land of Canaan with its
manifold accompanying blessings had been bestowed upon them. It was
theirs through promise years before they ever saw it. God constantly
spoke of it as theirs. Yet it was not to be actually in their
possession until the soles of their feet trod upon it. Faith must
enter in and possess the gift already bestowed in promise.
Josh. 1:2-3, "Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go
over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do
give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the
sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given you, as I said
unto Moses."
Josh. 1:11, "Pass through the host, and command the people,
saying, Prepare you victuals: for within three days ye shall pass over
Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God giveth
you to possess it."
Furthermore the children of Israel might have entered this land
of promise forty years earlier. God led them up to the very border
line of this rich, fertile, beautiful country flowing with milk and
honey and laden with fruits. But they turned away through unbelief,
suffered forty years of weary wanderings, and
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died in the wilderness. Only the two men of faith, Caleb and Joshua,
possessed their inheritance.
Heb. 3:17-19, "But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it
not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to
them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because
of unbelief."
My Christian friend, everything you need for life on the highest
plane has been given you in Christ. God has bestowed upon you also the
Holy Spirit who already indwells you and whose chief task is to make
you spiritual. Life on the highest plane is already yours. God hath
given you every spiritual blessing in Christ. But this life with all
its accompanying blessings can only be actualized through faith. Your
faith must make experimental what grace has made possible.
Eph. 1:3, R.V., "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places in Christ."
Matt. 9:28-30, "And when he was come into the house, the blind
men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able
to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes,
saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were
opened."
Perhaps through hunger and thirst or through the remembrance of
God's gracious promises or through sheer desperation because of your
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wilderness wanderings you have come up to the border line of the
promised land again and again. It may even be that you have essayed to
go to a Keswick or to a Victorious Life Conference to spy out the
land, to see if the life was all it promised to be, above all to see
"if it works." In the lives of some you met or to whom you listened
who are yielded, full-of-faith ones you have seen marvellous clusters
of the fruit of the Spirit, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control." Yes, you are
convinced the life is all that the Bible purports it to be and you
have seen it "work" but--but--but there are giants in the land. The
world, the flesh and the devil loomed large before you and you said,
"Greater is he that is in the world than He that is in me." Through
unbelief you turned back again into the weariness, the restlessness
and the powerlessness of a carnal life.
Dear friend, does this message find you there today, grieving
God, rejoicing Satan and robbing yourself? Then it comes as God's own
command to you, "Arise, go over this Jordan; go in to possess the
land, which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it." Cease
grieving your God: possess your possessions in Christ through faith.
Whether young or old in the Christian life there is but one way
in which our spiritual possessions are actualized--by faith. Faith
opens the Christian life to us: faith accompanies us the entire length
of life's journey, and faith at last leads us into the land where we
see Him as He is and there faith gives place to sight.
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Col. 2:5-6, "For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with
you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the
stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him."
Col. 1:23, "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and
be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard,
and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven,
whereof I Paul am made a minister."
Faith opens the door to every blessing that is ours in Christ.
2 Tim. 3:15, "And that from a child thou hast known the holy
scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through
faith which is in Christ Jesus."
We have access by faith.
Rom. 5:2, "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace
wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
We have sonship by faith.
Gal. 3:26, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus."
We have righteousness by faith.
Phil. 3:9, "And be found in him, not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
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We have forgiveness of sins and sanctification by faith.
Acts 26:18, "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified
by faith that is in me."
We have cleansing by faith.
Acts 15:9, "And put no difference between us and them,
purifying their hearts by faith."
We have Christ's indwelling by faith.
Eph. 3:17, "That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith."
We receive the Holy Spirit by faith.
Gal. 3:2, "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit
by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"
We inherit the promises by faith.
Heb. 6:12, "That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who
through faith and patience inherit the promises."
We have victory over the world by faith.
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1 John 5:4, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:
and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith."
We have victory over the evil one by faith.
Eph. 6:16, R.V., "Withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one."
We have victory over circumstances and difficulties by faith.
Heb. 11:33-34, "Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of
weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight
the armies of the aliens."
We are kept through faith.
1 Pet. 1:5, "Who are kept by the power of God through faith, unto
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."
We have power through faith.
Matt. 21:21-22, "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say
unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this
which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this
mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be
done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye
shall receive."
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Matt. 17:19-20, "Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and
said, Why could we not cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because
of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a
grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence
to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible
unto you."
Two things are absolutely essential to a harmonious relationship
with God, we must believe that God is and that God does. Apart from
these two fundamental convictions there is no salvation and no
blessing.
Heb. 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for
he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the
rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
Some of Christ's severest rebukes were to unbelief in His
disciples. To have His presence, His words His works fail to inspire
faith grieved the Lord Jesus exceedingly. Even though the tempest
raged and the waves dashed high and He were asleep--yet He was there and why should they fear? Fear and faith
are incompatible.
Matt. 8:26, "And he saith unto them, why are ye fearful, O ye of
little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and
there was a great calm."
Again even though the wind were boisterous and though Peter did
begin to sink yet the Lord of the sea had said "Come." The power of
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His protection accompanied the command, then why should Peter doubt?
Doubt and faith are irreconcilable.
Matt. 14:31, "And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and
caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst
thou doubt?"
The disciples misunderstood the Master's warning concerning the
leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. But there was a far
deeper misapprehension of the Lord Jesus Himself in their hearts. They
had forgotten to take bread when they went to the other side of the
lake and they were very evidently worrying over where and how they
would get their next meal. So when He spoke to them of the leaven of
the Pharisees they said, "He sees our predicament that we have no
bread." Oh! what if they had forgotten their bread? Did they not have
with them the One who had satisfied the hunger of five thousand men,
besides women and children, with five loaves and two fishes, and had
twelve baskets to spare? And had they not just come from seeing Him
feed more than four thousand people with seven loaves and a few fishes
with seven baskets left over? Would He not be equal to furnishing an
evening meal for the twelve of them if need be? Worry and faith cannot
dwell together.
Matt. 16:8-9, "Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O
ye of little faith why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have
brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five
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loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither
the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took
up?"
Oh! how we crowd Him out of our lives by that triumvirate of
evil--fear, doubt and worry! Failing health, financial losses,
waywardness of children, overwhelming burdens, tempests of affliction
and adversity, storms of passion from within or of persecution from
without--and we become insensible to His presence, we doubt His Word
and we forget His works.
A young woman came to me one day to unburden her heart. Spirit
and body were both wearied to the point of utter exhaustion. Her face
was inexpressibly worn and haggard; furrows of care had left their
tracks in her forehead. Life was hard almost beyond the point of
endurance because of burdens, cares, worries and work. A tempest was
raging in her own soul, her ship was covered with waves and Christ
seemed asleep. But He heard her cry of distress and responded. He
commanded the waves of worry to cease saying, "In nothing be anxious,"
and besought the calm of peace to enter her soul through praise, "In
everything give thanks."
Hab. 3:17, 18, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither
shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and
the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the
fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; Yet I will rejoice in
the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."
Some of Christ's sweetest words of commendation
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were called forth by faith in Him and strange to say they were usually
spoken to those who had had the opportunity to know Him the least. A
centurion came in person to appeal to the Lord to heal his servant.
Christ quickly responded with a promise to go to him. But faith
answered, "Lord, speak the word only and my servant shall be healed."
Oh! the joy such faith brought to Jesus' heart, and the commendation
came from His lips, "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great
faith, no, not in Israel."
There is no record in God's Word and no instance in human
experience where grace and love have failed to respond to faith and
trust. God would be untrue to the very essence of His nature which is
love and to the very heart of His work which is grace if He failed
even once to respond to real faith. Whoever will come to Jesus Christ
saying, "If thou wilt, thou canst," will surely hear Him say, "I
will."
In the new sphere in Christ into which the believer enters the
very atmosphere is grace. To carry the life-giving and life-sustaining
qualities of that atmosphere into the inner life the Christian need
only use the lungs of faith. As a new-born babe begins life in its new
sphere by breathing the air that is all about it as a free gift and as
it lives and grows, by continued respirations, so the new-born child
of God begins life in Christ by taking Him as God's gift of grace by
faith and he "grows up into Christ in all things" by the continued
appropriation of Him through faith. Faith and nothing but faith avails
for us to receive the gifts and graces of our ascended Lord.
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Gal. 5:6, "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth
anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love."
In Christ we stand by faith; we walk by faith; we live by faith.
2 Cor. 1:24, "Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but
are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand."
2 Cor. 5:7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight."
Heb. 10:38, "Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man
draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."
Perhaps the thought of a life of such complete and continuous
faith appalls us and we doubt its possibility. Yet such faith is the
simplest thing in the world. Its very simplicity is its chief
difficulty to most people. Faith is looking unto Jesus Christ and
taking Him at His Word. Faith in itself has no power whatsoever to
save or to keep us: it merely links us to the Christ who has that
power. Just as grace had a definite method in giving so faith has a
definite method in receiving. Let us study some of the operations of
faith.
Faith Rests on God's Foundation
The whole superstructure of spiritual experience is built upon a
solid and unmovable foundation because it is built upon Jesus Christ
Himself.
1 Cor. 3:11, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is
laid, which is Jesus Christ."
1 Pet. 2:6, "Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he
that believeth on him shall not be confounded."
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Christ Jesus Himself is "the way, the truth and the life." Christ
crucified, risen, ascended and exalted is God's foundation. Faith is
the cable that connects and transmits the Life of the ascended Lord in
Heaven to the believer on earth.
Can we not rest our faith on such a foundation? Is there any
danger of it disintegrating? In His earthly life were all the forces
of Satan ever able to overcome Him? From the Cross did He not assure
us that full salvation had been wrought' out for us and that the work
was finished? Did not His resurrection prove His victory over every
foe? Is He not living today in countless lives as Conqueror, as Life?
Upon the triumphant, omnipotent, living, present Christ our faith
rests.
Some have made shipwreck of faith because they have built upon
the sand of human opinion and speculation rather than upon the rock
foundation of God's revealed truth. They have believed certain things
about Christ but they have not believed on Christ Himself. Christ does
not act as a guide-post to point out a way of salvation. He Himself is
the Way. Christ does not teach principles of truth by which an
unregenerate life may be guided and governed from without but Himself
is the Truth to be lived out from within. Christ does not show us "a
way of life" but He Himself enters to become the Life of our life.
God's foundation for a spiritual life is the glorious
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Person and the gracious work of His crucified, risen, ascended,
exalted Son and whosoever rests full-length upon Him for salvation and
sanctification will surely become spiritual.
"On Christ the solid rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand."
Again we may fall into unbelief, doubt and disappointment because
we have pinned our faith to a blessing and the blessing is lost; or to
an experience and the experience vanishes; or to a person and the
person fails. But true faith rests not upon a blessing, however great;
or upon an experience, however deep; but upon Him through whom they
came; nor does it rest upon any human exponent of victory, however
sincere, but upon the Victor. "He that believeth on him shall not be
confounded."
Faith is Rooted in God's great Facts
Walking along a wooded path in the mountains of Switzerland I saw
an interesting tree. On a steep slope was a tall, stately pine tree
with a huge boulder lodged right underneath it lifting the main trunk
five or six feet from the ground. The tree was fairly sitting on top
of this rock yet it shot straight upwards fifty feet or more. Even the
winter blasts had not deflected it an iota. How could such a position
be maintained with such a handicap? The secret was not hidden from our
view. The roots of the tree had spread themselves over that rock and
had gone down, deep, deep into the rich earth around so that even the
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boulder lodged at its very heart could not overturn or overwhelm it.
What a lesson it spoke! What a symbol it was! Afflictions,
adversities, sufferings, sorrows, temptations, trials, doubts,
disappointments roll in upon us during our pilgrim journey and lodge
at the very heart of us. How then can we go on in peace, patience,
power, joy and victory? Are such things not enough to overwhelm one?
No, not if faith spreads itself out over them and roots itself in the
great facts of God. What are some of these eternal facts which furnish
faith rich soil in which to root itself? First of all:
God is love.
1 John 4:8, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is
love."
It may seem as though God had utterly forsaken and forgotten you
or as though His hand of chastening were too heavy upon you. It may
seem as though He had closed His eyes and deafened His ear. It may
even seem as though He were indifferent altogether to the burden you
carry and the heartache you endure. But it is not so for God is love
and the love of God shines as the brightness of the sun whether you
are warmed and refreshed by its rays or not.
God's grace is sufficient.
2 Cor. 12:9, "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for
thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly
therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Chrift may
rest upon me."
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There will be temptations but none for which God has not provided
a way of escape. Trials will assail; God nowhere promises freedom from
them but He does promise endurance to bear them. When our weakness is
most pressing His strength is most perfect.
Christ is able to save to the uttermost.
Heb. 7:25, "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them."
Has the boulder of doubt rolled in upon you? Look upon the rich
soil into which your faith may root itself. If you have come to God
through Christ it is a fact that Christ has borne your sins and has
forgiven and forgotten them; He has put away your sin and has not only
removed its penalty but has freed you from its power; He has overcome
the world; He has defeated the devil; He lives in Heaven as your Great
High Priest, your Conqueror, your Advocate, your Intercessor to
cleanse you from sin and to keep you from sinning. Then spread the
roots of faith over every doubt and let them go deep into these great
facts of salvation.
Christ Jesus is in you, and you and Christ are one.
Col. 1:27, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you,
the hope of glory."
John 15:5, "I am the vine: ye are the branches."
Whether you are conscious of His presence or not
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He is there not as a temporary guest or as One who comes and goes
according to our spiritual moods but He is there as an abiding One. We
may neglect Him, we may forget Him still He is there. He may be
cabined in some back room but if we have ever truly opened the door to
Him He is there and into this precious fact He would have faith root
itself. You are God's child and heir.
Rom. 8:16-17, "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our
spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs;
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified together with him."
You may feel far more like a prodigal and a pauper than like a
child and an heir. But if you have put your faith in Christ as your
Saviour, you are in God's family and the wealth of the King is yours.
God would have your faith spread its roots over all depression caused
by failure and go deep down into the soil of the riches of grace in
Christ Jesus.
You are complete in Christ.
Your life may be immature in experience but God sees you complete
in Christ. Your "old man" has been crucified, you have been baptized
into Christ's death and identified with Him in His burial and
resurrection. You are now hid with Christ in God and so you are
complete in Him. Has the boulder of discouragement over your lack of
growth into Christlikeness settled down upon you? Over your coldness
of heart and times of apathy? Then spread the roots
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of faith over it and let them go down into this great and glorious
fact that you are complete in Him.
Col. 2:10, "And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all
principality and power."
You are seated with Christ in the heavenlies.
You may never once have availed yourself of the privileges,
possessions and powers of your heavenly position yet it is a fact,
nevertheless, that, if you have trusted Christ as your Saviour, you
thereby are seated with Him in the heavenlies. The powers of evil may
be attacking your spirit, soul and body but they will be unable to
overturn or overwhelm you if you spread the roots of faith over them
and let them go down into the soil of this peerless truth.
Eph. 2:6, "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
The Holy Spirit dwells within you.
You may feel that you are left to live the Christian life alone
and the weight of this responsibility may rest like a great boulder
upon your heart. But you are not left alone. "Another Comforter" who
is just like the ascended Lord in Heaven lives within you. Spread the
roots of faith over all fear and unbelief and let them sink deep down
into the fact of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor. 3:16, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
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When the Christian's faith roots itself in these great, eternal
facts of God and abides there he becomes spiritual. Faith quietly
accepts these facts as true and acts as though they were, then no
matter what rolls in upon the life to overturn it, it remains
steadfast and true and shoots heavenward in its growth into the
likeness of Christ.
Look upon the boulders that rolled one after another against the
life of the Apostle Paul which it would seem might have crushed out
his very life.
2 Cor. 11:24-28, "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes
save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I
suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In
journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils
of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the
city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils
among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness,
Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me
daily, the care of all the churches."
Yet his faith spread itself over all these perils and
persecutions, testings and trials and rooted itself in the great,
eternal facts of God's grace and love, thus enabling him to grow up to
magnificent spiritual stature.
But Paul's life was exceptional you say. He was the giant tree in
the forest. There are few who ever have a faith such as his. In the
far interior of China was a young missionary who was betrothed. The
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wedding day drew near; all preparations for it were made. Then word
came that her lover was ill. A long three days' journey stretched
between her and her loved one living alone. Down upon that woman's
heart rolled a terrific boulder of sorrow. Absolutely alone she
watched the life of the one dearest to her on earth flicker out, with
her own hands she prepared the body for burial, made the coffin, and
laid him away to rest, herself conducting the funeral service. Then
she turned to the road that led her back to live and toil alone for
the rest of her life in the Master's vineyard. Rebellious? Embittered?
No, sweetened, enriched with greater tenderness, love and devotion.
But how could it be? The roots of faith had spread out over that
terrible sorrow and had gone down, down, deep, deep into the facts of
God's unchanging love, imperishable goodness and exhaustless grace.
Faith Reckons on God's Faithfulness
Our faith may falter but His faithfulness never. Peter failed
Christ oh! so miserably that three times over he could deny his Lord.
But the faithfulness of Jesus Christ to Peter remained unshaken. The
heavenly Father cannot forget His promises nor can He deny Himself by
failing to keep them.
Ps. 89:33, "Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly
take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail."
2 Tim. 2:13, R.V., "If we are faithless, he abideth faithful; for
he cannot deny himself."
We may even be ready to give up in defeat to the enemy or to lay
down our task in sheer discouragement. We
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may be on the point of taking our hand from the plough and turning
back. But Christ is not discouraged; He will not give up; He
acknowledges no victory on the devil's part. He has called us into
fellowship with Himself; He has owned us as His possession and has
assumed the responsibility for our control and He will not lay it
aside. What He has begun in us He will continue. His work in us does
not depend upon our love for Him but on His love for us: not faith in
our faith but faith in His faithfulness is what He wants from us.
Phil, 1:6, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ."
1 Thess. 5:24, "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do
it."
I watched two young girls cross a glacier. The path was not
clearly marked out, there were great gaping holes in the ice, often
the next step had to be fairly cut out. They were not even properly
shod with spiked shoes. Yet they tripped along apparently unafraid and
in safety because they were roped to one who knew how to avoid the
dangers and surmount the difficulties of that icy path and they
reckoned on the faithfulness of their guide.
How much more can we reckon upon the faithfulness of our Guide
who knows the way before us and whose business it is to lead us safely
through all its dangers and difficulties. Our Guide delights to have
us throw away all props and helps; to let go of everything
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outside of Himself and then cast ourselves full length upon His
unfailing faithfulness. "Sarah received power ... since she counted
Him faithful that promised."
Faith Receives God's Fulness
Are you a child of God? Then by virtue of your sonship you may be
filled with the Holy Spirit. Such fulness has been promised to you and
it has been provided for you. Then why is it that you do not possess
your birthright?
There are several ways for an honest man to gain possession of a
thing; he may buy it, he may barter for it, or he may receive it as a
gift.
Can one buy the fulness of the Holy Spirit? Simon the sorcerer
thought in his heart to purchase Him and the power to confer Him upon
others for which he was severely rebuked. Can His fulness be secured
through barter? Have you perchance tried to strike a bargain with God
offering Him some odd moments of time, some remnants of strength, some
segment of talent, in exchange for the fulness of the Holy Spirit? The
rich young ruler would no doubt have exchanged half his possessions
for the life more abundant, but he went away sorrowful. One way
remains by which you may possess the Holy Spirit's fulness. It is the
gift of God.
1 John 3:24, "And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the
Spirit which he hath given us."
What does one usually do with a gift? He receives it and thanks
the giver. This is precisely what God wants
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you to do with this wondrous gift of the Holy Spirit's fulness. Let me
illustrate by a simple incident which brought this message to my own
heart with fresh meaning and power.
A dear young Chinese girl came one evening to seek the way of
salvation. That night she not only received Christ as Saviour but
yielded to Him as Lord. Immediately she was filled with a passion to
win to Christ the young man to whom she was betrothed. He was utterly
godless. After months of intercession, personal work and, above all,
exemplifying Christ in daily life before him she won him to Christ. A
marvellous miracle of renewal and transformation was wrought in him.
He became a new creation in Christ.
Nearly two years later Mr. and Mrs. Wang were passing through
Shanghai and they came to call. Their time was limited and Mr. Wang
did not want to waste one moment of it. So as soon as the introduction
was over he began conversation upon the theme nearest to his
heart--the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh! how precious Christ was to that young man! What a reality
prayer was. Out of every hour of the day he spent at least five
minutes in prayer. What a passion he had for souls! He could not sleep
at night if he had not made at least an effort to win some one to
Christ during the day. What a love for the Word of God he had! It was
his meat and drink.
Seeing his love for God's Word I was reminded of a Scofield Bible
which had been sent me to give to a Chinese friend. I presented it to
Mr. Wang saying, "I see you love the Bible. Here is a Scofield Bible
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which I should like to give you." At the mention of a Scofield Bible
his face grew radiant and the tears of joy filled his eyes. "Oh," said
he, "the other day I saw a Scofield Bible in Nanking and how I have
wanted to possess one ever since! I began to pray for one. I went to
a store to buy one. It cost too much, I couldn't afford it. I had
decided I couldn't possess one."
Remember the three ways of gaining possession. Mr. Wang had tried
to buy the Bible and it cost too much; no one had offered to exchange
one for anything he had. Just one way of possession was open to
him--to receive it as a gift. And now the Scofield Bible which he so
much desired was being offered to him as a gift. What did he do?
Did he say, "Oh! I want that Bible more than I want any other
thing but I haven't prayed long enough for it--just wait until I pray
a few months more for it!" Or did he say, "I am really not worthy to
receive that Bible! I must wait until I have made myself a better
Christian and am worthy to possess such a Bible!" Or did he reply,
"This Bible is coming too easily--just receiving it as a gift! I think
I should strive harder to get one for myself for I haven't done a
thing to merit such a gift." Or did he say, "Oh, that Scofield Bible
is what I want and need more than anything else but it is not for me!
God might give my wife such a gift but not me!" Or did he say, "You
say that Bible is for me but I do not feel that it is mine so I think
I should not take it until I feel I possess it!"
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If Mr. Wang had made any one of those foolish, absurd remarks I
should have been forced to one of two conclusions; either that he was
not honest and really did not want a Scofield Bible or else he thought
I was not honest and did not really offer that one to him. One of
these two conclusions is inescapable.
What did Mr. Wang do? Well, I wish you could have seen the
quickness with which he held out his two hands and took that Scofield
Bible and with a face all aglow with joy and gratitude he immediately
kneeled down and thanked God. As he rose to his feet he began to talk
of how he would use that gift in winning men to the Lord Jesus.
Have you wanted the fulness of the Holy Spirit? God offers Him in
His fulness to you as a gift. What have you done with the offer? Are
you still praying for the Holy Spirit's fulness? If so, what do you
expect to accomplish through your prayers? The deposit is already
placed to your account in the bank. You are still pleading with God to
put it there while He pleads with you to cash your checks. "You keep
telegraphing to God for supplies, and every year your appeals get more
plaintive and piteous; you do not realize that the freight train is
already in the station, waiting for you to discharge it; that the
heavily burdened ship is in the dock, ready for you to unload."
Or you say, "I am not worthy to be filled with the Holy Spirit"
and "I dare not expect Him to fill me until I am a better Christian."
Of course you are not worthy to have the Holy Spirit dwell in you much
less fill you. Neither was Paul, nor Peter, nor
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Spurgeon, nor Moody, worthy in themselves to be filled with the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God's gift of grace and grace is pure,
unmerited favor. Grace is not something God does because of anything
that He finds worthy in us but because of the infinite worth of His
Son. The only thing you can do to make yourself worthy of the Holy
Spirit's fulness is to take Him as God's proffered gift and let Him
make your life a fit and worthy place for His abiding.
Or do you say, "Just receiving the gifts of God's grace is too
easy and lazy a way to live the Christian life. I think I ought to
work a bit myself and strive to attain to a holy life. I do not like
the idea of sitting passive and having spiritual blessings bestowed
upon me." This sounds commendable but it runs counter to one of the
greatest truths revealed in God's Word concerning faith. "But to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness." There is not a ray of
encouragement held out in God's Word to the man who strives to attain
spirituality through his own self-effort. There are those who know
that salvation cannot be secured by works but who think that
spirituality may be so obtained. They know they can't be saved by
works but they strive to grow by works. We do grow in spirituality by
faith but we can never grow into spirituality by self-effort. Growth
is "not of works lest any man should boast." "Ye can not by taking
thought add one cubit to your stature." Making good resolutions,
signing pledges, practising self-denial during certain seasons, and
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all such self-manufactured methods of obtaining spirituality, will
prove futile. If we could grow into holiness through any effort of our
own how proud we should become and how independent of God.
Or you say, "Such a standard of spiritual life is too high for
the ordinary everyday Christian. It may be possible for the minister
or the missionary but it is beyond my reach." Yes, it is beyond the
reach of everything in you except your faith. But so long as God says,
"All things are possible to him that believeth," the fulness of the
Holy Spirit is possible to faith. God has no favorites and, what He
offers to one believer, He offers to every believer irrespective of
his calling or vocation.
Or you say, "I have been a Christian for years and I have never
felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in me. Then how can I believe He
will fill me? If I just felt He was dwelling within me, I would have
faith to believe in His infilling." Your order then is feeling, faith,
fact, which is the exact reverse of God's order. God says, "Fact,
faith, feeling." We are ever prone to trust our feelings rather than
God's facts and it is like having the roots of faith going down into
quicksand. The state of the weather, the state of our health, the
state of our pocketbook, these and countless other variable conditions
may affect our feelings. To place any confidence whatever in them is
exceedingly disastrous. God would have you say, "It is a fact that the
Holy Spirit dwells within me for God's Word says so. It is a fact that
God wants me filled with the Spirit because He commands me to be
filled and He has provided His own time and way.
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So, my friend, if you are coming to God telling Him that you long
to be filled with the Holy Spirit and yet saying any of these foolish
things, either you are not honest and really do not want to be filled
with the Holy Spirit or else you do not believe He is honest when He
offers you the gift of the Spirit's fulness.
Are you honest? Do you truly want to be filled with the Holy
Spirit? Then acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit within you;
thank God that He is there; and claim His fulness as your birthright.
Take the gift, thank the Giver, and use the gift immediately in
winning souls to Christ.
By an act of faith I receive the Spirit's fulness. By a constant
succession of acts of faith, the Spirit's fulness becomes habitual.
"Let me ask you to remember that there is no such thing as a
once-for-all fulness; it is a continuous appropriation of a continuous
supply from Jesus Christ Himself:--a moment-by-moment faith in a
moment-by-moment Saviour for a moment-by-moment cleansing, and a
moment-by-moment filling. As I trust Him, He fills me; so long as I
trust Him He fills me, the moment I begin to believe, that moment I
begin to receive; and so long as I keep believing, praise the Lord! so
long I keep receiving."
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V. THE BELIEVER'S PART IN REMAINING SPIRIT-FILLED
Obedience
IN response to surrender and faith the believer is filled with
the Holy Spirit. As he is emptied of self, God fills; as he takes of
Christ, God gives. Becoming rightly related to the Holy Spirit he
becomes spiritual. In him the Spirit dwells in fulness because over
him He has unhindered control. But the matter cannot be left there for
many a person has been filled with the Holy Spirit who has not
remained filled and life on the highest plane presumes habitual
fulness of the Holy Spirit. A Step lengthens into a Walk.
Surrender and faith as antecedents in becoming Spirit-filled were
both acts. By an act of yielding one takes the step out of a life
ruled by self into one governed by Christ. By an act of faith one
claims his birthright in the fulness of the Holy Spirit and steps out
of a life of stagnancy into one of satisfaction and sufficiency.
To many this step marks such a definite and marvellous advance in
spiritual living that it is as noteworthy an event in their spiritual
history as was their new birth through faith in Christ as Saviour. The
blessing of a life in which Christ is really all and in
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all is so transcendent that many stop short with the enjoyment of the
blessing and do not seek to know how it is to be maintained. To their
disappointment they wake some day to the realization that their peace
and power have gone.
The twofold act of surrender and faith to be of any permanent
value must become an attitude. The decisive act must be crystallized
into continuous action. Surrender and faith must be merged into
obedience. Obedience is just surrender and faith stretched over a
lifetime; the step is lengthened into a walk.
Scripture speaks often of the believer's walk and means by the
word his whole manner of living from Sunday to Sunday, from morning
till morning. Our walk is what we are translated into what we do; it
is character expressed in conduct. It is our calling in Christ in the
heavenlies actualized in conduct before men in the world.
1 Thess. 2:12, "That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called
you unto his kingdom and glory."
Eph. 4:1, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you
that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called."
To remain spiritual it is of paramount importance that the
believer should pay attention to his walk. Let us then study the
nature of the walk of a Spirit-filled Christian.
A Walk in Obedience to God's Will
Obedience is the basic principle in the family life of
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God. The Son's incarnate life opened the door into the home life of
Heaven and let us see that obedience to the will of the Father is the
secret of its happiness and harmony. Indeed Christ said that obedience
constitutes the family tie.
Matt. 12:50, "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which
is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
Obedience is likewise the basic principle in the heavenly holy
order of which Christ is the Head. To become the Head of the body He
was "obedient even unto death" and each member of the body partakes of
the fulness of the life He bestows only through obedience to the
obedient One. The preciousness and permanence of our abiding in the
fellowship of His love is determined by our obedience to His will as
He was obedient to His Father's.
Heb. 5:8-9, "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by
the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the
author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."
John 15:10, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my
love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his
love."
Obedience is the basic principle in the Kingdom of God. There
God's will is everything. The peace, joy, content of Heaven are due to
the fact that there God's will is done perfectly. So life in the
Kingdom of God is conditioned upon willingness to do His will.
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Matt. 6:10, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it
is in heaven."
Matt. 7:21, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven."
Nothing short of loving obedience can keep us in harmony with God
because in His family, His society and His Kingdom, His will is
sovereign and supreme.
In yielding his life to God the believer acknowledges that God
has a right to expect obedience from him and he accepts God's will as
the invariable standard for literally everything in his life. By
voluntarily choosing the rule of Christ instead of that of self he
places himself in the center of God's will.
Then begins the practice of the will of God in a daily, hourly,
moment-by-moment walk. Oh! what a difference there is soon found to be
between accepting the will of God in principle and submitting to it in
practice. It is one thing by one decisive act to put the hand into
God's and say, "Father, I have come to do thy will," and quite another
thing to keep it there in the daily walk of life saying, "Father, I
delight to do thy will; it is my meat and drink." Through the pressure
of some particular need or under the power of some special inspiration
the step out of self-will into God's will may be taken without the
realization that the step must lengthen into a continued, sustained,
habitual walk.
We often make the mistake of thinking that life lived in the will
of God means all sunshine and no storms;
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that to be filled with the Spirit means exemption from temptation and
suffering. But it is not so. A few days ago I started for a walk down
a mountain-road. The sun was shining brightly and I anticipated the
pure delight of a beautiful sunset over the lake and an unclouded view
of the mountains. But before long I walked straight into a rainstorm
and for half an hour rain and hail came down upon me. There was
nothing to do but walk right on which I did and came out later into
the sunshine again. Both the sunshine and the storm were allowed by
the Father in Heaven. So we find it in our walk with Him in daily
life. Two things are bound to be encountered in a walk in obedience to
the will of God; one is the temptations of Satan, and the other the
testings of God.
Every step of the walk in the will of God will be contested by
the evil one whose own greatest sin is self-will. He seduced God's
first man into disobedience and self-will and the persistent attack
that he made upon the second Man throughout His earthly life had but
one motive back of it--to deflect Him from a walk of implicit
obedience to His Father. The Spirit-filled man is now his chief target
and the temptation of disobedience is the one fiery dart above all
others that he constantly aims at him.
The devil tempts the Spirit-filled man along the line of
presumption. He tempts him to go beyond the will of God in the matter
of the Spirit's manifestation. He says to him, "If thou be
Spirit-filled, then speak in tongues." Many earnest people today are
being led astray by thinking to prove their reception of the
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Spirit's fulness by some outer, visible, spectacular manifestation
rather than by His inner supernatural presence in power. In this they
go beyond the will of God because they go beyond the Word of God.
Satan tempts also through another form of presumption, to lag
behind the will of God. He tempts the Spirit-filled man to rely upon
his spiritual attainment and to neglect the study of God's Word for
personal growth. Resting in his supposed permanent fulness he begins
to live on stale manna; to rely for strength upon his own oft-repeated
testimony; to trust in an unconsciously receding experience. More than
one Spirit-filled person has lost his fulness by attempting to live
off of it without a constant replenishing.
The devil tempts the Spirit-filled man along the line of pride.
The Holy Spirit's motto is "Christ everything;" Satan's motto is
"Anything but Christ." So he tempts the Spirit-filled man to look away
from Christ and to look in unto self. He has achieved a real victory
when he gets the Spirit-filled man to rejoice in his fulness and to
testify regarding his blessing rather than to rejoice in the Giver of
the fulness and to sing praises unto the Blesser. The grave danger of
fixing one's eyes upon an experience, however exalted and blessed,
instead of upon Him who bestowed it was expressed very tellingly by
Spurgeon when he said:
"I looked at Christ
And the dove of peace flew into my heart;
I looked at the dove of peace--
And it flew away."
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The one who places such emphasis upon the blessing is very apt to
look reproachfully upon those who have not a similar one. He becomes
self-righteous and indulges in criticism and Phariseeism. He looks
down upon others with a "holier than thou" attitude which is evidence
enough of the diminishing fulness of the Holy Spirit.
Satan tempts the Spirit-filled man along the line of persecution.
Satan's one purpose is to deflect him from obedience and if he cannot
do it by pressure from within he will attempt it by persecution from
without. The Spirit-filled men of the early Church were stoned,
beaten, imprisoned and killed. The form of persecution endured today
by the Spirit-filled Christian may take a different form but it is
none the less real. He who stands four-square for " the whole Gospel
in the whole Bible for the whole world " in these days of apostasy is
bound to endure persecution. Many a person has given place to the
devil in the matter of his faith because he could not endure the taunt
of being "unscholarly" or "unintellectual" or because he did not have
the courage of his conviction in the atmosphere of opposition and
denial. But such persecution is certain to come to every godly
believer.
2 Tim. 3:11-12, "Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at
Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out
of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
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In this walk of obedience to God's will we shall be met also by
the testings of God. Sometimes it has happened that one who has
refused to yield to the temptations of Satan has succumbed to defeat
through the testings of God. There is the subtle danger that one who
has lived a consistent, yielded, devoted Christian life may think that
he has gained thereby a place of special favor in God's family circle
and that he merits exoneration from the sufferings of adversity or
affliction. A very earnest, active Christian man recently uttered a
doubt as to the goodness of God because He had permitted an affliction
to come into his home. But let us beware of ever thinking that God's
love and goodness mean favoritism, and above all let us not lose the
blessing out of even the keenest suffering God permits us to endure by
failing to trust Him.
It is well for us to know at the very beginning of our walk in
obedience to God that it will mean testing through suffering. We have
the pattern for such a walk in the earthly life of our Lord. "Though
he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he
suffered." Think of it--HE learned obedience! With a sinless nature
that rejoiced above everything else to do His Father's will we would
think there would have been no necessity for Him to learn obedience.
But the Word tells us that He needed to learn obedience and that this
was accomplished through the things that He suffered. Is there one of
us who does not need to begin in the primary and go clear through the
university in the school of obedience? And if our
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divine Teacher learned what He would teach us on this great theme
through suffering can we expect to learn it in any other way? God does
not deceive us in this matter and tells us plainly that we shall be
partakers of Christ's sufferings, and this in full accord with His
will.
1 Pet. 4:12-13, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the
fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened
unto you. But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's
sufferings: that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad
also with exceeding joy."
1 Pet. 4:19, "Wherefore let them that suffer according to the
will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as
unto a faithful Creator."
We shall suffer through the misunderstanding, reproach and
rejection of those who refuse the Lord Jesus the rule over their
lives. It may even be that those of our own household will inflict
upon us the keenest suffering we will ever endure. "And a man's foes
shall be they of his own household." Even our welldoing may be evil
spoken of and our work and prayer for the salvation of those we love
be wholly misinterpreted. But remember Him who "came unto his own and
his own received him not;" who was accused of "casting out devils
through Beelzebub the chief of the devils," and who wept over
Jerusalem saying, "How often would I ... and ye would not."
1 Pet. 3:16-17, R.V., "Having a good conscience; that wherein ye
are spoken against, they may be put to shame
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who revile your good manner of life in Christ. For it is better, if
the will of God should so will, that ye suffer for well-doing than for
evil-doing."
1 Pet. 4:14, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy
are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their
part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified."
We shall suffer through the chastening which in His infinite love
God sees is necessary for our spiritual growth. We need to keep
constantly in mind the goal which God has set for us--conformity to
the image of His Son. "And this is the will of God even your
sanctification." "Be ye holy even as I am holy." It is a wondrous
thing God wills to work out in us and He has His own method of doing
it. To polish the vessel into greater perfection God often uses the
method of chastening. No words are so clear and comforting on this
theme as those of Scripture itself.
Heb. 12:6-11, "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. IF ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons: for what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are
partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and
we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto
the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we
might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby."
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I think of a dear friend whose life is daily being refined as by
fire through a terrible affliction which has come upon her only
daughter. While talking with her I have seen her face radiant with the
light that can come only from a heart at rest in the will of God at
the same time her eyes have been blinded with tears. Through her
affliction she has become a partaker of the holiness of God.
A Chinese Christian came to talk with me about her old mother for
whom she was greatly burdened. She was an ardent idolater and for more
than thirty years had been a devoted vegetarian. The daughter had
preached the Gospel to her mother, had prayed for her, and had pled
with her to become a Christian, but to no avail. The mother's heart
hardened rather than softened. "Why does God not hear my prayer for my
mother?" she asked almost as though chiding God. I had watched the
daughter's face as she talked; there were hard lines in it that were
the outward token of inward rebellion. A bit of gentle probing and
soon with a flood of tears came the confession of awful rebellion
toward God because He had taken her five boys one after another home
to Himself--the baby having gone only a month before. "God is unfair
and unloving, yea, even cruel!" such was the language of her soul. The
will of God was not good and perfect but unjust and unkind. Hardness
of heart followed upon rebellion. But God wrought a miracle of grace
that day by enabling her joyously to accept and submit to the gracious
will of God. Oh! the riches of His grace! The next day in a way wholly
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inexplicable except by God's supernatural working the old mother came
a long distance in from the country to see her daughter. Startled by
something in the daughter's face which she had never seen there before
she asked what had happened. Then followed the confession of her
rebellion toward God because of her affliction and of the hardness of
her heart. The old mother's heart was strangely moved and softened and
very shortly it opened to admit the Saviour. "No chastening for the
present seemeth to be
joyous--nevertheless afterward ..."
We shall suffer through trials and tribulations permitted to test
the sincerity of our surrender and the reality of our faith. Abraham
was permitted to build the altar, to lay on the wood, to bind Isaac,
to lay him on the altar, to stretch forth his hand, yea, even to take
the knife to slay his own son, before the angel of the Lord called
unto him from heaven, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do
thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing
thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." Some such
test may be used by God to bring into the light the quality of our
surrender and faith.
1 Pet. 1:6-7, R.V., "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a
little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold
trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold
that perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise
and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
In conversation with a godly man who verily walked
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with his Lord the fact was disclosed that the life of joy and peace in
the Lord which he then enjoyed had come only after he had walked
through a hailstorm of trial which had stripped him of several
hundreds of thousands of dollars. But you could not have bought him
back to his former life had you laid that amount in cash upon his
table.
In the recent trouble in Nanking, China, many of the Chinese
Christians lost all their earthly possessions. But their hearts were
filled with praise that God had counted them worthy to suffer thus for
Christ.
Some pamphlets and books which have reached a circulation of
hundreds of thousands and have brought untold blessing to countless
persons were written by a man whose body is so frail that he can write
for only a few moments at a time. But everything that comes from his
pen breathes forth the joy and peace of a heart sunk deep into
submissiveness to the will of God.
Again some have faltered by the way and failed to walk obediently
because they have murmured at God's choice of a path. They rejoiced in
the thought of being "made perfect in every good work to do his will"
but they mistook a good work for a great work. Instead God asked for a
quiet walk with Him in the obscurity of the home perchance ministering
to the needs of an aged parent or a sick sister. God's will was to
live joyously before Him and patiently before others, following the
example of Him who as truly did His Father's will when making tables
in the carpenter shop and assisting in the support of a widowed mother
as when He fed five thousand people or taught the
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multitude. Only a very few of those who were filled with the Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost were made apostles; most of the one
hundred and twenty were sent back into the ordinary life of business
and home. God wishes us at the very beginning of our walk with Him to
accept His will as "good and perfect and acceptable" and then to enter
into each day sinking our will into His and submitting with joy and
gladness to whatever comes during its hours knowing that every testing
and trial is being used by Him to mature our growth into the likeness
of our Lord.
Heb. 13:21, "Make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus
Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
James 1:2-4, R.V., "Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye jail
into manifold temptations (trials): Knowing that the proving of your
faith worketh patience. And let patience have its perfect work, that
ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing."
A Walk in Conformity to God's Ways
God's will is not an intangible, indefinite thing. Indeed so
practical is it that it stretches itself over our entire manner of
living claiming the authority to fashion our daily walk.
Deut. 5:33, "Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your
God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with
you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall
possess."
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1 Kings 3:14, "And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my
statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I
will lengthen thy days."
Over the family life of His children the heavenly Father presides
and He fully expects to counsel with them regarding the kind of
clothes they wear; the books they read; the studies they pursue; the
companions they seek; the business they enter; the money they spend;
the possessions they have; the life plans they form; their habits of
recreation and play as well as of work; and their food and drink.
Radiating from the will of God as the center there are ways of
thinking, talking, resting, working, playing, eating, dressing, living
which are consistent with our home life in the heavenlies and are
worthy of the training which we have received of our Father.
Phil. 1:27, R.V., "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the
gospel of Christ."
Phil. 2:15, R.V., "That ye may become blameless and harmless,
children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse
generation, among whom ye are seen as lights in the world."
Yet there are prodigals in the Father's family who despising the
restraints in the Father's home go their own way into the far country.
There are others who remain at home but reserve the right in certain
matters to conform their ways to those of the world. There are
Christian men who contend that in business one must use the methods of
the world to succeed even if they are
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somewhat shady and dishonouring. There are earnest Christian women who
in matters of dress follow the extreme fashions of the world. There
are both men and women who in most of their ways of life have sought
and followed the Lord's guidance, yet in the one supreme choice--that
of a partner for life--have disobeyed God's direct command to marry
"in the Lord," and a life of suffering and sorrow has often been the
result. There are leaders of the Church even who have departed so far
from God's ways of financing His work that they have filled the house
of prayer with the tables of money changers. Many a Christian has
ceased to walk in the will of God because at some definite point he
has departed from the ways of God. To be filled again with God's
Spirit will mean to return to the place of disobedience in confession
of sin and then start aright in God's way.
1 Pet. 1:14, R.V., "As children of obedience, not fashioning
yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance."
Rom. 12:2, R.V., "And be not fashioned according to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
But it is not only in what we do but in what we do not do that we
fail to follow the ways of the Lord. In so many homes God seems to
figure so little in the ordinary life of week days. The family attends
church together on Sunday and perhaps the children are sent to Sunday
School but there is no family altar, no blessing
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at the table, no mention of God in conversation.
A Walk in Obedience to the Word of God
Some may plead ignorance of the will of God as an excuse for
disobedience. But God does not ask us to walk in the dark. God has
spoken to us and His will is clearly revealed in His Word. Over and
over again in the Old Testament God commanded the children of Israel
to hearken unto His voice and then to do what they heard. And He
commanded parents to teach their children that the children also might
walk in the will and way of God. "The word 'obey' comes from a Latin
compound, it means that you do in consequence of what you hear." In
the New Testament God makes the same appeal to His children.
Deut. 28:1, "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken
diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do
all his commandments which I command this day, that the LORD thy God
will set thee on high above all nations of the earth."
James 1:22-24, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers
only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word,
and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a
glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straitway
forgetteth what manner of man he was."
To walk in the whole will of God requires that we walk in the
whole truth of God. Some err and depart from walking in God's ways
because they reserve to themselves the right to become critics of
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God's Word and to accept or reject it according to the dictates of
reason. But how can one do the will of God when he has rejected some
portion of the Word of God which possibly he most needs? Will one who
has rejected the personality of the Holy Spirit pay much attention to
the command "Be filled with the Spirit"? Another may have refused to
accept the truth of a life of victory over the power of sin even
thinking it an unscriptural doctrine. Then he is not likely to obey
the command to reckon himself dead to sin and to let it not reign over
him. Walking in the will of God demands a walking in the truth of God.
2 John 4, "I rejoice greatly that I found of thy children walking
in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father."
3 John 4, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children
walk in truth."
When one has accepted the whole truth of God's inspired Word, he
has opened his whole being to the light that streams from the throne
of God and he has come into such an adjustment to the Spirit of truth
that he can be led into a walk in the pure light of God's Word.
John 16:13, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit 0} truth, is come, he
will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but
whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will shew you
things to come."
1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his
Son cleanseth us from all sin."
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The one, who submits himself to the teaching of the Holy Spirit
and who takes the Word of God to be the standard by which his life is
to be fashioned and directed, will be filled with an intense desire to
know the will of God. He will make it the most fervent prayer of his
life that he may be filled with a knowledge of God's will so that he
may walk worthy of his Lord.
Col. 1:9-10, "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it,
do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled
with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all
pleasing."
To such a man the Word of God becomes a new Book and the
discovery of God's will therein will not be a duty to be shunned but a
delight to be enjoyed. His spiritual life may be marvellously enriched
or even quite revolutionized by the discovery of and obedience to some
command. The "Unknown Christian" in How to Live the Victorious Life
gives this personal testimony, "As the writer looks back on his past
life nothing so surprises him as the fact that he failed to see, or
grasp, or apprehend this Victorious Life teaching, although it is not
new, although it is so plainly taught in Scripture."
Think of the change that would be wrought in some life given up
to worry, anxiety and fretfulness if the commands "In nothing be
anxious" (Phil. 4:6) and "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts"
(Col. 3:15) were really obeyed. Witness the sunshine of
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joy and praise flood some murmuring, discontented, grumbling heart
that begins to live by "Be ye thankful" (Col. 3:15), "In everything
give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you" (1 Thess. 5:18), and "Rejoice in the Lord alway" (Phil. 4:4).
What times of defeat and depression we might avoid if we just did as
God commanded, "Neither give place to the devil" (Eph. 4:27), "Resist
the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). What a preventive to
yielding to temptation and what a defense against Satan's attacks is
for us in this command, "Put on the whole armour of God" (Eph. 6:11).
What a wealth of blessing we might carry even in our casual contacts
with people if we were zealous to follow His direction regarding our
conversation. "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,
but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister
grace unto the hearers" (Eph. 4:29). What division among Christians
would be displaced by the unity for which our Lord prayed if we obeyed
some of His simple, direct commands. "Let nothing be done through
strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things but every
man also on the things of others" (Phil. 2:3-4), "Be subject one to
another ... be clothed with humility" (1 Pet. 5:5). What relief even
from physical suffering might result from habitual obedience to His
command, "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do
all to the glory of God"
(1 Cor. 10:31). What possibilities of testimony to others of
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the beauty, glory and attractiveness of the life in Christ by
simple obedience to His Word, "And whatsoever ye do in word or in
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and
the Father by him" (Col. 3:17).
But perhaps to some a walk of such complete obedience seems
unattractive; while to others it seems impossible. Whether or not it
is attractive and desirable to us will depend upon two things, our
confidence in the Lord and our love for Him. Do we truly believe that
God is love? Then we must believe that His will is "good and perfect"
and that every command is given not only for the sake of His glory but
for our welfare. God is not a tyrannical despot who rejoices in
lording it over His subjects. He does not command simply to show His
authority. God is a Father and every command He gives looks toward
both the immediate and the ultimate good of His child. Our unshakeable
belief in the infinite goodness and kindness of God is essential to
the joyous obedience to His commands. But we cannot force ourselves to
love His will. Our love for God must dovetail into His love for us
before we joyously obey His commands. When once we truly love Him more
than we love ourselves, more than we love any other person, or thing,
then God's commands are not grievous but gracious to us; they cease to
be a duty and become a delight.
John 14:21, 23, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. ...
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Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my
words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and
make our abode with him."
But to some it seems an utter impossibility to keep the
commandments of God. This leads us to our last thought.
A Walk in the Spirit
Let us admit without hesitation that a life of obedience to God
in our own strength is absolutely impossible. We have not the power in
ourselves to obey even one command habitually, to say nothing of the
power for a continuous walk in obedience.
But for that reason let us not conclude that God asks something
unreasonable or impracticable and therefore impossible and thus excuse
ourselves for settling down into habitual disobedience. Frances Ridley
Havergal says truly, "We may be quite sure of three things. First,
that whatever our Lord commands us, He really means us to do.
Secondly, that whatever He commands is 'for our good always.' And
thirdly, that whatever He commands He is able and willing to enable us
to do, 'for all God's biddings are enablings.'"
If "God's bidding is His enabling," then our part is to discover
His provision for a walk in obedience to His will, His ways and His
Word.
Gal. 5:25, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the
Spirit."
Gal. 5:16, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lust of the flesh."
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By accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour the believer is translated
into the sphere of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, then, stands ready to
take all responsibility for a "walk" that is in full accord with such
a "life." He comes into the believer to indwell and to infill for that
very purpose. He knows the mind and the will of God and He will unfold
it to us through the Word of God and give to us the desire and the
strength to obey.
1 Pet. 1:22, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the
truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that
ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."
The Holy Spirit knows the ways of God and He will reveal them to
us through the Word and guide our footsteps into the right paths so
that we may walk step by step in obedience to the will of God. He will
restrain us from one course and constrain us toward another. He will
rebuke and reprove us whenever we step out into any by-path of the
flesh. If in some particular issue self is allowed to regain supremacy
and some part of our walk is dishonouring to God, the Holy Spirit will
work within us to guide us back. He not only guides but He guards. He
knows every motion and activity of the flesh, every subtle trick and
evil design to trip and ensnare the one who walks with God. And He is
able even to keep us from stumbling. If we have yielded to Him the
control of our lives and have put all authority into His hands, He
accepts the responsibility for our walk before God and men.
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Rom. 8:14, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God."
Jude 24, R.V., "Now unto him that is able to guard you from
stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without
blemish in exceeding joy."
Chafer in his book He That Is Spiritual has stated so helpfully
the meaning of a walk in the Spirit that I shall quote at length from
it. "The passage (referring to Gal. 5:16) is better rendered 'This I
say then, By means of the Spirit be walking, and ye shall not fulfil
the lust of the flesh!' The child of God has no power within himself
whereby he can enter, promote, or maintain a 'walk in the Spirit.'
This Scripture when rightly rendered, does not make the impossible
demand upon a Christian that he in his own strength is to accomplish a
'walk in the Spirit.' It is rather revealed that the Spirit will do
the walking in the Christian. The human responsibility is that of a
whole dependence upon the Spirit. Walking by means of the Spirit is
simply walking by a definite reliance upon the ability and power of
the One who indwells. ... The third condition of true spirituality is,
then, an unbroken reliance upon the Spirit to do what He has come to
do and what He alone can do. Such is the Father's provision that sin
may be prevented in the life of His child. ... The child of God has an
all-engaging responsibility of continuing in an attitude of reliance
upon the Spirit. This is his divinely appointed task and place of
cooperation in the mighty undertakings of God. The locomotive engineer
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will accomplish little when pushing at his ponderous train. He is not
appointed to such a service. His real usefulness will begin when he
takes his place at the throttle. The important conflict in the
believer's life is to maintain the unbroken attitude of reliance upon
the Spirit. Thus, and only thus, can the Spirit possess and vitalize
every human faculty, emotion and choice."
If to some a walk in habitual obedience to the will, the ways and
the Word of God even in the power of the indwelling Spirit still seems
impossible, let us remember that a walk is taken step by step. It is a
step at a time. And each step taken in obedience makes the next step
easier. As we walk in the Spirit our confidence in His power to guide
and to guard us deepens and our reliance upon Him grows.
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VI. THE BELIEVER'S PART IN REMAINING SPIRIT-FILLED
Bible Study
THE greatest problem of the spiritual man is how to live
habitually on the highest plane. The question of continuance is the
one that perplexes him most. What the Holy Spirit begins in salvation
He continues in sanctification. He works for permanence and progress
in the spiritual experience of the Christian.
An Abiding and an Abounding Life
Salvation which commences in accepting Christ as Saviour
continues in abiding in Him as Life. The last word Christ spoke to His
disciples was on the kind of life they were to live after He went away
from them. It was not to be a variable up-and-down experience but
their life was to be characterized by steadiness and sturdiness.
Permanence would be one of its outstanding marks. It was to be an
abiding life. Abiding is a steady continuance in an already
established relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was to be a life abounding in the exhaustless resources of the
Lord of Heaven and earth. Life on the highest plane demands growth.
There is to be nothing static in experience, stagnant in condition or
slothful in action in the spiritual man's life. The language of
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the spiritual man is always, "Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended; ... forgetting those things which are behind and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." The passion of
the spiritual man is progress in things spiritual. He is not content
with bearing "fruit," no not even with bearing "more fruit"; his heart
is fixed upon the bearing of the "much fruit" which alone glorifies
The Father. Abounding means continually rising to higher ground in the
already established relationship in Christ.
Abiding implies reciprocity or mutual giving and taking. It
connotes such intimacy of relationship as demands interchange of
thought, love, devotion. Abiding means fellowship, the walking and
talking together of two who love each other devotedly; the friendship
of truly sympathetic persons capable of mutual love and mutual
response.
1 John 1:3, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto
you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."
Gen. 5:22, "And Enoch walked with God."
Rev. 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man
hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup
with him, and he with me."
But how can such fellowship exist between One in Heaven and
another on earth? Through what means, by what medium, can such
communion be maintained?
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The answer to this question is to be found in the life of God's
second Man. As the Son of Man He maintained unbroken fellowship with
His Father in Heaven, and as the representative Man He did it through
the same means and by the same medium as our fellowship with Him is to
be maintained. In this as in all other things He is our Example.
The Holy Spirit was the divine means of communion and the Holy
Scriptures were the divine medium of communication between the eternal
Father and the incarnate Son. In other words, the Spirit used the Word
as the link between Heaven and earth.
The incarnate Son lived by the Word of God. He was both obedient
to it and dependent upon it. His spiritual growth as a child and His
guidance as a Man had their spring in the Word of God.
Luke 2:40, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit,
filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him."
Strength and stature were His in ever increasing measure. "He was
filled with wisdom" that is from above, the wisdom of God. At twelve
He astounded the doctors in the temple by His understanding of the
Scriptures.
Luke 4:4, "And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That
man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God."
Luke 24:44, "And he said unto them, These are the words which I
spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that
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all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses,
and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me."
The "It is written" of the Scriptures molded His conduct and the
"That all things must be fulfilled which were written" marked out His
course from the beginning to the end of His ministry. In Scripture He
found His Father's plan and path clearly outlined for Him. The loving
fellowship which existed between Father and Son was rooted in the
Son's habitual obedience to and dependence upon the Word of God.
Is it any wonder, then, that He commended to His disciples a
similar life of obedience to and dependence upon the living Word of
God if they would abide in Him as He had abided in the Father?
John 15:10, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my
love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his
love."
John 8:31, "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,
If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed."
John 15:7, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye
shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
We only abide in Him as His Word abides in us and accomplishes
its own divinely appointed work. Upon our relationship to the Word of
God the permanence and progress of our spiritual life depends. This
claim may be easily verified through a study of the Spirit's use of
the Word.
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The Word of God is the Medium in Regeneration
The instrument used to implant in the human spirit the divine
seed of the uncreated life of God is the Word of God. Through the Word
we are brought out of death into life.
1 Pet. 1:23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."
The Word of God is the Medium in Revelation
Life requires light. Regeneration presumes revelation. The
new-born soul has been "called out of darkness into his marvellous
light" (1 Pet. 2:9) and the light of God cannot be concealed from the
one to whom the Life of God has been communicated.
Illumination is absolutely essential to the new life in Christ.
To maintain the life, light is imperative.
John 1:4, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men."
John 8:12, "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the
light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life."
Illumination is absolutely essential to the new walk in Christ.
Eph. 5:8, "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light
in the Lord: walk as children of light."
1 John 1:5-7, "God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If
we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie,
and do not the truth;
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But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin."
When the Holy Spirit enters the human spirit He bestows a
spiritual nature which has the capacity to perceive and an appetite to
know. An insatiable hunger and an unquenchable thirst for the
knowledge of God possesses a Spirit-filled Spirit-controlled man. He
cries with the Psalmist, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for the living
God."
One of the sure marks of a spiritual man is his ever increasing
knowledge of God. Spiritual perception and spiritual enlightenment
stamp a man as a growing Christian. God puts no premium on ignorance.
Paul prayed that his converts might have spiritual understanding,
Heaven-born wisdom, divine enlightenment.
Eph. 1:17-18, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."
Col. 1:9, "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do
not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with
the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding."
God expects every child of His to be growing in the knowledge of
Him. Paul did not pray that the Colossian
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Christians might be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all
wisdom and spiritual understanding that they might be equipped to fill
a chair in a theological seminary or to go as a missionary to some
foreign field, but that wherever they were and whatever their task
they might "Walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing," "Be fruitful
in every good work," and "Be strengthened with might, unto all
patience and long-suffering with joyfulness."
The Apostle Paul constantly said "Know ye not?" Again and again
in the letters to the Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians he speaks
of the things we should know. The words "We know" are almost the key
words of the first Epistle of John. Count for yourself the number of
times they are used and write out the things the Christian should
"Know." In the realm of the spiritual it is the man who knows who
does.
Dan. 11:32, "And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall
be corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall
be strong, and do exploits."
In Romans 6 God's divine order is "Know" (v. 6); "Reckon" (v.
11); "Yield" (v. 13); "Obey" (v. 17). It is the man who really knows
God who believingly reckons on the great facts of salvation, who
voluntarily yields himself to the Saviour, and who gladly obeys
Christ, the Lord. Growth in grace and growth in the knowledge of God
are simultaneous.
2 Pet. 3:18, "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ."
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But spiritual knowledge comes through just one channel. The Word
of God is the divinely-appointed medium of revelation. The entrance of
God's Word giveth light. Life and light come from the same Source.
Ps. 36:9, "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light
shall we see light."
Ps. 119:130, "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth
understanding unto the simple."
Rom. 10:17, "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the
Word of God."
In the Word of God the Christian finds the revelation of
everything needful for salvation, sanctification and service. All that
the Father intends His child to know regarding his spiritual
possessions, privileges and responsibilities He has revealed in the
Bible. The clear revelation of Himself, His will, His way and His
purpose is all in the Word.
John 15:15, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant
knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for
all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."
Eph. 1:9, "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself."
The man who gives himself to daily thought and prayerful
meditation on God's Word possesses a degree of spiritual perception
out of all proportion to his intellectual capacity or attainment,
judged from the standpoint of things natural.
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The Word of God is the Medium of Renewal
Even the spiritual man has no resources in himself. He is in
daily need of replenishing. "The spiritual blessings, which are given
to him according to the everlasting covenant, are all treasured up in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Once we have begun to draw nigh to
God, we must continue to draw nigh. It is both a necessity and a
delight. A necessity because we are still as dependent on the
creative, supernatural influence of grace. ... Such pensioners are we
of the divine bounty, daily and hourly we must be recipients of His
gifts and of His power. Peter imagines he has a stock of courage and
loving loyalty in himself; but sad experience teaches him that his
nature is feeble and selfish; that not he, but Christ in him, is rock.
... We have nothing in ourselves; our sufficiency is of God."--(The
Hidden Life, by Adolph Saphir, pages 19-20.) The spiritual man never
ceases to feel his utter dependence upon God.
God provides for his renewal. The man who is saved by the truth
of God's Word is also sanctified by it. The stature and strength of
the spiritual man will be in exact proportion to his faithful
continuance in the Word of the Lord. The study of God's Word is the
divinely-appointed means of spiritual culture; the divinely-ordained
method of spiritual growth.
John 17:17, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."
John 8:31, "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,
If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed."
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A careful study of the Scriptural names of the Word of God will
reveal God's intended use of it in the renewal of the Christian's
life.
The Word is a Mirror to reveal.
James 1:23-25, "For if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a
doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For
he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straitway forgetteth what
manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of
liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but
a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."
A mirror reveals the personal appearance of the one who looks
into it. The Bible is just such a revelation of man. In it we see the
human heart mirrored exactly as it is in the sight of God. We have in
the Word full-length portraits of the natural, the carnal and the
spiritual man. As one studies the Bible he finds himself; mirrored in
the lives of men and women who lived centuries ago he sees himself. In
the covetousness of Achan, the backsliding of David, the despondency
of Elijah, the avarice of Jacob, the falsehood of Ananias and
Sapphira, the denial of Peter, the selfrighteousness of Saul of Tarsus
and the jealousy, unbelief and self-seeking of the disciples, he looks
into his own sinful heart and his own wayward life. The Bible takes
the covering off the inmost spirit and unveils its secret thoughts and
motives. It shows us to ourselves as we are. But it does not stop
there. It unfolds to man's vision the Perfect Man. He "Beholds as in a
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glass the glory of the Lord" for in the Word God gives "The light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Then
the Bible challenges him, who has seen himself as he is and as he may
become, to act upon the vision, to become a doer of the Word in order
that he may be conformed to the image of Christ.
The Word is Water to Cleanse and Refresh
Eph. 5:25-26, "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for
it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by
the Word."
John 15:3, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken
unto you."
Ps. 119:9, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by
taking heed thereto according to the Word."
Walking as pilgrims through a world reeking in sin we are in
constant contact with its defilement and in constant need of
cleansing. In olden times the priests, who were cleansed by the blood
at the brazen altar, still needed the washing of water at the laver to
make them fit for the worship and the work of the tabernacle. So we,
though cleansed from the guilt of sin through the blood of the Living
Word, yet need daily the washing by the water of the written Word. The
Christian's life is kept pure and clean only in the proportion to
which the Word of God is hid in the heart and applied to the life.
Water also refreshes. Countless Christians could testify to the
removal of weariness of spirit, discouragement
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of soul and even exhaustion of body through a quiet hour of meditation
upon the Word.
The Word of God is Food to Nourish and Delight
The Word is milk for the newborn babe; it is strong meat for the
spiritual adult; and it is honey for the spiritually-minded.
1 Pet. 2:2, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the
word, that ye may grow thereby."
Heb. 5:14, "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full
age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil."
Ps. 19:10, "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much
fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb."
The man who feeds upon God's Word will become strong; the one who
neglects it will be dwarfed. Both stature and strength are gauged by
the quality of spiritual food eaten and assimilated. Wherever you find
a spiritual anaemic the reason is improper food.
The Christian who is improperly or insufficiently fed is the prey
to all kinds of spiritual disease. He is powerless to resist
temptation, blind to discern error, helpless to overcome sin. He is
open to all the deceiving devices and subtle strategies of the evil
one. He not only makes no progress but he cannot even hold his own and
lives a flabby, inconsistent, dishonouring life before the world.
The Christian who is not entering into new possessions of God's
grace, love and power through new conquests
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of the Word is living on the stale manna of some moldy experience or
musty testimony. The new nature is starved because forced to exist on
denatured emotions and devitalized vocabulary, "He feedeth on ashes"
instead of "the Bread of life." Christ knew that the only food upon
which the new nature could thrive was the Word of God. In His High
Priestly prayer He said to His Father, "I have given them thy Word"
(John 17:14).
Sometimes a Christian worker has lost his power for no other reason
than neglect of the Bible. Because of this his message is devoid of
freshness and fruitfulness. The inevitable result is the giving of his
own word in the wisdom, eloquence and energy of the flesh. This God
never promises to bless.
1 Cor. 2:4, "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing
words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power."
1 Thess. 2:13, "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing,
because, when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye
received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of
God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe."
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God"
(Luke 4:14). "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life" (John 6:63). Can we think it possible that the food on
our tables should be so transmuted in nature's laboratory that it
should reappear, now in stalwart muscle of the blacksmith's arm, and
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now in the fine texture of the poet's brain, and let it not seem
incredible that the Word of God can reappear in every kind of
spiritual power and holy efficiency? The Word of God is a Lamp to
Guide.
Ps. 119:105, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto
my path."
Pitfalls are all around the Christian; the devil has well-laid
snares to entrap.
2 Tim. 2:26, "And that they may recover themselves out of the
snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will."
Ps. 119:110, "The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred
not from thy precepts."
The straight and narrow way is not always easily discerned and
still less easily followed. In these perilous times when there is so
much of the world in the Church and when even the shepherd of the
flock may walk in ways quite contrary to the Word of God, many an
earnest Christian is perplexed and at a loss to know what is a
consistent walk. He surely needs a light upon his path.
But he needs even more than that; he needs to be shown each step
of the way. The Word of God is just such a guide and, when it is hid
in the heart and heeded in the life, the Christian need not wander nor
stumble. His every step may be ordered in full conformity to God's
will and ways because in full obedience to God's Word.
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Ps. 119:133, "Order my steps in thy word: and let not any
iniquity have dominion over me."
Ps. 37:31, "The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps
shall slide."
Many mistakes are made by Christians through seeking and
following the counsel of men rather than that of God. Some have lost
the way altogether and are living outside the will of God because they
have listened to man's voice. I know a life that is shipwrecked upon
the rock of human counsel, devoid of both peace and power. We cannot
be reminded too often of the solemn fact that Adam's sin came through
heeding Eve's voice, and Eve sinned by believing and obeying the
devil's word instead of God's. There is but one absolutely safe
counsellor for the Christian, the Word of God.
Ps. 119:24, "Thy testimonies also are my delight and my
counsellors."
2 Tim. 3:15, "And that from a child thou hast known the holy
scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through
faith which is in Christ Jesus."
The teaching, instruction, warning, correction and guidance which
every Christian needs to make him complete and to equip him for
service are all to be found in the Bible.
2 Tim. 3:16, 17, R.V., "Every scripture inspired of God is also
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
which is in righteousness that the man of God may be complete,
furnished completely unto every good work."
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The Word of God is Wealth to Enrich
Ps. 119:14, "I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies,
as much as in all riches."
Ps. 119:72, "The law of thy mouth is better unto me than
thousands of gold and silver."
Ps. 119:127, "Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea
above fine gold."
Ps. 119:162, "I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great
spoil."
There is constant drain upon the Christian. Everything in his
environment tends to impoverishment of spirit. There is unceasing need
of renewal through enrichment. But in the Lord Jesus are "hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3); in Him are embodied all
the unsearchable riches of grace and glory (Phil. 4:19; Eph. 1:7). The
Spirit opens these to us by opening the Scriptures and enabling us
through the Word to know and to claim all the things which He hath
given us richly to enjoy.
The Word of God is a Critic to Judge
Heb. 4:12, "For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
The Greek word "Kritikos" means able to judge. The tendency today
is that men choose to be critics of the Word rather than to accept the
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Word as their critic. But one very salutary function of the Bible is
its judgment upon the Christian's thoughts and actions. The Psalmist
who offered that sincere prayer, "Search me, O God, and know my heart,
try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting," knew the helpfulness of God's
righteous judgments.
Ps. 119:164, "Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy
righteous judgments."
Ps. 119:175, "Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let
thy judgments help me."
What a quickening of spiritual life would take place today if
every child of God would put his life under the righteous judgment of
the Word of God. The longprayed for revival undoubtedly would burst
forth like fire if the Bible were permitted to become the Critic of
men's thoughts, feelings and actions, and if they were willing to act
upon its kindly, beneficent criticism.
The Word of God is a Manual of Holy Living
Ps. 119:1-3, "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in
the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and
that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they
walk in his ways."
God has provision for every step of the way in the life of
godliness, which He expects His child to live. In His Word He has
given the principles that govern such a life, and the precepts which
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teach us how to practice them. The Christian who practices the
presence of God and who lives the Christ-life most transparently is
the one who is most thoroughly saturated with God's Word and who
deliberately has given himself to live out that Word in deed.
The Word of God is a Weapon
Eph. 6:17, "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word [hrema] of God." [hrema: a specific
utterance]
The Spirit-filled man has enemies; he is engaged in a warfare.
The powers of hell are all against him. He is always open to attack
and momentarily liable to defeat. He needs both defensive and
offensive weapons. He must be able both to stand and to withstand in
every assault of Satan.
There is but one way this can be done and it is the way the
God-man used. His only weapon in the wilderness was the Sword of the
Spirit. "It is written," repeated three times in the threefold attack,
repulsed the enemy.
Let us note that the God-man had His sword burnished and ready.
He did not wait to draw out the scroll of Scripture and read from it
to get an answer for the devil. In the years of seclusion in the
Nazareth home He had stored away the Words of God in His heart, and in
the hours of quiet work in the carpenter's shop He had meditated upon
them. It may be that the Son of Man had gone into the wilderness fresh
from the study of Deuteronomy. His mind was so saturated with its
truth that when Satan attacked Him, the Spirit instantly brought to
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His remembrance the very words that utterly routed him. He was kept in
the moment of temptation by the Word hid in His heart.
Deut. 11:18, "Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your
heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand that
they may be as frontlets between your eyes."
Ps. 119:11, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not
sin against thee."
Col. 3:16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all
wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
Often the reason we yield so quickly to temptation is because our
sword is rusty. This gives Satan the advantage over us. Temptation
comes to us on the street, in the office, when we may not have a Bible
with us. It comes unexpectedly. There is no time to stop and search
for an effectual portion of Scripture. It is only that part of the
Word that is hid in the heart that will become a Sword in action at
the moment most needed. It is the portion of the Word of God which we
have learned and lived that will be effectual in the fight with Satan.
Another essential to success is confidence in the weapon we use.
I feel sure there was the certitude of victory in the very tone of the
voice when the Lord Jesus said, "It is written!" To Him the Word was
authoritative and final. His confidence in the absolute authority of
Deuteronomy had not been weakened by a
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doubtful attitude toward its authorship. To Him it was the Word of God
forever settled in Heaven. He had no question concerning its potency
because He had no doubt concerning its purity or its permanence.
Ps. 12:6, "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried
in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."
Prov. 30:5, "Every word of God is pure; he is a shield unto them
that put their trust in him."
Luke 21:33, "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall
not pass away."
Many Christians are defeated today in the warfare against sin and
Satan because of doubt regarding their weapon, the Word of God. To
them the Word is not the Sword of the Spirit but it is merely a staff
of man's making to assist him on the pathway of life which he feels at
liberty to whittle down to the measure of his own intellect and
experience. Belief in the absolute trustworthiness and final authority
of the Word is an essential to the potent use of it as the Sword.
The Word of God is a Fire that both Burns and Warms
Jer. 20:9, "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor
speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a
burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and
I could not stay."
The Bible is like a fire that burns out the dross, purifying and
purging. It is a devouring flame before which
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nothing that is contrary to God's will and ways can stand.
Jer. 5:14, "Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because
ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire,
and this people wood, and it shall devour them."
1 Pet. 1:22, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the
truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that
ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."
It is at the same time a fire that warms with comfort and cheer
the heart desolated by sorrow and distressed through suffering.
1 Thess. 4:18, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
Ps. 119:50, "This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word
hath quickened me."
Ps. 119:165, "Great peace have they which love thy law: and
nothing shall offend them."
The Word of God is a Hammer to Break
Jer. 23:29, "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and
like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces."
There is such a residue of stubbornness, resistance and rebellion
in every life! The man who has been accustomed to go his own way, seek
his own pleasure and do his own will is not easily made submissive and
humble. There is much in every one of us that is
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hard which needs to be broken; much that is resisting which needs to
be melted.
As the Christian studies the Word and comes under the softening
rays of God's loving-kindness, tender mercy, unfailing faithfulness,
unquenchable love and exhaustless grace, his heart is melted, his will
is broken and his life is turned into joyous, humble submission to the
loving will of God.
The Word of God is a Seed that Matures and Multiplies
Luke 8:11, "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of
God."
James 1:18, "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
Ps. 126:6, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious
seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves
with him."
A seed in itself is but a small hard substance which, if laid
away in a drawer will remain only a seed. But put into suitable soil,
given needed nurture, it will become a plant or a tree. The Word of
God is seed. Left on the drawing-room table to give semblance of
religion to the home or carried when travelling to fulfil a promise to
a praying mother at home, or as a sacred charm to ward off disaster,
it will never influence or change the life in any way whatsoever. But
let that incorruptible seed which has the very germ of life in it--"My
words are life"--be sown in the soil of
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the human heart by the Holy Ghost and it fructifies in a new creation.
Nor is it enough to accept the Bible as historically true. Before
it can manifest its power to save and to sanctify it must be engrafted
upon the inner life.
James 1:21, "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity
of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is
able to save your souls."
The seed needs to be fostered and nurtured by earnest study and
eager searching. Seed needs time to grow. The Word must be pondered
and meditated upon. It must lie fallow in the mind, heart, conscience
and will to bring forth its full fruitage. The seed must be kept
abiding in the soil of faith. The Christian must continue in the Word.
The Word must abide in him by day and by night.
Ps. 119:97, "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the
day."
Ps. 119:148, "Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might
meditate in thy word."
John 15:7, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye
shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
Countless times have I seen the maturing, multiplying power of
the Word of God when engrafted upon a human life but in none more
beautifully illustrated than in the life of a Chinese teacher who came
to a summer Conference as an interpreter. Although he
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had been a Christian for many years and was active in Christian work
yet he was lamentably ignorant of the Word of God, This fact was so
borne in upon him as he interpreted the missionary's message that he
determined to leave his position as teacher immediately and devote
himself to the study of the Bible. He went to a seminary for a short
time, then spent several months alone with only the Holy Spirit as
Teacher and Revealer of the deep things of the Book. At the end of a
year of such intensive Bible study he returned to the community where
he had lived formerly.
Shortly afterward I received a letter from a missionary in that
city, in which she said:
"It would delight your very soul could you see and know all the
wonderful way in which the Lord has led and used W-- in the last six
or eight months. His Bible classes last fall and winter numbering
about two hundred, were very fine indeed. He had them for all classes,
from college boys down to the cooks and other servants on our
compounds. His year away made a new man of him. That year's study did
worlds for him in the Scriptures. His familiarity with the Bible now
is as marked as his lack of it was before this year of close
application, and of course he is going on too, gaining ground all the
time. He is probably going to be ordained in a few weeks now and
become assistant pastor of the church. The strongest thing about W--
is his life of prayer. Partly through the instrumentality of him and
his sister, if not mostly, there are now being held three meetings a
day just for prayer. And praise His Name, there have been some
extraordinary answers to the prayers of this little circle which has
for many months met every Sunday morning very early, really before the
dawn. Now they have it every day."
#136 LIFE ON THE HIGHEST PLANE
Coldness of heart, callousness of conscience, weakness of will,
feebleness of testimony, joylessness in worship, fruitlessness in
service, powerlessness in prayer, all are traceable to just one
thing--ignorance of and indifference to God's Word. "Ye seek to kill
me, because my word hath no place in you" (John 8:37). But, when the
Word is given its rightful place in any life, it has power to convict,
to convert, to cleanse, to control, to criticize, to correct and to
consecrate. It becomes a mold that fashions the life into ever growing
likeness to the image of Christ Jesus. "The Word is an expulsive power
to turn out the tyranny of sin; an enlightening power to dispel the
darkness of ignorance; an ennobling power to elevate the mind; an
eradicating power to cleanse the heart; an endowing power to enrich
the being, and an effectual power to bless in every way to the glory
of God." (The Spiritual Life, F.E. Marsh, page 49)
Bible Study for Personal Spiritual Growth
I was once asked by a group of high school pupils to lead their
Christian Endeavour meeting. The invitation read as follows, "We would
like for you to tell us how to read it so as to get the most out of
it. Most of us read a chapter a day but then I am afraid that we do
not do very much else." Doubtless this is the experience of many
Christians.
To know how to study the Bible for personal spiritual growth is
the need of every Christian, old and young. It is not possible in the
confines of this chapter to make suggestions regarding methods of
Bible study. Nor is it necessary to do so for the person who
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truly desires to know the Word will discover for himself the best
method.
But I would mention three things which to me seem essential for
the kind of Bible study which will lift a Christian to life on the
highest plane. They are an adequate objective, a right attitude, and
an obedient response.
The reason why the Bible "has no taste" and why it is so
unproductive of spiritual harvest in our lives is partly due to the
lack of an adequate objective. To read the Bible aimlessly, to read it
because one has signed a pledge promising to read a chapter a day or
because of the desire to please a parent, teacher or friend, but
without the purpose to remember what is read and to reproduce it in
character and conduct, while it may bring blessing, will not lift one
to life on the highest plane. To read it spasmodically, to desire
comfort in sorrow, to obtain strength in trial, to find wisdom in
perplexity and to receive guidance in uncertainty, while all are
legitimate motives, yet they are not the highest nor those most
productive of spiritual gain.
There is, in fact, but one objective that is altogether adequate
and it is that through the Word of God, we may know the Son of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the central fact, and the commanding figure
of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation He is to be found. No book of
the Bible will be fully understood until Christ be seen in it. He is
the pivot upon which everything in the divine revelation turns and He
is the fountain from which everything in spiritual experience
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springs. To know Him is eternal life, to know Him better and better is
life abiding and abounding.
Phil. 3:8, 10, "Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung,
that I may win Christ. ... That I may know Him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death."
"That I may know Him"--that I may win Christ--this is the
objective that will challenge one to earnestly, eagerly search the
Scriptures.
The papers of a continent recorded the story of the non-stop
flight of Colonel Lindbergh from Washington, D.C. to Mexico City.
Alone he flew for twenty-seven hours through an untraversed track of
air, enduring loss of sleep and lack of food, surmounting great
difficulties and encountering great dangers from the beginning to the
end of the trip. He faced all these conditions before he started but
he had an objective that was big enough and worthy enough and
challenging enough--to win Mexico City in a non-stop flight. And he
reached his goal while the people of a whole continent looked on his
achievement with admiration and praise.
Colonel Lindbergh had an adequate objective but how was it
attained? Through skill you say. But was there any other contributing
cause to the success of his flight? Judging by an article written by
the commandant of Bolling Field from which he took off on his
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flight half of the success of the trip was won before he ever stepped
into his plane at Washington. He says, "The flier studied everything.
He pored over weather maps; figured time and fuel needed; and examined
the field minutely. On three different occasions he walked over the
entire airdrome carefully, noting the soft or boggy places, the rough
spots, the sound, high, firm or grassy places, the ditches,
depressions and obstacles bordering the airdrome, the height of trees,
buildings, smoke-stacks, radio towers, etc., within a mile from the
field; also the fact that the river level was ten to fifteen feet
below the airdrome level at one particular end of the field where no
hurdle presented itself." Colonel Lindbergh had an adequate objective
which constrained him to make this minute and masterful study of
everything pertaining to that flight.
One day on the road to Damascus the young Hebrew, Saul of Tarsus,
saw the Lord Jesus Christ. Then and there he was not only converted
but captivated. "One figure enraptured him, captivated his being,
bound him as with chains, and that figure is Christ Jesus, the Lord.
One passion reigns, one motive dominates, that the Lord, in love,
devotion and service should be his all-in-all. Everything else is
subservient, everything else is counted, as refuse that this one
object may be altogether his. Nothing of earth is comparable to Him,
nothing of earth is desired beside Him. All that once was counted gain
is discarded as loss for the priceless possession of the eternal
treasure--Jesus Christ the Lord."
Paul, having caught a vision of his risen, exalted
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Lord, having been captivated by His grace and glory, was consumed with
the passion to make "a non-stop flight" to the perfect possession of
all his glorious inheritance in Christ Jesus. His objective--"that I
may win Christ"--so big, so worthy, so challenging that it made the
things of time, sense and earth sink into utter insignificance. His
objective--"that I may know him"--so constraining that it carried him
away into Arabia for three years where he received the God-inspired
revelation which has come down to you and me through his Epistles.
What is your objective in Bible Study? Is it merely to satisfy
intellectual curiosity? Is it only to know the contents of the Bible
and to appreciate its literary value as one of the great books in the
world's library? Is it even for a purely selfish enrichment of your
own life? Or do you come every day to the written Word of God that you
may better know the eternal, incarnate, risen, living Word of God as
He is revealed in its pages? Your goal will very largely determine
your gain. Will you today enter the company of those who, emulating
the Apostle Paul's example, approach God's Word daily saying "I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord ... that I may win Christ and be found in him." There
will surely be a divine response to such seeking and God will give
"the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ."
2 Cor. 4:6, "For God, who commanded the light to shine
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out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
The second essential in Bible Study for personal spiritual growth
is a right attitude. What we get from the Bible is determined very
largely by what we bring to it. If we approach the Bible in an
attitude of doubt we shall probably leave it in doubt.
A Christian worker whose faith in the Word of God had been so
undermined and poisoned that she said she disbelieved and doubted
everything in the Book before she even opened it, came one day to me
in great distress. She had been asked to give an Easter message and
she had none to give. She came to ask that we might read together the
accounts of the resurrection in the four Gospels. As we read Matt.
28:17, "And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted,"
she just dropped her Bible and said, "Oh! it is no wonder they
doubted!" I said, "Oh! is that the way you read it? As I read it it is
no wonder that they worshipped!" "I see," she replied," it all depends
on the attitude you bring to the Bible; if you bring doubt, you will
doubt: if you bring worship, you will worship."
The first secret of Bible Study is faith born of humility. He
that comes to God must believe that He is and that He does. He must
come believing that through the Word God speaks and therefore he must
come humbly and reverently.
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Heb. 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him; for
he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
Ps. 119:161, "Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my
heart standeth in awe of thy word."
But we must not only approach the study of God's Word in faith
but in love. It will not yield a very abundant harvest to the one who
comes to it merely from a sense of duty. To enrich the life Bible
study must be regarded as a delight. How well the Psalmist knew his
Lord. The secret is not hard to discover.
Ps. 1:2, "But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his
law doth he meditate day and night."
Ps. 119:47, "And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which
I have loved."
But how contrary is such an attitude to that of most Christians.
In what a purely perfunctory, desultory manner many Christians study
or read the Bible. It is like a bit of distasteful medicine that is
needed for the sake of health but the quicker taken the better. The
Bible is opened in a haphazard fashion to any place; the reading is
done with no relish; the Book is gladly closed and what was read makes
little impression.
The Word of God is a living thing and accordingly responds to the
treatment given to it. What a difference it makes when one truly
hungers for the Bread of life; when one thirsts for the living Water;
when one comes to the Word of God with a keen appetite for
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a full meal. The Word of God becomes food to such an one and honey to
his taste.
Jer. 15:16, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy
word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called
by thy name, O LORD of hosts."
Job 23:12, R.V., "Neither have I gone back from the commandment
of his lips: I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my
necessary food."
Ps. 119:103, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter
than honey to my mouth!"
What a difference it makes when one approaches the Bible as on a
quest, when one is really hunting for something as the gold digger
hunts for the gold. Then he is content with no superficial reading but
he systematically searches; he seeks for great spoil; he diligently
digs for the deepest truths. Such an one is saved from intellectual
laziness and stands ready for the concentration and meditation
required of one who deeply knows God. The Bible becomes a gold mine to
such a searcher after truth.
Ps. 119:127, "Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea
above fine gold."
Ps. 119:162, "I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great
spoil."
What a difference it makes when one truly loves the Book and
longs to know Christ! Then he does not study with an eye on the clock
but rather rejoices to find an extra hour or two that he may spend
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upon the Word. Such a man knows the thrill of "a non-stop flight" even
through Genesis, Isaiah or Revelation. He loves the Book of God
because he loves the God of the Book.
Ps. 119:140, "Thy word is very pure; therefore thy servant loveth
it."
John 14:21, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he
it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."
We must approach the Word of God not only in faith and in love
but in a willingness to obey. To learn and then not to live is deadly
and disastrous. Disobedience to what God said through doubt kept the
children of Israel out of Canaan and later took their posterity into
captivity and exile. One must become a doer of the Word.
Deut. 6:1, "Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the
judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye
might do them, in the land whither ye go to possess it."
John 14:23, "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me,
he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come
unto him, and make our abode with him."
The Bible will never really become ours until we have the
consistent and persistent purpose to live what we learn. We might make
a very careful study of the constituent elements of foods and know
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just how much of each we need in our system to ensure health but that
knowledge will not give strength of body. Only as we eat, digest and
assimilate the food itself does it minister to our bodily needs. So we
need to beware of mere head knowledge of the Bible. Apart from the
Holy Spirit's inworking of the Word of life into the very fabric of
our being it has no saving nor sanctifying power. This He cannot do
unless there is an obedient response on our part. The Word is not
given to us to make our intellects treasure-houses of heavenly wisdom
but to make our hearts the sanctuaries of the heavenly One. God's
warnings have no value for one unless they are heeded: His precepts
profit nothing unless they are followed and His commandments can only
bless as they are obeyed. "If ye keep my commandments." The whole
force of what follows draws its meaning from that little word "if." If
we take food into the body, it becomes blood and muscle, so if we
incorporate the Word of God into our life, it becomes character and
conduct. When studying God's Word we should say to ourselves
constantly, "How can this be worked into the very woof and warp of my
life?" The Bible to yield its full fruitage demands not only
consideration and meditation but application.
Some one has told of a Korean Christian who was examined on the
Sermon on the Mount and was able to repeat it without mistake. When
the missionary asked, "How did you manage to learn it so perfectly?"
the reply came, "I learned it a verse or a few verses at a time. I
would learn a verse and then go out and find some one to practice it
on."
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A native of India read the Gospels for the first time and while
filled with admiration for the God-man, yet such a life in such a
world seemed wholly incredible to him. Then he read on into the
Epistles and learned that the Christian was one who was like his Lord
and whose life was lived in obedience to the Word. So he started out
on a quest--to find a man whose life matched the Book--determining
that if his quest were successful, he would believe. If he had seen
you or me would he have found one whose life matched the Book?
Dr. Alex. Smellie wrote of Evan H. Hopkins, "He was a sermon
incarnate. The sunshine of the Better Country where his days and
nights were spent, played on his soul and articulated itself in his
speech; it was sunshine not merely visible but audible."
It is the man who obeys the truth as he knows it whose capacity
is enlarged to receive larger and fuller revelations of truth. The man
who steadfastly lives out what he learns is ever learning more.
Gen. 13:14, "And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was
separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place
where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward."
"The Lord said--after that." Here is a most significant sequence.
Obedience to God's command brought the fuller revelation of God's
purpose to Abram. So will it be with you and me. Disobedience to the
known will of God as revealed in His Word is
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the cause of much of the stagnancy and slothfulness in the churches of
today. What a revival would take place in the corporate body of
Christ, the Church, and what a revolution there would be in the
individual members if every Christian began to live what he has
learned of the Word of God.
Sir Arthur Blackwell has summed up the Christian's relationship
to the Bible in four great words.
"admit"--Open your whole being to let it be flooded with light.
Let the truth in. Study the Bible sympathetically and lovingly. Let it
be God's voice to you direct.
"submit"--Let the truth grip you that it may govern you." Let the
plain declarations of God's Word be the end of all controversy.
Whenever we raise an issue with God all growth and all blessing must
stop until that issue is settled."
"commit"--Grip the truth by hiding it in your heart. Let today's
message be articulated to yesterday's so that a chain is forged that
is a veritable anchor to your soul in times of temptation, trouble and
trial.
"transmit"--"Don't be a pool; be a stream." Don't hoard your
riches; share the bounties of the Lord's table with another. Make
every truth tenfold your own by passing it on.
Missionary A-- possessed some strawberry plants which
he shared with Missionary B-- who came to live beside
him. That year Missionary A's plants were all destroyed
by insects and Missionary B-- gave back to Missionary
A-- half his plants. So all the plants which Missionary
A-- possessed were what he gave away.
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The Holy Spirit--The Divine Teacher, Guide and Revealer
There is no reason for ignorance of divine things on the part of
any Christian who can read, for God has not only furnished us with a
Text-book but with a Teacher: He has given us not only a Guide-book
but a Guide: He has unfolded to us not only a Revelation but has
bestowed upon us the Revealer.
John 14:26, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."
John 16:13, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he
will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but
whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you
things to come."
1 Cor. 2:9-10, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them
unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God."
Millions of Christians never have the opportunity to study the
Bible in a theological seminary, Bible School or College.
Comparatively few even have the privilege of being in a Bible class.
But that does not exclude them from knowing all things which God has
given in Christ to them that love Him. God not only desires but
expects His children to know the way of life, how to enter upon it and
how to walk in it. There are some things
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which God has not revealed unto us but all that He has revealed
belongs unto us and a full knowledge of this revelation is our
birthright as His children.
Deut. 29:29, "The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but
those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children
forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
God has taken our ignorance and inability into account and has
made provision for our supernatural illumination and enlightenment.
Read 1 Cor. 1:18-3:4, with this in mind.
The spiritual man then has One who will teach him "all things
that pertain to life and godliness" and who will apply them to his
life so that the knowledge will not be only intellectual or academic
but spiritual and experimental. The Holy Spirit will not only teach us
the truth but will guide us into it, enabling us to incorporate it
into our lives that we may become holy and righteous even as He.
One reason why the Bible has no meaning to us but rather seems
incredible and unintelligible is because we try to understand it with
our unaided and unanointed intellect. God only promises spiritual
apprehension to the one who has received the Holy Spirit's anointing.
Only a spiritual mind can receive spiritual truth.
1 John 2:20, R.V., "And ye have an anointing from the Holy One,
and ye know all things."
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1 John 2:27, R.V., "And as for you, the anointing which ye have
received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach
you; but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is
true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him."
"Ye have an anointing--ye know," "His anointing--teacheth you."
God has a divine order which is irreversible.
I know a Chinese man who has a spiritual apprehension and
appreciation of Scripture beyond that of the majority of Christian
workers, yet he never attended a Bible school a day in his life or
studied in a mission school. But his eyes have been anointed to see,
his heart to receive and his mind to understand the deep, eternal
verities of the Word of God.
Fellow-Christian, have you had that anointing? Have your eyes
been anointed to see the beauties and excellencies of the adorable
Lord of glory as revealed in the Word? Or are you groping your way
through the Bible depending upon your unaided human intellect to
fathom the unsearchable riches of God's grace? Have you come from your
study of the Bible disappointed and discouraged?
I once visited a wonderful cave in Colorado. Impatient of the
delay caused by the slowness of the party gathering together I rushed
alone into the cave. All was dark, I couldn't even see which way to
go. Seeing a lantern near the entrance I took that and tried to lift
it high enough to see some of the loudly proclaimed beauties of that
cave. But I saw nothing and turned back in disappointment. After a
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while the party came with a guide. He commanded us to follow him very
closely. In a few minutes he lifted a big torch, which he carried in
his hand, high up to the ceiling of the cave and oh! what exclamations
of surprise and delight came from every member of the party as the
beauty and wonder of the stalagmites and stalactites burst upon our
vision. Every step we took our guide unfolded to us some fresh glory
of God's handiwork in the heart of that cave.
And we have such a Guide whose mission is to unveil before us the
beauty and glory of our risen, exalted Lord and Saviour. If you would
live your life habitually on the highest plane, you must seek His
anointing; you must wait upon Him to reveal to you in the Word "the
things which God hath prepared for them that love him"; you must
through your obedient response allow Him to apply the Word wherever
and however He sees it is needed for your conformity to the image of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
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VII. THE BELIEVER'S PART IN REMAINING SPIRIT-FILLED
Prayer
THE Christian life centers in a relationship. It is a
divine-human fellowship which has its inward spring in the oneness of
life between Christ and the Christian. There are two essential
expressions to this Heaven-born, earth-bent relationship, communion
and cooperation.
An Inner Room—Reciprocal Communion
Matt. 6:6, "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in
secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee
openly."
Matt. 14:23, R.V., "He went up into the mountain apart to pray,
and when even was come he was there alone."
Mark 6:46-47, R.V., "And after he had taken leave of them he
departed into the mountain to pray, and when even was come the boat
was in the midst of the sea, and he was alone on the land."
The man who lives habitually on the highest plane will have an
inner room and he who remains Spirit-filled will spend some time each
day behind a shut door. He who truly follows the example of the
God-man will often be alone with his heavenly Father. The
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spiritual man will be a man of prayer. Communion with the Lord Jesus
will be the atmosphere in which he lives, the very air he breathes.
"He went up into the mountain apart to pray." His inner room was
a mountainside. There He sought His Father's presence away from every
person, out of sight and sound of the things of this world. What took
the incarnate Son apart to pray? Two things constrained Him to the
solitary place of communion, His love and His need of the Father.
Can we begin to comprehend the longing of the Son on earth for
the Father in Heaven? He and the Father were one and it was a unity,
first of all, in love. Throughout all eternity He had been in the
bosom of the Father. He had lived in His intimate, immediate presence.
Ohl it was the hunger and thirst of love that drew the God-man apart
even from the friends whose companionship He so prized, apart from the
work that He so loved, apart to that inner room in God's out of doors.
Alone with His Father on the mountain slope He could pour out His
soul, He could lay bare His heart, He could unburden His spirit. There
His desires, His longings, His heartaches, His disappointments, could
be expressed! And in that inner room on the mountainside the Father
always met Him. He was sure of a listening ear and a sympathetic
heart. He always left the place of prayer refreshed. The inner room is
the place of reciprocal communion.
Do you have an inner room? A shut door? A place to be alone with
your Lord? It may be a real "closet"
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in your own home or it may be only a place in a tramcar or at a desk
or on a mountainside or in a sickroom but it will be a place where the
world is shut out and in spirit you are shut in alone with your Lord.
It will be a place where Heaven and earth meet and the intimate,
immediate presence of the Lord of glory will be realized.
Our desire to be alone with the Lover-Christ and our delight in
the companionship of our Beloved will reveal the place He really holds
in our affections. To have chosen Him as the Lover of one's soul; to
have been joined to Him as one spirit; to share His life in its
fulness, and then not to hunger and thirst for the privacy of the
inner room where His presence may be realized and enjoyed apart from
all intrusion of the outer world, is unthinkable. Communion with
Christ is the imperative sequence of union with Him because alone with
the Lord Jesus behind the closed door one may be both the man that he
really is and the man that he longs to be. There he is in the presence
of the One who knows what is in him and unto whose eyes "all things
are naked and open," yet He is the faithful and merciful High Priest
who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and who is able to
succour us who are tempted because He Himself hath suffered being
tempted. So there alone with the God-man he may frankly and fully
confess his sin, his failure, his defeat; and there in the intimate
companionship of the victorious, triumphant Lord he may become more
than conqueror. In the inner room, the sufferings and sorrows, the
trials and tribulations, may be shared with
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the One who will understand and sympathize. There in the inner room in
fellowship with his Lord, new aspirations for higher and holier things
will be begotten; there the ambition to "press on toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" will be
quickened; there the determination to live habitually on the highest
plane will be strengthened. And from that inner room one will emerge
with a shining face even as Moses came from the mount of God. The
Christian will always find the inner room the place of reciprocal
communion.
Another thing drew the incarnate Son apart to pray. It was His
need. Yes, we dare say it--the Son of man had no other way of
replenishing His spiritual supplies save in prayer. In His earthly
life He was utterly dependent upon His Father for wisdom, strength,
power and guidance. Of Himself He said nothing, He did nothing, He
went nowhere. The Source of divine supplies for Him was in Heaven and
the method of their transmission from Heaven to earth was prayer. The
Son of man in His representative capacity was limited to this medium
of receiving supplies for His day's life and work. His own need drew
Him into communion with His Father in Heaven.
"Because as he is, so are we in this world." So the Christian has
no way of replenishing his ever diminishing spiritual supplies save in
prayer. God gives His manna by the day. He would keep us utterly
distrustful of self and wholly dependent upon Him--beneficiaries of
His exhaustless bounty which can be obtained only as it is sought and
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claimed in prayer. The source of supplies is in Heaven, the realm of
need is on earth, the line of communication is prayer, communion with
Christ because of need is a necessary sequence of union with Christ.
Reciprocal communion between Christ and the Christian is an
absolute necessity of a Spirit-filled life. Through prayer the
Christian is enabled to breathe the exhilarating air of the heavenlies
while surrounded by the enervating atmosphere of the world. Through
prayer he is able to live in the uplifting, purifying presence of his
Saviour while in constant contact with the deteriorating, defiling
power of sin. Through prayer the new creation breathes in the very
life of God which sustains the new life and maintains it upon the
highest plane.
"Lord, what a change within us one short hour
Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make--
What heavy burdens from our bosom take,
What parched grounds revive, as with a shower!
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower:
We rise, and all, the distant and the near,
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear.
We kneel how weak; we rise how full of power!
Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong
Or others--that we are not always strong,
That we are ever overborne with care,
That we should ever weak or heartless be,
Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer,
And joy and strength and courage are with Thee? "
--R.C. Trench.
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An Upper Room--Responsive Cooperation
Luke 6:12-13, "And it came to pass in those days, that he went
out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples; and of them he
chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;"
Oh! what a momentous night that was in the world's history! What
a stupendous decision confronted the Lord Jesus! A choice was to be
made on the following day of those who would become linked with the
God-man in the carrying out of that eternal purpose which God purposed
in Christ for the salvation of mankind. Humanly speaking everything in
the earthward side of God's wondrous plan of redemption hung upon that
choice.
"He went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in
prayer to God." For Himself? No, this time that mountain top was not
an inner room where He looked in upon Himself and His needs and then
up to God for their satisfaction and supply, but it was an upper room
where He looked out upon the world and its need and then up to God for
the fulfilment of His purpose.
That night prayer was intercession. Throughout its hours the Son
waited to receive the revelation of His Father's will and then
responded through intercession to bring that will to pass in the lives
of men. That night through intercession Jesus Christ linked Heaven
with earth; He brought God in touch with man. Through intercession the
choice of those twelve men, who were to become the very seed of the
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Church, was made and they were set apart individually as apostles.
Oh! what a night's work was that! Perhaps you and I are thousands of
miles in space from that "upper room" on that Palestinian slope, and
we are separated nineteen centuries in time from that night of
intercession, yet the blessing that flowed from those hours will
enrich our lives through time and through eternity. To the God-man
prayer was work; in fact, intercession was the most important work
that He did. Greater in power than His preaching, His teaching or His
healing was His praying. He commenced, continued and consummated
everything in prayer. In the upper room He laid hold upon the
supernatural forces of the unseen and brought them to bear upon the
world in which men lived. Intercession was the most potential means of
responsive cooperation with His Father in accomplishing the task He
was sent to do.
Acts 1:13-14, "And when they were come in, they went up into an
upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew,
Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of
Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all
continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with the brethren."
Acts 2:1, 4, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place. ... And they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost."
Acts 2:41, "Then they that gladly received his word were
baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three
thousand souls."
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"An upper room," "these all in prayer and supplication," "filled
with the Holy Spirit," "added unto them about three thousand souls." A
place of prayer, corporate intercession, the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit, and three thousand souls saved through one sermon. Is there
any reason why such a miracle of grace should not be wrought in the
twentieth century as well as in the first?
I would speak a word to pastors. Has your church "an upper room"
where men and women gather not to talk or to be talked to but to pray?
Where, with all quarrels, divisions, jealousies put away, they with
one accord wait upon God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit not
only upon themselves but upon the body of Christ the world over? Is
the power of your preaching on Sunday generated in the prayer-meeting
on Wednesday? Does every activity of the church reap fruitage that
will abide through time and stand the test by fire in eternity (1 Cor.
3:13) because it is begotten in prayer?
I know the prayer-meeting is considered old fashioned and that it
is now either becoming obsolete or so decrepit through lack of
virility as to be almost valueless in many churches. Just this week I
heard a pastor in a large city full of churches say that he thought
that church was perhaps the only one in the city which would observe
the "World's Week of Prayer." But I know too, that the Church is
losing its power; it is finding it difficult to even hold its own and
in some places is resorting to all sorts of entertainments in an
attempt to compete with the attractions
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of the world. Do you desire to see a manifestation of first century
power in your church? If so, are you willing to return to first
century methods which will mean the revival of corporate intercession
in your church?
I would speak a word to fellow-misssionaries. "Has your mission
station 'an upperroom' where doctors come from the hospital, teachers
from the school, evangelists from the field, wives from the home,
administrators from the desk to lay before the Lord of Heaven and
earth the difficulties, problems and needs of the whole parish
committed to you?
"What is the outstanding purpose of your life as a missionary? Is
it to heal the sick? To teach school? To keep accounts or to keep a
home? To preach the Gospel merely? No one of these things is an end in
itself but each one a means to an end. What then is the purpose of
your life and mine as missionaries? Jesus Christ tells us, 'Ye did not
choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that ye should go and
bear fruit and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye should
ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.' Jesus Christ said
very little to His disciples about work but He said much about
fruit-bearing. Upon that He put tremendous emphasis, even to making
true discipleship depend upon it. In fact He said that only through
much fruit-bearing can we glorify the Father. But work and
fruit-bearing are by no means synonymous. Some of our work is the
energy of the flesh, the working off of a surplus nervous energy or
the dissipation of a limited supply of it. But
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what is fruit-bearing? We shall know very clearly when some day we
stand alone before Him with whom we have to do and render our account.
Will it be the number of patients treated or pupils taught or meetings
led or hours spent in interviews? No, God keeps but one kind of
statistics. He only writes names in the book of life. It is not the
output of our work but the fruitage of that output that counts with
Him. A short time ago a missionary said to me, 'I have never worked so
hard as I have this year and have never seen so few results. It is
because I have prayed so little!' Oh! if we could but come to believe
today that it is the bearing of eternal fruit and not the burning of
nervous energy that God wants, we should see that intercession may, no
must, have its God-appointed place in our lives." (Intercession and
Evangelism, a pamphlet by the Author.)
I would speak a word to parents. Has your home "an upper room"?
Will your boy or girl carry out into life as his most priceless
possession the prayers offered at the family altar? I know it is out
of date. But I know too that juvenile crime is on the increase; that
immorality is stalking through the land, robbing thousands upon
thousands of boys and girls of the bloom of purity and leaving its
black stain upon their souls; that there exists today a junior society
for the aggressive promotion of atheism. Everywhere I see and hear
that parents have lost both the confidence of and the control over
their children. I wonder what "an upper room" with a family altar
might do in your home! A few days ago a friend whose life is
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deeply spiritual said that of all the formative influences in her
Christian life the family prayers held daily in her home were the
greatest. Four times in the book of Acts it is recorded that a whole
household was converted and baptized at one time. Will your family
circle be unbroken in Heaven? "Ye have not because ye ask not."
I would speak a word to each individual Christian. Have you "an
upper room" in your life? Oh! I know you have "an inner room" where
you pray for yourself and your family and your interests. But do you
have "an upper room" where you intercede for others? Where you bear
upon your heart the need of the whole world and remember in prayer all
the Kingdom interests? A few weeks ago I met a radiant Christian. She
had leisure from herself. She enjoyed living. She had not much money
and had never gone far from her home city yet she was a citizen of the
world through prayer. Her face fairly beamed as she said, "No one will
ever know how much she can get out of a dollar until she has used it
to buy twenty five-cent stamps!" For what use? On her heart were
forty-four missionaries in different countries to whom she wrote and
for whom she prayed. Her own life was immeasurably enlarged and
enriched through intercession for these friends, most of whom she had
never seen.
If you work in an office, a store or a factory, or teach in a
school, could you not tithe your noon hour and give ten minutes to God
for intercession? If you live at home and are able to control better
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your own time could you not set aside a longer time as a free-will
offering for prayer? If you have a kindred spirit among your friends
could you not meet together once a week for intercession? "What, could
ye not watch with me one hour?"
If you need help in the establishment of your "upper room" you
would find it in such books as Andrew Murray's Helps to Intercession
or Hugh McKay's Prayer Cycle for World-wide Missionary Work.--("Living
Waters" Missionary Union, 14 Southfields Road, Eastbourne, Sussex,
England.)
But perhaps you would gain the greatest help from just following
the instructions of the Bible on intercessory prayer and then make out
your own list of objects for intercession.
James 5:16, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for
another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much."
This is a command and a call to pray for our friends and for
fellow-members of the body of Christ. Our knowledge of another's need
is a call to prayer. I cannot tell you what tremendous encouragement
and strength came to me this last year to learn from three Christian
workers, all extremely busy men with many others on their prayer list
whom they knew far better than they knew me, that they prayed daily
for me.
"The weary ones had rest, the sad had joy,
That day, and wondered 'how,'
A ploughman singing at his work had prayed,
'Lord, help them now.'
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"Away in foreign lands they wondered how
Their simple word had power.
At home, the Christians two or three had met
To pray an hour.
"Yes, we are always wond'ring, wond'ring 'how';
Because we do not see
Some one, unknown perhaps, and far away,
On bended knee."
2 Thess. 3:1, "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of
the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with
you."
Rom. 15:30, "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus
Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together
with me in your prayers to God for me;"
Here is a call to prayer for the minister and for his preaching
of the Word of God. Paul conceived the work of a church to be a sacred
partnership between pastor and people through preaching and prayer. Is
it possible that the paucity of results from the preaching of God's
Word is largely due to the prayerlessness that accompanies it? Do you
criticize your preacher? I wonder what would happen if that criticism
were converted into prayer? When Mr. Spurgeon was asked for the secret
of the power manifested in his ministry, he replied, "My people pray
for me." "For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the
Spirit," will you strive together with your pastor in your prayers to
God for him?
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Eph. 6:18, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and
supplication for all saints;"
The life of many Christians is confined within its own
denominational borders; often even narrowed down to the activities and
interests of "my church." We repeat the creed "I believe in the
communion of saints" but we practice it but little. Nothing would be
so conducive to the dissipation of denominational jealousy, rivalry
and overlapping of work and to the real unity of God's people of all
tongues and tribes as "prayer and supplication in the Spirit for all
saints." Will you begin today to pray for one of God's saints of
another nationality in some distant country, in another state or
province of your own country, in some city or town of your own state,
in another church within your own city, in some family within your
own church?
1 Tim. 2:1-2, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all,
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made
for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may
lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."
What a program for world-wide prayer God lays out for His Church
in these words! What a call to His people to exercise their Christian
priesthood! What a challenge to cooperate with Him in strengthening
and sustaining those who are in authority in their endeavours to bring
nations out of their existing confusion! Oh! what a change in
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condition might be wrought in China today if the prayers of all God's
people everywhere were focussed in believing intercession upon that
nation! Andrew Murray says of 1 Tim. 2:2, "What a faith in the power
of prayer! A few feeble and despised Christians are to influence the
mighty Roman emperors, and help in securing peace and quietness. Let
us believe that prayer is a power that is taken up by God in His rule
of the world. When God's people unite in this they may count upon
their prayer effecting in the unseen world more than they know."
Matt. 9:37-38, "Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest
truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few: Pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his
harvest."
If in Christ's time the harvest was plenteous, the labourers few
and the need for prayer imperative, it is even more true today. More
than nineteen centuries since He gave the commission to preach the
Gospel to every creature, and there are still hundreds of millions who
have never heard the Gospel! Still unoccupied fields, untouched
classes, unreached tribes! How can we account for this except that
God's people have failed to pray for labourers to enter into these
harvest fields?
There are certain mission agencies that are making a serious
attempt to secure and send missionaries to the unoccupied fields.
There are national home missionary societies in various mission fields
which are attempting the evangelization of their own people.
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Will you not endeavour to acquaint yourselves with the work of such
movements and then give yourselves in intercession for their needs?
Will you not inquire into the need for labourers in the foreign and
home missionary societies of your own denomination and then pray
Spirit-taught, Spirit-filled, Spirit-anointed men and women out into
these various fields?
Have we not clearly seen that union with Christ necessitates a
life of prayer in this twofold aspect, reciprocal communion and
responsive cooperation? In the "inner room" we meet Him, there He
becomes our satisfaction and our sufficiency. And we go from it to our
"upper room" to exercise our mediatorial, priestly ministry in
bringing Him to be the Saviour and Satisfier of other men.
The Prerequisites for Prevailing Prayer
All prayer is not prevailing prayer. It is not enough to pray, we
need to pray in power. First let us consider the prerequisites for
prevailing prayer on the manward side.
The first prerequisite is purity of heart. Only the Christian
with a clean heart can pray the effectual prayer. Spurgeon has said,
"The goal of prayer is the ear of God." If one cannot even get a
hearing, he certainly cannot hope for an answer. Iniquity puts a
closed door between the man who prays and the God who listens. Sin in
the saint stops the ear of God so that He cannot hear.
Isa. 59:1-2, "Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it
cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
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But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and' your
sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
If a man is to pray right he must be right. God judges the prayer
not by the petition upon the lips but by the purity of the life. Only
the pure in heart can offer prayer to God with the assurance of its
acceptability and answer.
2 Tim. 2:22, R.V., "But flee youthful lusts, and follow after
righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out
of a pure heart."
Heb. 10:22, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water."
The man who prays the effectual prayer must be right in his
relationship both to God and to man. He must approach the throne with
a conscience void of offence toward God and man (Acts 24:16). If in
his life there is sympathy for sin and apathy toward God, if
there is indulgence of self and indifference toward God, if there is
allegiance to Satan and disloyalty to God, then his prayer is not
heard.
Ps. 66:18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me."
If one would pray the effectual prayer he must be righteous in
his relationship with his fellow-men. No pretence of piety will
suffice to conceal the presence of dishonesty, greed, jealousy,
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resentment, unforgiveness or hatred toward others. It has sometimes
happened that a truly Spirit-filled man or woman has been shorn of all
power in prayer and in preaching because of dishonesty in the handling
of funds or because of some unrighteous action in relation to his
co-workers.
James 5:16, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for
another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much."
Mark 11:25, "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought
against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you
your trespasses."
A second prerequisite for prevailing prayer is detachment of
spirit. True prayer is a spiritual exercise and its field of action is
the heavenlies. It deals with the supernatural forces of the unseen
world. To pray effectually one must be detached in spirit from the
things of time and sense.
But such a thing seems well-nigh impossible in a world where the
material, the tangible and the fleshly protrude themselves before
one's eyes, press themselves into one's ears, and project themselves
into one's life in such a way as almost to submerge and smother the
aspiration for higher and holier things. Besides, almost everything in
modern life tends to rob one of the solitude which is so essential at
times if one is to keep a keen realization of the presence of God. The
apartment house instead of the old-fashioned home puts a whole
community into one's front yard; the automobile makes the man in a
distant city one's next door neighbour; and the telephone and the
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radio enable the whole world to enter one's home day and night at
will. To be alone is almost a unique experience; to be wholly
detached in spirit, even when alone, is far from an easy matter.
But the man who has power with God in prayer must be alone
sometimes. Attachment to God and to things eternal and spiritual
demands deliberate detachment from the things of earth and sense. The
Son of man deliberately withdrew from the sights and sounds of the
life that surged about Him that He might find the solitude of spirit
that prepared Him for prayer.
Luke 5:15-16, "But so much the more went there a fame abroad of
him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by
him of their infirmities. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness
and prayed."
Scripture in its teaching on fasting offers the spiritual man a
suggestion regarding a method by which he may secure the detachment of
spirit needful for effectual prayer. Fasting connotes two things both
of which are essential to vital spirituality, self-denial and
discipline.
There are things in the life of every Christian which are
perfectly legitimate but which may have a dulling, deadening influence
upon the spirit. There are other things which are right in themselves
but which often are used in excess and so crowd out more important
things. To keep the spirit alert, untrammeled, usable, it must be
disciplined through denial. Is not this the essence of fasting? Food
is a legitimate thing, even a necessity,
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yet may not the spirit often have been hindered in the performance of
its tasks through the sluggishness of the body caused by overeating?
Friends are a legitimate part of one's life. They are a necessity in a
normal, balanced life, yet may not many of us have been robbed of
power because we have spent more time with them than with the divine
Friend? Our recreation and our reading are essential to the health of
body and mind yet may we not have become impoverished spiritually
because of ill-proportioned time given them?
Did not Jesus Christ intimate that the disciples were impotent to
cast the foul spirit out of the epileptic because they were unwilling
to forego a meal or to deny themselves the companionship of family and friends.
Mark 9:29, "And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by
nothing, but by prayer [and fasting." [CF. 2 Cor. 6:4-5; 11:27)
The football player, the mountain climber and the soldier in
action know the meaning of self-denial and self-discipline. But very
few Christians take seriously enough the race into which they have
entered or the warfare in which they are engaged. Too few are willing
for the sacrificial living which victory over the enemy demands. "It
is love of our lives that weakens our spirits, and makes us unfit for
the fight." God needs prayer-warriors today who have within them the
spirit of the Apostle Paul who cared more for the victorious
completion of his life's ministry than for life itself.
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Acts 20:24, "But none of these things move me, neither count I my
life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and
the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the
gospel of the grace of God."
A third prerequisite for prevailing prayer is definiteness of
aim. Much prayer is very desultory, often forgotten as soon as offered
and calls forth no watchful waiting for an answer. We aim at nothing
and get what we aim at. There has been no definite petition and so
there is no definite answer.
But God invites us to come to Him with clear cut petitions and
teaches us to focus our prayer on particular needs. "What wilt thou
that I should do unto thee?" was Christ's word to blind
Bartimaeus by the roadside as again and again he cried out his prayer,
"Thou Son of David, have mercy on me." "What wilt thou that I should
do unto thee?" Definitely came the answer, "Lord, that I might receive
my sight. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in
the way." God honours a definite prayer with a definite answer. "Every
prayer should be with the mind, a definite desire; with the heart, a
longed-for need; with the will, a claimed petition; with faith, an
accepted gift; and with thanksgiving, that praises for the answer that
is assured. This cleanses the petition list from all generalizing in
prayer and gives reality to praying and to receiving."
John 14:13-14, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will
I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask
anything in my name, I will do it." [See also John 15:7.)
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The book of the Acts gives repeated instances of definite answers
to definite petitions. But one will be cited. Peter and John had been
called into question by the Sanhedrin for the miracle performed on the
man born lame and had been threatened and charged to speak no more nor
teach in the name of Jesus. They immediately engaged with their
fellow-Christians in prayer. The prayer was not long nor was it full
of generalities. It focussed on their one outstanding need.
Acts 4:29, 31, "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and
grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy
word. ... And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they
were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the word of God with boldness."
A fourth prerequisite of prevailing prayer is intensity of
desire. God has given us a very gracious promise in Ps. 37:4, "Delight
thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine
heart." Do we take in fully the magnitude of the responsibility of
this promise? How much and what do we desire? "Ye have not because ye
ask not," for "If ye ask--I will do." God frankly says that His doing
is limited by our asking: it is dependent upon our desire.
But even when we do ask we often do not want the thing asked for
sufficiently to persevere until it comes. Prevailing prayer calls us
to persistent perseverance and patient waiting in intense desire until
the answer comes.
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Rom. 12:12, "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation;
continuing instant in prayer."
Col. 4:2, "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with
thanksgiving."
Scripture gives us some very wonderful instances of this
intensity of desire in prayer. The children of Israel had fallen into
gross idolatry while Moses was upon the mount with God. Their sin
weighed heavily upon his heart. He alone stood as mediator between
them and the righteous judgment of God. Witness the sacrificial
vicariousness of his intercessory prayer.
Exodus 32:31-32, "And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh!
this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of
gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me,
I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written."
The same intensity of desire is in the prayer of the Apostle Paul
for his kinsmen according to the flesh. His heart's desire was their
salvation and he wanted it so much that he could even wish himself
outside the fold of Christ if they could be within.
Rom. 10:1, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is, that they might be saved."
Rom. 9:2-3, "That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in
my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for
my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh."
Such intense desire did David Brainerd have for the salvation of
the ignorant, savage Indian tribes to whom
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he carried the Gospel. He said, "I wrestled for the ingathering of
souls, for multitudes of poor souls, personally, in many places. I was
in such an agony from sun half an hour high until dark that I was wet
all over with sweat." Dr. Jowett rightly said, "True intercession is a
sacrifice, a bleeding sacrifice, a perpetuation of Calvary, a filling
up of the suffering of Christ. Unquestionably if our intercession
blesses it must bleed." How much do we really care for the salvation
of the unsaved members of our family? for the unsaved friends in our
social circle? for the unsaved millions in the mission fields? How
intensely do we desire to see a genuine revival in the Church? Is our
desire keen enough to call us to sacrificial, mediatorial intercession
and to keep us continuing in it until the answer comes?
A fifth prerequisite in prevailing prayer is the daring of faith.
God makes staggering promises to the man of prayer. He says
"Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him " (1 John 3:22). "If ye shall
ask anything, in my name, I will do it" (John 14:14). "[If ye abide in
me, and my words abide in you,] Ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you" (John 15:7).
As we face such stupendous statements as these we are compelled
to ask, "Does God really mean what He says? If He does, is He really
able to fulfil such promises? If He is, what does it require of us?"
God really means that IF YOU AND I FULFIL THE CONDITIONS He so
clearly states in connection with the promises which He has made that
He will fulfil the promise. The God of truth cannot lie.
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Titus 1:2, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie,
promised before the world began."
God is most assuredly able to fulfil every promise which He has
made. Listen to the testimony of those who had put God's faithfulness
to the test and had proved both His faithfulness and His power. "God
is faithful" (1 Cor. 10:13) and "God is able" (2 Cor. 9:8).
Josh. 23:14, "And, behold, this day I am going the way of
all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls,
that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord
your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not
one thing hath failed thereof."
1 Kings 8:56, "Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his
people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not
failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand
of Moses his servant."
Then what do such promises require of us? They require the daring
of faith. God calls us to take every promise at its face value. He
asks us not to drag His promises down to the plane of our unbelief but
to lift our faith up to the plane of His promises.
Rom. 4:20-21, "He staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being
fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to
perform."
God challenges us to put Him to the test. He dares
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us to command the Himalaya, that rears up between Himself and us or
between Himself and the one for whom we pray, to be removed and to be
cast into the sea and He makes the daring of faith the only condition
for the achievement of such a miracle.
Mark 11:23, R.V., "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, and shall
not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to
pass; he shall have it."
Will you enter today, my friend, into a new prayer-partnership
with your Lord? The power is His: the faith is yours. Through the
daring of faith will you link yourself with the omnipotence of power
and bring down from Heaven above not only into your own life but into
the life of the whole body of Christ "exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think."
Eph. 3:20, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in
us."
We have considered the prerequisites for prevailing prayer on the
man-ward side. We have been at the foot of the ladder, which connects
earth with Heaven, looking up. May we now go to the top of the ladder
and look down. From the viewpoint of the throne of grace what are the
conditions of prevailing prayer? Scripture reveals three qualifying
phrases accompanying God's gracious promises.
To be heard and answered prayer must be according
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to God's will. Does this statement need to be argued or expounded? Is
it not a self-evident fact that God could not grant any petition that
is not in accordance with His will? We have learned in the earlier
chapters of this book that it is God's purpose that man should think,
love and will within the circle of God's will. This, assuredly, means
that he must pray within that sphere if his prayer reaches the ear of
God. There is a limit then to what we may ask of God and the God-man
stated the condition very clearly in the thrice-repeated prayer in
Gethsemane, "Not my will but thine be done." Only he who has willed to
do the will of God will be able to pray aright.
But there is another side to this. St. Augustine has stated it in
these words, "O Lord, grant that I may do Thy will as if it were my
will, so that Thou mayest do my will as if it were Thy will." It is
possible for Christ and the Christian to live in such abiding oneness
that God does the will of His child which is expressed in his prayer.
John 15:7, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye
shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
And we may be so assured of the answer that we can praise Him
before we may have received in actual experience the thing prayed for.
1 John 5:14-15, "And this is the confidence that we have in him,
that, If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: And if
we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of him."
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"When we do what He bids, He does what we ask! Listen to God and
God will listen to you. Thus our Lord gives us ' power of attorney'
over His Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, if only we fulfil the
condition of abiding in Him." (The Kneeling Christian, by an Unknown
Christian, page 79)
To be heard and answered prayer must be in the name of Christ. No
sinner, not even a saved one, has ever made any deposit in the bank of
Heaven consequently he has no right to open an account in his own
name. The spiritual riches which are there for him were placed there
through the death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The account was opened for him when he put his faith in
this Saviour and at that moment Christ placed in his hands blank
checks signed with His own name and not one of them has ever been
refused at the bank of Heaven. Six times in that last conversation
with His disciples on earth the Lord Jesus told them that when He went
back to the Father He would open an account for each one of them and
urged them to make liberal use of His credit in their Father's bank.
He taught them that the Father hears but one Voice, that only the man
in Christ can reach the Father's ear with his petitions.
John 14:13-14, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will
I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. . . . And if ye
shall ask anything in my name, I will do it."
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John 15:16, "... Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my
name, he may give it you."
John 16:23-24, 26, "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in
my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my
name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." "At that
day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray
the Father for you:"
But do not let any one be deceived into thinking that these are
magic words which can be added, as an appendage, to any kind of a
prayer. It is only the prayer that will bring honour and glory to His
name that can be truly asked in His name. A wrong prayer cannot be
made right by the addition of some mystic phrase. It is possible for
one to pray in the name of Christ for the salvation of some member of
the family in order only that there may be greater harmony in the
home. Or a preacher may pray for large additions to his church not for
the glory of Christ's name but for his own. There must be
identification with Christ in His interests and purposes if there is
to be a rightful use of His name in prayer. Only the prayer that is
wholly according to God's will can be legitimately asked in the name
of Christ.
To be heard and answered prayer must be in the Holy Ghost. The
Holy Spirit alone knows what is the mind and will of God; He only
understands what prayer will be to the honour and glory of Christ. So
only the man who is in the Spirit's sphere and under the Spirit's
control will pray aright.
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Jude 20, "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most
holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost."
Rom. 8:26-27, R.V., "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit
himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered: And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of
the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to
the will of God."
In these two passages of Scripture we see that the divine
condition of prevailing prayer becomes at the same time the divine
provision for it. We do not know how to pray as we ought but the Holy
Spirit does know. Indwelling and infilling us He reveals to us our
need, suggests the objects of prayer, sifts and tests our motives,
purifies our desires, stiffens our faith and stimulates our hope and
expectation of an answer.
Do you honestly wish to live your life habitually on the highest
plane? Then you must become a man or woman of prayer, an intercessor
after God's heart. Are you willing to let the Holy Spirit deal with
you in regard to the actual condition of your prayer life as it now
is? Will you through the power of His divine enabling determine what
it shall be?
Has my prayer life been powerless because of some besetting sin?
Has my prayer life been hindered by haste, irregularity,
indefiniteness, insufficient preparation, unbelief, neglect of Bible
study?
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Has my prayer life been fruitless? Have I had such power with God
that I have had power with people? Have I had definite answers to
prayer week by week?
Has my prayer life been restricted merely to short, stated
seasons of prayer or have I come to know what it is to "pray without
ceasing"?
Has my prayer life been limited to prayer for myself? My family?
My work? My church? My mission? Or have I taken the world into my
heart and into my prayers?
Has my prayer life been starved? Or have I devoted time to the
study of God's Word about prayer? Do I know His precepts and promises?
Has my prayer life been joyless? Do I love to pray? Or is prayer
more of a duty than a delight?
Has my prayer life been growing? Do I daily know more of the
meaning and power of prayer?
Has my prayer life been sacrificial? Has it cost me anything in
time, strength, vitality, love?
"Lord teach us to pray."
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VIII. THE WORKS OF THE SPIRITUAL MAN
SALVATION, sanctification, service is the divine order in
spiritual experience. The man who is saved from sin and set apart unto
God must serve God and his fellow men in working to bring them into
the same spiritual oneness which he enjoys. The Christian's individual
relationship to God merges into a corporate relationship with the
other members of God's family and the other citizens of God's Kingdom
and then stretches on out toward "the other sheep" whom the loving
Shepherd longs to bring into His fold.
Titus 2:14, "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us
from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works."
2 Tim. 3:17, "That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works."
Titus 3:8, "This is a faithful saying, and these things I will
that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and
profitable unto men."
Works are the natural outcome of faith. Belief in Jesus Christ is
not a hollow profession nor a selfish possession. Faith that is real
must propagate itself and share its blessing. The apostles Paul and
James are not at loggerheads with each other; they are not stating
contradictory but complementary truth as they
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emphasize in turn the necessity of faith and of works. The virility of
any true faith is shown in its works.
James 2:17-18, R.V., "Even so faith, if it have not works, is
dead in itself. ... Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have
works: show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will
show thee my faith."
Works are the natural outcome of love. Love for the Lord Jesus is
not shallow sentiment that dissipates itself in words but it is
vicarious sacrifice that expresses itself in works. The vitality of
true love is shown in service. "Lovest thou me?" "Yea, Lord, thou
knowest that I love thee." Then, "Feed my lambs."
1 John 3:16, 18, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he
laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren. ... My little children, let us not love in word, neither in
tongue; but in deed and in truth."
Works are the natural outcome of life. The tree is known by its
fruits. Life in the tree presumes fruit on the branches. Life in
Christ Jesus must reproduce itself in life.
John 15:2, "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh
away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may
bring forth more fruit."
Acts 4:20, "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen
and heard."
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Faith, love and life are not passive but active forces and the
proportion in which they exist in the believer will determine the part
he takes in the work of Christ's body, the Church. The spiritual man
recognizes that the very possessions and privileges which are his in
Christ entail responsibilities and duties in the work which Christ
desires done in the world.
But no man of himself should determine the nature of his service
any more than he can determine the nature of his salvation or of his
sanctification. His works are also foreordained of God. It is only the
man who does a divinely determined and directed work who is promised
the power of God in its accomplishment.
Eph. 2:10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them."
God works according to a definite plan which is rooted in an
eternal purpose. In the eternity of the past He foresaw the tragedy of
sin and all of its evil consequences and formed the purpose which
determined the plan by which sin and its accompanying evil would be
removed. That plan took into account the conditions to be met in every
age, in every century and in every generation of mankind's history,
and stretched itself over them all. There is nothing new to God in
this twentieth century "modern mind" that either surprises or appals
Him for He has known it all before the foundation of the world.
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Eph. 3:11, "According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord."
Acts 15:18, "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning
of the world."
God's purpose centers in Christ and concerns itself with two
things only, the redemption of man and the reconciliation of all
things in the universe unto Himself. The salvation of man and the
sovereignty of God are the two vital issues at stake and upon their
accomplishment God's purpose focuses.
Salvation through a Saviour is God's only plan for the redemption
of man. God sent His Son into the world to be a propitiation for its
sins.
2 Tim. 1:9-10, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our own works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel."
1 John 4:14, "And we have seen and do testify that the Father
sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."
1 John 4:10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he
loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
God's remedy for the world's revolt against Him and its
reconstruction through His restoration to sovereignty over it centers
in Christ also; not however in Christ the Saviour but in Christ the
King. Through the incarnation He became a Saviour who in the ultimate
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fulfilment of God's eternal purpose was to become a King of whose
Kingdom there would be no end (Luke 1:30-33).
In the fulfilment of His purpose God has a divine order. He
accomplishes His task and achieves His goal by stages. The history of
God's dealings with man is divided into clearly defined "ages" or
periods of time. The scope of this book confines us to the
consideration of God's work in this age and the one to come. These two
stages are set forth in one passage in the Acts.
Acts 15:14-17, "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did
visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to
this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I
will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is
fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set
it up: ... That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all
the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth
all these things."
In God's plan there are two advents of Christ into this world for
two distinct purposes and marking off two distinct ages. In each
advent God works through His Son to carry out His purpose for the
whole world. In this study we are considering God's purpose in Christ
for this age, the period between Christ's first and second advent.
In this age God is not working for the reformation of the world
nor to put the world right, much as that is needed, but to bring man
into a right relationship to His
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Son. The improvement of conditions in human society has no share in
the plan of God for this age. In fact this would run absolutely
counter to His purpose in the Saviourhood of His Son for such a scheme
would make this world so comfortable a place in which to live that the
natural man in his ease and contentment would feel no need whatever
for God and would have no thought for the life to come. God is not
working to right the wrongs of a world that still hates and rejects
His Son.
Besides, the only possible road to the real reformation of
society is through the regeneration of the individual. Sin is the
cause of every bit of the suffering and sorrow in the world and the
only place where sin is removed is at the Cross of Calvary. "The
uplift of humanity" depends upon the uplifting of the Christ of the
Cross. The reformations that have been wrought in the world are the
by-product of the work of the Church. Scripture does not tell us that
the mission of the Church in this age is the reformation of the world.
Neither is God working in this age for the conversion of the
world. God frankly says "that the whole world lieth in the evil one,"
that Satan is "the god of this age" (2 Cor. 4:4 R.V.) and that it is
in the control of "the prince of this world" (John 14:30). Many
passages of Scripture show that "the course of this world" is to grow
worse and worse in the last days. One needs only to keep in mind what
we have learned in previous studies about the world to see how its
very nature precludes the thought of its conversion in this age of
grace.
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The world is "the flesh" in its corporate capacity. The only
place God can meet it is at the foot of the Cross and the only way in
which the world could be converted would be by the cleansing of its
sin in the atoning blood of Christ the Saviour.
But nowhere in the Word of God is there intimation that the
whole world ever will come to the Cross for that purpose. The whole
mass of unbelieving mankind is one vast federation under Satan's
leadership and will continue so unto the very end of this age.
1 John 5:19, R.V., "We know that we are of God, and the whole
world lieth in the evil one."
Eph. 2:2, "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."
2 Tim. 3:1, 13, "This know also, that in the last days perilous
times shall come. ... But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived."
Up to the very end of this age there will be both believers and
unbelievers, those who will receive and those who will reject Christ
the Saviour. At the end of the age the harvest will reveal both wheat
and tares in the field; both good and bad fish in the net. The parable
of the wicked husbandmen, as given by Christ Himself, shows that the
attitude of the world throughout this age continues to be one of
hatred and hostility.
Acts 28:24, "And some believed the things which were spoken, and
some believed not."
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Matt. 13:30, "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in
the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together
first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the
wheat into my barn."
Matt. 13:48, 49, R.V., "Which when it was filled, they drew up on
the beach; and they sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but
the bad they cast away. ... So shall it be in the consummation of the
age: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the
righteous."
God in this age is calling out from the world the Bride of Christ
that she may be prepared to meet Him at His coming and to reign with
Him in the Kingdom age which is to follow. God is calling individuals
out of this present evil world, emancipating them from it and
crucifying them to it.
John 15:19, "If ye were of the world, the world would love its
own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you."
Gal. 1:4, "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver
us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our
Father."
God's plan is in line with His purpose. This plan is the
evangelization of the world. Through the proclamation of the Gospel
throughout the whole world as a witness God wishes to give every
creature the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as his Saviour. This
is the primary meaning of His last commission.
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Luke 24:46-47, "And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus
it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his
name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
Mark 16:15, "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature."
John 6:40, "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every
one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life: and I will raise him up at the last day."
Having formed this purpose and having fashioned this plan God now
has no other way of working. In giving His Son to die God has done all
that He can do for this world.
1 Cor. 3:11 "For other foundation can no man lay than that is
laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Acts 4:12, "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is
none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved."
God's plan of working throughout the entire course of this age is
perfectly outlined in the Acts. Here we see the invisible Head of the
Church in the heavenlies determining and directing the work of His
visible body on earth through His Executor and Administrator, the Holy
Spirit. Every type of work in which He would have us engage as
Christians today is revealed to us there. Let us now consider the
nature of the spiritual man's work.
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God's Work in this Age is Executed through a
Divine-human Partnership
Life in Christ necessarily involves identification with Him in
His mission to this world. Real membership in Christ's body means
sharing with Him His compassionate love for the world and going out
into it to seek and to save the lost. As Christ was sent into the
world by the Father for a definitely specified task even so are we
sent by Him.
John 17:18, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I
also sent them into the world."
John 20:21, "Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as
my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."
What Christ Jesus began as the incarnate Son, He continues as the
exalted Lord, through the divine-human partnership which exists
between Him and His body, the Church.
1 Cor. 3:9, "For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's
husbandry, ye are God's building."
2 Cor. 6:1, "We then as workers together with him, beseech you
also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain."
Mark 16:20, "And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the
Lord working with them."
The Christian, then, is not at liberty to choose what his work
will be. He is under the direction of the Head of the body of which he
is but one member. As the Father determined
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the work of the Son and as Christ executed everything according to His
Father's will so the Lord Jesus now chooses and calls the workers and
then determines and directs the work. From this viewpoint let us study
together the work of the first century Church, that we may discern our
part in this divine-human partnership.
The workers were chosen of God. Paul and Peter each had the
conviction that they had been chosen by the Lord Himself for their
particular task even before receiving His call. Hence the courage of
that conviction which was evinced in all their work.
Acts 9:15, "But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a
chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings,
and the children of Israel."
Gal. 1:1, "Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.)"
Acts 15:7, "Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren,
know ye how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the
Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe."
The workers were called of God. It is considered somewhat
out-of-date today to speak of a divine call. The term is well-nigh
obsolete. Not a divine call, but a sociological appeal takes many a
man into the ministry or to the mission field. But the lack of it
quite as often takes him out of the ministry into business or out of
the mission field when the romance of an ocean trip and of meeting a
new people has given place to the daily
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routine of hard work in an uncongenial environment. But the ministers
and missionaries of that early Church were so sure of their call that
they would lay down their lives willingly, if need be, in the pursuit
of it (Acts 20:24).
Acts 13:2, "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy
Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I
have called them."
Acts 13:47, "For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have
set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for
salvation unto the ends of the earth."
The workers were appointed by the Lord. The men of the early
Church had a direct appointment to a specific task by the Lord Jesus.
To them it was a life task--to be laid down only when called into a
higher ministry in the immediate presence of their Lord. Is not the
reason why so many young men abandon their theological studies before
completing their course due to the fact that they were not "put into
the ministry" by the Lord Himself? The Church suffers today from
man-made ministers.
Acts 26:16, "But rise and stand upon thy feet: for I have
appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a
witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things
in the which I will appear unto thee."
Acts 20:24, "But none of these things move me, neither count I my
life dear unto myself, so that I might finish
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my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the
Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God."
1 Tim. 1:12, "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled
me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry."
The workers were sent by the Lord. Having been chosen and called
they were also commissioned by the Lord. With the assurance and
authority of a sent-one these first century ministers and missionaries
went forth. Laymen, also, like Ananias were divinely commissioned for
service.
Acts 22:21, "And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee
far hence unto the Gentiles."
Acts 9:17, "And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house;
and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus,
that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that
thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost."
Every Christian is needed somewhere in some kind of work in God's
vineyard. Every Christian has been ordained to some task by God. Every
member of Christ's body has been set in his position as an eye, an
ear, a hand or a foot so that the Head may work through him for the
accomplishment of some particular task. Only as every member of the
body is functioning properly can the work of the Head be perfected.
1 Cor. 12:14, 18, "For the body is not one member, but many. But
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now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath
pleased him. IF they were all one member, where were the body?"
Eph. 4:11-12, "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets;
and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; ... For the
perfecting of the saints, and the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ."
Not even the weakest, the youngest, nor the apparently most
ignorant and incapable is left without his share in God's work. In
fact, God delights to choose those who in themselves are impotent and
inadequate in order that the glory of achievement may be altogether
His.
1 Cor. 12:22, "Nay, much more those members of the body which
seem to be more feeble, are necessary."
2 Cor. 4:7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that
the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
The Lord Jesus determines and directs the work of those whom He
has chosen and called. As we study the various phases of the work of
the early Church we shall see that the whole field of Christian
activity was adequately covered. In the accomplishment of the
evangelization of the world the Holy Spirit gave every believer
something to do and He set some apart for tasks which required special
gifts.
There were witnesses in the first century Church. In fact, this
was the primary work of each. The Holy Spirit
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came not upon a select group on the day of Pentecost but upon each one
of the one hundred and twenty that each might be a witness.
Acts 2:32, "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are
witnesses."
Acts 13:31, "And he was seen many days of them which came up with
him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people."
Who is a witness, and of whom, and of what, does he witness?
It is very essential to understand this if one would grasp the
importance and the power of this form of Christian work. A witness is
one who tells what he has seen and knows.
Acts 22:15, "For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what
thou hast seen and heard."
Of whom did those in the early Church witness? The power of the
Holy Spirit was given only to those who witnessed of Christ Jesus.
From the beginning to the end of Acts we see them witnessing in all
places and unto all classes of people of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost
is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth."
Acts 23:11, "And the night following, the Lord stood by him, and
said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in
Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome."
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Of what concerning Christ did they witness? Invariably they
witnessed not to His work in the flesh but to His work on the Cross
and from the throne They told others not of "the Jesus of history" but
of the Christ of Calvary.
Acts 3:15, "And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised
from the dead; whereof we are witnesses."
Acts 5:30-32, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye
slew and hanged on a tree. ... Him hath God exalted with his right
hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sins. ... And we are witnesses of these things; and
so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him."
There were preacher-pastors in the first century Church.
Acts 20:28, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the
flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed
the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."
Definite instructions given them regarding what they were to
preach were followed implicitly. They preached the Word of God. Will
you glance through the book of the Acts and note the number of times
it is said that they preached the Word? Will you note also its
marvellous power both of attraction and conviction? Multitudes, even
whole cities, came to the place of worship, not to see a pageant nor
to hear a concert nor a discussion of some notable book nor
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a moralization of current topics nor a rhetorical discourse, but to
hear the Word of God. And wherever the Word was preached sinners were
convicted, converted and baptized by ones and twos, by hundreds and
thousands.
Acts 8:4, "Therefore they that were scattered abroad went
everywhere preaching the word."
Acts 13:44, "And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city
together to hear the word of God."
They preached the Gospel. The Gospel is the heart of the Word of
God. Take away the Gospel, which is "that Christ died for our sins,
was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,"
from the Word of God and you have nothing left but the walls of a
gutted building. The core of every sermon, the heart of every message
delivered by those first century preachers, was the death and the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was this Gospel that pricked the
hearts and consciences of men and made them cry out, "What must I do
to be saved?"
Acts 8:25, "And they, when they had testified and preached the
word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in
many villages of the Samaritans."
The preachers of the early Church were not ashamed of the Gospel.
They had proven its power in their own lives and knew the miracle it
had wrought. They had the compelling conviction that the preaching of
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the full Gospel of Christ was the only means of changing either the
sinful life of an individual or the corporate life of human society.
Rom. i:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it
is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the
Jew first, and also to the Greek."
They preached Christ. If the Gospel is the heart of the Word,
Christ is the heart of the Gospel. The men of that day knew the Jesus
of Nazareth, Cana and Capernaum far, far better than any theological
historian of the twentieth century, and how they could have entranced
their audiences with stories out of His earthly life! How sweet and
precious must have been their memories of the years of fellowship with
Him! What countless sermons Peter and James and John could have
preached about the Jesus who healed the daughter of Jairus, who was
transfigured on the mount and who prayed in the garden of Gethsemane!
But "the Jesus of history" was not the theme of their sermons. What
pain and anguish of heart must have been mingled with every
remembrance of Him as they recalled their faithlessness in the hour of
His deepest need; of the cowardly denial in the presence of His
enemies; of the traitorous desertion at the Cross; and of the doubt
and disbelief at the tomb. It was not to the incarnate Son but to the
crucified, risen, ascended, exalted Son to whom they owed their
deliverance from sin, self and Satan. It was this Christ and Him only
whom they preached.
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Acts 5:42, "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they
ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ."
Acts 9:20, "And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues,
that he is the Son of God."
Glance again rapidly through the book of the Acts to note the
result of the preaching of the Christ of the Gospel of the Word of
God. The divine record tells of conversions, baptisms, additions to
church membership of individuals, of households, of multitudes of men
and women from all classes of society.
Let us take but a few illustrations of the marvellous power of
such preaching. The Ethiopian eunuch believed and was baptized when
Philip preached Christ to him from Isa. 53:7-8 (Acts 8). The Roman
proconsul Sergius Paulus believed when he heard the doctrine from the
mouths of Barnabas and Paul (Acts 13). The households of Cornelius,
the Gentile centurion (Acts 10); of Lydia, the business woman (Acts
16); of the unnamed Philippian jailor (Acts 16) and of Crispus, the
chief ruler of the synagogue (Acts 18), all were convicted of sin,
converted and baptized through the preaching of the Christ of the
Gospel of the Word.
Acts 6:7, "And the word of God increased; and the number of
disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the
priests were obedient to the faith."
Acts 4:4, "Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed;
and the number of the men was about five thousand."
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There were evangelists in the first century Church. Philip was an
evangelist and went from place to place preaching the Gospel. While
much of the preaching in the early Church was without doubt
apologetic, yet there is equal evidence that much of it was
evangelistic both in content and in method. The appeal was to the
heart and to the will as truly as to the mind and to the conscience,
and the audiences were warned and exhorted as well as instructed and
edified.
Acts 21:8, "And the next day ... we entered into the house of
Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven ..."
Acts 2:40, "And with many other words did he testify and exhort,
saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation."
There were teachers in the first century Church. The early Church
was thoroughly indoctrinated. New converts were taught the Word of
God. Not only were the fundamental truths preached but they were
taught to the whole Church. Need we any further proof of this than the
Epistles which were written to these churches?
Paul's conception of the ministry was that it should be a
teaching as well as a preaching ministry. He returned to the places
where he had won converts in his missionary tours and sometimes stayed
one or two years teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus. The
last word spoken of him in the Acts tells us he was in his own hired
house teaching about Jesus Christ.
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Acts 18:11, "And he continued there a year and six months,
teaching the Word of God among them."
Acts 19:10, "And this continued by the space of two years; so
that all which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both
Jews and Greeks."
The apostles of the early Church considered it a definite and
essential part of their ministry to establish and confirm the
Christians in their faith, to encourage and strengthen them in their
work, and to feed and foster their spiritual life.
Acts 16:5, "And so were the churches established in the faith,
and increased in number daily."
Acts 15:41, "And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming
the churches."
Acts 18:23, "And after he had spent some time there, he departed,
and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order,
strengthening all the disciples."
Not the statistics of church membership but the spiritual status
of church members was Paul's concern. He desired passionately that
those whom he had begotten in the Gospel might be presented perfect in
Christ Jesus. To that end he not only taught them but he warned,
reproved and rebuked the Christians under his care.
Col. 1:28, "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every
man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ
Jesus."
There were personal workers in the first century
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Church. The passion of the early Church was to win men to Christ. "I
am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some"
was Paul's slogan (1 Cor. 9:22). Tremendous emphasis is laid upon the
importance of personal soul winning by the fact that in three
consecutive chapters in the Acts wonderful examples of this type of
work are given.
The evangelist Philip was taken from a very successful
evangelistic campaign in Samaria to the desert of Gaza to win one man.
The Ethiopian eunuch was returning from Jerusalem to his home with a
scroll of the prophet Isaiah which he was reading eagerly but without
understanding. Philip entered his chariot, explained to him the
passage and from it preached Christ. And the eunuch believed and was
baptized (Acts 8:36-38).
Acts 8:35, "Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same
Scripture and preached unto him Jesus."
Paul had seen the Lord of glory on the road to Damascus and had
fallen before Him believing but blinded; emptied but unfilled. In
Damascus was Ananias, the layman. His name appears but once in the
annals of Scripture but it is in connection with a bit of personal
work that shines upon the page of Scripture as the north star shines
in the heavens, for through him as God's own sent messenger Paul
receives his sight and is filled with the Holy Ghost. The work of
salvation begun by the Lord of glory was consummated by his call to
sanctification and to service through Ananias.
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Acts 9:17, "And Ananias went his way and entered into the house:
and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus,
that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that
thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost."
In Caesarea was Cornelius, the centurion, a man with a devout
heart and a deep hunger for God. In Joppa was Peter, a man with a
passionate passion for souls and a life surrendered to his Lord for
service. And in Heaven was God who works at both ends of the line
sending a prepared messenger to prepared souls. The result was a whole
household won to the Lord (Acts 10).
Personal testimony was another form of work in the first century
Church. Who can estimate the fruitage of Paul's testimony of his
conversion before the multitude and before Agrippa (Acts 22, 26).
The ministry of intercession was practiced by the first century
Church. To the first Christians intercession was a working force. When
Peter and John were threatened because of the healing of the lame man
they gave themselves to prayer. When Peter was imprisoned "prayer was
made without ceasing." Through praise and prayer Paul and Silas not
only opened prison doors but the fast closed hearts of the Philippian
jailor and his household. Through prevailing intercession those feeble
men and women defeated and routed Satan and his hosts and again and
again gained for the triumphant Lord of glory a visible manifestation
of His victory on Calvary. They worked through prayer.
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Acts 12:5, "Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was
made without ceasing of the church unto God for him."
Acts 16:25, "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang
praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them."
The grace of giving was manifest in the first century Church.
Filled with the Holy Ghost love for God and for their fellow men led
the first disciples to lay all they possessed at His feet for His use.
The coffers of the early Church were not filled by a finance campaign
but by the free-hearted consecration of his material possessions to
the Lord on the part of every Christian.
Acts 4:32, "And the multitude of them that believed were of one
heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the
things which he possessed was his own: but they had all things
common."
Administrators of the business affairs of the Church were to be
found in the first century Church. But these men were not chosen
because of their social prestige, their financial income, or their
executive ability, but they chose men full of honesty, of wisdom, of
faith and of the Holy Ghost. It was a spiritual task to which they
were called which required spirituality in those who undertook it.
Acts 6:3, "Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men
of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may
appoint over this business."
Good works were part of the activities of the first
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century Church. The practical expression of the love of Christ in
kindly deeds for the relief of physical and material needs and for the
amelioration of suffering is the natural product of vital
spirituality. The genuinely spiritual man is the first to feel the
touch upon the hem of his garment and to give most liberally of his
sympathy and his support to those in need. The early Church had its
"Dorcas" and more than once is it recorded that it sent relief to
God's children.
Acts 9:36, "Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named
Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: This woman was full
of good works and alms deeds which she did."
Acts 11:29, "Then the disciples, every man according to his
ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in
Judea."
The life of the spiritual man is one full of beneficence because
"the fruit of the Spirit is kindness." He delights in playing the part
of the good Samaritan, he revels in carrying cups of refreshing water.
Gal. 6:10, "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto
all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."
Mark 9:41, "For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink
in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he
shall not lose his reward."
Titus 2:7, "In all things showing thyself a pattern of good
works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity."
There were missionaries in the first century Church. No church
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can lay claim to true, apostolic succession which is not missionary in
purpose, passion and program. The early Church was essentially a
missionary Church. The power of God was upon it in an exceptional way
because it gave itself in obedience to the fulfilment of Christ's last
commission to carry the Gospel to the uttermost part of the earth.
Persecution sent those first Christians everywhere preaching the Word
of life.
Acts 8:1, 4, "And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that
time there was a great persecution against the church which was at
Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions
of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. ... Therefore they that
were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word."
Acts 11:19-20, "Now they which were scattered abroad upon the
persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and
Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews
only. ... And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when
they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord
Jesus."
There were martyrs in the first century Church. The testimony of
Stephen was sealed with martyrdom. How true it was that "The blood of
martyrs is the seed of the Church." By the laying down of this
faithful life in triumphant death Stephen no doubt did more toward
winning Saul of Tarsus to Jesus Christ than he ever could have done in
a lifetime of preaching. Paul's conscience was seared by the haunting
vision of that victorious death and by the remembrance
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of his part in it--Stephen though dead, continued to speak to Saul.
Acts 7:58, "And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the
witnesses laid down their clothes at the young man's feet, whose name
was Saul." "... And Saul was consenting unto his death" (Acts 8:1).
Acts 22:20, "And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I
also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the
raiment of them that slew him."
The work of the first century Church bears upon it the seal of
God and the scars of Satan. The seal was power and the scars were
persecution. Loyalty in preaching the Christ of the Gospel of the Word
drew down from Heaven the supernatural power of God and it raised up
from hell Satanic persecution. Study the book of Acts and you will see
these two invariably in inevitable succession; power in preaching
Christ produced persecution of the Christian and persecution of the
Christian precipitated power from Christ.
Acts 5:14, 16, 17-18, "And believers were the more added to the
Lord, multitudes both of men and women. ... There came also a
multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick
folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were
healed every one. ... Then the high priest rose up and all they that
were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled
with indignation, ... and laid their hands on the apostles, and put
them in the common prison."
Acts 14:1-2, "And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went back
together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great
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multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. ... But
the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds
evil affected against the brethren."
The work of the early Church was all-comprehensive. The God-man
who inaugurated it knew every need of human life and planned
adequately to meet and to satisfy it. Though conditions have changed,
the fundamental need of human life does not vary from one century to
another. The task of the Church at the very beginning was cast into an
age-long mold by Christ Jesus and He has given no indication on down
through the centuries of any deviation from His purpose and plan so
clearly revealed in Scripture.
But no one can look upon the Church today without seeing that it
has departed very far from both the purpose and the plan of God. The
leaders of Christendom frankly state that the work of the Church is
not to save souls but to salvage society so they have given themselves
deliberately to "the purification of Sodom" rather than to "the
proclamation of the Saviour." From pulpit and press they declare that
"the mission of the Church is to make the world better," and "to
interpret to the world the principles of Christ," so that it may win
the world into living by His teachings and into following His
principles. The supreme question before present-day Christendom is not
man's relationship to God's Son but man's relationship to human
society; the paramount issue is not God's sovereign reign in
righteousness and peace over a world brought into reconciliation with
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Him through His Son, but it is the equalizing and solidifying of
nations, races and classes through foisting upon them for their
acceptance the dogma of the Fatherhood of God, whom they do not
acknowledge as Father, and the brotherhood of men, whom they do not
accept as brothers.
The leaders of Christendom frankly state that they preach such a
"social gospel." And any one, who scans the sermon themes for Sunday
in the newspaper, or who studies the subjects announced on the church
calendar, has no reason to doubt their word on this point. The marvel
is that with such special emphasis on social betterment themes "the
world" is not more rapidly approaching the desired millennium of
righteousness and peace. "The world" at heart really does not want to
be "made better" so it is not going to the place where it will be
coaxed or coerced into a reformation of its conduct. It will greatly
appreciate anything which the Church does to make its life in sin more
full of comfort and will even assist in the matter by making liberal
contributions to financial drives or "community chests." But "the
world" is not overtaxing the seating capacity of the churches which
preach the "social gospel." When "the world" seeks entertainment it
usually prefers to have it in its native haunts and its natural
setting rather than to have it adulterated and spoiled by an admixture
of religion. The "social gospel" is not filling but rather emptying
the churches and many are concerned as to what new attractions can be
offered to drag "the world" to church.
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Let us honestly face the actual condition of the present day
pulpit and pew. God still has His "seven thousand" who have not bowed
to the worship of "twentieth century scholarship," who are not
devotees at the shrine of "the modern mind" and who will not deify man
and humanize God. Praise God that throughout the whole world there are
thousands of preachers, evangelists, teachers and missionaries who
still preach the Christ of the Gospel of the Word of God and there are
millions of laymen who believe that Gospel and who hold inviolate the
whole Word of God.
But on the other hand there is a growing number of preachers,
teachers and missionaries who today do not preach or teach the Christ
of the Gospel of the Word of God. The Christ they preach is "another"
Christ, the gospel is "another" gospel and the Bible is "another"
Bible.
The reformation of the whole world which the "social gospel"
purposes does not need the Saviour of the Cross, for man is to be his
own saviour. To preach the Christ of the Cross and of the throne is to
leave the realm of the practical and descend to the plane of the
doctrinal, the modern teacher reasons. He declares that the world has
outgrown this. But to win the world from its naughty ways and to teach
it the right "way of life" he does feel the need of an example to hold
up before it and of ethical precepts and principles which it can
follow. The preacher of the "social gospel" can find no greater
example and no better teacher than "the Jesus of history" so he does
make use of Him in this capacity.
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The reformation of the world which the modern preacher advocates
has no place in it for the Gospel of the Word of God which is a Gospel
of salvation from sin through a crucified, risen, ascended, exalted
Lord. In fact the "social gospel" decries having any creed. It
declares that its emphasis is on love rather than on faith and that
the important thing is not what a man believes but what he is. It does
not concern itself with the building of a solid foundation but only
with the ornamentation of the roof. If the structure has a lovely,
attractive roof garden with sweet music, fragrant flowers, captivating
eloquence and happy companionship why have any anxiety over the fact
that the foundation is made of sand? The "social gospel" ignores the
fact so plainly revealed in Scripture that the divine order is
invariably faith and then love, and that it is an absolute
impossibility to build the superstructure of a spiritual life on
anything but the solid foundation of a crucified, risen Saviour. So
the "social gospel" is plainly not "the Gospel of Christ."
The reformation of the world which the modern pulpit so earnestly
advocates has no place in it for the Scriptures as the Word of God.
"The modern mind" finds it impossible to accept the Bible as such. The
Bible cannot be rejected altogether for then the modern preacher would
on the very face of it have to leave the evangelical pulpit
immediately. But "the modern mind" finds a middle ground of compromise
which it hopes the evangelical Church will be tolerant and loving
enough to accept. It admits that the Bible "contains the Word of God"
and modestly claims that it has been
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ordained by twentieth century scholarship to tell the pew what parts
of it are the Word of God and what parts are not.
Such an arrogant assumption makes the true believer who loves the
Bible and who believes that from Genesis to Revelation it is "the Word
of God," as God Himself says it is, seek to know what this "modern
mind" really is and from whence it got the authority to handle the
Book of books in any such fashion.
So one goes to the Bible itself to see if he can run down this
"modern mind" that he may know where and how to classify it. He finds
only two types of "mind" mentioned; "the mind of Christ" and "the
carnal mind." In Phil. 2:5-11 he finds that "the mind of Christ"
believes and accepts Christ as the eternal Son, the One who was equal
with God because He was God; the incarnate Son who emptied Himself of
His divine glory and humbled Himself by entering into this world
through the virgin's womb, thus becoming Man; the crucified Son who in
obedience to His Father's will went to the death of the Cross; the
ascended Son who hath been exalted to the Father's right hand and
given a name above every name; the kingly Son before whom every knee
shall bow some day and every tongue shall confess that He is Jesus
Christ the Lord. "The mind of Christ" cannot be "the modern mind"
which denies and rejects in whole or in part these glorious truths
concerning the Lord Jesus.
Then it must be "the carnal mind." But "the carnal mind" is as
old as Eden. The only way we can discover
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whether the self-styled "modern mind" is really the antiquated "carnal
mind" dressed in the disguise of twentieth century scholarship is to
take its finger prints. That will be adequate proof. "Hath God said?"
"Ye shall not surely die." "Ye shall be as gods." Doubt and disbelief
of God's Word; denial of God's Word; and deification of man and man's
intellect! No further evidence is needed. This threefold finger print
marks "the modern mind" as "the carnal mind" which is enmity toward
God, and His arch antagonist. The Bible of the modern preacher is
"another" Bible and not "the Word of God."
Such an appalling condition in the pulpit inevitably creates an
equally appalling condition in the pew. The people in many churches
today are starved; they are like the famine sufferers, having to live
on shrubs, bark, husks and fodder. Probably the Church was never so
perfectly organized as it is today, yet it is pitifully ineffective
before its tremendous task. The apostasy in the pulpit has created
dwindling congregations, doubting Christians and drifting churches.
The Church has drifted so far back toward the world that ofttimes the
boundary line between the two spheres is almost indiscernible. Worldly
policies are resorted to in the conduct of the affairs of the Church;
worldly methods are employed to attract people to attend its services;
worldly entertainments are given them after they come. Whatsoever a
church soweth, that shall it also reap. There is a tragic harvest of
thoroughly worldly churches in Christendom today.
Let us come back to the individual Christian's responsibility
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for the kind of work he does as a member of the body of Christ. The
works of every believer in Christ will be judged and he will receive
or lose his reward according to the kind of work which he has done. If
he has built a superstructure upon the foundation of the pure Gospel
that is gold, silver and precious stones, then his work will abide.
But, if he has fashioned the superstructure out of the wood, hay and
stubble of "another gospel which is not the gospel" (Gal. 1:6-7) then
his work will be burned. It will not stand the test of the fire of
God's judgment.
1 Cor. 3:8, "Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one:
and every one shall receive his own reward according to his own
labour."
2 Cor. 5:10, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
1 Cor. 3:11-15, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is
laid, which is Jesus Christ. ... Now if any man build upon this
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every
man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is. ... If any man's work abide which he
hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. ... If any man's work
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved;
yet so as by fire."
It is a terrifically solemn thought that in the work which we do
we are either the tool of Christ or of Satan and that
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in the message we give we are either the mouthpiece of Christ or of
the devil.
Rom. 6:13, "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God."
Matt. 16:23, "But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind
me Satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the
things that be of God, but those that be of men."
But there is no need for any Christian to be ignorant of the kind
of work that abides nor will he have any excuse to present to Christ
at the judgment seat if he does the kind that must be burned. God has
given us the pattern in His Book and has bestowed upon us the power in
His Spirit to accomplish our part in this blessed partnership. If we
fail to do, it will be because we have failed to discern.
God's Work in this Age is Accomplished through
Supernatural Power
The works of the incarnate Son were supernatural and beyond the
power of any man to accomplish in himself. Those who tried to copy or
to counterfeit them failed miserably. Yet He told His disciples that
they were to do the same works and even greater. It is truly a
supernatural task which Christ gives the Christian to do. Bringing
spiritually dead men to life and making them into the image of the Son
of God is in deed and truth a task beyond human power.
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John 14:12, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and even greater works than
these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."
In the last clause of this wonderful promise He gives a clue as
to how they were to be empowered for such a work. "Because I go unto
my Father." By His return to Heaven supernatural power to do
supernatural tasks was to be transmitted to them. Let us follow this
clue until we find the secret.
After His crucifixion and resurrection and immediately preceding
His ascension He gives to His disciples the commission in which He
makes mention of this power. He tells them three things:
first, that all power in Heaven and upon earth resides in Him;
second, that they will be endued with this power;
third, that they will receive this power through the anointing of
the Holy Spirit.
Matt. 28:18, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and upon earth."
Luke 24:49, "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon
you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with
power from on high."
Acts 1:8, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you."
The crucified, risen, ascended, exalted Lord in whom dwells all
power in Heaven and upon earth Himself lives in all the fulness of His
supernatural power in the believer through the infilling and anointing
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of the Holy Spirit. Some one has tersely said, "Calvary creates the
worker; Pentecost empowers him."
The disciples and apostles of the first century Church were
equipped and energized to do "the greater works" by the limitless
power of God through the fulness of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 4:8, "Then, Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto
them, ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel."
Acts 13:9, "Then, Saul, (who is also called Paul,) filled with
the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him."
Rom. 15:18-19, "For I will not dare to speak of any of those
things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles
obedient, by word and deed, ... Through mighty signs and wonders, by
the power of the Spirit of God: so that from Jerusalem, and round
about into Illyricum, I have freely preached the gospel of Christ."
1 Thess. 1:5, "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but
also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye
know what manner of men we were among you for your sake."
The same power bestowed by the same Person is open to every
disciple of the twentieth century Church for the accomplishment of the
same God-given task. Is that power yours today? Have you been anointed
by the Holy Spirit? Are you doing "the greater works"?
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IX. THE RELATIONSHIPS OF THE SPIRITUAL MAN
NO man can live unto himself. Every man has a corporate as well
as an individual life. God has ordained that we live in families,
neighbourhoods, nations and races, nevertheless the whole human race
is a unit and each person is a unit within a unit.
God intended that between the units in this vast organism there
should be perfect adjustment. Godliness, holiness and righteousness
were the fundamentals upon which God meant human society to be built.
But sin entered and as we have seen, cosmos became chaos.
Maladjustment distorted every relationship; first, between God and
man; second, within man's own being; third, between man and man. In
God's original creation the divine order was God, others, oneself. Sin
completely reversed this. Selfishness supplanted love. Today the whole
fabric of human society is threatened. Family life is being rent in
twain by divorce of parents and disobedience of children; communities
are agog with frightful crimes and civic corruptions; nations and
races are at war at heart, if not in fact. Family, civic, national and
international life is shot through and through with division.
The only hope for readjustment within human society
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rests in a return to God's original order. In Christ and in Him alone
can man come into a right relationship with God, with himself and with
his fellow men. In Christ all dislocations in relationships may be set
right and there may be a reproduction of moral order in which the
processes of disintegration and degeneration may cease. Life on the
highest plane both demands and provides for such readjustment.
The Christian life is a fellowship which is rooted in faith and
nurtured by love. The soil out of which it springs is faith in God.
The atmosphere in which it thrives is love for God, out of which is
begotten love toward man. This divine order is irreversible. It is
impossible for one to have a love for his fellow man with sufficient
power to conquer the innate selfishness of his own heart apart from
faith in God. It is utter folly to preach "the brotherhood of man" to
those who do not know "the Fatherhood of God" through a new birth
based on faith in the cleansing blood of a Saviour.
Primacy is always given in Scripture to man's relationship to
God; his relationship to man is secondary and dependent. Godliness is
an essential precedent to righteousness. When men have become children
of God through faith in Jesus Christ then they become brothers in the
Lord. This is the only "Fatherhood of God" and "brotherhood of man"
which Scripture sanctions and which works out in practical experience.
After Paul calls himself Christ's apostle then he calls himself
Timothy's brother.
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Col. 1:4, "Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of
the love which we have to all the saints."
Philemon 5, "Hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast
toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints."
Col. 1:1, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,
and Timotheus our brother."
Let us then consider the Christian's corporate relationships in
their divinely appointed order.
The Spiritual Man's Relationship to God
Life on the highest plane demands a radical reversal in man's
affections. The natural man lives unto himself because he loves self
supremely; the spiritual man lives unto God because he loves God
supremely.
2 Tim. 3:2, 4, "For men shall be lovers of their ownselves, ...
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God."
2 Cor. 5:15, "And he died for all, that they which live should
not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them,
and rose again."
God's love bridged the gulf between the natural and the spiritual
man. "God so loved that he gave his only begotten Son." His gift was
the measure of His love. He gave His best, His all. He gave the
costliest gift in His treasure-house, the crown jewel of Heaven. Such
love comprehended by faith conquers the rebellion of the will and
constrains the heart to love Him who first so loved us. Our love for
Him is rooted in His love for us.
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1 John 4:9-10, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us,
because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him. ... Herein is love not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins."
1 John 4:19, "We love him, because he first loved us."
The spiritual man not only loves God more than he loves himself
but also more than he loves any other one. His love for God is
paramount. It is so far above the love he has even for his own kith
and kin that it is in a class by itself.
Matt. 22:37-38, "... Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the
first and great commandment."
Matt. 10:37, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me."
When the Christian becomes a son in God's family thereafter his
first filial obedience and love is to be given to his heavenly Father.
This does not mean for one moment that God discounts the human love of
parent for child or child for parent or friend for friend. On the
contrary God commands both parental and filial love, and experience
proves that when one loves God supremely all human love is both
enhanced and enriched. To the heavenly Father His child not only owes
the gift of physical life through creation but he owes the still more
priceless gift of spiritual life through re-creation. This makes him
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far more of a debtor to God than he is even to his earthly parents,
and parents and children alike should acknowledge with joy the primacy
of their relationship to God.
But this is not always so and oftentimes the hardest place to
live one's Christian life is in the home and one's greatest enemies
are those of his own household. One knows many instances of
heart-breaking experiences and well-nigh intolerable situations caused
by the ridicule, opposition and persecution of Christians by members
of their own family. Many a boy or girl has been disowned by parents
for no other reason than that he became a Christian! Many a young
person has had to go to the mission field over the wishes of parents
or friends. To have chosen to do the will of God when it went counter
to the will of loved ones has been the severest test in Christian
experience. But God has never failed to honour love that expresses
itself in sacrificial obedience to Himself. And Christ knows how to
sympathize with and to succour all who are so tested. He met
opposition in His own family and His mother and brothers tried to
dissuade Him from the path that led to Calvary. This action called out
from Him that remarkable statement that those children of God who were
united in doing the will of their heavenly Father were more closely
bound together than those who are put together by family ties. The
blood of Christ unites His own by a tie that supersedes that made
through human blood.
Matt, 10:36, "And a man's foes shall be they of his own
household."
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Matt. 12:50, "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which
is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."
Strength to suffer and to endure, to bear and to forbear will be
given to the one who gives Christ the supreme place in his affections.
God will cause him to triumph and to be a sweet savour of Christ unto
Him in every place. Love to God, preeminent and paramount, is rewarded
by victory and fruitage. His love in us manifested even in silence
will be like a light shining in a dark place.
2 Cor. 2:14-16, R.V., "But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth
us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savour of
his knowledge in every place. ... For we are a sweet savour of Christ
unto God, in them that are saved and in them that perish; ... to the
one a savour from death unto death; to the other a savour from life
unto life."
The relationship of the spiritual man to God is marked also by
loyalty. By virtue of sonship in God's family he has citizenship in
God's Kingdom. Loyalty to his heavenly country and to the interests of
his Father's Kingdom takes precedence over citizenship in his earthly
domain and supersedes the nationalism which is earth-born.
While acknowledging that "the powers that be are ordained of
God," while submitting obediently to the laws of the country in which
he lives, while taking his full responsibility for support of that
government during his sojourn on earth, yet the man who lives his life
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on the highest plane discerns clearly that his real home center is in
the heavenlies and that his first allegiance must be to the Kingdom of
God.
Titus 3:1, "Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and
powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work."
Rom. 13:1, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For
there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God."
Phil. 3:20, R.V., "For our citizenship is in heaven."
The spiritual man must acknowledge the sovereignty of his Lord
over all other rulers. To him Christ Jesus is already the King of
kings and the Lord of lords and his prayer to the Father invariably
breathes forth the intense desire to see God's sovereignty extend from
sea to sea until His will is done on earth as it is in Heaven.
1 Tim. 1:17, "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the
only wise God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen."
Matt. 6:9-10, "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father
which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. ... Thy kingdom come. Thy
will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
The Christian serves his Master in an official capacity.
Disloyalty is treason. He is a servant of the Lord of Heaven and God
requires uncompromising faithfulness in a servant. He is a soldier in
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the army of Christ and a soldier dare not be enmeshed in entangling
alliances. He is an ambassador of the King at the court of a foreign
country and an ambassador must maintain absolute loyalty to the
statutes of his own country.
Rom. 1:1, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an
apostle, separated unto the gospel of God."
2 Tim. 2:3-4, "Thou therefore endure hardship, as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ. ... No man that warreth entanglelh himself with the
affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be
a soldier."
2 Cor. 5:20, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though
God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye
reconciled to God."
An ambassador of Christ has definite instructions from his
Sovereign and he cannot act independently of them. He has had
committed unto him the Gospel of Christ as a sacred trust and loyalty
to Christ requires loyalty to this Gospel.
1 Tim. 1:11, "According to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God, which was committed to my trust."
Rom. 15:16, "That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the
Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God."
Some of the religious leaders in Paul's day had departed from the
faith. They would not endure sound doctrine and resisted the truth to
such an extent that Paul openly called them blasphemers. They had made
shipwreck of their faith and were busily engaged in trying to steer
the ship of other men's lives onto the same rocks.
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2 Tim. 3:8, "Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do
these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate
concerning the faith."
1 Tim. 1:19-20, "Holding faith and a good conscience; which some
having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is
Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they
may learn not to blaspheme."
Paul wrote to the young minister who was his son in the faith
urging him to loyalty to his Lord. He pointed out to Timothy the
fallacy of the scholarship of that day, which was the cause of this
departure from the true faith, and warned him to have nothing to do
with it but to give himself afresh to a study of the Word.
1 Tim. 6:20-21, R.V., "O Timothy, guard that which is committed
unto thee, turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions of
the knowledge which is falsely so called; ... which some professing
have erred concerning the faith."
2 Tim. 2:16-18, R.V., "But shun profane babblings: for they will
proceed further in ungodliness, ... and their word will eat as doth a
gangrene: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; ... men who concerning
the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already,
and overthrow the faith of some."
2 Tim. 2:15, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
Paul also warned the little flock at Ephesus and the whole Church
under his care of the grievous wolves and the
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false hirelings who would enter in among them to draw the flock away
from the Shepherd. He faithfully exposed these men and their seductive
methods in his Epistles to the churches.
Acts 20:29-30, "For I know this, that after my departure shall
grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock: ... also of
your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw
away disciples after them."
2 Cor. 11:13-15, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. ... And no
marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as
the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their
works."
Paul declared that these men were guilty of bringing division
into the Church. When they departed from the faith of the Gospel
instead of separating also from the Church that had preached and
taught this Gospel from its inception, and establishing an
organization upon their new tenets, they did the very unethical thing
of remaining within the Church and of attempting to gain control over
it. Though teaching a doctrine contrary to that which the Christians
had been taught yet they apparently used such a vocabulary that it
would be difficult for their simple-hearted hearers to detect its
falseness. They ensnared many through genial manners and fair words.
Such was the beginning of apostasy.
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Rom. 16:17-18, R.V., "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them that
are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the
doctrine which ye learned; and turn away from them, For they that are
such serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly; and by their
smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts of the innocent."
Col. 2:4, 8, "And this I say, lest any man beguile you with
enticing words. ... Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world, and not after Christ."
Under the inspiration of the divine Spirit Paul foretold the
apostasy that would sweep throughout the entire professing Church and
would eat at its very vitals. Into a veritable whirlpool of doubt,
disbelief and disloyalty multitudes would be drawn.
1 Tim. 4:1-2, R.V., "But the Spirit saith expressly, that in the
later times some shall jail away from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men
that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron."
2 Tim. 4:3-4, R.V., "For the time will come when they will not
endure the sound doctrine, but having itching ears, will heap to
themselves teachers after their own lusts; ... And will turn away
their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables."
No Spirit-taught student of the Word of God and of the universal
condition of Christendom doubts that the day of this prophesied
apostasy is already upon us. In the churches of the mission field as
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well as in those of the homelands this declension from the true faith
and this disloyalty to Him who is the Truth is in every day evidence.
(In China about twenty-five hundred missionaries, representing
all denominations and nationalities, united in a Bible Union as a
testimony before the native Christians of their loyalty to Jesus
Christ and to His Word, and as a protest to the inroads of Modernism,
into a field where for more than one hundred years the pure Gospel
seed had been sown and nurtured by thousands of missionaries loyal to
Christ and to His truth.)
Today many religious leaders in all parts of Christendom have
departed from the faith and are openly in revolt against the truth.
They will not endure sound doctrine but are actively declaring war
upon the foundational truths of Christianity. Just last week a
minister, still occupying an evangelical pulpit, was assisting in the
ordination of a Unitarian minister. On that occasion he made this
pronouncement, "The Church is in revolt against Fundamentalism and
Puritanism," which means that he is openly in favor of Liberalism and
License. Such men are at heart Unitarian because they deny every truth
of the Word which makes the Lord Jesus Christ the unique Son of God.
Their place is entirely outside the evangelical Church and, if they
practiced even the most elementary principles of the ethical gospel
which they preach, they would pack up their ecclesiastical belongings,
depart from the evangelical pulpit, and establish themselves either
with their Unitarian brethren or seek virgin soil in which to plant
their tares.
But they have no intention whatever of leaving the evangelical
pulpit, rather they purpose deliberately to stretch forth their hands
and stealthily lay hold upon the entire
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machinery of the Church both at home and upon the mission field and
secure its control. They usually are such adepts in the manipulation
of language that through the use of "good words and fair speeches"
(Rom. 16:18) they deceive even the true people of God. They preach
sermons filled with the rankest poison but sugar-coated with sweet
words and eloquent phrases, patronizing the Jesus of history. Only
those who have the discernment which the Holy Spirit alone gives
detect the deception. And, when the men and women who love their Lord
better than they love their own lives cry out in protest against such
high-handed dishonesty, they have the blatant effrontery to charge
them with bringing division into the Church and to accuse them with a
lack of love.
The conflict between Fundamentalism and Modernism is dividing
organized Christianity in twain. There are some who live near the
border line of both camps who earnestly desire neutrality between
these opposing forces. They plead for unity; they plan for union; they
pray for unanimity. But those who live at the headquarters of both
camps know that this can never be. The only unity which the Bible
enjoins is "the unity of the Spirit" which is based on "one body, one
Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God."
Such unity is not something which we attempt to "make" but rather
is something already created by the Holy Spirit which we "keep." Such
unity does not "become" for it "is" wherever there is oneness in
Christ Jesus. This and only this is the unity for
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which our Lord prayed and which He expects of His children.
Eph. 4:3-6, "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. ... There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are
called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
you all."
Such unity can never exist between Fundamentalism and Modernism
for they are as far apart as darkness and light, as death and life.
Let me quote from an editorial of The Christian Century: "The God of
the Fundamentalist is one God; the God of the Modernist is another.
The Christ of the Fundamentalist is one Christ; the Christ of the
Modernist is another. The Bible of Fundamentalism is one Bible; the
Bible of Modernism is another. The Church, the kingdom, the salvation,
the consummation of all things--these are one thing to the
Fundamentalist and another thing to the Modernist. Which God is the
Christian God, which Christ is the Christian Christ, which Bible is
the Christian Bible, which church, which kingdom, which salvation,
which consummation are the Christian Church, the Christian kingdom,
the Christian salvation, the Christian consummation? The future will
tell. You may sing 'Blest be the tie' till doomsday, but it cannot
bind these worlds together."
Thus according to the testimony of Modernism itself we see that
between Fundamentalism and Modernism a great gulf is fixed which
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nothing or no one can bridge. The issue admits of no neutrality.
Loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ demands that every Christian study to
know and declare himself either for or against the Christ of the
Fundamentalist or the Christ of the Modernist. In such a conflict as
this silence is cowardice, nay, it may even be construed to be
desertion and treachery. Loyalty to God in these difficult days of
deepening apostasy calls every Christian to three things; discernment,
devotion and division.
Christians should be able to discern between false and true
teaching even when the former is given in its most subtle form, so
that there shall not be the slightest deviation from the truth of
God's Word. It is not enough to believe God's truth, we are to "walk"
in it.
2 John 1-4, "The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom
I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known
the truth; ... for the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall
be with us forever. ... I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy
children walking in truth, as we have received commandment from the
Father."
3 John 3-4, "For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and
testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the
truth. ... I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in
truth."
Discernment requires watchfulness; it required a continuous
prayerful study under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit of God's Word
and a careful comparison of what one hears and reads with what one
studies. Paul told the Ephesian elders that from among themselves
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men would arise speaking perverse things to draw men away after them
and cautioned them to watch and to remember his warnings.
Acts 20:31, 32, "Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space
of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with
tears. ... And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the Word of
his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an
inheritance among all them which are sanctified."
He warned Timothy to be on his guard continuously against false
teaching and unsound doctrine.
2 Tim. 4:3, 5, "For the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine: but after their own lusts shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching ears; ... And they shall turn away
their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch
thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry."
He warned the Christians against deception and urged them to
become adults in the faith that they might always be able to discern
the false and the true.
Eph. 5:6, "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of
these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of
disobedience."
Eph. 4:14, "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and
fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of
men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
Loyalty to the Lord Jesus demands devotion to the
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truth at any cost as the Holy Spirit has taught us. When men and women
everywhere are departing from the faith, possibly even members of our
own family and our friends, God asks of us a faithfulness to the faith
of our fathers that beats no retreat.
2 Tim. 3:14, "But continue thou in the things which thou hast
learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned
them."
2 Tim. 4:7, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith."
1 Cor. 16:13, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like
men, be strong."
2 Tim. 1:13, "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast
heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus."
Devotion to Jesus Christ calls us to a loyalty to truth that
brooks no neutrality. It even challenges us to take our place in the
front ranks and "to fight the good fight of faith."
1 Tim. 6:12, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal
life, whereunto thou art called, and hast professed a good profession
before many witnesses."
Jude 3, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of
the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and
exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. ... For there are certain men crept in
unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and
denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."
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There is a pseudo-union in Christendom today that is tantamount
to dishonouring disloyalty. Its slogan is "For the sake of peace we
must have union even at the cost of truth." It bids the Fundamentalist
sit silently while the Modernist seeks and secures control of the
machinery of the Church both at home and abroad. If he protests he is
accused of being divisive.
As one studies the Gospel of Matthew he will find a place
where the Lord Jesus Christ made a definite, deliberate break with the
men who had wilfully rejected Him. There was a clean-cut cleavage
between Him and the religious leaders of that day and He withdrew from
them and from that time on devoted Himself exclusively to those who
were His own.
We have not only His example but we have the clear teaching of
Scripture to guide us in this very delicate and difficult matter. God
calls His children into complete separation from all those who are
traitors to the truth. He commands His loyal ones to have no
fellowship with them and not to be partakers of their sins.
1 Tim. 6:3-5, "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to
wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the
doctrine which is according to godliness; ... He is proud, knowing
nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof
cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, ... Perverse
disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth,
supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself."
2 John 9-11, "Whosoever transgresseth, and abidetk not in the
doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth
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in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. ... If
there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not
into your house, neither bid him God-speed: For he that biddeth him
God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds."
Such loyalty to the Lord Jesus is bound to mean suffering to the
man or woman of sensitive spirit. It will incur a persecution as real
as anything endured by the Christians of the first century, even
though of a different nature. The Intellectuals of the twentieth
century consign the Conservative to the slums of scholarship and the
worldlings regard him as an antique. But for the joy that is set
before him the Fundamentalist endures the ignominy and reproach of the
Cross.
2 Tim. 3:12, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution."
2 Tim. 1:8, "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of
our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God."
The Spiritual Man's Relationship to Fellow-Christians
A right adjustment to God necessitates a right adjustment with
all to whom God is related. Coming into God's family brings one into
relationship with other members of that family as brothers and
sisters. God is love so love is the atmosphere of the home in the
heavenlies.
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1 John 4:8, 12, "... God is love. ... If we love one another, God
dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us."
The love of the children for one another is rooted in the love of
God. His heart of love is reflected in the heart of each because His
very nature, which is love, is imparted to each one at the new birth.
The proof of God's indwelling in the believer is his love for the
brethren. Unlove or hatred toward a brother or sister in the family of
God is incontrovertible proof that the love of God does not dwell in
one. The love-nature is shown in a love-life.
1 John 4:7, "Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God;
and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God."
1 John 3:14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life
because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth
in death."
1 John 4:20, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother he
is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how
can he love God whom he hath not seen?"
Obedience in the family life of God requires love for one
another. The law of Christ is love upon the very highest plane--the
plane of the Cross. There on Calvary in laying down His life in death
for those who were not only sinners but rebels the Lord Jesus
manifested love at its highest and purest. It is love of this same
nature and extent that Christ commands Christians to have. The Cross
of Christ is to be both the birthplace and
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the pattern of the love which brethren are to bear one to another.
Rooted in a love that has its life-blood flowing from the Cross the
spiritual man's life becomes adjusted to that of every other member of
God's family.
John 13:34, "A new commandment, I give unto you, That ye love one
another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."
John 15:12, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as
I have loved you."
Then love for one another in the family of God is not optional
but obligatory. To love one another as Christ hath loved us rests upon
a divine "ought." There is no escape and no excuse.
1 John 4:11, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love
one another."
1 John 3:16, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid
down his life for us: And we ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren."
This spiritual adjustment between fellow-Christians is revealed
in the inner circle of fellowship by unity and in the touch with the
outer world by solidarity.
Unity in the inner circle of the Father's family life is the very
heart of the Son's High-Priestly prayer. In church circles today there
is much emphasis laid upon union. All kinds of associations and
federations are being formed. There is an attempt on a vast scale to
bring about a universal consolidation of denominations,
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and even a federation of the two bodies into which the visible Church
is divided--Protestant and Catholic.
But there is a vast and crucial difference between union and
unity. According to Webster's dictionary union means "junction;
coalition; combination," while unity means "a state of being one,
oneness, agreement, harmony." Union is junction; unity is conjunction.
Union is coalition; unity is concord.
The unity for which our Lord prayed was not a forced union,
worked up and organized by man, based on common ideas and ideals, but
it was a spontaneous oneness which grew inevitably out of the sharing
of a common life--the life of Christ Himself. Christ prayed that the
disciples might be one even as He and the Father were one. The
significance of that "even as" is tremendous; it is descriptive and
explanatory. It describes a unity that is based not on organization
but on organism; it is not a union of denominations or of communions
but it is a welding into essential oneness of those who are drawn
together magnetically as it were, by the power of the supernatural
life indwelling each. "Father, thou in me and I in them that they may
be made perfect in one." It is the unity of spirit with spirit through
oneness in Christ Jesus.
John 17:21, 23, "That they all may be one: as thou, Father, art
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. ... I in them, and thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one."
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Gal. 3:28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond
nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in
Christ Jesus."
Such unity is based on a common, clearly-defined relationship to
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and it is "kept"
through a mutual, right adjustment to the Spirit.
Eph. 4:4-6, "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are
called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
you all."
Such unity comprehends a universal brotherhood of men on the
ground of a blood tie. They who are separated as far as the east is
from the west by racial antagonisms and prejudices, by national
division and friction, by personal suspicion and hatred, are made one
by the blood of Christ. Enmities are put away at the Cross and those
who were far apart are made nigh by the blood of a common Redeemer.
The synchronizing into one of people from the two great divisions
of the human race--Jew and Gentile--through faith in Jesus Christ, as
recorded in the book of Acts, is one of the great supernatural
achievements of the ascended Lord. Through the shed blood of their
common Saviour Jew and Gentile were made fellow-heirs and
fellow-members of the body of Christ. Typifying the racial divisions
and international antipathies of the present day they show us the only
possible way to world peace.
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Eph. 2:14-16, "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and
hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; ... Having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments,
contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace; ... And that
he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross, having
slain the enmity thereby."
Such unity comprehends far more than just "the Fatherhood of God"
and "the brotherhood of man." It goes infinitely deeper. Trusting in
the blood of Christ for salvation Christians are baptized into the
body of Christ [by the Holy Spirit], and each member is united to
every other member in an organic bond as real and as close as that
which exists between the members of the physical body. Brought into
oneness through the death of Christ Christians are welded together
into unity through the life of Christ. The life of the Head flows
through the whole body uniting it in an inevitable oneness of faith,
love and service. Every Christian is not only a member of Christ but
Christians are members one of another.
1 Cor. 12:12-14, 27, "For as the body is one, and hath many
members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one
body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are ye all baptized into
one body, ... For the body is not one member, but many. ... Now ye are
the body of Christ and members in particular."
Rom. 12:5, "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every
one members one of another."
Eph. 4:25, "For we are members one of another."
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The members of Christ's body are fitly framed together and
compacted into one. Each member is complementary and supplementary to
every other member of the body.
Eph. 4:16, "From whom the whole body fitly joined together and
compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the
effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the
body unto the edifying of itself in love."
Col. 2:19, "And not holding the Head, from which all the body by
joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together,
increasing with the increase of God."
Unity between members of the body of Christ was very marvellously
manifested in several ways in the first century Church. It was first
of all a unity in faith. The apostles and disciples believed alike
concerning their Lord. Their oneness centered in their crucified,
risen, ascended Lord. Around Him they gathered as one heart and one
soul because of one mind. They loved each other in the truth and so
were one.
Acts 2:42, "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers."
3 John 1, "The elder unto the well beloved Gaius, whom I love in
the truth."
It was a unity in love. They shared mutually with one another as
fellow-members of one body their material possessions and spiritual
blessings in Christ. The need of one was
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the need of all and each one considered that what he had was for the
benefit of all.
Acts 2:44-46, "And all that believed were together and had all
things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them
to all men, as every man had need. ... And they, continuing daily with
one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did
eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart."
It was a unity in purpose. Repeatedly it says in the Acts that
they were "of one accord." They were single-eyed and so were
single-hearted. It was a society of kindred spirits with a consuming
passion to know Jesus Christ and the consuming purpose to make Him
known.
Acts 2:1, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they
were all with one accord in one place."
Acts 5:12, "And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and
wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord
in Solomon's porch)."
It was a unity in fellowship. Difficulties and problems were
shared mutually as well as joys and blessings. What affected one
member of the body affected all the members. That first century Church
knew in experience the meaning of "the communion of saints."
Acts 4:23, "And being let go they went to their own company, and
reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them."
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Acts 20:36, "And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and
prayed with them all."
Members of the body of Christ were united also in solidarity in
service. Believers who were "added unto the Lord" were also "added
unto the church."
Acts 5:14, "And believers were the more added to the Lord,
multitudes both of men and of women."
Acts 2:47, "Praising God, and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."
Confession of cleansing from sin and separation from life in the
old sphere and of entrance into new life through a new birth was made
through the act of baptism. Induction into the new order of which
Christ is the Head was made public, through this divinely-appointed
rite.
Acts 2:41, "Then they that gladly received his word were
baptized; and the same day there were added unto them about three
thousand souls."
Through the unity and solidarity of the body of Christ in its
corporate life God revealed Himself to the world and worked to
accomplish its evangelization. Christ, the Head worked through the
members of His body with mighty power to carry the Gospel out into the
enemy's territory and to deliver thousands upon thousands of men and
women from his power.
Against this unity and solidarity in passion and
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purpose the arch enemy of Christ aimed his deadliest darts. The most
harmful thing Satan could do to that Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered
Church was to work to diminish its power through disunion. This he
succeeded to a certain extent in doing. There are recorded divisions
between individuals because of a difference in personal viewpoint
(Acts 15:37-40); between groups because of a difference in doctrinal
conviction (Acts 15:1, 5, 24). Then there arose factions within
certain churches and each faction sought to gain control of affairs
(1 Cor. 1:11-13). Again one man in the Church who loved preeminence
and power was the cause of great dissension (3 John 9, 10).
All down through the centuries the devil has continued to use
this method of opposing Christ. A most serious condition exists within
the Church today which calls for very deep heart searching. In view of
the need of the unsaved millions and of the growing apostasy in
Christendom the dissensions that exist between individuals, and
between groups within the body of Christ, are deplorable. It calls for
a careful diagnosis of causes and for a Scriptural prescription of a
cure.
The first cause is temperamental differences. Perhaps the
majority of dislocations within the body of Christ could be traced
ultimately to this source. Earnest Christians are often diametrically
opposite in temperament and even the grace of God has not made them
congenial companions. They grate on each other. One is mystical and
the other is practical; one is militant and the other is gentle; one
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is refined and the other is rough; one is social and the other is
seclusive; one is scholarly and the other is scatterbrained; one is
intense and the other is sluggish; one is Mary and the other is
Martha. These people have to live under the same roof and work at the
same tasks. By nature and possibly by training their way of looking at
things is antipodal and their methods are as different as day and
night. Such temperamental differences with their resultant dissensions
are the cause of quarrels in the churches at home and of physical
breakdowns and enforced furloughs in the Christian ranks upon the
mission field.
A second cause is doctrinal differences. Reference is not made
here to the disagreement upon fundamentals mentioned above, which is
inevitable, but to that which could and should be avoided. I refer
especially to the overemphasis upon some particular truth which
separates a section of the body of Christ and segregates it to an
exclusive corner of the fold. Many sects have been started in this way
and today even some of the larger denominations are divided into
several different branches, differing possibly in but one or two
matters of belief. The difficulty arises in studying the Bible from
the limited angle of one segment of truth rather than studying that
segment of truth from the lofty viewpoint of the whole Bible. Thus
this particular truth is dislocated from its proper setting and given
a preeminence which the Bible never gives it. To those whose lives
have been enriched and blessed by it, it becomes all-important.
Sometimes deeply spiritual Christians are excluded from fellowship
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with such groups simply because they do not put the same
interpretation or the same emphasis upon this one particular truth.
Another phase of this same thing is onesidedness in viewpoint
caused by some particular experience passed through which makes one
critical of others who have not walked in precisely the same
footprints. It is such a natural thing to interpret and to judge
others' spiritual experiences by one's own yet it is a very dangerous
thing to do. One man may feel just as deeply as another yet it may be
impossible for him to shout "Hallelujah." He may love his Lord
devotedly and yet not be able to use the vocabulary of highly
emotional souls. The language with which he testifies of his life of
victory and sanctification may not be cast into the mold of any
particular school of thought along these deeper lines yet the
experience of it may be none the less real. As God has made no two
persons alike so He has no stereotyped mold into which He casts the
spiritual experience of His children. The truth of His Word is the
same for all but the manner of its appropriation and assimilation
varies according to the Spirit's dealing with each separate
personality. The divine One knows each life through and through and He
takes into account the temperament and training, the opportunities and
advantages, as He works with infinite patience to bring each one into
full maturity of life in Christ. But unsympathetic judgment and
censorious criticism of others who have not yet attained to the same
degree of experience or who have not come to it by the same road is
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one of the commonest sins of earnest Christians and the cause of no
little trouble within the body of Christ.
Still another phase is that of a legal attitude that makes for
intolerance in matters not clearly revealed in Scripture. An earnest
Christian may have convictions not only on essentials but on secondary
matters as well. One's belief in the truth should affect one's
conduct. God has a clearly defined standard of conduct for those
living on the highest plane. There are some things which by the
precepts of Scripture God shows us to be wholly outside His will for
the new man in Christ; but in other things He guides by principles.
Within this realm there will inevitably be a wide difference in
interpretation and in understanding. The conduct of every Christian
should be undergirded with deep conviction by which he himself abides
unswervingly but he should be very careful to give to his equally
devout and spiritual fellow-Christian the same right to follow his
conviction. At least he should not indulge in backbiting and evil
speaking and self-righteous judgment of his brother, but if he feels
his fellowChristian is dishonouring God through something he permits
in his life, he should give himself to prayer that fuller light and
greater apprehension in this particular matter may be given.
A third cause of division is jealousy and envy due partly to the
diversity of gifts. We are distinctly told that this diversity of
gifts is intentional on God's part and that He has "divided to every
man severally as He will" making one an apostle, another a prophet,
another a pastor, another an evangelist and still another
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a teacher for the express purpose of "perfecting the saints for the
work of the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph.
4:11, 12). In order to bring the whole body of Christ "unto a perfect
man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" the
gifts of all these varied types of workers are needed.
And yet behold what takes place! The teacher looks with something
akin to contempt upon the evangelist or the preacher. The development
and enrichment of the mind seem to him to be all-inclusive of a
person's need. He argues that if one is educated he is fully equipped
to become what he ought to be. Any work that deals more directly with
the heart and the will he dubs "emotionalism" which is to be
studiously avoided. The teacher is in great danger of having that
obnoxious thing, "a superiority complex." On the other hand the
evangelist and preacher may look with suspicion and doubt upon the
teacher; they may misjudge him and, because of his apparent absorption
in educational pursuits, charge him with no interest in spiritual
matters. Such an attitude often produces a censorious spirit that
results in bitter backbiting.
Oftentimes church quarrels start among the laymen. Petty
jealousies, trivial enmities between individuals produce factions;
people take sides; the trouble is broadcasted by gossiping tongues,
and God's name is disgraced before unbelievers by a full-fledged
church quarrel.
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1 Cor. 1:11-13, "For it hath been declared unto me of you, my
brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are
contentions among you. ... Now this I say, that every one of you
saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of
Christ. ... Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye
baptized in the name of Paul?"
We have given at least a partial diagnosis of the serious malady
from which the body of Christ suffers today and its resultant
weakness. But is there no cure? Is Christ the Head nonplussed before
these awful maladjustments within His own body? Does He stand impotent
before these hindering dislocations? A thousand times no!
Let us remind ourselves again and again that the true Church, the
body of Christ, is of divine construction. God is the architect; the
Church is His wondrous workmanship; God Himself "fitly framed
together" the parts that make up His holy temple; He "knits together"
the living members of the body of Christ. Then He is amply able to
readjust any dislocated part of this wondrous organism.
May we suggest what seems to be the Scriptural cure for these
manifold dissensions within the body of Christ. It reaches to the very
seat of the trouble and affects a double cure, one both of mind and of
heart. If Christians were thinking rightly and loving purely every
dislocation would be corrected. The whole Church needs a fresh
immersion into the very mind of Christ and a new baptism of His love.
This double cure was the Apostle Paul's unfailing prescription for the
disease of division.
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Over and over again he beseeches the christians under his care to
be of one mind. It is possible for differences in opinion, judgment
and conviction to be adjusted without compromise if Christians truly
seek to be of one mind. If there is an honest, selfless yielding to
know the mind of the Lord, there will surely be like-mindedness as a
result.
Phil. 2:5, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus."
1 Cor. 1:10, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be
no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in
the same mind and in the same judgment."
2 Cor. 13:11, "Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of
good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and
peace shall be with you."
The second part of the cure for division is a baptism of love.
The whole body of Christ needs to eat, digest, and assimilate 1 Cor.
13 as its daily food. It needs to be filled and to be refilled with
the Holy Spirit whose first fruit is love. It needs a deluging and a
saturating with the purifying, perfecting love of God until love
increases and abounds in the hearts of God's children.
1 Thess. 3:12, "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in
love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward
you."
Phil. 1:9, "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more
and more in knowledge and in all judgment."
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1 Pet. 1:22, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the
truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that
ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."
Twice in Colossians Paul speaks of the members of the body being
"knit together." The Greek means "compacted," implying firm
consolidation. What can so unite members of the body differing so
greatly in temperament, taste, thought and training? Only one thing, a
divinely imparted, supernaturally-sustained love, can do it. Such
unity comes when all things are done in love.
Col. 2:2, "That their hearts might be comforted, being knit
together in love."
Eph. 4:15, "But speaking the truth in love."
Eph. 4:2, "With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love."
Eph. 4:16, R.V., "From whom all the body fitly framed and knit
together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the
working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of
the body unto the building up of itself in love."
Eph. 3:17-19, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;
that ye being rooted and grounded in love, ... May be able to
comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth,
and height; ... And to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."
The spiritual man is big enough to recognize that it takes all
the millions upon millions of believers in the past,
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present and future, until the coming of Christ completes it, to make
up that wondrous body. He grasps the truth of that incomparable
passage, Eph. 3:17-19, where words fail even the Apostle Paul as he
tries to show that it will take all the saints of all the ages to know
the love of God that passeth knowledge. In the apprehension of this
transcendent truth the spiritual man sees the terrible sin of
jealousy, envy, unlove, strife, enmity, hatred, intolerance,
selfishness, quarrelling between members of the body of Christ. He
gladly acknowledges that in the Church of God there is both room and
need for the mystical, the practical, the philosophical, the
scientific, the meditative, the active temperament. He acknowledges
the greatness of truth and the absolute inability of any one person or
sect to comprehend all truth or to embody its teachings perfectly. He
joyfully acquiesces in God's plan of sharing His ministry gifts with
all His children, dividing to each according to His divine will that
His purpose for the world may be accomplished.
There is a clearly defined attitude which every Christian must
take toward his fellow-Christians if he means to live his life on the
highest plane. It is an attitude of forbearance, humility,
unselfishness, sympathy, frankness, helpfulness, peace and
cooperation.
Col. 3:13, "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if
any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so
also do ye."
Phil. 2:3, 4, "Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory;
but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
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better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but
every man also on the things of others."
1 Cor. 12:25, 26, "That there should be no schism in the body;
but that the members should have the same care one for another. ...
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or if
one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it."
Rom. 12:9, R.V., "Let love be without hypocrisy."
Gal. 6:2, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law
of Christ."
Rom. 14:19, "Let us therefore follow after the things which make
for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another."
Gal. 5:13, "By love serve one another."
Such unity in the body of Christ is the most convincing of all
arguments to an unbelieving maladjusted world of the power of the
living Christ. Christ prayed that this oneness of mind and heart
manifested in His disciples would bring many to believe in Him as the
God-sent One. God would glorify Himself through solidarity in the body
of Christ Jesus.
John 13:35, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples,
if ye have love one to another."
John 17:21, "That they may all be one; as thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me."
Dear fellow-member of the body of Christ, are you living in
harmonious and peaceful adjustment to every other member of that body?
Is there something between you and a fellow-Christian for which you
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are responsible? If so, are you satisfied to have such a condition
continue or are you ready to let the great Physician heal the breach?
He is able to do it if you will cooperate with Him. Your part is
threefold.
First, will you lay aside by confession all sin of your heart
toward another?
1 Pet. 2:1, "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile,
and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings."
Second, will you live by 1 Cor. 13 every day of your life? Will
you let the love-truth of that chapter become your code of conduct?
Will you take your spiritual pulse by this infallible thermometer?
Will you judge yourself, rather than your fellows, by this divine
standard of love? Will you let the Holy Spirit clothe you with love?
Col. 3:14, R.V., "And above all these things put on love, which
is the bond of perfectness."
Third, will you unite your prayer with that of your Lord that you
may be "made perfect in one" with every other member of His body? And
will you allow nothing to remain in your mind or in your heart that
separates you even a hair's breadth from any other child of God?
John 17:23, "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one."
The Spiritual Man's Relationship to the World
A right adjustment with God necessitates a readjustment
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of relationship to the world. The boundary line between the spiritual
man and the worldling is clearly marked and a wall of separation is
built by God. The spiritual man is a non-conformist in his
relationship to the world.
Rom. 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world; but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
2 Cor. 6:14, 15, 17, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? ... And
what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that
believeth with an infidel? ... Wherefore, come out from among them and
be ye separate, saith the Lord."
The Christian is taken out of the world yet he is sent back into
it. For what purpose?
John 17:18, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I
also sent them into the world."
John 20:21, "Then said Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you:
as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."
Christ came into the world as the Father's ambassador. Into a
world alienated from God He brought "the good tidings of great joy"
that a way was opened through Himself back to the Father's heart and
home.
The Christian now goes forth as an ambassador of the Kingdom of
Heaven into the enemy's territory to carry
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the message of reconciliation to those who are alienated from God.
Having experienced the joy of restoration to God through faith in
Christ he cannot rest satisfied until he has brought others into the
same joy. So he gladly accepts the responsibilities and obligations
resting upon him through this ministry of reconciliation and gives
himself to the winning of souls.
2 Cor. 5:18-20, "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled
unto himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of
reconciliation: ... To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. ... Now then we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray
you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
Christ came into a world enveloped in densest darkness to be its
Light. Into that same world every Christian is sent to be a light. In
the beauty of the Christian's character and in the blessing of the
Christian's service Christ would radiate the sweetness and strength of
His own life and draw sinners unto Himself.
Matt. 5:14, "Ye are the light of the world."
Phil. 2:15, "That ye may be blameless and harmless the sons of
God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
among whom ye shine as lights in the world."
The Holy Spirit--The Divine Agent in this threefold Adjustment
The adjustment which brings the Christian into a right
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relationship with God, with his fellow-Christians and with the world,
is made by the Holy Spirit who indwells and infills the spiritual man.
It is He who takes of the love of the crucified, risen and ascended
Christ and sheds it abroad in the heart of the Christian until each
one loves the Father as the Son loves Him, and loves the
fellow-members of the body of Christ as the Head loves them, and loves
the unsaved in the world as the Saviour loves them.
Rom. 5:5, "And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto
us."
1 Thess. 2:8, "So being affectionately desirous of you, we were
willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but
also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us."
Are you rightly related to God? To your fellowChristians? To the
world? If not,
"Be filled with the Spirit."
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X. THE HOPE OF THE SPIRITUAL MAN
THE Christian is united to Christ by a golden cord of three
strands, faith, love and hope (1 Cor. 13:13, 1 Thess. 1:3). Faith and
love look back to the Cross and up to the Throne and, claiming the
fruits of salvation for the past and the present, use them to the
glory of the Lord. But hope looks up into the heavens and waits for
that future day when faith shall be merged into sight, when the labour
of love shall be rewarded, when the salvation begun in grace shall be
consummated in glory.
As the object of the believer's faith and love is the Lord Jesus
Himself so is He the object of his hope. The glorious appearing of
Christ Jesus, the Saviour, is the Christian's blessed hope.
Titus 2:13, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."
Heb. 9:28, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many:
and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time
without sin unto salvation."
Our Lord's Return--Announced
(scanning editor's note: For more in depth study about the
Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming see the following books:
The Rapture by E. Schuyler English and
First The Rapture by John F. Strombeck. You might also check out the
Rapture Series, sermon synopses and outlines by David Spurbeck at
http://bartimaeus.us/sermons/index.html#rapt )
Through prophecies added to those already given through the Old
Testament, Jesus Christ gave birth to this hope in the hearts of those
first believers. According to His prophecy His second advent was to be
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of a totally different nature and for a totally different purpose than
His first advent had been. In the first He had come in weakness and
humiliation, in the second He would come in regal power and glorious
splendour. In the first He had come as a Saviour, to be despised of
men and to be crucified upon a Cross set up by wicked men for Him, but
in the second He would come as a Sovereign to set up a Kingdom for
Himself in which all nations and all men would bow down and serve Him.
Mark 13:26, (Luke 21:27), "And then shall they see the Son of man
coming in the clouds with great power and glory."
Matt. 25:31, "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and
all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his
glory."
Upon the eve of His exodus He comforted the hearts of His
disciples with two promises. One was the promise of another Comforter,
the Holy Spirit, during His absence. This promise was fulfilled
literally as we have seen. The other was that one day He Himself would
return in person to receive them unto Himself to be with Him forever.
John 14:2-3, "In my Father's house are many mansions, If it were
not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ...
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also."
As the disciples watched Him ascending into Heaven this
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promise was reiterated by two men who stood by in white apparel.
Acts 1:11, "Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into
heaven."
In the words "this same Jesus," "shall so come," "in like
manner," wonderful light was thrown upon the manner of Christ's return
to earth. It was to be a personal, visible, bodily coming. Thus the
Lord Jesus Himself instilled into the hearts of His first disciples
the blessed hope of His literal return to earth.
Our Lord's Return--Anticipated
This promise of His personal return was ever before them. That
little group lived and worked in confident assurance and eager
anticipation of the speedy return of the Lord they loved. On the day
of Pentecost only ten days after His ascension He fulfilled the
promise to send another Comforter; why should they not expect just as
truly and even as speedily that His other promises would likewise be
fulfilled?
When fifteen and finally twenty years passed by and some of those
who had this hope had died, the hearts of others were very disquieted. What
would it mean to these loved ones that this blessed hope had not yet
been realized? To still this fear Paul writes to them at Thessalonica
counseling patient waiting and comforting them with fuller teaching on
this precious truth.
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1 Thess. 4:13-18, "But I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even
as others which have no hope. ... For if we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with him. ... For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that
we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not
prevent them which are asleep. ... For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with
the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ... Then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with
the Lord. ... Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
So the steadfast confidence of their faith and the intense
longing of their love crystallized into an undimmed patience of hope
which dominated the everyday life. How fully this blessed hope
permeated and possessed the thought and the testimony of the apostles
is revealed in a study of the New Testament. In the closing chapters
of the Gospels, throughout the book of the Acts and in every Epistle
except three Christ's second advent is taught and it is the major
theme of Revelation. Three hundred and eighteen times it is mentioned;
one verse out of every twenty-five is devoted to it. It was the hope
of Paul, Peter, John, James, Jude and the writer of the Hebrews.
1 Tim. 6:14, "That thou keep this commandment without spot,
unrebukeable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ."
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1 Pet. 1:13, "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober,
and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at
the revelation of Jesus Christ."
1 John 2:28, "And now little children, abide in him: that, when
he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him
at his coming."
James 5:8, "Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the
coming of the Lord draweth nigh."
Jude 14, "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of
these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his
saints."
Heb. 10:37, "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will
come, and will not tarry."
Our Lord's Return--Actualized
Nineteen centuries have passed since Christ Jesus said that He
would return and the prophecies and promises regarding His second
advent are still unfulfilled. The greater part of the professing
Church have ceased to expect Him. In fact Christendom has set itself
to the task of establishing the Kingdom without the King and scoffs at
those who, believing that the Lord's promise will be fulfilled
literally, still look for His return. Indeed this very scoffing is in
itself a part of the fulfilment of prophecy regarding the last days.
2 Pet. 3:2-4, "That ye may be mindful of the words which were
spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of
us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: ... Knowing this first, that
there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own
lusts; ... And saying, Where
is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all
things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."
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Many preachers and teachers have applied "the blessed hope" of
our Lord's return to the death of the believer, to the destruction of
Jerusalem, to the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and to the
gradual dissemination of the Gospel and the diffusion of Christianity
over the whole earth. But the spiritually minded Christian believes
that every prophecy regarding His second advent will be fulfilled as
literally as were those of His first and waits for the coming of the
Lord Himself from Heaven.
The return of the Lord Jesus Christ has a special relationship to
three groups of people, to Israel, to the Church and to the Gentile
nations. A comprehensive study of this subject in all its bearings
will deeply repay every Christian. But in these studies we must
confine ourselves to the bearing of Christ's return upon the
redemption of the individual believer from sin and all its
consequences, upon the reconciliation of all things unto God and upon
the restoration to God of sovereignty over the universe.
The return of the Lord Jesus Christ will mean the consummation of
the believer's identification with Christ. The believer will be
identified with his Lord as regards place, personality and power.
Where Christ is he will be; what Christ is he will become; what Christ
does he will share.
Where Christ is the Christian will be. Christ promised this to
His disciples. "Where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:3). He
prayed that they might be with Him in glory. "Father, I will that they
also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that
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they may behold my glory" (John 17:24). Then He went back into the
glory. The disciples remained on earth and He came to be with them
through the indwelling Holy Spirit. But one day He is coming to take
His own to be with Him.
Col. 3:4, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall
ye also appear with him in glory."
What Christ is the Christian will become for he shall become a
partaker of Christ's glory. He shall be glorified together with Him in
spirit and in body.
Rom. 8:17, "And if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be
also glorified together."
1 Pet. 5:1, 10, "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am
also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a
partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. ... But the God of all
grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that we have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish,
strengthen, settle you."
The glorification of the Christian will involve the full
redemption of his body which for the dead in Christ means resurrection
and for the living means translation.
"The wages of sin is death" and there can be no final victory
over sin that does not include victory over death. Death has laid
claim all these ages to the bodies of God's saints, and still holds
them captive in the grave. "But the sky not the grave is the goal
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of the Christian" and this will be proven when at the sound of the
trump of God the graves of those asleep in Christ shall be opened and
they shall be raised from the dead.
A few days ago I visited the cemetery on the hillside and saw
there one tombstone in the form of a broken pillar. What a symbol it
is of what every grave there means--a broken family circle! A broken
thread of life that spelled manifold severed relationships! Will there
ever be a reunion? Praise God there will be for those in Christ Jesus!
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the sure pledge of the
resurrection of every believer. "Because I live ye shall live also,"
He has said and He will do. Through His resurrection He became "the
first fruits of them that sleep" and thus made not only certain but
essential the resurrection of every member of His body.
1 Thess. 4:16, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first."
1 Cor. 15:20-23, "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and
become the firstfruits of them that slept. ... For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. ... For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all
be made alive. ... But every
man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are
Christ's at his coming."
Oh! what comfort this can bring to those called upon to watch at
the bedside of one whose life is slowly ebbing
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away; to endure the suffering of laying that loved one in the grave
and to return to the loneliness of the home bereft of that presence.
The blessed hope of our Lord's return calls the Christian to turn his
gaze toward that resurrection morning when that loved one in Christ
will come forth from the darkness of the grave to live in the power of
an endless life. "O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy
victory?"
1 Cor. 15:54, "So when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is
swallowed up in victory."
For those who are alive at Christ's coming it will mean a
marvellous victory over death also, the conquering of death through
not dying! It will not be the victory of resurrection but of
translation.
Through the new birth the human body is dignified by being made the habitation of God, the temple of the
Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit's indwelling it is fitted to be
the channel for the revelation of the Lord Jesus and to be an
instrument for His use. Grace has done much to purify and magnify the
human body.
Yet it often grows so tired, weak and sick. It is so full of
limitations and oftentimes a hindrance and a drag. And it is such a
target for Satan and such an instrument of sin. It is liable at any
moment to fall a victim to death's precursor, disease. So Scripture
pictures the body as groaning under its burden of
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weariness and weakness and as crying out for the day of its release.
Rom. 8:23, R.V., "And not only so, but ourselves also, who have
the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
body."
2 Cor. 5:2-4, "For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be
clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: ... If so be that
being clothed we shall not be found naked. ... For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be
unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up in
life."
But one day in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, those who
are alive will be changed. "The twinkling of an eye takes two motions,
the downward and the upward one." Just recently a friend has suffered
anguish of spirit in watching a dearly loved sister slowly starve to
death through the cruel ravages of disease until death seemed a happy
release. But oh! when He comes, in the twinkling of the eye--apart
from disease, death and decay--our mortal body shall have put on
immortality. One moment here in bodies weak and worn; the next moment
there in bodies powerful and glorious!
"O joy, O delight, should we go without dying,
No sickness, no sadness, no sorrow, and no crying,
Caught up in the clouds to meet Him in glory,
When Jesus receives His own."
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1 Thess. 4:17, "Then we which are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
1 Cor. 15:51-53, "Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed, ... In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, ... For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality."
Sin robbed the human body of the garment of light which the
Creator gave it. But grace will give to it a robe of glory beautiful
beyond anything we can conceive for we are some day to be wholly
conformed to the body of His glory. On the mount of transfiguration
the curtain was drawn aside momentarily to give just a little idea of
what our glorified body will be like. "His face did shine as the sun,
and his raiment was white as the light." And of us Christ Himself
said, "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom
of their Father."
1 Cor. 15:49, "As we have borne the image of the earthly, we
shall also bear the image of the heavenly."
Phil. 3:20-21, R.V., "For our citizenship is in heaven; whence
also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: ... who shall
fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to
the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able
even to subject all things unto himself."
The Weymouth Translation is "The Lord Jesus will
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transform this body until it resembles His own glorious body." And
this is just what identification with Christ in glory will mean to the
body of the believer.
The glorification of the Christian will mean the consummating of
his sanctification. Through identification with the Lord Jesus Christ
in His death, resurrection and ascension the believer's sanctification
is begun, through the Holy Spirit's indwelling and infilling it is
continued but it will not be completed until we are identified with
Him in His glory.
1 Thess. 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly;
and I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Phil. 1:6, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ."
Will our deep-rooted desire for real likeness to Him ever be
fulfilled? Praise God that also belongs to our blessed hope. Our
spirit often eager and earnest, yet as often dulled and deadened by
sin, will then be like His in all the fulness of His glorified, divine
being. The purpose of our sonship will have been consummated in our
perfected likeness to the Son. When we shall see Him face to face we
shall be like Him; we shall ever bear His name which stands for His
nature in our foreheads as His own personal seal to our full
conformity to Himself.
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1 John 3:2, "Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it doth not
yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear,
we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."
Rev. 22:4, "And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in
their foreheads."
The completion of sanctification is perfection; it is the
deliverance not only from the penalty and power of sin but from its
very presence. So long as we are in the body of flesh and in the
world, within is a sinful nature and without is a sinful environment.
But at the coming of the Lord the believer in Christ will be removed
from the presence of sin both within and without. He will then breathe
the pure air of the Glory-land and be himself purified. Then he will
be:
"Without spot"--absolutely free from the stain of sin;
"Without wrinkle"--beyond the reach of suffering or sorrow, anxiety
or anguish or aught that causes the furrows of care;
"Holy"--even as He is holy--"as the bush was luminous with the
divine fire, so shall the luminosity of the divine nature make us
aflame with the holiness of Jehovah";
"Without blemish"--delivered from inner corruption and outer
contamination we shall be perfected with His perfection. Our Saviour
will then see the travail of His soul and be satisfied for He shall
present us "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding
joy."
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Eph. 5:27, "That he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it
should be holy and without blemish."
Jude 24, "Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling, and
to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy."
When Christ returns, the Christian will be identified with him in
dominion. What Christ does he will share in doing. He will be a
partner of His power. The God-man shall have recovered his rightful
dominion over His universe and the saints, as "heirs of God and
joint-heirs with Jesus Christ," shall be given their share in this
inheritance and together with Him shall reign upon the earth.
Dan. 7:18, "But the saints of the Most High shall take the
kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever."
Rev. 5:10, "And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and
we shall reign upon the earth."
Rev. 20:6, "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall
be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand
years."
The God-man is now in Heaven. The Father is on the throne and the
Son is at His Father's right hand. But some day when He shall have
conquered every enemy the Son is to have His own throne. This throne
He promises to share with every one who, while here on earth, has
lived the life of an overcomer.
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Matt. 22:44, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right
hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool."
Rev. 3:21, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in
his throne." (Diagram XIII. omitted)
The return of the Lord Jesus Christ will effect the consummation
of the reconciliation of all things unto Himself. A time is coming
when Jesus Christ will be the center of everything in Heaven and upon
earth; when everything will be directly related to Him and will head
up in Him.
Eph. 1:10, "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven and which are on earth; even in him."
That time will usher in the last of the divinely ordered ages
which condition human life upon the earth; it will register the answer
to the prayer "Thy kingdom
come," and it will mark the fulfilment of the prophecy that Jesus
Christ, as the seed of David, should be King over His own Kingdom upon
this earth.
2 Sam. 7:12-13, (spoken to David), "And when thy days be
fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy
seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will
establish his kingdom. ... He shall build an house for my name, and I
will stablish the throne of his kingdom forever."
Isa. 9:6-7, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:
and the government shall be upon his shoulder. ...
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Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end,
upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and to
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even
forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."
Luke 1:32-33, "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of
the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his
father David: ... And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever;
and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
Scripture constantly speaks of a day that is coming when the Heir
of all things will claim His possessions and exercise His power. It is
called "the day of the Lord." In that day all that is proud and
haughty and lifted up against Him in rebellion and resistance shall be
brought low and the Lord alone shall be exalted and magnified as King
of kings and Lord of lords.
Isa. 2:12, 17, "For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon
every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted
up; and he shall be brought low: ... And the loftiness of man shall be
bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD
alone shall be exalted in that day."
Rev. 19:11, 15, 16, "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white
horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in
righteousness he doth judge and make war. ... And out of his mouth
goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he
shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of
the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. ...
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And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF
KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."
Men everywhere are acknowledging the awful confusion and chaos
which exists in the moral world. Some are working to effect
reconciliation within Satan's world-system through world courts, peace
conferences, leagues of nations and international community houses.
Others, believing such things are inadequate, hope that the millennial
state will be ultimately produced by the progressive betterment of the
world through the Holy Spirit's work and the preaching of the Gospel.
Through the gradual diffusion of the Kingdom of God throughout the
world they expect the kingdom of evil to be conquered and, as it were,
absorbed into it. But the spiritually-minded man who knows and accepts
the prophetical teaching of God's Word believes there is no hope of
universal peace until the Prince of Peace sits on His throne and
Himself rules in justice and righteousness. He believes there can be
no millennium such as Scripture portrays until the Satanic
world-system based on self-love, self-interest, self-exaltation and
self-will is overthrown.
A careful study of the word "until" as used repeatedly in the
Bible in connection with our Lord's return amply justifies such a
belief. The Christ who came once in grace must come a second time in
government before He recovers all that was lost to Him through the
fall and before there can be a reconciliation of all things unto
Himself.
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Eze. 21:27, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall
be no more, until he come whose right it is: and I will give it to
him."
Acts 3:20, 21, "And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was
preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of
restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all
his holy prophets since the world began."
1 Tim. 6:14, 15, "That thou keep this commandment without spot
unrebukeable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: which in
his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the
King of kings, and Lord of lords."
Seiss says on this point, "My Bible tells of no millennium which
existing processes are to bring about. Neither does it tell me of a
millennium which is to precede the Saviour's second advent. The only
millennium I read of in the Holy Book is that which is to be
introduced by the glory and power of Christ's coming and the chief
excellence of which is His personal presence and reign with His saints
upon the earth. It is not the reign of art, science, human culture or
free governments, for which the Bible'teaches me to look; nor yet for
the universal triumph of Christianity or the Church as we now have it;
nor yet for the reign of justice, holiness or any mere abstract
principles; but the personal reign of Jesus my Lord."
But when the Man comes whom God has appointed to rule the world,
the righteous King, He will rule in righteousness and the result will
be peace. Then all problems will be solved; all wrongs righted; all
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breaches healed; all wars ended, because all things in God's moral
universe shall be readjusted and reestablished according to the
perfect will of God. "All the universe will feel the beneficence of
His rule and the benediction of His peace."
Isa. 32:1, "Behold a king shall reign in righteousness, and
princes shall rule in judgment."
Isa. 11:4-5, "But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and
reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall
he slay the wicked. ... And righteousness shall be the girdle of his
loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."
Jer. 23:5, 6, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will
raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and
prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. ... In
his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this
is the name whereby he shall be called. THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS."
Ps. 67:4, "O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou
shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon
earth."
When Christ, the King, reigns there will be national peace. Now
the whole world is in a state of incipient war. "All Europe is armed
to the teeth and the nations all watching each other with acute
suspicion, and trembling with fear over the volcano of a suppressed
Armageddon." The newspapers almost daily chronicle "rumours of war."
But the coming of the Prince of Peace will end war.
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Isa. 2:4, "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke
many people: and they shall beat their swords into plow shares, and
their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
Micah 4:2, "And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let
us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of
Jacob and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths for
the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from
Jerusalem."
When Christ, the King, reigns there will be social
reconstruction. The day of oppression, greed, selfishness, injustice
will be ended because sin will be instantly detected, judged and
punished. "When the Prince of Peace comes He will allay every
disturbing element; hush the din caused by sin; put down every wrong;
still every clamouring tongue; calm every raging sea of unrest; touch
and heal every inflamed sore of society; unite into the harmony of
accord every quarrelsome crowd; pilot every perplexed barque of
humanity tossed on the sea of life, into the harbour of rest; heal
every epileptical torture of suffering; adjust every turmoil of
difference by His rule of equity, and harmonize all conflicting claims
in the melting fire of His love." (What Will Take Place When Christ
Returns? F.E. Marsh, p. 122)
Isa. 26:9, "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants
of the world will learn righteousness."
Ps. 72:3-4, 12-14, "The mountains shall bring peace to the
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people, and the little hills, by righteousness. ... He shall judge the
poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall
break in pieces the oppressor. ... For he shall deliver the needy when
he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper. ... He shall
spare the poor and the needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.
He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious
shall their blood be in his sight."
Zech. 14:20, "In that day there shall be upon the bells of the
horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD: and the pots in the LORD's house shall
be like the bowls before the altar."
When Christ the King reigns there will be material prosperity.
Vast fortunes will not be massed in the hands of a few but each man
shall have sufficient and shall live in contentment.
Micah 4:4, "But they shall sit every man under his vine and under
his fig tree: and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the
LORD of hosts hath spoken it."
Isa. 65:21, 22, 23, "And they shall build houses, and inhabit
them; and they shall plant olive yards, and eat the fruit of them.
They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and
another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and
mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not
labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of
the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them."
When Christ the King reigns there will be universal health and
longevity.
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Isa. 33:24, "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick."
Isa. 35:5-6, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the
ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. ... Then shall the lame man leap
as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness
shall waters break out, and streams in the desert."
Isa. 65:20, "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor
an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an
hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be
accursed."
In the coming age under the Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ
mankind will be given a chance to attain to a perfection of
personality, spiritual, intellectual and physical which is impossible
for us to conceive of and the human race will enter upon a life of
harmony and concord that the most optimistic cannot picture today.
When our Lord comes again it will mean redemption and renovation
within His whole creation. Sin brought a curse upon the earth and upon
the animal creation. Its destructive power and extensive reach are
seen in the terrible disturbance caused within the divine harmony of
creation. Everything in God's inanimate world is touched by death and
decay and is robbed of its greatest utility and beauty by the blasting
curse which sin brought.
So there is a minor key even in Nature. The whole creation is
weighted by a burden that constrains it to groan; it is subjected to a
slavery that compels it to cry out for emancipation. It waits with
impatience for the manifestation of the sons of God which will usher
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in that glad day when it too will be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
Rom. 8:19-22, "For the earnest expectation of the creation
waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. ... For the creation was
subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who
subjected it, in hope. ... That the creation itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory
of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain together until now."
But "in the day of the Lord" all these conditions will be
changed. "The miserere of Nature will become a jubilate." Even the
life of the jungle will be lived in harmony. The earth will then yield
her increase and the whole creation will sing its praises unto God,
its Maker and Redeemer.
Isa. 55:12-13, "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth
with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you
into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
... Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of
the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD
for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."
Isa. 11:6-9, "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the
leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion
and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. ... And
the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down
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together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ... And the
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child
shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. ... They shall not hurt
nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
Finally, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ will effect the
consummation of the restoration to God of sovereignty over His
universe. Can such a victory ever be won until the usurping "prince of
this world" is dispossessed and destroyed? There can be no millennium
while Satan remains in the heavenlies or on earth for it is impossible
to be rid of his world-system until rid of him. Through His
regenerating power the Holy Spirit can and does deliver the believer
from the power of Satan but He cannot deliver him from his presence.
Satan is still here and will be until the Lord returns.
Genesis records Satan's victory and the rejection of God;
Revelation records the dethronement of Satan and the enthronement of
Christ. "The seed of the woman" born in the manger-cradle of Bethlehem
and crucified on the Cross of Calvary must stand upon the Mount of
Olivet before the bruising of the serpent's head is finally
consummated and the perpetual curse pronounced upon Satan is executed.
When the Lord Jesus Christ returns Satan will be bound and cast into
the bottomless pit for one thousand years.
Zech. 14:4, "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount
of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east,
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and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the
east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and
half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it
toward the south."
Rev. 20:1-3, "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having
the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. ... And
he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and
Satan, and bound him a thousand years. ... And cast him into the
bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he
should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be
fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."
With the head of the world-system dethroned the triumphant Lord
is restored to His rightful rule over the earth.
Zech. 14:9, "And the LORD shall be King over all the earth: in
that day there shall be one LORD, and his name one."
Rev. 11:15, "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great
voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign forever
and ever."
Rev. 19:16, "And I heard as it were the voice of a great
multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty
thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."
At the end of the thousand years Satan will be loosed for a
season. He will reveal his unchanging and unchangeable disposition to
self-will and his implacable hatred toward God by going forth to
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deceive the nations and by making a futile effort to regain his lost
dominion.
Rev. 20:7-9, "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan
shall be loosed out of his prison. ... And shall go out to deceive the
nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to
gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of
the sea. ... And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and
compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire
came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
This rebellion ends in his utter undoing and destruction. God's
full and final judgment is now meted out upon him. He is cast into the
lake of fire and brimstone to be tormented forever.
Rev. 20:10, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the
lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are,
and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever."
Then God's victory is consummated. Every enemy is at last put
under His feet and the sovereignty of the triune God is absolute.
1 Cor. 15:24, 25, 28, R.V., "Then cometh the end, when he shall
deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have
abolished all rule and all authority and power. ... For he must reign,
till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. ... And when all
things have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself
be subjected to him that did subject all things unto him, that God may
be all in all."
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Is it any wonder that Satan hates the truth of the Lord's return
and that he does all within his power to discredit, discourage and
destroy those who hold and preach this blessed hope? He has no place
for the second coming of the Lord in his "gospel" and his "ministers"
either rail at or ridicule those who have it in theirs. One reason why
we may well believe that we are in the last days is the fact of the
violent and venomous attacks of Satan's instruments upon this glorious
truth on the one hand and the growing preciousness and deepening
influence of this hope upon those who love His appearing on the other.
Our Lord's Return--Attitude
With such a glorious prospect before the believer, one would
expect him to have just one possible attitude toward our Lord's
return--that of eager expectancy and ardent desire. Yet strange to say
there are four very evident attitudes manifested in the professing
Church toward this blessed hope; aggressive hostility, listless
apathy, fearful apprehension and loving expectancy. Some hate it; some
are totally ignorant of it; some are afraid of it and some love it. In
which group do you find yourself?
God shows very clearly in Scripture what is the attitude of the
spiritual man toward our Lord's return. May He now speak to the heart
of every reader through His own Word.
2 Pet. 1:19, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy:
whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth
in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your
hearts."
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"Take heed" Think of how much both of the Old and the New
Testament is devoted to prophecy--the foretelling of things to come.
God tells us here that these prophetic words are reliable, they will
most assuredly come to pass. Should we not then give heed to that
which God thinks to be of such tremendous importance? Surely to be
apathetic to that to which God commands us "to give attention with
heart intentness" would be sin. In these dark days what can so truly
keep us from depression over conditions in the world and in the Church
and from discouragement over ourselves and our work as to concentrate
our attention upon and become absorbed with this sure word of prophecy
that shines like a light in the darkness.
2 Tim. 4:8, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me
at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his
appearing."
"Love." The aged apostle knew that his life-work was nearly
ended. Perhaps his body still bore the marks of the stripes and was
weakened from the periods of hunger and thirst; his heart still felt
the wounds caused by the persecutions of his own countrymen and the
desertions of false brethren; his spirit was still burdened by the
spiritual need of all the churches under his care; yet his whole being
was aglow with joy. He had fought a good fight, he had finished his
course, he had kept the faith through all the hardships and
heartaches. And what had been the incentive for such a life? Paul had
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loved his Lord's appearing. Even in the darkest experiences of his
life he had ever before him the anticipation of "that day" when the
Lord, the righteous Judge, would give him a crown of righteousness,
and within the heart of Paul there burned like a fire a love for his
Lord's appearing that eclipsed every other love. Do you ever waken in
the morning or fall asleep at night with the thought, "O, today,
tonight, my Beloved may come?" Do you "love His appearing" to such a
degree that you are longing for His return with eagerness and
expectancy?
2 Pet. 3:12, R.V., "Looking for and earnestly desiring the coming
of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall
be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?"
"Look." Who could ever be apprehensive of our Lord's return who
understands what that coming will mean to this dark, sin-cursed world?
In times of exceptional calamity the hearts of ignorant ones are
terrified by the thought that it is "the end of the world." Others,
equally ignorant of the great prophetic truths, charge those who hold
this blessed hope with being pessimistic and with looking upon world
conditions in too sombre and gloomy a way. Such men shudder at the
very thought of what they call the "catastrophic cataclysm" of the
premillennial view.
But the Christian who looks expectantly for our Lord's return is
the only true optimist because he alone sees things both as they are
and as they will be. To shut one's eyes to actual conditions and to
deny the self-evident trend of affairs and their logical, inevitable
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outcome as revealed in the Word of God is not optimism but folly. The
man who believes the sure word of prophecy and takes it as his compass
knows that perilous times are ahead; he sees the way the world's ship
of life is taking; he sights the rocks ahead and he knows that a
frightful disaster is unavoidable.
Recently I read in the newspaper this account of a wrecked
steamer, "The steamer Robert E. Lee, crack passenger liner bound from
Boston to New York with 150 passengers and an equal number in the
crew, went ashore in a blinding storm on the Mary Ann Rocks four miles
off shore about eight o'clock in the evening. The ship struck one of
the three jagged rocks that project about five feet above the low
water mark." The next day the paper gave the reason for this
catastrophe as stated by the ship's commander. "The wreck of the
steamer Robert E. Lee on the rocks off Manonut was due to a faulty
compass. Because of the consequent inaccuracy of the vessel's course,
the ship would have piled up on the shore at Indian Head, three miles
farther on, even if she had escaped the treacherous Mary Ann Rocks on
which she grounded." The captain of the vessel attributed the changing
of the compass largely "to the penetration into the pilot house of
large quantities of snow, driven in through the windows by the severe
gale."
The existing world-system has a faulty compass. The wintry drifts
of enmity toward God have settled in upon it and made it wholly
inaccurate. The world is steering straight for the rocks upon which it
will sooner or later be wrecked.
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But back of the "catastrophic cataclysm" that ends the rule of
"the prince of this world" and overthrows this world-system the
spiritual man sees the glorious appearing of the Great God and Saviour
Jesus Christ to rule the world, and beyond "the dissolving of the
heavens" and "the melting of the elements" he sees "the new heavens
and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." So with almost
impatient longing he "looks" for the coming of the Lord.
1 Thess. 1:10, "And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he
raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to
come."
1 Cor. 1:7, "So that ye come behind in no gift: waiting for the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
"Wait." Let us not miss the sweetness of this precious truth by
failing to apprehend the inwardness of its meaning. We have told some
of the blessings that will come to the Christian through our Lord's
return, his resurrection from the dead or his translation without
dying; his removal from the very presence of sin; his release from all
bondage to self and to Satan; his reign with the Lord as co-heir of
the kingdom. Yes, all these and other blessings await us upon the
coming of the Lord.
Yet the chiefest of all blessings will be missed if we stop here.
What we wait for is not a blessing but a Person. We wait for God's
Son, our Saviour; it is the Bridegroom, our Beloved, for whom we wait.
He has promised to come for His own to receive them unto Himself. When
He comes, we shall meet Him in the air;
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we shall see Him face to face; we shall be like Him; and we shall
forever be with the Lord.
I was travelling once in China from Shanghai to Foochow. A
missionary who had been separated from his family for a year was
returning home. At Shanghai he had received a large number of letters
from his wife which he read and reread apparently devouring every word
with a hungry heart. But long before we were near enough to Foochow to
discern even the outline of the city he had cast aside his letters and
was standing with eyes fixed in the direction of that city. As we drew
still nearer he shaded his eyes with his hand; he waited, he watched
with steady, fixed intentness. Why did the letters which had so
engrossed him when he left Shanghai not satisfy him now? For whom was
he looking so intently? Soon in the distance we saw a little boat
coming and in it was a woman--his wife and Oh! what joy was theirs
when hope was rewarded by sight and those two so long separated were
together once again.
Our Lord has gone away to prepare a place that we may be with Him
forever. During His absence our hearts are comforted and cheered
through His Word and we find precious companionship with Him in its
study. But He promised to come back and, as we draw nearer and nearer
to "the day of Christ" with hearts fixed intently upon this blessed
hope, we wait for the Son Himself from Heaven.
Matt. 24:36-42, R.V., "But of that day and hour knoweth no one,
not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.
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... And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of
man. ... For as in those days which were before the flood they were
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day
that Noah entered into the ark, and they knew not until the flood
came, and took them all away: so shall be the coming of the Son of
man. ... Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken and one is
left; ... two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and
one is left. ... Watch therefore: for ye know not on what day your
Lord cometh."
Mark 13:33-37, R.V., "Take ye heed, Watch and pray: for ye know
not when the time is. ... It
is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his
house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work,
commanded also the porter to watch. ... Watch therefore: for ye know
not when the Lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at
midnight, or at cock crowing, or in the morning: ... Lest coming on
you suddenly he find you sleeping. ... And what I say unto you I say
unto all. Watch."
"Watch." Life will be flowing on in its ordinary channels when
"the day of Christ" finally comes. We will rise to the ordinary tasks;
we will be in our accustomed haunts; we will be eating, drinking,
working and sleeping as usual.
No warning will be given us that we may hastily prepare ourselves
to meet the Lord. No time will be given to change our occupation or
our garments. So there is but one attitude for the Christian to have
toward the coming of the Lord and that is the attitude of
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watchfulness. He may come any moment, therefore I should be watching
every moment.
Rev. 2:25, "But that which ye have already hold fast till I
come."
"Hold fast." In these days of growing apostasy the Christian is
meeting with very severe tests to his faith, love, zeal and fidelity.
The man who rejects the foundation truths of God's Word considers the
man who holds them fast an intellectual outcast and consigns him to
the slums of scholarship. This is a day in which men are suffering
persecution for their faith. As the shadows deepen and the darkness of
the apostasy falls more heavily over Christendom every man who is
loyal to his Lord will have "to go forth without the camp, bearing his
reproach" (Heb. 13:13). But with a tenacity of faith that nothing can
shake; with an ardency of love that nothing can quench; with a warmth
of zeal that nothing can dampen; and with a constancy of fidelity that
nothing can weaken, the spiritual man will "hold fast" to all that is
his in Christ till He comes.
Luke 19:12-13, "He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a
far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. ... And
he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said
unto them, Occupy till I come."
"Occupy." The Christian who looks and longs for the Lord's return
is sometimes accused by those who reject this truth
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of being a visionary, impracticable star-gazer, waiting idly for
something to happen to release him from a doomed world. They even
claim that such a hope "cuts the nerve of service." Nothing could be
farther from the truth. In fact, the exact opposite of this is true.
From the early Church on down to the present time it is the men and
women who have held this truth who have been the most zealous, ardent,
active soul winners. Their one passion was to trade with the pound
which their Lord had given them until it had brought Him ten pounds.
Their chief concern was not that they themselves might be released
from a doomed world but that they might be the channels which the Lord
would use to deliver others from it. With unwearied devotion and
unflagging zeal they have obeyed the Lord's commission to preach the
Gospel to every creature. The paramount purpose of their lives was to
"occupy" faithfully till He comes.
Our Lord's Return--Approach
Is the time for the fulfilment of the Christian's hope drawing
near? Is the Lord's return near at hand? We are told explicitly in
Scripture that we know neither the day nor the hour that our Lord will
come. Then of course, it is impossible to fix a date for this glorious
event. Yet some, attempting to do this, have brought great discredit
upon this precious truth.
Matt. 25:13, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor
the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."
Yet our Lord Himself in His great prophetic address in the last
week of His earthly life stated that there would be
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signs that would indicate the approach of His return in power and
glory and He exhorted His disciples to watch for such signs.
Luke 21:25-28, "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the
moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with
perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; ... Men's hearts failing
them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on
the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. ... And then
shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory. ... And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up
and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."
The Bible unfolds the divine program in the carrying out of God's
eternal purpose in Christ. It is divided into definite cycles. There
are certain signs which will precede the consummation of the cycle or
"age" we are now in and the Spirit-taught Christian will be able to
discern these "signs of the times." Today "the children of light" see
in the conditions prevailing both in the world and in the Church a
marvellous fulfilment of prophetic truth regarding "the last days" of
this age and they believe it indicates the approach of the Lord from
glory.
1 Thess. 5:4-6, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that
day should overtake you as a thief. ... Ye are all the children of
light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of
the darkness. ... Therefore let us not sleep as others; but let us
watch and be sober."
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Heb. 10: 25, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,
as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the
more, as ye see the day approaching."
Luke 21:31, "So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to
pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand."
In the limited scope of this study we can mention only four signs
which Scripture says will immediately precede "the day of the Lord"
and indicate its approach.
Matt. 24:31-33, "And he shall send his angels with a great sound
of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four
winds, from one end of heaven to the other. ... Now learn a parable of
the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves,
ye know the summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see these
things know that it is near, even at the doors."
The prophecies of God if they relate to the fulfilment of His
divine purposes on earth center in the Jewish race and in the land of
Palestine. Repeatedly He says that this people, who have been
scattered among all peoples and have lived as exiles for two thousand
years, are to be gathered out from all the nations and restored to
their own land. As the prophecy that God would take them from their
land was fulfilled literally so will the prophecies that He will
return them to their land and give it to them as an everlasting
possession be as literally fulfilled.
Israel is typified by the fig tree. For centuries she has been
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withered, dead, fruitless nationally. Yet the Jewish race has been
divinely preserved as a distinct people and has never been absorbed by
the nations among whom it has been scattered.
But in the last few years there has been marked evidence of new
national life in Israel. Through the Zionist Movement which has as its
purpose the restoration of Israel to Palestine, through the action of
the Allies since the World War in committing themselves to the return
of Palestine to the Jews, the fig tree is again putting forth leaves.
"Since General Allenby entered Jerusalem on that
never-to-be-forgotten day December 9th, 1918, the fig tree has been
putting 'forth leaves' with amazing rapidity. Over 55,000 Jews have
returned to Palestine since the Balfour Declaration. The population
has more than doubled during the five years of Sir Herbert Samuel's
Commissionership. A Hebrew University on Mount Scopus was opened on
April 1st, 1925. Trade has flourished and the revenue shows a surplus
of one and a quarter millions. The sacred custom of going up to the
Passover was observed in the spring of 1922 for the first time in
nearly 2,000 years. The Sanhedrin has been revived. Schools have been
established. A shipping company has been formed by wealthy American
Jews for the purpose of carrying Jews back to Palestine." (Signs of
Christ's Coming, by E.E. Hotchell, p. 914.)
Matt. 24:33, "When ye shall see all these things, know that it is
near, even at the doors."
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Luke 21:24, "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and
shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be
trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be
fulfilled."
Perhaps no sign is more significant than this one. In the recent
World War a prophetic prediction became an historical fact. Christ had
said that the liberation of Jerusalem from Gentile overlordship would
not take place "until" a certain time and then stated what that time
would be. "The times of the Gentiles" refers to the period from the
captivity of Judah under Nebuchadnezzar and the dispersion of Israel
from her land until the setting up of the Kingdom by the return of the
King and His reestablishment of His chosen people in the land He gave
them. Jerusalem has been emancipated and is today virtually in the
control of the Jews. Then may we not confidently believe that "the
times of the Gentiles" are at
least nearing fulfilment and the coming of the Lord draweth nigh?
Luke 21:25, 26, "Upon the earth distress of nations, with
perplexity: ... Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking
after those things which are coming on the earth."
One needs only to observe conditions and to read the daily
newspaper to be convinced that this prophecy is being fulfilled at the
present time. Everywhere one looks there is tumult and turmoil. World
leaders are distressed knowing not what to do to put the world right.
Universal anarchy threatens the world and they do not know how to cope
with it. To the man with this blessed hope
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the very hopelessness in present world conditions demands the coming
of the only One who can set the world right and to indicate that His
coming must be near.
2 Thess. 2:3-4, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that
day shall not come, except there come a falling away [departure]
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing
himself that he is God."
2 Tim. 3:1-5, "This know also, that in the last days perilous
times shall come. ... For men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, ... Without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God. ... Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:
from such turn away."
These passages reveal the truth that in the apostasy of the last
days there will be two outstanding marks, religious decadence and
moral deterioration. These signs are appallingly evident today. Every
distinctive foundational truth of the Christian faith, the virgin
birth, the Deity of Christ, the substitutionary atonement, the literal
resurrection and the Lord's return, are openly and avowedly denied in
the pulpit and in the religious press and, as a result, in the pew.
With almost incredible arrogance men are tearing the Bible to pieces
and retaining only what suits their desire,
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Following inevitably upon this rejection of God's Word and refusal of
His authority is the breaking loose from all other bonds, parental and
magisterial. A wave of lawlessness is sweeping irresistibly over the
world which is bound to engulf it ultimately.
Liberalism in belief produces license in conduct! The laws of
human society are disregarded and every man becomes a law unto
himself. This is the day of divorce, free love, companionate marriage.
It is the day of the discarding of parental authority and advice. It
is the day of shameless immodesty and indecency in dress. It is the
day of bold corruption and dishonesty in high places in governmental
affairs. It is the day of traitors and truce breakers, when friends
may become enemies over night, and when treaties, solemnly made, may
be lightly broken. It is the day of moral deterioration.
God says that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse"
so that there would be nothing for this world to look forward to but
moral suicide unless the Lord Jesus Christ were to return to save it
from itself. But these things are to happen in "the last days" so the
hope of the spiritual man burns brightly for they are to him a sign
that the approach of the Lord is sure.
These signs constitute both a call and a challenge to the
Christian. A call to reaffirm his hope, to lift up his head and to
rejoice that his redemption draweth nigh. And a challenge to fill his
lamps with oil and to prepare his bridal robes that he may be prepared
for the coming of the Lord.
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Our Lord's Return--Appeal
The coming of the Lord will be with suddenness and without
warning. The constraining appeal that this blessed truth makes to
every man is for readiness. The Lord Jesus warns us of the terrible
peril of unpreparedness for His return and appeals to all men to be
ready and watching so that whether He comes in the second or in the
third watch they will not be caught unawares but will be ready to
welcome Him.
Luke 12:35, 36, 40, "Let your loins be girded about, and your
lights burning; ... And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for
their Lord, when he will return from the wedding: that when he cometh
and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. ... Be ye therefore
ready also: for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not."
What appeal does the truth of our Lord's return make to the
unsaved person? It appeals to him to accept without delay the Lord
Jesus as his personal Saviour. Christ warns us that in the day when He
shall be revealed unsaved men will be as indifferent as in the days of
Noah. They will be engrossed in business and in pleasure, utterly
forgetful of their Lord. Suddenly He will come--a wife will be taken
and the husband left; a child will be snatched from the mother's arms;
a business associate will be caught away to meet his Lord in the air
and his partner will be left to carry on alone.
Matt. 24:40-41, "Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be
taken and the other left. ... Two women shall be grinding
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at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left."
And what will it mean to the one who is left? It will mean the
ending of the day of grace and the beginning of the day of judgment.
The rejected Saviour will then be the righteous Judge before whom the
ungodly must stand and receive their punishment for He has come to
execute judgment.
2 Thess. 1:7-9, "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
... in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: ... who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord
and from the glory of his power."
All down through the ages there have been those who have
mockingly said "Where is the
promise of his coming?" (2 Pet. 3:3-4). Ten days after His return to
glory He fulfilled the promise to send another Comforter. More than
nineteen centuries have passed and He has not yet fulfilled the
promise that He would come again. Oh! why does He not come?
2 Pet. 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as
some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
Oh! my friend, perhaps He delays His coming for your sake. He may
be waiting for you to accept Him. You may be the last one needed to
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complete the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. God may be holding the
door of grace open a little longer for you to enter. Will you do so
today?
What appeal does the truth of the Lord's return make to the saved
person? It is a threefold appeal, to purity of life, to separation
from the world and to zeal in service.
The outstanding appeal of the blessed hope is to purity of life.
It challenges us to be both holy and righteous, to be void of offence
both to God and to men. It calls us to so live that we would be
unashamed to meet Him face to face at any moment.
1 John 3:3, "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth
himself even as he is pure."
2 Pet. 3:14, "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such
things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without
spot, and blameless."
1 John 2:28, "And now little children, abide in him, that when he
shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at
his coming."
If Christ should come today would He find you with a clean heart?
Or would it be filled with rebellion toward Him? With jealousy,
unforgiveness, hatred, anger, malice, bitterness toward another? Would
He call you to Himself out of the midst of a church quarrel? If Christ
should come today would you leave behind unpaid debts? unfulfilled
promises? unconfessed sins? Oh, Christian, He may come at any moment,
"be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and
blameless."
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The hope of our Lord's return appeals to us to live a separated
life. In the twinkling of an eye we shall have left earth and earthly
things and shall be in the pure atmosphere of His holy presence which
is to be our abiding place throughout eternity. God would have us
prepared to breathe that heavenly air by a separation now unto the
things that are unseen and eternal; He would deafen our ears to the
jazz noises of earth that we might be prepared to appreciate the
melodious symphonies of Heaven. He would deepen within us the
consciousness that we are already citizens of Heaven and only pilgrims
on earth that we might be freed from encumbersome luggage, that we
might be ready to go at a moment's notice.
Phil. 3:20, R.V., "For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also
we wait for a Saviour."
1 Pet. 1:13-14, "Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be
sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. ... As children of
obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in
the time of your ignorance."
The hope of our Lord's return appeals to us to live a fruitful
life. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns He will bring rewards and
will bestow crowns for faithful service. A special crown is waiting
for those who have zealously won souls to Christ. Will you be in line
for coronation? Are you doing your part to hasten the day of His
coming by winning souls to Him?
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Rev. 22:12, "And behold I come quickly: and my reward is with me,
to give every man according as his work shall be."
1 Thess. 2:19, "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of
rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at
his coming?"
"Just a few days--and our tears will have ended;
Just a few hours--and our task will be done;
Yet still hear them calling,
From darkness appalling,
While we rest in the light of the fast-setting sun.
"Just a few days--and the gifts we've withholden,
Just a few hours--and the call we refuse
Will rush on forever,
Or return to us never,
And Eternity's crown we no longer may choose.
"Just a few days--and then nought will avail us,
The thought of the crown that we might yet have won;
And ah! what the sorrow
If we miss on the morrow
Our share in that joy, when He whispers, 'Well done!'
"Just a few days--Oh Lord, strengthen our courage;
Just a few moments--to publish Thy Name.
In our weakness enfold us,
Through darkness uphold us,
'Till He Come,' make us faithful Thy love to proclaim."
"Surely, I come quickly. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
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XI. THE STORY OF SALVATION TOLD IN FIVE CHAPTERS
(Diagram XIV. omitted)
Chapter I The Sinner in Adam. Without Christ.
The penalty of sin is upon him.
The power of sin is over him.
The presence of sin is in him.
Without Christ
The sinner. Without hope.
Chapter II The Sinner at the Cross--With Christ.
The penalty of sin is removed by Christ, the Saviour.
Pardon is granted.
Righteousness is imputed.
Justification.
The sinner's past. Covered.
Chapter III The Believer in the Heavenlies. In Christ.
The power of sin is broken by Christ, the Lord.
A new sphere is entered. A new life is implanted.
A new nature is imparted.
Regeneration.
The believer's present. Assured.
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Chapter IV The Believer on the Earth--Through Christ.
The place of sin is taken by Christ, the Life.
Dead to 'Sin / Self' Alive to God.
Sanctification.
The believer's present. Secured.
Chapter V The Believer in the Air. Like Christ.
The presence of sin is effaced by Christ, the King.
He is perfected into His likeness.
He is conformed to His image.
Glorification.
The believer's future. Transfigured.
Eph. 2: 8-9,
"For by grace are ye saved through faith,
And that not of yourselves:
It is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast."
"IT IS FINISHED."
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapter I: The Price of Power, Stuart Holden
The Threefold Secret of the Holy Spirit, James McConkey
The Spirit-Filled Life, John McNeil
Chapter II: Emblems of the Holy Spirit, F.E. Marsh
Chapter III: The Surrendered Life, James McConkey
Memorial of a True Life, R.E. Speer
Chapter IV: The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, H.S. Smith
Hudson Taylor--The Growth of a Work of God, Mrs. H. Taylor
George Muller of Bristol, A.T. Pierson
Chapter V: The School of Obedience, Andrew Murray
Chapter VI: Life A biding and A bounding, Griffith Thomas
Christ and the Scriptures, Adolph Saphir
Knowing the Scriptures, A.T. Pierson
How to Study the Bible, R.A. Torrey
Chapter VII: The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power, R.A. Torrey
With Christ in the School of Prayer, Andrew Murray
The Ministry of Intercession, Andrew Murray
Chapter VIII: The Christian's Present Duty, C.C. Cook
The Dynamic of Service, Paget Wilkes
Chapter IX: The Leaven of the Sadducees, Ernest Gordon
Christianity and Anti-Christianity, S.J. Andrews
Chapter X: What Will Take Place When Christ Returns, F.E. Marsh
Biblical Signs, L.S. Chafer
The World's Unrest, Christabel Pankhurst
Chapter XI: Christian Workers Manual, Miller
Outline Bible Studies, Henry Frost