The Deeper Christian Life * I

The Deeper Christian Life

* I. DAILY FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD

o II. PRIVILEGE AND EXPERIENCE

o III. CARNAL OR SPIRITUAL?

o IV. OUT OF AND INTO

o V. THE BLESSING SECURED

o VI. THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST

o VII. A WORD TO WORKERS

o CONSECRATION

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Typed by: Kathy Sewell, ksewell@gate.net, June 1, 1997

This book is in the public domain

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THE DEEPER CHRISTIAN LIFE

AN AID TO ITS ATTAINMENT

ANDREW MURRAY

AUTHOR OF "THE MASTER'S INDWELLING,"

"WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER,"

ETC., ETC.

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

CHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO

PUBLISHERS OF EVANGELICAL LITERATURE

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

I. DAILY FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD

1. The first and chief need of our Christian life is, Fellowship with God.

The Divine life within us comes from God, and is entirely dependent

upon Him. As I need every moment afresh the air to breathe, as the s sun

every moment afresh sends down its light, so it is only in direct living

communication with God that my soul can be strong.

The manna of one day was corrupt when the next day came. I must every

day have fresh grace from heaven, and I obtain it only in direct waiting

upon God Himself. Begin each day by tarrying before God, and letting Him

touch you. Take time to meet God.

2. To this end, let your first act in your devotion be a setting

yourself still before God. In prayer, or worship, everything depends upon

God taking the chief place. I must bow quietly before Him in humble faith

and adoration, speaking thus within my heart: "God is. God is near. God is

love, longing to communicate Himself to me. God the Almighty One, Who

worketh all in all, is even now waiting to work in me, and make Himself

known." Take time, till you know God is very near.

3. When you have given God His place of honor, glory, and power, take

your place of deepest lowliness, and seek to be filled with the Spirit of

humility. As a creature it is your blessedness to be nothing, that God may

be all in you. As a sinner you are not worthy to look up to God; bow in self

abasement. As a saint, let God's love overwhelm you, and bow you still lower

down. Sink down before Him in humility, meekness, patience, and surrender to

His goodness and mercy. He will exalt you. Oh! take time, to get very low

before God.

4. Then accept and value your place in Christ Jesus. God delights in

nothing but His beloved Son, and can be satisfied with nothing else in those

who draw nigh to Him. Enter deep into God's holy presence in the boldness

which the blood gives, and in the assurance that in Christ you are most

well-pleasing. In Christ you are within the veil. You have access into the

very heart and love of the Father. This is the great object of fellowship

with God, that I may have more of God in my life, and that God may see

Christ formed in me. Be silent before God and let Him bless you.

5. This Christ is a living Person. He loves you with a personal love,

and He looks every day for the personal response of your love. Look into His

face with trust, till His love really shines into your heart. Make His heart

glad by telling Him that you do love Him. He offers Himself to you as a

personal Saviour and Keeper from the power of sin. Do not ask, can I be kept

from sinning, if I keep close to Him? but ask, can I be kept from sinning,

if He always keeps close to me? and you see at once how safe it is to trust

Him.

6. We have not only Christ's life in us as a power, and His presence

with us as a person, but we have His likeness to be wrought into us. He is

to be formed in us, so that His form or figure, His likeness, can be seen in

us. Bow before God until you get some sense of the greatness and blessedness

of the work to be carried on by God in you this day. Say to God, "Father,

here am I for Thee to give as much in me of Christ's likeness as I can

receive." And wait to hear Him say, "My child, I give thee as much of Christ

as thy heart is open to receive." The God who revealed Jesus in the flesh

and perfected Him, will reveal Him in thee and perfect thee in Him. The

Father loves the Son, and delights to work out His image and likeness in

thee. Count upon it that this blessed work will be done in thee as thou

waitest on thy God, and holdest fellowship with Him.

7. The likeness to Christ consists chiefly in two things--the likeness

of His death and resurrection, (Rom. 6:5). The death of Christ was the

consummation of His humility and obedience, the entire giving up of His life

to God. In Him we are dead to sin. As we sink down in humility and

dependence and entire surrender to God, the power of His death works in us,

and we are made conformable to His death. And so we know Him in the power of

His resurrection, in the victory over sin, and all the joy and power of the

risen life. Therefore every morning, "present yourselves unto God as those

that are alive from the dead." He will maintain the life He gave, and bestow

the grace to live as risen ones.

8. All this can only be in the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in

you. Count upon Him to glorify Christ in you. Count upon Christ to increase

in you the inflowing of His Spirit. As you wait before God to realize His

presence, remember that the Spirit is in you to reveal the things of God.

Seek in God's presence to have the anointing of the Spirit of Christ so

truly that your whole life may every moment be spiritual.

9. As you meditate on this wondrous salvation and seek full fellowship

with the great and holy God, and wait on Him to reveal Christ in you, you

will feel how needful the giving up of all is to receive Him. Seek grace to

know what it means to live as wholly for God as Christ did. Only the Holy

Spirit Himself can teach you what an entire yielding of the whole life to

God can mean. Wait on God to show you in this what you do not know. Let

every approach to God, and every request for fellowship with Him be

accompanied by a new, very definite, and entire surrender to Him to work in

you.

10. "By faith" must here, as through all Scripture, and all the

spiritual life, be the keynote. As you tarry before God, let it be in a deep

quiet faith in Him, the Invisible One, who is so near, so holy, so mighty,

so loving. In a deep, restful faith too, that all the blessings and powers

of the heavenly life are around you, and in you. Just yield yourself in the

faith of a perfect trust to the Ever Blessed Holy Trinity to work out all

God's purpose in you. Begin each day thus in fellowship with God, and God

will be all in all to you.

II. PRIVILEGE AND EXPERIENCE

"And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I

have is thine." --Luke 15:31.

The words of the text are familiar to us all. The elder son had complained

and said, that though his father had made a feast, and had killed the fatted

calf for the prodigal son, he had never given him even a kid that he might

make merry with his friends. The answer of the father was: "Son, thou art

ever with me, and all that I have is thine." One cannot have a more

wonderful revelation of the heart of our Father in heaven than this points

out to us. We often speak of the wonderful revelation of the father's heart

in his welcome to the prodigal son, and in what he did for him. But here we

have a revelation of the father's love far more wonderful, in what he says

to the elder son.

If we are to experience a deepening of spiritual life, we want to

discover clearly what is the spiritual life that God would have us live, on

the one hand; and, on the other, to ask whether we are living that life; or,

if not, what hinders us living it out fully.

This subject naturally divides itself into these three heads:--I. The

high privilege of every child of God. 2. The low experience of too many of

us believers. 3. The cause of the discrepancy; and, lastly, The way to the

restoration of the privilege.

I. THE HIGH PRIVILEGE OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

We have here two things describing the privilege:--First, "Son, thou

art ever with me"--unbroken fellowship with thy Father is thy portion;

Second, "All that I have is thine"--all that God can bestow upon His

children is theirs.

"Thou are ever with me;" I am always near thee; thou canst dwell every

hour of thy life in My presence, and all I have is for thee. I am a father,

with a loving father's heart. I will withhold no good thing from thee. In

these promises, we have the rich privilege of God's heritage. We have, in

the first place, unbroken fellowship with Him. A father never sends his

child away with the thought that he does not care about his child knowing

that he loves him. The father longs to have his child believe that he has

the light of his father's countenance upon him all the day--that, if he

sends the child away to school, or anywhere that necessity compels, it is

with a sense of sacrifice of parental feelings. If it be so with an earthly

father, what think you of God? Does He not want every child of His to know

that he is constantly living in the light of His countenance? This is the

meaning of that word, "Son, thou art ever with me."

That was the privilege of God's people in Old Testament times. We are

told that "Enoch walked with God." God's promise to Jacob was: "Behold, I am

with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will

bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done

that which I have spoken to thee of." And God's promise to Israel through

Moses, was: "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." And

in Moses' response to the promise, he says, "For wherein shall it be known

that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not that Thou

goest with us; so shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the

people that are upon the face of the earth." The presence of God with Israel

was the mark of their separation from other people. This is the truth taught

in all the Old Testament; and if so, how much more may we look for it in the

New Testament? Thus we find our Saviour promising to those who love Him and

who keep His word, that the Father also will love them, and Father and Son

will come and make Their abode with them.

Let that thought into your hearts--that the child of God is called to

this blessed privilege, to live every moment of his life in fellowship with

God. He is called to enjoy the full light of His countenance. There are many

Christians--I suppose the majority of Christians--who seem to regard the

whole of the Spirit's work as confined to conviction and conversion:--not so

much that He came to dwell in our hearts, and there reveal God to us. He

came not to dwell near us, but in us, that we might be filled with His

indwelling. We are commanded to be "filled with the Spirit;" then the Holy

Spirit would make God's presence manifest to us. That is the whole teaching

of the epistle to the Hebrews:--the veil is rent in twain; we have access

into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus; we come into the very

presence of God, so that we can live all the day with that presence resting

upon us. That presence is with us wheresoever we go; and in all kinds of

trouble, we have undisturbed repose and peace. "Son, thou art ever with me."

There are some people who seem to think that God, by some

unintelligible sovereignty, withdraws His face. But I know that God loves

His people too much to withhold His fellowship from them for any such

reason. The true reason of the absence of God from us is rather to be found

in our sin and unbelief, than in any supposed sovereignty of His. If the

child of God is walking in faith and obedience, the Divine presence will be

enjoyed in unbroken continuity.

Then there is the next blessed privilege: "All that I have is thine."

Thank God, He has given us His own Son; and in giving Him, He has given us

all things that are in Him, He has given us Christ's life, His love, His

Spirit, His glory. "All things are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is

God's." All the riches of His Son, the everlasting King, God bestows upon

every one of His children. "Son, thou art ever with me; and all that I have

is thine." Is not that the meaning of all those wonderful promises given in

connection with prayer: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, ye shall

receive."? Yes, there it is. That is the life of the children of God, as He

Himself has pictured it to us.

2. In contrast with this high privilege of believers, look at

THE LOW EXPERIENCE OF TOO MANY OF US.

The elder son was living with his father and serving him "these many

years," and he complains that his father never gave him a kid, while he gave

his prodigal brother the fatted calf. Why was this? Simply because he did

not ask it. He did not believe that he would get it, and therefore never

asked it, and never enjoyed it. He continued thus to live in constant

murmuring and dissatisfaction; and the key note of all this wretched life is

furnished in what he said. His father gave him everything, yet he never

enjoyed it; and he throws the whole blame on his loving and kind father. O

beloved, is not that the life of many a believer? Do not many speak and act

in this way? Every believer has the promise of unbroken fellowship with God,

but he says, "I have not enjoyed it; I have tried hard and done my best, and

I have prayed for the blessing, but I suppose God does not see fit to grant

it." But why not? One says, it is the sovereignty of God withholding the

blessing. The father withheld not his gifts from the elder brother in

sovereignty; neither does our Heavenly Father withhold any good thing from

them that love Him. He does not make any such differences between His

children. "He is able to make all grace abound towards you" was the promise

equally made to all in the Corinthian church.

Some think these rich blessings are not for them, but for those who

have more time to devote to religion and prayer; or their circumstances are

so difficult, so peculiar, that we can have no conception of their various

hindrances. But do not such think that God, if He places them in these

circumstances, cannot make His grace abound accordingly? They admit He could

if He would, work a miracle for them, which they can hardly expect. In some

way, they, like the elder son, throw the blame on God. Thus many are saying,

when asked if they are enjoying unbroken fellowship with God:--"Alas, no! I

have not been able to attain to such a height; it is too high for me. I know

of some who have it, and I read of it; but God has not given it to me, for

some reason." But why not? You think, perhaps, that you have not the same

capacity for spiritual blessing that others have. The Bible speaks of a joy

that is "unspeakable and full of glory" as the fruit of believing; of a

"love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us." Do

we desire it, do we? Why not get it? Have we asked for it? We think we are

not worthy of the blessing--we are not good enough; and therefore God has

not given it. There are more among us than we know of, or are willing to

admit, who throw the blame of our darkness, and of our wanderings on God!

Take care! Take care! Take care!

And again, what about that other promise? The Father says, "All I have

is thine." Are you rejoicing in the treasures of Christ? Are you conscious

of having an abundant supply for all your spiritual needs every day? God has

all these for you in abundance. "Thou never gavest me a kid!" The answer is,

"All that I have is thine. I gave it thee in Christ."

Dear reader, we have such wrong thoughts of God. What is God like? I

know no image more beautiful and instructive than that of the sun. The sun

is never weary of shining;--of pouring out his beneficent rays upon both the

good and the evil. You might close up the windows with blinds or bricks, the

sun would shine upon them all the same; though we might sit in darkness, in

utter darkness, the shining would be just the same. God's sun shines on

every leaf; on every flower; on every blade of grass; on everything that

springs out of the ground. All receive this wealth of sunshine until they

grow to perfection and bear fruit. Would He who made that sun be less

willing to poor out His love and life into me? The sun--what beauty it

creates! And my God,--would He not delight more in creating a beauty and a

fruitfulness in me?--such, too, as He has promised to give? And yet some

say, when asked why they do not live in unbroken communion with God, "God

does not give it to me, I do not know why; but that is the only reason I can

give you--He has not given it to me." You remember the parable of the one

who said, "I know thou art an hard master, reaping where thou hast not sown

and gathering where thou hast not strawed," asking and demanding what thou

hast not given. Oh! let us come and ask why it is that the believer lives

such a low experience.

3. THE CAUSE OF THIS DISCREPANCY BETWEEN GOD'S GIFTS, AND OUR LOW

EXPERIENCE.

The believer is complaining that God has never given him a kid. Or, God

has given him some blessing, but has never given the full blessing. He has

never filled him with His Spirit. "I never," he says, "had my heart, as a

fountain, giving forth the rivers of living water promised in John vii. 38."

What is the cause? The elder son thought he was serving his father

faithfully "these many years" in his father's house, but it was in the

spirit of bondage and not in the spirit of a child, so that his unbelief

blinded him to the conception of a father's love and kindness, and he was

unable all the time to see that his father was ready, not only to give him a

kid, but a hundred, or a thousand kids, if he would have them. He was simply

living in unbelief, in ignorance, in blindness, robbing himself of the

privileges that the father had for him. So, if there be a discrepancy

between our life and the fulfillment and enjoyment of all God's promises,

the fault is ours. It our experience be not what God wants it to be, it is

because of our unbelief in the love of God, in the power of God, and in the

reality of God's promises.

God's word teaches us, in the story of the Israelites, that it was

unbelief on their part that was the cause of their troubles, and not any

limitation or restriction on God's part. As Psalm 78th says:--"He clave the

rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He

brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like

rivers." Yet they sinned by doubting His power to provide meat for

them--"They spake against God; they said, can God furnish a table in the

wilderness?" (vs. 15-19). Later on, we read in v. 41, "They turned back and

tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel." They kept distrusting Him

from time to time. When they got to Kadesh-Barnea, and God told them to

enter the land flowing with milk and honey where there would be rest,

abundance, and victory, only two men said, "Yes;" we can take possession,

for God can make us conquer." But the ten spies, and the six hundred

thousand men answered, "No; we can never take the land; the enemies are too

strong for us." It was simply unbelief that kept them out of the land of

promise.

If there is to be any deepening of the spiritual life in us, we must

come to the discovery, and the acknowledgment of the unbelief there is in

our hearts. God grant that we may get this spiritual quickening, and that we

may come to see that it is by our unbelief that we have prevented God from

doing His work in us. Unbelief is the mother of disobedience, and of all my

sins and short comings--my temper, my pride, my unlovingness, my

worldliness, my sins of every kind. Though these differ in nature and form,

yet they all come from the one root, viz, that we do not believe in the

freedom and fulness of the Divine gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and

strengthen us, and fill us with the life and grace of God all the day long.

Look, I pray you, at that elder son, and ask what was the cause of that

terrible difference between the heart of the father and the experience of

the son. There can be no answer but that it was this sinful unbelief that

utterly blinded the son to a sense of his father's love.

Dear fellow believer, I want to say to you, that, if you are not living

in the joy of God's salvation, the entire cause is your unbelief. You do not

believe in the mighty power of God, and that He is willing by His Holy

Spirit to work a thorough change in your life, and enable you to live in

fulness of consecration to Him. God is willing that you should so live; but

you do not believe it. If men really believed in the infinite love of God,

what a change it would bring about! What is love? It is a desire to

communicate oneself for the good of the object loved--the opposite to

selfishness; as we read in 1 Cor. xiii. "Love seeketh not her own." Thus the

mother is willing to sacrifice herself for the good of her child. So God in

His love is ever willing to impart blessing; and He is omnipotent in His

love. This is true, my friends; God is omnipotent in love, and He is doing

His utmost to fill every heart in this house. "But if God is really anxious

to do that, and if He is Almighty, why does He not do it now?" You must

remember, that God has given you a will, and by the exercise of that will,

you can hinder God, and remain content, like the elder son, with the low

life of unbelief. Come, now, and let us see the cause of the difference

between God's high, blessed provision for His children, and the low, sad

experience of many of us in the unbelief that distrusts and grieves Him.

4. THE WAY OF RESTORATION--HOW IS THAT TO BE BROUGHT ABOUT?

We all know the parable of the prodigal son; and how many sermons have

been preached about repentance, from that parable. We are told that "he came

to himself and said, I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto

him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight." In preaching,

we speak of this as the first step in a changed life--as conversion, as

repentance, confession, returning to God. But, as this is the first step for

the prodigal, we must remember that this is also the step to be taken by His

erring children--by all the ninety-nine "who need no repentance," or think

they do not. Those Christians who do not understand how wrong their low

religious life is, must be taught that this is sin--unbelief; and that it is

as necessary that they should be brought to repentance as the prodigal. You

have heard a great deal of preaching repentance to the unconverted; but I

want to try to preach it to God's children. We have a picture of so many of

God's children in that elder brother. What the father told him, to bring

about a consideration of the love that He bore him, just as he loved the

prodigal brother, thus does God tell to us in our contentedness with such a

low life:--"You must repent and believe that I love you, and all that I have

is thine." He says, "By your unbelief, you have dishonoured me, living for

ten, twenty, or thirty years, and never believing what it was to live in the

blessedness of My love. You must confess the wrong you have done Me in this,

and be broken down in contrition of heart just as truly as the prodigal."

There are many children of God who need to confess, that though they

are His children, they have never believed that God's promises are true,

that He is willing to fill their hearts all the day long with His blessed

presence. Have you believed this? If you have not, all our teaching will be

of no profit to you. Will you not say, "By the help of God, I will begin now

a new life of faith, and will not rest until I know what such a life means.

I will believe that I am every moment in the Father's presence, and all that

He has is mine?"

May the Lord God work this conviction in the hearts of all cold

believers. Have you ever heard the expression, "a conviction for

sanctification?" You know, the unconverted man needs a conviction before

conversion. So does the dark-minded Christian need conviction before, and in

order to sanctification, before he comes to a real insight to spiritual

blessedness. He must be convicted a second time because of his sinful life

of doubt, and temper, and unlovingness. He must be broken down under that

conviction; then there is hope for him. May the Father of mercy grant all

such that deep contrition, so that they may be led into the blessedness of

His presence, and enjoy the fulness of His power and love!

III. CARNAL OR SPIRITUAL?

"And Peter went out and wept bitterly." --Luke 22:62.

These words indicate the turning point in the life of Peter,--a crisis.

There is often a question about the life of holiness. Do you grow into it?

or do you come into it be a crisis suddenly? Peter has been growing for

three years under the training of Christ, but he had grown terribly

downward, for the end of his growing was, he denied Jesus. And then there

came a crisis. After the crisis he was a changed man, and then he began to

grow aright. We must indeed grow in grace, but before we can grow in grace

we must be put right.

You know what the two halves of the life of Peter were. In God's Word

we read very often about the difference between the carnal and the spiritual

Christian. The word "carnal" comes from the Latin word for flesh. In Romans

viii, and in Gal. v., we are taught that the flesh and the Spirit of God are

the two opposing powers by which we are dominated or ruled, and we are

taught that a true believer may allow himself to be ruled by the flesh. That

is what Paul writes to the Corinthians. In the 3rd chapter, the first four

verses, he says, four times to them, "You are carnal, and not spiritual."

And just so a believer can allow the flesh to have so much power over him

that becomes "carnal." Every object is named according to its most prominent

characteristic. If a man is a babe in Christ and has a little of the Holy

Spirit and a great deal of the flesh, he is called carnal, for the flesh is

his chief mark. If he gives way, as the Corinthians did, to strife, temper,

division, and envy, he is a carnal Christian. He is a Christian, but a

carnal one. But if he gives himself over entirely to the Holy Spirit so that

He (the Holy Spirit) can deliver from the temper, the envy, and the strife,

by breathing a heavenly disposition; and can mortify the deeds of the body;

then God's Word calls him a "spiritual" man, a true spiritual Christian.

Now, these two styles are remarkably illustrated in the life of Peter.

The text is the crisis and turning point at which he begins to pass over

from the one side to the other.

The message that I want to bring to you is this: That the great

majority of Christians, alas, are not spiritual men, and that they may

become spiritual men by the grace of God. I want to come to all who are

perhaps hungering and longing for the better life, and asking what is wrong

that you are without it, to point out that what is wrong is just one

thing,--allowing the flesh to rule in you, and trusting in the power of the

flesh to make you good.

There is a better life, a life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then, I want to tell you a third thing. The first thing is important,

take care of the carnal life, and confess if you are in it. The second truth

is very blessed, there is a spiritual life; believe that it is a

possibility. But the third truth is the most important,--You can be one step

get out of the carnal into the spiritual state. May God reveal it to you now

through the story of the Apostle Peter!

Look at him, first of all, in the carnal state. What are the marks of

the carnal state in him? Self-will, self-pleasing, self-confidence. Just

remember, when Christ said to the disciples at Caesarea Philippi, "The Son

of Man must be crucified," Peter said to Him, "Lord, that can never be!" And

Christ had to say to him, "Get thee behind Me, Satan!" Dear reader, what an

awful thing for Peter! He could not understand what a suffering Christ was.

And Peter was so self-willed and self-confident that he dared to contradict

and to rebuke Christ! Just think of it! Then, you remember, how Peter and

the other disciples, were more than once quarreling as to who was to be the

chief--self-exaltation, self-pleasing;--every one wanted the chief seat in

the Kingdom of God. Then again, remember the last night, when Christ warned

Peter that Satan had desired to sift him and that he would deny Him; and

Peter said twice over, "Lord, if they all deny Thee, I am ready to go to

prison and to death." What self-confidence! He was sure that his heart was

right. He loved Jesus, but he trusted himself. "I will never deny my Lord.!

Don't you see the whole of that life of Peter is carnal confidence in

himself. In his carnal pride, in his carnal unlovingness, in the carnal

liberty he took in contradicting Jesus, it was all just the life of the

flesh. Peter loved Jesus. God had by the Holy Spirit, taught him. Christ had

said, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but My Father which

is in heaven." God had taught him that Christ was the Son of God; but with

all that, Peter was just under the power of the flesh; and that is why

Christ said at Gethsemane, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is

weak."--"You are under the power of the flesh, you cannot watch with Me."

Dear reader, what did it all lead to? The flesh led not only to the sins I

have mentioned, but last of all to the saddest of things, to Peter's actual

denial of Jesus. Three times over he told the lie; and once with an oath, "I

know not the man." He denied his blessed Lord. That is what it comes to with

the life of the flesh. That is Peter.

Now, look in the second place at Peter after he became a spiritual man.

Christ had taught Peter a great deal. I think, if you count carefully, you

will find some seven or eight times, Christ had spoken to the disciples

about humility; He had taken a little child and set him in the midst of

them; He had said, "He that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that

humbleth himself shall be exalted; He had said that three or four times; He

had at the last supper washed their feet; but all had not taught Peter

humility. All Christ's instructions were in vain. Remember that now. A man

who is not spiritual, though he may read his Bible, though he may study

God's Word, cannot conquer sin, because he is not living the life of the

Holy Spirit. God has so ordered it, that man cannot live a right Christian

life unless he is full of the Holy Ghost. Do you wonder at what I say? Have

you been accustomed to think,--"Full of the Holy Ghost, that is what the

Apostles had to be on the day of Pentecost; that is what the martyrs and the

ministers had to be; but for every man to be full of the Holy Ghost, that is

too high"? I tell you solemnly, unless you believe that, you will never

become thorough-going Christians. I must be full of the Holy Spirit if I am

to be a whole-hearted Christian.

Then, note what change took place in Peter. The Lord Jesus led him up

to Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came from heaven upon him, and what took

place? The old Peter was gone, and he was a new Peter. Just read his

epistle, and note the keynote of the epistle. "Through suffering to glory."

Peter, who had said, "Of course, Lord, you never can suffer, or be

crucified;" Peter, who, to save himself suffering or shame, had denied

Christ,--Peter becomes so changed that when he writes his epistle the chief

thought is the very thought of Christ, "Suffering is the way to glory." Do

you not see that the Holy Spirit had changed Peter?

And look at other aspects. Look at Peter. He was so weak that a woman

could frighten him into denying Christ; but when the Holy Spirit came he was

bold, bold, bold to confess his Lord at any cost, was ready to go to prison

and to death, for Christ's sake. The Holy Spirit had changed the man. Look

at his views of Divine truth. He could not understand what Christ taught

him, he could not take it in. It was impossible before the death of Christ;

but on the day of Pentecost how he is able to expound the word of God as a

spiritual man! I tell you, beloved, when the Holy Ghost comes upon a man he

becomes a spiritual man, and instead of denying his Lord he denies himself,

just remember that. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew when Peter had said,

"Lord, be it far from Thee, this shall never happen that Thou shalt be

crucified," Christ said to Him: "Peter, not only will I be crucified, but

you will have to be crucified too. If any man is to be My disciple, let him

take up his cross to die upon it, let him deny himself, and let him follow

Me." How did Peter obey that command? He went and denied Jesus! As long as a

man, a Christian, is under the power of the flesh, he is continually denying

Jesus. You always must do one of the two, you must deny self or you must

deny Jesus, and, alas, Peter denied his Lord rather than deny himself. On

the other hand, when the Holy Spirit came upon him, he could not deny his

Lord, but he could deny himself, and he praised God for the privilege of

suffering for Christ.

Now, how did the change come about? The words of my text tell us,--"And

Peter went out and wept bitterly." What does that mean? It means this, that

the Lord led Peter to come to the end of himself, to see what was in his

heart, and with his self-confidence to fall into the very deepest sin that a

child of God could be guilty of;--publicly, with an oath, to deny his Lord

Jesus! When Peter stood there in that great sin, the loving Jesus looked

upon him, and that look, full of loving reproach, loving pity, pierced like

an arrow through the heart of Peter, and he went out and wept bitterly.

Praise God, that was the end of self-confident Peter! Praise God, that was

the turning point of his life! He went out with a shame that no tongue can

express. He woke up as out of a dream to the terrible reality "I have helped

to crucify the blessed Son of God." No man can fathom what Peter must have

passed through that Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning. But, blessed be

God, on that Sunday Jesus revealed Himself to Peter, we know not how, but

"He was seen of Simon;" then in the evening He came to him with the other

disciples and breathed peace, and the Holy Spirit upon him; and then, later

on, you know how the Lord asked him, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou

me?"--three times, until Peter was sorrowful, and said, "Lord, thou knowest

all things, thou knowest that I love thee." What was it that wrought the

transition from the love of the flesh to the love of the Spirit? I tell you,

that was the beginning,--"Peter went out and wept bitterly," with a broken

heart, with a heart that would give anything to show its love to Jesus. With

a heart that had learned to give up all self-confidence, Peter was prepared

for the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

And, now, you can easily see the application of this story. Are there

not many just living the life of Peter, of the self-confident Peter as he

was? Are there not many who are mourning under the consciousness, "I am so

unfaithful to my Lord, I have no power against the flesh, I cannot conquer

my temper, I give way just like Peter to the fear of man, of company, for

people can influence me and make me do things I do not want to do, and I

have no power to resist them? Circumstances get the mastery over me, and I

then say and do things that I am ashamed of."? Is there not more than one,

who, in answer to the question, "Are you living as a man filled with the

Spirit, devoted to Jesus, following Him, fully giving up all for Him?"--must

say with sorrow, "God knows I am not. Alas, my heart knows it."? You say it,

and I come, and I press you with the question, Is not your position, and

your character, and your conduct, just like that of Peter? Like Peter, you

love Jesus, like Peter you know He is the Christ of God, like Peter you are

very zealous in working for Him. Peter had cast out devils in His name, and

had preached the gospel, and had healed the sick. Like Peter you have tried

to work for Jesus; but, oh! under it all, isn't there something that comes

up continually? Oh, Christian, what is it? I pray, and I try, and I do long

to live a holy life, but the flesh is too strong, and sin gets the better of

me, and continually I am pleasing self instead of denying it, and denying

Jesus instead of pleasing Him. Come, all who are willing to make that

confession, and let me ask you to look quietly at the other life that is

possible for you.

Just as the Lord Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to Peter, He is willing to

give the Holy Spirit to you. Are you willing to receive Him? Are you willing

to give up yourself entirely as an empty, helpless vessel, to receive the

power of the Holy Spirit, to live, to dwell, and to work in you every day?

Dear believer, God has prepared such a beautiful and such a blessed life for

every one of us, and God as a Father is waiting to see why you will not come

to Him and let Him fill you with the Holy Ghost. Are you willing for it? I

am sure some are. There are some who have said often, "O God, why can't I

live that life?--Why can't I live every hour of unbroken fellowship with

God?--Why can't I enjoy what my Father has given me, all the riches of His

grace? It is for me He gave it, and why can't I enjoy it?" There are those

who say, "Why can't I abide in Christ every day, and every hour, and every

moment?--why can't I have the light of my Father's love filling my heart all

the day long? Tell me, servant of God, what can help me?"

I can tell you one thing that will help you. What helped Peter? "Peter

went out and wept bitterly." It must come with us to a conviction of sin; it

must come with us to a real downright earnest repentance, or we never can

get into the better life. We must stop complaining and confessing, "Yes, my

life is not what it should be, and I will try to do better." That won't help

you. What will help you? This,--that you go down in despair to lie at the

feet of Jesus, and that you begin with a very real and bitter shame to make

confession, "Lord Jesus, have compassion upon me! For these many years I

have been a Christian, but there are so many sins from which I have not

cleansed myself,--temper, pride, jealousy, envy, sharp words, unkind

judgments, unforgiving thoughts." One must say, "There is a friend whom I

never have forgiven for what he has said." Another must say, "There is an

enemy whom I dislike, I cannot say that I can love him." Another must say,

"There are things in my business that I would not like brought out into the

light of man." Another must say, "I am led captive by the law of sin and

death." Oh, Christians, come and make confession with shame and say, "I have

been bought with the Blood, I have been washed with the Blood, but just

think of what a life I have been living! I am ashamed of it." Bow before God

and ask Him by the Holy Spirit to make you more deeply ashamed, and to work

in you that Divine contrition. I pray you take the step at once. "Peter went

out and wept bitterly," and that was his salvation; yes, that was the

turning point of his life. And shall we not fall upon our faces before God,

and make confession, and get down on our knees under the burden of the

terrible load, and say, "I know I am a believer, but I am not living as I

should to the glory of my God. I am under the power of the flesh and all the

self-confidence, and self-will, and self-pleasing that marks my life."

Dear Christians, do you not long to be brought nigh unto God? Would you

not give anything to walk in close fellowship with Jesus every day? Would

you not count it a pearl of great price to have the light and love of God

shining in you all the day? Oh, come and fall down and make confession of

sin; and, if you will do it, Jesus will come and meet you and He will ask

you, "Lovest thou Me?" And, if you say, "Yes, Lord," very quickly He will

ask again, "Lovest thou Me?"--and if you say, "Yes, Lord," again, He will

ask a third time, "Lovest thou Me?"--and your heart will be filled with an

unutterable sadness, and your heart will get still more broken down and

bruised by the question, and you will say, "Lord, I have not lived as I

should, but still I love Thee and I give myself to Thee." Oh, beloved may

God give us grace now, that, with Peter, we may go out, and, if need be,

weep bitterly. If we do not weep bitterly,--we are not going to force

tears--shall we not sigh very deeply, and bow very humbly, and cry very

earnestly, "O God, reveal to me the carnal life in which I have been living:

reveal to me what has been hindering me from having my life full of the Holy

Ghost"? Shall we not cry, "Lord, break my heart into utter self-despair,

and, oh! bring me in helplessness to wait for the Divine power, for the

power of the Holy Ghost, to take possession and to fill me with a new life

given all to Jesus?"

IV. OUT OF AND INTO

And He brought us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to

give us the land which He sware unto our Fathers." --Deut. 6:23.

I have spoken of the crisis that comes in the life of the man who sees that

his Christian experience is low and carnal, and who desires to enter into

the full life of God. Some Christians do not understand that there should be

such a crisis. They think that they ought, from the day of their conversion,

to continue to grow and progress. I have no objections to that, if they have

grown as they ought. If their life has been so strong under the power of the

Holy Ghost that they have grown as true believers should grow, I certainly

have no objection to this. But I want to deal with those Christians whose

life since conversion has been very much a failure, and who feel it to be

such because of their not being filled with the Spirit, as is their blessed

privilege. I want to say for their encouragement, that by taking one step,

they can get out into the life of rest, and victory, and fellowship with God

to which the promises of God invite them.

Look at the elder son in the parable. How long would it have taken him

to get out of that state of blindness and bondage into the full condition of

sonship? By believing in his father's love, he might have gotten out that

very hour. If he had been powerfully convicted of his guilt in his unbelief,

and had confessed like his prodigal brother, "I have sinned," he would have

come that very moment into the favor of the son's happiness in his father's

home. He would not have been detained by having a great deal to learn, and a

great deal to do; but in one moment, his whole relation would have been

changed.

Remember, too, what we saw in Peter's case. In one moment, the look of

Jesus broke him down and there came to him the terribly bitter reflection of

his sin, owing to his selfish, fleshly confidence, a contrition and

reflection which laid the foundation for his new and better life with Jesus.

God's word brings out the idea of the Christian's entrance into the new and

better life by the history of the people of Israel's entrance into the land

of Canaan.

In our text, we have these words:--"God brought us out from thence

(Egypt), that He might bring us in" into Canaan. There are two steps: one

was bringing them out; and the other was bringing them in. So in the life of

the believer, there are ordinarily two steps quite separate from each

other;--the bringing him out of sin and the world; and the bringing him into

a state of complete rest afterward. It was the intention of God that Israel

should enter the land of Canaan from Kadesh-Barnea, immediately after He had

made His covenant with them at Sinai. But they were not ready to enter at

once, on account of their sin and unbelief, and disobedience. They had to

wander after that for forty years in the wilderness. Now, look how God led

the people. In Egypt, there was a great crisis, where they had first to pass

through the Red Sea, which is a figure of conversion; and when they went

into Canaan, there was, as it were, a second conversion in passing through

the Jordan. At our conversion, we get into liberty, out of the bondage of

Egypt; but, when we fail to use our liberty through unbelief and

disobedience, we wander in the wilderness for a longer or shorter period

before we enter into the Canaan of victory, and rest, and abundance. Thus

God does for His Israel two things:--He brings them out of Egypt; and He

lead them into Canaan.

My message, then, is to ask this question of the believer:--Since you

know you are converted and God has brought you out of Egypt, have you yet

come into the land of Canaan? If not, are you willing that he should bring

you into the fuller liberty and rest provided for His people? He brought

Israel out of Egypt by a mighty hand, and the same mighty hand brought us

out of our land of bondage; with the same mighty hand, He brought his

ancient people into rest, and by that hand, too, He can bring us into our

true rest. The same God who pardoned and regenerated us--is waiting to

perfect His love in us, if we but trust Him. Are there many hearts

saying:--"I believe that God brought me out of bondage twenty, or thirty, or

forty years ago; but alas! I cannot say that I have been brought into the

happy land of rest and victory?"

How glorious was the rest of Canaan after all the wanderings in the

wilderness! And so is it with the Christian who reaches the better promised

Canaan of rest, when he comes to leave all his charge with the Lord

Jesus--his responsibilities, anxieties, and worry; his only work being to

hand the keeping of his soul into the hand of Jesus every day and hour. and

the Lord can keep, and give the victory over every enemy. Jesus has

undertaken not only to cleans our sin, and bring us to heaven, but also to

keep us in our daily life.

I ask again:--Are you hungering to get free from sin and its

power?--Anyone longing to get complete victory over his temper, his pride,

and all his evil inclinations?--Hearts longing for the time when no clouds

will come between them and their God?--Longing to walk in the full sunshine

of God's loving favour? The very God who brought you from the Egypt of

darkness is ready and able to bring you also into the Canaan of rest.

And now comes the question again:--What is the way by which God will

bring me to this rest? What is needed on my part if God is really to bring

me into the happy land? I give the answer first of all by asking another

question:--Are you willing to forsake your wanderings in the wilderness? If

you say "We do not want to leave our wanderings, where we have had so many

wonderful indications of God's presence with us; so many remarkable proofs

of the Divine care and goodness, like that of the ancient people of God, who

had the pillar to guide them, and the manna given them every day for forty

years; Moses and Aaron to lead and advise them. The wilderness is to us, on

account of these things, a kind of sacred place; and we are loath to leave

it." If the children of Israel had said anything of this kind to Joshua, he

would have said to them (and we all would have said):--"Oh, you fools: It is

the very God who gave you the pillar of cloud and the other blessings in the

wilderness, who tells you how to come into the land flowing with milk and

honey." And so I can speak to you in the same way; I bring you the message

that He who has brought you thus far on your journey, and given you such

blessings thus far, is the God who will bring you into the Canaan of

complete victory and rest.

The first question, then, that I would ask you is,

ARE YOU READY TO LEAVE THE WILDERNESS?

You know the mark of Israel's life in the wilderness--the cause of all

their troubles there--was unbelief. They did not believe that God could take

them into the promised land. And then followed many sins and

failures--lusting, idolatry, murmuring, etc. That has, perhaps, been your

life, beloved; you do not believe that God will fulfill His word. You do not

believe in the possibility of unbroken fellowship with Him, and unlimited

partnership. On account of that, you become disobedient, and did not live

like a child doing God's will, because you did not believe that God could

give you the victory over sin. Are you willing now to leave that wilderness

life? Sometimes you are, perhaps, enjoying fellowship with God, and

sometimes you are separated from Him; sometimes you have nearness to Him,

and at other times great distance from Him; sometimes you have a willingness

to walk closely with Him, but sometimes there is even unwillingness. Are you

now going to give up your whole life to Him? Are you going to approach Him

and say, "My God, I do not want to do anything that will be displeasing to

Thee; I want Thee to keep me from all worldliness, from all self-pleasure; I

want Thee, O God, to help me to live like Peter after Pentecost, filled with

the Holy Ghost, and not like carnal Peter."

Beloved, are you willing to say this? Are you willing to give up your

sins, to walk with God continually, to submit yourself wholly to the will of

God, and have no will of your own apart from His will? Are you going to live

a perfect life? I hop you are, for I believe in such a life;--not perhaps in

the sense in which you understand "perfection"--entire freedom from

wrong-doing and all inclination to it, for while we live in the flesh the

flesh will lust against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; but the

perfection spoken of in the Old Testament as practiced by some of God's

saints, who are said to have "served the Lord with a perfect heart." What is

this perfection? A state in which your hearts will be set on perfect

integrity without any reserve, and your will wholly subservient to God's

will. Are you willing for such a perfection, with your whole heart turned

away from the world and given to God alone? Are you going to say, "No, I do

not expect that I will ever give up my self-will."? It is the devil tempting

you to think it will be too hard for you. Oh! I would plead with God's

children just to look at the will of God, so full of blessing, of holiness,

of love; will you not give up your guilty will for that blessed will of God?

A man can do it in one moment when he comes to see that God can change his

will for him. Then he may say farewell to his old will, as Peter did when he

went out and wept bitterly, and when the Holy Spirit filled his soul on the

day of Pentecost. Joshua "wholly followed the Lord his God." He failed,

indeed, before the enemy at Ai, because he trusted too much to human agency,

and not sufficiently to God; and he failed in the same manner when he made a

covenant with the Gibeonites; but still, his spirit and power differed very

widely from that of the people whose unbelief drove them before their

enemies and kept them in the wilderness. Let us be willing wholly to serve

the Lord our God, and "make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts

thereof." Let us believe in the love and power of God to keep us day by day,

and put "no confidence in the flesh."

Then comes the second step:--"I must believe that such a life in the

land of Canaan is a possible life." Yes, many a one will say, "Ah! what

would I give to get out of the wilderness life! But I cannot believe that it

is possible to live in this constant communion with God. You don't know my

difficulties--my business cares and perplexities; I have all sorts of people

to associate with; have gone out in the morning braced up by communion with

God in prayer, but the pressure of business before night has driven out of

my heart all that warmth of love that I had, and the world has gotten in and

made the heart as cold as before." But we must remember again what it was

that kept Israel out of Canaan. When Caleb and Joshua said, "We are able to

overcome the enemy," the ten spies, and the six hundred thousand answered,

"We cannot do it; they are too strong for us." Take care, dear reader, that

we do not repeat their sin, and provoke God as these unbelievers did. He

says, it is possible to bring us into the land of rest and peace; and I

believe it because He has said so, and because He will do it if I trust Him.

Your temper may be terrible; your pride may have bound you a hundred times;

your temptations may "compass you about like bees," but there is victory for

you if you will but trust the promises of God.

Looking again at Peter. He had failed again and again, and went from

bad to worse until he came to denying Christ with oaths. But what a change

came over him! Just study the first epistle of Peter, and you will see that

the very life of Christ had entered into him. He shows the spirit of true

humility, so different from his former self-confidence; and glorying in

God's will instead of in his own. He had made a full surrender to Christ,

and was trusting entirely in Him. Come therefore to-day and say to God,

"Thou didst so change selfish, proud Peter, and Thou canst change me

likewise." Yes, God is able to bring you into Canaan, the land of rest. You

know the first half of the 8th of Romans. Have you noticed the expressions

that are to be found there--"The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus

hath made me free from the law of sin and death". To walk after the spirit;

To be after the spirit; To be in the Spirit; To have the Spirit dwelling in

us. Through the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body; To be led by the

Spirit; To be spiritually minded. These are all blessings which come when we

bind ourselves wholly to live in the Spirit. If we live after the Spirit we

have the very nature of the Spirit in us. If we live in the Spirit, we shall

be led by Him every day and every moment. What if you were to open your

heart to-day to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Would He not be able to keep

you every moment in the sweet rest of God? and would not His mighty arm give

you a complete victory over sin and temptation of every kind, and make you

able to live in perpetual fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus

Christ? Most certainly! This, then, is the second step; this is the blessed

life God has provided for us. First, God brought us out of Egypt; secondly,

He brings us into Canaan. Then comes--

Thirdly, the question,

HOW DOES GOD BRING US IN?

By leading us in a very definite act, viz., that of committing

ourselves wholly to Him;--entrusting ourselves to Him, that He may bring us

into the land of rest, and keep us in.

You remember that the Jordan at the time of harvest overflowed its

banks. The hundreds of thousands of Israel were on the side of the river

from Canaan. They were told that tomorrow, God would do wonderful things for

them. The trumpet would sound, and the priests would take up the ark--the

symbol of God's presence--and pass over before the people. But there lay the

swollen river still. If there still unbelieving children among the the

people, they would say, "What fools, to attempt to cross now! This is not

the time to attempt fording the river, for it is now twenty feet deep." But

the believing people gathered together behind the priests with the ark. They

obeyed the command of Joshua to advance; but they knew not what God was

going to do? The priests walked right into the water, and the hearts of some

began to tremble. They would perhaps ask, "Where is the rod of Moses?" But,

as the priests walked straight on and stepped into the water, the waters

rose up on the upper side in to a high wall, and flowed away on the other

side, and a clear passage was made for the whole camp. Now, it was God that

did this for the people; and it was because Joshua and the people believed

and obeyed God. The same God will do it to-day, if we believe and trust Him.

Am I addressing a soul who is saying:--I remember how God first brought

me out of the land of bondage. I was in complete darkness of soul and was

deeply troubled. I did not at first believe that God could take me out, and

that I could become a child of God. But, at last, God took me and brought me

to trust in Jesus, and He led me out safely." Friend, you have the same God

now who brought you out of bondage with a high hand; and can lead you into

the place of rest. Look to Him and say, "O God, make an end of my wilderness

life--my sinful and unbelieving life,--a life of grieving Thee. Oh, bring me

to-day into the land of victory and rest and blessing!" Is this the prayer

of your hearts, dear friends? Are you going to give up yourselves to Him to

do this for you? Can you trust Him that He is able and willing to do it for

you. He can take you through the swollen river this very moment;--yes, this

very moment.

And He can do more: After Israel had crossed the river, the Captain of

the Lord's host had to come and encourage Joshua, promising to take charge

of the army and remain with them. You need the power of God's Spirit to

enable you to overcome sin and temptation. You need to live in His

fellowship--in His unbroken fellowship, without which you cannot stand or

conquer. If you are to venture to-day, say by faith "My God, I know that

Jesus Christ is willing to be the Captain of my salvation, and to conquer

every enemy for me, He will keep me by faith and by His Holy Spirit; and

though it be dark to me, and as if the waters would pass over my soul, and

though my condition seem hopeless, I will walk forward, for God is going to

bring me in to-day, and I am going to follow Him. My God, I follow Thee now

into the promised land."

Perhaps some have already entered in, and the angels have seen them,

while they have been reading these solemn words. Is there anyone still

hesitating because the waters of Jordan look threatening and impassable?

Oh! come, beloved soul; come at once, and doubt not.

V. THE BLESSING SECURED

"Be filled with the Spirit."--Ephesians, 5:18.

I may have some air, a little air, in my lungs, but not enough to keep up a

healthy, vigorous life. But everyone seeks to have his lungs well filled

with air, and the benefit of it will be felt in his blood and through his

whole being. And just so the word of God comes to us, and says, "Christians,

do not be content with thinking that you have the Spirit, or have a little

of the Spirit; but, if you want to have a healthy life, be "filled with the

Spirit." Is that your life? Or are you ready to cry out, "Alas, I do not

know what it is to be filled with the Spirit, but it is what I long for." I

want to point out to such the path to come to this great, precious blessing

which is meant for everyone of us.

Before I speak further of it, let me just note one misunderstanding

which prevails. People often look upon being "filled with the Spirit" as

something that comes with a mighty stirring of the emotions, a sort of

heavenly glory that comes over them, something that they can feel strongly

and mightily; but that is not always the case. I was recently in Niagara

Falls. I noticed, and I was told, that the water was unusually low. Suppose

the river were doubly full, how would you see that fulness in the Falls? In

the increased volume of water pouring over the cataract, and its tremendous

noise. But go to another part of the river, or to the lake, where the very

same fulness is found, and there is perfect quiet and placidity, the rise of

the water is gentle and gradual, and you can hardly notice that there is any

disturbance as the lake gets full. And just so it may be with a child of

God. To one it comes with mighty emotion and with a blessed consciousness,

"God has touched me!" To others it comes in a gentle filling of the whole

being with the presence and the power of God by His Spirit. I do not want to

lay down the way in which it is to come to you, but I want you simply to

take your place before God, and say, "My Father, whatever it may mean, that

is what I want." If you come and give yourself up as an empty vessel and

trust God to fill you, God will do His own work.

And now, the simple question as to the steps by which we can come to be

"filled with the Spirit." I shall note four steps in the way by which a man

can attain this wonderful blessing. He must say, (1), "I must have it,"

then, (2), "I may have it," and, then, (3) "I will have it," and then, last,

Thank God, "I shall have it."

1. The first word a man must begin to say, is, "I must have it." He

must feel "It is a command of God, and I cannot live unfilled with the

Spirit without disobeying God." It is a command here in this text,--"Be not

drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit." Just as much as a man dare

not get drunk, if he is a Christian, just as much must a man be filled with

the Spirit. God wants it, and oh, that every one might be brought to say, "I

must, if I am to please God, I must be filled with the Spirit!"

I fear there is a terrible, terrible self-satisfaction among many

Christians,--they are content with their low level of life. They think they

have the Spirit because they are converted, but they know very little of the

joy of the Holy Ghost, and of the sanctifying power of the Spirit. They know

very little of the fellowship of the Spirit linking them to God and to

Jesus. They know very little of the power of the Spirit to testify for God,

and yet they are content; and one says, "Oh, it is only for eminent

Christians." A very dear young friend once said to me as I was talking to

her--(it was a niece of my own)--"Oh, Uncle Andrew, I cannot try to make

myself better than the Christians around me. Wouldn't that be presumptuous?"

And I said, "My child, you must not ask what the Christians around you are,

but you must be guided by what God says." She has since confessed to me how

bitterly ashamed she has become of that expression, and how she went to God

to seek His blessing. Oh, friends, do not be content with that half

Christian life that many of you are living, but say, "God wants it, God

commands it; I must be filled with the Spirit."

And look not only at God's command, but look at the need of your own

soul. You are a parent, and you want your children blessed and converted,

and you complain that you haven't power to bless them. You say, "My home

must be filled with God's Spirit." You complain of your own soul, of times

of darkness and of leanness; you complain of watchlessness and wandering. A

young minister once said to me, "Oh, why is it I have such a delight in

study and so little delight in prayer?"--and my answer was, "My brother,

your heart must get filled with a love for God and Jesus, and then you will

delight in prayer." You complain sometimes that you cannot pray. You pray so

short, you do not know what to pray, something drags you back from the

closet. It is because you are living a life, trying to live a life, without

being filled with the Spirit. Oh, think of the needs of the church around

you. You are a Sunday School teacher; you are trying to teach a class of ten

or twelve children, not one of them, perhaps, converted, and they go out

from under you unconverted; you are trying to do a heavenly work in the

power of the flesh and earth. Sunday School teachers, do begin to say, "I

must be filled with the Spirit of God, or I must give up the charge of those

young souls; I cannot teach them."

Or, think of the need of the world. If you were to send out

missionaries full of the Holy Ghost, what a blessing that would be! Why is

it, that many a missionary complains in the foreign field, "There I learned

how weak and how unfit I am?" It is because the churches from which they go

are not filled with the Holy Ghost. Someone said to me in England a few

weeks ago, "They talk so much about the volunteer movement and more

missionaries; but we want something else, we want missionaries filled with

the Holy Ghost." If the church is to come right, and the mission field is to

come right, we must each begin with himself. It must begin with you. Begin

with yourself and say, "O God, for Thy sake; O God, for Thy church's sake; O

God, for the sake of the world, help me! I must be filled with the Holy

Ghost."

What folly it would be for a man who had lost a lung and a half, and

had hardly a quarter of a lung to do the work of two, to expect to be a

strong man and to do hard work, and to live in any climate! And what folly

for a man to expect to live--God has told him he cannot live--a full

Christian life, unless he is full of the Holy Ghost! And what folly for a

man who has only got a little drop of the river of the water of life to

expect to live and to have power with God and man! Jesus wants us to come

and to receive the fulfillment of the promise, "He that believeth in Me,

streams of water shall flow out from him." Oh, begin to say, "If I am to

live a right life, if I am in every part of my daily life and conduct to

glorify my God, I must have the Holy Spirit--I must be filled with the

Spirit." Are you going to say that? Talking for months and months won't

help. Do submit to God, and as an act of submission say, "Lord, I confess

it, I ought to be filled, I must be filled; help me!" And God will help you.

And, then comes the second step, I may be filled. The first had

reference to duty; the second has reference to privilege--I may be filled.

Alas! So many have got accustomed to their low state that they do not

believe that they may, they can, actually be filled. And what right have I

to say that you ought to take these words into your lips? My right is

this--God wants healthy children. I say to-day a child of six months old, as

beautiful and chubby as you could wish a child to be, and with what delight

the eyes of the father and the mother looked upon him, and how glad I was to

see a healthy child. And, oh; do you think that God in Heaven does not care

for His children, and that God wants some of His children to live a sickly

life? I tell you, it is a lie! God wants every child of His to be a healthy

Christian; but you cannot be a healthy Christian unless you are filled with

God's Spirit. Beloved, we have got accustomed to a style of life, and we see

good Christians--as we call them--earnest men and women, full of failings;

and we think, "Well, that is human; that man loses his temper, and that man

is not as kind as he should be, and that man's word cannot be trusted always

as ought to be the case; but--but--" And in daily life we look upon

Christians and think, "Well, if they are very faithful in going to church

and in giving to God's cause, and in attending the prayer meeting, and in

having family prayers, and in their profession." Of course we thank God for

them and say, "We wish there were more such," but we forget to ask, "What

does God want?" Oh, that we might see that "It is meant for me and for

everyone else." My brother, my sister, there is a God in Heaven who has been

longing for these past years, while you never thought about it, to fill you

with the Holy Ghost. God longs to give the fulness of the Spirit to every

child of His.

They were poor heathen Ephesians, only lately brought out from

heathendom, to whom Paul wrote this letter,--people among whom there still

was stealing and lying, for they had only just come out from heathendom; but

Paul said to every one of these, "Be filled with the Spirit." God is ready

to do it; God wants to do it. Oh, do not listen to the temptations of the

devil, "This is only meant for some eminent people,--a Christian who has a

great deal of free time to devote to prayer and to seeking after it,--a man

of a receptive temperament,--that is the man to be filled with the Spirit.

Who is there that dare say, "I cannot be filled with the Spirit." Who will

dare to say that? If any of you speak thus it is because you are unwilling

to give up sin. Do not think that you cannot be filled with the Spirit

because God is not willing to give it to you. Did not the Lord Jesus promise

the Spirit? Is not the Holy Spirit the best part of His salvation? Do you

think He gives half a salvation to any of His redeemed ones? Is not His

promise for all, "He that believeth in me, rivers of water shall flow out of

him"? This is more than fulness- this is overflow; and this Jesus has

promised to everyone who believes in Him. Oh, cast aside your fears, and

your doubts, and your hesitation, and say at once, "I can be filled with the

Spirit; I may be filled with the Spirit. There is nothing in heaven, or

earth, or hell, can prevent it, because God has promised and God is waiting

to do it for me." Are you ready to say, "I may I can, I can be filled with

the Spirit, for God has promised it, and God will give it."?

And then we get to the third step, when a man says, "I will have it; I

must have it; I may have it; I will have it." You know what this means in

ordinary things, "I will have it," and he goes and does everything that is

to be done to get permission. Very often a man comes and he wants to buy

something, and he wishes for it; but wishing is not willing. I want to buy

that horse, and a man asks of me $200 for it, but I don't want to give more

than $180. I wish for it, I wish for it very much, and I can go and say, "Do

give it me for the $180; and he says, "No, $200." I love the horse, it is

just what I want, but I am not willing to give the $200; and at last he

says, "Well, you must give me an answer; I can get another purchaser;" and

at last I say, "No, I won't have it; I want it very much, I long for it, but

I won't give the price."

Dear friends, are you going to say, "I will have this blessing?" What

does that mean? It means, first of all, of course, that you are going to

look around into your life, and if you see anything wrong there, it means

that you are going to confess it to Jesus and say, "Lord, I cast it at Thy

feet; it may be rooted in my heart, but I will give it up to Thee, I cannot

take it out, but Jesus, Thou cleanser of sin, I give it to Thee." Let it be

temper, or pride; let it be money, or lust, or pleasure; let it be the fear

of man; let it be anything;--but, oh, say to Christ at once, "I will have

this blessing at any cost." Oh, give up every sin to Jesus.

And it means not only giving up every sin, but--what is deeper than

sin, and more difficult to get at--it means giving up yourself--self, with

your will, and your pleasure, and your honor, and all you have, and saying,

"Jesus, I am from this moment going to give myself up, that by Thy Holy

Spirit Thou mayest take possession of me, and that Thou mayest by Thy Spirit

turn out whatever is sinful, and take entire command of me." This looks

difficult so long as Satan blinds, and makes us think it would be a hard

thing to give up all that; but if God opens our eyes for one minute to see

what a heavenly blessedness, and what heavenly riches and heavenly glory it

is to be filled with the Spirit out of the heart of Jesus, then we will say,

"I will give anything, anything, ANYTHING but I will have the blessing."

And then, it means that you are just to cast yourself at His feet and

to say, "Lord, I will have the blessing."

Ah, Satan often tempts us, and says, "Suppose God were to ask that of

you, would you be willing to give it?"--and he makes us afraid. But how many

have found, and have been able to tell about it, that when once they have

said, "Lord, anything and everything!" the light and the joy of heaven

filled their hearts.

Last year at Johannesburg, the gold fields of South Africa, at an

afternoon meeting we had one day testimony, and a woman rose up and told us

how her pastor two months ago had held a consecration service in a tent, and

he had spoken strongly about consecration, and had said, "Now, if God were

to send your husband away to China, or if God were to ask you to go away to

America, would you be willing for it? You must give yourself up entirely."

And the woman said--and her face beamed with brightness when she

spoke,--when, at the close of the meeting he asked those to rise who were

willing to give up all to be filled with the Spirit, she said, "The struggle

was terrible; God may take away my husband or my children from me, and am I

ready for it? Oh, Jesus is very precious, but I cannot say I will give up

all. But I will tell Him I do want to do it."--and at last she stood up. She

said she went home that night in a terrible struggle, and she could not

sleep, for the thought was, "I said to Jesus everything, and could I give up

husband or child?" The struggle continued till midnight, "but," she said, "I

would not let go; I said to Jesus, `everything, but fill me with Thyself.'"

And the joy of the Holy Spirit came down upon her, and her minister who sat

there told me afterwards that the testimony was a true one, and for the two

months her life had been one of exceeding brightness and of heavenly joy.

Oh, is any reader tempted to say, "I cannot give up all"? I take you by

the hand, my brother, my sister, and I bring you to the crucified Jesus, and

I say, "Just look at Him, how He loved you on Calvary; just look at Him."

Just look at Jesus! He offers actually to fill your heart with His Holy

Spirit, with the Spirit of His love and of His fulness, and of His power,

actually to make your heart full of the Holy Spirit; and do you dare to say,

"I am afraid,"--do you dare to say, "I cannot do that for Jesus"? or will

your heart not, at His feet, cry out, "Lord Jesus, anything, but I must be

filled with Thy Spirit!" Haven't you often prayed for the presence and the

abiding nearness and the love of Jesus to fill you?--but that cannot be

until you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Oh, come and say, in view of any

sacrifice, "I will have it, by God's help! Not in my strength, but by the

help of God, I will have it!"

And then comes my last point. Say, "I shall have it." Praise God that a

man dare say that, "I shall have it." Yes, when a man has made up his mind;

when a man has been brought to a conviction and a sorrow for his sinful

life; when a man, like Peter, has wept bitterly or has sighed deeply before

God, "Oh, my Lord, what a life I have been living!"--when a man has felt

wretched in the thought, "I am not living the better life, the Jesus life,

the Spirit life;"--when a man begins to feel that, and when he comes and

makes surrender, and casts himself upon God and claims the promise, "Lord, I

may have it; it is for me,"--what think you? Hasn't he a right to say, "I

shall have it"? Yes, beloved, and I give to every one of you that message

from God, that if you are willing, and if you are ready, God is willing and

ready to close the bargain at once. Yes, you can have it now, now! without

any outburst of feeling, without any flooding of the heart with light, you

may have it. To some it comes in that way but to many not. As a quiet

transaction of the surrendered will, you can lift up your heart in faith and

say, "O God, here I do give myself as an empty vessel to be filled with the

Holy Ghost. I give myself up once for all and forever. `"Tis done, the great

transaction's done.'" You can say it now if you will take your place before

God.

Oh, ministers of the gospel, have you never felt the need of being

filled with the Holy Ghost? Your heart perhaps tells you that you know

nothing of that blessing. Oh, workers for Christ, have you never felt a

need, "I must be filled with the Holy Ghost"? Oh, children of God, have you

never felt a hope rise within you, "I may have this blessing, I hear of from

others"? Will you not take the step and say, "I will have it"? Say it, not

in your own strength, but in self-despair. Never mind though it appears as

if the heart is all cold and closed up, never mind; but as an act of

obedience and of surrender, as an act of the will, cast yourself before

Jesus and trust Him. "I shall have it, for I now give up myself into the

arms of my Lord Jesus, I shall have it, for it is the delight of Jesus to

give the Holy Spirit from the Father, into the heart of everyone. I shall

have it, for I do believe in Jesus, and He promised me that out of him that

believeth shall flow rivers of living water. I shall have it! I SHALL have

it! I will cling to the feet of Jesus, I will stay at the throne of God; I

shall have it, for God is faithful, and God has promised."

VI. THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST

"But straightway Jesus spake unto them saying, Be of good cheer,

it is I, be not afraid."--Matt. 14:27.

All we have had about the work of the blessed Spirit is dependent upon what

we think of Jesus, for it is from Christ Jesus that the Spirit comes to us;

it is to Christ Jesus that the Spirit ever brings us; and the one need of

the Christian life day by day and hour by hour is this,--the presence of the

Son of God. God is our salvation. If I have Christ with me and Christ in me,

I have full salvation. We have spoken about the life of failure and of the

flesh, about the life of unbelief and disobedience, about the life of ups

and downs, the wilderness life of sadness and of sorrow; but we have heard,

and we have believed, there is deliverance. Bless God, He brought us out of

Egypt, that He might bring us into Canaan, into the very rest of God and

Jesus Christ. He is our peace, He is our rest. Oh, if I may only have the

presence of Jesus as the victory over every sin: the presence of Jesus as

the strength for every duty, then my life shall be in the full sunshine of

God's unbroken fellowship, and the word will be fulfilled to me in most

blessed experience, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all I have is thine,"

and my heart shall answer, "Father, I never knew it, but it is true,--I am

ever with thee and all Thou hast is mine." God has given all He has to

Christ, and God longs that Christ should have you and me entirely. I come to

every hungry heart and say, "If you want to live to the glory of God, seek

one thing, to claim, to believe that the presence of Jesus can be with you

every moment of your life.

I want to speak about the presence of Jesus as it is set before us in

that blessed story of Christ's walking on the sea. Come and look with me at

some points that are suggested to us.

1. Think, first, of the presence of Christ lost. You know the disciples

loved Christ, clung to Him, and with all their failings, they delighted in

Him. But what happened? The Master went up into the mountain to pray, and

sent them across the sea all alone without Him; there came a storm, and they

toiled, rowed, and labored, but the wind was against them, they made no

progress, they were in danger of perishing, and how their hearts said, "Oh,

if the Master only were here!" But His presence was gone. They missed Him.

Once before, they had been in a storm, and Christ had said, "Peace, be

still," and all was well; but here they are in darkness, danger, and

terrible trouble, and no Christ to help them. Ah, isn't that the life of

many a believer at times? I get into darkness, I have committed sin, the

cloud is on me, I miss the face of Jesus; and for days and days I work,

worry, and labor; but it is all in vain, for I miss the presence of Christ.

Oh, beloved, let us write that down,--the presence of Jesus lost is the

cause of all our wretchedness and failure.

2. Look at the second step,--the presence of Jesus dreaded. They were

longing for the presence of Christ, and Christ came after midnight: He came

walking on the water amid the waves; but they didn't recognize Him, and they

cried out, for fear, "It is a spirit!" Their beloved Lord was coming nigh,

and they knew Him not. They dreaded His approach. And, ah, how often have I

seen a believer dreading the approach of Christ,--crying out for Him,

longing for Him, and yet dreading His coming. And why? Because Christ came

in a fashion that they expected not.

Perhaps some have been saying, "Alas, alas! I fear I never can have the

abiding presence of Christ." You have heard what we have said about a life

in the Spirit: you have heard what we have said about abiding ever in the

presence of God and in His fellowship, and you have been afraid of it,

afraid of it; and you have said, "It is too high and too difficult." You

have dreaded the very teaching that was going to help you. Jesus came to you

in the teaching, and you didn't recognize His love.

Or, perhaps, He came in a way that you dreaded His presence. Perhaps

God has been speaking to you about some sin. There is that sin of temper, or

that sin of unlovingness, or that sin of unforgivingness, or that sin of

worldliness, compromise, and fellowship with the world, that love of man and

man's honor, that fear of man and man's opinion, or that pride and self

confidence. God has been speaking to you about it, and yet you have been

frightened. That was Jesus wanting to draw you nigh, but you were afraid.

You don't see how you can give up all that, you are not ready to say, "At

any sacrifice I am going to have that taken out of me, and I will give it

up," and while God and Christ were coming nigh to bless you, you were afraid

of Him.

Oh, believers, at other times Christ has come to you with affliction,

and perhaps you have said, "If I want to be entirely holy, I know I shall

have to be afflicted, and I am afraid of affliction," and you have dreaded

the thought, "Christ may come to me in affliction." The presence of Christ

dreaded!--oh, beloved, I want to tell you it is all misconception. The

disciples had no reason to dread that "spirit" coming there, for it was

Christ Himself; and, when God's word comes close to you and touches your

heart, remember that is Christ out of Whose mouth goes the two-edged sword.

It is Christ in His love coming to cut away the sin, that He may fill your

heart with the blessing of God's love. Beware of dreading the presence of

Christ.

3. Then comes the third thought,--the presence of Christ revealed.

Bless God! When Christ heard how they cried, he spoke the words of the text,

"Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." Ah, what gladness those words

brought to those hearts! There is Jesus, that dark object appears, that

dreaded form. It is our blessed Lord Himself. And, dear friends, the

Master's object, whether it be by affliction or otherwise, is to prepare for

receiving the presence of Christ, and through it all Jesus speaks, "It is I;

be not afraid." The presence of Christ revealed! I want to tell you that the

Son of God, oh believer, is longing to reveal Himself to you. Listen!

Listen! LISTEN! Is there any longing heart? Jesus says, "Be of good cheer;

it is I; be not afraid."

Oh, beloved; God has given us Christ. And does God want me to have

Christ every moment? Without doubt. God wants the presence of Christ to be

the joy of every hour of my life, and, if there is one thing sure, Christ

can reveal Himself to me every moment. Are you willing to come and claim

this privilege? He can reveal Himself. I cannot reveal Him to you; you

cannot grasp Him; but He can shine into your heart. How can I see the

sunlight tomorrow morning, if I am spared? The sunlight will reveal itself.

How can I know Christ? Christ can reveal Himself. And, ere I go further, I

pray you to set your heart upon this, and to offer the humble prayer, "Lord,

now reveal Thyself to me, so, that I may never lose the sight of Thee. Give

me to understand that through the thick darkness Thou comest to make Thyself

known." Let not one heart doubt, however dark it may be,--at

midnight,--whatever midnight there be in the soul,--at midnight, in the

dark, Christ can reveal Himself. Ah, thank God, often after a life of ten

and twenty years of dawn, after a life of ten and twenty years of

struggling, now in the light, and now in the dark, there comes a time when

Jesus is willing just to give Himself to us, nevermore to part. God grant us

that presence of Jesus!

4. And now comes the fourth thought,--The presence of Jesus lost, was

the first; the presence of Jesus dreaded, was the second; the presence of

Jesus revealed, was the third; the presence of Jesus desired, is the fourth.

What happened? Peter heard the Lord, and yonder was Jesus, some 30, 40, 50

yards distant, and He made as though He would have passed them; and

Peter,--in a preceding chapter I spoke about Peter, shewing what terrible

failure and carnality there was in him,--but, bless the Lord, Peter's heart

was right with Christ, and he wanted to claim His presence, and he said,

"Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come upon the water to Thee." Yes, Peter could

not rest; he wanted to be as near to Christ as possible. He saw Christ

walking on the water; he remembered Christ had said, "Follow Me;" he

remembered how Christ, with the miraculous draught of fishes, had proved

that He was Master of the sea, and of the waters, and he remembered how

Christ had stilled the storm; and, without argument or reflection, all at

once he said, "There is my Lord manifesting Himself in a new way; there is

my Lord exercising a new and supernatural power, and I can go to my Lord, He

is able to make me walk where He walks." He wanted to walk like Christ, he

wanted to walk near Christ. He didn't say, "Lord, let me walk around the sea

here," but he said, "Lord, let me come to Thee."

Friends, would you not like to have the presence of Christ in this way?

Not that Christ should come down,--that is what many Christians want; they

want to continue in their sinful walk, they want to continue in their

worldly walk, they want to continue in their old life, and they want Christ

to come down to them with His comfort, His presence, and His love; but that

cannot be. If I am to have the presence of Christ, I must walk as He walked.

His walk was a supernatural one. He walked in the love and in the power of

God. Most people walk according to the circumstances in which they are, and

most people say, "I am depending upon circumstances for my religion. A

hundred times over you hear people say, "My circumstances prevent my

enjoying unbroken fellowship with Jesus." What were the circumstances that

were found about Christ? The wind and the waves,--and Christ walked

triumphant over circumstances; and Peter said, "Like my Lord I can triumph

over all circumstances: anything around me is nothing, if I have Jesus." He

longed for the presence of Christ. Would God that, as we look at the life of

Christ upon earth, as we look how Christ walked and conquered the waves,

every one of us could say, "I want to walk like Jesus." If that is your

heart's desire, you can expect the presence of Jesus; but as long as you

want to walk on a lower level than Christ, as long as you want to have a

little of the world, and a little of self-will, do not expect to have the

presence of Christ. Near Christ, and like Christ,--the two things go

together. Have you taken that in? Peter wanted to walk like Christ that he

might get near Christ; and it is this I want to offer every one of you. I

want to say to the weakest believer, "With God's presence you can have the

presence and fellowship of Christ all the day long, your whole life

through." I want to bring you that promise, but I must give God's

condition,--walk like Christ, and you shall always abide near Christ. The

presence of Christ invites you to come and have unbroken fellowship with

Him.

5. Then comes the next thought. We have just had the presence of Christ

desired, and my next thought is,--the presence of Christ trusted. The Lord

Jesus said, "Come," and what did Peter do? He stepped out of the boat. How

did he dare to do it against all the laws of nature?--how did he dare to do

it? He sought Christ, he heard Christ's voice, he trusted Christ's presence

and power, and in the faith of Christ he said, "I can walk on the water,"

and he stepped out of the boat. Here is the turning point; here is the

crisis. Peter saw Christ in the manifestation of a supernatural power, and

Peter believed that supernatural power could work in him, and he could live

a supernatural life. He believed this applied to walking on the sea; and

herein lies the whole secret of the life of faith. Christ had supernatural

power,--the power of heaven, the power of holiness, the power of fellowship

with God, and Christ can give me grace to live as He lived. If I will but,

like Peter, look at Christ and say to Christ, "Lord, speak the word, and I

will come," and if I will listen to Christ saying, "Come," I, too, shall

have power to walk upon the waves.

Have you ever seen a more beautiful and more instructive symbol of the

Christian life? I once preached on it many years ago, and the thought that

filled my heart then was this,--the Christian life compared to Peter walking

on the waves, nothing so difficult and impossible without Christ, nothing so

blessed and safe with Christ. That is the Christian life,--impossible

without Christ's nearness,--most safe and blessed, however difficult, if I

only have the presence of Christ. Believers, we have tried in these pages to

call you to a better life in the Spirit, to a life in the fellowship with

God. There is only one thing can enable you to live it,--you must have the

Lord Jesus hold your hand every minute of the day. "But can that be?" you

ask. Yes, it can. "I have so much to think of. Sometimes for four or five

hours of the day I have to go into the very thick of business and have some

ten men standing around me, each claiming my attention. How can I, how can I

always have the presence of Jesus?" Beloved, because Jesus is your God and

loves you wonderfully, and is able to make His presence more clear to you

than that of ten men who are standing around you. If you will in the morning

take time and enter into your covenant every morning with Him, "My Lord

Jesus, nothing can satisfy me but Thine abiding presence," He will give it

to you, He will surely give it to you. Oh, Peter trusted the presence of

Christ, and He said, "If Christ calls me I can walk on the waves to Him."

Shall we trust the presence of Christ? To walk through all the circumstances

and temptations of life is exactly like walking on the water,--you have no

solid ground under your feet, you do not know how strong the temptations of

Satan may come; but do believe God wants you to walk in a supernatural life

above human power. God wants you to live a life in Christ Jesus. Are you

wanting to live that life? Come then, and say, "Jesus, I have heard Thy

promise that Thy presence will go with me. Thou hast said, "My presence

shall go with thee,"--and, Lord, I claim it; I trust Thee."

6. Now, the sixth step in this wonderful history. The presence of

Christ forgotten. Peter got out of the boat and began to walk toward the

Lord Jesus with his eyes fixed upon Him. The presence of Christ was trusted

by him, and he walked boldly over the waves; but all at once he took his

eyes off Jesus, and he began at once to sink, and there was Peter, his walk

of faith at an end; all drenched and drowning and crying, "Lord, help me!"

There are some of you saying in your hearts, I know, "Ah, that's what will

come of your higher-life Christians." There are people who say, "You never

can life that life; do not talk of it; you must always be failing." Peter

always failed before Pentecost. It was because the Holy Spirit had not yet

come, and therefore his experience goes to teach us, that while Peter was

still in the life of the flesh he must fail somehow or other. But, thank

God, there was One to life him out of the failure; and our last point will

be to prove that out of that failure he came into closer union with Jesus

than ever before, and deeper dependence. But listen, first, while I speak to

you about this failure.

Someone may say, "I have been trying, to say, `Lord, I will live it;'

but, tell me, suppose failure come, what then?" Learn from Peter what you

ought to do. What did Peter do? The very opposite of what most do. What did

he do when he began to sink? That very moment, without one word of

self-reproach of self-condemnation, he cried, "Lord, help me!" I wish I

could teach every Christian that. I remember the time in my spiritual life

when that became clear to me; for up to that time, when I failed, my only

thought was to reproach and condemn myself, and I thought that would do me

good. I found it didn't do me good; and I learn from Peter that my work is,

the very moment I fail, to say, "Jesus, Master, help me!" and the very

moment I say that, Jesus does help me. Remember, failure is not an

impossibility. I can conceive more than one Christian who said, "Lord, I

claim the fulness of the Holy Ghost. I want to live every hour of every day

filled with the Holy Spirit;" and I can conceive that an honest soul who

said that with a trembling faith, yet may have fallen; I want to say to that

soul, Don't be discouraged. If failure comes, at once, without any waiting,

appeal to Jesus. He is always ready to hear, and the very moment you find

there is the temper, the hasty word, or some other wrong, at once the living

Jesus is near, so gracious, and so mighty. Appeal to Him and there will be

help at once. If you learn to do this, Jesus will lift you up and lead you

on to a walk where His strength shall secure you from failure.

7.And then comes my last thought. The presence of Jesus was forgotten

while Peter looked at the waves; but now, lastly, we have the presence of

Jesus restored. Yes, Christ stretched out His hand to save him.

Possibly--for Peter was a very proud, self-confident man--possibly he had to

sink there to teach him that his faith could not save him, but it was the

power of Christ. God wants us to learn the lesson that when we fall then we

can cry out to Jesus, and at once He reaches out His hand. Remember, Peter

walked back to the boat without sinking again. Why? Because Christ was very

near him. Remember it is quite possible, if you use your failure rightly, to

be far nearer Christ after it than before. Use it rightly, I say. That is,

come and acknowledge, "In me there is nothing, but I am going to trust my

Lord unboundedly." Let every failure teach you to cling afresh to Christ,

and He will prove Himself a mighty and a loving Helper. The presence of

Jesus restored! Yes, Christ took him by the hand and helped him, and I don't

know whether they walked hand in hand those forty or fifty yards back to the

boat, or whether Christ allowed Peter to walk beside Him; but this I know,

they were very near to each other, and it was the nearness of his Lord that

strengthened him.

Remember what has taken place since that happened with Peter. The cross

has been erected, the blood has been shed, the grave has been opened, the

resurrection has been accomplished, heaven has been opened, and the Spirit

of the Exalted One has come down. Do believe that it is possible for the

presence of Jesus to be with us every day and all the way. Your God has

given you Christ, and He wants to give you Christ into your heart in such a

way that His presence shall be with you every moment of your life.

Who is willing to lift up his eyes and his heart and to exclaim, "I

want to live according to God's standard?" Who is willing? Who is willing to

cast himself into the arms of Jesus and to live a life of faith victorious

over the winds and the waves, over the circumstances and difficulties? Who

is willing to say this,--"Lord, bid me come to Thee upon the water?" Are you

willing? Listen! Jesus says, "Come." Will you step out at this moment?

Yonder is the boat, the old life that Peter had been leading; he had been

familiar with the sea from his boyhood, and that boat was a very sacred

place; Christ had sat beside him there; Christ had preached from that boat,

from that boat of Peter's, Christ had given the wonderful draught of fishes;

it was a very sacred boat; but Peter left it to come to a place more sacred

still,--walking with Jesus on the water,--a new and a Divine experience.

Your Christian life may be a very sacred thing; you may say, "Christ saved

me by His blood, He has given me many an experience of grace; God has proved

His grace in my heart," but you confess "I haven't got the real life of

abiding fellowship; the winds and the waves often terrify me, and I sink."

Oh, come out of the boat of past experiences at once; come out of the boat

of external circumstances; come out of the boat, and step out on the word of

Christ, and believe, "With Jesus I can walk upon the water." When Peter was

in the boat, what had he between him and the bottom of the sea? A couple of

planks; but when he stepped out upon the water what had he between him and

the sea? Not a plank, but the word of the Almighty Jesus. Will you come, and

without any experience, will you rest upon the word of Jesus, "Lo I am with

you alway"? Will you rest upon His word, "Be of good cheer; fear not; it is

I"? Every moment Jesus lives in heaven; every moment by His Spirit Jesus

whispers that word; and every moment He lives to make it true. Accept it

now, accept it now! My Lord Jesus is equal to every emergency. My Lord Jesus

can meet the wants of every soul. My whole heart says, "He can, He can do

it; He will, He will do it!" Oh come, believers, and let us claim most

deliberately, most quietly, most restfully,--let us claim, claim it, claim

it, CLAIM it.

VII. A WORD TO WORKERS

Some time ago I read this expression in an old author:--"The first duty of a

clergyman is humbly to ask of God that all that he wants done in his hearers

should first be truly and fully done in himself." These words have stuck to

me ever since. What a solemn application this is to the subject that

occupied our attention in previous chapters--the living and working under

the fulness of the Holy Spirit! And yet, if we understand our calling

aright, every one of us will have to say, That is the one thing on which

everything depends. What profit is it to tell men that they may be filled

with the Spirit of God, if, when they ask us, "Has God done it for you?" we

have to answer, "No, He has not done it"? What profit is it for me to tell

men that Jesus Christ can dwell within us every moment, and keep us from sin

and actual transgression, and that the abiding presence of God can be our

portion all the day, if I wait not upon God first to do it truly and full

day by day?

Look at the Lord Jesus Christ; it was of the Christ Himself, when He

had received the Holy Ghost from heaven, that John the Baptist said that "He

would baptize with the Holy Ghost." I can only communicate to others what

God has imparted to me. If my life as a minister be a life in which the

flesh still greatly prevails--if my life be a life in which I grieve the

Spirit of God, I cannot expect but that my people will receive through me a

very mingled kind of life. But if the life of God dwell in me, and I am

filled with His power, then I can hope that the life that goes out from me

may be infused into my hearers too.

We have referred to the need of every believer being filled with the

Spirit; and what is there of deeper interest to us now, or that can better

occupy our attention, than prayerfully to consider how we can bring our

congregations to believe that this is possible; and how we can lead on every

believer to seek it for himself, to expect it, and to accept of it, so as to

live it out? But, brethren, the message must come from us as a witness of

our personal experience, by the grace of God. The same writer to whom I

alluded, says elsewhere:--"The first business of a clergyman, when he sees

men awakened and brought to Christ, is to lead them on to know the Holy

Spirit." How true! Do not we find this throughout the word of God? John the

Baptist preached Christ as the "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the

world;" we read in Matthew that he also said that Christ would "baptize with

the Holy Ghost and with fire." In the gospel by John, we read that the

Baptist was told that upon Whom he would see the Spirit descending and

abiding, He it was who would baptize with the Spirit. Thus John the Baptist

led the people on from Christ to the expectation of the Holy Ghost for

themselves. And what did Jesus do? For three years, He was with His

disciples, teaching and instructing them; but when He was about to go away,

in His farewell discourse on the last night, what was His great promise to

the disciples? "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another

Comforter, even the Spirit of truth." He had previously promised to those

who believed on Him, that "rivers of living water" should flow from them;

which the Evangelist explains as meaning the Holy Ghost:--"Thus spake He of

the Spirit." But this promise was only to be fulfilled after Christ "was

glorified." Christ points to the Holy Spirit as the one fruit of being

glorified. The glorified Christ leads to the Holy Ghost. So in the farewell

discourse, Christ leads the disciples to expect the Spirit as the Father's

great blessing. Then again, when Christ came and stood at the footstool of

His heavenly throne, on the Mount of Olives, ready to ascend, what were His

words? "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you,

and ye shall be witnesses unto Me." Christ's constant work was to teach His

disciples to expect the Holy Spirit. Look through the Book of Acts, you see

the same thing. Peter on the day of Pentecost preached that Christ was

exalted, and had received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost; and

so he told the people; "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ

for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

So, when I believe in Jesus risen, ascended, and glorified, I shall receive

the Holy Ghost.

Look again, after Philip had preached the gospel in Samaria, men and

women had been converted, and there was great joy in the city. The Holy

Spirit had been working, but something was still wanting; Peter and John

came down from Jerusalem, prayed for the converted ones, laid their hands

upon them, "and they received the Holy Ghost." Then they had the conscious

possession and enjoyment of the Spirit; but till that came they were

incomplete. Paul was converted by the mighty power of Jesus who appeared to

Him on the way to Damascus; and yet he had to go to Ananias to receive the

Holy Ghost.

Then again, we read that when Peter went to preach to Cornelius, as he

preached Christ, "the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word;"

which Peter took as the sign that these Gentiles were one with the Jews in

the favor of God, having the same baptism.

And so we might go through many of the Epistles, where we find the same

truth taught. Look at that wonderful epistle to the Romans. The doctrine of

justification by faith is established in the first five chapters. Then in

the sixth and seventh, though the believer is represented as dead to sin and

the law, and married to Christ, yet a dreadful struggle goes on in the heart

of the regenerate man as long as he has not god the full power of the Holy

Spirit. But in the eighth chapter, it is the "law of the Spirit of life in

Christ Jesus" that maketh us free from "the law of sin and death." Then we

are "not in the flesh, but in the Spirit," with the Spirit of God dwelling

in us. All the teaching leads up to the Holy Spirit.

Look again at the epistle to the Galatians. We always talk of this

epistle as the great source of instruction on the doctrine of justification

by faith: but have you ever noticed how the doctrine of the Holy Spirit

holds a most prominent place there? Paul asks the Galatian

church:--"Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing

of faith?" It was the hearing of faith that led them to the full enjoyment

of the Spirit's power. If they sought to be justified by the works of the

law, they had "fallen from grace." "For we through the Spirit wait for the

hope of righteousness by faith." And then at the end of the fifth chapter,

we are told:--"If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit."

Again, if we go to the epistles to the Corinthians, we find Paul asking

the Christians in Corinth:--"Know ye not that your body is the temple of the

Holy Ghost which is in you?" If we look into the epistle to the Ephesians,

we find the doctrine of the Holy Spirit mentioned twelve times. It is the

Spirit that seals God's people; "Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of

promise." He illumines them; "That God may give the Spirit of wisdom and

revelation in the knowledge of Him." Through Christ, both Jew and Gentile

"have access by one Spirit unto the Father." They "are builded together for

an habitation of God through the Spirit." They are "strengthened with might

by His Spirit in the inner man." With "all lowliness and meekness, with

long-suffering, forbearing one another in love," they "endeavour to keep the

unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." By not "grieving the Holy Spirit

of God," we preserve our sealing to the "day of redemption." Being "filled

with the Spirit," we "sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord," and

thus glorify Him. Just study these epistles carefully, and you will find

that what I say is true--that the apostle Paul takes great pains to lead

Christians to the Holy Ghost as the consummation of the Christian life.

It was the Holy Ghost Who was given to the church at Pentecost; and it

is the Holy Ghost Who gives Pentecostal blessings now. It is this power,

given to bless men, that wrought such wonderful life, and love, and

self-sacrifice in the early church; and it is this that makes us look back

to those days as the most beautiful part of the Church's history. And it is

the same Spirit of power that must dwell in the hearts of all believers in

our day to give the Church its true position. Let us ask God then, that

every minister and Christian worker may be endued with the power of the Holy

Ghost; that He may search us and try us, and enable us sincerely to answer

the question, "Have I known the indwelling and the filling of the Holy

Spirit that God wants me to have? Let each one of us ask himself: "Is it my

great study to know the Holy Ghost dwelling in me, so that I may help others

to yield to the same indwelling of the Holy Spirit; and that He may reveal

Christ fully in His divine saving and keeping power?" Will not every one

have to confess: "Lord, I have all too little understood this; I have all

too little manifested this in my work and preaching"? Beloved brethren, "The

first duty of every clergyman is to humbly ask God that all that he wants

done in his hearers may be first fully and truly done in himself." And the

second thing is his duty towards those who are awakened and brought to

Christ, to lead them on to the full knowledge of the presence and indwelling

of the Holy Spirit.

Now, if we are indeed to come into full harmony with these two great

principles, then there come to us some further questions of the very deepest

importance. And the first questions is:--"Why is it that there is in the

church of Christ so little practical acknowledgment of the power of the Holy

Ghost?" I am not speaking to you, brethren, as if I thought you were not

sound in doctrine on this point. I speak to you as believing in the Holy

Ghost as the third person in the ever-blessed Trinity. But I speak to you

confidently as to those who will readily admit that the truth or the

presence and of the power of the Holy Ghost is not acknowledged in the

church as it ought to be. Then the question is, Why is it not so

acknowledged? I answer because of its spirituality. It is one of the most

difficult truths in the Bible for the human mind to comprehend. God has

revealed Himself in creation throughout the whole universe. He has revealed

Himself in Christ incarnate--and what a subject of study the person, and

word, and works of Christ form! But the mysterious indwelling of the Holy

Spirit, hidden in the depths of the life of the believer, how much less easy

to comprehend!

In the early pentecostal days of the church, this knowledge was

intuitive; they possessed the Spirit in power. But soon after the spirit of

the world began to creep into the church and mastered it. This was followed

by the deeper darkness of formality and superstition in the Roman Catholic

Church, when the spirit of the world completely triumphed in what was

improperly styled the Church of Christ. The Reformation in the days of

Luther restored the truth of justification by faith in Christ; but the

doctrine of the Holy Ghost did not then obtain its proper place, for God

does not reveal all truth at one time. A great deal of the spirit of the

world was still left in the reformed churches; but now God is awakening the

church to strive after a fuller scriptural idea of the Holy Spirit's place

and power. Through the medium of books, and discussions, and conventions

many hearts are being stirred.

Brethren, it is our privilege to take part in this great movement; and

let us engage in the work more earnestly than ever. Let each of us say my

great work is, in preaching Christ, to lead men to the acknowledging of the

Holy Spirit, who alone can glorify Christ. I may try to glorify Christ in my

preaching, but it will avail nothing without the Spirit of God. I may urge

men to the practice of holiness and every Christian virtue, but all my

persuasion will avail very little unless I help them to believe that they

must have the Holy Ghost dwelling in them every moment enabling to live the

life of Christ. The great reason why the Holy Spirit was given from heaven

was to make Christ Jesus' presence manifest to us. While Jesus was

incarnate, His disciples were too much under the power of the flesh to allow

Christ to get a lodgement in their hearts. It was needful, He said, that He

should go away, in order that the Spirit might come; and He promised to

those who loved Him and kept His commandments, that with the Spirit, He

would come, and the Father would also come, and make Their abode with them.

It is thus the Holy Spirit's great work to reveal the Father and the Son in

the hearts of God's people. If we believe and teach men that the Holy Spirit

can make Christ a reality to them every moment, men will learn to believe

and accept Christ's presence and power, of which they now know far too

little.

Then another question presents itself, viz., What are we to expect when

the Holy Spirit is duly acknowledged and received? I ask this question,

because I have frequently noticed something with considerable interest--and,

I may say, with some anxiety. I sometimes hear men praying earnestly for a

baptism of the Holy Spirit that He may give them power for their work.

Beloved brethren, we need this power, not only for work, but for our daily

life. Remember, we must have it all the time. In Old Testament times, the

Spirit came with power upon the prophets and other inspired men; but He did

not dwell permanently in them. In the same way, in the church of the

Corinthians, the Holy Spirit came with power to work miraculous gifts, and

yet they had but a small measure of His sanctifying grace. You will remember

the carnal strife, envying, and divisions there were. They had gifts of

knowledge and wisdom, etc.; but alas! pride, unlovingness, and other sins

sadly marred the character of many of them. And what does this teach us?

That a man may have a great gift of power for work, but very little of the

indwelling Spirit. In 1 Cor. xiii., we are reminded that though we may have

faith that would remove mountains, if we have not love, we are nothing. We

must have the love that brings the humility and self-sacrifice of Jesus.

Don't let us put in the first place the gifts we may possess; if we do, we

shall have very little blessing. But we should seek, in the first place,

that the Spirit of God should come as a light and power of holiness from the

indwelling Jesus. Let the first work of the Holy Spirit be to humble you

deep down in the very dust, so that your whole life shall be a tender,

broken-hearted waiting on God, in the consciousness of mercy coming from

above.

Do not seek large gifts; there is something deeper you need. It is not

enough that a tree shoots its branches to the sky, and be covered thickly

with leaves; but we want its roots to strike deeply into the soil. Let the

thought of the Holy Spirit's being in us, and our hope of being filled with

the Spirit, be always accompanied in us with a broken and contrite heart.

Let us bow very low before God, in waiting for His grace to fill and to

sanctify us. We do not want a power which God might allow us to use, while

our inner part is unsanctified. We want God to give us full possession of

Himself. In due time, the special gift may come; but we want first and now,

the power of the Holy Ghost working something far mightier and more

effectual in us than any such gift. We should seek, therefore, not only a

baptism of power, but a baptism of holiness; we should seek that the inner

nature be sanctified by the indwelling of Jesus, and then other power will

come as needed.

There is a third question:--Suppose some one says to me:--"I have given

myself up to be filled with the Spirit, and I do not feel that there is any

difference in my condition; there is no change of experience that I can

speak of. What must I then think? Must not I think that my surrender was not

honest?" No, do not think that. "But how then? Does God give no response?"

Beloved, God gives a response, but that is not always within certain months

or years. "What, then, would you have me do?" Retain the position you have

taken before God, and maintain it every day. Say, "Oh God, I have given

myself to be filled, here I am an empty vessel, trusting and expecting to be

filled by Thee." Take that position every day and every hour. Ask God to

write it across your heart. Give up to God an empty, consecrated vessel that

He may fill it with the Holy Spirit. Take that position constantly. It may

be that you are not fully prepared. Ask God to cleanse you; to give you

grace to separate from everything sinful--from unbelief or whatever

hindrance there may be. Then take your position before God and say, "My God,

Thou art faithful; I have entered into covenant with Thee for Thy Holy

Spirit to fill me, and I believe Thou wilt fulfill it." Brethren, I say for

myself, and for every minister of the gospel, and for every fellow worker,

man or woman, that if we thus come before God with a full surrender, in a

bold, believing attitude, God's promise must be fulfilled.

If you were to ask me of my own experience, I would say this:--That

there have been times when I hardly knew myself what to think of God's

answer to my prayer in this matter; but I have found it my joy and my

strength to take and maintain my position, and say: "My God, I have given

myself up to Thee. It was Thine own grace that led me to Christ; and I stand

before Thee in confidence that Thou wilt keep Thy covenant with me to the

end. I am the empty vessel; Thou art the God that fillest all." God is

faithful, and He gives the promised blessing in His own time and method.

Beloved, for God's sake, be content with nothing less than full health and

full spiritual life. "Be filled with the Spirit."

Let me return now to the two expressions with which I began: "the first

duty of every clergyman is humbly to ask of God that all that he wants done

in those who hear his preaching may be first truly and fully done in

himself." Brethren, I ask you, is it not the longing of your hearts to have

a congregation of believers filled with the Holy Ghost? Is it not your

unceasing prayer for the Church of Christ, in which you minister, that the

Spirit of holiness, the very Spirit of God's Son, the spirit of

unworldliness and of heavenly-mindedness, may possess it; and that the

Spirit of victory and of power over sin may fill its children? If you are

willing for that to come, your first duty is to have it yourself.

And then the second sentence:--"the first duty of every clergyman is to

lead those who have been brought to Christ to be entirely filled with the

Holy Ghost." How can I do my work with success? I can conceive what a

privilege it is to be led by the Spirit of God in all that I am doing. In

studying my Bible, praying, visiting, organizing, or whatever I am doing,

God is willing to guide me by His Holy Spirit. It sometimes becomes a

humiliating experience to me that I am unwatchful, and do not wait for the

blessing; when that is the case, God can bring me back again. But there is

also the blessed experience of God's guiding hand, often through deep

darkness, by His Holy Spirit. Let us walk about among the people as men of

God, that we may not only preach about a book, and what we believe with our

hearts to be true, but may preach what we are and what we have in our own

experience. Jesus calls us witnesses for Him; what does that mean? The Holy

Ghost brought down to heaven from men a participation in the glory and the

joy of the exalted Christ. Peter and the others who spoke with Him were

filled with this heavenly Spirit; and thus Christ spoke in them, and

accomplished the work for them. O brethren, if you and I be Christ's we

should take our places and claim our privilege. We are witnesses to the

truth which we believe--witnesses to the reality of what Jesus does and what

He is, by His presence in our own souls. If we are willing to be such

witnesses for Christ, let us go to our God; let us make confession and

surrender, and by faith claim what God has for us as ministers of the gospel

and workers in His service. God will prove faithful. Even at this very

moment, He will touch our hearts with a deep consciousness of His

faithfulness and of His presence; and He will give to every hungering,

trustful one that which we continually need.

CONSECRATION

"But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so

willingly after this sort? for all things come of Thee, and of Thine own

have we given Thee."

To be able to offer anything to God is a perfect mystery. Consecration

is a miracle of grace. "All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we

given Thee." In these words there are four very precious thoughts I want to

try and make clear to you: -

1. God is the Owner of all, and gives all to us.

2. We have nothing but what we receive--but everything we need we may

receive from God.

3. It is our privilege and honour to give back to God what we receive

from Him.

4. God has a double joy in His possessions when he receives back from

us what He gave.

And when I apply this to my life--to my body, to my wealth, property,

to my whole being with all its powers--then I understand what Consecration

ought to be.

1. It is the glory of God, and His very nature, to be always GIVING.

God is the owner of all. There is no power, no riches, no goodness, no love,

outside of God. It is the very nature of God, that He does not live for

Himself, but for His creatures. His is a love that always delights to give.

Here we come to the first step in consecration. I must see that everything I

have is given by Him; I must learn to believe in God as the great Owner and

Giver of all. Let me hold that fast. I have nothing but what actually and

definitely belongs to God. Just as much as people say, "this money in my

purse belongs to me," so God is the Proprietor of all. It is His and His

only. And it is his life and delight to be always giving. Oh, take that

precious thought--there is nothing that God has that He does not want to

give. It is His nature, and therefore when God asks you anything, He must

give it first Himself, and He will. Never be afraid whatever God asks; for

God only asks what is His own; what He asks you to give He will first

Himself give you. The Possessor, and Owner, and Giver of all! This is our

God. You can apply this to yourself and your powers to all you are and have.

Study it, believe it, live in it, every day, every hour, every moment.

2. Just as it is the nature and glory of God to be always giving, it is

the nature and glory of man to be always receiving. What did God make us

for? We have been made to be each of us a vessel into which God can pour out

His life, His beauty, His happiness, His love. We are created to be each a

receptacle and a reservoir of divine heavenly life and blessing, just as

much as God can put into us. Have we understood this, that our great

work--the object of our creation--is to be always receiving? If we fully

enter into this, it will teach some precious things. One thing--the utter

folly of being proud or conceited. What an idea! Suppose I were to borrow a

very beautiful dress, and walk about boasting of it as if it were my own,

you might say, "What a fool!" And here it is the Everlasting God owns

everything we have; shall we dare to exalt ourselves on account of what is

all His? Then what a blessed lesson it will teach us of what our position

is! I have to do with a God whose nature is to be always giving, and mine to

be always receiving. Just as the lock and key fit each other, God the Giver

and I the receiver fit into each other. How often we trouble about things,

and about praying for them, instead of going back to the root of things, and

saying, "Lord, I only crave to be the receptacle of what the Will of God

means for me; of the power and the gifts and the love and Spirit of God."

What can be more simple? Come as a receptacle--cleansed, emptied and humble.

Come, and then God will delight to give. If I may with reverence say it, He

cannot help Himself; it is His promise, His nature. The blessing is ever

flowing out of Him. You know how water always flows into the lowest places.

If we would but be emptied and low, nothing but receptacles, what a blessed

life we could live! Day by day just praising Him--Thou givest and I accept.

Thou bestowest and I rejoice to receive. How many tens of thousands of

people have said this morning: "What a beautiful day! Let us throw open the

windows and bring in the sunlight with its warmth and cheerfulness!" May our

hearts learn every moment to drink in the light and sunshine of God's love.

"Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so

willingly after this sort? for all things come of Thee, and we have given

Thee of Thine own."

3. If God gives all and I receive all, then the third thought is very

simple--I must give all back again. What a privilege that for the sake of

having me in loving, grateful intercourse with Him, and giving me the

happiness of pleasing and serving Him, the Everlasting God should say, "Come

now, and bring Me back all that I give." And yet people say, "Oh, but must I

give everything back?brother, don't you know that there is no happiness or

blessedness except in giving to God! David felt it. He said: "Lord, what an

unspeakable privilege it is to be allowed to give that back to Thee which is

Thine own!" Just to receive and then to render back in love to Him as God,

what He gives. Do you know what God needs you for? People say, "Does not God

give us all good gifts to enjoy?" But do you know that the reality of the

enjoyment is in the giving back? Just look at Jesus--God gave Him a

wonderful body. He kept it holy and gave it as a sacrifice to God. This is

the beauty of having a body. God has given you a soul; this is the beauty of

having a soul--you can give it back to God. People talk about the difficulty

they meet with in having so strong a will. You never can have too strong a

will, but the trouble is we do not give that strong will up to God, to make

it a vessel in which God can and will pour His Spirit, so as to fit it to do

splendid service for Himself.

We have now had the three thoughts: God gives all; I receive all; I

give up all. Will you do this now? Will not every heart say, "My God, teach

me to give up everything?" Take your head, your mind with all its power of

speaking, your property, your heart with its affections--the best and most

secret--take gold and silver, everything, and lay it at God's feet and say,

"Lord, here is the covenant between me and Thee. Thou delightest to give

all, and I delight to give back all." God teach us that. If that simple

lesson were learnt, there would be an end of so much trouble about finding

out the Will of God, and an end of all our holding back, for it would be

written, not upon our foreheads, but across our hearts, "God can do with me

what He pleases; I belong to Him with all I have." Instead of always saying

to God, "Give, give, give," we should say, "Yes, Lord, Thou dost give, thou

dost love to give, and I love to give back." Try that life and find out if

it is not the very highest life.

4. God gives all, I receive all, I give all. Now comes the fourth

thought: God does so rejoice in what we give to Him. It is not only I that

am the receiver and the giver, but God is the Giver and the Receiver too,

and, may I say it with reverence, has more pleasure in the receiving back

than even in giving. With our little faith we often thing they come back to

God again all defiled. God says, "No, they come back beautiful and

glorified"; the surrender of the dear child of His, with his aspirations and

thanksgivings, brings it to God with a new value and beauty. Ah! child of

God you do not know how precious the gift that you bring to your Father, is

in His sight. Have I not seen a mother give a piece of cake, and the child

comes and offers her a piece to share it with her? How she values the gift!

And your God, oh, my friends, your God, His heart, His Father's heart of

love, longs, longs, longs to have you give Him everything. It is not a

demand. It is a demand, but it is not a demand of a hard Master, it is the

call of a loving Father, who knows that every gift you bring to God will

bind you closer to Himself, and every surrender you make will open your

heart wider to get more of his spiritual gifts. Oh, friends! a gift to God

has in His sight infinite value. It delights Him. He sees of the travail of

His soul and is satisfied. And it brings unspeakable blessing to you. These

are the thoughts our text suggests; now comes the practical application.

What are the lessons? We here learn what the true dispositions of the

Christian life are.

To be and abide in continual dependence upon God. Become nothing, begin

to understand that you are nothing but an earthen vessel into which God will

shine down the treasure of His love. Blessed is the man who knows what it is

to be nothing, to be just an empty vessel meet for God's use. Work, the

Apostle says, for it is God who worketh in you to will and to do. Brethren,

come and take tonight the place of deep, deep dependence on God. And then

take the place of child-like trust and expectancy. Count upon your God to do

for you everything that you can desire of Him. Honour God as a God who gives

liberally. Honour God and believe that He asks nothing from you but what he

is going first to give. And then come praise and surrender and consecration.

Praise Him for it! Let every sacrifice to Him be a thank-offering. What are

we going to consecrate? First of all our lives. There are perhaps men and

women--young men and women--whose hearts are asking, "What do you want me to

do--to say I will be a missionary?" No, indeed, I do not ask you to do this.

Deal with God, and come to Him and say, "Lord of all, I belong to Thee, I am

absolutely at Thy disposal." Yield up yourselves. There may be many who

cannot go as Missionaries, but oh, come, give up yourselves to God all the

same to be consecrated to the work of His Kingdom. Let us bow down before

Him. Let us give Him all our powers--our head to think for His Kingdom, our

heart to go out in love for men, and however feeble you may be, come and

say: "Lord, here I am, to live and die for Thy Kingdom. Some talk and pray

about the filling of the Holy Spirit. Let them pray more and believe more.

But remember the Holy Spirit came to fit men to be messengers of the

Kingdom, and you cannot expect to be filled with the Spirit unless you want

to live for Christ's Kingdom. You cannot expect all the love and peace and

joy of heaven to come into your life and be your treasures, unless you give

them up absolutely to the Kingdom of God, and posses and use them only for

Him. It is the soul utterly given up to God that will receive in its

emptying the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Dear friends we must consecrate

not only ourselves--body and soul--but all we have. Some of you may have

children; perhaps you have an only child, and you dread the very idea of

letting it go. Take care, take care; God deserves your confidence, your

love, and your surrender. I plead with you; take your children and say to

Jesus: "Anything Lord, that pleases Thee." Educate your children for Jesus.

God help you to do it. He may not accept all of them, but He will accept of

the will, and there will be a rich blessing in your soul for it. Then there

is money. When I hear appeals for money from every Society; when I hear

calculations as to what the Christians of England are spending on pleasure,

and the small amount given for Missions, I say there is something terrible

in it. God's children with so much wealth and comfort, and giving away so

small a portion! God be praised for every exception! But there are many who

give but very little, who never so give that it costs them something, and

they feel it. Oh, friends! our giving must be in proportion to God's giving.

He gives you all. Let us take it up in our Consecration prayer: "Lord, take

it all, every penny I possess. It is all Thine." Let us often say "It is all

His." You may not know how much you ought to give. Give up all, put

everything in His hands, and He will teach you if you will wait.

We have heard this precious message from David's mouth. We Christians

of the nineteenth century, have we learned to know our God who is willing to

give everything? God help us to.

And then the second message. We have nothing that we do not receive,

and we may receive everything if we are willing to stand before God and take

it.

Thirdly. Whatever you have received from God give it back. It brings a

double blessing to your own soul.

Fourthly. Whatever God receives back from us comes to Him in Heaven and

gives Him infinite joy and happiness, as he sees His object has been

attained. Let us come in the spirit of David, with the spirit of Jesus

Christ in us. Let us pray our Consecration Prayer. And may the Blessed

Spirit give each of us grace to think and to say the right thing, and to do

what shall be pleasing in the Father's sight.