v1.0, 2007-05-29, ThML conversion from RTF
A glance at the pages of this little work will show that it is more elementary than the other writings of its honoured author. The reason is that is specially designed for young disciples who have but recently chosen the better part, and consequently need nothing so much as just to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear His word. Every minister of a congregation in which young people have been brought to the Lord, will remember the keen feeling of anxiety that swept over his heart as he contemplated their entrance on the duties and responsibilities of a public Christian confession. The supreme question at such a time is: How shall these young converts be built up in the knowledge of the truth? How shall they be best taught the real nature of the new life they have received, the dangers by which it is beset, and the directions in which its energy may safely go forth?
The desire to give a fitting answer to these questions has given rise to many excellent manuals. In connection with every time of revival, especially, new books for this circle of readers always make their appearance. As Mr. Murray indicates in the Preface, it was in the midst of such a happy period that the following chapters were written. The volume came under my notice whilst I was recently traveling in Holland. A brief inspection showed me that it was one of the most simple, comprehensive, and suggestive of its class. It is now translated into English from the latest Dutch edition, that the many thousands who have profited by Mr. Murray’s other admirable works may have a suitable book to give or recommend to those who are setting their faces towards an earnest and fruitful Christian life.
That it will be very helpful to this end I cannot doubt: especially if the directions the author himself has given are faithfully adhered to. It will be noticed that the chapters are comparatively short; but every one of them has a considerable number of Biblical references. Let no reader be content to read what is written here without turning up and examining the texts marked. This practice, if persistently carried out, cannot fail to yield much recompense. There are just as many chapters in the book as Sabbaths in the year. What an additional blessing it would bring, if the members of a family who have had access to the book during the week, were to hear a chapter read aloud every Sabbath evening, and were encouraged to quote the texts in each that my have struck them most.
I have only to add that the volume is now translated and issued with Mr. Murray’s cordial sanction. It has been to me a very pleasant task to put it into an English dress for my younger brethren throughout the country. Beyond this point, of course, my responsibility does not go. Should the book prove useful in guiding the feet of those who have come to the Lord yet further into the way of peace and holiness, it will be, both for author and translator, the answer to many a fervent prayer.
In intercourse with young converts, I have very frequently longed for a suitable book in which the most important truths that they have need of for the New Life should be briefly and simply set forth. I could not find anything that entirely corresponded to what I desired. During the services in which, since Whitsuntide 1884, I have been permitted to take part, and in which I have been enabled to speak with so many who professed to have found the Lord, and who were, nevertheless, still very weak in knowledge and faith, this want was felt by me still more keenly. In the course of my journey, I felt myself pressed to take the pen in hand. Under a vivid impression of the infirmities and the perverted thoughts concerning the New Life, with which, as was manifest to me from conversations I had with them, almost all young Christians have to wrestle, I wished, in some words of instruction and encouragement, to let them see what a glorious life of power and joy is prepared for them in their Lord Jesus, and how simple the way is to enjoy all this blessing.
I have confined myself in these reflections to some of the most important topics. The first is the Word of God as the glorious and sure guide, even for the simplest souls that will only surrender themselves to it. Then, as the chief element in the word, there is the Son, the gift of the Father, to do all for us. Thereupon follows what the Scriptures teach concerning Sin, as the only thing that we have to bring to Jesus, as that which we must give to Him, and from which He will set us free. Further, there is Faith, the great word in which is expressed our inability to bring or to do anything, and that teaches us that all our salvation must be received every day of our life as a gift from above. With the Holy Spirit also must the young Christian make acquaintance, as the Person through whom the word and Jesus, with all His work, and faith in Him, can become power and truth. Then there is the Holy Life of obedience and of fruitfulness, in which the Spirit teaches us to walk. It is to these six leading thoughts of the New Life that I have confined myself, with the ceaseless prayer that God may use what I have written to make His young children understand what a glorious and mighty life it is that they have received from their Father. It was often very unwillingly that I took leave of the young converts who had to go back to lonely places, where they could have little counsel or help, and seldom mingle in the preaching of the word. It is my sure and confident expectation that what the Lord has given me to write shall prove a blessing to many of these young confessors.
[I have, in some instances, attached the names of the places where the different portions of this manual were written; in others, the names of the towns where the substance of them was spoken, as a remembrance to the friends with whom I had intercourse.]
While writing this book I have had a second wish abiding with me. I have thought what I could possibly do to secure that my little book should not draw away attention from the word of God, but rather help to make the word more precious. I resolved to furnish the work with marginal references, so that, on every point that was treated of, the reader might be stirred up still to listen to the Word itself, to GOD HIMSELF.
I am hopeful that this arrangement will yield a double benefit. Many a one does not know, and had nobody to teach him, how to examine the Scriptures properly. This book may help him in his loneliness. If he will only meditate on one and another point, and then look up the texts that are quoted, he will get into the way of consulting God’s word itself on that which he wishes to understand. But it may just as readily be of service in prayer meetings or social gatherings for the study of the word. Let each one read the portion fixed on at home and review those texts that seem to him the most important. Let the president of the meeting read the portion aloud once. Let him then request that each one who pleases should announce one and another text on that point which has struck him most.
We have found in my congregation that the benefit of such meetings for bringing and reading aloud texts on a point previously announced, is very great. This practice leads to the searching of God’s word, as even preaching does not. It stirs up the members of the congregation, especially the young people, to independent dealing with the word. It leads to a more living fellowship amongst the members of Christ’s body, and helps also their upbuilding in love. It prepares the way for a social recognition of the word as the living communication of the thoughts of God, which with Divine power shall work in us what is pleasing to God. I am persuaded that there is many a believing man and woman that asks what they can accomplish for the Lord, who along this pathway could become the channels of great blessing. Let them once a week bring together some of their neighbours or friends (sometimes two or three household live on one farm) to hear read out texts for which all have been previously searching: the Lord shall certainly give His blessing there.
With respect to the use of this book in retirement, I would fain request one thing more. I hope that no one will think it strange. Let every portion be read over at least three times. The great bane of all our converse with Divine things is superficiality. When we read anything and understand it somewhat, we think that this is enough. No: we must give time, that it may make an impression and wield its own influence upon us. Read every portion the first time with consideration, to understand the good that is in it, and then see if you receive benefit from the thoughts that are there expressed. Read it the second time to see if it is really in accordance with God’s word: take some, if not all, of the texts that are adduced on each point, and ponder them in order to come under the full force of what God has said on the point. Let your God, through His word, teach you what you must think and believe concerning Him and His will. Read it then the third time to find out the corresponding places, not in the Bible, but in your own life, in order to know if your life has been in harmony with the New Life, and to direct your life for the future entirely according to God’s word. I am fully persuaded that the time and pains spent on such converse with the word of God under the teaching of this or some book that helps you in dealing with it, will be rewarded tenfold.
I conclude with a cordial brotherly greeting to all with whom I have been permitted to mingle during the past year, in speaking about the precious Saviour and His glorious salvation: also to all in other congregations, who in this last season have learned to know the beloved Lord Jesus as their Redeemer. With a heart full of peace and love, I think of you all, and I pray that the Lord may confirm His work in you. I have not become weary of crying to you: the blessedness and the power of the New Life that is in you are greater than you know, are wonderfully great: only learn to know aright and trust in Jesus, the gift of God and the Scriptures, the word of God. Only give Him time to hold converse with you and to work in you, and your heart shall overflow with the blessedness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do more than exceedingly above all that we can ask or think, to Him be glory in the Church to all eternity.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." --
"For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Christ is our life." --
"We declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which
was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. God gave unto us eternal
life; and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life." --
How glorious, then, is the blessing which every one receives
that believes in the Lord Jesus. Not only does there come a change in his
disposition and manner of life; he also receives from God out of heaven an
entirely new life. He is born anew, born of God: he has passed from death into life. (
This new life is nothing less than Eternal Life. (
This life is a life of inconceivable power. Whenever God
gives life to a young plant or animal, that life has in itself the power of
growth, whereby the plant or animal as of itself becomes large. Life is
power. In the new life, that is, in your heart, there is the power of
eternity. (
What hinders this power and the reception of the new
spiritual life is chiefly two things. The one is ignorance of its nature, its laws and workings. Man, even the Christian, has of himself not the least conception of the new life that comes from God: it surpasses all his thoughts. His own perverted thoughts of the way to serve and to please God, namely, by what he does and is, are so deeply rooted in him, that, although he thinks that he understands and receives God’s word, he yet thinks humanly and carnally on Divine things. (
There is a second hindrance in the way of faith. In the
life of every plant and every animal and every child there lies sufficient
power by which it can become big. In the new life, God has made the most
glorious provision of a sufficient power whereby His child can grow and become all that he must be. Christ Himself is his life and his power of life. (
Let every one then that has received this new life, cultivate this great conviction: it is eternal life that works in me: it works with Divine power: I can and shall become what God will have me be: Christ Himself is my life: I have to receive Him every day as my life given by God to me, and He shall be my life in full power.
O my Father, who hast given me Thy Son that I may have life in Him, I thank Thee for the glorious new life that is now in me. I pray Thee, teach me to know aright this new life. I will acknowledge my ignorance and the perverted thoughts which are in me, concerning Thy service. I will believe in the heavenly power of the new life that is in me: I will believe that my Lord Jesus, who Himself is my life, will by His Spirit teach me to know how I can walk in that life. Amen.
Try now to apprehend and appropriate the following lessons in your heart; --
1. It is eternal life, the very life of God, that you have now received through faith.
2. This new life is in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is in you to bring over to you all that is in Christ. Christ lives in you through the Holy Spirit.
3. This life is a life of wonderful power. However weak you may feel, you must believe in the Divine power of the life that is in you.
4. This life has need of time to grow in you and to take possession of you. Give it time: it shall surely increase.
5. Forget not that all the laws and rules of this new life are in conflict with all human thoughts of the way to please God. Be very much in dread of your thoughts, and let Christ, who is your life and also your wisdom, teach you all things.
"As new-born babes, long for the spiritual milk that is
without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation" --
Beloved young Christians, hear what your Father has to say in this word. You have just recently given yourselves to the Lord, and have believed that He has received you. You have thus received the new life from God. You are now as new-born infants: He would teach you in this word what is necessary that you may grow and wax strong.
The first point is: you must know that you are God’s
children. Hear how distinctly Peter says this to those just converted: (
The second point which this word teaches you is: you are
still very weak, weak as new-bon children. The joy and the love which a young convert sometimes experiences do indeed make him think that he is very strong. He runs the risk of exalting himself, and of trusting in what he experiences. He must nevertheless learn much of how he must become strong in his Lord Jesus. Endeavour to feel deeply that you are still young and weak. (
The third lesson is: the young Christian must not remain
weak; he must grow and increase in grace; he must make progress and become strong. God lays it upon us as a command. His word gives us concerning this point the most glorious promises. It lies in the nature of the thing: a child of God must and can make progress. The new life is a life that is healthy and strong: when a disciple surrenders himself to it, the growth certainly comes. (
The fourth and principal lesson, the lesson which young
disciples of Christ have most need of is: it is through the milk of the word that God’s new-born infants can grow. The new life from the Spirit of God can be sustained only by the word from the mouth of God. Your life, my young brother, will largely depend on whether you learn to deal wisely and well with God’s word, or whether you learn to use the word from the beginning as your milk. (
See what a charming parable the Lord has given us here in the mother’s milk. Out of her own life does the mother yield food and life to her child. The feeding of the child is the work of the tenderest love, in which the child is pressed to the breast, and is held in the closest fellowship with the mother. And the milk is just what the weak child requires, food gentle and yet strong.
Even so is there in the word of God the very life and power
of God. (
Dear young Christian, would you continue standing, would you
become strong, would you always live for the Lord? Then hear this day the
voice of your Father: ‘As new-born babes, long for the spiritual milk that is without guile.’ Receive this word into your heart and hold it fast as the voice of your Father: on your use of the word of God will your spiritual life depend. Let the word of God be precious to you above everything. (
Above all, forget not this: the word is the milk; the sucking or drinking on the part of the little child is the inner, living, blessed fellowship with the mother’s love. Through the Holy Spirit your use of the milk of the word can become warm, living fellowship with the Living Love of your God. O long then very eagerly for the milk. Do not take the word as something that is hard and troublesome to understand: in that way you lose all delight in it. Receive it with trust in the love of the living God. With a tender motherly love will the Spirit of God teach and help you in your weakness. Believe always that the Spirit will make the word in you life and joy, a blessed fellowship with your God.
Precious Saviour, Thou hast taught me to believe Thy word, and Thou hast made me by that faith a child of God. Through that word, as the milk of the new-born babes, wilt Thou also feed me. Lord, for this milk shall I be very eager: every day will I long after it. Teach me, through the Holy Spirit and the word, to walk and hold converse every day in living fellowship with the love of the Father. Teach me always to believe that the Spirit has been given me with the word. Amen.
1. What texts do you consider the best for proving that the Scriptures teach us that we must know we are children of God?
2. What are the three points in which the sucking child is to us a type of the young child in Christ in his dealing with the word?
3. What must a young Christian do when he has little blessing in the reading of God’s word? He must set himself through faith in fellowship with Jesus Himself: he must reckon that Jesus will teach him through the Spirit and so trustfully continue in the reading.
4. One verse chosen to meet our needs, read ten times and then laid up in the heart, is better than ten verses read once. Only so much of the word as I actually receive and inwardly appropriate for myself, is food for my soul.
5. Choose out for yourselves what you consider one of the most glorious promises about making progress and becoming strong; learn it by heart, and repeat it continually as the language of your positive expectation.
6. Have you learned well to understand what the great means for growth in grace is?
"Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart
and in your soul." --
"Son of man, all My words that I shall speak unto thee,
receive in heart." --
"Thy word have I laid up in mine heart, that I might not
sin against Thee." --
Long for the milk, that ye may grow thereby. This
charming word taught every young Christian that, if he would grow, he must
receive the word as milk, as the living participation of the life and the love of God. On this account is it of so great importance to know well how we must deal with the word. The Lord says that we must receive it and lay it in our heart. (
The heart is the temple of God. In the temple there was an
outer court and an inner sanctuary. So also is it in the heart. The gate of the court is the understanding; what I do not understand cannot enter into the heart. Through the outer gate of the understanding, the word comes into the court. (
Young Christian, God has asked your heart, your love, your
whole self. You have given yourself to Him. He has received you, and would have you and your heart entirely for Himself. He will make that heart full of His word. What is in the heart one holds dear, because one thinks continually on that which gives joy. God would have the word in the heart. Where His word is, there is He Himself and His might. He considers Himself bound to fulfill His word; when you have the word, you have God Himself to work in you. (
How I wish that I could bring all young Christians to
receive simply that word of their Father, ‘Lay up My words in your heart,’ and to give their whole heart to become full of God’s word. Resolve then to do this. Take pains to understand what you read. When you understand it, take then always one or another word to keep in remembrance and ponder. Learn words of God by heart; repeat them to yourself in the course of the day. The word is seed; the seed must have time, must be kept in the ground: so must the word be carried in the heart. Give the best powers of your heart, your love, your desire, the willing and joyful activity of your will, to God’s word. ‘Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.’ Let the heart be a temple, not for the world and its thoughts, but for God and His thoughts. (
Dear Christian, pray read yet once again the words at the
head of this section. Receive them as God’s word to you -- the word of the
Father who has received you as a child, of Jesus who has made you God’s child. God asks of you, as His child, that you give your heart to become filled with His word. Will you do this? What say you? The Lord Jesus would complete His holy work in you with power along this way. (
O my Father, who hast said to me: ‘My son, give Me thine heart,’ I have given Thee mine heart. Now that Thou chargest me to lay up and to keep Thy word in that heart, I answer: ‘I keep Thy commands with my whole heart.’ Father, teach me every day so to receive Thy word in my heart that it can exercise there its blessed influence. Strengthen me in the deep conviction that even though I do not actually apprehend its meaning and power, I can still reckon on Thee to make the word living and powerful in me. Amen.
1. What is the difference between the reading of the word to increase knowledge and the receiving of it in faith?
2. The word is as a seed. Seed requires time ere it springs up. During this time it must be kept silently and constantly in the earth. I must not only read God’s word, but ponder it and reflect upon it: then shall it work in me. The word must be in me the whole day, must abide in me, must dwell in me.
3. What are the reasons that the word of God sometimes has so little power in those that read it and really long for blessing? One of the principal reasons is surely that they do not give the seed time to grow, that they do not keep it and reflect upon it, in the believing assurance that the word itself shall have its working.
4. What is the token of His disciples that Jesus mentions
first in the high-priestly prayer? (
5. What are the blessings of a heart filled with the word of God?
"Blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a
fulfilment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord." --
"I believe God, that it shall be even so as it hath been
spoken unto me.’ --
"Abraham waxed strong through faith, being fully assured
that what He had promised, he was able also to perform." --
God has asked you to take and lay up His words in your
heart. Faith is the proper avenue whereby the word is taken and received into the innermost depths of the heart. Let the young Christian then take pains always to understand better what faith is: he will thereby gain an insight into the reasons why such great things are bound up with faith. He will yield his perfect assent to the view that full salvation is made every day dependent on faith. (
Let me now ask my reader to read over once again the three texts which stand above, and to find out what is the principal thought that they teach about faith. Pray, read nothing actually beyond them, but read first these words of God, and ask yourself what they teach you about faith.
They make us see that faith always attaches itself to what
God has said or promised. When an honourable man says anything, he also does
it: on the back of the saying follows the doing. So also is it with God: when
He would do anything, He says so first through His word. When the man of God
becomes possessed with this conviction and established in it, God always does
for him what He has said. With God, speaking and doing always go together: the
deed follows the word: ‘Shall He say it and not do it?’ (
What, now, is faith? Nothing other than the certitude that
what God says is true. When God says that something subsists or is, then does
faith rejoice, although it sees nothing of it. (
Let us now review again the words of Scripture. Of Mary we read: ‘Blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a fulfilment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord.’ All things that have been spoken in the word shall be fulfilled for me: so I believe them.
Of Abraham it is reported that he was fully assured that that which had been promised, God was also able to fulfil. This is assurance of faith: to be assured that God will do what He has promised.
Exactly thus is it in the word of Paul: ‘I believe God that it shall be even so as it hath been spoken unto me.’ It stood fixed with him that God would do what He had spoken.
Young disciples in Christ, the new, the eternal life that is
in you is a life of faith. And do you not see how simple and how blessed that
life of faith is? I go every day to the word and hear there what God has said
that He has done and will do. (
O my Father, Thy child thanks Thee for this blessed life of faith in which we have to walk. I can do nothing, but Thou canst do all. All that Thou canst do hast Thou spoken in Thy word. And every word that I take and trustfully bring to Thee, Thou fulfillest. Father, in this life of faith, so simple, so glorious, will I walk with Thee. Amen.
1. The Christian must read and search the Scriptures to increase his knowledge. For this purpose he daily reads one or more principal portions. But he reads the Scriptures also to strengthen his faith. And to this end he must take one or two verses to make them the subject of special reflection, and to appropriate them trustfully for himself.
2. Pray, do not suffer yourselves to be led astray by those who speak as if faith were something great and unintelligible. Faith is nothing other than the certitude that God speaks truth. Take some promises of God and say to Him: I know for certain that this promise is truth, and that Thou wilt fulfil it. He will do it.
3. Never mourn over unbelief as if it were only a weakness which you cannot help. As God’s child, however weak you may be, you have the power to believe, for the spirit of God is in you. You have only to keep in mind this: no one apprehends anything before that he has the power to believe; he must simply begin and continue with saying to the Lord that he is sure that His word is truth. He must hold fast the promise and rely upon God for the fulfilment.
‘Faith cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of
Christ.’ --
‘Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able
to save your souls.’ --
‘We also thank God without ceasing, that, when ye
received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, ye accepted it
not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also
worketh in you that believe.’ --
‘For the word of God is living and active.’ --
The new life of a child of God depends so much on the right use of God’s word, that I shall once again speak of it with my young brothers and sisters in the Lord.
It is a great thing when the Christian discerns that he can receive and accomplish all only through faith. He has only to believe; God will look to the fulfilling of what is promised. He has every morning to trust in Jesus, and the new life as given in Jesus and working in himself; Jesus will see to it that the new life works in him.
But now he runs the risk of another error. He thinks that
the faith that does such great things must be something great, and that he must
have a great power in order to exercise such a great faith. (
Come and hear, then, how perverted this thought is. You
must not bring this mighty faith to get the word fulfilled, but the word comes
and brings you this faith which you must have. "The word is living and
powerful." The word works faith in you. The Scripture says, "Faith is by the
word." (
Think on what we have said of the heart as a temple, and of
its two divisions. There is the outer court, with the understanding as its
gate or entrance. There is the innermost sanctuary, with the faith of the
heart as its entrance. There is a natural faith -- the historic faith -- which
every man has; with this must I first receive the word into my keeping and
consideration. I must say to myself, 'The word of God is certainly true. I can
make a stand upon it.' Thus I bring the word into the outer court, and from
within the heart desire reaches out to it, seeking to receive it into the
heart. The word now exercises its divine power of life; it begins to grow and
shoot out roots. As a seed which I place in the earth sends forth roots and
presses still deeper into the soil, the word presses inwardly into the holy place.
The word thus works true saving faith. (
Young Christian, pray understand this. The word is living and powerful; through the word you are born again. The word works faith in you; through the word comes faith. Receive the word simply with the thought that it will work in you. Keep yourselves occupied with the word, and give it time. The word has a divine life in itself; carry it in your inmost parts, and it will work life in you. It will work in you a faith strong and able for anything.
O be resolved then, pray, never to say, I cannot believe.
You can believe. You have the Spirit of God in you. Even the natural man can
say, This word of God is certainly true or certainly not true. And when he
with a desire of the soul says, 'It is true; I will believe it,' the living
Spirit, through whom the word is living and powerful, works this living faith.
Besides, the Spirit is not only in the word, but also in you. Although you do
not feel as if you were believing, know for certain you can believe. (
And not only the promises, but also the commands have this
living power. When I first receive a command from God, it is as if I felt no
power to accomplish it. But if I then simply receive the word as God’s word,
which works in those that believe, -- if I trust in the word to have its
working, and in the living God which gives it its operation, -- that
commandment will work in me the desire and the power for obedience. When I
weigh and hold fast the command, it works the desire and the will to obey; it
urges me strongly towards the conviction that I can certainly do what my Father
says. The word works both faith and obedience of faith. I must believe that
through the Spirit I have the power to do what God wills, for in the word the
power of God works in me. The word, as the command of the living God who loves
me, is my power. (
Therefore, young disciples in Christ, learn to receive God’s word trustfully. Although you do not at first understand it, continue to meditate upon it. It has a living power in it; it will glorify itself. Although you feel no power to believe or to obey, the word is living and powerful. Take it, and hold it fast; it will accomplish its work with divine power. The word rouses and strengthens for faith and obedience.
Lord God, I begin to conceive how Thou art in Thy word with Thy life and Thy power, and how that word itself works faith and obedience in the heart that receives and keeps it. Lord, teach me to carry Thy every word as a living seed in my heart, in the assurance that it shall work in me all Thy good pleasure. Amen
1. Forget not that it is one and the same to believe in the word, or in the person that speaks the word, or in the thing which is promised in the word. The very same faith that receives the promises receives also the Father who promises, and the Son with the salvation which is given in the promises. Pray see to it that you never separate the word and the living God from each other.
2. See to it also that you apprehend thoroughly the distinction betwixt the reception of the word 'as the word of man' and 'as the word of God, which works in you that believe.'
3. I think that you now know what is necessary to become strong in faith. Exercise as much faith as you have. Take a promise of God. Say to yourself that it is certainly true. Go to God and say to Him that you rely on Him for the fulfilment. Ponder the promise, and cleave to it in converse with God. Rely upon Him to do for you what He says. He will surely do it.
4. The Spirit and the word always go together. I can be sure concerning all of which the word says that I must do it, that I also can do it through the Spirit. I must receive the word and also the command in the confidence that it is the living word of the living God which also works in us who believe.
‘For God so loved the world, that He have His
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have
eternal life.’ --
‘Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.’ --
Thus dear did God hold the world. How dear? That He gave
His only-begotten Son for every one in the world who will trust in Him. And how
did He give? He gave Him, in His birth as man, in order to be for ever one
with us. He gave Him, in His death on the cross as Surety, in order to take
our sin and curse upon Himself. He gave Him on the throne of heaven, in order
to arrange for our welfare, as our Representative and Intercessor over all the
powers of heaven. He gave Him in the outpouring of the Spirit, in order to
dwell in us, to be entirely and altogether our own. (
Nothing less than His Son Himself. This is the love of God;
not that He gives us something, but that He gives us some one -- a living
person -- not one or another blessing, but Him in whom is all life and blessing
-- Jesus Himself. Not simply forgiveness, or revival, or sanctification, or
glory does He give us; but Jesus, His own Son. The Lord Jesus is the beloved,
the equal, the bosom-friend, the eternal blessedness of the Father. And it is
the will of the Father that we should have Jesus as ours, even as He has Him.
(
What have we, then, to do? To take Him, to receive and to
appropriate to ourselves the gift, to enjoy Jesus as our own. This is eternal
life. ‘He that hath the Son hath life.’ (
How I do wish, then, that all young Christians may
understand this. The one great work of God’s love for us is, He gives us His
Son. In Him we have all. Hence the one great work of our heart must be to
receive this Jesus who has been given to us, to consider Him and use Him as
ours. I must begin every day anew with the thought, I have Jesus to do all for
me. (
For this purpose, reckon upon this gift of God every day as
yours. It has been presented to you in the word. Appropriate the Son in faith
on the word. Take Him anew every day. Through faith you have the Son. (
O my Lord Jesus, today anew, and every day, I take Thee. In all Thy fulness, in all Thy relations, without ceasing, I take Thee for myself. Thee, who art my Wisdom, my Light, my Leader, I take as my Prophet. Thee, who dost perfectly reconcile me, and bring me near to God, who dost purify and sanctify me and pray for me, I take as my Priest. Thee, who dost guide and keep and bless me, I take as my King. Thou, Lord, art All, and Thou art wholly mine. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. Amen.
1. Ponder much the word Give. God gives in a wonderful way: from the heart, completely for nothing, to the unworthy. And He gives effectually. What He gives He will really make entirely our possession, and inwardly appropriate for us. Believe this, and you shall have the certitude that Jesus will, to the full, come into your possession, with all that He brings.
2. Ponder much also that other word Take. To take Jesus, and to hold Him fast and use Him when received, is our great work. And that taking is nothing but trusting. He is mine with all that He has. Take Jesus -- the full Jesus -- every day as yours. This is the secret of the life of faith.
3. Then weigh well also the word Have. ‘He that hath the Son hath light.’ What I have is mine, for my use and service. I can dispose of it, and can have the full enjoyment of it. ‘He that hath the Son hath life.’
4. Mark especially that what God gives, and what you take, and what you now have, is nothing less than the living Son of God.
Do you receive this?
‘Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself up for
it; that He might sanctify it; that He might present the Church to Himself a
glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle; but that it should be holy and
without blemish.’ --
So great and wonderful was the work that Jesus had to do for
the sinner, that nothing less was necessary than that He should give Himself to
do that work. So great and wonderful was the love of Jesus towards us, that He
actually gave Himself for us and to us. So great and wonderful is the
surrender of Jesus, that all that same thing for which He gave Himself can
actually and completely come to pass in us. For Jesus, the Holy, the Almighty,
has taken it upon Himself to do it: He gave Himself for us. (
To what end, then, was it that He gave Himself for the
Church? Hear what God says. In order that He might sanctify it, in order that
it might be without blemish. (
Hear still a word of God: ‘Who gave Himself for us, that He
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own
possession, zealous of good works.’ (
And mark, further, how the operation of this surrender of
Himself will especially be that He shall then have us entirely for Himself:
‘that He might present us to Himself.’ ‘that He might purify us to Himself, a
people of His own.’ The more I understand and contemplate Jesus’ surrender of
Himself for me, the more do I give myself again to Him. The surrender is a
mutual one: the love comes from both sides. His giving of Himself makes such
an impression on my heart, that my heart with the self-same love and joy
becomes entirely His. Through giving Himself to me, He of Himself takes
possession of me; He becomes mine and I His. I know that I have Jesus wholly
for me, and that He has me wholly for Him. (
And how come I then to the full enjoyment of this blessed
life? ‘I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself up for me.’ (
O my Lord Jesus, what wonderful grace is this, that Thou gavest Thyself for me. In Thee is eternal life. Thou Thyself art the life and Thou givest Thyself to be in my life all that I need. Thou purifiest me and sanctifiest me, and makest me zealous in good works. Thou takest me wholly for Thyself, and givest Thyself wholly for me. Yes, my Lord, in all thou art my life. O make me rightly understand this. Amen.
1. It was in His great love that the Father gave the Son.
It was out of love that Jesus gave Himself. (
2. Do you think that you have now learned all the lesson, to begin every day with the childlike trust: I take Jesus this day to be my life, and to do all for me.
3. Understand that to take and to have Jesus, presupposes a personal dealing with Himself. To have pleasure in Him, to hold converse gladly with Him, to rejoice in Him as my friend and in His love -- to this leads the faith that truly takes Him.
‘As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to
become children of God, even to them that believe on His name.’ --
What is given must be received, otherwise it does not profit. If the first great deed of God’s love is the gift of His Son, the first work of man must be to receive this Son. And if all the blessings of God’s love come to us only in the ever-new, ever-living Son of the Father, all these blessings enter into us from day to day through the always-new, always-continuing reception of the Son.
What is necessary for this reception, you, beloved young
Christians, know, for you have already received the Lord Jesus. But all that
this reception involves must become clearer and stronger, the unceasing living
action of your faith. (
The impulse to your first receiving was found in your want
and necessity. Through the Spirit you become still poorer in spirit, and you
see everything every moment: this leads to a ceaseless, ever-active taking of
Him as your all. (
Your first receiving consisted in nothing but the
appropriation by faith of what you could not yet see or feel. That same faith
must be continually exercised in saying: all that I see in Jesus is for me: I
take it as mine, although I do not yet experience it. The love of God is a
communicating, a ceaseless outstreaming of His light of life over the soul, a
very powerful and veritable giving of Jesus: our life is nothing but a
continuous blessed apprehension and reception of Him. (
And this is the way to live as children of God: as many as
receive Him, to them gives He the power to become children of God. This holds
true, not only of conversion and regeneration, but of every day of my life. If
to walk in all things as a child of God, and to exhibit the image of my Father,
is indispensable, I must take Jesus the only-begotten Son: it is He that makes
me a child of God. To have Jesus Himself, to have the heart and life full of
Him, is the way to live as a child of God. I go to the word and learn there
all the characteristics of a child of God; (
Beloved young Christian, learn, I beseech you, to understand the simplicity and the glory of being a true Christian. It is to receive Jesus, to receive Him in all His fulness, to receive Him in all the glorious relations in which the Father gives Him to you. Take Him as your Prophet, as your Wisdom, your Light, your Guide. Take Him as your Priest, who renews you, purifies you, sanctifies you, brings you near to God, takes you and forms you wholly for His service. Take Him as your King who governs you, protects you and blesses you. Take him as your Head, your Exemplar, your Brother, your Life, your All. The giving of God is a divine, an ever-progressive and effectual communication to your soul. Let your taking be the childlike, cheerful, continuous opening of mouth and heart for what God gives, the full Jesus and all His grace. To every prayer the answer of God is: Jesus, all is in Him, all in Him is for you. Let your response always be: Jesus, in Him I have all. You are, you live in all things as, ‘children of God, through faith in Jesus Christ.’
O my Father, open the eyes of my heart to understand what it is to be a child of God: to live always as a child through always believing in Jesus, Thine only Son. O let every breath of my soul be, faith in Jesus, a confidence in Him, a resting in Him, a surrender to Him, to work all in me.
If by the grace of God you now know that you have received Jesus and are God’s child, you must now take pains to make His salvation known. There is many a one who longs to know and cannot find out how he can become a child of God.
Endeavour to make two things plain to him. First, that the
new birth is something so high and holy that he can do nothing in it. He must
receive eternal life from God through the Spirit: he must be born from above.
This Jesus teaches. (
‘They gave their own selves to the Lord.’ -- Cor. 8:5
In the surrender of Jesus for me, I have the chief element
of what He has done and always does for me. In my surrender to Him I have the
chief element of what He would have me to do. For young Christians who have
given themselves to Jesus, it is a matter of great moment always to hold fast,
to confirm and renew this surrender. This is the special life of faith, to say
anew every day: I have given myself to Him, to follow Him and to serve Him;
(
Young Christian, hold firm your surrender, and make it
always firmer. When there recurs a stumbling or a sin after you have
surrendered yourself, think not the surrender was not sincere. No; the
surrender to Jesus does not make us perfect at once. You have sinned, because
you were not thoroughly or firmly enough in His arms. Adhere to this, although
it be with shame: Lord, Thou knowest it, I have given myself to Thee: I am
Thine. (
The longer we continue Christians, the deeper will be our
insight into that word: surrender to Jesus. We shall always see more clearly
that we do not yet fully understand or contemplate it. The surrender must
become, especially, more undivided and trustful. The language which Ahab once
used must be ours: ‘According to thy saying, my lord, O king, I am thine, and
all that I have’ (
That is the language of trustful dedication. It is on the
word of the Lord, which calls upon you to surrender yourself, that you have
done this. That word is your warrant that He will take and guide and keep
you. As surely as you give yourself, does He take you; and what He takes He
can keep. Only, we must not take it again out of His hand. Let it remain
fixed with you that your surrender is in the highest degree pleasing to Him: be
certain of it, your offering is a sweet-smelling savour. Not on what you are,
or what you experience or discover in yourselves, do you say this, but on His
word. According to His word, you are able to take a stand on this: what you
give, that He takes; and what He takes, that He keeps. (
According to Thy word, my Lord and King, I am Thine, and all that I have. Every day, this day, will I confirm it, that I am not mine own, but am my Lord’s. Fervently do I beseech Thee to take full possession of Thy property, so that no one may doubt whose I am. Amen.
1. Ponder now once again the words giving and taking and having. What I give to Jesus, He take with a divine taking. And what He takes, he has and thereafter cares for. Now it is absolutely no longer mine. I must not take thought for it; I may not dispose of it. O pray, let your faith find expression in adoration: Jesus takes me: Jesus has me.
2. Should there overtake you a time of doubting or darkness whereby your assurance that the Lord has received you has come to be lost, suffer not yourself thereby to be dispirited. Come simply as a sinner, confess your sins: believe in His promises that He will by no means cast out those that come to Him and begin simply on the ground of the promises to say: I know that He has received me.
3. Forget not what the chief element in surrender is: it is a surrender to Jesus and to His love. Fix your eye, not upon your activity in surrender, but upon Jesus, who calls you, who takes you, who can do all for you. This it is that makes faith strong.
4. Faith is always a surrender. Faith is the eye for seeing the invisible. When I look at something, I surrender myself to the impression which it make upon me. Faith is the ear that hearkens to the voice of God. When I believe a message, I surrender myself to the influence, cheering or saddening, which the tidings exercises upon me. When I believe in Jesus, I surrender myself to Him, in reflection, in desire, in expectation, in order that He may be in me and do that for which He has been given to me by God.
‘Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for it is He that shall
save His people from their sins.’ --
‘Ye know that He was manifested to take away sins; and in
Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.’ --
It is sin that is the cause of our misery. It is sin that
provoked God, and brought His curse upon man. He hates sin with a perfect
hatred, and will do everything to root it out. (
All do not receive this. They seek chiefly to be freed from
the consequences of sin, from fear and darkness, and the punishment that sin
brings. (
The first is to come to Jesus with every sin. (
Learn to believe this firmly: this is the second point.
Understand that Jesus, Jesus Himself, is the Saviour from sin. It is not you
that must overcome sin with the help of Jesus, but Jesus Himself: Jesus in you.
(
Yes: sin is driven out and kept out only through the presence of Jesus. It is Jesus, Jesus Himself, that, through His giving Himself to me and His living in me, is salvation from sin.
Precious Lord, let Thy light stream over me, and let it become still clearer to my soul, that Thou, Thou Thyself, art my salvation. To have Thee, Thee, with me, in me -- this keeps sin out. Teach me to bring every sin to Thee; let every sin drive me into a closer alliance with Thee. Then shall Thy Jesus-name become truly my salvation from sin. Amen.
1. See of what moment it is that the Christian should always grow in the knowledge of sin. The sin that I do not know, I cannot bring to Jesus. The sin that I do not bring to Him is not taken out of me.
2. To know sin better there are required:
The constant prayer, ‘Examine me:’ make known to me my
transgression and my sin (
A tender conscience that is willing to be convinced of sin through the Spirit, as He also uses the conscience for this end;
The very humble surrender to the word, to think concerning sin only as God thinks.
3. The deeper knowledge of sin will be found in these results:
That we shall see to be sin things which previously we did not regard in this light;
That we shall perceive more the exceedingly sinful, the
detestable character of sin (
That with the overcoming of external sins we become all the more encouraged over the deep sinfulness of our nature, of the enmity of our flesh against God. Then we give up all hope of being or of doing anything good, and we are turned wholly to live in faith through the Spirit.
4. O let us thank God very heartily that Jesus is a Saviour from sin. The power that sin has had over us, Jesus now has. The place that sin has taken in the heart, Jesus will now take. ‘The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.’
‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ --
The one thing that God hates, that grieves Him, that He is
provoked by, and that He will destroy, is sin. The one thing that makes man
unhappy, is sin. (
When you came to Jesus at first, you perceived this in some
measure. But you should learn to understand this lesson more deeply. The one
counsel concerning sin is, to bring it daily to the only One who can take it
away -- God Himself. You should learn that one of the greatest privileges of a
child of God is -- the confession of sin. It is only the holiness of God that
can consume sin; through confession I must hand over my sin to God, lay it down
in God, get quit of it to God, cast it into the fiery oven of God’s holy love
which burns against sin like a fire. God, yes, God Himself, and He alone,
takes away sin. (
This the Christian does not always understand. He has an
inborn tendency to desire to cover sin, or to make it less, or to root it out
only when he purposes drawing near to God. He thinks to cover sin with his
repentance and self-blame, with scorn of the temptation that came to him, or
otherwise with what he has done or still hopes to do. (
For this end, let your confession be a definite one. (
Let the confession be an upright one. (
Let the confession be trustful (
Brother, do you understand it now? What must you do with sin, with every sin? To bring it in confession to God, to give it to God; God alone takes away sin.
Lord God, what thanks shall I express for this unspeakable blessing, that I may come to Thee with sin. It is known to Thee, Lord, how sin before Thy holiness causes terror and flight. It is known to Thee how it is our deepest thought, first to have sin covered, and then to come to Thee with our desire and endeavour for good. Lord, teach me to come to Thee with sin, every sin, and in confession to lay it down before Thee and give it up to Thee. Amen.
1. What is the distinction betwixt the covering of sin by God and by man? How does man do it? How does God do it?
2. What are the great hindrances in the way of the confession of sin?
Ignorance about sin.
Fear to come with sin to the holy God.
The endeavour to come to God with something good.
Unbelief in the power of the blood and in the riches of grace.
3. Must I immediately confess an oath or a lie or a wrong word, or wait until my feeling has first cooled and become rightly disposed? O pray, confess it immediately; come in full sinfulness to God, without first desiring to make it less!
4. Is it also necessary or good to confess before man? It
is indispensable, if our sin has been against man. And, besides, it is often
good; it is often easier to acknowledge before God than before man that I have
done something (
‘Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin
is covered.’ --
‘Bless the Lord, O my soul .... who forgiveth all thine
iniquities.’ --
In connection with surrender to the Lord, it was said that the first great blessing of the grace of God was this -- the free, complete, everlasting forgiveness of all your sins. For the young Christian it is of great moment that he should stand fast in this forgiveness of his sins, and always carry the certitude of it about with him. To this end, he must especially consider the following truths.
The forgiveness of our sin is a complete forgiveness. (
The forgiveness of our sin restores us entirely again to the
love of God. (
Live in the full assurance of forgiveness, and let the
Spirit fill your heart with the certitude and the blessedness of it, and you
shall have great confidence in expecting all from God. Learn from the word of
God, through the Spirit, to know God aright, and to trust Him as the
ever-forgiving God. That is His name and His glory. To one to whom much, yea,
all is forgiven, He will also give much. He will give all. (
Then the forgiveness of former sins always gives courage to
go immediately anew with every new sin and trustfully to take forgiveness. (
Lord God, this is the wonder of Thy grace, that Thou art a forgiving God. Teach me every day to know in this anew the glory of Thy love. Let the Holy Spirit every day seal forgiveness to me as a blessing, everlasting, ever-fresh, living, and powerful. And let my life be as a song of thanksgiving. ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities.’ Amen.
1. At bottom, forgiveness is one with justification. Forgiveness is the word that looks more to the relation of God as Father. Justification looks more to His acquittal as Judge. Forgiveness is a word that is more easily understood by the young Christian. But he must also endeavour to understand the word justification, and to obtain part in all that the Scripture teaches about it.
2. About justification we must understand --
That man in himself is wholly unrighteous.
That he cannot be justified by works, that is, pronounced righteous before the judgment-seat of God.
That Jesus Christ has brought in a righteousness in our place. His obedience is our righteousness.
That we through faith receive Him, are united with Him; and then are pronounced righteous before God.
That we through faith have the certitude of this, and, as justified, draw near before God.
That union with Jesus is a life by which we are not only pronounced righteous, but are really righteous and act righteously.
3. Let the certitude of your part in justification, in the full forgiveness of your sins, and in full restoration to the love of God, be every day your confidence in drawing near to God.
‘If we walk in the light, the blood of Jesus His Son
cleanseth us from all sin. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’
--
The same God that forgives sin also cleanses from it. Not less than forgiveness is cleansing a promise of God, and therefore a matter of faith. As it is indispensable, as it is impossible for man, so is cleansing as well as forgiveness certain to be obtained from God.
And what now is this cleansing? The word comes from the Old
Testament. While forgiveness was a sentence of acquittal passed on the sinner,
cleansing was something that happened to him and in him. Forgiveness came to
him through the word: in the case of cleansing, something was done to him that
he could experience. (
Cleansing is through the blood. Forgiveness and cleansing
are both through the blood. The blood breaks the power that sin has in heaven
to condemn us. The blood thereby also breaks the power of sin in the heart to
hold us captive. The blood has a ceaseless operation in heaven from moment to
moment. The blood has likewise a ceaseless operation in our heart, to purify,
to keep pure the heart into which sin always seeks to penetrate from the
flesh. The blood cleanses the conscience from dead works, to serve the living
God. The marvelous power that the blood has in heaven, it has also in the
heart. (
Cleansing is also through the word, for the word testifies
of the blood and of the power of God. (
Cleansing is ascribed sometimes to God or the Lord Jesus;
sometimes to man. (
What we have now accordingly to lay the chief stress upon is
found in two things, the desire and the reception of cleansing. The desire
must be strong for a real purification. Forgiveness must be only the gateway
or beginning of a holy life. I have several times remarked that the secret of
progress in the service of God is a strong yearning to become free from every
sin, a hunger and thirst after righteousness. (
They learn also what it is to do this in faith. Through faith they know that an unseen, spiritual, heavenly, but very real cleansing through the blood is wrought in them by God Himself.
Beloved child of God, you remember how we have seen that it
was to cleanse us that Jesus gave Himself. (
Lord Go, I thank Thee for these promises. Thou givest not only forgiveness, but also cleansing. As surely as forgiveness comes first, does cleansing follow for every one that desires it and believes. Lord, let Thy word penetrate my heart, and let a divine cleansing from every sin that is forgiven me be the stable expectation of my soul. Beloved Saviour, let the glorious, ceaseless cleansing of Thy blood through Thy Spirit in me be made known to me and shared by me every moment. Amen.
1. What is the connection between cleansing by God and cleansing by man himself?
2. What, according to
3. Is cleansing, as well as forgiveness, the work of God in us? If this is the case, of what inexpressible importance is it to trust God for it. To believe that God gives me a divine cleansing in the blood when He forgives me, is the way to become partaker of it.
4. What, according to Scripture, are the evidence of a pure heart?
5. What are ‘clean hands’? (
‘Like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves
also holy in all manner of living: because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for
I am holy.’ --
‘But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us
from God, sanctification.’ --
‘God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.’ --
Not only salvation, but holiness -- salvation in holiness: for this end has God chosen and called us. Not only safe in Christ, but holy in Christ, must the goal of the young Christian be. Safety and salvation are in the long run found only in holiness. The Christian who thinks that his salvation consists merely in safety and not in holiness, will find himself deceived. Young Christian, listen to the word of God: Be holy.
And wherefore must I be holy? Because He who called you is
holy, and summons you to fellowship and conformity with Himself. How should
any one be saved in God, when he has not the same disposition as God? (
God’s holiness is His highest glory. In His holiness His
righteousness and love are united. His holiness is the flaming fire of His
zeal against all that is sin, whereby He keeps Himself free from sin, and in
love makes others also free from it. It is as the Holy One of Israel that He
is the Redeemer, and that He dwells in the midst of His people. (
And what is this holiness that I must have? Answer: Of God
are ye in Christ, who of God is made unto you sanctification. Christ is your
sanctification; the life of Christ in you is your holiness. (
Holiness is more than purity. In Scripture we see that
cleansing precedes holiness. (
And how do we become holy? By the sanctification of the Spirit.
The Spirit of God is named the Holy Spirit, because He makes us holy. He
reveals and glorifies Christ in us. Through Him Christ dwells in us, and His
holy power works in us. Through this Holy Spirit the workings of the flesh are
mortified, and God works in us both the will and the accomplishment. (
And what is now the work that we have to do to receive this
holiness of Christ through the Holy Spirit? ‘God chose you to salvation, in
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.’ (
Young Christian, the Three-One God is the Thrice-Holy. (
Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, what thanks shall I render to Thess for the gift of Thy Son as my sanctification, and that I am sanctified in Him. And what thanks for the Spirit of sanctification to dwell in me, and transplant the holiness of Jesus into me. Lord, give me to understand this aright, and to long for the experience of it. Amen.
1. What is the distinction betwixt forgiveness and cleansing, and betwixt cleansing and holiness?
2. What made the temple a sanctuary? The indwelling of God. What makes us holy? Nothing less than this: the indwelling of God in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Obedience and purity are the way to holiness; holiness itself is something higher.
3. In
4. No one is holy but the Lord. You have as much of holiness as you have of God in you.
5. The word ‘holy’ is one of the deepest words in the Bible, the deepest mystery of the Godhead. Do you desire to understand something of it, and to obtain part in it? Then take these two thoughts, ‘I am holy.’ ‘Be ye holy,’ and carry them in your heart as a seed of God that has life.
6. What is the connection betwixt the perseverance of the saints and perseverance in holiness?
‘He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth
the Lord require of thee, but to justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly
with thy God?’ --
‘Present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness. Even so now present your members
as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.’ --
The word of Micah teaches us that the fruit of the salvation of God is seen chiefly in three things. The new life must be characterized, in my relation to God and His will, by righteousness and doing right; in my relation to my neighbour, by love and beneficence; in relation to myself, by humility and lowliness. For the present, we meditate on righteousness.
Scripture teaches us that no man is righteous before God, or
has any righteousness that can stand before God; (
It is to be feared that this is not always understood. One thinks sometimes more of justification than of righteousness in life and walk. To understand the will and the thoughts of God here, let us trace what Scripture teaches us on this point. We shall be persuaded that the man who is clothed with a divine righteousness before God must also walk before God and man in a divine righteousness.
Consider how, in the word, the servants of God are praised
as righteous; (
And what this righteousness is, Scripture will also teach
you. It is a life in accordance with the commands of God, in all their breadth
and height. The righteous man does what is right in the eyes of the Lord. (
Consider, further, the promises of blessing and joy which God has for the righteous, and then live as one who, in friendship with God, and clothed with the righteousness of His Son through faith, has no alternative but to do righteousness.
O Lord, who hast said, ‘There is no God else beside Me: a just God and a Saviour,’ Thou art my God. It is as a righteous God that Thou are my Saviour, and hast redeemed me in Thy Son. As a righteous God Thou makest me also righteous, and sayest to me that the righteous shall live by faith. O Lord, let the new life in me be the life of faith, the life of a righteous man. Amen.
1. Observe the connection between the doing of
righteousness and sanctification in
2. ‘Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. It was when the Lord Jesus had spoken that word that He was baptized with the Spirit. Let us set aside every temptation not to walk in full obedience towards God, even as He did, and we too shall be filled with the Spirit. ‘Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.’
3. Take pains to set before yourselves the image of a man who so walks that the name of ‘righteous; is involuntarily given to him. Think of his uprightness, his conscientious care to cause no one to suffer the least injury, his holy fear and carefulness to transgress none of the commands of the Lord -- righteous, and walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless; and then say to the Lord that you should so live.
4. You understand now the great word, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ By faith the godless is justified, and becomes a righteous man; by faith he lives as a righteous man.
‘A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one
another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this
shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.’
--
‘Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: love therefore is
the fulfilling of the law.’ --
‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and His love is perfected
in us.’ --
In the word of Micah, in the previous section, righteousness
was the first thing, to love mercy the second, that God demands. Righteousness
stood more in the foreground in the Old Testament: it is in the New Testament
that it is first seen that love is supreme. Utterances to this effect are not
difficult to find. It is in the advent of Jesus that the love of God is first
revealed; that the new, the eternal life, is first given; that we become
children of the Father, and brethren of one another. On this ground the Lord
can then, for the first time, speak of the New Commandment -- the commandment
of brotherly love. Righteousness is required not less in the New Testament
than in the Old. (
Let every Christian take it deeply to heart, that in the first and the great commandment, the new commandment given by Jesus at His departure, the peculiar characteristic of a disciple of Jesus is brotherly love. And let him with his whole heart yield himself to Him, to obey that command. For the right exercise of this brotherly love, one must take heed to more than one thing.
Love to the brethren arises from the love of the Father. By
the Holy Spirit, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, the wonderful
love of the Father is unveiled to us, so that His love becomes the life and the
joy of our soul. Out of this fountain of the love of God to us springs our
love to Him. (
Brotherly love has its measure and rule in the love of
Jesus. ‘This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved
you.’ (
Brotherly love must be in deed and in truth. (
Christian, God is love. Jesus is the gift of this love, to bring love to you, to transplant you into that life of godlike love. Live in that faith, and you shall not complain that you have no power to love: the love of the Spirit shall be your power and your life.
Beloved Saviour, I discern more clearly that the whole of the new life is a life in love. Thou Thyself art the Son of God’s love, the gift of His love, come to introduce us into His love, and give us a dwelling there. And the Holy Spirit is given to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, to open a spring out of which shall stream love to Thee, and to the brethren, and to all mankind. Lord, here am I, one redeemed by love, to love for it, and in its might to love all. Amen.
1. Those who reject the word of God sometimes say that it
is of no moment what we believe, if we but have love, and so they are for
making love the one condition of salvation. In their zeal against this view,
the orthodox party have sometimes presented faith in justification, as if love
were not of so much importance. This is likely to be very dangerous. God is
love. His Son is the gift, the bringer, of His love to us. The Spirit sheds
abroad the love of God in the heart. The New Life is a life in love. Love is
the greatest thing. Let it be the chief element in our life: true love, that,
namely, which is known in the keeping of God’s commandments. (See
2. Do not wonder that I have said to you that you must love, although you do not feel the least love. Not the feeling, but the will is your power: it is not in your feeling, but in faith, that the Spirit in you is the power of your will to work in you all that the Father bids you. Therefore, although you feel absolutely no love to your enemy, say in the obedience of faith: Father, I love him; in faith in the hidden working of the Spirit in my heart, I do love him.
3. Pray, think not that this is love, if you wish no evil to any one, or if you should be willing to help, if he were in need. No: love is much more: love is love. Love is the disposition with which God addressed you when you were His enemy, and afterwards ran to you with tender longing to bless you.
‘And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?’ --
‘Learn of me that I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye
shall find rest unto your souls.’ --
One of the most dangerous enemies against which the young
Christian must watch, is pride or self-exaltation. There is no sin that works
more cunningly and more hiddenly. It knows how to penetrate into everything,
even into our service for God, our prayers -- yea, even into our humility: there
is nothing so small in the earthly life, nothing so holy in the spiritual life,
that self-exaltation does not know to extract its nutriment out of. (
Man was created to have part in the glory of God. He
obtains this by surrendering himself to the glorification of God. The more he
seeks that the glory of God only shall be seen in him, the more does this glory
rest upon himself. (
By sin this design has been thwarted: man seeks himself and
his own will. (
He who would be freed from self-exaltation must not think to
obtain this by striving against its mere workings. No: pride must be driven
out and kept out by humility. The Spirit of life in Christ, the Spirit of His
lowliness, will work in us true lowliness. (
The means that He will chiefly use for this end is the word. It is by the word that we are cleansed from sin; it is by the word that we are sanctified and filled with the love of God.
Observe what the word says about this point. It speaks of
God’s aversion to pride, and the punishment that comes upon it. (
Take singly some of these words of God from time to time and
lay them up in your heart. The tree of life yields many different kinds of seed
-- the seed also of the heavenly plant, lowliness. The seeds are the words of
God. Carry them in your heart: they shall shoot up and yield fruit. (
Consider, moreover, how lovely, how becoming, how
well-pleasing to God, lowliness is. As man, created for the honour of God, you
find it befitting you. (
But here, as everywhere in the life of grace, let faith be the chief thing. Believe in the power of the eternal life that works in you. Believe in the power of Jesus, who is your life. Believe in the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. Attempt not to hide your pride, or to forget it, or to root it out yourself. Confess this sin, with every working of it that you trace, in the sure confidence that the blood cleanses, that the Spirit sanctifies. Learn of Jesus that He is meek and lowly in heart. Consider that He is your life, with all that He has. Believe that He gives His humility to you. The word: ‘Do it to the Lord Jesus,’ means, ‘Be clothed with the Lord Jesus.’ Be clothed with humility, in order that you may be clothed with Jesus. It is Christ in you that shall fill you with humility.
Blessed Lord Jesus, there never was any one amongst the children of men so high, so holy, so glorious as Thou. And never was there any one who was so lowly and ready to deny himself as the servant of all. O Lord, when shall we learn that lowliness is the grace by which man can be most closely conformed to the divine glory? O teach me this. Amen.
1. Take heed that you do nothing to feed pride on the part of others. Take heed that you do not suffer others to feed your pride. Take heed, above all, that you do nothing yourself to feed your pride. Let God alone always and in all things obtain the honour. Endeavour to observe all that is good in His children, and to thank Him heartily for it. Thank Him for all that helps you to hold yourself in small esteem, whether it be sent through friend or foe. Resolve, especially, never on any account to be eagerly bent on your own honour, when this is not accorded to you as it ought to be. Commit this to the Father: take heed only to His honour.
2. By no means suppose that faint-heartedness or doubting
is lowliness. Deep humility and strong faith go together. The centurion who
said: ‘I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof,’ and the woman
who said: ‘Yea, Lord, yet even the dogs eat of the crumbs’ -- these two were
the most humble and the most trustful that the Lord found (see
‘In many things we all stumble.’ --
This word of God by James is the description of what man is,
even the Christian, when he is not kept by grace. It serves to take away from
us all hope in ourselves. (
For the young Christian, it is often a difficult question
what he ought to think of his stumblings. On this point, he ought especially
to be on his guard against two errors. Some become dispirited when they
stumble: they think that their surrender was not sincere, and lose their
confidence towards God. (
Let no stumblings discourage you. You are called to
perfectness: yet this comes not at once: time and patience are needful for it.
Therefore James says: ‘Let patience have its perfect work that ye may be
perfect and entire. (
Let stumbling rouse you to faith in the mighty keeper. It
is because you have not relied on Him with a sufficient faith that you have
stumbled. (
And then, let stumbling make you very prudent. (
Lord Jesus, a sinner who is ready to stumble every moment would give honour to Thee, who art mighty to keep from stumbling: Thine is the might and the power: I take Thee as my keeper. I look to Thy love which has chosen me, and wait for the fulfilment of Thy word: ‘Ye shall never stumble.’ Amen.
1. Let your thoughts about what the grace of God can do for you, be taken only from the word of God. Our natural expectations -- that we must just always be stumbling -- are wrong. They are strengthened by more than one thing. There is secret unwillingness to surrender everything. There is the example of so many sluggish Christians. There is the unbelief that cannot quite understand that God will really keep us. There is the experience of so many disappointments, when we have striven in our own power.
2. Let no stumbling be tolerated, for the reason that it is trifling.
‘The Lord is Thy keeper: ... The Lord shall keep thee
from all evil; ... He shall keep thy soul.’ --
‘I know Him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that
He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.’ --
For young disciples of Christ who are still weak,
there is no lesson that is more necessary than this, that the Lord has not only
received them, but that He will also keep them. (
Learn from his to deposit your pledge with Jesus. Paul
had surrendered himself, body and soul, to the Lord Jesus: that was His pledge
which he had deposited with the Lord. You have also surrendered yourselves to
the Lord, but perhaps not with the clear understanding that it is in order to
be kept every day. Do this now daily. Deposit your soul with Jesus as
a costly pledge that He will keep secure. Do this same thing with every part
of your life. Is there something that you cannot rightly hold -- your heart,
because it is too worldly; (
Learn from Paul to set your confidence only on the power
of Jesus. I am persuaded that He is able to keep my pledge. You
have an almighty Jesus to keep you. Faith keeps itself occupied only with His
omnipotence. (
And learn also from Paul where he obtained the assurance
that this power would keep his pledge: it was in his knowledge of Jesus. ‘I
know Him whom I have believed:’ therefore I am assured. (
Young disciples of Christ, pray, receive this word: ‘The
Lord is thy keeper.’ For every weakness, every temptation, learn to deposit
your soul with Him as a pledge. You can reckon upon it, you can shout joyfully
over it: ‘The Lord shall keep you from all evil. (
Holy Jesus, I take Thee as my keeper. Let Thy name, ‘The Lord thy keeper,’ sound as a song in my heart the whole day. Teach me in every need to deposit my case as a pledge with Thee, and to be assured that Thou art able to keep it. Amen.
1. There was once a woman who for years long, and with much prayer, had striven against her temper, but could not obtain the victory. On a certain day she resolved not to come out of her room until by earnest prayer she had the power to overcome. She went out in the opinion that she should succeed. Scarcely had she been in the household, when something gave her offense and caused her to be angry. She was deeply ashamed, burst into tears, and hastened back to her room. A daughter, who understood the way of faith better than she, went to her and said, ‘Mother, I have observed your conflict: may I tell you what I think the hindrance is?’ ‘Yes, my child,’ ‘Mother, you struggle against temper, and pray that the Lord may help you to overcome. This is wrong. The Lord must do it alone. You must give temper wholly into His hands: then He takes it wholly, and He keeps you.’ The mother could not at first understand this, but later it was made plain to her. And she enjoyed the blessedness of the life in which Jesus keeps us, and we by faith have the victory. Do you understand this?
2. ‘The Lord must help me to overcome sin:’ the expression is altogether outside of the New Testament. The grace of God in the soul does not become a help to us. He will do everything: ‘The Spirit has made me free from the law of sin.’
3. When you surrender anything to the Lord for keeping, take heed to two things: that you give it wholly into His hands; and that you have it there. Let Him have it wholly: He will carry out your case gloriously.
‘He hath said unto me, My power is made perfect in
weakness. Therefore will I glory in my weaknesses, that the strength of Christ
may rest upon me. Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses: for when I am weak,
then am I strong.’ --
There is almost no word that is so imperfectly understood in the Christian life as the word weakness. Sin and shortcoming, sluggishness and disobedience, are set to the account of our weakness. With this appeal to weakness, the true feeling of guilt and the sincere endeavour after progress are impossible. How, pray, can I be guilty, when I do not do what it is not in my power to do? The Father cannot demand of His child what He can certainly do independently. That, indeed, was done by the law under the Old Covenant; but that the Father, under the New Covenant, does not do. He requires of us nothing more than what He has prepared for us power to do in His Holy Spirit. The new life is a life in the power of Christ through the Spirit.
The error of this mode of thinking is that people estimate
their weakness, not too highly, but too meanly. They would still do something
by the exercise of all their powers, and with the help of God. They know not
that they must be nothing before God. (
Whenever the young Christian acknowledges and assents to
this his weakness, then he learns to understand the secret of the power of
Jesus. He then sees that he is not to wait and pray to become stronger, to
feel stronger. No: in his inability, he is to have the power of Jesus. By
faith he is to receive it; he is to reckon that it is for him, and that Jesus
Himself will work in and by him. (
It is wonderful how glorious that life of faith becomes for
him who is content to have nothing, or feel nothing, in himself, and always to
live on the power of his Lord. He learns to understand what a joyful thing it
is to know God as his strength. ‘The Lord is my strength and song.’ (
'I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong,
and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the Evil One.' The
Christian is strong in his Lord: (
The God of the Lord Jesus, the Father of glory give unto us the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, that we may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe. Amen.
1. So long as the Christian thinks of the service of God or
of sanctification as something that is hard and difficult, he will make
no progress in it. He must see that this very thing is for him impossible.
Then he will cease still endeavouring to do something; he will surrender
himself that Christ may work all in him. See these thoughts set forth in
detail in Professor Hofmeyr’s book, Out of Darkness into Light: a Course of
Instruction on Conversion, the Surrender of Faith, and Sanctification
2. The complaint about weakness is often nothing else than an apology for our idleness. There is power to be obtained in Christ for those who will take the pains to have it.
3. ‘Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.’ Mind that. I must abide in the Lord and in the power of His might, then I become strong. To have His power I must have Himself. The strength is His, and continues His; the weakness continues mine. He, the Strong, works in me, the weak; I, the weak, abide by faith in Him, the Strong; so that I, in the self-same moment, know myself to be weak and strong.
4. Strength is for work. He who would be strong simply to be pious, will not be so. He who in his weakness begins to work for the Lord, shall become strong.
‘We walk by faith, not by sight.’ --
‘Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have
believed.’ --
‘Said I not unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest
see the glory of God?’ --
In connection with your conversion there was no greater
hindrance in your way than feeling. You thought, perhaps for years, that you
must experience something, must feel and perceive something in yourselves. It
was to you as if it were too hazardous thus simply, and without some feeling,
to believe in the word, and be sure that God had received you, and that your
sins were forgiven. But at last you have had to acknowledge that the way of
faith, without feeling, was the way of the word of God. And it has been to you
the way of salvation. Through faith alone have you been saved, and your soul
has found rest and peace. (
In the further life of the Christian there is no temptation
that is more persistent and more dangerous than this same feeling. The word
‘feeling’ we do not find in Scripture, but what we call ‘feeling’ the Scripture
calls ‘seeing’. And it tells us without easing that not seeing, but believing,
that believing right in opposition to what we see, gives salvation. ‘Abraham,
not being weak in faith, considered not his own body’. * Faith adheres simply
to what God says. The unbelief that would see shall not see; the faith that
will not see, but has enough in God, shall see the glory of God. (
Child of God, learn to live by faith. Let it be fixed with
you that faith is God’s way to a blessed life. When there is no feeling of
liveliness in prayer, when you feel cold and dull in the inner chamber, live by
faith. Let your faith look upon Jesus as near, upon His power and
faithfulness, and, though you have nothing to bring to Him, believe that He
will give you all. Feeling always seeks something in itself; faith keeps
itself occupied with what Jesus is. (
Betwixt the life of feeling and the life of faith the Christian has to choose every day. Happy is he who, once for all, has made the firm choice, and every morning renews the choice, not to seek or listen for feeling, but only to walk by faith, according to the will of God. The faith that keeps itself occupied with the word, with what God has said, and, through the word, with God Himself and Jesus His Son, shall taste the blessedness of a life in God above. Feeling seeks and aims at itself; faith honours God, and shall be honoured by Him. Faith pleases God, and shall receive from Him the witness in the heart of the believer that he is acceptable to God.
Lord God, the one, the only, thing that Thou desirest of Thy children is that they should trust Thee, and that they should always hold converse with Thee in that faith. Lord, let it be the one thing in which I seek my happiness, to honour and to please Thee by a faith that firmly holds Thee, the Invisible, and trusts Thee in all things. Amen.
1. There is indeed something marvelous in the new life. It is difficult to make it clear to the young Christian. The Spirit of God teaches him to understand it after he perseveres in grace. Jesus has laid the foundation of that life in the first word of the Sermon on the Mount: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’; a feeling of deep poverty and of royal riches, of utter weakness and of kingly might, exist together in the soul. To have nothing in itself, to have all in Christ -- that is the secret of faith. And the true secret of faith is to bring this into exercise, and, in hours of barrenness and emptiness, still to know that we have all in Christ.
2. Forget not that the faith, of which God’s word speaks so much, stands not only in opposition to works, but also in opposition to feeling, and therefore that for a pure life of faith you must cease to seek your salvation, not only in works, but also in faith. Therefore let faith always speak against feeling. When feeling says, ‘In myself, I am sinful; I am dark; I am weak; I am poor; I am sad;’ let faith say. ‘In Christ, I am holy; I am light; I am strong; I am rich; I am joyful.’
‘And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.’ --
The great gift of the Father, through whom He obtained
salvation and brought it near to us, is the Son. On the other hand, the great
gift of the Son, whom He sends to us from the Father, to apply to us an inner
and effectual salvation, is the Holy Spirit. (
The Spirit convinces of sin. He is the light and the fire
of God, through whom sin is unveiled and consumed. He is ‘the Spirit of
judgment and of burning,’ by whom God purifies His people. (
Beloved brother, the Holy Spirit is in you as the light and
fire of God to unveil and to consume sin. The temple of God is holy, and this
temple you are. Let the Holy Spirit in you have full mastery to point out and
expel sin. (
And then shall the Spirit who rebukes also comfort. He will
glorify Jesus in you, will take what is in Jesus and make it known to you. He
will give you knowledge concerning the power of Jesus’ blood to cleanse, (
Beloved young Christian, take time to understand and to
become filled with the truth: the Holy Spirit is in you. Review all the
assurances of God’s word that this is so. (
O my Father, I thank Thee for this gift which Jesus sent me from Thee, the Father. I thank Thee that I am now the temple of Thy Spirit, and that He dwells in me. Lord, teach me to believe this with the whole heart, and to live in the world as one who knows that the Spirit of God is in him to lead him. Teach me to think with deep reverence and filial awe on this, that God is in me. Lord, in that faith I have the power to be holy. Holy Spirit, reveal to me all that sin is in me. Holy Spirit, reveal to me all that Jesus is in me. Amen.
1. The knowledge of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit is for us of just as much importance as the knowledge of the person and the work of Christ.
2. Concerning the Holy Spirit, we must endeavour especially to hold fast the truth that He is given as the fruit of the work of Jesus for us, that He is the power of the life of Jesus in us, and that through Him, Jesus Himself, with His full salvation, dwells in us.
3. In order to enjoy all this, we must be filled with the Spirit. This simply means, emptied of all else and full of Jesus. To deny ourselves, to take up the cross, to follow Jesus. Or rather, this is the way in which the Spirit leads us to His fulness. No one has the power to enter fully into the death of Jesus but he who is led by the Spirit. But He takes him that desires this by the hand and brings him.
4. As the whole of salvation, the whole of the new life is by faith, so is this also true of the gift and the working of the Holy Spirit. By faith, not by works -- not in feeling, do I receive Him, am I led by Him, am I filled with Him.
5. As clear and definite as my faith is in the work that Jesus only and alone finished for me, so clear and definite must faith be in the work that the Holy Spirit accomplishes in me, to work in me the willing and the performing of all that is necessary for my salvation.
‘As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons
of God. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are
children of God.’ --
It is the very same Spirit that leads us as children who also assures us that we are children. Without His leading there can be no assurance of our filiation. True full assurance of faith is enjoyed by him who surrenders himself entirely to the leading of the Spirit.
In what does this leading consist? Chiefly in this, that
our whole hidden inner life is guided by Him to what it ought to be. This we
must firmly believe. Our growth and increase, our development and progress, is
not our work but His: we are to trust Him for this. As a tree or animal grows
and becomes large by the spirit of life which God has given to it, so also does
the Christian by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. (
Then there are also special directions of this leading. ‘He
will lead you into all the truth,’ When we read the word of God, we are to
wait upon Him, to make us experience the truth, the essential power of what God
says. He makes the word living and powerful. He leads us into a life
corresponding to the word. (
When you pray, you can reckon upon His leading: ‘The Spirit
helpeth our infirmities.’ He leads us to what we must desire. He leads us
into the way in which we are to pray, trustfully, persistently, mightily. (
In the way of sanctification it is He that will lead: He
leads us in the path of righteousness. He leads us into all the will of God.
(
In our speaking and working for the Lord, He will lead.
Every child has the Spirit: every child has need of Him to know and to do the
work of the Father. Without Him no child can please or serve the Father. The
leading of the Spirit is the blessed privilege, the sure token, the only power
of a child of God. (
And how then can you fully enjoy this leading? The first
thing that is necessary for this is faith. You must take time, young
Christian, to have your heart filled with the deep and living consciousness that
the Spirit is in you. Read all the glorious declarations of your Father in His
word concerning what the Spirit is in you and for you, until the conviction
wholly fills you that you are really a temple of the Spirit. Ignorance or
unbelief on this point makes it impossible for the Spirit to speak in you and
to lead you. Cherish an ever-abiding assurance that the Spirit of God dwells
in you. (
Then the second thing that is necessary is this: you are to hold
yourself still, to attend to the voice of the Spirit. As the Lord Jesus
acts, so does the Spirit. As the Lord Jesus acts, so does also the Spirit: ‘He
shall not cry nor lift up His voice.’ He whispers gently and quietly: only the
soul that sets itself very silently towards God can perceive His voice and
guidance. When we become to a needless extent engrossed with the world, with
its business, its cares, its enjoyments, its literature, its politics, the
Spirit cannot lead us. When our service of God is a bustling and working in
our own wisdom and strength, the Spirit cannot be heard in us. It is the weak,
the simple, who are willing to have themselves taught in humility, that receive
the leading of the Spirit. Sit down every morning, sit down often in the day,
to say: Lord Jesus, I know nothing, I will be silent: let the Spirit lead me.
(
And then: be obedient. Listen to the inner
voice, and do what it says to you. Fill your heart every day with the word,
and when the Spirit puts you in mind of what the word says, betake yourself to
the doing of it. So you become capable of further teaching: it is to the
obedient that the full blessing of the Spirit is promised. (
Young Christian, know that you are a temple of the Spirit, and that it is only through the daily leading of the Spirit that you can walk as a child of God, with the witness that you are pleasing the Father.
Precious Saviour, imprint this lesson deeply on my mind. The Holy Spirit is in me. His leading is every day and everywhere indispensable for me. I cannot hear His voice in the word when I do not wait silently upon Him. Lord, let a holy circumspectness keep watch over me, that I may always walk as a pupil of the Spirit. Amen.
1. It is often asked: How do I know that I shall continue standing, that I shall be kept, that I shall increase? The question dishonours the Holy Spirit -- is the token that you do not know Him or do not trust Him. The question indicates that you are seeking the secret of strength for perseverance in yourself, and not in the Holy Spirit, your heavenly Guide.
2. As God sees to it, that every moment there is air for me to breathe, so shall the Holy Spirit unceasingly maintain life in the hidden depths of my soul. He will not break off his own work.
3. From the time that we receive the Holy Spirit, we have nothing to do but to honour his work: to keep our hands off from it, and to trust Him, and to let Him work.
4. The beginning and the end of the work of the Spirit is to reveal Jesus to me, and to cause me to abide in Him. As soon as I would fain look after the work of the Spirit in me, I hinder Him: He cannot work when I am not willing to look upon Jesus.
5. The voice of the Father, the voice of the good Shepherd, the voice of the Holy Spirit is very gentle. We must learn to become deaf to other voices, to the world and its news of friends and their thoughts, to our own Ego and its desires: then shall we distinguish the voice of the Spirit. Let us often set ourselves silent in prayer, entirely silent, to offer up our will and our thoughts, and, with our eye upon Jesus, to keep ear and heart open for the voice of the Spirit.
‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were
sealed unto the day of redemption.’ --
It is by the Holy Spirit that the child of God is sealed:
separated and stamped and marked as the possession of God. This sealing is not
a dead or external action that is finished once for all. It is a living
process, which has power in the soul, and gives firm assurance of faith, only
when it is experienced through the life of the Spirit in us. On this account
we are to take great care not to grieve the Spirit: in Him alone can you have
every day the joyful certitude and the full blessing of your childship.
There is first lying. There is no single sin that in
the Bible is so brought into connection with the devil as lying. Lying is from
hell, and it goes on to hell. God is the God of truth. And the Holy Spirit
cannot possibly carry forward His blessed working in a man or woman that lies,
that is insincere, that does injury to the truth. Young Christian, review with
care what the word of God says about lying and liars, and pray God that you may
never speak anything but the literal truth. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
(
Then there is anger. ‘Let all bitterness, and wrath,
and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you.’ Hastiness,
proneness to anger, sin of temper is, along with lying, the most common sin by
which the Christian is kept back from increase in grace. (
Then there is stealing: all sin against the property
or possession of my neighbour: all deception and dishonesty in trade, whereby I
do wrong to my neighbour, and seek my own advantage at his cost. The law of
Christ is love whereby I seek the advantage of my neighbour as well as my own.
O the love of money and property, which is inseparable from self-seeking -- it
is incompatible with the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Christian must be a
man who is known as honest to the back-bone, righteous, and loving his
neighbour as himself. (
Then says the apostle: ‘no corrupt speech -- but such
as is good for edifying as the case may be.’ Even the tongue of God’s child
belongs to his Lord. He must be known by his mode of speech. By his speaking,
he can grieve or please the Spirit. The sanctified tongue is a blessing not
only to his neighbours but to the speaker himself. Foul talk, idle words,
foolish jests -- they grieve the Holy Spirit. They make it impossible for the
Spirit to sanctify and to comfort and to fill the heart with the love of God.
(
Young Christian, I pray you, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by these or other sins. If you have committed such sins, confess them, and God will cleanse you from them. By the Holy Spirit you are sealed if you would walk in the stability and joy of faith, listen to the word: ‘Grieve not the Holy Sprit of God.’
Lord God, my Father in heaven, do, I pray thee, cause me to understand what marvelous grace Thou art manifesting to me, in that Thou hast given to me Thy Holy Spirit in my heart. Lord, let this faith by the argument and the power for cleansing me from every sin. Holy Jesus, sanctify me, that in my thinking, speaking, acting -- in all things, Thine image may appear. Amen.
1. The thought of the Christian about this word, ‘Grieve not the Holy Spirit’ is a touchstone as to whether he understands the life of faith.
For some it is a word of terror and fear. A father once brought a child to the train to go on a journey with the new governess, with whom she was to remain. Before her departure he said: ‘I hear that she is very sensitive and takes things much amiss: take care that you do nothing to grieve her.’ The poor child had no pleasant journey: it appeared to her very grievous to be in anxious fear of one who was so prone to take anything wrong amiss.
This is the view of the Holy Spirit which many have: a Being whom it is difficult to satisfy, who thinks little of our weakness, and who, even though we take pains, is discontented when our work is not perfect.
2. Another father also brought his daughter to the train to go on a journey, and to be a time from home: but in company with her mother, whom she loved very dearly. ‘You are to be a good child,’ said the father, ‘and do everything to please your mamma; otherwise you shall grieve her and me.’ ‘Oh, certainly, papa!’ was the joyful answer of the child. For she felt so happy to be with her mother, and was willing to do her utmost to be agreeable to her.
There are children of God to whom the Holy Spirit is so well known in His tender, helpful love, and the Comforter and the Good Spirit, that the word, ‘Grieve not the spirit of God’ has for them a gentle, encouraging power. May our fear to grieve Him always be the tender childlike fear of trustful love.
‘And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ.’ --
‘I am carnal, sold under sin: to will is present with me,
but to do that which is good is not. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. Ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.’ --
‘Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the
flesh? If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. If we live by
the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk.’ --
It is of great importance for the young Christian to
understand that there are in him two natures, which strive against one another.
(
Sin comes from the flesh: the reason why the Christian still
does sin is that he yields to the flesh and does not walk by the Spirit. Every
Christian has the Spirit and lives by the Spirit, but every Christian does not
walk by the Spirit. If he walks by the Spirit, he will not fulfil the desires
of the flesh. (
So long as there are still in the Christian strife and envy,
the word of God calls him carnal. He would indeed do good, but he cannot: he
does what he would not, because he still strives in his own strength and not in
the power of the Spirit. (
The flesh remains under the law, and seeks to obey the law.
But through the flesh the law is powerless, and the endeavour to do good is
vain. Its language is: ‘I am carnal, sold under sin: to will is present with
me, but to do that which is good is not.’ (
This is not the condition in which God would have his child
remain. The word says: ‘It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to
work.’
There are Christians that begin with the Spirit, but end
with the flesh. They are converted, born again through the Spirit, but fall
unconsciously into a life in which they endeavour to overcome sin and be holy
through their own exertion, through doing their best. They ask God to help
them in these their endeavours, and think that this is faith. They do not
understand what it is to say: ‘In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing,’ and that therefore they are to cease from their own endeavours, in
order to do God’s will, wholly and only through the Spirit. (
Child of God, pray, learn what it is to say of yourself, just as you are, even after the new birth: ‘I am carnal, sold under sin.’ Endeavour no longer to be doing your best, and to be praying to God, and to be trusting Him to help you. No: learn to say: ‘The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.’ Let your work every day be to have the Spirit work in you, to walk by the Spirit, and you shall be redeemed from the life of complaining, ‘the good that I would I do not,’ into a life of faith, in which it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do.
Lord God, teach me to acknowledge with all my heart that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth nothing good. Teach me also to cease from every thought, as if I could with my own endeavours serve or please Thee. Teach me to understand that the Spirit is the Comforter, who frees me from all anxiety and fear about my own powerlessness, in order that He may work the strength of Christ in me. Amen.
1. In order to understand the conflict betwixt flesh and
Spirit, we must especially seek to have a clear insight into the connection
between
2. It is of very great importance to understand that the conflict between grace and works, between faith and one’s own power, between the Holy Spirit and confidence in ourselves and the flesh, always continues to go on, not only in connection with conversion and the reception of the righteousness of God, but even further, into a walk in this righteousness. On this account the Christian has to watch very carefully against the deep inclination of his heart still to work in his own behalf, when he sees in himself anything wrong or when he would follow after holiness, instead of always and only trusting in Jesus Christ, and so serving God in the Spirit.
3. In order to make clear the opposition between the two methods of serving God, let me adduce consecutively in their entirety the passages in which they are expressed with special distinctness. Compare them with care. Pray God for the Spirit in order to make you understand them. Take deeply to heart the lesson as to how you are to serve God well, and how not.
The circumcision of the heart, in the Spirit, not in
the letter. (
To him that worketh not but believeth, his faith is
reckoned for righteousness. (
Ye are not under the law but under grace. (
We have been discharged from the law, so that we serve
in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. (
We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal,
sold under sin. (
The ordinance of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk
not after the flesh but after the Spirit. (
Ye received not the Spirit of bondage again to fear,
but ye received the Spirit of adoption. (
The righteousness which is of the law is: ‘The man that
doeth these things shall live by them? But the righteousness which is of faith
saith thus, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend? Who shall descend? But
what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart. (
If it is by grace, it is no more of works. (
I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as
unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. (
I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.
(
The righteous shall live by faith; yet the law is not
of faith: but the man that doeth these things shall live by them. (
If the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of
promise. (
So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son.
(
Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid,
but of the free-woman. (
Walk by the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of
the flesh. (
If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
(
Who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ
Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (
Another priest, who hath been made not after the law of
a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. (
4. Beloved Christian, you have received the Holy Spirit from the Lord Jesus to reveal Him and His life in you, and to mortify the working of the body of sin. Pray much to be filled with the Spirit. Live in the joyful faith that the Spirit is in you, as your Comforter and Teacher, and that through Him all will come right. Learn by heart this text, and let it live in your heart and on your lips: ‘We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.’
‘The righteous shall live by his faith.’ --
‘We have been discharged from the law, so that we serve
in newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.’ --
‘I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is
in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.’ --
The word from Habakkuk is thrice quoted in the New Testament
as the Divine representation of salvation in Christ by faith alone. (
We all know how sharp is the opposition which God in His
word presents betwixt the grace that comes by faith and the law that works --
demands. This is generally admitted with reference to justification. But that
distinction holds just as much of the whole life of sanctification. The
righteous shall live by faith alone, that is, shall have power to live
according to the will of God. As at his conversion he found it necessary to
understand that there was nothing good in him, and that he must receive grace
as one that was powerless and godless, so must he as a believer just as clearly
understand that in him there is nothing good, and that he must receive his
power for good every moment from above. (
Happy the Christian who understands that his greatest danger
every day is again to fall under the law, and to be fain to serve God in the
flesh with his own strength. Happy when he discerns that he is not under the
law which just demands and yet is powerless through the flesh, but is under
grace where we have simply to receive what has been given. Happy when he fully
appropriates for himself the promise of the Spirit who transfers all that is in
Christ to him. Yea, happy when he understands what it is to live by faith, and
to serve, not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the Spirit.
(
Let us make our own the words of Paul: they present to us
the true life of faith: ‘I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live.’ My
flesh, not only my sin, but my flesh, all that is of myself, my own living and
willing my own power and working, have I given up to death. I Live no longer
-- of myself, I cannot. I will not live, or do anything. (
Young Christian, let this life of faith be your faith.
O my Lord Jesus, Thou art my life: yea, my life. Thou livest in me, and art willing to take my whole life at Thine own charges. And my whole life may daily be a joyful trust and experience that Thou art working all in me. Precious Lord, to that life of faith will I surrender myself. Yea, to Thee I surrender myself, to teach me and to reveal Thyself fully in me. Amen.
1. Do you discern the error of the expression -- if the Lord helps me -- the Lord must help me? In natural things we speak thus, for we have a certain measure of power, and the Lord will increase it. But the New Testament never uses the expression ‘help’ of the grace of God in the soul. We have absolutely no power -- God is not to help us, because we are weak: no, He is to give His life and His power in us as entirely impotent. He that discerns this aright will learn to live by faith alone.
2. ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God’; ‘All that is not of faith is sin.’ Such works of the Spirit of God teach us how really every deed and disposition of our life is to be full of faith.
3. Hence our first work every day is anew to exercise faith in Jesus as our life; to believe that He dwells in us, and will do all for us and in us. This faith must be the mood of our soul the whole day. This faith cannot be maintained except in the fellowship and nearness of Jesus Himself.
4. This faith has its power in the mutual surrender of Jesus and the believer to each other. Jesus first gives Himself wholly for us. The believer gives himself wholly in order to be taken into possession and guided by Jesus. Then the soul cannot even doubt if He will do all for it.
‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he
might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail
not.’ --
There is nothing that makes an enemy so dangerous as the
fact that he remains hidden or forgotten. Of the three great enemies of the
Christian, the world, the flesh, and the devil, the last is the most dangerous,
not only because it is he that, strictly speaking, lends to the others what
power they have, but also because he is not seen, and, therefore, little known
or feared. The devil has the power of darkness: he darkens the eyes, so that
men do not know him. He surrounds himself with darkness, so that he is not
observed. Yea, he has even the power to appear as an angel of light. (
When the Lord Jesus was living upon earth, His great work
was to overcome Satan. When at His baptism He was filled with the Spirit, this
fulness of the Spirit brought him into contact with Satan as head of the world
of evil spirits, to combat him and to overcome him. (
His word to Peter, compared with the personal experience of
the Lord, gives us a fearful insight into the work of the enemy. ‘Satan hath
eagerly desired you,’ says Jesus. ‘As a roaring lion, he walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour,’ says Peter himself later on. (
Satan has more than one sieve. The first is generally
wordly-mindedness -- the love of the world. Many a one is pious in his time of
poverty, but when he becomes rich, he again eagerly strives to win the world.
Or in the time of conversion and awakening he appears very zealous, but through
the care of the world he is led astray. (
A second sieve is self-love and self-seeking. Whenever any
one does not give himself undividedly to serve his Lord and his neighbour, and
to love his neighbour in the Lord, it soon appears that the principal token of
a disciple is lacking in him. It will be manifest that many a one, with a fair
profession of being devoted to the service of God, fails utterly on this point,
and must be reckoned with the chaff. Lovelessness is the sure token of the
power of Satan. (
Yet another sieve, a very dangerous one, is
self-confidence. Under the name of following the Spirit, one may listen to the
thoughts of his own heart. He is zealous for the Lord, but with a carnal zeal,
in which the gentleness of the Lamb of God is not seen. Without being
observed, the movements of the flesh mingle with the workings of the Spirit,
and while he boasts that he is overcoming Satan, he is being secretly ensnared
by him. (
O it is a serious life here upon the earth, where God gives
permission for Satan to set his threshing floor even in the Church. Happy are
they who with deep humility, with fear and trembling, distrust themselves. Our
only security is in the intercession and guidance of Him who overcame Satan.
(
Lord Jesus, open our eyes to know our enemy and his wiles. Cause us to see him and his realm, that we may dread all that is of him. And open our eyes to see how Thou hast overcome him, and how in Thee we are invincible. O teach us what it is to be in Thee, to mortify all that is of the mere Ego and the will of the flesh, and to be strong in weakness and lowliness. And teach us to bring into prayer the conflict of faith against every stronghold of Satan, because we know that Thou wilt bruise him under our feet. Amen.
1. What comfort does the knowledge of the existence of Satan give us? We know then that sin is derived from a foreign power which has thrust itself into our nature, and does not naturally belong to us. We know besides that he has been entirely vanquished by the Lord Jesus, and thus has no power over us so long as we abide trustfully in Christ.
2. The whole of this world, with all that is in it, is under the domination of Satan: therefore there is nothing, even what appears good and fair, that may not be dangerous for us. In all things, even in what is lawful and right, we must be led and sanctified by the Spirit, if we would continue liberated from the power of Satan.
3. Satan is an evil spirit: only by the good Spirit, the Spirit of God, can we offer resistance to him. He works in the invisible: in order to combat him, we have, by prayer, to enter into the invisible. He is a mighty prince: only in the name of One who is mightier and in fellowship with Him can we overcome.
4. What a glorious work is labour for souls, for the lost,
for drunkards, for heathen; a conflict to rescue them from the might of Satan.
(
5. In the Revelation the victory over Satan is ascribed to
the blood of the Lamb. (
‘Strive to enter in by the narrow door.’ --
‘Fight the good fight of the faith.’ --
‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
course, I have kept the faith.’ --
These texts speak of a twofold conflict. The first
is addressed to the unconverted: ‘Strive to enter in by the narrow door.’
Entrance by a door is the work of a moment: the sinner is not to strive to
enter during his whole lifetime: he is to strive and do it immediately. He is
not to suffer anything to hold him back; he must enter in. (
Then comes the second, the life-long conflict: by the narrow door I come upon the new way. On the new way there are still always enemies. Of this life-long conflict Paul says: ‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.’ With respect to the continuous conflict, he gives the charge: ‘Fight the good fight of faith.’
There is much misunderstanding about this twofold conflict.
Many strive all their life against the Lord and His summons, and, because they
are not at rest, but feel an inner conflict, they think that this is the
conflict of a Christian. Assuredly not: this is the struggle against God of
one who is not willing to abandon everything and surrender himself to the Lord.
(
Then follows the second conflict, which endures for life.
Paul twice calls this the fight of faith. The chief characteristic of it is
faith. He who understands well that the principal element in the battle is to
believe, and acts accordingly, does certainly carry off the palm: just as in
another passage Paul says to the Christian combatant: ‘Withal taking up the
shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the evil one.’ (
And what then does it mean, this ‘fight of faith’? That, while I strive, I am to believe that the Lord will help me? No: it is not so, although it often is so understood.
In a conflict it is of supreme importance that I should be
in a stronghold or fortress which cannot be taken. With such a stronghold a
weak garrison can offer resistance to a powerful enemy. Our conflict as
Christians is now no longer concerned with going into the fortress. No: we
have gone in, and are now in; and so long as we remain in it, we are
invincible. The stronghold, this stable fort, is Christ. (
The reason why the victory is only by faith, and why the
fight of faith is the good fight, is this: it is the Lord Jesus who purchased
the victory, and who therefore alone gives power and dominion over the enemy.
If we are, and abide, in Him, and surrender ourselves to live in Him, and by
faith appropriate what He is, then the victory is in itself our own. We then
understand: ‘The battle is not yours, but God’s. The Lord your God shall fight
for you, and ye shall be still.’ Just as we in opposition to God can achieve
nothing good of ourselves, but in Christ please Him, so also is it in
opposition to Satan: in ourselves we achieve nothing, but in Christ we are more
than conquerors. By faith we stand in Him righteous before God, and just so in
Him are we strong against our enemies. (
In this light we can read and take home to ourselves all the
noble passages in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, where the
glorious conflict of God in behalf of his people is spoken of. Fear, or
spiritlessness, or uncertainty, makes weak, and cannot overcome: faith in the
living God is equal to everything. (
O Lord Jesus, who art the Prince of the army of the Lord, the Hero, the Victor, teach me to be strong in Thee my stronghold, and in the power of Thy might. Teach me to understand what the good fight of faith is, and how the one thing that I have need of is, always to look to Thee, to Thee, the supreme Guide of faith. And, consequently, in me, too, let this be the victory that overcometh the world, namely, my faith. Amen.
1. The conflict of faith is no civil war, in which one half of the kingdom is divided against the other. This would be insurrection. This is the one conflict that many Christians know: the unrest of the conscience, and the powerless wrestling of a will which consents to that which is good, but does not perform it. The Christian has not to overcome himself. This his Lord does when he surrenders himself. Then he is free and strong to combat and overcome the enemies of his Lord and of the kingdom. No sooner, however, are we willing that God should have His way with us than we are found striving against God. This also is truly conflict, but it is not the good fight of faith.
2. In
3. Hence, as we have seen in connection with the beginning of the new life, our one work every day and the whole day is to believe. Out of faith come all blessings and powers, also the victory for overcoming.
‘Get thee out of they country, and from thy kindred, and
from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee; and I will make
of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee; and be thou a blessing.’ --
In these first words that God spake to Abraham, we have the short summary of all that God has to say to him and to us as His children. We see what the goal is to which God calls us, what the power that carries us to that goal, and what the place where the power is found.
Be a blessing: that is the goal for which God separates Abraham and every believing child of His.
God would have him and us made to understand that, when he
blesses us, this is certainly not simply to make us happy, but that we should
still further communicate His blessing. (
The power for this work will be given. ‘Be a blessing’: ‘I
will bless thee,’ says the Lord. You are to be personally blessed yourself,
personally sanctified and filled with the Spirit, and peace, and power of the
Lord: then you have power to bless. (
But for this end you must also betake yourself to the place
of blessing: the land of promise, the simple life of faith in the promises. ‘Get
thee out thy land and thy father’s house,’ says the Lord. Departure,
separation from the life of nature and the flesh, in which we were born of our
father Adam, is what God would have. The offering up of what is most precious
to man is the way to the blessing of God. (
Christian, God will in a Divine fashion fulfil to you His promise, ‘I will bless thee.’ O go, pray, out of your land and your father’s house, out of the life of nature and the flesh, out of intercourse with the flesh and this world, to the New Life, the life of the Spirit, the life in fellowship with God to which He will lead you. There you become receptive of His blessing; there your heart becomes open to full faith in His word, ‘I will bless thee’; there He can fulfil that word to you, and make you full of His blessing and power to be a blessing to others. Live with God, separated from the world: then shall you hear the voice of God speak with power: ‘I will bless thee’; ‘Be thou a blessing.’
O my Father, show me the way to that promised land where Thou bringest Thy people to have them wholly for Thyself. I will abandon everything to follow Thee, to hold converse with Thee alone, in order that Thou mayest fill me with Thy blessing. Lord, let Thy word, ‘I will bless thee,’ live in my heart as a word of God: then shall I give myself wholly to live for others and to be a blessing. Amen.
1. God is the great, the only Fountain of blessing: as much of God as I have in me, so much blessing can I bring. I can work much for others without blessing. Actually to be a blessing, I must begin with that word, ‘I will bless thee’: then the other, ‘Be a blessing’ becomes easy.
2. In order to become a blessing, begin on a small scale: yield yourself up for others. Live to make others happy. Believe that the love of God dwells in you by the Spirit, and give yourself wholly to be a blessing and a joy to those who are round about you. Pray God to shed abroad His love in you still further by the Spirit. And believe very firmly that God can make you a greater blessing than you can think, if you surrender yourself to Him for this end.
3. But this surrender must have time in solitary prayer, that God may obtain possession of your spirit. This is for you the departure from your father’s house: separate yourself from men that God may speak with you.
4. What think you? Was Abraham ever filled with regret that he placed himself so entirely under the leading of God? Then do you likewise.
5. Do you now know the two words which are the source of all promises and all commands to the children of believing Abraham? The promise is: ‘I will bless thee.’ The command is: ‘Be a blessing.’ Pray, take them both firmly for yourself.
6. And do you now understand where these two words to Abraham are fulfilled? In separation from his father’s house -- in the walk in fellowship with God.
‘Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation: and uphold me
with a free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners
shall be converted unto Thee.’ --
‘I believe, for I will speak.’ --
‘But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come
upon you.’ --
Every redeemed man is called to be a witness for his Lord.
Not only by a godly walk, but by personal effort must I serve and make known my
Lord. My tongue, my speech, is one of the principal means of intercourse with
others and influence upon them. It is but a half dedication, when I do not
also bring the offering of the lips, to speak for the Lord. (
Of this work there is inconceivably real need. There are
thousands of Christians who continually enjoy the preaching of the word, and
yet do not understand the way of salvation. The Lord Jesus not only preached
to the multitudes, but also spoke to individuals according to their needs.
(
That witness for the Lord must be a personal witness. We
must have the courage to say, ‘He has redeemed me: He will also redeem you:
will you not accept this redemption? Come, let me show you the way.’ (
Such work must be the work of love. Let souls feel that you
love them tenderly. Let the humility and gentleness of love, as this was to be
seen in Jesus, be seen also in you. At every turn surrender yourself to Jesus
to be filled with His love: not by feeling, but by faith in this love, can you
do your work. ‘Beloved, keep yourselves in the love of God. And on some have
mercy who are in doubt; and some save, snatching them out of the fire; and on
some have mercy with fear.’ The flesh often thinks that strength and force do
more than love and patience. But that is not so: love achieves everything: it
has overcome on the cross. (
Such work must be the work of faith, of faith working by
love: faith that the Lord desires to use you and will use you. Be not afraid
on account of your weakness: learn in the Scriptures what glorious promises God
from time to time gave to those who had to speak for Him. (
But above all, -- for this is the principal point, -- carry
out this work in fellowship with Jesus. Live closely with Him -- live entirely
for Him -- let Jesus be in all your own life and He will speak and work in you.
(
Young Christian, be a witness for Jesus. Live as one who is wholly given away to Him to watch and to work for His honour.
Blessed Lord, who hast redeemed me to serve the Father in the proclamation of His love, I will with a free spirit offer myself to Thee for this end. Fill my heart for this end with love to Him, to Thee, and to souls. Cause me to see what an honour it is to do the work of redeeming love, even as Thou didst do it. Strengthen my confidence that Thou art working with Thy power in my weakness. And let my joy be to help souls to Thee. Amen.
1. The question is often asked, ‘What can I do to work for the Lord? Can you not take a class in the Sabbath school? Perhaps you live in the country where there are children that have no hour of the Sabbath devoted to them. Perhaps there are heathen children, or even grown-up people of the farms, who do not go to Church. See whether you cannot gather them together in the name of Jesus. Make it a matter of prayer and faith. Although you do this work with trembling, you may be sure that to begin to work will make you strong.
Or can you do nothing for the circulation of books and tracts? When you have a book that has been useful to you, order six or twelve copies of it. Speak of it, and offer it for sale: you can do great service by this means. So also with tracts: if you are too poor to give them for nothing, have them to sell: you may procure blessing by this method. It will especially help you to speak to others, if you begin with telling what is in a book.
2. But the principal thing is personal speaking. Do not hold back because you feel no freedom. The Lord will give you freedom in His own time. It is incredible how many are lost through ignorance. No one has ever personally made it clear to them how they can be saved. The thought that a change must first be sought and felt is so deeply rooted that the most faithful preaching is often of no avail against it. By their erroneous ideas, people misunderstand everything. Begin then to speak and to help souls to understand that they are to receive Jesus just as they are, that they can certainly know that He receives them, and that this is the power of a new and holy life.
‘And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to the whole creation. And they went forth, and preached everywhere,
the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that
followed.’ --
Every friend of Jesus is a friend of missions. Where there is a healthy spiritual life, there is a love for the missionary cause. When you consider the reasons of this, you obtain an insight into the glory of missions, and into your calling to embrace this cause as apart of your soul’s life. Come and hear how much there is to make missionary work glorious and precious.
1. It is the cause for which Jesus left the throne of
heaven. The heathen are His inheritance, given to Him by His Father. It is in
heathendom that the power of Satan has been established. Jesus must have
Himself vindicated as the conqueror. His glory, the coming and manifestation
of His kingdom, depend on missions. (
2. Missionary work is the principal aim of the church on
earth. All the last words of the Lord Jesus teach us this. (
3. It is the work for which the Holy Spirit was given. See
this in the promise of the Spirit: in the leading of the Spirit vouschafed to
Peter and Barnabas and Saul. (
4. Missionary work brings blessing on the Church. It
rouses to heroic deeds of faith and self-denial. It has furnished the most
glorious instances of the wondrous power of the Lord. It gives heavenly joy
over the conversion of sinners to those who watch for it with love and prayer.
It cleanses the heart to understand God’s great plans, and to await the
fulfilment of them in supplication. Missionary work is a token of life in a
Church, and brings more life. (
5. What a blessing it is for the world. What would we have
been, had not missionaries come to our heathen forefathers in Europe? What a
glorious blessing has onto missionary work already won in some lands? What
help is there for the hundred millions of heathen, if not in missions? (
6. There will be a blessing for your own soul in love for
missionary work. (
You will be exercised in faith. Missionary work is a cause for faith, where everything goes on slowly, and not according to the fancy of men. You will learn to cleave to God and the word.
Love will be awakened. You will learn to go out of yourselves and your little circle, and with an open eye and a large heart to live in the interests of your Lord and King: you will feel how little true love you have, and you will receive more love.
You will be drawn into prayer. Your calling and power as an intercessor will become clearer to you, and therewith the blessedness of thus co-operation for the kingdom. You will discern how it is the highest conformity to Him who came to seek the lost, to give up your own ease and rest to fight in love the fight of prayer against Satan in behalf of the heathen.
Young Christian, missionary work is more glorious and holy than you suppose. There is more blessing in it than you are aware of. The new life in you depends upon it more than you can as yet understand. Yield yourself up anew in obedience to the word to give missions a large place in your heart; yes, in your heart. The Lord Himself will further teach and bless you.
And if you would know how to have your love for missions, as
the work of your Lord, increased, attend to the following hints: - Become
acquainted with the missionary cause. Endeavour by writings and books to know
what the condition and need of heathendom is; what, by the blessing of the
Lord, has been already done there; what the work is that is being done now.
Speak with others about this cause. Perhaps there could be instituted in your
neighbourhood a little missionary society. Perhaps one of your
prayer-meetings, say, once a month, could be set apart for prayer in behalf of
the missionary cause. Pray also for this in secret. Let the coming of the
kingdom have a definite place in your secret prayers. Endeavour to follow the
material for prayer in the promises of the word about the heathen, in the whole
Scriptures, especially in the prophet Isaiah. (
Son of God, when Thou didst breathe Thy Spirit upon Thy disciples, saying, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost,’ Thou didst add: ‘As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.’ Lord, here am I: send me also. Breathe Thy Spirit into me also, that I may live for Thy kingdom. Amen.
1. ‘Unknown makes unbeloved,’ is a word that is specially true of missionary work. He who is acquainted with the wonders that God has wrought in some lands, will praise and thank God for what the missionary enterprise has achieved, and will be strengthened in his faith that missionary work is really God’s own cause.
Among the books that help to awaken interest in missions are biographies of missionaries. ‘The life of Henry Martyn’ is one, formerly issued by the Book Society. ‘Uncle Charles’ is the name of a book with an account of missionary work in South Africa. Some books on missions are generally to be found in our Sabbath school libraries.
2. We should never forget that the missionary cause is an enterprise of faith. It requires faith in the promises of God, in the power of God. It has need of love -- love to Jesus, whereby the heart is filled with desire for His honour, and love to souls, that longs for their safety. It is a work of the Spirit of God, ‘whom the world cannot receive’: therefore the world can approve of missions only when they go forward with the highest prosperity.
3. Let no friend of missions become discouraged when the work proceeds slowly. Although all baptized men are not converted, although even amongst the converts there is still much perversity, and some fall back after a fair professions. Amongst our forefathers in Europe, a whole century was occupied with the introduction of Christianity. Sometimes a nation received Christianity to cast it off again after thirty or forty years. It required a thousand years to bring them up to the height at which we now stand. Let us not expect too much from the heathen at once, but with love and patience and firm faith, pray and work, and expect the blessing of God.
‘Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they
walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy Continence. In Thy name do they rejoice all
the day.’ --
‘Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the
upright in heart.’ --
‘I am the Light of the world: he that followeth me shall
not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.’ --
‘I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and
your joy no one taketh away from you.’ --
‘As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.’ --
A father will always be eager to see his children joyful.
He does all that he can to make them happy. Hence God also desires that His
children should walk before Him in gladness of heart. He has promised them
gladness: He will give it. (
The reason of this is not difficult to find. Gladness is
always the token that something really satisfies me and has great value for
me. More than anything else is gladness for what I possess a recommendation of
it to others. And gladness in God is the strongest proof that I have in God
what satisfies and satiates me, that I do not serve Him with dread, or to be
kept, but because He is my salvation. Gladness is the token of the truth and
the worth of obedience, showing whether I have pleasure in the will of God.
(
In the Scriptures light and gladness are frequently
connected with each other. (
The question is sometimes put, Can the Christian walk always
in the light? The answer of our Lord is clear, ‘He that followeth Me shall not
walk in darkness.’ It is sin, the turning from behind Jesus to our own way,
that makes dark. But at the moment we confess sin, and have it cleansed in the
blood, we are again in the light. (
Christians, who would walk according to the will of the
Lord, hear what His word says: ‘Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.
Rejoice in the Lord always: again, I will say, Rejoice.’ (
Lord Jesus, Thou are the Light of the world, the Effulgence of the unapproachable light, in whom we see the light of God. From Thy countenance radiates upon us the illumination of the knowledge of the love and glory of God. And thou art ours, our light and our salvation. O teach us to believe more firmly that with Thee we can never walk in the darkness. Let gladness in Thee be the proof that Thou art all to us, and our strength to do all that Thou wouldst have us do. Amen.
1. The gladness that I have in anything is the measure of its worth in my eyes: the gladness in a person, the measure of my pleasure in him: the gladness in a work the measure of my pleasure in it. Gladness in God and His service is one of the surest tokens of healthy spiritual life.
2. Gladness is hindered by ignorance, when we do not rightly understand God and His love and the blessedness of His service: by unbelief, when we still seek something in our own strength or feeling: by double-heartedness, when we are not willing to give up and lay aside everything for Jesus.
3. Understand this saying: ‘He that seeks gladness shall not find it; he that seeks the Lord and His will, shall find gladness unsought.’ Think over this. He that seeks gladness as a thing of feeling, seeks himself: he would fain be happy: he will not find it. He that forgets himself to live in the Lord and His will, shall be taught of himself to rejoice in the Lord. It is God, God Himself, who is the God of the gladness of our rejoicing: seek God, and you have gladness. You have then simply to take and enjoy it by faith.
4. To thank much for what God is and does, to believe much in what God says and will do, is the way to abiding gladness.
5. ‘The light of the eyes gladdens the heart.’ God has not intended that His children should walk in the darkness. Satan is the prince of the darkness: God is light: Christ is the Light of the world: we are children of the light: let us walk in the light. Let us believe in the promise, ‘The Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light. Thy sun shall no more go down, for the Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
‘Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and
teachest out of Thy law; that Thou mayest give him rest from the days of
adversity.’ --
‘Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe
Thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy
statutes.’ --
‘He chastens us for our profit, that we may be partakers
of His holiness.’ --
‘Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into
manifold temptations; knowing that the proof of your faith worketh patience.’
--
Every child of God must at one time or another enter the school of trial. What the Scriptures teach us is confirmed by experience. And the Scriptures teach us further, that we are to count it a joy when God takes us into this school. It is a part of our heavenly blessedness to be educated and sanctified by the Father through chastisement.
Not that trial in itself brings a blessing. (
In a good school there are four things necessary -- a definite aim, a good text-book, a capable teacher, a willing pupil.
1. Let the aim of trial be clear to you. Holiness is the
highest glory of the Father, and also of the child. He ‘chastens us for our
profit that we may be partakers of His Holiness.’ (
2. Let the word of God at this time be your reading book.
See in our trials how in affliction God would teach us out of His law. The
word will reveal to you why the Father chastens you, how deeply He loves you in
the midst of it, and how rich are the promises of His consolation. Trial will
give new glory to the promises of the Father. In chastisement have recourse to
the word. (
3. Let Jesus be your teacher. He Himself was sanctified by
suffering: it was in suffering that He learned full obedience. He has a
wonderfully sympathetic heart. Have much intercourse with Him. Seek not your
comfort from much speaking on the part of men or with men. Give Jesus the
opportunity of teaching you. Have much converse with Him in solitude.
(
4. Be a willing pupil. Acknowledge your ignorance. Think
not that you understand the will of God. Ask and expect that the Lord would
teach you the lesson that you are to learn in affliction. To the meek there is
the promise of teaching and wisdom. Seek to have the ear open, the heart very
quiet, and turned towards God. Know that it is the Father that has placed you
in the school of trial: yield yourself with all willingness to hear you
taught. He will bless you greatly in this. (
‘Happy is the man whom Thou chastenest, and teachest out of Thy law.’ ‘Count it all joy when ye fall into manifold temptations,’ ‘that ye may be perfect, lacking in nothing.’ Regard the time of trial as a time of blessing, as a time of close converse with the Father, of being made partaker of His holiness, and you shall also rejoicingly say: ‘It is good for me that I have been afflicted.’
Father, what thanks shall I express to Thee for the glorious light that Thy word casts upon the dark trials of this life. Thou wilt by this means teach me, and make me partaker of Thy holiness. Hast Thou considered the suffering and the death of Thy beloved Son not too much to bring holiness near to me, and shall I not be willing to endure Thy chastisement to be partaker of it? No: Father, thanks be unto Thee for Thy precious work: only fulfil Thy counsel in me. Amen.
1. In chastisement it is first of all necessary that we should be possessed by the thought: This is the will of God. Although the trial comes through our own folly or the perversity of men, we must acknowledge that it is the will of God that we should be in that suffering by means of that folly or perversity. We see this clearly in Joseph and the Lord Jesus. Nothing will give us rest but the willing acknowledgment: this is the will of God.
2. The second thought is: God wills not only the trial, but also the consolation, the power, and the blessing in it. He who acknowledges the will of God in the chastisement itself is on the way to see and experience the accompaniments also as the will of God.
3. The will of God is as perfect as He Himself: let us not be afraid to surrender ourselves to it: no one suffers loss by deeming the will of God unconditionally good.
4. This is holiness: to know and to adore the will of God, to unite one’s self wholly with it.
5. Pray, seek not comfort in trial in connection with men. Do not mingle too much with them: see to it rather that you deal with God and His word. The object of trial is just to draw you away from what is earthly, in order that you may turn to God and give Him time to unite your will with His perfect will.
‘Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber,
and having shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father
which seeth in secret shall recompense thee.’ --
The spiritual life with its growth depends in great measure on prayer. According as I pray much or little, pray with pleasure or as a duty, pray according to the word of God or my own inclination, will my life flourish or decay. In the word of Jesus quoted above, we have the leading ideas of true prayer.
Alone with God: that is the first thought. The door
must be shut, with the world and man outside, because I am to have converse
with God undisturbed. When God met with His servants in the olden time, He
took them alone. (
In the presence of your Father: this is the second
thought. You come to the inner chamber, because your Father with His love
awaits you there. Although you are cold, dark, sinful; although it is doubtful
whether you can pray at all; come, because the Father is there, and there looks
upon you. Set yourself beneath the light of his eye. Believe in His tender
fatherly love, and out of this faith prayer will be born. (
Count certainly upon an answer: that is the third
point in the word of Jesus. ‘Your Father will recompense you openly.’ There
is nothing about which the Lord Jesus has spoken so positively as the certainty
of an answer to prayer. Pray, review the promises. (
It may be that there is much in you that prevents the answer.
Delay in the answer is a very blessed discipline. It leads to self-searching
as to whether we are praying amiss, and whether our life is truly in harmony
with our prayer. It rouses to a purer exercise of faith. (
Beloved young Christians, if there is one thing about which you must be conscientious, it is this: secret converse with God. Your life is hid with Christ in God. Every day must you in prayer ask from above, and by faith receive in prayer what you need for that day. Every day must personal intercourse with the Father and the Lord Jesus be renewed and strengthened. God is our salvation and our strength: Christ is our life and our holiness: only in personal fellowship with the living God is our blessedness found.
Christian, pray much, pray continually, pray without ceasing. When you have no desire to pray, go just then to the inner chamber. Go as one who has nothing to bring to the Father, to set yourself before Him in faith in His love. That coming to the Father, and abiding before Him, is already a prayer that He understands. Be assured that to appear before God, however passively, always brings a blessing. The Father not only hears: He sees in secret, and He will recompense it openly.
O my Father, who hast so certainly promised in Thy word to hear the prayer of faith, give to me the Spirit of prayer, that I may know how to offer that prayer. Graciously reveal to me Thy wonderful Fatherly love, the complete blotting out of my sins in Christ, by which every hindrance in this direction is taken away, and the intercession of the Spirit in me, by which my ignorance or weakness cannot deprive me of the blessing. Teach me with faith in Thee, the Three-One, to pray in fellowship with Thee. And confirm me in the strong living certitude that I receive what I believingly ask. Amen.
1. In prayer the principal thing is faith. The whole of salvation, the whole of the new life is by faith, therefore also by prayer. There is all too much prayer that brings nothing, because there is little faith in it. Before I pray, and while I pray, and after I have prayed, I must ask: Do I pray in faith? I must say: I believe with my whole heart.
2. To arrive at this faith we must take time in prayer: time to set ourselves silently and trustfully before God, and to become awake to His presence: time to have our soul sanctified in fellowship with God: time for the Holy Spirit to teach us to hold fast and use trustfully the word of promise. No earthly knowledge, no earthly possessions, no earthly food, no intercourse with friends, can we have without time, sufficient time. Let us not think to learn how to pray, how to enjoy the power and the blessedness of prayer, if we do not take time with God.
3. And then there must be not only time every day, but perseverance from day to day. Time is required to grow in the certitude that we are acceptable to the Father, and that our prayer has power, in the confidence which knows that our prayer is according to His will and is heard. We must not suppose that we know well enough how to pray, and can but ask, and then it is over. No: prayer is converse and fellowship with God, in which God has time and opportunity to work in us, in which our souls die to their own will and power, and become bound up and united with God.
4. For encouragement in persistent prayer, the following instance may be of service. In an address delivered at Calcutta, George Muller recently said that in 1844 five persons were laid upon his heart, and that he began to pray for their conversion. Eighteen months passed by before the first was converted. He prayed five years more, when the second was converted. After twelve years and a half, yet another was converted. And now he also already prayed forty years for the other two, without letting slip a single day; and still they are not converted. He was, nevertheless, full of courage in the sure confidence that these two also would be given him in answer to his prayer.
‘Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on
earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My
Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My
name, there am I in the midst of them.’ --
The Lord Jesus has told us to go into the inner chamber and
hold our personal converse with God by prayer in secret, and not to be seen of
men. The very same voice tells us that we are also to pray in fellowship with
one another. (
For a blessed prayer-meeting, there must be, first of all,
agreement concerning the thing which we desire. There must be something that
we really desire to have from God; and concerning this we are to be in
harmony. There must be inner love and unity amongst the suppliants, -- all
that is strife, envy, wrath, lovelessness, makes prayer powerless, (
The second feature that characterizes a right prayer meeting
is the coming together in the name of Jesus and the consciousness of His
presence. The Scripture says, ‘The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the
righteous runneth into it, and is safe.’ (
Then there is the third feature of united prayer of which
the Lord has told us: our request shall certainly be done of the Heavenly
Father. The prayer shall certainly be answered. O we may well cry out in
these days, ‘Where is the God of Elijah?’ for He was a God that answered. ‘The
God that shall answer, He shall be God,’ said Elijah to the people. And he
said to God, ‘Answer me, Lord; answer me; that this people may acknowledge that
Thou, O Lord, art God.’ (
Children of God, however young and weak you may still be, here is one of the institutions prepared for you by the Lord Jesus Himself to supply you with help in prayer. Let every one make use of the prayer meeting. Let every one go in a praying and believing frame of mind, seeking the name and the presence of the Lord. Let every one seek to live and pray with his brethren and sisters. And let every one expect surely to see glorious answers to prayer.
Blessed Lord Jesus, who hast given us commandment to pray, as well in the solitary inner chamber as in public fellowship with one another, let the one habit always make the other more precious as complement and confirmation. Let the inner chamber prepare us, and awaken the need for union with Thy people in prayer. Let Thy presence there be our blessedness. And let fellowship with Thy people strengthen us surely to expect and receive answers. Amen.
1. There are many places of our country where prayer meetings might be a great blessing. A pious man or woman who should once a week or on Sabbath at mid-day gather together the inhabitants on a farm-place or the neighbours of two or three places that are not far from one another, might be able to obtain great blessing. Let every believing reader of this portion inquire if there does not exist in his neighbourhood some such need, and let him make a beginning in the name of the Lord. Let me therefore earnestly put the question to every reader: Is there a prayer-meeting in your district? Do you faithfully take part in it? Do you know what it is to come together with the children of God in the name of Jesus, to experience His presence and His hearing of prayer?
2. There is a book, ‘The Hour of Prayer,’ with suitable portions for reading out in such gatherings. Or let this book, ‘The New Life,’ be taken, a portion read, and some of the texts reviewed and spoken upon: this will give material for prayer.
3. ‘Will the prayer meeting do no harm to the inner chamber?’ is a question sometimes asked. My experience is just the reverse of this result. The prayer meeting is a school of prayer. The weak learn from more advanced petitioners. Material for prayer is given: opportunity for self-searching; encouragement to more prayer.
4. Would that it were more general in prayer meetings for people to speak of definite objects for which to pray; things in which one can definitely and trustfully look out for an answer, and concerning which one can know when an answer comes. Such announcements would greatly further unanimity and believing expectations.
‘Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord. He shall not
be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid.’
--
‘So the Church, walking in the fear of the Lord and in
the comfort of the Holy Ghost, was multiplied.’ --
The Scriptures use the word ‘fear’ in a twofold way. In
some places it speaks of ‘fear’ as something wrong and sinful, and in the
strongest terms it forbids us to ‘fear.’ (
There are some Christians who by their upbringing are led into the fear of the Lord, even before they come to faith. This is a very great blessing: parents can give a child no greater blessing than to bring him up in the fear of the Lord. When those who are thus brought up are brought to faith, they have a great advantage: they are, as it were, prepared to walk in the joy of the Lord. When, on the contrary, others that have not this preparation, come to conversion, they have need of special teaching and vigilance, in order to pray for and awaken this holy fear.
The elements of which this fear is composed are many and glorious. The principal are the following: --
There are holy reverence and awe before the glorious majesty
of God and before the All Holy. These guard against the superficiality that
forgets who God is, and that takes no pains to honour Him as God. (
There is deep humility that is afraid of itself, and couples
deep confidence in God with an entire distrust in itself. Conscious weakness
that knows the subtlety of its own heart always dreads doing anything contrary
to the will or honour of God. But just because he fears God, such an one
firmly reckons on Him for protection. And this same humility inspires him in
all his intercourse with his fellow-men. (
There is circumspectness or vigilance. With holy
forethought, it seeks to know the right path, to watch against the enemy, and
to be guarded against all lightness or hastiness in speech, resolve, and
conduct. (
And there are also in it holy zeal and courage in watching
and striving. The fear of displeasing the Lord by not conducting one’s self in
everything as His servant, incites to being faithful in that which is least.
The fear of the Lord takes all other fear away, and gives inconceivable courage
in the certitude of victory. (
And out of this fear is then born joy. ‘Rejoice with
trembling:’ the fear of the Lord gives joy its depth and stability. Fear is the
root, joy the fruit: the deeper the fear, the higher the joy. On this account
it is said: ‘Ye that fear the Lord praise Him;’ ‘Ye that fear the Lord, bless
the Lord.’ (
Young disciples of Christ, hear the voice of your Father, ‘Fear the Lord, ye His saints.’ Let deep fear of the Lord and dread of all that might displease or grieve Him, fill you. Then shall you never have any evil to fear. He that fears the Lord and seeks to do all that pleases Him, for him shall God also do all that he desires. The childlike believing fear of God will lead you into the love and joy of God, while slavish, unbelieving, cowardly fear is utterly cast out.
O my God, unite my heart for the fear of Thy name. May I always be amongst those that fear the Lord, that hope in His mercy. Amen.
1. What are some of the blessings of the fear of God? (
2. What are the reasons why we are to fear God? (
3. It is especially the knowledge of God in His greatness, power, and glory that will fill the soul with fear. But for this end, we must set ourselves silent before Him, and take time for our soul to come under the impression of His majesty.
4. ‘He delivered me from all my fears.’ Does this apply to
every different sort of fear by which you are hindered? There is the fear of
man (
5. Do you now understand the word: ‘Blessed is the man that fears the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid’?
‘And Ittai answered, As the Lord liveth, surely in what
place my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, even there also
will thy servant be.’ --
‘Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he
hath, he cannot be My disciple.’ --
‘Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith
the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be to
you a Father.’ --
‘Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for Christ
Jesus my Lord.’ --
We have already said that surrender to the Lord is something
that for the Christian always obtains newer and deeper significance. When this
takes place, he comes to understand how this surrender involves nothing less
than a complete and undivided consecration to live only, always, wholly for
Jesus. as entirely as the temple was dedicated to the service of God alone, so
that every one knew that it existed only for that purpose; as entirely as the
offering on the altar could be used only according to the command of God, and
no one had a right to dispose of one portion of it otherwise than God had said:
so entirely do you belong to your Lord, and so undivided must your consecration
to Him be. God continually reminded Israel that He had redeemed them to be His
possession. (
There is personal attachment to Jesus, and
intercourse with Him in secret. He will be, He must be, the beloved, the desire,
the joy of our souls. It is not, in the first instance, to the service of God,
but to Jesus as our Friend and King, our Redeemer and God, that we are to be
consecrated. (
Then there is public confession. What has been given
to any one, that he will have acknowledged by all as his property. His
possessions are his glory. When the Lord Jesus manifests His great grace to a
soul in redeeming it, He desires that the world should see and know it: He
would be known and honoured as its proprietor. He desires that every one that
belongs to Him should confess Him, and that it should come out that Jesus is
King. (
To complete consecration, there also belongs separation from
sin and the world. Touch not the unclean thing. Know that the world is under
the power of the Evil One. Ask not how much of it you can retain without being
lost. Ask not always what is sin and what is lawful. Even of that which is
lawful, the Christian must oftentimes make a willing renunciation, in order to
be able to live wholly for his God. (
And what I separate from everything, I will use. Entire
consecration has its eye upon making us useful and fit for God and His service.
Let there not be with you the least doubt as to whether God has need of you,
and will make you a great blessing. Only give yourself unreservedly into His
hands. Present yourself to Him, that He may fill you with His blessing, His
love, His Spirit: you shall be a blessing. (
Let no one fear that this demand for a complete consecration
is too high for him. You are not under the law which demands, but gives no
power. You are under grace, which itself works what it requires. (
Blessed Lord, open the eyes of my heart that I may see how completely Thou wouldst have me for Thyself. Be Thou in the hidden depths of my heart the one power that keeps me occupied, and holds me in possession. Let all know of me that Thou art my King, that I ask only for Thy will. In my separation from the world, in my surrender to Thy people and to Thy will, let it be manifest that I am wholly, yea, wholly, the Lord’s. Amen.
1. There is well-nigh no point of the Christian life in connection with which I should more desire to urge you to pray to God that He may enlighten your eyes, than this of the entire consecration that God desires. In myself and others, I discover that with our own thoughts we can form no conception how completely God Himself would take possession of our will and live in us. The Holy Spirit must reveal this in us. Only then indeed does a conviction arise of how little we understand this. We are not to think: I see truly how entirely I must live for God, but I cannot accomplish this: no, we are to say: I am still blind, I have still no view of what is the glory of a life in which God is all: if I should once see that, I would strongly desire and believe that, not I, but God, should work it in me.
2. Let there not be in your mind the least doubt as to whether you have given yourself to God, to live wholly and only as His. Express this conviction often before Him. Acknowledge that you do not yet see or understand what it means, but abide by this, that you desire it to be so. Reckon on the Holy Spirit to seal you, to stamp you as God’s entire possession. Even if you stumble and discover self-will, hold fast your integrity, and trustfully aver that the deep, firm choice of your heart is in all things, in all things, to live to God.
3. Keep always before your eyes that the power to give all to the Lord, and to be all for the Lord, arises from the fact that He has given all for you, that He is all for you. Faith in what He did for you is the power of what you do for Him.
‘Looking unto the promise of God, Abraham wavered not
through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and
being fully assured that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform.’
--
‘My little children, let us not love in word, neither
with the tongue; but in deed and truth. Hereby shall we know that we are of
the truth, and shall assure our heart before Him.’ --
‘And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit
which He gave us.’ --
Every child of God has need of the assurance of
faith: the full certitude of faith that the Lord has received him and made him
His child. The Holy Scripture always speaks to Christians as those that know
that they are redeemed, that they are now children of God, and that they have
received eternal life. (
Scripture names three things by which we have our certitude: first, faith in the word; after that, works; and then, in and with both of these, the Holy Spirit.
First, faith in the word. Abraham is to us the great
exemplar of faith, and also of the assurance of faith. And what then says the
Scripture about the certitude that he had? He was fully assured that what God
had promised He was able also to perform. His expectation was only from God,
and what God had promised. He relied upon God to do what He had said: the
promise of God was for him his only but sufficient assurance of faith. (
There are many young Christians who think that faith in the
word is not sufficient to give full certitude: they would fain have something
more. They imagine that assurance, a sure inward feeling or conviction, is
what is given above or outside of faith This is wrong. As I have need of
nothing more than the word of a trustworthy man to give me complete certitude,
so must the word of God be my certitude. People err because they seek
something in themselves and in their feeling. No: the whole of salvation comes
from God: the soul must not be occupied with itself or its work, but with God:
he that forgets himself to hear what God says, and to rely upon His promise as
something worthy of credit, has in this fact the fullest assurance of faith.
(
Then the Scripture names also works: by unfeigned love we
shall assure our hearts. (
And both -- assurance by faith and by works -- come by the
Spirit. Not by the word alone, and not by works as something that I myself do,
but by the word as the instrument of the Spirit, and by works as the fruit of
the Spirit, has a child of God the heavenly certification that he is the
Lord’s. (
O let us believe in Jesus as our life, and abide in Him, and assurance of faith shall never be lacking to us.
O my Father, teach me to find my assurance of faith in a life with Thee, in cordial reliance upon Thy promises, and in cordial obedience to Thy commands. Let Thy Holy Spirit also witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. Amen.
1. The importance of the assurance of faith lies in the fact, that I cannot possibly love or serve as a child a God of whom I do not know whether He loves and acknowledges me as His child.
2. The whole Bible is one great proof for the assurance of faith. Just because it thus speaks of itself, it is not always named. Abraham and Moses knew well that God had received them: otherwise they could not serve or trust Him. Israel knew that God had redeemed them: for this reason they had to serve God. How much more must this be the case in the greater redemption of the New Testament? All the Epistles are written to men of whom it is presupposed that they know and confess that they are redeemed, holy children of God.
3. Faith and obedience are inseparable, as root and fruit. First, there must be the root, and the root must have time without fruits; then later on come surely the fruits: first assurance without fruits by living faith in the word; then, further assurance from fruits. It is in a life with Jesus that assurance of faith is exalted firmly above all doubt.
4. Assurance of faith is much helped by confession. What I express becomes from me more evident; I am bound and confirmed by it.
5. It is at the feet of Jesus, looking up into His friendly countenance, listening to His loving promises, it is in intercourse with Jesus Himself in prayer, that all doubtfulness of mind falls away. Go thither for the full assurance of faith.
‘Foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son.’
--
‘I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I
have done to you.’ --
The Bible speaks of a twofold conformity, a twofold likeness that we bear. We may be conformed to the world or to Jesus. The one excludes and drives out the other. Conformity to Jesus, where it is sought, will be secretly prevented by conformity to the world more than anything else. And conformity to the world can be overcome by nothing but conformity to Jesus.
Young Christian, the new life of which you have become
partaker is the life of God in heaven. In Christ that life is revealed and
made visible. What the workings and fruits of eternal life were in Jesus, they
shall also be in you: in His life you get to see what eternal life will work in
you. It cannot be otherwise: if for this end you surrender yourself
unreservedly to Jesus and the dominion of eternal life, it will bring forth in
you a walk of wonderful conformity to that of Jesus. (
To the true imitation of Jesus in His example and growth in inward conformity to Him, two things especially are necessary. These are a clear insight that I am really called to this, and a firm trust that it is possible for me.
One of the greatest hindrances in the spiritual life is that
we do not know, that we do not see, what God desires that we should be. (
Let us for this end earnestly examine the Scriptures in
order to know what God says and desires about our conformity to Christ. (
The other thing that we have need of is the belief that it
is really possible for us with some measure of exactness to bear the image of
our Lord. Unbelief is the cause of impotence. We put this matter otherwise.
Because we are powerless, we think we dare not believe that we can be conformed
to our Lord. This thought is in conflict with the word of God. We do not have
it in our own power to carry ourselves after the image of Jesus. No: He is our
head and our life. He dwells in us, and will have His life work from within,
outwards, with divine power, through the Holy Spirit. (
Yet this cannot be apart from our faith. Faith is the
consent of the heart, the surrender to Him to work, the reception of His
working. ‘Be it unto you according to your faith,’ is one of the fundamental
laws of the kingdom of God. (
He that believes this shall receive it. It will not be without much prayer: it will require especially converse, ceaseless intercourse with God and Jesus. Yet he that desires it and is willing to give time and sacrifice to it, certainly receives it.
Son of God, Effulgence of the glory of God, the very image of His substance, I must be changed into Thine image. In Thee I see the image and the likeness of God in which we are created, in which we are by Thee created anew. Lord Jesus, let conformity to Thee be the one desire, the one hope of my soul. Amen.
1. Conformity to Jesus: we think that we understand the word: but how little do we comprehend that God really expects we should live even as Jesus. It requires much time with Him, in prayer and pondering of His example, at all rightly to conceive it. The writer of these precepts has written a book on this theme, has often spoken of it, and yet he sometimes feels as if he must cry out: Is it really true? Has God indeed called us to live even as Jesus?
2. ‘Like Jesus: Thoughts on the image of the Son of God and our conformity to Him,’ is the title of a book in which the various features of the image of Jesus and the sure way of receiving them are set forth.
3. Conformity to the world is strengthened especially by intercourse with it: It is in intercourse with Jesus that we shall adopt His mode of thinking, His disposition, His manners.
4. The chief feature of the life of Jesus is this: He surrendered Himself wholly to the Father in behalf of men. This is the chief feature of conformity to Him: the offering up of ourselves to God for the redemption and blessing of the lost.
5. The chief feature His inner disposition was -- childlikeness: absolute dependence on the Father, great willingness to be taught, cheerful preparedness to do the will of the Father. Be specially like Him in this.
‘I beseech you, brethren, to present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. And be not fashioned according to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.’ --
Be not conformed to this world. But what
is conformity to the world? The opposite of conformity to Jesus: for Jesus and
the world stand directly opposed to each other. The world crucified Him. He
and His disciples are not of the world. The spirit of this world cannot
receive the Spirit of God, for it sees Him not and knows Him not. (
And what is the spirit of this world? The spirit of this
world is the disposition that animates mankind in their natural condition,
where the Spirit of God has not yet renewed them. The spirit of this world
comes from the Evil One, who is the prince of this world, and has dominion over
all that are not renewed by the Spirit of God. (
And in what does the spirit of this world, or conformity to
it, manifest itself? The word of God gives the answer: ‘All that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of
life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.’ The craving for pleasure or
the desire to enjoy the world; the craving for property, or the desire to
possess the world; the craving for glory, or the desire to be honoured in the
world: these are the three chief forms of the spirit of the world. (
And these three are one in root and essence. The spirit of
this world is, that man makes himself his own end: he makes himself the central
point of the world: all creation, so far as he has power over it, must serve
him; he seeks his life in the visible. This is the spirit of the world: to
seek one’s self and the visible. (
It is a very terrible and serious thought that once can
carry on a busy fashionable life, free from manifest sin or unrighteousness,
and yet remain in the friendship of the world, and thereby in enmity against
God. (
Where the care for the earthly, for what we eat and what we
should drink, for what we possess or may still get into possession, for what we
can have brought forth in the earth and made to increase, is the chief element
in our life, there we are conformed to this world. It is a terrible and a very
serious thought that one can maintain to all appearance a Christian life and
think that one is trusting in Christ, while yet one is living with the world
for self and the visible. (
And how can I, for this end, come to be not conformed to the
world? Read our text over again with consideration: we read there two things.
Observe what goes before. It is those that have presented their bodies to God
as a sacrifice on the altar that have it said to them: Be not conformed to the
world. Offer yourself to God -- that is conformity to Jesus; live every day as
one that is offered up to God, crucified in Christ to the world: then you shall
not be conformed to the world. (
Observe also what follows: Be transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what is the perfect will of God. There must be a
continuous growing renewal of our mind. This takes place by the Holy Spirit,
when we let ourselves be led by Him. Then we learn to judge spiritually of
what is according to the will of God and what is according to the spirit of the
world. A Christian who strives after the progressive renewal of his whole mind
shall not be conformed to the world: the Spirit of God makes him conformed to
Jesus. (
Christians, pray, do believe that Jesus has obtained for you
the power to overcome the world, with its deep hidden seductions to living for
ourselves. Believe this: believe in Him as Victor: and you also have the
victory. (
Precious Lord, we have presented ourselves to Thee as living sacrifices. We have offered up ourselves to God. We are not of the world, even as Thou art not of the world. Lord, let our mind be enlightened by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, that we may rightly see what the spirit of this world is. And let it be seen in us that we are not of this world, but are conformed to Jesus. Amen.
1. Worldly pleasures. Is dancing sin? What harm is there
in playing billiards? Why may a Christian not go to the play? One has
sometimes wished that there were in the Scriptures a distinct law to forbid
such things. God has intentionally not given this. If there were such a law,
it would make men only externally pious. God would put each one upon trial
whether his inner disposition is worldly or heavenly. Pray, learn
2. It is remarkable that the trinity of the god of this world, in John’s Epistle, is seen as well in the temptation in Paradise as in that of the Lord Jesus.
The lust of the flesh:
The woman saw that the tree was good for food.
Command that those stones become bread.
The lust of the eyes:
And that it was a delight to the eyes.
The devil showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world.
And the vainglory of life.
And that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.
Cast Thyself down.
3. Consider what I say to you: It is only conformity to Jesus that will keep out conformity to the world. Let conformity to Jesus be the study, the endeavour of your soul.
‘And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it:
because that in it He rested from all His work which God had created.’ --
‘On that day, the first day of the week, Jesus came and
stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.’ --
‘I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.’ --
Man abides under the law of time. He must have time for what he would do or obtain. In a wonderful way God gives him time for intercourse with Himself. One day in seven God separated for fellowship with Himself.
The great object of God’s gift of this day is said to be,
that it may serve as a token that God desires to sanctify man. (
God blessed the seventh day by sanctifying it. The blessing
of God is the power of life, lodged by Him in anything, whereby it has a result
full of blessing. Grass, and cattle, and man He blessed with power to
multiply. (
There is still a third word that is used of the institution
of the Sabbath: ‘God rested on the seventh day,’ and, as it stands in Exodus,
‘was refreshed’ or gladdened. God would sanctify and bless us, by introducing
us into His rest. He would bring us to see that we are not to burden ourselves
with our cares and weakness: we are to rest in Him, in His finished work, in
His rest, which He takes because all is in order. This rest is not the outward
cessation of employments; no: it is the rest of faith, by which we cease from
our works as God did from His, because all is finished. Into this rest we
enter by faith in the finished work of Jesus, in surrender to be sanctified by
God. (
Because Jesus finished the second creation in His
resurrection, and we, by the power of His resurrection, enter into life and
rest, the seventh day is changed to the first day of the week. There is no
specific statement on this point: under the New Testament, the Spirit takes the
place of the law. The Spirit of the Lord led His disciples to the celebration
of this day. It was the day, not only on which the Lord was raised, but also
on which, in all likelihood, the Spirit was poured out: not only on which the
Lord manifested Himself during the forty days, but on which the Spirit also
specially worked (
The chief lessons that we have to learn about this day are the following: --
The principal aim of the Sabbath is to make you holy, as God
is holy. God would have you holy: this is glory, this is blessedness: this is
His blessing, this His rest. God would have you holy, filled with Himself and
His holiness. (
In order to sanctify you, God must have you with Him, in His
presence and fellowship. You are to come away from all your struggling and
working to rest with Him: to rest quietly, without exertion or anxiety, in the
certitude that the Son has finished everything, that the Father cares for you
in everything, that the Spirit will work everything in you. In the holy rest
of a soul that is converted to God, that is silent towards God, that remains
silent before His presence to hear what God speaks in him, that reckons upon
God to achieve all, God can reveal Himself. (
We sanctify the day of rest, first by withdrawal from all external business and distraction; but then especially by employing it as God’s day, belonging to the Lord, for what He destined it, fellowship with Himself.
Take heed, on the other hand, that you do not use the day of
rest only as a day for the public observance of divine worship. It is especially
in private personal intercourse that God can bless and sanctify you. In the
church, the understanding is kept active, and you have the ordinances of
preaching, united prayer and praise, to keep you occupied. But we do not there
always know whether the heart is really dealing with God, is taking delight in
Him. This takes place in solitude. O, accustom yourself, then, to be alone
with the Lord your God. Not only speak to Him: let Him speak to you: let your
heart be the temple in whose holy silence His voice is heard. Rest in God:
then will God say of your heart: This is my rest, here will I dwell. (
Young Christian, set great store by the holy, the blessed day of rest. Long for it. Thank God for it. Keep it very holy. And, above all, let it be a day of inner fellowship with your God, of a living converse with His love.
Holy God, I thank Thee for the holy day which Thou givest me as a token that Thou wilt sanctify me. Lord God, it is Thou who didst sanctify the day by taking it for Thyself: sanctify me in like manner by taking me for Thyself. Teach me so to enter into Thy rest, so to find my rest in Thy love, that my whole soul shall be silent before Thee, in order that Thou mayest make Thyself and Thy love known in me. And let every Sabbath be to me a foretaste of the eternal rest with Thee. Amen.
1. The Sabbath was the first of all the means of grace, instituted even before the Fall. You cannot see too high a value upon it.
2. Observe how specially the Three-One God has revealed Himself upon the day of rest. The Father rested on this day. The Son rose from the dead upon it. The Spirit sanctified this day by His special workings. You may on this day expect the fellowship and the powerful workings of the Three-One.
3. What is meant by the word ‘holy’? Of what is the day of
rest a token, according to
4. There are in this country peculiar difficulties in the way of the quiet celebration of the day of rest in a village, where the church is often very full. Yet one can lay aside that which is unnecessary and receive the influx of company. We can fix an hour in which there shall be reading and singing.
5. It is a matter of great importance to bring up children aright, for the sanctification of the Sabbath day, by avoiding worldly society and conversation, by accustoming them to read something that may be useful for them. For the younger children, there should be in every place a Sabbath school. For the older children, it would be well to come together in connection with such a book as this, every one with a Bible, and to review texts.
6. There is no better day than the Lord’s day for doing good to body and soul. Let the works of Satan on this day come to an end, and work for the heathen and the ignorant be carried forward.
7. The principal point is this: the day of rest is the day of God’s rest, of rest in and with God, and of intercourse with Him. It is God that will sanctify us. He does this by taking possession of us.
‘Go ye therefore, and make disciples
‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.’ --
In these words of the institution of baptism, we find its
meaning comprehended as in a summary. The word ‘teach’ means: ‘make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them.’ The believing disciple, as he is baptized
in the water, is also to be baptized or introduced into the name of the
Three-One God. By the name of the Father, the new birth and life as a child in
the love of the Father are secured to him: (
In other passages of Scripture the thrice two-fold blessing
is again set forth separately: thus we find bound up with it the new birth
required to make a child of God. ‘Except a man be born of water and the Sprit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’ The baptized disciple has in God a
Father, and he has to live as a child in the love of this Father. (
Then, again, baptism is brought more directly into
connection with the redemption that is in Christ. Consequently, the first and
simplest representation of it is the forgiveness or washing away of sins.
Forgiveness is always the gateway or entrance into all blessing: hence baptism
is also the sacrament of the beginning of the Christian life; but of a
beginning that is maintained through the whole life. It is on this account
that in
And there are other passages where again there is connected
with baptism the promise of the Spirit, not only as the Spirit of regeneration,
but as the gift bestowed from heaven upon believers for indwelling and sealing,
for progressive renewal. ‘He saved us through the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He poured out upon us richly.’ Renewal is
here the activity of the Spirit, whereby the new life that is planted in the
new birth penetrates our whole being, so that all our thinking and doing is
sanctified by Him. (
And all this rich blessing which lies in baptism is received
by faith. ‘He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved.’ Baptism was
not only a confession on man’s part of the faith that he who would be a
disciple already had, but equally on God’s part a seal for the confirmation of
faith, a covenant token in which the whole treasury of grace lay open, to be
enjoyed throughout life. As often as a baptized believer sees a baptism
administered, or reflects upon it, it is to be to him an encouragement to press
by an over-growing faith into the full life of salvation that the Three-One
desires to work in him. The Holy Spirit is given to appropriate within us all
the love of the Father and all the grace of the Son. The believing candidate
for baptism is baptized into the death of Christ, has put on Christ: the Holy
Spirit is in him to give him all this as his daily experience. (
Lord God, make Thy holy baptism always operative in my soul as the experience that I am baptized into the death of Christ. And let Thy people everywhere understand by Thy Spirit what rich blessing lies thrown open in the baptism of their children. Amen.
And what are we now to think of Infant Baptism? With the assurance that those who cleave only to God’s word, namely, the Baptists, will say to us: You cannot adduce a single passage in Scripture where the baptism of little children is spoken of.
Our answer is that this is thoroughly taught us in Scripture, not indeed by separate texts, but by its whole tenor. The reason why the Lord Jesus did not name children specially, was that this was altogether unnecessary. From the time of Abraham onwards God had engrained it in His people, that in His covenant He always reckoned parents and children together. He deals, not with separate individuals alone, but with households: the faith of a father held good for the child, so long as the child did not violate the covenant.
a. In Abraham, Isaac obtained part; in every father amongst
the people of Israel his child obtained part in the covenant between Me and
thee, and thy seed after thee, to be a God unto thee, and thy seed after
thee.’ (
b. Even so in connection with the Passover, it was ordained that, when a
stranger would join the people, all his males should be circumcised. (
c. How expressly did the Lord Jesus declare of children: ‘Of such is the kingdom of God.’ And under the kingdom should he not have as a Christian the privilege that he had as a Jew? Yes: the covenant of Abraham is still confirmed from child to child.
d. The answer of Paul to the goal-keeper confirms the continuance of what God had instituted: ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.’ Although there were no children in that house, this promise confirms the principle that God deals, not merely with individuals, but with households.
e. ‘Therefore are your children holy.’ Since the child itself is holy, it has of itself a right to the holy token of the covenant.
‘The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a
communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a
communion of the body of Christ?’ --
‘He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in
Me, and I in him. He that eateth Me, he also shall live because of Me.’ --
All life has need of food: it is sustained by nourishment
which it takes in from without. The heavenly life must have heavenly food;
nothing less than Jesus Himself is the bread of life: ‘He that eateth Me shall
live by Me.’ (
This heavenly food, Jesus, is brought near to us in two of
the means of grace, the word and the Lord’s Supper. The word comes to present
Jesus to us from the side of the intellectual life, by our thoughts. The
Lord’s Supper comes in like manner to present Jesus to us from the side of the
emotional life, by the physical senses. Man has a double nature: he has spirit
and body. Redemption begins with the spirit, but it would also penetrate to
the body, (
This feeding with the body of Christ takes place, on the
side of the Lord by the Spirit, on our side by faith. On the side of the Lord
by the Spirit: for the Spirit communicates to us the power of the glorified
body, whereby even our bodies, according to Scripture, become members of His
body. (
And this takes place on our side by faith: a faith that,
above what can be seen or understood, reckons on the wonder-working power of
the Holy Spirit to unite us really, alike in soul and body, with our Lord, by
communicating Him inwardly to us. (
This is what the Heidelberg Catechism intends in Question and Answer 76.
‘What is it to eat the glorified body of Christ and to drink His shed blood?’
‘It is not only to receive with a believing heart the whole
suffering and dying of Christ, and thereby to obtain forgiveness of sins and
eternal life, but also therewith, by the Holy Spirit, who dwells alike in
Christ and in us, to be so united more and more with His blessed body, that we,
although He is in heaven and we are upon earth, are nevertheless flesh of His
flesh and bone of His bone, and so live and are governed eternally by one
Spirit, as the members of our body by a soul.’
This deeply inward union with Jesus, even with His body and
blood, is the great aim of the Lord’s Supper. All that it teaches and gives us
of the forgiveness of sins, of the remembrance of Jesus, of the confirmation of
the divine covenant, of union with one another, of the announcement of the
Lord’s death till He comes, must lead to this: complete oneness with Jesus
through the Spirit. (
It is readily understood that the blessing of the Supper
depends very much on preparation within the inner chamber, on the hunger and
thirst with which one longs for the living God. (
Blessed Lord, who didst institute the Supper in order to communicate Thyself to Thy redeemed as their food and their power of life, O teach us to use the Supper. Teach us at every opportunity to eat and to drink with great hunger and thirst for Thyself and for full union with Thee, believing that the Holy Spirit feeds us with Thy body and gives us to drink of Thy blood. Amen.
1. In connection with the Supper let us be especially on our guard against the idea of a mere divine service of the congregation or transitory emotion. Preaching and addresses may make an edifying impression, while there is little power or blessing.
2. For a meal, the first requisite is hunger. A strong hunger and thirst for God is indispensable.
3. In the Supper, Jesus desires to give Himself to us, and would have us give ourselves to Him. These are great and holy things.
4. The lessons of the Supper are many. It is a feast of remembrance; a feast of reconciliation; a covenant feast; a love feast; a feast of hope. But all these separate thoughts are only subordinate parts of the principal element: the living Jesus would give Himself to us in the most inward union. The Son of God would descend into our inmost parts; He would come in to celebrate the Supper with us. ‘He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, let him abide in Me, and I in him.’
5. And then union with Jesus is union with His people in love and sympathy.
6. The preparatory address is not itself the preparation: it is only a help to the private preparation which one must have in intercourse with Jesus.
7. To hold festival with God at His table is something of unspeakable importance. Pray, do not suppose that, because you are a Christian, it is easy for you to go and sit down. No: betake yourself to solitude with Jesus, that He may speak to you and say how you are to prepare you heart to eat with Him, yea, with Himself.
It is very useful to take the whole week before the Supper for preparation and the whole week after for reflection.
‘Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, ye shall
be a peculiar treasure unto Me from among all peoples.’ --
‘The Lord will surely bless thee, if thou only diligently
hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.’ --
‘By faith Abraham obeyed. --
‘He learned obedience by the things which He suffered;
and having been made perfect, He became unto all them that obey Him the author
of eternal salvation.’ --
Obedience is one of the most important words in the Bible
and in the life of the Christian. It was in the way of disobedience that man
lost the favour and the life of God: it is only in the way of obedience that
that favour and that life can again be enjoyed. (
We see this in the Lord Jesus. He says: ‘If ye keep My
commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father’s
commandments, and abide in His love.’ He was in the love of the Father, but
could not abide there otherwise than by obedience. And He says that this is
equally for us the one way to abide in His love: we must keep His commandments.
He came to open for us the way back to God: this way was the way of obedience:
only he that through faith in Jesus walks in this way shall come to God. (
How gloriously is this connection betwixt the obedience of
Jesus and our own expressed in
This obedience is a characteristic of the life of faith. It
is called the obedience of faith. (
The power of this faith, again, as also of obedience lies
especially in intercourse with the living God Himself. There is but one Hebrew
word for ‘obeying voice’ and ‘hearing voice:’ to hear aright
prepares to obey. It is when I learn the will of God, not in the words of a
man or a book, but from God Himself, when I hear the voice of God, that
I shall surely believe what is promised and do what is commanded. The Holy
Spirit is the voice of God: when we hear the living voice speak, obedience
becomes easy. (
With a servant, a warrior, a child, a subject, obedience is
indispensable, the first token of integrity. And shall God, the living,
glorious God, find no obedience with us? (
O Father, who makest us Thy children in Christ, Thou makest us in Him obedient children, as He was obedient. Let the Holy Spirit make the obedience of Jesus so glorious and powerful in us, that obedience shall be the highest joy of our life. Teach us in everything only to seek to know what Thou desirest and then to do it. Amen.
For a life of obedience these things are required: --
1. Decisive surrender. I must no longer have to ask in every single case: Shall I or shall I not, must I, can I, be obedient? No: it must be such an unquestionable thing, that I shall know of nothing else than to be obedient. He that cherishes such a disposition and thinks of obedience as a thing that stands firm, shall find it easy, yea, shall literally taste in it great joy.
2. The knowledge of God’s will through the Spirit. Pray, do not imagine that, because you know the Bible in some sort, you know the will of God. The knowledge of God’s will is something spiritual: let the Holy Spirit make known to you the knowledge of God’s will.
3. The doing of all that we know to be right. All doing teaches men: all doing of what is right teaches men obedience. All that the word, or conscience, or the Spirit tells you is right, actually do it. It helps to form doing into a holy habit, and is an exercise leading to more power and more knowledge. Do what is right, Christian, out of obedience to God, and you shall be blessed.
4. Faith in the power of Christ. You have the power to obey: be sure of this. Although you do not feel it, you have it in Christ your Lord by faith.
5. The glad assurance of the blessing of obedience. It unites us with our God, it wins His good pleasure and love, it strengthens our life, it brings the blessedness of heaven into our heart.
‘Thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.’ --
The glory of heaven, where the Father dwells, is that His
will is done there. He who would taste the blessedness of heaven must know the
Father who is there, and do His will, as it is done in heaven. (
‘Heaven is an unending holy kingdom, of which the throne of God is the central point. Around this throne there are innumerable multitudes of pure, free beings, all ordered under powers and dominions. An indescribably rich and many-sided activity fills their life. All the highest and noblest that keeps man occupied is but a faint shadow of what finds place in this invisible world. All these beings possess each their free personal will. The will, however, has in self-conscious freedom, by its own choice, become one with the holy will of the holy Father, so that, in the midst of a diversity that flashes out in a million forms, only one will is accomplished -- the will of God. All the rich, blessed movement of the inhabitants of heaven has its origin and its aim in the will of God.’
And why is it then that His children on earth do not regard
this will as their highest joy? Wherefore is it that the petition, ‘Thy will
be done as in heaven,’ is for the most part coupled with thoughts of the
severe, the trying elements in the will of God, of the impossibility of our
always rejoicing in God’s will? The cause is this: we do not take pains to
know the will of God in its glory and beauty, as the emanation of love, as the
source of power and joy, as the expression of the perfection of God. We think
of God’s will only in the law that He gave and that we cannot keep, or in the
trials in which this will appears in conflict with our own. O let us no longer
do this, but take pains to understand that in the will of God all His love and
blessedness are comprehended and can be apprehended by us. (
Hear what the word says about the will of God: and the glorious things that are destined for us in this will.
‘This is the will of my Father, that every one that
beholdeth the Son and believeth on Him should have eternal life.’ The will of
God is the rescue of sinners by faith in Christ. He that surrenders himself to
this glorious will to seek souls shall have the assurance that God will bless
his work to others; for he carries out God’s will, even as Jesus did it. (
‘It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that
one of these little ones should perish.’ The will of God is the maintenance,
the strengthening, the keeping of the weakest of His children. What courage
shall he have who unites himself cordially with this will. (
‘This is the will of God, even your sanctification.’ With
His whole heart, with all the power of His will, is God willing to make us
holy. If we but open our heart to believe that it is not the law, but the will
of God, something that He certainly gives and does where we permit Him, then
shall we rejoice over our sanctification a stable and sure. (
‘In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus to you-ward.’ A joyful, thankful life is what God has destined
for us, is what He will work in us: what He desires, that He certainly does in
those who do not withstand Him, but receive and suffer His will to work in
them. (
What we require then is to surrender our spirit to be filled
with the thought, that what God would have He will certainly bring to pass when
we do not resist Him. And if we further consider how glorious, and good, and
perfect the will of God is, shall we not then yield ourselves with the whole
heart, that this will may bring itself to accomplishment in us? (
To this end, let us believe that the will of God is His
love. Let us see what blessings in the word are connected with the doing of
this will. (
When we have thus learned to know the will of God on its
glorious heavenly side in the word, and have done it, it will not be difficult
for us also to bear this will where it appears to be contrary to our nature.
We shall be so filled with the adoration of God and His will, that we shall
resolve to see, and approve, and love this will in everything. And it will be
the most glorious thought of our life that there is to be nothing, nothing, in
which the will of God must not be known and honoured. (
O my Father, this was the glory of the Lord Jesus, that He did not His own will, but the will of His Father. This His glory I desire to have as mine. Father, open mine eyes and my heart to know the perfection, the glory of Thy will, and the glory of a life in this will. Teach me to understand Thy will aright, then willingly and cheerfully to execute it; and where I have to hear it, to do this also with filial adoration. Amen.
1. To do the will of God from the heart in prosperity is the only way to bear this will from the heart in suffering.
2. To do the will of God, I must know it spiritually. The
light and the power of the Spirit go together: what He teaches to see as God’s
will, He certainly teaches all to do. Meditate much on
3. Learn always to adore the will of God in the least and
the worst thing that man does to you. It is not the will of God that His child
should be proved thereby. Say then always in the least as well as the greatest
trials: It is the will of God that I am in this difficulty. This brings the
soul to rest and silence, and teaches it to honour God in the trial. On this
point read the chapter, ‘Is God in everything?’ In the excellent little book,
‘The Christians Secret of Salvation.’
4. When God gave a will to man, He gave him a power whereby he could accept or reject the will of God. Child of God, pray, open your will to receive the will of God with its full power, and to be filled with it. This is heavenly glory and blessedness, to be conscious every day: my will is in harmony with God’s will; God’s will lives in me. It is the will of God to work this in you.
‘Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man would
come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.’ --
Self-denial was an exercise of which the Lord Jesus often
spoke. He mentioned it several times as an indispensable token of every true
disciple. He connects it with cross-bearing and losing life. (
Let self-denial reach our carnal understanding. It was when
Peter had spoken according to the thought of the natural understanding, that the
Lord had to say to him: ‘Thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of
men.’ You must deny yourselves and your own thoughts. We must be careful that
the activity of our understanding with the word and prayer, in endeavouring to
reach the knowledge of what is God’s will, does not deceive us with a service
of God that is not in spirit and in truth. Deny your carnal understanding;
bring it to silence; in holy silence give place to the Holy Spirit; let the
voice of God be heard in your heart. (
Deny also your own will, with all its lusts and desires.
Let it be once for all unquestionable that the will of God in everything is
your choice, and that therefore every desire that does not fall in with this
will, must be mortified. Pray, believe that in the will of God there is
heavenly blessedness, and that therefore self-denial appears severe only at the
outset, but, when you exercise yourself heartily in it, becomes a great joy.
Let the body with all its life abide under the law of self-denial. (
Deny also your own honour. Seek not it, but the honour of
God. This brings such a rest into the soul. ‘How can ye believe,’ says Jesus,
‘which receive glory one of another?’ Although your honour be hurt or reviled,
commit it to God to watch over it. Be content to be little, to be nothing.
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom.’ (
Deny, in like manner, your own power. Cherish the deep
conviction that it is those who are weak, those who are nothing, that God can
use. Be very much afraid of your own endeavours in the service of God, however
sincere they may be. Although you feel as if you had power, say before God
that you have it not, that your power is nothing: continuous denial of your own
power is the way to enjoy the power of God. It is in the heart that dies to
its own power, that the Holy Spirit decides to dwell and bring the power of
God. (
Deny especially your own interests. Live not to please
yourself, but your neighbour. He that seeks his own life shall lose it; he
that would live for himself shall not find life. But he that would really
imitate Jesus, to share in His joy, let him give his life as He did, let him
sacrifice his own interests. (
Beloved Christian, at conversion you had to make a choice betwixt your own self and Christ, which you should obey. You then said: ‘Not I, but Christ’ Now you are to confirm this choice every day. The more you do so, the more joyful and blessed will it be for you to renounce the sinful self, to cast aside unholy self-working, and suffer Jesus to be all. The way of self-denial is a way of deep heavenly blessedness.
There are very many Christians that observe nothing of this way. They would have Jesus to make them free from punishment, but not to liberate them from themselves, from their own will. But the invitation to discipleship still always rings: ‘If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.’
The reason as well as the power for self-denial, we find in
the little word Me. ‘If any man would come after Me, let him
deny himself, and follow Me.’ The old life is in ourselves: the
new life is in Jesus: the new life cannot rule without driving out the old.
Where one’s own self had everything to say, it must be nothing. This it would
fain not be: on this account there must be all the day denial of one’s self,
imitation of Jesus. He, with His teaching, His will, His honour, His
interests, must fill the heart. But he that has and knows Him, willingly
denies himself: Christ is so precious to him, that he sacrifices everything,
even himself, to win Him. (
This is the true life of faith. Not according to what nature sees or thinks to be acceptable, do I live, but according to what Jesus says and would have. Every day and every hour I confirm the wonderful bargain: ‘Not I, but Christ:’ I nothing, Christ everything. ‘Ye died,’ and no longer have power, or will, or honour; ‘your life is hid with Christ in God:’ Christ’s power and will alone prevail. O soul, cheerfully deny that sinful wretched self, in order that the glorious Christ may dwell in you.
Precious Saviour, teach me what self-denial is. Teach me so to distrust my heart that in nothing shall I yield to its fancy. Teach me so to know Thee that it shall be impossible for me to do anything else than to offer up myself to possess Thee and Thy life. Amen.
1. Of the denial of the natural understanding Tersteegen says: ‘God and His truth are never known aright, save by such an one as, by the dying of his carnal nature, his inclinations, passions, and will, is made very earnest and silent; and by the abandonment of the manifold deliberations of the understanding, has become very simple and childlike. We must give our heart and our will entirely to God, forsaking our own will in all things, releasing ourselves especially from the manifold imaginations and activities of the understanding, even in spiritual things, that it may collect itself silently in the heart, and dwell as in the heart with God. Not in the head, but in the heart is found the living truth itself, the anointing that teaches us all things. In the heart is found the living fountain of light. Any one that lives in a heart entertained with God, will often with a glance of the eye discern more truth than another with the greatest exertion.’
2. Read the above passage with care: you will find in it the reason why we have several times said, that when you read or pray you must at every opportunity keep quiet for a little and set yourself in entire silence before God. This is necessary, to bring the activity of the natural understanding to silence and to set the heart open before God, that He may speak there. In the heart is the temple where worship in spirit and truth takes place. Distrust, deny your understanding in spiritual things. The natural understanding is in the head: the spiritual understanding is in the heart, the temple of God. O preserve in the temple of God a holy silence before His countenance: then He will speak.
3. ‘The peculiar mark of Christian self-denial is inward cheerfulness and joy in the midst of privation. The word of God makes unceasing joy a duty. This gladsome disposition, which, hailing from eternity, has all change and vicissitude under foot, will hold its ground, not only in times of severe suffering, but also in the self-denial of every day and hour that is inseparable from the Christian life.’
4. What all am I to deny? Deny yourself. How shall I know where and when to deny myself? Do so always and in everything. And if you do not rightly understand that answer, know that no one can give you the right explanation of it but Jesus Himself. To imitate Him, to be taught of Him, is the only way to self-denial. Only when Jesus comes in, does self go out.
‘For wisdom shall enter into thine heart, and knowledge
shall be pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall watch over thee,
understanding shall keep thee.’ --
‘My son, keep sound wisdom and discretion: so shall they
be life unto thy soul.’ --
‘Ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rash.’ --
Indiscretion is not merely the sin of the unconverted:
amongst the people of God, it is often the cause of much evil and misery. We
read of Moses: ‘They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that it went
ill with Moses for their sakes: because they were rebellious against his
spirit, and he spake unadvisedly with his lips.’ So of Uzzah’s touching the
ark: ‘And God smote him there for his error’ (margin, rashness). (
What discretion is, and why it is so necessary, may be easily explained. When an army marches into the province of an enemy, its safety depends on the guards which are set, which are to be always on the watch, to know and to give warning when the enemy approaches. Advance guards are sent out that the territory and power of the enemy may be known. This prudence, which looks out beforehand and looks round, is indispensable.
The Christian lives in the province of the enemy. All that
surrounds him may become a snare or an occasion of sin. Therefore his whole
walk is to be carried out in a holy reserve and watchfulness, in order that he
may do nothing indiscreet. He watches and prays that he may not enter into
temptation. (
Discretion keeps watch over the lips. O what loss many a
child of God suffers by the thought that if he only speaks nothing wrong, he
may speak what he will. He knows not how, through much speaking, the soul
becomes ensnared in the distractions of the world, because in the multitude of
words there is not wanting transgression. Discretion endeavours not to speak,
save for the glory of God and blessing to neighbours. (
Over the ear also discretion keeps guard. Through the gate
of the ear comes to me all the news of the world, all the indiscreet speech of
others, to infect me. Very hurtful for the soul is eagerness for news. One
can afterwards no more look into one’s self: one lives wholly in the world
round about. Corinth was much more godless than Athens; but in this last
place, where they ‘spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to
hear some new thing,’ very few were converted. Take heed, says Jesus, what ye
hear. (
On this account, discretion keeps watch over the society in
which the Christian mingles. ‘He that separateth himself seeketh his own
desire.’ The child of God has no the freedom to yield himself to the society
of the world so much and so long as he would: he must know the will of his
Father. (
Discretion keeps watch over all lawful occupations and
possessions. It knows how gradually and stealthily the love of money,
worldly-mindedness, the secret power of the flesh, obtains the upper hand, and
that it can never reckon itself free from this temptation. (
And, above all, it keeps watch over the heart, because there
are the issues of life, there is the fountain out of which everything springs.
Remembering the word, ‘he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool,’ it walks
in deep humility, and it works out salvation with fear and trembling. (
And whence has the soul the power to be with a never-resting watchfulness on its guard against the thousand dangers that surround it on all sides? Is it not fatiguing, exhausting, harassing, to have thus to watch always and never to be at rest in the certainty that there is no danger? No: absolutely not. Discretion brings just the highest restfulness. It has its security and strength in its heavenly Keeper, who slumbers not nor sleeps. In confidence in Him, under the inspiration of His Spirit, discretion does its work: the Christian walks as one that is wise; the dignity of a holy prudence adorns him in all his actions. The rest of faith, the faith that Jesus watches and guards, binds to Him in love, and holy discretion springs as of its own accord from a love that would not grieve or abandon Him, from a faith that has its strength for everything in Him.
O Lord my God, guard me, that I may not be of the indiscreet in heart. Let the prudence of the righteous always characterize me, in order that in everything I may be kept from giving offense. Amen.
1. To one who bestowed great care on having his horse and cart in thoroughly good order, it was once said: Come, it is not necessary to be always taking so much pains with this. His answer was: I have always found my prudence paid. How many a Christian has need of this lesson. How many a young Christian may well pray for this -- that his conversion may be, according to God’s word, ‘to the prudence of the righteous.’
2. Discretion has its root in self-knowledge. The deeper my knowledge of my impotence and the sinfulness of my flesh is, the greater is the need of watchfulness. It is thus our element of true self-denial.
3. Discretion has its power in faith: the Lord is our Keeper, and He does His keeping through the Spirit keeping us in mind. It is from Him that our discretion comes.
4. Its activity is not limited to ourselves: it reaches out
especially to our neighbour, in the way of giving him no offense, and in laying
no stumbling-block in his way. (
5. It finds great delight in silence, so as to commit its way to the Lord with composure and deliberation. It esteems highly the word of the town-clerk of Ephesus: ‘Ye ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rash.’
6. In great generals and their victories, we see that discretion is not timidity: it is consistent with the highest courage and the most joyful certitude of victory. Discretion watches against rashness, but enhances the courage of faith.
‘Money answereth all things.’ --
‘I verily dedicate the silver unto the Lord from my
hand.’ --
‘Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the
bankers, and at my coming I should have received back mine own with interest.’
--
It is in his dealing with the world and its possessions,
that the Christian finds one of the opportunities in which he is to manifest
his self-denial and the spirit of discretion. (
What is money the token of? It is the token of the work by which a man earns it: of his industry, and zeal, and ability in that work: of his success and the blessing of God upon the work. It is also the token of all that I can do with money: the token of the work that others would do for me, of the power that I thereby have to accomplish what I desire, of the influence which I exercise on those that are dependent upon me for my money: a token of all the possessions or enjoyments that are to be obtained by money: a token of all upon earth that can make life desirable: yea, a token of life itself, which without the purchase of indispensable food cannot be supported.
Money is thus, indeed, of earthly things, one of the most desirable and fruitful. No wonder that it is thus esteemed by all.
What is the danger of money? What is the sin that is done
with it, that the Bible and experience should so warn us to be prudent in
dealing with it? There is the anxiousness that knows not if there will be
sufficient money. (
What is the blessing of money? If the danger of sin is so
great, would it not be better if there were no money? Is it not better to be
without money? No: even for the spiritual life money may be a great blessing:
as an exercise in industry and activity, (
And what is now the way to be freed from the danger and to be led into the right blessing of money?
Let God be Lord over your money. Receive all your
money with thanksgiving, as coming from God in answer to the prayer: ‘Give us this
day our daily bread.’ (
Lay it all down before God as belonging to Him. Say with
the woman: ‘I verily dedicate the silver unto the Lord.’ (
Let your dealing with your money be a part of your spiritual
life. Receive, and possess, and give out your money as one who has been bought
at a high price, redeemed, not with silver and gold, but with the precious
blood. (
Make what the word of God says of money, of earthly good, a special study. The word of the Father alone teaches how the child of the Father is to use blessing.
Reflect much on the fact that it is not given to you for yourself alone, but for you and your brethren together. The blessing of money is to do good to others, and make them rejoice.
Remember especially that it can be given up to the Father
and the service of His kingdom for the upbuilding of His spiritual temple, for
the extension of His sway. Every time of spiritual blessing mentioned in
Scripture was a time of cheerful giving for God’s cause. Even the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit make itself known in the giving of money for the Lord. (
Christian, understand it: all the deepest deliberations of the heart and its most spiritual activities can manifest themselves in the way in which we deal with our money. Love to God, love to our neighbour, victory over the world by faith, the hope of everlasting treasure, faithfulness as steward, joy in God’s service, cheerful self-denial, holy discretion, the glorious freedom of the children of God, can all be seen in the use of money. Money can be the means of the most glorious fellowship with God, and the full enjoyment of the blessedness of being able to honour and serve Him.
Lord God, make me rightly discern in what close connection my money stands with my spiritual life. Let the Holy Spirit lead and sanctify me, so that all my earning and receiving, my keeping and dispensing of money may always be well-pleasing to Thee and a blessing to my soul. Amen.
1. John Wesley always said that there were three rules about the use of money which he gave to men in business, and by which he was sure that they would experience benefit.
Make as much money as you can. Be industrious and diligent.
Save as much money as you can. Be no spendthrift, live frugally and prudently.
Give away as much money as you can. That is the divine destination of money; that makes it an everlasting blessing for yourselves and others.
2. Acquaint yourself with the magnificent prayer of David
in
‘Being made free from sin, ye became bond-servants of
righteousness. Being made free from sin, ye have your fruit unto
sanctification.’ --
‘But now we have been discharged from the law.’ --
‘The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me
free from the law of sin and of death.’ --
Freedom is counted in Scripture as one of the greatest privileges of the child of God. There is nothing in history for which nations have made great sacrifices except freedom. Slavery is the lowest condition into which man can sink, for in it he can no longer dispose of himself. Freedom is the deepest need of his nature.
To be free, then, is the condition in which anything can
develop itself according to the law of its nature, that is, according to its
disposition. Without freedom nothing can attain its destiny or become what it
ought to be. This is true alike of the animal and man, of the corporeal and the
spiritual. It was for this cause that God in Israel chose the redemption out of
the slavery of Egypt into the glorious liberty of God’s people, as the
everlasting type of redemption out of the slavery of sin into the liberty of
the children of God. (
In the three passages, from the Epistle to the Romans, in which sanctification is dealt with, a threefold freedom is spoken of. There is freedom from sin in the sixth chapter, freedom from the law in the seventh, freedom from the law of sin in the eighth.
There is freedom from sin (
Then there is freedom from the law. This leads us deeper
into the life of grace than freedom from sin. According to Scripture, law and
sin always go together. ‘The strength of sin is the law:’ The law does nothing
but make the offense greater. (
Then there is also freedom from the law of sin, actual
liberation from the power of sin in our members. What we have in Christ,
freedom from sin and from the law, is inwardly appropriated for us by the
Spirit of God. ‘The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free
from the law of sin and of death.’ The Holy Spirit in us takes the place of
the law over us. ‘If ye are led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’
Freeing from the law is not anything external, but takes place according to the
measure the Spirit obtains dominion in us and leads us. ‘Where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is liberty.’ According as the law of the Spirit rules in
us, we are made free from the law, from the law of sin. We are then free to do
what we, as God’s children, would fain do, free to serve God. (
Free expresses a condition in which nothing hinders me from being what I would be and ought to be. In other words, free is to be able to do what I would. The power of sin over us, the power of the law against us, the power of the law of sin in us, hinder us. But he that stands in the freedom of the Holy Spirit, he that is then truly free, nothing can prevent or hinder him from being what he would be and ought to be. As it is the nature of a tree to grow upwards, and it also grows as it is free from all hindrances, so a child of God then grows to what he ought to be and shall be. And according as the Holy Spirit leads him into this freedom, there springs up the joyful consciousness of his strength for the life of faith. He joyfully shouts: ‘I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.’ ‘Thanks be unto God which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ.’
Son of God, anointed with the Spirit to announce freedom to the captives, make me also truly free. Let the Spirit of life in Thee, my Lord, make me free from the law of sin and of death. I am Thy ransomed one. O let me live as Thy freed one, who is hindered by nothing from serving Thee. Amen.
1. The freedom of the Christian extends over his whole
life. He is free in relation to the institutions and teachings of men. ‘Ye
were bought with a price: become not bond-servants of men.’ (
2. This freedom is no lawlessness. We are free from sin
and the law to serve God in the Spirit. We are not under the law, but give
ourselves, with free choice and in love, to Him who loved. us. (
3. This freedom has its subsistence from the word and also
in it: the more the word abides in me, and the truth lives in me, the freer I
become. (
4. Freedom manifests itself in love. I am free from the
law, and from men, and from institutions, to be able now like Christ to
surrender myself for others. (
5. This glorious liberty to serve God and our neighbour in love is a spiritual thing. We cannot by any means seize it and draw it to us. It becomes known only by a life in the Holy Spirit. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is there liberty.’ ‘If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’ It is the Holy Spirit that makes free. Let us suffer ourselves to be introduced by Him into the effectual glorious liberty of the children of God. ‘The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed me from the law of sin and of death.’
‘So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed
upon the earth; and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should
spring up and grow, he knoweth not how. The earth beareth fruit of herself;
first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.’ --
‘The Head, from whom the whole body increaseth with the
increase of God’ --
‘That we may grow into Him which is the Head, even
Christ, from whom the whole body maketh the increase.’ --
Death is always a standing still: life is always movement,
progressiveness. Increase or growth is the law of all created life; consequently,
the new life in man is destined to increase, and always by becoming stronger.
As there are in the seed and in the earth a life and power of growth by which
the plant is impelled to have its full height and fruit; so is there in the
seed of the eternal life an impelling force by which also that life always
increases and grows with a divine growth, until we come to a perfect man, to
the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (
I this parable of the seed that springs up of itself, and becomes great and bears fruit, the Lord teaches us two of the most important lessons on the increase of the spiritual life. The one is that of its self-sufficiency, the other that of its gradualness.
The first lesson is for those that ask what they are to do
in order to grow and advance more in grace. As the Lord said of the body:
‘Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto his stature? consider
the lilies of the field how they grow;’ so He says to us here that we can do nothing,
and need to do nothing, to make the spiritual life grow. (
And must man then do nothing? He can do nothing: it is from
within that the power of life must come: from the life, from the Spirit
implanted in him. To the growth itself he can contribute nothing: it shall be
given him to grow. (
All that he can do is to let the life grow. All that can
hinder the life, he must take away and keep away. If there are thorns and
thistles that take away place and power in the soil which the plant should
have, he can take them away. (
The husbandman can also bring forward what the plant
requires in the way of food or drink: he can manure or moisten the soil as it
may be needful. So must the believer see to it that for the new life there is
brought forward nourishment out of the word, the living water of the Spirit, by
prayer. It is in Christ that the new life is planted: from Him it increases
with divine increase: abide rooted in Him by the exercise of faith: the life
will grow of itself. (
Then comes in the second lesson of the parable: the
gradualness of the growth: ‘first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn
in the ear.’ Do not expect everything at once. Give God time. By faith and
endurance we inherit the promises: the faith that knows that it has everything
in Christ: the endurance that expects everything in its time according to the
rule and the order of the divine government. Give God time. Give the new life
time. It is by continued abiding in the earth that the plant grows: it is by
continuous standing in grace, in Christ Himself, in whom God has planted us,
that the new life grows. (
Yes: give the new life only sufficient time: time in prayer: time in intercourse with God: time in continuous exercise of faith: time in persistent separation from the world. Give it time: slow but sure, hidden but real, in apparent weakness but with heavenly power, is the divine growth with which the life of God in the soul grows up to the perfect man in Christ.
Lord God, graciously strengthen the faith of Thy children, that their growth and progress are in Thy hands. Enable them to see what a precious, powerful life was implanted in them by Thyself, a life that increases with a divine increase. Enable them by faith and patience to inherit the promises. And teach them in that faith to take away all that can hinder the new life, to bring forward all that can further it, so that Thou mayest make Thy work in them glorious. Amen.
1. For a plant, the principal thing is the son in which it stands and out of which it draws its strength. For the Christian, this also is the principal thing: he is in Christ. Christ is all: he must grow up in Him, for out of Him the body obtains its increase. To abide in Christ by faith -- that is the main thing.
2. Remember that faith must set itself towards a silent restfulness, that growth is just like that of the lilies on God’s hands, and that He will see to it that we increase and grow strong.
3. By this firm and joyful faith, we become ‘Strengthened
with all power according to the might of His glory, unto all patience and
long-suffering with joy.’ (
4. This faith, that God cares for our growth, takes away all anxiety, and gives courage for doing the two things that we have to do: the taking away of what may be obstructive to the new life, the bringing forward of what may be serviceable to it.
5. Observe well the distinction betwixt planting and growing. Planting is the work of a moment: in a moment the earth receives the seed: after that comes the slow growth. Without delay -- immediately must the sinner receive the word: before conversion there is no delay. Then with time follows the growth of the seed.
6. The main thing is Christ: from Him and in Him is our growth. He is the soil that of itself brings forth fruit, we know not how. Hold daily intercourse with Him.
There is a book ‘Abide in Christ’ (Nisbet & Co.), with meditations for a month on the blessed life of continued fellowship with Him.
‘O how love I Thy law: it is my meditation all the day.’
--
‘Ye search (or search ye) the Scriptures: and these are
they which bear witness of Me.’ --
‘The word did not profit them, because they were not
united by faith with them that heard.’ --
At the beginning of this book there is more than one passage upon the use of God’s word in the life of grace. Ere I take leave of my readers, I would fain once again come back to this all-important point. I cannot too earnestly and urgently address this call to my beloved young brothers and sisters: Upon your use of the word of God your spiritual life in great measure depends. Man lives by the word that proceedeth from the mouth of God. Therefore seek with your whole heart to learn how to use God’s word aright. To this end, receive the following hints.
Read the word more with the heart than with the
understanding: with the understanding I would know and comprehend; with the
heart I desire, and love, and hold fast. Let the understanding be the servant
of the heart. Be much afraid of the understanding of the carnal nature, that
cannot receive spiritual things. (
Read the word always in fellowship with the living God. The
power of a word depends on my conviction regarding the man from whom it comes.
First set yourself in loving fellowship with the living God under the
impression of His nearness and love: deal with the word under the full
conviction that He, the eternal God, is speaking with you; and let the heart be
silent to listen to God, to God Himself. (
Read the word, as a living word in which the Spirit of
God dwells, and that certainly works in those that believe. The word is
seed. Seed has life, and grows and yields fruit of itself. The word has life,
and of itself grows and yields fruit. (
Read it with the resolve to be, not only a hearer, but a
doer of the word. Let the great question be: What would God now have of me
with this word? If the answer is: He would have me believe it and reckon upon
Him to fulfil it: do this immediately from the heart. If the word is a command
of what you are to do, yield yourself immediately to do it. (
Read the word with time. I see more and more that
one obtains nothing on earth without time. Give the word time. Give the word
time, at every occasion on which you sit down to read it, to come into your
heart. Give it time, in the persistence with which you cleave to it, from day
to day, and month after month. (
Read the word with a searching of the Scriptures. The
best explanation of the Bible is the Bible itself. Take three or four texts
upon a point: set them close to one another and compare them. See wherein they
agree and wherein they differ; where they say the same thing or again something
else. Let the word of God at one time be cleared up and confirmed by what He
said at another time on the same subject: this is the safest and the best
explanation. Even the sacred writers use this method of instruction with the
Scriptures: ‘and again.’ (
Young Christian, let one of my last and most earnest words to you be this: on your dealing with the word of God depend your growth, your power, your life. Love God’s word then; esteem it sweeter than honey: better than thousands of gold or silver. In the word, God can and will reveal His heart to you. In the word, Jesus will communicate Himself and all His grace. In the word, the Holy Spirit will come in to you, to renew your heart and all your thoughts, according to the mind and will of God. O, then, read not simply enough of the word to keep you from declension, but reckon it one of your chief occupations on earth to yield yourself that God may fill you with His word, that He may fulfil His word in you.
Lord God, what grace it is that Thou speakest to us in Thy word, that we in Thy word have access to Thy heart, to Thy will, to Thy love. O forgive us our sins against Thy precious word. And, Lord, let the new life become so strong by the Spirit in us, that all its desire shall be to abide in Thy word. Amen.
1.
1. The blessing that the word gives. Verses, 1,2,6,9,11,14,24,45,46,47, and so on.
2. The appellations that in this psalm are given to God’s word.
3. How we have to handle the word. (Observe -- walk -- keep -- mark -- and so on.)
4. Prayer for divine teaching. Verses 5,10,12,18,19,26.
5. Surrender to obedience to the word. Verses 93,105,106,112,128,133.
6. God’s word the basis of our prayer. Verses 41,49,58,76,107,116,170.
7. Observance as the ground of confidence in prayer. Verses 77,159,176.
8. Observance as promised upon the hearing of prayer. Verses 8,17,33,32,44.
9. The power to observe the word. Verses 32,36,41,42,117,135,146.
10. The praise of God’s word. Verses 54,72,97,129,130,144.
11. The confident confession of obedience. Verses 102,110,121,168.
12. Personal intercourse with God, seen in the use of Thou and I, Thine and Mine.
I have merely mentioned a few points and a few verses. Seek out more and mark them, until your mind is filled with the thoughts about the word, which the Spirit of God desires to give you.
Read with great thoughtfulness the words of that man of faith, George Mueller. He says: ‘The power of our spiritual life will be according to the measure of the room that the word of God takes up in our life and in our thoughts.’ After an experience of fifty-four years, I can solemnly declare this. For three years after my conversion I used the word little. Since that time I searched it with diligence, and the blessing was wonderful. From that time, I have read the Bible through a hundred times in order, and at every time with increasing joy. Whenever I start a fresh with it, it appears to me as a new book. I cannot express how great the blessing is of faithful, daily, regular searching of the Bible. The day is lost for me, on which I have used no rounded time for enjoying the word of God.
‘Friends sometimes say: I have so much to do, that I can find no time for regular Bible study. I believe that there are few that have to work harder than I have. Yet it remains a rule with me never to begin my work until I have had real sweet fellowship with God. After that I give myself heartily to the business of the day, that is, to God’s work, with only intervals of some minutes of prayer.’
‘I will cry unto God most High; unto God that performeth
all things for me.’ --
‘The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.’ --
‘Being confident of this very thing, that He which began
a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ --
‘For of Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all
things. To Him be the glory for ever and ever.’ --
We read that David was once dispirited by unbelief, and said: ‘I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul.’ So even the Christian may indeed fear that he shall one day perish. This is because he looks upon himself and what is in him, and does not set his trust wholly upon God. It is because he does not yet know God as the Perfecter. He does not yet know what is meant by His name being: ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega: the Beginning and the End: the First and the Last.’ If I really believe in God as the beginning out of whom all is, then must I also trust Him as the continuation by whom, as also the End to whom, all is.
God is the beginning: ‘He who began a good work in you:’ ‘Ye
have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.’ It is God’s free choice, from
before the foundation of the world, that we have to thank that we became
believers, and have the new life. (
But then it is of great moment to hold fast this truth: He
has begun the good work. Then shall every thought of God strengthen the
confidence that He will also perfect it. His faithfulness, His love, His
power, are all pledged that He will perfect the good work that He began. Pray,
read how God has taken more than one oath regarding His unchangeable
faithfulness: your soul will rest in this and find courage. (
And how shall He finish His work? What has its origin from
Him is sustained by Him, and shall one day be brought to Him and
His glory. There is nothing in your life, temporal or spiritual, for which the
Father will not care, because it has influence upon you for eternity. (
And how glorious shall the perfecting not be. In our spiritual life, God is prepared to exhibit His power in making us partakers of His holiness and the image of His Son. He will make us fit, and set us in a condition for all the blessed work in His kingdom that He would have from us. Our body He will make like to the glorious body of His Son. We may wait for the coming of the Son Himself from heaven to take His own to Him. He will unite us in one body with all His chosen, and will receive and make us dwell for ever in His glory. O how can we think that God will not perfect His work? He will surely do it, He will gloriously do it, for every one that trusts Him for it.
Child of God, pray, say in deep assurance of faith: The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. In every need say continually with great boldness: I will call on God, that performeth all things for me. And let the song of your life be the joyful doxology: ‘From Him, and through Him and to Him are all things: to Him be the glory for ever. Amen.
Lord God, who shalt perfect that which concerneth me, teach me to know Thee and to trust Thee. And let every thought of the new life go hand in hand with the joyful assurance: He who began a work in me will perfect it. Amen.
1. ‘He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.’
It brings but little profit to begin well; we must hold the beginning of our
hope firm unto the end. (
2. The perseverance of the saints -- in holiness -- is one of the characteristic articles of doctrine of the Reformed Church. The grace of regeneration is inadmissible.
3. How do we explain the falling away of some believers?
They were only temporary believers: they were partakers only of the workings of
the Spirit. (
4. How do I know whether I am partaker of the true new
birth? ‘As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God’
(
Child of God, live in fellowship with your Father: live the life of faith in your Jesus with an undivided heart, and all fear of falling away shall be taken away from you. The living sealing of the Holy Spirit shall be your assurance of perseverance unto the end.
Genesis
1:22 1:22 1:27 1:28 1:28 2:3 3:12 6:5 6:6 6:9 7:1 9:1 12:1 12:1 12:2 12:4 15:1 17:1 17:3 17:7 18:14 19:22 21:1 21:1 22:5 22:16 22:17 22:17 22:17 22:17 22:18 26:4 26:5 26:24 27:34 28:15 28:15 28:22 28:23 31:13 31:16 32:12 32:24
Exodus
1:14 4:11 4:12 4:23 6:5 10:23 12:48 14:14 14:14 18:1 18:8 19:4 19:4 19:5 19:5 19:5 19:6 20:2 25:11 25:16 29:43 29:43 29:43 29:45 29:45 31:12-17 31:13 31:13 31:17 32:22 32:24 33:11 33:16 34:6 34:7 36:5
Leviticus
1:8 1:9 4:21 8:13 11:44 14:7 14:8 19:2 20:6 20:7 26:40 26:41
Numbers
5:7 12:11 12:21 14:17 14:18 14:20 19:12 19:31 23:19 23:19
Deuteronomy
3:22 6:2 6:5 7:6 7:9 8:17 8:18 10:17 10:20 10:21 11:10 11:18 20:3 20:4 20:8 24:8 25:4 25:5 26:17 26:18 26:27 26:28 27:26 28:1 28:1 28:2 28:47 30:14 32:10 32:46 32:47
Joshua
1:7 1:9 1:9 1:9 3:4 4:24 5:14 6:20 7:12 7:13 21:45 23:14 23:14 24:15
Judges
5:31 7:3 10:10 10:15 10:16 17:3
Ruth
1 Samuel
3:9 3:10 8:18 12:24 14:37 14:38 18:14 25:22 28:6 28:15
2 Samuel
6:7 10 10:17 12:13 12:13 15:21 22:21 22:25 23:4 24
1 Kings
1 Chronicles
18:24 18:37 19:12 22:20 28:20 29 29:6 29:9 29:14
2 Chronicles
5:3 5:10 7:2 15:7 16:9 20:4 20:12 20:15 20:15 20:17 23:15 25:9 26:5 26:16 27:14 32:26 32:31
Ezra
Nehemiah
2:33 8:11 9:2 9:2 9:3 9:33 13:30 28:21 28:25
Esther
Job
11:13 13:23 14:17 14:21 40:6 42:6
Psalms
1:1 1:2 1:2 1:2 1:3 1:6 2 2 2:3 2:6 3:5 4:4 5:7 5:8 5:13 5:14 6:10 10:17 14 14:3 14:45 14:98 14:165 18:2 18:2 18:3 18:30 18:32-40 18:37 19:8 19:11 19:13 19:13 19:14 19:47 19:48 19:111 19:127 20:2 20:7 20:10 21:4 22:24 22:24 22:26 23:4 23:4 24 25:5 25:8-9 25:9 27:1 27:6 27:8 27:14 27:22 27:25 28:7 28:8 29:1 29:11 31:5 31:6 31:20 31:24 31:25 32:1 32:1 32:5 32:5 32:5 32:11 32:38 33:1 33:18 33:18 34:5 34:7 34:8 34:18 34:19 36:10 37:31 38:3 38:16 38:18 39:2 39:2 39:10 40:2 40:9 40:9 40:10 40:11 42:3 42:9 43:2 44:4 44:4 44:5 44:8 44:9 44:9 46:2 46:2 47:11 51:3 51:12 51:12 51:13 51:17 52:2 52:6 56:5 56:6 56:12 57:2 58:11 59:17 59:18 62 62:2 62:3 62:6 62:7 62:8 62:8 64:11 65:3 66:16 66:19 68:4 68:4 68:35 68:36 71:8 71:15 71:16 71:24 73:1 73:25 81:2 84:8 84:92 89:15 89:16 89:16 89:17 89:18 89:29 89:33 89:34 89:34 89:35 89:35 89:36 92:14 94:12 97:12 103 103:3 103:12 106:38 112:1 112:1 112:5 112:7 112:8 112:9 115:13 115:13 116:10 118:14 119 119 119:10 119:11 119:11 119:11 119:15 119:15 119:16 119:18 119:34 119:34 119:36 119:40 119:47 119:48 119:49 119:49 119:50 119:67 119:69 119:69 119:71 119:92 119:97 119:97 119:97 119:100 119:143 119:165 119:166 119:168 121:4 121:7 122:13 122:14 126:6 126:7 127:11 131:2 133:1 133:3 135:20 138:8 139:7 139:23 139:23 139:23 139:24 141:3 141:3 142:6 143:2 143:8 144:2 145:9 145:19 147:11 2713
Proverbs
1 1:7 2:2 2:4 2:5 2:5 2:10 2:11 2:11 3:13 3:18 3:21 3:21 3:22 3:23 4:18 4:18 4:23 7 7:24 7:26 8 8:12 8:13 9:10 10:3 10:4 10:6 10:7 10:11 10:16 10:19 10:19 10:20 10:20 10:21 10:21 10:22 10:24 10:25 10:27 10:28 10:30 10:31 10:31 10:32 11:2 11:24 11:24 11:25 11:25 12:18 12:22 13 13:4 13:9 13:33 14 15:30 16:6 18:10 18:15 18:19 18:20 19:23 21:13 21:28 26:5 27 28:1 28:13 28:14 28:14 28:16
Ecclesiastes
Isaiah
1:11 1:15 1:15 2:6 2:8 3:10 4:4 4:7 5:3 6:2 6:3 6:5 6:5 7:9 8:13 10:17 10:18 12:1 12:2 12:3 12:5 12:6 12:14 13:24 26:16 27:2 27:3 27:8 27:9 29:29 30:19 34:16 38:17 40:1 40:1 40:2 40:31 40:31 41:9 41:10 41:10 41:12 41:13 42:16 43:2 43:2 43:7 43:10 43:11 43:15 43:21 44:5 45:1 45:3 45:24 46:4 46:7 47:7 47:8 47:10 47:11 48:13 48:14 49:6 49:6 49:7 49:12 49:18 49:18 49:21 49:22 49:22 50:4 50:4 50:4 50:5 50:7 50:11 51:7 51:12 51:13 52:6 52:17 53:10 54:1 54:1 54:2 54:3 54:9 54:10 55 55:7 57 57:15 58:5 58:6 58:7 58:8 58:10 59:1 59:1 59:2 59:2 59:9 59:12 59:13 60:1 60:1 60:3 60:11 60:16 60:20 60:20 61:1 61:2 62:2 63:5 64:4 65:5
Jeremiah
1:2 1:6 1:7 1:9 3:21 3:25 4:13 5:22 7:4 10:6 10:7 12:2 15:16 26:3 26:4 27:9 31:18 31:19 31:33 31:33 31:34 32:17 32:27 32:39 32:40 33:3 33:25 33:26 44:4 58:4
Ezekiel
3:10 3:18 3:20 18:21 18:23 20:12 20:20 30:25 33:6 33:12 37:27 37:28
Daniel
Hosea
7:14 7:15 11:9 14:5 14:6 14:7 14:16
Joel
Micah
Habakkuk
Haggai
Zechariah
2:3 2:13 4:6 8:6 12:10 12:10 12:11
Malachi
Matthew
1:19 1:21 3:11 3:12 4:1 4:4 4:6 4:9 4:10 4:22 5:3 5:3 5:6 5:6 5:6 5:6 5:8 5:9 5:16 5:17 5:19 5:20 5:20 5:20 5:22 5:23 5:24 5:26 5:27 5:34 5:35 5:44 5:44 5:45 5:45 5:45 5:48 6:6 6:6 6:7 6:8 6:8 6:10 6:25 6:25 6:27 6:27 6:28 6:28 6:31 6:32 6:33 6:33 6:33 6:34 7:5 7:11 7:21 7:21 7:21 7:21 7:24 7:27 8:8 8:10 8:10 8:15 8:22 8:26 8:27 8:27 8:28 8:29 9:2 9:22 9:23 9:29 10:8 10:16 10:19 10:19 10:20 10:20 10:20 10:24 10:25 10:27 10:28 10:32 10:33 10:37 10:37 10:38 10:38 10:38 10:39 10:40 11:24 11:25 11:27 11:29 11:29 12:28 12:36 12:49 12:50 12:50 13:19 13:22 13:22 13:23 13:44 14:28 14:30 14:31 14:31 15:14 15:15 15:28 15:28 16:23 16:24 17:20 18:33 19:21 20:26 20:27 20:28 20:28 22:19 23:12 24:13 24:14 25:27 25:40 25:40 25:46 26:21 26:23 26:26 26:28 26:39 26:39 26:41 26:41 28:14 28:18 28:18 28:19 28:19 28:20 28:20 28:21 28:28
Mark
4:15 4:24 4:26 4:26-28 4:27 4:28 4:28 9:23 11:24 11:25 13:10 16:15 16:20 26:15 26:16
Luke
1:6 1:6 1:17 1:36 1:37 1:37 1:37 1:38 1:45 1:45 1:45 1:49 1:51 1:53 1:74 1:75 1:77 1:78 2:25 2:40 5:5 5:5 5:8 6:31 6:32 6:35 6:40 7:38 7:40 7:50 8:48 9:18 9:23 9:28 9:48 10:18 11:28 12:4 12:7 12:33 12:35 13:16 13:24 13:26 14:11 14:26 14:27 14:27 14:33 14:33 15:22 16:8 16:21 17:5-6 17:19 18:2 18:4 18:14 18:22 18:22 18:27 18:29 18:42 19:7 19:8 19:8 19:10 21:24 21:34 22:3 22:19 22:26 22:27 22:27 22:31 22:31 22:32 22:32 22:53 23:41 24:16 24:47 24:49 26:15 28:8 28:27 28:28 28:29 28:30
John
1:12 1:12 1:12 1:12-13 1:14 1:14 1:16 1:16 1:16 1:42 1:46 3:1-8 3:3 3:3 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:7 3:14-18 3:15-16 3:16 3:16 3:16 3:17 3:20 3:21 3:33 3:33 3:36 3:36 3:36 4:7 4:13 4:28 4:35 4:39 4:50 5:4 5:5 5:10 5:19 5:24 5:25-26 5:28 5:30 5:38 5:38 5:39 5:44 5:44 6:14 6:26 6:29 6:35 6:37 6:38 6:40 6:40 6:51 6:51 6:54 6:55 6:56 6:56 6:57 6:57 6:63 6:63 6:63 7:17 7:18 7:38 7:38 7:38 8:11 8:12 8:31 8:31 8:32 8:32 8:34 8:36 8:36 8:44 8:44 8:50 8:50 9:31 10:4 10:4 10:9 10:10 10:14 10:27 10:28 10:28 10:38 11:40 11:40 11:40 12:24 12:24 12:24 12:25 12:25 12:25 12:25 12:25 12:26 12:28 12:31 12:36 13:1 13:2 13:10 13:11 13:14 13:14 13:14 13:15 13:15 13:15 13:15 13:15 13:31 13:32 13:34 13:34 13:35 13:35 14:3 14:11 14:12 14:13 14:13 14:14 14:14 14:15 14:15 14:16 14:16 14:17 14:17 14:19 14:19 14:21 14:21 14:21 14:21 14:23 14:23 14:23 14:23 14:23 14:23 14:26 14:26 14:27 14:30 14:30 15:3 15:4 15:4 15:5 15:5 15:5 15:5 15:5 15:7 15:7 15:7 15:7 15:10 15:10 15:12 15:12 15:14 15:14 15:15 15:16 15:16 15:16 15:26 16:9 16:11 16:11 16:14 16:14 16:15 16:22 16:23 16:23 16:24 16:24 16:33 16:33 17 17:6 17:8 17:14 17:15 17:16 17:16 17:17 17:19 17:23 17:25 19:30 19:37 20:1 20:19 20:19 20:26 20:28 20:29 20:29 21:17 21:17 25:4 25:10 26:22 26:33 27:1 27:4 27:5 27:6 27:8 27:17 27:18 27:18 34:36
Acts
1:4 1:4 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:14 1:18 1:19 2:15 2:33 4:13 4:24 4:34 5:32 5:32 5:39 6:7 7:51 8:2 8:4 8:30 8:37 9:31 9:31 10:35 10:38 11:12 11:19 11:23 11:24 12:5 12:5 14:287 15:4 15:5 17:11 17:21 19:2 19:36 20:7 22:19 22:20 22:21 26:18 26:18 27:25 27:25
Romans
1:3 1:4 1:4 1:5 1:17 1:17 1:17 1:18 1:21 1:23 2:29 3 3:10 3:15 3:20 3:22 3:24 3:31 4:4 4:5 4:5 4:5 4:5 4:15 4:16 4:16 4:17 4:20 4:20 4:21 4:21 4:21 4:21 4:21 4:21 4:21 4:22 5:1 5:1 5:1 5:2 5:5 5:5 5:5 5:5 5:5 5:5-8 5:8 5:10 5:13 5:17 5:17 5:18 5:19 5:20 5:21 5:21 6 6:1 6:3 6:4 6:6 6:7 6:11 6:11 6:12 6:13 6:13 6:13 6:13 6:13 6:14 6:14 6:14 6:15 6:16 6:17 6:18 6:18 6:18 6:18 6:18 6:19 6:19 6:19 6:22 6:22 6:22 6:22 6:22 6:23 7 7 7 7 7:1 7:4 7:4 7:4 7:4 7:5 7:5 7:5 7:6 7:6 7:6 7:6 7:6 7:6 7:6 7:6 7:9 7:13 7:13 7:14 7:14 7:14 7:14 7:14 7:18 7:18 7:18 7:18 7:18 7:23 7:23 7:23 8 8 8 8:1-16 8:1-16 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:2 8:3 8:3 8:4 8:4 8:7 8:8 8:9 8:9 8:10 8:11 8:13 8:13 8:13 8:13 8:13 8:13 8:13 8:13 8:14 8:14 8:14 8:14 8:14 8:14 8:15 8:15 8:16 8:16 8:16 8:23 8:26 8:27 8:29 8:29 8:30 8:32 8:32 8:34 8:35 8:37 8:37 8:38 8:38-39 8:39 10:6-8 10:8 10:8 10:8-9 10:10 10:17 10:17 10:17 11:6 11:6 11:20 11:20 11:20 11:25 11:25 11:33 11:36 12:1 12:1 12:1 12:1 12:2 12:2 12:2 12:2 12:2 12:2 12:2 12:3 12:3 12:5 12:6 12:10 12:16 12:29 13:10 13:10 13:10 14:4 14:4 14:13 14:13 14:21 15 15:1 15:3 15:10 15:13 15:13 16:6 16:20 16:26 28
1 Corinthians
1:2 1:3 1:8 1:9 1:10 1:11 1:12 1:17 1:18-19 1:24 1:27 1:27 1:27 1:28 1:30 1:30 1:30 2:6 2:6 2:6 2:7 2:8 2:8 2:9 2:9 2:10 2:10 2:10 2:10 2:12 2:12 2:12 2:12 2:12 2:12 2:13 2:15 2:114 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:2 3:3 3:3 3:3 3:7 3:13 3:16 3:16 3:16 3:16 3:16 3:17 3:17 3:17 5:5 6:13 6:15 6:15 6:17 6:19 6:19 6:19 6:19 6:19 6:19 6:20 6:20 6:20 6:20 6:20 7:5 7:19 7:21 7:23 7:31 8:8 8:9 8:13 9:4 9:5 9:21 9:25 9:25 9:27 9:27 10:16 10:17 10:22 10:23 10:23 10:24 10:31 10:32 11:1 11:7 11:8 11:25 11:32 12:3 12:11 12:13 12:2021 13:1 13:3 13:4 13:4-7 13:5 14:24 14:25 15 15:10 15:10 15:10 15:10 15:56 25:9 25:10 26:2 58
2 Corinthians
1:3 1:4 1:9 1:9 1:9 1:11 1:22 1:24 2:10 2:14 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:10 3:13 3:13 3:16 3:17 3:17 3:18 3:18 4:4 4:18 5:5 5:7 5:7 5:15 5:15 5:15 5:15 5:16 5:21 6:2 6:10 6:10 6:14 6:14 6:14 6:16 6:16 6:16 6:17 6:17 6:17 6:18 6:18 7:1 7:1 7:1 7:1 7:9 7:9 7:10 8:3 8:4 8:14 8:15 9:6 9:8 9:8 9:8 9:9 9:10 9:11 9:12 9:13 9:15 10:5 10:15 11:14 11:30 12:7 12:9 12:9 12:9 12:10 12:10 12:11 13:3 13:4 13:9
Galatians
1:4 1:4 2:4 2:10 2:16 2:18 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:20 2:21 3:2 3:2 3:2 3:3 3:3 3:3 3:3 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:11 3:11 3:11 3:12 3:14 3:14 3:15 3:19 3:25 3:26 3:26 3:27 3:27 3:27 4:6 4:6 4:6 4:6 4:7 4:7 4:7 4:7 4:9 4:21 4:31 4:31 5 5:1 5:4 5:5 5:5 5:5 5:6 5:6 5:6 5:7 5:13 5:13 5:13 5:15 5:16 5:16 5:17 5:18 5:18 5:18 5:18 5:18 5:22 5:22 5:22 5:24 5:24 5:25 5:25 5:25 5:26 5:26 6:1 6:1 6:1 6:1 6:1 6:6 6:8 6:12 6:13 6:14 6:14 8:9 15:21 15:26
Ephesians
1:3 1:3 1:4 1:4 1:4 1:5 1:5 1:7 1:9 1:10 1:11 1:11 1:13 1:13 1:13 1:17 1:17-18 1:18 1:18 1:19 1:19 1:19 1:19 1:22 2:4 2:10 2:10 2:13 2:16 2:17 2:18 3:5 3:5 3:8 3:10 3:17 3:17 3:17 3:17 3:17 3:17 3:17 3:17 3:18 3:18 3:18 3:19 4:2 4:2 4:2 4:2 4:6 4:12 4:14 4:14 4:14 4:14 4:15 4:15 4:15 4:16 4:16 4:22 4:23 4:24 4:30 4:32 5:1 5:1 5:2 5:2 5:2 5:2 5:4 5:8 5:8 5:14 5:15 5:17 5:17 5:23 5:24-47 5:25 5:25 5:25 5:26 5:26 5:26 5:26 5:27 5:27 5:27 5:27 5:30 6:6 6:10 6:10 6:10 6:12 6:16 6:16 6:18
Philippians
1:6 1:10 1:11 2:2 2:3 2:3 2:3 2:4 2:5 2:5 2:7 2:7 2:8 2:8 2:12 2:13 2:13 2:13 2:15 3:1 3:3 3:3 3:7 3:7 3:8 3:8 3:8 3:8 3:8 3:9 3:9 3:21 3:21 4:3 4:4 4:6 4:7 4:13 4:13 4:13 4:13 4:13
Colossians
1:8 1:9 1:11 1:11 1:20 1:21 1:22 1:22 2:3 2:6 2:6 2:6 2:6 2:7 2:9 2:9-10 2:10 2:12 2:12 2:13 2:13 2:15 2:16 2:18 2:18 2:19 2:20 3:3 3:3 3:3 3:3 3:3-4 3:3-5 3:4 3:4 3:5 3:8 3:9 3:10 3:12 3:12 3:12 3:16 3:16 3:18 4:12
1 Thessalonians
1:3 1:8 2:6 2:10 2:10 2:13 2:13 2:13 2:13 2:13 2:13 3:10 3:12 3:13 3:13 4:1 4:3 4:6 4:8 4:9 5 5:5 5:15 5:16 5:18 5:23 5:24 5:24 5:24 5:24 5:24 23
2 Thessalonians
1:3 1:3 1:4 1:11 1:11 1:12 1:12 2:3 2:8 2:9 2:13 2:13 2:16 2:17 3:3 3:3 3:14 3:16
1 Timothy
1:5 1:13 1:15 1:20 2:6 4:4 4:5 5:22 6:9 6:9 6:9 6:10 6:10 6:11 6:12 6:17 6:17
2 Timothy
1:12 1:12 1:12 1:12 1:12 1:12 2:4 2:13 2:19 2:21 2:21 2:21 2:21 2:22 3:16 3:17 3:17 4:7 4:10 4:18
Titus
1:8 2:4 2:5 2:5 2:6 2:6 2:12 2:14 2:14 2:14 2:14
Hebrews
1 2:10 2:10 2:10 2:11 2:13 2:17 2:18 3:6 3:13 3:13 3:14 3:14 3:14 3:16 4:2 4:3 4:6 4:7 4:10 4:12 4:12 4:12 4:12 5 5:8 5:9 5:9 5:11 5:12 5:13 5:14 5:14 6:4 6:10 6:12 6:14 6:15 7:16 7:18 7:24 7:26 8:9 8:12 8:13 8:15 8:16 9:5 9:6 9:14 9:26 10:7 10:9 10:10 10:16-18 10:17 10:22 10:24 10:29 10:35 10:35 10:35 10:36 10:38 10:38 11:1 11:8 11:8 11:11 11:12 11:18 11:18 11:23 11:33 11:35 11:38 12 12:10 12:11 12:14 13:5 13:5 13:6 13:6 13:15 13:16 13:20 13:20 13:21 13:21 13:21
James
1:2 1:3 1:4 1:6 1:15 1:21 1:21 1:21 1:21 1:21 1:21 1:25 2:12 2:15 2:16 2:22 3:2 3:9 3:10 3:14 3:16 4:3 4:3 4:4 4:5 4:8 4:8 5:4 5:7 5:16 5:16 5:16 5:16 5:17 6:16
1 Peter
1:2 1:2 1:2 1:2 1:2 1:2 1:4 1:5 1:5 1:7 1:8 1:8 1:8 1:13 1:14 1:14 1:14 1:15 1:15 1:15 1:15 1:16 1:16 1:16 1:17 1:17 1:17 1:18 1:18 1:19 1:22 1:22 1:22 1:22 1:22 1:23 1:23 1:23 2:2 2:2 2:5 2:10 2:10 2:14 2:16 2:24 2:25 3:5 3:14 4:2 4:7 5:5 5:7 5:8 5:8 5:8-10 5:10 5:10
1 John
1:2 1:3 1:5 1:7 1:7 1:7 1:9 1:9 1:9 1:9 2:1 2:4 2:6 2:10 2:11 2:12 2:13 2:14 2:14 2:14 2:15 2:16 2:16 2:17 2:24 2:29 2:29 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:2 3:3 3:4 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:6 3:8 3:8 3:8 3:9 3:10 3:10 3:10 3:10 3:10 3:14 3:14 3:14 3:15 3:16-18 3:18 3:18 3:19 3:19 3:22 3:23 3:24 3:24 3:24 3:24 3:24 4:4 4:5 4:7 4:9-10 4:11 4:11 4:11 4:12 4:13 4:13 4:16 4:16-18 4:17 4:18 4:19 4:19 4:20 4:20 5:1 5:1 5:1 5:2 5:2 5:3 5:3 5:4 5:4 5:4 5:4 5:5 5:5 5:5 5:5 5:6 5:9 5:10 5:11 5:11 5:11-12 5:12 5:12 5:12 5:12 5:12 5:13 5:13 5:13 5:14 5:15 5:16 5:16 13:34
2 John
Jude
Revelation
1:10 1:10 3:8 3:10 3:20 4:8 6:16 6:17 12:11 15:3 15:4 15:4 21:8 21:9 21:27 22:15