The Blessed Life # 4
The whole of Christian living hinges on the way in which Christian people read their Bible for themselves. All sermons and addresses, all Bible readings and classes, all religious magazines and books, can never take the place of our own quiet study of God's precious Word. We may measure our growth in grace by the growth of our love for private Bible study. And we may be sure there is something seriously wrong when we lose our appetite for God's Word.
There are a few simple rules which may help many more to acquire this holy art, and I venture to note them down. May the Holy Spirit Himself own and use them!
1. Make time for Bible study. The Divine Teacher must have fixed and uninterrupted hours for meeting with us. His Word must have our freshest and brightest thoughts. We must give Him our best, the first fruits of our days. Hence there is no time for Bible study like the early morning, for we cannot give such undivided attention to the holy thoughts that glisten like diamonds on its pages after we have opened our letters, glanced through the paper, and joined in the prattle of the breakfast table. The manna had to be gathered before the dew was off and the sun up; otherwise it melted.
We ought, therefore, to aim at securing at least half an hour before breakfast for the leisurely and loving study of the Bible. To some this may seem a long time in comparison with what they now give. But it will soon seem all too short. The more you read the Bible, the more you will want to read it. It is an appetite which grows as it is fed. And you will be well repaid. The Bible seldom speaks, and certainly never its deepest, sweetest words, to those who always read in a hurry.
2. Look up for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. No one can so well explain the meaning of His words as He who wrote them. If, then, you want to read the Bible as you should, make much of the Holy Spirit, Who inspired it through holy men. As you open the Book, lift up your heart and say, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." "Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears."
3. Read the Bible methodically. On the whole, there is probably no better way than to read the Bible through once every year.
4. Read your Bible with your pen in your hand. Writing of Frances Havergal, her sister says, "She read her Bible by the study table by seven o'clock in the summer, and eight o'clock in the winter. Sometimes, on bitterly cold mornings, I begged that she would read with her feet comfortably to the fire, and received the reply: "But then, Marie, I can't rule my lines neatly; just see what a find I've got!" If only one searches, there are such extraordinary things in the Bible. She resolutely refrained from late hours and frittering talks at night in place of Bible searchings and holy communings. Early rising and early study were her rule through life."
None, in my judgment, have learned the secret of enjoying the Bible until they have commenced to mark it, neatly underlining and dating special verses which has cast a light upon their path on special days, drawing connections across the page between verses which repeat the same message or ring with the same note, jotting down new references of the catchwords of helpful thoughts. Our Bible, then, becomes the precious memento of bygone hours, and records the history of our inner life.
5. Seek eagerly your personal profit. Bring all its rays to a focus on your own heart. While you are reading, often ask that some verse or verses may start out from the printed page as God's message to yourself. And never close the Book until you feel that you are carrying away your portion of food. It is well, sometimes, to stop reading, and seriously ask, What does the Holy Spirit mean me to learn by this? What bearing should this have on my life? How can I work this into the fabric of my character?
6. Above all, turn from the printed page to prayer. If a cluster of heavenly fruit hangs within reach, gather it. If a promise lies upon the page as a blank check, cash it. If an example of holiness gleams before you, ask God to do as much for you. If a truth is revealed in all its intrinsic splendor, entreat that its brilliance may ever irradiate your life. So shall you come to say with the Psalmist: "O how I love your Word! it is my meditation all the day."
The longer I live and learn the experience of most Christian people, the more I long to help them and unfold glimpses of this life of peace and power and victory over sin which our heavenly Father has made possible for us. There are blessed secrets in the Bible, hidden from the wise and prudent, but revealed to babes; things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, or the heat of man conceived, but which God reveals by His Spirit to those who love Him; and if these were once understood and accepted, they would wipe away many a tear and shed sunshine on many a darkened pathway.
The bitterest experience with most believers is the presence and power of sin. They long to walk through this grimy world with pure hearts and stainless garments. But when they would do good, evil is present with them. They consent to God's law that it is good; they even delight in it after the inner man; they endeavor to keep it; but, notwithstanding all, they seem helpless to perform it. What rivers of tears have fallen upon the open pages of Psalm 51, shed by those who could repeat it every word from the heart! And what regiments of weary feet have trodden the Bridge of Sighs, if we may so call Romans seven, which sets forth the experience of a man who has not learned God's secret.
We must not expect to be free from temptation. Our adversity, the devil, is always going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He tempted our Lord, and he will tempt us. He will entice us to do wrong by every avenue of sense, and will pour his evil suggestions through eye, ear, touch, mouth, and mind. He will get behind us an whisperingly suggest many grievous blasphemies, which we shall think have proceeded from our own mind.
But temptation is not sin. Our Lord was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. There is no sin so long as the will refuses to consent to the solicitation or catch at the bait.
Temptation may even be a blessing to a man when it reveals to him his weakness and drives him to the almighty Saviour. Do not be surprised, dear child of God, if you are tempted at every step of your earthly journey; but you will not be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, and with every temptation there will be a way of escape.
~F. B. Meyer~
(continued with # 5)
Saturday, September 29, 2018
The Blessed Life # 5
The Blessed Life # 5
We must not expect to lose our sinful nature. When we are born again, a new life - the life of God - is put into us by the Holy Spirit. But the old self-life, which is called in Scripture the flesh, is not taken away. The two may coexist in the same heart. "The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." (Gal. 5:17). The presence of this old self-life within our heart may be detected by its risings, rufflings, chafings, and movings towards sin when temptation calls to it from without. It may be still as death before the increasing power of the new life, but it will still be present in the depths of our nature, and there will always be a possibility and a fear of its strength growing again to our shame and our hurt.
We must not expect to be free from liability to sin. What is sin? It is the "Yes of the will" to temptation. It is very difficult to express the delicate workings of our hearts, but does not something like this happen to us when we are tempted? A temptation is suddenly presented to us and makes a strong appeal. Immediately there may be a tremulous movement of the old nature, Some do not feel this tremulous response, others do, though I believe it will get fainter as they treat it with continued respect, so that at last, in the matured saint, it will become almost inaudible. This response indicates the presence of the evil nature within, which is in itself hateful in the sight of our Holy God, and should be bemoaned and confessed, and ever needs the presence of the Blood of Jesus to counteract and atone. But that tremulous movement has not, as yet, developed into a natural overt sin, for which we are responsible, and of which we need to repent.
Sin is an act of the will, and is only possible when the will assents to some unholy influence. If the will begins to hesitate with temptation, to dally with it and yield to it, then we have stepped out of the light into the dark; we have broken God's laws, soiled our white robes, and brought ourselves into condemnation. To this we are liable as long as we are in this world. We may live a godly, righteous, sober life for years; but if we look away from God for only a moment, our will may be suddenly mastered, and we may, like David, be hurried into a sin which will blast our peace and blacken our character for all coming time.
Reckon yourself dead to the appeals of sin. This is our position in respect to the appeals of sin. God looks on us as having been crucified with Christ and being dead with Him. In Him we have passed out of the world of sin and death into the world of resurrection glory. This is our position in the mind of God; it is for us to take it up and make it real by faith. We may not feel any great difference, but we must believe that there is; we must act as if there were, and we shall soon come to feel as we believe. When then, a temptation solicits you, say, "I am dead to you; spend not your energies on one that is oblivious to your spells and callous to your charms. You have no more power over me than over my Lord Jesus." "Reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).
As soon as you are aware of temptation, look instantly to Jesus. Flee to Him quicker than a chick runs beneath the shelter of its mother's wing. In the morning, before you leave your room, put yourself definitely into His hands. And when the tempter comes, look instantly up and say, "Jesus, I am trusting You to keep me." This is what the apostle Paul calls using the shield of faith. The upward glance of faith puts Jesus as a Shield between the tempter and yourself. You may go through life saying a hundred times a day, "Jesus save me," and He will never let those that trust in Him be ashamed. He is able even to guard you from stumbling (Jude 24).
All that we have to do is to maintain this attitude of full surrender, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Remember that Jesus Christ offered Himself to God, through the eternal Spirit, and He waits to do as much for you. Ask Him to maintain in you this attitude. Use regularly the means of meditation, private prayer, and Bible study. Seek forgiveness for any failure as soon as you are conscious of it, and ask to be restored. Practice the holy habit of the constant recollection of God. Do not be eager to work for God, but let God work through you. Accept everything that happens to you as being permitted, and therefore sent by the will of Him Who love you infinitely. And there will roll in upon you wave on wave, tide on tide, ocean on ocean of an experience fitly called THE BLESSED LIFE, because it is full of the happiness of the ever-blessed God Himself.
You are, perhaps, far from this at present. But it is all within your reach. Do not be afraid of Christ. He needs to take nothing from you except that which you would give up at once if you could see, as clearly as He does, the harm it is inflicting. He will ask of you nothing inconsistent with the most perfect fitness and tenderness. He will give you grace enough to perform every duty He may demand. His "yoke is easy," His "burden is light."
Blessed Spirit of God, by Whom alone human words can be made to speak to the heart, deign to use these, to point many a longing soul the first step into the Blessed Life, for the exceeding glory of the Lord Jesus, and for the sake of a dying world.
~F. B. Meyer~
(The End)
We must not expect to lose our sinful nature. When we are born again, a new life - the life of God - is put into us by the Holy Spirit. But the old self-life, which is called in Scripture the flesh, is not taken away. The two may coexist in the same heart. "The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." (Gal. 5:17). The presence of this old self-life within our heart may be detected by its risings, rufflings, chafings, and movings towards sin when temptation calls to it from without. It may be still as death before the increasing power of the new life, but it will still be present in the depths of our nature, and there will always be a possibility and a fear of its strength growing again to our shame and our hurt.
We must not expect to be free from liability to sin. What is sin? It is the "Yes of the will" to temptation. It is very difficult to express the delicate workings of our hearts, but does not something like this happen to us when we are tempted? A temptation is suddenly presented to us and makes a strong appeal. Immediately there may be a tremulous movement of the old nature, Some do not feel this tremulous response, others do, though I believe it will get fainter as they treat it with continued respect, so that at last, in the matured saint, it will become almost inaudible. This response indicates the presence of the evil nature within, which is in itself hateful in the sight of our Holy God, and should be bemoaned and confessed, and ever needs the presence of the Blood of Jesus to counteract and atone. But that tremulous movement has not, as yet, developed into a natural overt sin, for which we are responsible, and of which we need to repent.
Sin is an act of the will, and is only possible when the will assents to some unholy influence. If the will begins to hesitate with temptation, to dally with it and yield to it, then we have stepped out of the light into the dark; we have broken God's laws, soiled our white robes, and brought ourselves into condemnation. To this we are liable as long as we are in this world. We may live a godly, righteous, sober life for years; but if we look away from God for only a moment, our will may be suddenly mastered, and we may, like David, be hurried into a sin which will blast our peace and blacken our character for all coming time.
Reckon yourself dead to the appeals of sin. This is our position in respect to the appeals of sin. God looks on us as having been crucified with Christ and being dead with Him. In Him we have passed out of the world of sin and death into the world of resurrection glory. This is our position in the mind of God; it is for us to take it up and make it real by faith. We may not feel any great difference, but we must believe that there is; we must act as if there were, and we shall soon come to feel as we believe. When then, a temptation solicits you, say, "I am dead to you; spend not your energies on one that is oblivious to your spells and callous to your charms. You have no more power over me than over my Lord Jesus." "Reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).
As soon as you are aware of temptation, look instantly to Jesus. Flee to Him quicker than a chick runs beneath the shelter of its mother's wing. In the morning, before you leave your room, put yourself definitely into His hands. And when the tempter comes, look instantly up and say, "Jesus, I am trusting You to keep me." This is what the apostle Paul calls using the shield of faith. The upward glance of faith puts Jesus as a Shield between the tempter and yourself. You may go through life saying a hundred times a day, "Jesus save me," and He will never let those that trust in Him be ashamed. He is able even to guard you from stumbling (Jude 24).
All that we have to do is to maintain this attitude of full surrender, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Remember that Jesus Christ offered Himself to God, through the eternal Spirit, and He waits to do as much for you. Ask Him to maintain in you this attitude. Use regularly the means of meditation, private prayer, and Bible study. Seek forgiveness for any failure as soon as you are conscious of it, and ask to be restored. Practice the holy habit of the constant recollection of God. Do not be eager to work for God, but let God work through you. Accept everything that happens to you as being permitted, and therefore sent by the will of Him Who love you infinitely. And there will roll in upon you wave on wave, tide on tide, ocean on ocean of an experience fitly called THE BLESSED LIFE, because it is full of the happiness of the ever-blessed God Himself.
You are, perhaps, far from this at present. But it is all within your reach. Do not be afraid of Christ. He needs to take nothing from you except that which you would give up at once if you could see, as clearly as He does, the harm it is inflicting. He will ask of you nothing inconsistent with the most perfect fitness and tenderness. He will give you grace enough to perform every duty He may demand. His "yoke is easy," His "burden is light."
Blessed Spirit of God, by Whom alone human words can be made to speak to the heart, deign to use these, to point many a longing soul the first step into the Blessed Life, for the exceeding glory of the Lord Jesus, and for the sake of a dying world.
~F. B. Meyer~
(The End)
The Blessed Life # 3
The Blessed Life # 3
6. Expect the Holy Spirit to work in, with, and for you. When a man is right with God, God will freely use him. There will rise up within him impulses, inspirations, strong strivings, strange resolves. These must be tested by Scripture and prayer; and if evidently of God, they must be obeyed. But there is this perennial source of comfort: God's commands are His enablings. He will never give us a work to do without showing exactly how and when to do it, or without giving us the precise strength and wisdom we need. Do not dread to enter this life because you fear that God will ask you to do something you cannot do. He will never do that. If He lays anything on your heart, He will do so irresistibly; and as you pray about it, the impression will continue to grow, so that presently, as you look up to know what He wills you to say or do, the way will suddenly open, and you will probably have said the word or done the deed almost unconsciously. Rely on the Holy Spirit to go before you, to make the crooked places straight and the rough places smooth. Do not bring the legal spirit of "must" into God's free service. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." Let your life be as effortless as theirs, because your faith shall constantly hand over all difficulties and responsibilities to your ever-present Lord. There is no effort to the branch in putting forth the swelling clusters of grapes; the effort would be to keep them back.
Someone says, "I have tried to live a consistent Christian life,and yet I am not what I wish." Perhaps you live too much in your feelings, too little in your will. We have no direct control over our feelings, but we have over our will. God does not hold us responsible for what we feel, but for what we will. Let us, therefore, not live in the summer house of emotion, but in the central citadel of the will, wholly yielded and devoted to the will of God.
Perhaps you have disobeyed some clear command. Sometimes a soul comes to its spiritual adviser, and says, "i have no conscious joy, and have had but little for years." "Did you once have it?" "Yes, for some time after my conversion to God." "Are you conscious of having refused obedience to some distinct command which came into your life, but which you shrank?" Then the face is cast down, and the eyes fill with tears, and the answer comes with difficulty. "Yes, years ago I used to think that God required a certain thing of me; but I felt I could not do what He wished. I was uneasy for some time about it, but after a while it seemed to fade from my mind and now it does not often trouble me." "Ah, soul, that is where you have gone wrong, and you will never get right until you go right back through the weary years to the point where you dropped the thread of obedience, and perform that one thing which God demanded of you so long ago, but on account of which you did leave the narrow track of implicit obedience.
Is not this the cause of depression to thousands of Christian people? They are God's children, but they are disobedient children. The Bible rings with one long demand for obedience. The keyword of the book of Deuteronomy is observe and do. We must not question or reply or excuse ourselves. We must not pick and choose our way. We must not take some commands and reject others. God gives one command at a time. By this He tests us. If we obey in this, He will flood our souls with blessing and lead us forward into new paths and pastures. But if we refuse in this, we shall remain stagnant, we shall make no progress in Christian experience, and we shall lack both power and joy.
SELF SCRUTINY
Perhaps you look too much inwards on "self", instead of outwards on the Lord Jesus. The healthiest people do not think about their health; the weak induce disease by morbid introspection. If you begin to count your heartbeats, you will disturb the rhythmic action of the heart. If you continually imagine a pain anywhere, you will produce it. And there are some true children of God who induce their own darkness by morbid self-scrutiny. They are always going back on themselves, analyzing their motives with themselves. In one form or another self is the pivot of their life, albeit that is undoubtedly a religious life. There are certainly times in our lives when we must look within and judge ourselves. But this is only done that we may turn with fuller purpose of heart to the Lord. The question is, not whether we did as well as we might, but whether we did as well as we could at the time.
We must not spend all our lives in cleaning our windows or in considering whether they are clean, but in sunning ourselves in God's blessed light. That light will soon show us what still needs to be cleansed away, and will enable us to cleanse it with unerring accuracy. Our Lord Jesus is a perfect reservoir of everything the soul of man requires for a blessed and holy life. To make much of Him, to abide in Him, to draw from Him, to receive each moment from His fullness is therefore the only condition of soul health. But to be more concerned with self than with Him is like spending much time and thought over the senses of the body and never using them for the purpose of receiving impressions from the world outside. Look off unto Jesus. "Delight yourself also in the Lord." "My soul, wait only upon God."
LACK OF COMMUNION
Perhaps you spend too little time in communion with God through His Word. It is not necessary to make long prayers, but it is essential to be much alone with God, waiting at His door, hearkening for His voice, lingering in the garden of Scripture for the coming of the Lord God in the dawn or cool of the day. No number of meetings, no fellowship with Christian friends, no amount of Christian activity can compensate for the neglect of "the still hour."
When you cannot pray for yourself, begin to pray for others. When you desires wane, take the Bible in hand and begin to turn each text into petition; or take up the tale of your mercies and begin to translate each of them into praise. More Christians than we can count are suffering from a lack of prayer and Bible study, and no revival is more to be desired than that of systematic private Bible study. There is no short and easy method of godliness which can dispense with this.
LACK OF VIELDEDNESS
Perhaps you have never given yourself over entirely to the Lord Jesus. We are His by many ties and rights. But too few of us recognize His Lordship. We are willing enough to take Him as Saviour; we hesitate to make Him King. We forget that God has exalted Him to be Prince as well as Saviour. And the divine order is irreversible. Those who ignore the Lordship of Jesus cannot build up a strong or happy life. Put Jesus on the throne of life, and all things fall into harmony and peace. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all things are yours. Consecration is the indispensable condition of blessedness.
~F. B. Meyer~
(continued with # 4)
6. Expect the Holy Spirit to work in, with, and for you. When a man is right with God, God will freely use him. There will rise up within him impulses, inspirations, strong strivings, strange resolves. These must be tested by Scripture and prayer; and if evidently of God, they must be obeyed. But there is this perennial source of comfort: God's commands are His enablings. He will never give us a work to do without showing exactly how and when to do it, or without giving us the precise strength and wisdom we need. Do not dread to enter this life because you fear that God will ask you to do something you cannot do. He will never do that. If He lays anything on your heart, He will do so irresistibly; and as you pray about it, the impression will continue to grow, so that presently, as you look up to know what He wills you to say or do, the way will suddenly open, and you will probably have said the word or done the deed almost unconsciously. Rely on the Holy Spirit to go before you, to make the crooked places straight and the rough places smooth. Do not bring the legal spirit of "must" into God's free service. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." Let your life be as effortless as theirs, because your faith shall constantly hand over all difficulties and responsibilities to your ever-present Lord. There is no effort to the branch in putting forth the swelling clusters of grapes; the effort would be to keep them back.
Someone says, "I have tried to live a consistent Christian life,and yet I am not what I wish." Perhaps you live too much in your feelings, too little in your will. We have no direct control over our feelings, but we have over our will. God does not hold us responsible for what we feel, but for what we will. Let us, therefore, not live in the summer house of emotion, but in the central citadel of the will, wholly yielded and devoted to the will of God.
Perhaps you have disobeyed some clear command. Sometimes a soul comes to its spiritual adviser, and says, "i have no conscious joy, and have had but little for years." "Did you once have it?" "Yes, for some time after my conversion to God." "Are you conscious of having refused obedience to some distinct command which came into your life, but which you shrank?" Then the face is cast down, and the eyes fill with tears, and the answer comes with difficulty. "Yes, years ago I used to think that God required a certain thing of me; but I felt I could not do what He wished. I was uneasy for some time about it, but after a while it seemed to fade from my mind and now it does not often trouble me." "Ah, soul, that is where you have gone wrong, and you will never get right until you go right back through the weary years to the point where you dropped the thread of obedience, and perform that one thing which God demanded of you so long ago, but on account of which you did leave the narrow track of implicit obedience.
Is not this the cause of depression to thousands of Christian people? They are God's children, but they are disobedient children. The Bible rings with one long demand for obedience. The keyword of the book of Deuteronomy is observe and do. We must not question or reply or excuse ourselves. We must not pick and choose our way. We must not take some commands and reject others. God gives one command at a time. By this He tests us. If we obey in this, He will flood our souls with blessing and lead us forward into new paths and pastures. But if we refuse in this, we shall remain stagnant, we shall make no progress in Christian experience, and we shall lack both power and joy.
SELF SCRUTINY
Perhaps you look too much inwards on "self", instead of outwards on the Lord Jesus. The healthiest people do not think about their health; the weak induce disease by morbid introspection. If you begin to count your heartbeats, you will disturb the rhythmic action of the heart. If you continually imagine a pain anywhere, you will produce it. And there are some true children of God who induce their own darkness by morbid self-scrutiny. They are always going back on themselves, analyzing their motives with themselves. In one form or another self is the pivot of their life, albeit that is undoubtedly a religious life. There are certainly times in our lives when we must look within and judge ourselves. But this is only done that we may turn with fuller purpose of heart to the Lord. The question is, not whether we did as well as we might, but whether we did as well as we could at the time.
We must not spend all our lives in cleaning our windows or in considering whether they are clean, but in sunning ourselves in God's blessed light. That light will soon show us what still needs to be cleansed away, and will enable us to cleanse it with unerring accuracy. Our Lord Jesus is a perfect reservoir of everything the soul of man requires for a blessed and holy life. To make much of Him, to abide in Him, to draw from Him, to receive each moment from His fullness is therefore the only condition of soul health. But to be more concerned with self than with Him is like spending much time and thought over the senses of the body and never using them for the purpose of receiving impressions from the world outside. Look off unto Jesus. "Delight yourself also in the Lord." "My soul, wait only upon God."
LACK OF COMMUNION
Perhaps you spend too little time in communion with God through His Word. It is not necessary to make long prayers, but it is essential to be much alone with God, waiting at His door, hearkening for His voice, lingering in the garden of Scripture for the coming of the Lord God in the dawn or cool of the day. No number of meetings, no fellowship with Christian friends, no amount of Christian activity can compensate for the neglect of "the still hour."
When you cannot pray for yourself, begin to pray for others. When you desires wane, take the Bible in hand and begin to turn each text into petition; or take up the tale of your mercies and begin to translate each of them into praise. More Christians than we can count are suffering from a lack of prayer and Bible study, and no revival is more to be desired than that of systematic private Bible study. There is no short and easy method of godliness which can dispense with this.
LACK OF VIELDEDNESS
Perhaps you have never given yourself over entirely to the Lord Jesus. We are His by many ties and rights. But too few of us recognize His Lordship. We are willing enough to take Him as Saviour; we hesitate to make Him King. We forget that God has exalted Him to be Prince as well as Saviour. And the divine order is irreversible. Those who ignore the Lordship of Jesus cannot build up a strong or happy life. Put Jesus on the throne of life, and all things fall into harmony and peace. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all things are yours. Consecration is the indispensable condition of blessedness.
~F. B. Meyer~
(continued with # 4)
Saturday, September 22, 2018
The Taming of the Tongue # 2
The Taming of the Tongue # 2
But then he goes on in verse 4, "And my message and my preaching were not persuasive words of wisdom..." I doubt Paul was a fascinating preacher, juggling with words that sparkled. His job was to glorify Jesus. If we preach and people remember us, we've missed it. He says that his preaching was not with persuasive words of wisdom, "but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." He didn't spend hours like some preachers, selecting the most fascinating and flashy words. Maybe we might say "fleshy" words. His concern was to project Jesus Christ only and Him crucified. There was nothing flippant or fleshly about what he said, and certainly nothing foolish.
Paul warns us, "In reference to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self...be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth...Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice." (Ephesians 4:22-31).
Paul also exhorts us, "There must be no filthiness and silly talk, or course jesting, which are not fitting..." (Ephesians 5:4). I've heard preachers eating dinner together and into borderline jokes, and then someone pushes it further until it's totally disgusting. I like humor, but I don't like stupidity, filthiness, or course jesting. Oh how many silly, stupid things are said. Dr. Tozer used to say to me, "Len, be careful. Remember never, never, speak lightly of the devil. Don't tell any jokes about hell." The devil is not almighty, but we must not forget that he is mighty. All too often Christians speak too lightly of the kingdom of darkness, as if to treat the whole thing as unimportant. (Jude 9).
Muzzle Your Mouth
David says, "I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle." (Psalm 39:1). We usually think of other parts of our body as being agencies of sin, but not our tongue. David says "I will guard my mouth."
Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt. "Not pepper! Sometimes anger gets in our speech and spoils everything that we've said. Psalm 12:3 says, "May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things." These surely are stern warnings to believers.
Psalm 15 asks, "Lord who may abide in Thy tent? Who may dwell on Thy holy hill?" He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart." So there you have it: walking and talking. Walking uprightly, speaking the truth in your heart. And in verse 3, "He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend." I believe we sabotage a lot of our prayers because we're doing what James says - one minute we're blessing God, and then afterwards we're cursing men. Not blaspheming or using vile language, but criticizing them. One minute our tongues are speaking about holy things, and the next, unholy things. You see, the tongue is an index of the heart. Do you wonder that I shudder when I look at a large congregation singing, "Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise..."? Goodness me, if they did have 1,000 tongues, there would be 999 times more gossip and criticism and slander than there is now! Earth would be hell and the Church would be as bad. Oh, no! If we can't control the one we have, how could be manage 999 more? How often do we sing our great Redeemer's praise? For five minutes in two Sunday morning hymns? And the rest of the week it's careless and silly talk. Talk of anything but the deep things of God.
Stick Out Your Tongue
In the springtime my mother used to say, "Stick out your tongue and let me see what it's like." And then she had some horrible concoction that we had to take. I wonder, if we have to put out our tongues at the end of each day if they would be unclean with gossip, slander, criticism, or bitterness? Paul says, "sound in speech which is beyond reproach". Is our speech always with grace, seasoned with salt?
I helped at a funeral once where there were several teenage children. They sobbed and groaned and carried on as I'd never seen anyone do. I said to my senior pastor, "Oh, how they loved their mother!" He said, "No, they're crying in remorse. They were the most disobedient, backbiting, sarcastic children ever. They always abused their mother with their words. They just cut her to pieces with their tongues." Many of us suddenly feel this same unbearable guilt when someone dies and we can't take back the words we've spoken or heal the wounds we've made.
This is the day when people are screaming about ecology. What about pure hearts? It's a pity we don't raise our voice in the Church and call everyone to recite Psalm 51 and cry with David, "Create in me a clean heart!" Or, as Wesley put it,
O for a heart to praise my God.
A heart from sin set free.
A heart that always feels the blood,
So freely shed for me.
A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My Great Redeemer's throne,
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone.
If Christ were speaking internally all the time, we wouldn't come out with the rubbish that we utter so much.
When you get to my age, you look back and it's an awesome thing. I think about the millions of words I must have said in sixty years of preaching. Speaking at least 120 words a minute, I can speak 1,200 words in ten minutes. In 60 minutes I've spoken 7,200 words and I've done this twice a day sometimes and done it for years. Then there's all the words I've written.
What a day when all the great orators stand before the Lord. Oh, that we might find men today whose hearts are burning with love and devotion, and because their hearts are burning, their speech will burn with love, with adoration, and with hatred for sin. My prayer is, "Lord, teach me to hold my tongue. Teach me to do as the psalmist says, set a watch at the door of my lips that my speech may always be seasoned with grace. My tongue never a sword. My speech always edifying, uplifting, and that which glorifies God." Amen
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
But then he goes on in verse 4, "And my message and my preaching were not persuasive words of wisdom..." I doubt Paul was a fascinating preacher, juggling with words that sparkled. His job was to glorify Jesus. If we preach and people remember us, we've missed it. He says that his preaching was not with persuasive words of wisdom, "but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." He didn't spend hours like some preachers, selecting the most fascinating and flashy words. Maybe we might say "fleshy" words. His concern was to project Jesus Christ only and Him crucified. There was nothing flippant or fleshly about what he said, and certainly nothing foolish.
Paul warns us, "In reference to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self...be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth...Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice." (Ephesians 4:22-31).
Paul also exhorts us, "There must be no filthiness and silly talk, or course jesting, which are not fitting..." (Ephesians 5:4). I've heard preachers eating dinner together and into borderline jokes, and then someone pushes it further until it's totally disgusting. I like humor, but I don't like stupidity, filthiness, or course jesting. Oh how many silly, stupid things are said. Dr. Tozer used to say to me, "Len, be careful. Remember never, never, speak lightly of the devil. Don't tell any jokes about hell." The devil is not almighty, but we must not forget that he is mighty. All too often Christians speak too lightly of the kingdom of darkness, as if to treat the whole thing as unimportant. (Jude 9).
Muzzle Your Mouth
David says, "I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle." (Psalm 39:1). We usually think of other parts of our body as being agencies of sin, but not our tongue. David says "I will guard my mouth."
Colossians 4:6 says, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt. "Not pepper! Sometimes anger gets in our speech and spoils everything that we've said. Psalm 12:3 says, "May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things." These surely are stern warnings to believers.
Psalm 15 asks, "Lord who may abide in Thy tent? Who may dwell on Thy holy hill?" He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart." So there you have it: walking and talking. Walking uprightly, speaking the truth in your heart. And in verse 3, "He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend." I believe we sabotage a lot of our prayers because we're doing what James says - one minute we're blessing God, and then afterwards we're cursing men. Not blaspheming or using vile language, but criticizing them. One minute our tongues are speaking about holy things, and the next, unholy things. You see, the tongue is an index of the heart. Do you wonder that I shudder when I look at a large congregation singing, "Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise..."? Goodness me, if they did have 1,000 tongues, there would be 999 times more gossip and criticism and slander than there is now! Earth would be hell and the Church would be as bad. Oh, no! If we can't control the one we have, how could be manage 999 more? How often do we sing our great Redeemer's praise? For five minutes in two Sunday morning hymns? And the rest of the week it's careless and silly talk. Talk of anything but the deep things of God.
Stick Out Your Tongue
In the springtime my mother used to say, "Stick out your tongue and let me see what it's like." And then she had some horrible concoction that we had to take. I wonder, if we have to put out our tongues at the end of each day if they would be unclean with gossip, slander, criticism, or bitterness? Paul says, "sound in speech which is beyond reproach". Is our speech always with grace, seasoned with salt?
I helped at a funeral once where there were several teenage children. They sobbed and groaned and carried on as I'd never seen anyone do. I said to my senior pastor, "Oh, how they loved their mother!" He said, "No, they're crying in remorse. They were the most disobedient, backbiting, sarcastic children ever. They always abused their mother with their words. They just cut her to pieces with their tongues." Many of us suddenly feel this same unbearable guilt when someone dies and we can't take back the words we've spoken or heal the wounds we've made.
This is the day when people are screaming about ecology. What about pure hearts? It's a pity we don't raise our voice in the Church and call everyone to recite Psalm 51 and cry with David, "Create in me a clean heart!" Or, as Wesley put it,
O for a heart to praise my God.
A heart from sin set free.
A heart that always feels the blood,
So freely shed for me.
A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My Great Redeemer's throne,
Where only Christ is heard to speak,
Where Jesus reigns alone.
If Christ were speaking internally all the time, we wouldn't come out with the rubbish that we utter so much.
When you get to my age, you look back and it's an awesome thing. I think about the millions of words I must have said in sixty years of preaching. Speaking at least 120 words a minute, I can speak 1,200 words in ten minutes. In 60 minutes I've spoken 7,200 words and I've done this twice a day sometimes and done it for years. Then there's all the words I've written.
What a day when all the great orators stand before the Lord. Oh, that we might find men today whose hearts are burning with love and devotion, and because their hearts are burning, their speech will burn with love, with adoration, and with hatred for sin. My prayer is, "Lord, teach me to hold my tongue. Teach me to do as the psalmist says, set a watch at the door of my lips that my speech may always be seasoned with grace. My tongue never a sword. My speech always edifying, uplifting, and that which glorifies God." Amen
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
The Taming of the Tongue # 1
The Taming of the Tongue # 1
Until recently, we were pretty much in the dark about the human body. But then came the X-ray with its peeping eye...a marvelous instrument which has saved us much human misery. It was able to show us the human heart, but it couldn't show us the soul or it could show us the human heart, but not the voice. The brain, but not the mind. Nevertheless, medical science has done much to help this outward man that perishes. If our eyes are getting dim, we can get glasses. If our kidneys or heart fail, we can have a transplant. But as far as I know, there is one member of the body that has never been transplanted. If we used our arms and legs as much as we use this part, we'd be incredibly stiff and sore. But this member never gets tired, and I've never seen one with a splint on it. As you get older you may get dentures - but you will always have the same tongue you were born with! There are artificial joints made these days, but no artificial tongues.
My mother was pretty smart when it came to the tongue. She sprinkled her daily conversation with wise sayings like "Keep your tongue between your teeth" and "Think twice before you speak once." The Scottish people have some proverbs, too: "Keep your tongue a prisoner and your body will go free" and "A long tongue shortens friendships." My mother would also tell us, "Remember, one day you'll answer to God for every word you say."
The Bible mentions many kinds of tongues:
a flattering tongue (Psalm 5:9)
a proud tongue (Psalm 12:3; 73:9)
a lying tongue (Psalm 109:2; Prov. 6:17)
a deceitful tongue (Psalm 120:2)
a perverted tongue (Prov. 10:31; 17:20)
a soothing tongue (Prov. 15:4)
a healing tongue (Prov. 12:18)
a destructive tongue (Prov. 17:4)
a mischievous and wicked tongue (Psalm 10:7)
a soft tongue (Prov. 25:15)
a backbiting tongue (Prov. 25:23)
James also talks about the tongue. He says it's a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. He calls the tongue afire, the very world of iniquity. James says it is untamable, a restless evil full of deadly poison, used both to bless God and to curse men. But James also told us that a man who doesn't stumble in what he says is a perfect man (James 3:2-10).
I wonder how startled James would be today to find out how much man has "conquered." We've put men into big, fancy tin cars, and shot them off into space. We've sent men into submarines without coming up to the surface for months. Man has had the moon under his feet and he's left his footprints on the ocean floor as well. We've also put some fantastic canisters up into the sky, bouncing our voices off these satellites to countries around the world. Look at how we've harnessed the wind with giant windmills, and made the rivers and waterfalls drive our turbines. What incredible power man has over his world! And yet, he has still not conquered his own tongue!
A Damaging Sword
In Psalm 64:3 the tongue is called "a sword." This sword has certainly damaged, bruised, wounded, and killed more people than all the swords in all the wars since history began. You've seen it many times. That newly married couple - so lovey-dovey for days and days on end. But one day the fellow lost his temper and slashed into the heart and affections of his wife with uncontrollable anger and with words he might regret forever. But it was said. The damage was done. How often we need to remember that old saying: We cannot call back the arrow we've shot into the air, the water under the bridge, or the spoken word. One of the earliest poems I ever learned was:
Angry words, O let them never
From the tongue, unbridled slip.
With the soul's best impulse
Ever check them,
Ere they soil the lips.
Angry words are quickly spoken,
Bitter thoughts are rashly stirred.
Fondest links of life are broken,
By a single angry word.
Is there something that could be numbered greater than the incomprehensible amount of stars in the heavens? What about the sands by the sea, every blade of grass, or we could add all of these things together. There would still be something that would exceed them in number! It's the things said by this little monster called the tongue! This uncontrollable little red rebel that lives in a red cave guarded by two rows of white soldiers called teeth. Think about how many words are being spoken today just over the telephones worldwide. And how about all the words slung around the globe by our TVs and radios? The tongue has done more damage than any other instrument in the human body.
We are responsible for the words that we speak. "And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned." (Matthew 12:36-37). Our own words snare us (Proverbs 6:2). We are ensnared by vows and promises spoken, but not kept. By reckless criticisms and rash judgments. "How can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil" (Matthew 12:34-35).
The human heart can be a snakepit, a dungeon of devilry, a foxhole of filth,a pit of perversity. Actually, it's the manufacturing place of all uncleanness and all sin. The showcase of the heart is the tongue. My simple words cannot exaggerate the corruption of the the heart. And the filth that comes out of a filthy heart comes through the lips. But when I've said all I can about it, the strongest thing is surely said in Proverbs 18:21 - "Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
A Rolling Story
A rolling stone gathers no moss, but a rolling stone gathers something fresh every time we say it. Every time we repeat it, something is added and something taken away until it's nothing like the truth. Some little bit of gossip starts with a whisper, then it swells and becomes a tumult, and somebody's left heartbroken. Do you wonder that Proverbs 10:19 says, "When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise"? Or Ecclesiastes 10:14, "The fool multiplies words...?
How often we sing (full of self-pity) "Oh what needless pain we bear..." Someone should write a verse about what needless pain we cause when we lacerate people, wound them, and bruise them with our tongues. I want to sound a word of caution about the flippancy of our language, and the carelessness and exaggeration in the language used by preachers. What awful things come from their lips these days that cannot be justified by Scripture!
Just this week I spoke with a big, strong professional football player who has now become a full-time evangelist - a very godly man. He broke into tears as he told me about the slander and deceit used against him among Christians. He said through his tears, "Mr. Ravenhill, I've suffered character assassination." I said, "Friend, you're under a delusion that most Christians are under. There's nobody that can assassinate your character. Character is what God knows you are. Reputation is what men think you are. They might have lied, wrecked your reputation, and made it almost impossible for you to get into other pulpits, but remember this" (as you read this, you remember it too): "The only one who can wreck your character is you. God doesn't listen to gossip except to judge it! The only one who can lower or higher you in the estimation of God is you by your obedience or by your disobedience."
Products of the Tongue
Have the Christians of today improved over the Christians in Corinth?They didn't have a Bible to read but Paul wrote boldly to them, "For I am afraid that perhaps when you come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there may be strife, jealously, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances." These are all products of the tongue. Hey, friend, before we go any further, make out your checklist. Have you been in unprofitable, ridiculous debates, arguing just to win someone over? So very often we win the debate and lose the friend. Paul said that among these professing Christians there was strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slander, gossip, arrogance and disturbances.
After Jesus Himself, I believe that Paul was the greatest preacher who ever lived. But when writing to the Corinthians, he said, "And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling." (1 Cor. 2:1-3). That doesn't sound like the Apostle we think of, clothed with all the armor of God, pulling down strongholds and putting the devil to flight.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 2)
Until recently, we were pretty much in the dark about the human body. But then came the X-ray with its peeping eye...a marvelous instrument which has saved us much human misery. It was able to show us the human heart, but it couldn't show us the soul or it could show us the human heart, but not the voice. The brain, but not the mind. Nevertheless, medical science has done much to help this outward man that perishes. If our eyes are getting dim, we can get glasses. If our kidneys or heart fail, we can have a transplant. But as far as I know, there is one member of the body that has never been transplanted. If we used our arms and legs as much as we use this part, we'd be incredibly stiff and sore. But this member never gets tired, and I've never seen one with a splint on it. As you get older you may get dentures - but you will always have the same tongue you were born with! There are artificial joints made these days, but no artificial tongues.
My mother was pretty smart when it came to the tongue. She sprinkled her daily conversation with wise sayings like "Keep your tongue between your teeth" and "Think twice before you speak once." The Scottish people have some proverbs, too: "Keep your tongue a prisoner and your body will go free" and "A long tongue shortens friendships." My mother would also tell us, "Remember, one day you'll answer to God for every word you say."
The Bible mentions many kinds of tongues:
a flattering tongue (Psalm 5:9)
a proud tongue (Psalm 12:3; 73:9)
a lying tongue (Psalm 109:2; Prov. 6:17)
a deceitful tongue (Psalm 120:2)
a perverted tongue (Prov. 10:31; 17:20)
a soothing tongue (Prov. 15:4)
a healing tongue (Prov. 12:18)
a destructive tongue (Prov. 17:4)
a mischievous and wicked tongue (Psalm 10:7)
a soft tongue (Prov. 25:15)
a backbiting tongue (Prov. 25:23)
James also talks about the tongue. He says it's a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. He calls the tongue afire, the very world of iniquity. James says it is untamable, a restless evil full of deadly poison, used both to bless God and to curse men. But James also told us that a man who doesn't stumble in what he says is a perfect man (James 3:2-10).
I wonder how startled James would be today to find out how much man has "conquered." We've put men into big, fancy tin cars, and shot them off into space. We've sent men into submarines without coming up to the surface for months. Man has had the moon under his feet and he's left his footprints on the ocean floor as well. We've also put some fantastic canisters up into the sky, bouncing our voices off these satellites to countries around the world. Look at how we've harnessed the wind with giant windmills, and made the rivers and waterfalls drive our turbines. What incredible power man has over his world! And yet, he has still not conquered his own tongue!
A Damaging Sword
In Psalm 64:3 the tongue is called "a sword." This sword has certainly damaged, bruised, wounded, and killed more people than all the swords in all the wars since history began. You've seen it many times. That newly married couple - so lovey-dovey for days and days on end. But one day the fellow lost his temper and slashed into the heart and affections of his wife with uncontrollable anger and with words he might regret forever. But it was said. The damage was done. How often we need to remember that old saying: We cannot call back the arrow we've shot into the air, the water under the bridge, or the spoken word. One of the earliest poems I ever learned was:
Angry words, O let them never
From the tongue, unbridled slip.
With the soul's best impulse
Ever check them,
Ere they soil the lips.
Angry words are quickly spoken,
Bitter thoughts are rashly stirred.
Fondest links of life are broken,
By a single angry word.
Is there something that could be numbered greater than the incomprehensible amount of stars in the heavens? What about the sands by the sea, every blade of grass, or we could add all of these things together. There would still be something that would exceed them in number! It's the things said by this little monster called the tongue! This uncontrollable little red rebel that lives in a red cave guarded by two rows of white soldiers called teeth. Think about how many words are being spoken today just over the telephones worldwide. And how about all the words slung around the globe by our TVs and radios? The tongue has done more damage than any other instrument in the human body.
We are responsible for the words that we speak. "And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned." (Matthew 12:36-37). Our own words snare us (Proverbs 6:2). We are ensnared by vows and promises spoken, but not kept. By reckless criticisms and rash judgments. "How can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil" (Matthew 12:34-35).
The human heart can be a snakepit, a dungeon of devilry, a foxhole of filth,a pit of perversity. Actually, it's the manufacturing place of all uncleanness and all sin. The showcase of the heart is the tongue. My simple words cannot exaggerate the corruption of the the heart. And the filth that comes out of a filthy heart comes through the lips. But when I've said all I can about it, the strongest thing is surely said in Proverbs 18:21 - "Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
A Rolling Story
A rolling stone gathers no moss, but a rolling stone gathers something fresh every time we say it. Every time we repeat it, something is added and something taken away until it's nothing like the truth. Some little bit of gossip starts with a whisper, then it swells and becomes a tumult, and somebody's left heartbroken. Do you wonder that Proverbs 10:19 says, "When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise"? Or Ecclesiastes 10:14, "The fool multiplies words...?
How often we sing (full of self-pity) "Oh what needless pain we bear..." Someone should write a verse about what needless pain we cause when we lacerate people, wound them, and bruise them with our tongues. I want to sound a word of caution about the flippancy of our language, and the carelessness and exaggeration in the language used by preachers. What awful things come from their lips these days that cannot be justified by Scripture!
Just this week I spoke with a big, strong professional football player who has now become a full-time evangelist - a very godly man. He broke into tears as he told me about the slander and deceit used against him among Christians. He said through his tears, "Mr. Ravenhill, I've suffered character assassination." I said, "Friend, you're under a delusion that most Christians are under. There's nobody that can assassinate your character. Character is what God knows you are. Reputation is what men think you are. They might have lied, wrecked your reputation, and made it almost impossible for you to get into other pulpits, but remember this" (as you read this, you remember it too): "The only one who can wreck your character is you. God doesn't listen to gossip except to judge it! The only one who can lower or higher you in the estimation of God is you by your obedience or by your disobedience."
Products of the Tongue
Have the Christians of today improved over the Christians in Corinth?They didn't have a Bible to read but Paul wrote boldly to them, "For I am afraid that perhaps when you come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there may be strife, jealously, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances." These are all products of the tongue. Hey, friend, before we go any further, make out your checklist. Have you been in unprofitable, ridiculous debates, arguing just to win someone over? So very often we win the debate and lose the friend. Paul said that among these professing Christians there was strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slander, gossip, arrogance and disturbances.
After Jesus Himself, I believe that Paul was the greatest preacher who ever lived. But when writing to the Corinthians, he said, "And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling." (1 Cor. 2:1-3). That doesn't sound like the Apostle we think of, clothed with all the armor of God, pulling down strongholds and putting the devil to flight.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 2)
The Blessed Life # 2
The Blessed Life # 2
If you cannot GIVE all, ask the Lord Jesus to TAKE all, and especially that which seems to hard to give. Many have been helped by hearing it put thus. Tell them to GIVE, and they shake their heads despondently. They are like the little child who told her mother that she had been trying to give Jesus her heart, but it wouldn't go. But ask them if they are willing for Him to come into their hearts and TAKE all, and they will joyfully assent.
Tennyson says, "Our wills are ours to make them Yours." But sometimes it seems impossible to shape them out so as to match every corner and angle of the will of God. What a relief it is at such a moment to hand the will over to Christ, telling Him that we are willing to be made willing to have His will in all things, and asking Him to melt our stubborn waywardness, to fashion our wills upon His and to bring us into perfect accord with Himself.
AN ACT OF FAITH
When we are willing that the Lord Jesus should take all, we must believe that He does take all. He does not wait for us to free ourselves from evil habits, or to make ourselves good, or to feel glad and happy. His one desire is that we should put our will on His side in everything. When this is done, He instantly enters the surrendered heart and begins His blessed work of renovation and renewal. From the very moment of consecration, though it be done in much feebleness and with slender appreciation of its entire meaning. The spirit may begin to say with new emphasis, "I am His, Glory to God, I am His!" As soon as the gift is laid on the alter, the fire falls.
It is well to make the act of consecration a definite one in our spiritual history. George Whitefield did it in the ordination service. "I can call heaven and earth to witness that when the Bishop laid his hand upon me, I gave myself up to be a martyr for Him who hung upon the Cross for me. Known unto Him are all the future events and contingencies. I have thrown myself blindfolded and without reserve into His almighty hands."
Christmas Evans did it as he was climbing a lonely and mountainous road toward Cader Idris. "I was weary of a cold heart toward Christ, and began to pray, and soon felt the fetters loosening. Tears fell copiously, and I was constrained to cry out for the gracious visits of God. Then I resigned myself to Christ, body and soul, gifts and labors, all my life, every day and every hour that remained to me; and all my cares I committed to Christ."
The visit of Stanley Smith and C. T. Studd to Melbourne Hall will always mark an epoch in my own life. Before then my Christian life had been spasmodic and fitful, now flaming up with enthusiasm, and then pacing weariedly over leagues of gray ashes and cold cinders. I saw that these young men had something which I had not, but which was within them a constant source of rest and strength and joy. At seven a.m. on that gray November morning, daylight flickered into the bedroom, paling the dwindled candles which from a very early hour had been lighting up the page of Scripture, and revealed the figures of these devoted Bible students. The talk we held then was one of the formative influences of my life. Why should I not yield my whole nature to God, working out day by day that which He would will and work within? Why should not I be a vessel, though only of earthenware, meet for the Master's use, because purged and sanctified?
There was nothing new in what they told me. They said that a man must not only believe in Christ for final salvation, but must trust Him for victory over every sin and for deliverance from every care. They said that the Lord Jesus was willing to abide in the heart which was wholly yielded up to Him. They said that if there were some things in our lives that made it difficult for us to surrender our whole nature to Christ, yet if we were willing to be made willing to surrender them, He would make us not only willing but glad. They said that as soon as we give or attempt to give ourselves to Him, He takes us. All this was simple enough; I could have said it myself. But they urged me to take the definite step and I shall be forever thankful that they did.
Very memorable was the night when I came to close quarters with God. The angel that wrestled with Jacob had found me, eager to make me a prince. There were things in my heart and life which I felt were questionable, if not worse. I knew that God had a controversy with respect to them. I saw that my very dislike to probe or touch them was a clear indication that there was mischief lurking beneath. At the same time, I did not feel willing to give these things up. It was a long struggle. At last I said feebly, "Lord, I am willing to be made willing. I am desirous that Your will should be done in me and through me as thoroughly as it is done in heaven. Come and take me and break me and make me."
That was the hour of crisis; and when it had passed, I felt able at once to add, "And now I give myself to You; body, soul and spirit; in sorrow or in joy; in the dark or in the light; in life or in death; to be Yours only, wholly, and forever. Make the most of me that can be made for Your glory."
No rapture or rush of joy came to assure me that the gift was accepted. I left the place with almost a heavy heart. I simply assured myself that He must have taken that which I had given, and at the moment of my giving it. And to that belief I clung in all the days that followed, constantly repeating to myself the words, "I am His." And thus at last the joy and rest, victory and freedom from burdening care, entered my heart, and I found that He was molding my will and making it easy to do what I thought was impossible. I felt that He was leading me into the paths of righteousness for His name's sake, but so gently as to be almost imperceptible to my weak sight.
Out of my own experience, I would suggest these six rules to fellow Christians -
1. Make a definite consecration of yourselves to God. With most it would be sufficient to write out Miss Havergal's hymn, "Take my life, and let it be," and to sign your name at the bottom. But in any case it is well to write down some record of the act to keep for future reference. And if we go astray, we may ask the Lord to forgive the foul wrong and robbery which we have done Him, and to restore our souls into the position from which we have fallen. Oh, how sweet the promise, "He restores my soul"! Dear Christian reader, seek some quite spot, some still hour, and yield yourself to God.
2. Tell God that you are willing to be made willing about all. Are you willing to sign your name to a blank sheet of paper and then hand it over to God for Him to fill in as He pleases? If not, ask Him to make you willing and able to do this and all things else. You will never be happy until you let the Lord Jesus keep the house of your nature, closely scrutinizing every visitor and admitting only His friends. He must reign. He must have all or none. He must have the key to every closet, and of every room. Do not try to make them fit for Him. Simply give Him the key, and He will cleanse and renovate and make beautiful.
3. Reckon on Christ to do His part perfectly. As you give, He takes. As you open the door, He enters. As you roll back the floodgates, He pours in a glorious tide of fullness - fullness of spiritual wealth, of power, of joy. Oh, to be susceptible to the molding influences of Christ! We shall not fail in realizing the highest ideal of which we are capable if only we will let Him do His work unhindered.
4. Confess sin instantly! If you allow sin to remain on your heart unconfessed, it will eat out all peace and rest. The blood of Jesus is ever at work, cleansing us from unconscious sin; but it is our part to apply for it to cleanse from conscious and known sins as soon as we are aware of their presence in our lives.
5. Hand over to Christ every temptation and care. When you feel temptation approaching then instantly lift your heart to Christ for deliverance. He cannot rebuff you or fail you. And when any petty annoyance or heavier worry threatens to mar your peace, in the flash of a moment, hand it over to Jesus, saying, "Lord, I am oppressed; undertake this for me." Look to Christ to abide in you as to keep your abiding. In the early morning entrust to Him the keeping of your soul, and then, as hour succeeds hour, expect Him to keep that which you have committed unto Him.
~F. B. Meyer~
(continued with # 3)
If you cannot GIVE all, ask the Lord Jesus to TAKE all, and especially that which seems to hard to give. Many have been helped by hearing it put thus. Tell them to GIVE, and they shake their heads despondently. They are like the little child who told her mother that she had been trying to give Jesus her heart, but it wouldn't go. But ask them if they are willing for Him to come into their hearts and TAKE all, and they will joyfully assent.
Tennyson says, "Our wills are ours to make them Yours." But sometimes it seems impossible to shape them out so as to match every corner and angle of the will of God. What a relief it is at such a moment to hand the will over to Christ, telling Him that we are willing to be made willing to have His will in all things, and asking Him to melt our stubborn waywardness, to fashion our wills upon His and to bring us into perfect accord with Himself.
AN ACT OF FAITH
When we are willing that the Lord Jesus should take all, we must believe that He does take all. He does not wait for us to free ourselves from evil habits, or to make ourselves good, or to feel glad and happy. His one desire is that we should put our will on His side in everything. When this is done, He instantly enters the surrendered heart and begins His blessed work of renovation and renewal. From the very moment of consecration, though it be done in much feebleness and with slender appreciation of its entire meaning. The spirit may begin to say with new emphasis, "I am His, Glory to God, I am His!" As soon as the gift is laid on the alter, the fire falls.
It is well to make the act of consecration a definite one in our spiritual history. George Whitefield did it in the ordination service. "I can call heaven and earth to witness that when the Bishop laid his hand upon me, I gave myself up to be a martyr for Him who hung upon the Cross for me. Known unto Him are all the future events and contingencies. I have thrown myself blindfolded and without reserve into His almighty hands."
Christmas Evans did it as he was climbing a lonely and mountainous road toward Cader Idris. "I was weary of a cold heart toward Christ, and began to pray, and soon felt the fetters loosening. Tears fell copiously, and I was constrained to cry out for the gracious visits of God. Then I resigned myself to Christ, body and soul, gifts and labors, all my life, every day and every hour that remained to me; and all my cares I committed to Christ."
The visit of Stanley Smith and C. T. Studd to Melbourne Hall will always mark an epoch in my own life. Before then my Christian life had been spasmodic and fitful, now flaming up with enthusiasm, and then pacing weariedly over leagues of gray ashes and cold cinders. I saw that these young men had something which I had not, but which was within them a constant source of rest and strength and joy. At seven a.m. on that gray November morning, daylight flickered into the bedroom, paling the dwindled candles which from a very early hour had been lighting up the page of Scripture, and revealed the figures of these devoted Bible students. The talk we held then was one of the formative influences of my life. Why should I not yield my whole nature to God, working out day by day that which He would will and work within? Why should not I be a vessel, though only of earthenware, meet for the Master's use, because purged and sanctified?
There was nothing new in what they told me. They said that a man must not only believe in Christ for final salvation, but must trust Him for victory over every sin and for deliverance from every care. They said that the Lord Jesus was willing to abide in the heart which was wholly yielded up to Him. They said that if there were some things in our lives that made it difficult for us to surrender our whole nature to Christ, yet if we were willing to be made willing to surrender them, He would make us not only willing but glad. They said that as soon as we give or attempt to give ourselves to Him, He takes us. All this was simple enough; I could have said it myself. But they urged me to take the definite step and I shall be forever thankful that they did.
Very memorable was the night when I came to close quarters with God. The angel that wrestled with Jacob had found me, eager to make me a prince. There were things in my heart and life which I felt were questionable, if not worse. I knew that God had a controversy with respect to them. I saw that my very dislike to probe or touch them was a clear indication that there was mischief lurking beneath. At the same time, I did not feel willing to give these things up. It was a long struggle. At last I said feebly, "Lord, I am willing to be made willing. I am desirous that Your will should be done in me and through me as thoroughly as it is done in heaven. Come and take me and break me and make me."
That was the hour of crisis; and when it had passed, I felt able at once to add, "And now I give myself to You; body, soul and spirit; in sorrow or in joy; in the dark or in the light; in life or in death; to be Yours only, wholly, and forever. Make the most of me that can be made for Your glory."
No rapture or rush of joy came to assure me that the gift was accepted. I left the place with almost a heavy heart. I simply assured myself that He must have taken that which I had given, and at the moment of my giving it. And to that belief I clung in all the days that followed, constantly repeating to myself the words, "I am His." And thus at last the joy and rest, victory and freedom from burdening care, entered my heart, and I found that He was molding my will and making it easy to do what I thought was impossible. I felt that He was leading me into the paths of righteousness for His name's sake, but so gently as to be almost imperceptible to my weak sight.
Out of my own experience, I would suggest these six rules to fellow Christians -
1. Make a definite consecration of yourselves to God. With most it would be sufficient to write out Miss Havergal's hymn, "Take my life, and let it be," and to sign your name at the bottom. But in any case it is well to write down some record of the act to keep for future reference. And if we go astray, we may ask the Lord to forgive the foul wrong and robbery which we have done Him, and to restore our souls into the position from which we have fallen. Oh, how sweet the promise, "He restores my soul"! Dear Christian reader, seek some quite spot, some still hour, and yield yourself to God.
2. Tell God that you are willing to be made willing about all. Are you willing to sign your name to a blank sheet of paper and then hand it over to God for Him to fill in as He pleases? If not, ask Him to make you willing and able to do this and all things else. You will never be happy until you let the Lord Jesus keep the house of your nature, closely scrutinizing every visitor and admitting only His friends. He must reign. He must have all or none. He must have the key to every closet, and of every room. Do not try to make them fit for Him. Simply give Him the key, and He will cleanse and renovate and make beautiful.
3. Reckon on Christ to do His part perfectly. As you give, He takes. As you open the door, He enters. As you roll back the floodgates, He pours in a glorious tide of fullness - fullness of spiritual wealth, of power, of joy. Oh, to be susceptible to the molding influences of Christ! We shall not fail in realizing the highest ideal of which we are capable if only we will let Him do His work unhindered.
4. Confess sin instantly! If you allow sin to remain on your heart unconfessed, it will eat out all peace and rest. The blood of Jesus is ever at work, cleansing us from unconscious sin; but it is our part to apply for it to cleanse from conscious and known sins as soon as we are aware of their presence in our lives.
5. Hand over to Christ every temptation and care. When you feel temptation approaching then instantly lift your heart to Christ for deliverance. He cannot rebuff you or fail you. And when any petty annoyance or heavier worry threatens to mar your peace, in the flash of a moment, hand it over to Jesus, saying, "Lord, I am oppressed; undertake this for me." Look to Christ to abide in you as to keep your abiding. In the early morning entrust to Him the keeping of your soul, and then, as hour succeeds hour, expect Him to keep that which you have committed unto Him.
~F. B. Meyer~
(continued with # 3)
Saturday, September 15, 2018
The Blessed Life # 1
The Blessed Life # 1
There is a Christian life which, on comparison with that experienced by the majority of Christians, is as summer to winter; or, as the mature fruitfulness of a golden autumn to the struggling promise of a cold and late spring. And the blessedness of this blessed life lies in this: that we trust the Lord to do in us and for us what we could not do. And we find that He does not belie His Word, but that, according to our faith, so it is done to us. The weary spirit, which has vainly sought to realize its ideal by its own strivings and efforts, now gives itself over to the strong and tender hands of the Lord Jesus, and He accepts the task, and at once begins to work in it to will and to do of His own good pleasure, delivering it from the tyranny of besetting sin, and fulfilling in it His own perfect ideal. The Blessed Life should be the normal life of every Christian - in work and rest, in the building up of the inner life, and in the working out of the life-plan. It is God's thought not for a few, but for all His children. The youngest and weakest may lay claim to it equally with the strongest and oldest. We should step into it the moment of conversion without wandering with blistered feet for forty years in the desert, or lying for thirty-eight years, with disappointed hopes, in the porch of the house of mercy.
THE NEW BIRTH
The first chamber in the King's holy palace is the Chamber of the New Birth. By nature we are destitute of life - dead in trespasses and sins. We need, therefore, not a new creed, but a new life. The prophet's staff is well enough where there is life, but it is useless on the dead. The first requisite is LIFE. This is what the Holy Spirit gives us at the moment of conversion.
Angels, looking at it from the heaven side, call it being born again. Man, looking at it from the earth side, calls it Trusting Jesus. Those that believe in His name are born again; those that receive Him have the right to become the sons of God (John 1:12, 13). If you are born again, you will trust. And if you are trusting Jesus, however many doubts and fears, you are certainly born again and have entered the palace. If you go no further, you will be saved, but you will miss untold blessedness.
Jesus Christ has bought us with His blood, but, alas, He has not had His money's worth! He paid for ALL, and He has had but a fragment of our energy, time and earnings. By an act of consecration, let us ask Him to forgive the robbery of the past, and let us profess our desire to be henceforth utterly and only for Him.
As soon as we say this He will test our sincerity, as He did the young ruler's by asking something of us. He will lay His finger on something within us which He needs us to alter, obeying some command, or abstaining from some indulgence. If we instantly give up our will and way to Him, we pass the narrow doorway into the chamber of surrender, which has a southern aspect and is ever warm and radiant with His presence because obedience is the condition of manifested love (John 14:23).
This doorway is very narrow, and entrance is only possible for those who will lay aside weights as well as sins. A weight is anything which, without being essentially wrong or hurtful to others, is yet a hindrance to ourselves. We may always know a weight by three signs: first, we are uneasy about it; second, we argue for it against our conscience; third, we go about asking people's advice whether we may not keep it without harm. All these things must be laid aside in the strength which Jesus waits to give. Ask Him to deal with them for you, that you may be set in every good work to do His will (Heb. 13:21).
That consecration is the stepping stone to blessedness is clearly established in the experience of God's children. For instance, Frances Havergal has left us this record: "It was on Sunday that I first saw clearly the blessedness of true consecration. I saw it as a flash of electric light, and what you see you can never unsee. There must be full surrender before there can be full blessedness. God admits you by the one into the other. First, I was shown that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses from all sin; and then it was made plain to me that He who had thus cleansed me had power to keep me clean; so I utterly yielded myself to Him and utterly trusted Him to keep me."
CONSECRATION
The act of consecration is recognizing Christ's ownership and accepting it, saying to Him, with the whole heart, "Lord, I am Yours by right, and I wish to be Yours by choice." Of old the mighty men of Israel were willing to swim the flooder rivers to come to David, their uncrowned, but God-appointed king. And when they met him, they cried, "We are yours, and on your side, David, son of Jesse." They were his because God had given them to him, but they could not rest content until they were his also by their glad choice. Why then should we not say the same to Jesus Christ? "Lord Jesus, I am Yours by right; forgive me that I have lived so long as if I were on my own. And now I gladly recognize that You have a rightful claim on all I have and am. I want to live as Yours from henceforth, and I do solemnly at this hour give myself to You to be Yours in life and death, Yours absolutely and forever."
Do not try to make a covenant with God, lest you should break it and be discouraged. But quietly fall into your right attitude as one who belongs to Christ. Take as your motto the noble confession, "Whose I am and Whom I serve." Breathe the grand old simple lines:
Just as I am, Your love unknown
Has broken every barrier down,
Not to be Yours, yes, Yours alone,
O Lamb of God, I come.
AN ACT OF THE WILL
Consecration is not the act of our feelings but of our WILL. Do not try to feel anything; do not try to make yourself fit or good or earnest enough for Christ. God is working in you to will, whether you feel it or not. He is giving you power, at this moment, to will and do His good pleasure. Believe this, act upon it at once, and say, "Lord Jesus, I am willing to be Yours"; or, if you cannot say as much as that, say, "Lord Jesus, I am willing to be made willing to be Yours forevermore."
Consecration is only possible when we give up our will about EVERYTHING. As soon as we come to the point of giving ourselves to God, we are almost certain to become aware of the presence of one thing, if not of more, out of harmony with His will. And while we feel able to surrender ourselves in all other points, here we exercise reserve. Every room and cupboard in the house, with the exception of this, is thrown open to the new Occupant; every limb in the body, but one, submitted to the practiced hand of the Good Physician. But that small reserve spoils the whole. To give ninety-nine parts and to withhold the hundredth undoes the whole transaction. Jesus will have all or none. And He is wise. Who would live in a fever-stricken house, so long as one room was not exposed in disinfectants, air and sun? Who would undertake a case so long as the patient refused to submit one part of his body to examination? The reason that so many fail to attain the Blessed Life is that there is some one point in which they hold back from God, and concerning which they prefer to have their own way and will rather than His. In this one thing they will not yield their will and accept God's; and this one little thing mars the whole, robs them of peace, and compels them to wander in the desert.
~F. B. Meyer~
(continued with # 2)
There is a Christian life which, on comparison with that experienced by the majority of Christians, is as summer to winter; or, as the mature fruitfulness of a golden autumn to the struggling promise of a cold and late spring. And the blessedness of this blessed life lies in this: that we trust the Lord to do in us and for us what we could not do. And we find that He does not belie His Word, but that, according to our faith, so it is done to us. The weary spirit, which has vainly sought to realize its ideal by its own strivings and efforts, now gives itself over to the strong and tender hands of the Lord Jesus, and He accepts the task, and at once begins to work in it to will and to do of His own good pleasure, delivering it from the tyranny of besetting sin, and fulfilling in it His own perfect ideal. The Blessed Life should be the normal life of every Christian - in work and rest, in the building up of the inner life, and in the working out of the life-plan. It is God's thought not for a few, but for all His children. The youngest and weakest may lay claim to it equally with the strongest and oldest. We should step into it the moment of conversion without wandering with blistered feet for forty years in the desert, or lying for thirty-eight years, with disappointed hopes, in the porch of the house of mercy.
THE NEW BIRTH
The first chamber in the King's holy palace is the Chamber of the New Birth. By nature we are destitute of life - dead in trespasses and sins. We need, therefore, not a new creed, but a new life. The prophet's staff is well enough where there is life, but it is useless on the dead. The first requisite is LIFE. This is what the Holy Spirit gives us at the moment of conversion.
Angels, looking at it from the heaven side, call it being born again. Man, looking at it from the earth side, calls it Trusting Jesus. Those that believe in His name are born again; those that receive Him have the right to become the sons of God (John 1:12, 13). If you are born again, you will trust. And if you are trusting Jesus, however many doubts and fears, you are certainly born again and have entered the palace. If you go no further, you will be saved, but you will miss untold blessedness.
Jesus Christ has bought us with His blood, but, alas, He has not had His money's worth! He paid for ALL, and He has had but a fragment of our energy, time and earnings. By an act of consecration, let us ask Him to forgive the robbery of the past, and let us profess our desire to be henceforth utterly and only for Him.
As soon as we say this He will test our sincerity, as He did the young ruler's by asking something of us. He will lay His finger on something within us which He needs us to alter, obeying some command, or abstaining from some indulgence. If we instantly give up our will and way to Him, we pass the narrow doorway into the chamber of surrender, which has a southern aspect and is ever warm and radiant with His presence because obedience is the condition of manifested love (John 14:23).
This doorway is very narrow, and entrance is only possible for those who will lay aside weights as well as sins. A weight is anything which, without being essentially wrong or hurtful to others, is yet a hindrance to ourselves. We may always know a weight by three signs: first, we are uneasy about it; second, we argue for it against our conscience; third, we go about asking people's advice whether we may not keep it without harm. All these things must be laid aside in the strength which Jesus waits to give. Ask Him to deal with them for you, that you may be set in every good work to do His will (Heb. 13:21).
That consecration is the stepping stone to blessedness is clearly established in the experience of God's children. For instance, Frances Havergal has left us this record: "It was on Sunday that I first saw clearly the blessedness of true consecration. I saw it as a flash of electric light, and what you see you can never unsee. There must be full surrender before there can be full blessedness. God admits you by the one into the other. First, I was shown that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses from all sin; and then it was made plain to me that He who had thus cleansed me had power to keep me clean; so I utterly yielded myself to Him and utterly trusted Him to keep me."
CONSECRATION
The act of consecration is recognizing Christ's ownership and accepting it, saying to Him, with the whole heart, "Lord, I am Yours by right, and I wish to be Yours by choice." Of old the mighty men of Israel were willing to swim the flooder rivers to come to David, their uncrowned, but God-appointed king. And when they met him, they cried, "We are yours, and on your side, David, son of Jesse." They were his because God had given them to him, but they could not rest content until they were his also by their glad choice. Why then should we not say the same to Jesus Christ? "Lord Jesus, I am Yours by right; forgive me that I have lived so long as if I were on my own. And now I gladly recognize that You have a rightful claim on all I have and am. I want to live as Yours from henceforth, and I do solemnly at this hour give myself to You to be Yours in life and death, Yours absolutely and forever."
Do not try to make a covenant with God, lest you should break it and be discouraged. But quietly fall into your right attitude as one who belongs to Christ. Take as your motto the noble confession, "Whose I am and Whom I serve." Breathe the grand old simple lines:
Just as I am, Your love unknown
Has broken every barrier down,
Not to be Yours, yes, Yours alone,
O Lamb of God, I come.
AN ACT OF THE WILL
Consecration is not the act of our feelings but of our WILL. Do not try to feel anything; do not try to make yourself fit or good or earnest enough for Christ. God is working in you to will, whether you feel it or not. He is giving you power, at this moment, to will and do His good pleasure. Believe this, act upon it at once, and say, "Lord Jesus, I am willing to be Yours"; or, if you cannot say as much as that, say, "Lord Jesus, I am willing to be made willing to be Yours forevermore."
Consecration is only possible when we give up our will about EVERYTHING. As soon as we come to the point of giving ourselves to God, we are almost certain to become aware of the presence of one thing, if not of more, out of harmony with His will. And while we feel able to surrender ourselves in all other points, here we exercise reserve. Every room and cupboard in the house, with the exception of this, is thrown open to the new Occupant; every limb in the body, but one, submitted to the practiced hand of the Good Physician. But that small reserve spoils the whole. To give ninety-nine parts and to withhold the hundredth undoes the whole transaction. Jesus will have all or none. And He is wise. Who would live in a fever-stricken house, so long as one room was not exposed in disinfectants, air and sun? Who would undertake a case so long as the patient refused to submit one part of his body to examination? The reason that so many fail to attain the Blessed Life is that there is some one point in which they hold back from God, and concerning which they prefer to have their own way and will rather than His. In this one thing they will not yield their will and accept God's; and this one little thing mars the whole, robs them of peace, and compels them to wander in the desert.
~F. B. Meyer~
(continued with # 2)
Where Is The Fruit?
Where Is The Fruit?
"He found nothing but leaves!" (Mark 11:13).
Our Lord was on His way to the city. He had now but a short season before the end; so, early and late, He must be doing His Father's will, and fulfilling His great mission. It was early in the morning, and probably without tasting food. He had left the kindly shelter of Bethany. So now He is hungry, and seeing a fig tree covered with leaves, He sought fruit thereon. He goes to the tree and turns over its broad leaves to see if at least a few figs might not be discovered. But it is in vain. True, we are told that the season was not yet; but if there were leaves - there might be fruit also, for usually the latter preceded the former. In any way, our Lord teaches a very solemn lesson from the lack He found.
He never wrought a miracle of judgment on a single human being, and He never wrought but one - and it was on this tree. Only one short sentence was it: but this was enough: "May no one ever eat fruit from you again!" (verse 14). So it came to pass. The fig tree is dried up from the roots. No fruit henceforth can possibly grow upon it, and all its fair leaves, no more is seen. It immediately withers away, and is fit for nothing but to be cut down and committed to the flames.
The one point on which I wish to dwell is the Lord's search for fruit among the leaves of this fig tree. Leaf after leaf He may have turned over, but beneath each and all, He found nothing to satisfy Him.
How is it with yourself? Look upon the leaf as an emblem of a promise or profession of Christian living, and see if there is not yourself something of a parallel with the tree of which I am speaking.
Perhaps before coming to school you had kind and earnest words spoken to you as to the dangers you must avoid and the course you should follow. Words of caution bade you keep aloof from companions who would rob you of your value for truth and godliness. Counsel was added as to daily prayer, and courage to do right, and diligence in study. And you sincerely promised to keep to the straight path, and to use well these days of great opportunity.
Here was the leaf - but where is the fruit? What does the Master find in you corresponding to your purpose and promise? He looks over your life in the dormitory, in the schoolroom, in the football field, in your church - and does He find you striving to do your best, to keep a good conscience, to shun evil, to set a Christian example, and to exercise an influence that may be helpful to those around you?
Or look at this in another way. I suppose week by week you go at least once or twice to the service in your church. You join in prayers that are offered up. You take up the words of the General Confession: "We have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have offended against Your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us."
Here is the leaf - but where is the fruit? You confess you have done amiss. You utter words of repentance and humiliation. You speak as one poor in spirit, and deeply conscious of your sinfulness. But where is the reality of all this? Do you grieve when you fail in doing right? Do you in secret humble yourself before God for sin? Do you cherish a sense of your own unworthiness, and desire to amend your life?
But think again. You frequently use the Lord's Prayer at home, at church, and perhaps in your secret prayers. You often repeat the words, "Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. May Your kingdom come. May Your will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven."
Here is the leaf - but where is the fruit? You call God your Father, You pray that God's name be hallowed - but do you honor it in your conversation? You pray that His kingdom may come - but are you doing your part to advance it wherever you have influence? You pray that God's will be done - but are you making it your aim to do it by keeping His commandments and cheerfully running in the path He points out?
Alas for him who has leaves - yet no fruit! You cannot deceive God. You cannot hide from Him, the barrenness of a heart that neither repents, nor prays, nor hopes, nor longs to serve Him. And remember the outcome. You many bear fruit now, if you desire it; but by-and-by you cannot. You may quench the Spirit. You may provoke Him to withdraw from you His grace and help. You may lose every impression for good, all tenderness of conscience, and become "twice dead," as a tree in the vineyard and dried.
Let it not be with you. The keeper of the vineyard still intercedes. He pleads for you that you may neither be left without grace, nor be cut down in your sins. Therefore come to Him who can pardon past days of neglect and fruitlessness. Come to Him and abide in Him by faith, and you shall bear much fruit.
"Happy still in God confiding,
Fruitful if in Christ abiding;
Holy through the Spirit's guiding,
All must be well."
~George Everard~
(The End)
"He found nothing but leaves!" (Mark 11:13).
Our Lord was on His way to the city. He had now but a short season before the end; so, early and late, He must be doing His Father's will, and fulfilling His great mission. It was early in the morning, and probably without tasting food. He had left the kindly shelter of Bethany. So now He is hungry, and seeing a fig tree covered with leaves, He sought fruit thereon. He goes to the tree and turns over its broad leaves to see if at least a few figs might not be discovered. But it is in vain. True, we are told that the season was not yet; but if there were leaves - there might be fruit also, for usually the latter preceded the former. In any way, our Lord teaches a very solemn lesson from the lack He found.
He never wrought a miracle of judgment on a single human being, and He never wrought but one - and it was on this tree. Only one short sentence was it: but this was enough: "May no one ever eat fruit from you again!" (verse 14). So it came to pass. The fig tree is dried up from the roots. No fruit henceforth can possibly grow upon it, and all its fair leaves, no more is seen. It immediately withers away, and is fit for nothing but to be cut down and committed to the flames.
The one point on which I wish to dwell is the Lord's search for fruit among the leaves of this fig tree. Leaf after leaf He may have turned over, but beneath each and all, He found nothing to satisfy Him.
How is it with yourself? Look upon the leaf as an emblem of a promise or profession of Christian living, and see if there is not yourself something of a parallel with the tree of which I am speaking.
Perhaps before coming to school you had kind and earnest words spoken to you as to the dangers you must avoid and the course you should follow. Words of caution bade you keep aloof from companions who would rob you of your value for truth and godliness. Counsel was added as to daily prayer, and courage to do right, and diligence in study. And you sincerely promised to keep to the straight path, and to use well these days of great opportunity.
Here was the leaf - but where is the fruit? What does the Master find in you corresponding to your purpose and promise? He looks over your life in the dormitory, in the schoolroom, in the football field, in your church - and does He find you striving to do your best, to keep a good conscience, to shun evil, to set a Christian example, and to exercise an influence that may be helpful to those around you?
Or look at this in another way. I suppose week by week you go at least once or twice to the service in your church. You join in prayers that are offered up. You take up the words of the General Confession: "We have erred and strayed from Your ways like lost sheep. We have offended against Your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us."
Here is the leaf - but where is the fruit? You confess you have done amiss. You utter words of repentance and humiliation. You speak as one poor in spirit, and deeply conscious of your sinfulness. But where is the reality of all this? Do you grieve when you fail in doing right? Do you in secret humble yourself before God for sin? Do you cherish a sense of your own unworthiness, and desire to amend your life?
But think again. You frequently use the Lord's Prayer at home, at church, and perhaps in your secret prayers. You often repeat the words, "Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. May Your kingdom come. May Your will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven."
Here is the leaf - but where is the fruit? You call God your Father, You pray that God's name be hallowed - but do you honor it in your conversation? You pray that His kingdom may come - but are you doing your part to advance it wherever you have influence? You pray that God's will be done - but are you making it your aim to do it by keeping His commandments and cheerfully running in the path He points out?
Alas for him who has leaves - yet no fruit! You cannot deceive God. You cannot hide from Him, the barrenness of a heart that neither repents, nor prays, nor hopes, nor longs to serve Him. And remember the outcome. You many bear fruit now, if you desire it; but by-and-by you cannot. You may quench the Spirit. You may provoke Him to withdraw from you His grace and help. You may lose every impression for good, all tenderness of conscience, and become "twice dead," as a tree in the vineyard and dried.
Let it not be with you. The keeper of the vineyard still intercedes. He pleads for you that you may neither be left without grace, nor be cut down in your sins. Therefore come to Him who can pardon past days of neglect and fruitlessness. Come to Him and abide in Him by faith, and you shall bear much fruit.
"Happy still in God confiding,
Fruitful if in Christ abiding;
Holy through the Spirit's guiding,
All must be well."
~George Everard~
(The End)
Saturday, September 8, 2018
O Wretched Man That I Am # 2
O Wretched Man That I Am # 2
The Wretched Man
Not only is the man who makes his confession a regenerate and a weak man, but he is also a wretched man. He is utterly unhappy and miserable. What is it that makes him so utterly miserable? It is because God has given him a nature that loves Himself. He is deeply wretched because he feels he is not obeying his God. He says, with brokenness of heart: "It is not I that do it, but I am under the awful power of sin, which is holding me down. It is I, and yet not I: alas! it is myself; so closely am I bound up with it, and so closely is it intertwined with my very nature."A Blessed be God when a man learns to say: "O wretched man that I am!" from the depth of his heart. He is on the way to the eighth chapter of Romans.
There are many who make this confession a pillow for sin. They say that if Paul had to confess his weakness and helplessness in this way, who are they that they should try to do better? So the call to holiness is quietly set aside. Pray God that every one of us would learn to say these words in the very spirit in which they are written here! When we hear sin spoken of as the abominable thing that God hates, do not many of us wince before the word? If only all Christians who go on sinning and sinning would take this verse to heart. If ever you utter a sharp word say: "O wretched man that I am!" And every time you lose your tempter, kneel down and under stand that God never meant His child to remain in this state. If only we would take this word into our daily life, and say it every time we are touched about our own honor! If only we would take it into our hearts every time we sin against the Lord God, and against the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray God that we could forget everything else, and cry out: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Why should you say this whenever you commit sin? Because it is when a man is brought to this confession that deliverance is at hand. And remember, it was not only the sense of being weak and taken captive that made him wretched. It was, above all, the sense of sinning against his God. The thought of continually grieving God became utterly unbearable. As long as we talk and reason about our inability and our failure, and only try to find out what Romans, chapter seven, means, it will profit us little. But once every sin gives us new intensity to the sense of wretchedness, we will be pressed not only to ask: "Who shall deliver us?" but to cry: "I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord."
The Almost Delivered Man
The man has tried to obey the beautiful law of God. He has loved it; he has wept over his sin; and he has tried to conquer. He has tried to overcome fault after fault, but every time he has ended in failure. What did he mean by "the body of death"? Did he mean, my body when I die? Surely not. In the eighth chapter, you have the answer to this question in the words: "if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). That is the body of death from which he is seeking deliverance.
And now he is on the brink of deliverance! In, the twenty-third verse of the seventh chapter, we have the words: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." It is a captive that cries: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He is a man who feels himself bound. But look to the contrast in the second verse of the eighth chapter: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." That is the deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord, the liberty to the captive which the Spirit brings. Can you keep captive any longer a man made free by the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"?
But you say, the regenerate man did not have the Spirit of Jesus when he spoke in the sixth chapter. Yes, he did not know what the Holy Spirit could do for him.
God does not work by His Spirit as He works by a blind force in nature. He leads His people on as reasonable, intelligent beings. Therefore, when He wants to give us that Holy Spirit whom He has promised, He first brings us to the end of self, brings us to the conviction that though we have been striving to obey the law, we have failed. When we have come to the end of that, then He shows us that in the Holy Spirit we have the power of obedience, the power of victory, and the power of real holiness. God works to will, and He is ready to work to do, but many Christians misunderstand this. They think because they have the will, it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be received each moment from the Holy Spirit. It is the man who is conscious of his own weakness as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can live a holy life. This man is on the brink of that great deliverance; the way has been prepared for the glorious eighth chapter. I now ask this solemn question: Where are you living? With you, is it, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" with now and then a little experience of the power of the Holy Spirit? Or is it, "I thank God through Jesus Christ! The law of the Spirit hath set me free from the law of sin and death"?
What the Holy Spirit does is to give the victory. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). It is the Holy Spirit who does this - the third Person of the Godhead. It is He who, when the heart is opened wide to receive Him, comes in and reigns there, and mortifies the deeds of the body, day by day, hour by hour, and moment by moment.
I want to bring this to a point. There are in Scripture two very different sorts of Christians. The Bible speaks in Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians about yielding to the flesh; and that is the life of tens of thousands of believers. All their lack of joy in the Holy Spirit, and their lack of the liberty He gives, is just owing to the flesh. The Spirit is within them, but the flesh rules the life. To be led by the Spirit of God is what they need. If only I could make every child of His realize what it means that the everlasting God has given His dear Son, Christ Jesus, to watch over you every day, and that what you have to do is to trust. If only I could make His children understand that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable you every moment to remember Jesus, and to trust Him! Praise God for the Holy Spirit! We are so accustomed to thinking of the Holy Spirit as a luxury, for special times, or for special ministers and men. But the Holy Spirit is necessary for every believer, every moment of the day. Praise God you have Him, and that He gives you the full experience of the deliverance in Christ as He makes you free from the power of sin.
What good does it do that we go to church or attend conventions, that we study our Bibles and pray, unless our lives are filled with the Holy Spirit? That is what God wants! Nothing else will enable us to live a life of power and peace. Do not be content to remain ever groaning, but say: "I, a wretched man, thank God through Jesus Christ. Even though I do not see it all, I am going to praise God." There is deliverance; there is liberty of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is "joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).
~Andrew Murray~
(The End)
The Wretched Man
Not only is the man who makes his confession a regenerate and a weak man, but he is also a wretched man. He is utterly unhappy and miserable. What is it that makes him so utterly miserable? It is because God has given him a nature that loves Himself. He is deeply wretched because he feels he is not obeying his God. He says, with brokenness of heart: "It is not I that do it, but I am under the awful power of sin, which is holding me down. It is I, and yet not I: alas! it is myself; so closely am I bound up with it, and so closely is it intertwined with my very nature."A Blessed be God when a man learns to say: "O wretched man that I am!" from the depth of his heart. He is on the way to the eighth chapter of Romans.
There are many who make this confession a pillow for sin. They say that if Paul had to confess his weakness and helplessness in this way, who are they that they should try to do better? So the call to holiness is quietly set aside. Pray God that every one of us would learn to say these words in the very spirit in which they are written here! When we hear sin spoken of as the abominable thing that God hates, do not many of us wince before the word? If only all Christians who go on sinning and sinning would take this verse to heart. If ever you utter a sharp word say: "O wretched man that I am!" And every time you lose your tempter, kneel down and under stand that God never meant His child to remain in this state. If only we would take this word into our daily life, and say it every time we are touched about our own honor! If only we would take it into our hearts every time we sin against the Lord God, and against the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray God that we could forget everything else, and cry out: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Why should you say this whenever you commit sin? Because it is when a man is brought to this confession that deliverance is at hand. And remember, it was not only the sense of being weak and taken captive that made him wretched. It was, above all, the sense of sinning against his God. The thought of continually grieving God became utterly unbearable. As long as we talk and reason about our inability and our failure, and only try to find out what Romans, chapter seven, means, it will profit us little. But once every sin gives us new intensity to the sense of wretchedness, we will be pressed not only to ask: "Who shall deliver us?" but to cry: "I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord."
The Almost Delivered Man
The man has tried to obey the beautiful law of God. He has loved it; he has wept over his sin; and he has tried to conquer. He has tried to overcome fault after fault, but every time he has ended in failure. What did he mean by "the body of death"? Did he mean, my body when I die? Surely not. In the eighth chapter, you have the answer to this question in the words: "if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). That is the body of death from which he is seeking deliverance.
And now he is on the brink of deliverance! In, the twenty-third verse of the seventh chapter, we have the words: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." It is a captive that cries: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He is a man who feels himself bound. But look to the contrast in the second verse of the eighth chapter: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." That is the deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord, the liberty to the captive which the Spirit brings. Can you keep captive any longer a man made free by the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"?
But you say, the regenerate man did not have the Spirit of Jesus when he spoke in the sixth chapter. Yes, he did not know what the Holy Spirit could do for him.
God does not work by His Spirit as He works by a blind force in nature. He leads His people on as reasonable, intelligent beings. Therefore, when He wants to give us that Holy Spirit whom He has promised, He first brings us to the end of self, brings us to the conviction that though we have been striving to obey the law, we have failed. When we have come to the end of that, then He shows us that in the Holy Spirit we have the power of obedience, the power of victory, and the power of real holiness. God works to will, and He is ready to work to do, but many Christians misunderstand this. They think because they have the will, it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be received each moment from the Holy Spirit. It is the man who is conscious of his own weakness as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can live a holy life. This man is on the brink of that great deliverance; the way has been prepared for the glorious eighth chapter. I now ask this solemn question: Where are you living? With you, is it, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" with now and then a little experience of the power of the Holy Spirit? Or is it, "I thank God through Jesus Christ! The law of the Spirit hath set me free from the law of sin and death"?
What the Holy Spirit does is to give the victory. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13). It is the Holy Spirit who does this - the third Person of the Godhead. It is He who, when the heart is opened wide to receive Him, comes in and reigns there, and mortifies the deeds of the body, day by day, hour by hour, and moment by moment.
I want to bring this to a point. There are in Scripture two very different sorts of Christians. The Bible speaks in Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians about yielding to the flesh; and that is the life of tens of thousands of believers. All their lack of joy in the Holy Spirit, and their lack of the liberty He gives, is just owing to the flesh. The Spirit is within them, but the flesh rules the life. To be led by the Spirit of God is what they need. If only I could make every child of His realize what it means that the everlasting God has given His dear Son, Christ Jesus, to watch over you every day, and that what you have to do is to trust. If only I could make His children understand that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable you every moment to remember Jesus, and to trust Him! Praise God for the Holy Spirit! We are so accustomed to thinking of the Holy Spirit as a luxury, for special times, or for special ministers and men. But the Holy Spirit is necessary for every believer, every moment of the day. Praise God you have Him, and that He gives you the full experience of the deliverance in Christ as He makes you free from the power of sin.
What good does it do that we go to church or attend conventions, that we study our Bibles and pray, unless our lives are filled with the Holy Spirit? That is what God wants! Nothing else will enable us to live a life of power and peace. Do not be content to remain ever groaning, but say: "I, a wretched man, thank God through Jesus Christ. Even though I do not see it all, I am going to praise God." There is deliverance; there is liberty of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is "joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).
~Andrew Murray~
(The End)
O Wretched Man That I Am! # 1
O Wretched Man That I Am! # 1
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24, 25).
You know the wonderful location that his text has in the epistle to the Romans. It stands here at the end of the seventh chapter as the gateway into the eighth. In the first sixteen verses of the eighth chapter, the name of the Holy Spirit is found sixteen times. You have there the description and promise of the life that a child of God can live in the power of the Holy Spirit. This begins in the second verse: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). From that, Paul goes on to speak of the great privileges of the child of God who is to be led by the Spirit of God. The gateway into all this is found at the end of chapter seven: "O wretched man that I am!" There you have the words of a man who has come to the end of himself. He has in the previous verses described how he had struggled and wrestled in his own power to obey the holy law of God, and had failed. But in answer to his own questions, he now finds the true answer and cries out: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." From that he goes on to speak of what that deliverance is that he has found.
I want from these words, to describe the path by which a man can be led out of the spirit of bondage into the spirit of liberty. You know how distinctly it is said: "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear" (Romans 8:15). We are continually warned that this is the great danger of the Christian life, to go again into bondage. I want to describe the path by which a man can get out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Rather, I want to describe the man himself.
First, these words are the language of the regenerate man; second, of a weak man; third, of a wretched man; and fourth, of a man on the border of complete liberty.
The Regenerate Man
There is much evidence of regeneration from the fourteenth verse of chapter seven on to the twenty-third verse. "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (Romans 7:17). That is the language of a regenerate man - a man who knows that his heart and nature have been renewed, and that sin is now a power in him that is not himself. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22). That again is the language of a regenerate man. He dares to say when he does evil: "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me". It is of great importance to understand this.
In the first two great sections of the epistle, Paul deals with justification and sanctification. In dealing with justification, he lays the foundation of the doctrine in the teaching about sin. He does not speak of the singular sin, but of the plural, sins - the actual transgressions. In the second part of the fifth chapter, he begins to deal with sin, not as actual transgression, but as a power. Just imagine what a loss it would have been to us if we did not have this second half of the seventh chapter of the epistle - if Paul had omitted in his teaching this vital question of the sinfulness of the believer. We should have missed the question we all want answered as to sin in the believer. What is the answer? The regenerate man is one in whom the will has been renewed, and who can say: "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."
The Weak Man
Here is the great mistake made by many Christian people - they think that when there is a renewed will, it is enough. But that is not the case. This regenerate man tells us: "I will to do what is good, but the power to perform I find not." How often people tell us that if you set yourself determinedly, you can perform what you will! But this man was as determined as any man could be, and yet he made the confession: "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not" (Romans 7:18).
But, you ask: "How is it God makes a regenerate man utter such a confession? He being with a right will, with a heart that longs to do good, and longs to do its very utmost to love God?"
Let us look at this question. What has God given us our will for? Had the angels who fell, in their own will, the strength to stand? Surely, no. The will of man is nothing but an empty vessel in which the power of God is to be made manifest. Man must seek in God all that is to be. You have it in the second chapter of the epistle to the Philippians, and you have it here also, that God's work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here is a man who appears to say: "God has not worked to do in me." But we are taught that God works both to will and to do. How is the apparent contradiction to be reconciled?
You will find that in this passage (Romans 7:6-25), the name of the Holy Spirit does not occur once, nor does the name of Christ occur. The man is wrestling and struggling to fulfill God's law. Instead of the Holy Spirit and of Christ, the law is mentioned nearly twenty times. In this chapter, it shows a believer doing his very best to obey the law of God with his regenerate will. Not only this; but you will find the little words, I, me, my, occur more than forty times. It is the regenerate "I" in its weakness seeking to obey the law without being filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the experience of almost every saint. After conversion, a man begins to do his best, and he fails. But if we are brought into the full light, we no longer need to fall. Nor need we fall at all if we have received the Spirit in his fullness at conversion.
God allows that failure so that the regenerate man should be taught his own utter inability. It is in the course of this struggle that the that the sense of our utter sinfulness comes to us. It is God's way of dealing with us. He allows man to strive to fulfill the law so that, as he strives and wrestles, he may be brought to this: "I am a regenerate child of God, but I am utterly helpless to obey the law." See what strong words are used all through the chapter to describe his condition: "I am carnal, sold under sin" "I see another law in my members bringing me into captivity"; and, last of all, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This believer who bows here in deep contrition is utterly unable to obey the law of God.
~Andrew Murray~
(continued with # 2)
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24, 25).
You know the wonderful location that his text has in the epistle to the Romans. It stands here at the end of the seventh chapter as the gateway into the eighth. In the first sixteen verses of the eighth chapter, the name of the Holy Spirit is found sixteen times. You have there the description and promise of the life that a child of God can live in the power of the Holy Spirit. This begins in the second verse: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). From that, Paul goes on to speak of the great privileges of the child of God who is to be led by the Spirit of God. The gateway into all this is found at the end of chapter seven: "O wretched man that I am!" There you have the words of a man who has come to the end of himself. He has in the previous verses described how he had struggled and wrestled in his own power to obey the holy law of God, and had failed. But in answer to his own questions, he now finds the true answer and cries out: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." From that he goes on to speak of what that deliverance is that he has found.
I want from these words, to describe the path by which a man can be led out of the spirit of bondage into the spirit of liberty. You know how distinctly it is said: "Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear" (Romans 8:15). We are continually warned that this is the great danger of the Christian life, to go again into bondage. I want to describe the path by which a man can get out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Rather, I want to describe the man himself.
First, these words are the language of the regenerate man; second, of a weak man; third, of a wretched man; and fourth, of a man on the border of complete liberty.
The Regenerate Man
There is much evidence of regeneration from the fourteenth verse of chapter seven on to the twenty-third verse. "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (Romans 7:17). That is the language of a regenerate man - a man who knows that his heart and nature have been renewed, and that sin is now a power in him that is not himself. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man" (Romans 7:22). That again is the language of a regenerate man. He dares to say when he does evil: "It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me". It is of great importance to understand this.
In the first two great sections of the epistle, Paul deals with justification and sanctification. In dealing with justification, he lays the foundation of the doctrine in the teaching about sin. He does not speak of the singular sin, but of the plural, sins - the actual transgressions. In the second part of the fifth chapter, he begins to deal with sin, not as actual transgression, but as a power. Just imagine what a loss it would have been to us if we did not have this second half of the seventh chapter of the epistle - if Paul had omitted in his teaching this vital question of the sinfulness of the believer. We should have missed the question we all want answered as to sin in the believer. What is the answer? The regenerate man is one in whom the will has been renewed, and who can say: "I delight in the law of God after the inward man."
The Weak Man
Here is the great mistake made by many Christian people - they think that when there is a renewed will, it is enough. But that is not the case. This regenerate man tells us: "I will to do what is good, but the power to perform I find not." How often people tell us that if you set yourself determinedly, you can perform what you will! But this man was as determined as any man could be, and yet he made the confession: "To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not" (Romans 7:18).
But, you ask: "How is it God makes a regenerate man utter such a confession? He being with a right will, with a heart that longs to do good, and longs to do its very utmost to love God?"
Let us look at this question. What has God given us our will for? Had the angels who fell, in their own will, the strength to stand? Surely, no. The will of man is nothing but an empty vessel in which the power of God is to be made manifest. Man must seek in God all that is to be. You have it in the second chapter of the epistle to the Philippians, and you have it here also, that God's work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here is a man who appears to say: "God has not worked to do in me." But we are taught that God works both to will and to do. How is the apparent contradiction to be reconciled?
You will find that in this passage (Romans 7:6-25), the name of the Holy Spirit does not occur once, nor does the name of Christ occur. The man is wrestling and struggling to fulfill God's law. Instead of the Holy Spirit and of Christ, the law is mentioned nearly twenty times. In this chapter, it shows a believer doing his very best to obey the law of God with his regenerate will. Not only this; but you will find the little words, I, me, my, occur more than forty times. It is the regenerate "I" in its weakness seeking to obey the law without being filled with the Holy Spirit. This is the experience of almost every saint. After conversion, a man begins to do his best, and he fails. But if we are brought into the full light, we no longer need to fall. Nor need we fall at all if we have received the Spirit in his fullness at conversion.
God allows that failure so that the regenerate man should be taught his own utter inability. It is in the course of this struggle that the that the sense of our utter sinfulness comes to us. It is God's way of dealing with us. He allows man to strive to fulfill the law so that, as he strives and wrestles, he may be brought to this: "I am a regenerate child of God, but I am utterly helpless to obey the law." See what strong words are used all through the chapter to describe his condition: "I am carnal, sold under sin" "I see another law in my members bringing me into captivity"; and, last of all, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This believer who bows here in deep contrition is utterly unable to obey the law of God.
~Andrew Murray~
(continued with # 2)
The Best Physician! (and others)
The Best Physician (and others)
Christ is the cheapest Physician. Sickness is not only a consumption to the body - but the purse! (Luke 8:43). Other patients enrich their physicians - but here the Physician enriches the patient! Physicians charge fees - but Jesus Christ gives us our cures freely. "Come without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1). He desires us to bring nothing to Him but broken hearts. And when He has cured us, He desires us to bestow nothing upon Him but our love - and one would think that was very reasonable.
Christ is the most skillful Physician. There is no disease too hard for Him. "Who heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:3). He can cure the gangrene of sin - even when it comes to the heart. He can melt a heart of stone - and wash away black sins in His crimson blood! There are no desperate cases with Christ. He has those salves, oils, and balsams which can cure the worst diseases. Christ never fails of success.
Christ is the most tender-hearted Physician. "He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds" (Psalm 147:3). Every groan of the patient goes to the heart of this Physician!
Christ cures only only our diseases - but our deformities! Christ not only gives health - but beauty. Sin has made ugly and misshapen. Christ's medicines not only take away our sickness - but our blemishes. He not only makes us whole - but lovely. Christ not only heals - but adorns.
Christ heals with more ease than any other. Other physicians apply pills, potions, or remedies. Christ makes the devil go out with a word (Mark 9:25). So when the soul is spiritually possessed, Christ can heal with a word - nay, He can cure with a look. When Peter had fallen into a relapse, Christ looked on Peter - and he wept. Christ's look melted Peter into repentance - it was a healing look. If Christ does but cast a look upon the soul - He can heal it.
Other physicians can only cure those who are sick - but Christ cures those who are dead, "And you has He made alive - who were dead" (Ephesians 2:1). Christ is a physician for the dead! Of every one whom Christ cures, it may be said, "He was dead - and is now alive!" (Luke 15:32).
Christ elevates all His patients. He not only cures them - but crowns them! (Revelation 2:10). Christ does not only raise them from the sick-bed - but to the throne! He gives the sick man not only health - but also Heaven!
Oh, the love of this heavenly Physician! Christ Himself drank that bitter cup which we should have drunk, and by His taking the bitter potion - we are healed and saved! Thus Christ has shown more move than any physician ever did to the patient.
~Thomas Watson~
(The End)
_____________________________
What Does Our Church Need?
"Our gospel came to you not simply with words - but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction" (1 Thess. 1:5).
"We have," said one pastor, "the gospel regularly preached, the prayer meeting are continued, the church is at peace - but very few souls are converted to God! What does our church need?"
It needs the presence and power of the Holy Spirit! For unless the Holy Spirit works - your minister may preach, your church may meet - but no real good will be done! God's work is carried on, not by might nor by power - but by the Spirit of the Lord Almighty. It is the Spirit who must open the heart, quicken the soul, and sanctify the person!
And if the Spirit works - then the feeblest ministry is efficient, and the smallest church prospers!
All the success that followed the preaching of Peter, and the labors of Paul - was from the Holy Spirit. Therefore Paul says, "God gave the increase". Then the church felt her need of the Spirit; she realized her dependence on that Divine Agent; she prayer with faith, fervor, and importunity for the blessing; and God answered her prayers, and filled His servants with the Holy Spirit and power!
But today, we merely talk of the Spirit - rather than feel our need! We boast of our instruments - rather than realize our dependence on the Almighty Agent!
~James Smith~
Christ is the cheapest Physician. Sickness is not only a consumption to the body - but the purse! (Luke 8:43). Other patients enrich their physicians - but here the Physician enriches the patient! Physicians charge fees - but Jesus Christ gives us our cures freely. "Come without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1). He desires us to bring nothing to Him but broken hearts. And when He has cured us, He desires us to bestow nothing upon Him but our love - and one would think that was very reasonable.
Christ is the most skillful Physician. There is no disease too hard for Him. "Who heals all your diseases" (Psalm 103:3). He can cure the gangrene of sin - even when it comes to the heart. He can melt a heart of stone - and wash away black sins in His crimson blood! There are no desperate cases with Christ. He has those salves, oils, and balsams which can cure the worst diseases. Christ never fails of success.
Christ is the most tender-hearted Physician. "He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds" (Psalm 147:3). Every groan of the patient goes to the heart of this Physician!
Christ cures only only our diseases - but our deformities! Christ not only gives health - but beauty. Sin has made ugly and misshapen. Christ's medicines not only take away our sickness - but our blemishes. He not only makes us whole - but lovely. Christ not only heals - but adorns.
Christ heals with more ease than any other. Other physicians apply pills, potions, or remedies. Christ makes the devil go out with a word (Mark 9:25). So when the soul is spiritually possessed, Christ can heal with a word - nay, He can cure with a look. When Peter had fallen into a relapse, Christ looked on Peter - and he wept. Christ's look melted Peter into repentance - it was a healing look. If Christ does but cast a look upon the soul - He can heal it.
Other physicians can only cure those who are sick - but Christ cures those who are dead, "And you has He made alive - who were dead" (Ephesians 2:1). Christ is a physician for the dead! Of every one whom Christ cures, it may be said, "He was dead - and is now alive!" (Luke 15:32).
Christ elevates all His patients. He not only cures them - but crowns them! (Revelation 2:10). Christ does not only raise them from the sick-bed - but to the throne! He gives the sick man not only health - but also Heaven!
Oh, the love of this heavenly Physician! Christ Himself drank that bitter cup which we should have drunk, and by His taking the bitter potion - we are healed and saved! Thus Christ has shown more move than any physician ever did to the patient.
~Thomas Watson~
(The End)
_____________________________
What Does Our Church Need?
"Our gospel came to you not simply with words - but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction" (1 Thess. 1:5).
"We have," said one pastor, "the gospel regularly preached, the prayer meeting are continued, the church is at peace - but very few souls are converted to God! What does our church need?"
It needs the presence and power of the Holy Spirit! For unless the Holy Spirit works - your minister may preach, your church may meet - but no real good will be done! God's work is carried on, not by might nor by power - but by the Spirit of the Lord Almighty. It is the Spirit who must open the heart, quicken the soul, and sanctify the person!
And if the Spirit works - then the feeblest ministry is efficient, and the smallest church prospers!
All the success that followed the preaching of Peter, and the labors of Paul - was from the Holy Spirit. Therefore Paul says, "God gave the increase". Then the church felt her need of the Spirit; she realized her dependence on that Divine Agent; she prayer with faith, fervor, and importunity for the blessing; and God answered her prayers, and filled His servants with the Holy Spirit and power!
But today, we merely talk of the Spirit - rather than feel our need! We boast of our instruments - rather than realize our dependence on the Almighty Agent!
~James Smith~
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