The KESWICK WEEK 1958
NOT FOR RESALE
Reproduced by the X-tended Missions Network By the authority of The Keswick Convention Not to be reproduced.
Just to let the Father do What He will; Just to know that He is true, And be still; Just to follow, hour by hour, As He leadeth; Just to draw the moment's power As it needeth. Just to trust Him—that is all; Then the day will surely be Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall; Bright and blessed, calm and free. Just to leave in His dear hand Little things; All we cannot understand All that stings. Just to let Him take the care Sorely pressing; Finding all we let Him bear Changed to blessing: This is all, and yet the way Marked by Him who loves thee best— Secret of a happy day, Secret of His promised rest. - FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.
The front front cover picture, of Keswick as seen from the lower slopes of Skiddaw, with Derwentwater in the background, and all other photographs except the official group, were taken by the Editor of THE KESWICK WEEK, the Rev. H. F. Stevenson, Editor of THE LIFE OF FAITH.
The Keswick Week
1958 !
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First Edition 1958
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THE KESWICK CONVENTION FOR NEXT YEAR
will (D.V.) begin on Saturday, 11th July and end on Saturday, 18th July, 1959
L.,7 7.'1777 CONTENTS
SATURDAY, JULY 12th
Keswick's Pertinent Question PAGE Welcome to Keswick . . REV. A. T. HOUGHTON .. 3 What is your Standard of Living ? REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN 5
SUNDAY, JULY 13th A Pause for Worship
The Dark Hours of the Soul REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN 13 Wisdom from Above DR. PAUL REES .. 18 Revival the Supreme Need of the REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN 23 Hour .. REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON 26 The Street called Straight
MONDAY, JULY 14th The Pertinent Question of Sin THE GOSPEL AND THE HUMANITIES (i) The Affectionate Man Dr. PAUL REES 33 Unconscious Sin .. REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS 40 REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON 44 The Conversion of the Converted DR. PAUL REES 48 A Time of Finding 51 Lord, Is it I ? REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON 55 Diagnosis of the Disease of Sin . . REV. JAMES PHILIP .. 59 Unbelief . REV. A. W. RAINSBURY ..
TUESDAY, JULY 15th The Pertinent Question of Victory over Sin
THE GOSPEL AND THE HUMANITIES (ii) The Alert Man DR. PAUL REES Saving Grace . . REV. E. F. KEVAN 65 Able to Save to the Uttermost Our REV. A. W. RAINSBURY . . 72 Advocate with the Father Chronic REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS 77 Sicknesses of the Soul Pentecostal REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN 82 Power .. MAJOR IAN THOMAS . . 85 He must Increase—I Decrease REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON 89 92
WEDNESDAY, JULY 16th The Pertinent Question of Consecration THE GOSPEL AND THE HUMANITIES (iii) The Aspiring Man .. DR. PAUL REES .. 99 A Summons to Consecration REV. JAMES PHILIP 106 Surrender—But How Far ? DR. PAUL REFS 111 Sanctifying Grace .. REV. E. F. KEVAN 115 A Living Sacrifice .. REV. A. W. RAINSBURY 118 The Limits of Consecration REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS 122 Obedience the Key to Life's Problems REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN . 125
THURSDAY, JULY 17th The Pertinent Question of Enduement with Power THE GOSPEL AND THE HUMANITIES (iv) The Adequate Man .. DR. PAUL REES . . 131 Serving Grace REV. E. F. KEVAN 139 Scriptural Motives for Evangelism REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS 144 Holy Anointing .. REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON 149 Filled with the Spirit .. REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN 153 The Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian . . DR. PAUL REES .. 157 The Peril of a Fading Glory MR. LEITH SAMUEL 160
FRIDAY, JULY 18th The Pertinent Question of Effectual Service " To MEET THIS HOUR " 167 Take Care How You Live DR. PAUL REES .. . . . 172 Abide With Us .. REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON 176
Appendices Early Morning Prayer .. 177 Missionary Prayer Meetings .. 177 Reception for Missionaries and Overseas Visitors 178 Meeting for Ministers .. 179 Young People's Meetings 179 Open-Air Meetings .. 180
L.,7 7.'1777 SATURDAY, JULY 1 2th
7.45 p.m.:-OPENING MEETING WELCOME TO KESWICK REV. A. T. HOUGHTON
WHAT IS YOUR STANDARD OF LIVING? REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN
Keswick's Pertinent Question KESWICK 1958 began with the asking of a departure from it last year—in the opening of pertinent question—What is your standard the Convention with the hymn "Full salva- of living? That practical note was tion!" And how the great, expectant sustained throughout the Convention, and the congregation sang! Then Dr. Paul Rees led challenge of the will and purpose of God for us to the throne of grace, beseeching the the life of every redeemed child of His, was blessing of God upon all gathered. "Some clearly and forcefully presented. of us have come to this place of blessing This was a Convention marked by a serious unblest. We have not walked in the light, nor note, matching the days in which we live, and as those who are more than conquerors. . the news of disturbing events in the Middle O Master, heal us where we are hurt, and East: the real issues of spiritual maturity and turn these defeats of ours into victory." The effective service, which alone can meet the prayer embraced all participating in the Con- challenge of the hour, were frankly faced. vention ; and then reached out to the need of There was not this year any "prophetic the Church world-wide ; and finally Dr. Rees voice" electrifying the Convention as did the pleaded, "0 Saviour, who art greater than all ministry of the Rev. Alan Redpath last year. Thy blessings, reveal Thyself to us, that at Outstanding, however, in the grace and power the end we all may be able to say, 'This is the with which he expounded the Word, particu- gate of heaven'." larly in the Bible Readings, was the ministry Before delivering his address of welcome, as of Dr. Paul Rees. And the Rev. G. B. Duncan, Chairman of the Convention Council, the although tired after his strenuous six months' Rev. A. T. Houghton read several messages of tour abroad, in Convention ministry under the greetings. He then reminded us that this was auspices of the Keswick Council, also spoke the seventy-seventh Convention since 1875— with spiritual power—and his ministry was the continuity having been broken in 1917 the more appreciated for the fact that illness and during the last war; and as at the initial had prevented his participation in last year's gatherings, we had met to present ourselves Convention. before God (Acts 10: 33). It was Mr. Duncan who set the key-note The hymn selected as the "theme-hymn" of of the Convention, at the opening meeting, on the relay gatherings, Monday-Thursday even- the Saturday evening. In an allusion to his ings, was sung—"Church of God, beloved and journeyings, he said that he realised as never chosen . . ." and Mr. Houghton pointed out before the varying standards of living, on the that verse three especially expresses the very physical and economic level, in different parts essence of Keswick teaching— of the world. But he was speaking, of course, of standards of spiritual living—our lives as Holiness by faith in Jesus, God sees them. The vast tent was completely filled well Not by effort of my own; before the meeting began, and hundreds stood Sin's dominion crushed and broken around outside—a total of quite five thousand; By the power of grace alone . . . while a few hundreds more heard the meeting relayed in the small tent. It was a fine even- Then Mr. Duncan delivered his penetrating ing, after an unpromising morning of rain. message; and it manifestly was reaching the All day long Convention visitors had been hearts of all. He spoke vigorously, trench- arriving at Keswick, from all quarters; and antly, and with convicting power. Afterwards the "special" train from London had an addi- the meeting closed with the hymn, "I thank tional coach to accommodate its more than Thee, Lord, that Thou hast shown ..."—the five hundred passengers. apt response of hearts to His word of power There was a return to tradition—after a and grace. Welcome to Keswick
BY The REV. A. T. HOUGHTON, M.A.
I SUPPOSE that all of us would re-echo the those who hear the Word as He did when the words of Cornelius, which we have just apostle Peter gave God's message? read from Acts 10:33, "Now therefore are Eight years before the Keswick Convention we all here present before God." Whether began, the first Lambeth Conference took our presence is the fulfilment of months, or place, and during this week of our Convention even years, of longing, or whether we have the ninth Lambeth Conference is in session at come from "a dry and thirsty land, where no Lambeth Palace, with over 300 Bishops of the water is," we have been conscious since we Anglican Communion, representing many came into this tent that we are in the midst millions of adherents, conferring about matters of a great concourse of God's people who are of great spiritual importance, which concern here primarily, not to meet with one another, the whole Church of Christ throughout the but to meet with God, and we are all here world. I cannot find in the records of past present before God. Conventions at Keswick that much notice was Can we go a step further and say that we taken of the seven Lambeth Conferences that are here, "to hear all things that are com- have taken place during the history of the manded thee of God"? How can we interpret Keswick Convention, though on the last occasion these words in this setting at the outset of the in 1948 it was noted that the Archbishop of seventy-seventh Keswick Convention since it Sydney was able to be present, and bring a was founded in 1875? I want to say at once message from Australia at the opening meeting that we are dealing with a God who is in- before returning to the Conference in London. fallible, who has given us His infallible Word, And it is quite certain that a number of overseas but that Word is inevitably mediated through bishops would have been with us at this fallen and fallible human beings ; and those Convention, if it had been possible for them to who will speak from this platform this week get away from the Conference that has a prior are at best that, though they would humbly claim. claim with us all that they are sinners saved We are sometimes asked if the Keswick by the infinite mercy of God and through the Convention will not make some pronouncement precious blood of Christ, to whom has been about the burning questions of the hour, committed the word of reconciliation, as the including what is the right attitude of the apostle Peter went on to say, "preaching peace Christian in face of the appalling destruction by Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all" (Acts 10: of a nuclear war ; but while such and other 36). kindred matters are intensely relevant to our You have come to hear what God the Lord present situation, and the Christian is never shall speak through the lips of His servants, called to a life of escapism, or to bury his who since they were called to this specific head in the sand like the ostrich, our primary ministry months ago, have been humbly wait- task is to make clear from the Word of God ing upon God to know what is His message how the child of God is to live a life of for them to deliver. They come to you, holiness in the midst of a world doomed to therefore, with a burden on their hearts, and destruction, but in which he is called upon to with a "Thus saith the Lord," for they are make an effective witness to the saving truths of only too well aware that unless they pass on God's Word. all the things which they believe God has Our message is to preach peace by Jesus commanded them to speak, their ministry will Christ, and to proclaim Him as "Lord of all," be in vain, and you will have heard in vain. believing that in doing so, many of the appar- Can we not claim, then, that as speakers ently insoluble problems which Christian and hearers wait on God to hear what He leaders are facing would find a solution if this has commanded, the Holy Spirit will fall on were the emphasis. We thank God that the
3 Lambeth Conference will discuss first the in all His fulness, and we shall prove once authority and message of the Bible, and we again that as members of the redeemed family would humbly suggest that the example and of God, we are "all one in Christ Jesus." message of the Keswick Convention, with its So, on behalf of the Keswick Convention world-wide impact, may have something Council, I welcome you in the Name of the relevant to say concerning the other subjects Lord, and pray "that our God may count you of the Conference—unity, progress, reconciling worthy of your calling, and fulfil all the good of conflicts, and the problems of family life. pleasure of His goodness . . . that the Name For here in the Convention, as we lay our- of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in selves open to hear what God has to say to us, you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of we shall find our personal problems solved, as our God and the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. we yield ourselves to God and receive Him 1:11, 12).
4 What is Your Standard of Living? By THE REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN, M.A. OD has been holding me steadily to a a church denomination stamped across us, G message for this hour that in some ways but we are not Christians. Now, we can and for some reasons I would rather not give. recognise such folk by one simple thing, and But I feel that maybe there is a basic question it emerges in v. 14—they are recognised by that God wants to ask of us this evening—a their blindness. They cannot see. Have you question that we shall be facing up to in ever met anybody who cannot see anything in these coming days; and the question is simply the Bible, so he never reads it? Have you this, What is our standard of living? During met somebody who does not see anything in my journeys of the past six months I have prayer, so he never prays? Have you come discovered that on the material level there is across a church member who cannot see the an infinite variety of standards of living point in having a prayer meeting, so he never throughout the world; but the variety that goes to one? Have you come across Christ- can be seen materially is equally true spiritu- ians who say, "I cannot see the harm in this," ally. What is your standard of living? so they do it? Have you met folk who say, There are three standards in the Word of "I can't see why I should do it," so they don't. God; and I would suggest that one of these is "I can't see much in going to church, so I yours. First, what I want to call— don't go"? I can't see. I can't see . . . Is there anybody here who is characterised by I. SUB-STANDARD LIVING—not even Christian blindness—you can't see? That is the language living at all. Paul describes it in these words, of a person who is living, from the Christian "The natural man receiveth not the things point of view, on a sub-standard level. You are of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness not even a Christian. You are religious. You unto him: neither can he know them, for they are a church member. But you are not are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). From Christian. the Christian point of view it is possible to May we begin there? Is there a reason why live a sub-standard life, a life which is not you can't see? Oh yes, there is. We are even Christian at all. We are not going to given it in v. 11—"For what man knoweth spend much time over this, but we will not the things of a man, save the spirit of a man ignore it, because I have learnt that one of which is in him? even so the things of God the basic dilemmas in the spiritual experience — knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." or shall I say more exactly, the religious St. Paul is saying here very simply, that if experience—of some good people, is that they you want to understand human life you must are trying to live the Christian life before possess human life. If you want to under- ever they have become Christians. I see in stand the things of God, you must have the front of me the perplexed and baffled face of life of God. Why is it, then, that you have someone engaged by a Christian society upon no spiritual sight, and you cannot see? May Christian work, and after we had talked for I tell you in a word? You have no sight a little while, away in East Africa, I said to because you have no life. That is not just her, "I believe your problem is that you the language of Paul. Do not think this is are trying to lead the Christian life and that something you can write off as Pauline you are not a Christian." And she turned to theology. This is exactly2what Jesus Christ me with the dawning of understanding in her said. To a religious man—a religious leader face, and she said, "I believe you're right." of his day—Jesus put it like this: "Except a It is possible for us to be living spiritually man be born again, he cannot see . . ." There on a sub-standard level; that is to say, we it is again. Blindness. Why can he not see? are not really Christians at all. We are Because he has not been born again. He has members of churches; we have the label of not received spiritual life. That is all that
5 being born again means. It means I have can be recognised as easily as the first. The become alive spiritually; and with life comes sub-standard life of the natural man is marked sight. But if there is no life, there is no sight. by blindness; the low-standard living of the It may be that you have been trying honestly carnal man is marked by weakness. There in the setting of your church to live a is a revealing phrase in v. 2 that identifies Christian life, and do the things that Christians this man right away—the little words, "not obviously should be doing; and it just has able." Here is a life without strength and not worked out. Is the reason this, that without growth, and two things mark it. The you have never been born again? I happen first is, that development has been arrested. to be the son of a minister, but the day came The marks of babyhood abound. Paul is when I had to learn that that did not make writing to Christians: "But," he says, "I cannot me a Christian. You may be the son of a write to you as to spiritual people, I've got to minister, but that does not make you a treat you as babies." And is not that the Christian either. You and I must receive mark of a baby, just its sheer helplessness, its life; and if we receive life, we shall receive weakness. Babies cannot do very much, can sight. How lovely it was when that long they? They cannot feed themselves, to begin conversation came to an end, to find that with. Can you? Where do you get your this worker in a Christian society was willing food, and what kind of food do you get? to receive life, and very simply and humbly, There is a very dangerous kind of condition just like a little child, she asked the Redeemer that Evangelicals can get into—the kind of to enter her life; and He came in. He always Evangelical Christian who sits back piously does, when we ask Him. I should not be and with a heavenly smile says, "I love the surprised if in an audience of this size here simple Gospel." And that is all they love at Keswick there are at least two hundred and all they know. Preach anything beyond people who have never been born again. Are Revelation 3:20 or John 3:16, and they are you one of them? It would be wonderful if right out of their depth. there were two hundred birthdays registered Where do you learn; where do you feed? today; if two hundred folk received life and Can you feed yourself, or as a Christian, are began to see. you a baby still? Are you marked by arrested Yes, there is a reason for this blindness; development, and all the food you get now— and the result from it—well, how poor life is, and you have been a Christian for years— and how perilous! Our Lord spoke of blind you are getting in the same way as when you folk leading the blind. Is there a blind mother began the Christian life—and that is, you get here? You are leading your blind children. it on the spoon of the sermon, and you lose Is there a blind father here? You are leading most of that on the way! Where do you get your blind family Is there a blind—dare I your food? Can you feed yourself? Can ask it—is there a blind minister here? You you take the Word of God and feed on it, are leading your blind flock. You have never or are you still a baby? been born again. I have never forgotten a What about speaking? A baby can't speak. story that I heard Bishop Taylor Smith tell. Can you? I wonder whether you go to your On one occasion he was preaching in one of church prayer meeting? There is something our Anglican cathedrals, on the text, "Ye wrong with you if you don't. But when you must be born again," and in his gracious way do go, can you pray? Or do you say, "I he turned to the choir stalls where the dean can't pray"? By that maybe you mean you and clergy and choristers were all sitting, and cannot pray the length of prayer that some he said, "Why, even the dean here must be Christians do pray in prayer meetings. Well, born again." It was a pure aside, but it if you can't pray that length of prayer, then was God's word. And after the service a very thank God you cannot. That kind of prayer puzzled dean of the Church of England made absolutely murders a prayer meeting. Peter his way into the presence of the bishop to prayed a short prayer: it was just three words say that he did not know what it meant to be —"Lord, save me!" Can you pray that kind born again. Do you? of prayer? It was answered. What a good Sub-standard living, marked by blindness. job he did not pray as long as some folk, or Then there is— he would have touched the bottom before the prayer was finished! But how many II. LOW-STANDARD LIVING.—We find this Christians there are who do not go to a prayer spoken of in the opening verses of the meeting; and if they do, they cannot pray. third chapter. This is Christian living, but I remember sharing in a retreat North of not as it should be. Paul speaks of it here the Border. My theme had been the Holy as the "carnal" life; and this standard of life Spirit as being the forgotten factor in the
life of the Christian Church ; and arising out kind of thing they say about people at that of that, in our discussion we were considering meeting, I'm not going." "You know, they the place of united prayer in the life of the didn't elect me to the board of deacons last church; and one after another of my brethren year. Can you believe it, after all the years said, "If we did have a prayer meeting in my I've served the church? And I wasn't elected. church my people wouldn't come; and if they Do you think I'm going back to that church did, they wouldn't pray." And after a few —a crowd of men like that? No fear! Not had said this I replied, "Brethren, from the me!" A whole lot of babies. And they are way we are talking, one would think that wrecking the work of the church because prayer is the most unnatural thing in the they have no sense of values. Development world for the Christian, whereas when I read is arrested. in the New Testament of a person being con- Another thing about this low-level Christian verted on the road to Damascus, the first living—not only is development arrested, but mark of the new life was that he prayed." distinctions are avoided. Paul said about this Can you talk? Can you talk, not only to kind of Christian, "They walk as men" (3:3). Him, but of Him. When did you last speak You cannot recognise them as being Christians. of Jesus Christ? When did you last speak In the same home with a person like this, on behalf of His Church? When did you you would not know that she was a Christian. last raise the matter of the spiritual issue? If you were to work in the same office, you Not that we are to be intrusive or rude. would never guess it. If you were to worship Not that we are to go up to people we do in the same church, you could never tell it. not know and ask them intimate things. But If you were to serve in the same shop, nurse surely, in the ordinary rough and tumble of in the same ward, teach in the same school, life, there comes the opportunity to say a you would never know that she was a Christ- word for Christ. When did you last speak? ian. You just cannot recognise her. You say, "I can't speak." A friend of mine Are you recognised? I love that little touch told me of an occasion when he addressed in the early church: "The disciples were called a Youth Fellowship and they had a time of Christians first in Antioch." They did not discussion. Afterwards a girl came up to call themselves Christians: they were called him and said, "I don't know whether you Christians. They were recognised to be differ- noticed that I didn't take part in the discus- ent, and so they were called Christians. sion. You see, I can't speak." The next Sometimes you and I have to call ourselves morning he was travelling by train, and got Christians. Nobody else would call us down behind his morning newspaper. And Christians: they would not know us as such. just before the train pulled out, the door Have you met Christians whose standards of opened and in came two girls. He had a conduct are the same as the world's, whose quick glance and saw that one of them was ambitions in life are the same? Their interest the girl who could not speak. You know, she in life is the same; their language is the never stopped speaking! All the way, it was same; their appearance is the same. They all about her boy friend. She could not walk as men. That is low-level Christian speak of her Saviour, but she could speak of living. Is that your level? Is that the kind of another. Christian you are? Can you speak? You know, a lot of us Just a final, brief word— are terrible babies about this. We are low- level Christians; we cannot speak. Can you? III. TRUE-STANDARD LIVING. - Not the Another thing that a baby is terribly bad natural, not the carnal, but the spiritual. If the about . . . it has no sense of values. You natural kind of person is characterised by give a baby a costly gift, and it will discard blindness—they cannot see ; if the carnal is the gift and play with the tissue paper that characterised by weakness—they just cannot it was wrapped up in. The paper makes . . . then the true standard, the spiritual, is such a nice noise! Do you know Christians characterised by completeness. who have no scale of values? Who know— There are two things to be said about this "I'm not going back to that church: not me. standard of living. First, it is marked by I was in bed with toothache for twenty-four maturity. This is Christianity growing up. hours, and the vicar never came to see me! In 2:6 we read, "We speak wisdom among If that is the kind of vicar they've got in them that are perfect"—or mature, complete that church, I'm not going." "Do you think —those who have grown up. I wonder I am going to that women's meeting so long Whether you are conscious that there is a as Mrs. So-and-so goes? Do you know what growing maturity, a growing completeness, I heard she'd said about me? If that's the about your spiritual experience? What is it
7 that marks a grown-up person? I think there it is that if you meet a person who is living are two: and the first is an acceptance of on the spiritual plane, who is living the true responsibility. When we were children, we standard Christian life, you can be absolutely were always asking other people for things. certain of this, that that person knows some- When we became grown-up we find that other thing of the ministry of the Holy Spirit within people now ask us. Our children look to us, his or her life. Does the Holy Spirit mean and they ask us for things, and we are carry- anything to you? Do you know what He ing loads of responsibility. We do not has been given for? If we are to know the necessarily ask to be rid of them, we do not Holy Spirit in our lives, we shall not know ask to be given them. They just come. The Him in excitement and emotion. We shall responsibility for a home, for a family, for a know Him functionally, for He is given to do business, for employees; a responsibility certain things. And when you and I know here, a responsibility there; but what Him functionally, then we shall be able to kind of responsibilty are you carrying for display the fruits of the Spirit practically; and God? Are you a burdened man? If the fruit of the Spirit is nothing that I claim, you are not burdened, then I question but the character I present to the watching and whether you are growing. Why is it that waiting world. We need to get a grip of that: people do not come to prayer meetings? I that the fruit of the Spirit is not excitement, will tell you. Because they have not grown or orthodoxy: it is character. up, and they would rather play than work. What kind of a ministry is the Holy Spirit They do not want to carry a burden; they do having in your life? Are you allowing Him not want to get right alongside their minister, to do the things in you for which He has been and under the burden of responsibility for given, or are you grieving the Spirit of God? the community, for the parish. So long as I am not asking what you have claimed in they can just enjoy their religion, and get a the way of fulness, or blessing, or second bit of a kick out of it. But not hard, blessing, or third, fourth or fifth or sixth slogging responsibility. No, no, thank blessing. I am asking what are you allowing you! Not that. I'm still a baby in my the Holy Spirit to do in you? play-pen. Well, this is just in bare outline; this is Is that true? One of the things I have just throwing wide open the theme of this always thanked God for in the churches of week. The question we asked at the begin- which it has been my privilege to be minister, ning of this meeting is a question we must has 'been to feel that at any rate on one go on asking right through the week. What is evening of the week I can find a group of your standard of living? folk who are not there primarily for what There are three standards. I am repeating they can get, but who are gathered there them as I close, and one is yours. Are you simply because they want to get under the listening very carefully, so that you can pick load, under the burden, and shoulder it. They your own as we just flick the page over. Are are growing up. you living sub-standard? In a church, but Yes, there is responsibility accepted by not in Christ? Trying to live the Christian maturity; and intimacy enjoyed. I realise that life, yet not possessing it? You need life; my hairs are getting greyer as the years pass, and that blindness that has marked your but I still feel fairly young in the Lord's work, whole experience will go, for with life will and I know I have a long way to go yet. come sight. It is certain to happen. If you But I remember being very touched when have life, if you receive life, you will get somebody much my senior once said to sight with it. But you cannot have sight me, "I think we could drop the 'Mister'!" It without life. Sub-standard. touched me tremendously that a much older Low-standard? The characteristic here is man was prepared to allow me on to that not blindness, it is weakness. Are you "not level of intimacy with him A mark of able"? Has development been arrested? Are spiritual maturing and of growing-up is you just covered with the marks of spiritual that we are getting on to terms of intimacy babyhood; although you have been converted with God. Are you? for years, you still "can't": you cannot speak, Yes, it is marked by maturity, this true- you cannot feed yourself, you are just a standard living. You ask, "How?" Just one thorough-going Christian baby. That is a last thought: It is maintained by a ministry. tragedy. And hardly anybody can tell that There is a secret about it, and it is you are a Christian. contained in three words in v. 10, "By His Or have you reached the true standard? Is Spirit." Is it not Samuel Chadwick who your life as a Christian marked by maturity? describes the Holy Spirit as the ultimate fact Can others see that you are grown up, that of revelation, and the unique force in redemption? Certain you are carrying responsibility, you are getting to-day. And that maturity will be maintained by under loads now—the needs of the folk living the hidden ministry of the Spirit of God. Oh, alongside you, working alongside you, the as we go home, will you ask yourself, What is folk in the church, the children, the old my standard of living? Sub-standard? Low- people; you are getting right under the load. standard? True-standard? What kind of a You are a burdened man. I love that Christian are you—if you are one at all? And if phrase in the old Book, "The burden of the you are not, is it not time that you became Lord." We haven't many burdened Christians one? around
When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ, And He shows me His plan for me, The plan of my life as it might have been Had He had His way, and I see How I blocked Him here, and I checked Him there, And I would not yield my will— Will there be grief in my Saviour's eyes, Grief, though He loves me still?
He would have me rich, and I stand there poor, Stripped of all but His grace, While memory runs like a hunted thing Down the paths I cannot retrace. Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break With the tears that I cannot shed; I shall cover my face with my empty hands, I shall bow my uncrowned head.
Lord of the years that are left to me, I give them to Thy hand; Take me and break me, and mould me To the pattern Thou halt planned! -MARTHA SNELL NICHOLSON.
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With joy we meditate the grace Of our High Priest above; His heart is made of tenderness, His bowels melt with love. Touched with a sympathy within, He knows our feeble frame; He knows what sore temptations mean, For He has felt the same. But spotless, innocent, and pure, The great Redeemer stood; While Satan's fiery darts He bore, And did resist to blood. He in the days of feeble flesh, Poured out His cries and tears; And in His measure feels afresh What every member bears. (He'll never quench the smoking flax, But raise it to a flame; The bruised reed He never breaks, Nor scorns the meanest name.) Then let our humble faith address His mercy and His power; We shall obtain delivering grace, In the distressing hour. —ISAAC WATTS.
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SUNDAY, JULY 13th
11 a.m.—CONVENTION SERVICE THE DARK HOURS OF THE SOUL REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN 3 p.m. -- AFTERNOON MEETING
WISDOM FROM ABOVE DR. PAUL REES 6.15 p.m.—BROADCAST SERVICE FOR OVERSEAS REVIVAL THE SUPREME NEED OF THE CHURCH REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN
7 p.m.—EVENING SERVICE THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON
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11 A Pause for Worship
UNDAY at Keswick is, in a sense, a hiatus followed by the reading of 1 Kings 19. in the progress of the main purpose of A second Scottish paraphrase—the ninth theS Convention; a pause for worship between Duke of Argyll's rendering of Psalm 121, the opening meeting and the real "business" "Unto the hills around do I lift up my of the week, which begins in earnest on the longing eyes"—gave us a reminder of Mr. Monday. Not that Sunday is a leisurely day: Duncan's return to the Presbyterian on the contrary, a very full programme begins Church in which he was reared. Then, with the first of the early morning prayer from the story of Elijah at Horeb he meetings. But Convention speakers and visitors preached upon "The significance of the dark are scattered throughout all the churches of hours of the soul." John Newton's hymn, Keswick, so that there is not the sense of "Be still my heart," brought the service to a being "all with one accord in one place" which close. is so characteristic of the Convention as a Rain had ceased and the sun was fitfully whole. And of course, the distinctive "teach- breaking through the clouds by the time of ing" of Keswick gives place to a more the afternoon meeting, for which the tent was "sermonic" type of message. again almost filled. Mr. Martin Burch ex- Despite a dull morning following a wet pressed a cordial welcome to Dr. Paul Rees, night, there was a large attendance at whose ministry two years ago was attended the 7 a.m. prayer meeting, led by the Rev. E. by so much blessing. His thought-provoking, F. Kevan. The note of praise sounded forth heart probing message on James 1:5 evoked triumphantly in the singing of "Come, let us heartfelt response. join our cheerful songs," and all united in the Also at 3 p.m. the small tent was well Lord's Prayer; then followed intercession for filled for a children's meeting conducted by the worship and witness of the day, not only Mr. Leith Samuel, who used a pair of at the Convention, but world-wide. scales to illustrate that all are "weighed All the churches were filled for their in the balances and found wanting." morning services, at 10.45 a.m. The Rev. A. W. Rainsbury preached at Crosthwaite A strong breeze had sprung up and was Parish Church; the Methodist Church was causing the great poles of the tent to creak, filled to overflowing, with Dr. Paul Rees and the canvas to flap noisily, by the preaching; Mr. Kevan was at the time of commencement of the Overseas Congregational Church; and at St. John's, Broadcast, 6.15 p.m. The tent was full; and where the Rev. A. T. Houghton was the the Chairman felicitously described the preacher, chairs in the aisles were occupied. Convention's ministry and motto, "All One From 1 Corinthians 1:31, Mr. Houghton in Christ Jesus," in his brief introduction. spoke on the theme of glorying in the Then the Rev. Francis Dixon led in Lord. As background, he touched upon the prayer and the Rev. E. F. Kevan prepared things the world values most —wisdom, the way for the address of the Rev. G. B. power and wealth—and showed what false Duncan by reading John 4:5-15. The securities these have proven themselves to earlier part of the service. had seemingly be. The secret of greatness lies in accepting taken rather longer than scheduled, for Mr. and delighting in the standards that God has Duncan had to read his message at great set—lovingkindness, judgment and speed: and the service closed with two verses righteousness. of the hymn—"O breath of life, come Although so many were attending the sweeping through us." churches, and a further 600-700 were at the An interval of fifteen minutes followed; and meeting for Brethren in the Pavilion, the large the Convention service at 7 p.m. began with tent was three-quarters full for the service "All hail the power of Jesus' Name." The conducted by the Rev. G. B. Duncan at 11 Rev. Francis Dixon preached on "The Street a.m. A steady downpour of "real Keswick Called Straight." rain" beating upon the canvas made a noisy While the older folk made all possible background to the greater part of the service. haste to wherever they might be staying "Praise, my soul," was the opening hymn; through the teeming rain—which necessitated after which the Rev. Francis Dixon led us in the cancellation of the open-air meeting—the prayer. The beautiful paraphrase of Psalm young people went to the small tent for the 40, "I waited for the Lord my God," was first of the special meetings for the "under thirties," led this year by Mr. Leith Samuel
12 The Dark Hours of the Soul
BY THE REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN, M.A.
Reading-1 Kings 19
I WONDER whether there are those here who temptation to despair is rising up in the soul, can recall an hour in their lives when they not of a small or insignificant man, but one of have been overwhelmed with the temptation the great giants of God. In such a man! to despair, a temptation to give up, and there What an amazing, startling, staggering thing! seemed to be no light but only darkness Yet I wonder whether the dark hours are not within? I believe that that is a true account more common than we think. Both Scripture of the experience of the soul from time to and Christian biography bear ample testimony time, and it may well be that God has laid to their existence. Listen to the Psalmist: "Oh this theme upon my heart for this morning that I had wings like a dove! then would I because for some servant of His this is not a fly away, and be at rest" (Psa. 55: 6). There memory of something that happened long ago, is a hint of shadow there on the spirit. Here but is an accurate description of what is is a person who wants to run away. Is there a happening now in your spiritual experience. Christian here wanting to run away? Listen You, too, have reached a point where you to prophet. "Oh that I had in the wilderness are overwhelmed with a darkness within, a lodging place . . . that I might leave my and a despair, and a feeling that you want to people, and go from them" (Jer. 9:2). Is there give up. Continually one comes across a prophet here, and you are tired of the burden Christians who have given up: missionaries of your people—that mission station, that who have not returned to the field; ministers church, that school, that hospital, that family? who have given up the standard with which Listen to the preacher. Here is Jonah, who they set out in their high sense of their calling; has just witnessed a great revival. What is Christians who at one time played a vital part his language? "Therefore now, 0 Lord, take, in the life of their church. Oh, the wreckage I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is that marks the pathway of the Church of better for me to die than to live." In such a God—those who have given up, those who man! Yes, the dark hour of the soul is much have dropped out, those who have found more common than we think. themselves lost in the darkness of despair. I If we turn to Christian biography, listen to want to look at this story concerning Elijah; Sister Eva, of Friedenshort. That is how she it may be there is a soul here that God wants writes: "In myself I saw nothing but sin, to lead out of the darkness into the glorious incapability and weakness. I was almost too light and liberty of the children of God. tired to speak or eat. I took my Bible and First, notice— went out and laid myself down on a bed of moss." Elijah chose a juniper tree, Sister Eva I. WHERE TRUST is FOUND. a bed of moss, but they were both in the same What are the kind of people to whom this condition. It was the dark hour of the soul: might happen; and when is this kind of thing and the thing that is startling and staggering likely to happen? Here we have almost a is that it is in such a man, in such a woman. sense of shock and surprise, for when we con- This is an experience that is common, not to sider where this dark hour of the soul is the pygmies of the Word of God, but this is recorded, we are staggered and surprised to something that the giants know. Here is a find that it is happening in such a man: for man whose obedience had been proved and here we are dealing with one of the spiritual tested right to the hilt, a man whose testimony giants of the Old Testament, Elijah—the man concerning his obedience was staggering ; one who has just achieved one of the most remark- able to stand in front of God, and in front able victories for the cause of his God. The
13 of an apostate nation, and say that as far as been for a generation. It was at such a God's will is concerned, "I have done all." moment and at such an hour that the There was not a thing that God required of darkness fell. An hour of victory, an hour of him that he had not done. This is the quality opportunity; yet here is a man thinking in of man we are dealing with: a man whose terms as if it had been an hour of defeat. communion with God was as real as it could In such a man, at such a moment, and over have been. "As the Lord God liveth, before such a matter—so small a matter compared whom I stand" and that was no empty claim. with the tremendous obstacles he had over- Here was a man who knew God intimately. come. The man who had faced a thousand Here was a man whose courage for God could hostile priests, the man who had dared the not be questioned. He had faced insuperable hatred of the whole royal court, trembled odds with unshaken confidence. He faced a before the threat of a woman. drenched altar with its sodden wood and its Extraordinary, is it not, how sometimes the trench swimming with water, and there was no darkness can fall over such a matter, such a faltering in his faith. "Hear me, 0 Lord, hear small thing; all of a sudden the light has me, that this people may know that Thou art gone right out of the sky. Was it not S. D. God," and God heard him. Here was a man Gordon who said once, "You can shut out whose obedience was proven, whose com- the light of the sun with a threepenny bit, munion with God was intimate, whose if you hold it close enough to your eye." It courage had been displayed, whose does not take a lot to cloud the sun in the prayers were answered: and it was in such a life of the soul. I want you to notice that it man that the darkness fell. was found in such a man, at such a Where was it found? Oh, how surprising: moment, and over such a matter. We are in such a man! Surprising, too, because it dealing not in terms of pygmies, now; we are was at such a moment. When did this dealing in terms of giants. Elijah would not temptation break in upon the soul of this call himself that; you would not call yourself giant? It was at a time of unparalleled that—but others might, history will. Is opportunity. There had been the most there somebody here, going through the dark unmistakable evidence of God's working with hours of the soul? That is where it is found; him. There had been the provision of his and it is much more common than you think. needs by the brook Cherith; there had been I want you to notice, not only where it was the cruse of oil that failed not; and then a found but— final, staggering, amazing miracle, the evidence of God's presence and power, II. How IT WAS FOSTERED. when the fire of the Lord fell, and the people What do we find in the thinking of this bowed down and cried out, saying, "The Lord, man at this hour? What condition was he in He is the God." Here was a man in whose life that exposed him, that endangered him, there were the unmistakable evidences of God's that brought for the moment the whole working with him. Is there such a life here? of his future ministry into jeopardy? How Are there Christian men and women here was this darkness fostered in his soul? There who are possibly old in the service of the are three statements that Elijah makes that King, and the whole testimony of your life seem to me to give us an indication as right up to this hour is the evidence of God's to what was happening in his heart. The power working with you. Even when you left first is in verse 4, "Now, 0 Lord, take away the mission field to come home on furlough, my life; for I am not better than my fathers." there was the very breath of heaven around The first thing that was fostering this dark- you. ness was a sense of his sinfulness in the Not only was there this evidence of God's sight of God. "I am not better than my working with him, but all around him was the fathers." Strange, is it not, that at a time experience of answered prayer. Thousands of when the name of Elijah was on everyone's people had been touched by God, through lips, praising God for what Elijah had done; the faithfulness of this one man. "Hear me," when all around there was faith rekindled; he had cried, "hear me, that this people may when in every home there were altars rebuilt; know. . . " And God had heard, and the at a time when the whole land was ringing people knew. Here was a man who was with the story of what God had done carrying with him answered prayer as a through this man, at that very hour the testimony to God's faithfulness. Then there man himself was on his face wrapped had come the drenching rain. At such a up in his own sin. There had been moment the apostasy and apathy of a failure, of course there had: he had nation had been challenged and broken, and run away. Is there someone here like the door of opportunity for God was wider that. The one thing filling your heart is a sense open than it had of failure, and you know that
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you are not better than anybody else. You are to become discouraged when there is no one to just overwhelmed with a sense of your sin, share the burden with us, to pray the thing your shortcomings, the things you might have through. It may be that we are in a church, done but have not done: and there is a solid or in a new job, and we are the only Christian basis of fact for that. You are not imagining there, and the thing that has fostered this things; they are real, there has been failure. dangerous spiritual situation is the loneliness Maybe you have come back here and you are of it. We have not anybody to stand along- carrying right in your heart an awareness of side; nobody seems to care. a measure of failure that is just crushing you I would say a word here to those members down. You feel that you are done, you are of churches who have undertaken the responsi- finished. bility of praying for those on the mission field. That is surely the point of danger for the When did you last write to your missionary? Christian, is it not: when failure comes. It You say, "Well, I haven't much time." You need not come; but if it does, what is the have all the time there is! If you knew some- particular danger? Surely the danger is simply thing of the desperate loneliness that over- this, that we move off the ground of grace. I whelms the spirit of those who are right in the find a great number of Christians are prepared forefront of the battle, and the church at home to recognise that we are justified by grace, and has said, "We'll pray for you, we'll think of then having been justified by grace we move you." but there is no tangible evidence of either off that territory, and start reckoning in terms of these things. I wonder how many mission- of our righteousness, our faithfulness, our aries have lost out, and they are not on the goodness, our experience, our understanding, field now, and the fault is not theirs. Do you our record; and we move off the ground of know whose fault it is? It is the fault of the grace. But never for one split second does any church at home that has been too lazy to care Christian get off that ground as far as God is enough to pray or to write. Have you ever concerned. There is never any moment when felt ashamed when a missionary has come I have any claim upon God based upon any- back and said, "Thank you so much for your thing in myself. It is still true that all our prayers; they have meant such a lot"? Were righteousnesses are as filthy rags, even if our there any prayers at all? It might mean a righteousnesses are Christian ones. Have you great deal to some desperately discouraged moved off the ground of grace, and you are lonely soul fighting temptation on the mission lost and discouraged and despairing because field, if a postcard went out tomorrow with a of your own sinfulness as a Christian? My coloured view of Keswick. It might be that friend, you will never get beyond the stage that little glimpse of Derwentwater, the sense of being "accepted in the Beloved." Thank of being remembered, prayed for, cared for, God for that; that there is never any moment might come just at the crucial moment. when I am ever accepted by God because of My eyes have been opened during these last anything in me, but simply and solely because weeks and months when it has been my of what is in Christ. If you start moving off privilege to travel far and wide and counsel the ground of grace, and start thinking that Christians in many lands. How desperately God must use you, and God has used you lonely life can become, and how easy it is to because of what you are, then you are exposed let things go. Do you realise what they are to danger. up against, some of them? You think that So this man was filled with a sense of his just because they are missionaries they are all sinfulness in the sight of God. "I am not right, and all will be well; that they are a kind better than my fathers." But another thing of super-Christians, and that it is easy for fostered this darkness. Not only his sinfulness them? Do you know that missionaries have in the sight of God, but his loneliness in the come home after one term of service, having will of God. He says: "I, even I only am gone out with all their zeal and all their love left, and they seek my life to take it away" for the Lord, and trained to the hilt, con- (v. 10). What a danger*us thing loneliness can secrated to the limit, and they have come back be ; and what a difficult thing I wonder how wrecked. Whose fault? I would put nine- many Christians have given up and dropped tenths of the blame on the church at home, out of the fight simply because of their loneli- that does not care. We are just absolute ness. I wonder if there is a missionary here hypocrites when we say we do, if there is no and you have lost your standard because you tangible evidence of it. have been so desperately lonely during the first It is not only missionaries abroad who need term of your service on the field? It is so easy help; it is sometimes Christians who leave to let things slide, is it not, when there is no home, who leave the fellowship of a living one else to keep us up to the mark. So easy church, and find themselves desperately lonely.
Elijah felt so alone, and his loneliness in the imagine better company than Robert Murray will of God was one of the things that fostered McCheyne! I am not fit to be in that this dark hour. company; but it would be wonderful to be in His sinfulness in the sight of God, his loneli- it. "At the very time when I was beginning ness in the will of God, and his weariness in to give up in despair, God gave me tokens of the work of God. Notice how he says in verse His presence." 10, "I have been very jealous for the Lord What were the tokens? Well, first, there God of hosts." What a record of achievement was a very practical ministry that came. A this man had, what emotional stress he had man who was utterly spent and exhausted, endured, what physical hardship he had experi- with a body in need of attention as well as a enced, what spiritual results he had seen. The soul; and God's way out began with sleep man was exhausted. Then the devil came in. and food. Is that the kind of Keswick How cleverly he times his attack. It was so blessing you are expecting? It may be just with our Lord: when He had fasted forty the kind of blessing you are needing: just a days and forty nights, then the tempter came. few nights' good sleep! An angel did it. I do And the devil will try to get in, and the dark- not think he had wings; not this one. ness will begin to gather, when you are at a Somehow or other, I think this angel was a stage of utter weariness and exhaustion, and woman, living in a croft nearby, who came you are tired out. That is the moment he will out in the morning and found a sleeping man, get in. Is there somebody here, utterly weary? exhausted and tired out under a tree. And You have reached the end; you are not going do you know what she did? She went and back to the mission field. No, not now; you put the kettle on! Has that anything to do are finished. You are not going to take up with holiness, with re-commissioning? Yes, that Sunday-school class again; you have had it has indeed. Well, as a matter of fact, it enough of it. You have been teaching for two was not a kettle, it was a cruse of oil. We years, and that is as much as you can stand; had better stick to Scripture! I think she put you just cannot do it, you are done. You are the girdle on, anyway, because she baked a not continuing in that job to which God called cake on the coals. Thank God for this kind you; it is too difficult, so you are changing. of ministry. This is a word of encouragement You are the only Christian there, and it has and cheer to some ladies who feel that their just been impossible. You are sending in your ministry is rather different from Elijah's. notice. Just tired out. Well, it took an angel who could bake a cake Where it was found; how it was fostered, to get this man on his feet again. And that and then, finally— was a pretty big day's work, was it not? You would not think a cake could do it, III. How IT WAS FACED. but it did! You would not think that two For Elijah, thank God, did not finish his nights' sound sleep could change a man, but it ministry here. He might have. It is possible did. that you have been making up your mind that We have to be sensible, even at Keswick. your ministry and your witness is finished. See that you get enough sleep; and that means You have come to the end of it. You are not so much the time you get up in the morn- going to relax, to settle back, to become an ing, as when you go to bed at night. That is ordinary Christian. You are giving up the when the battle begins. When I was in India fight. You have come here with that I picked up the Journal of John Wesley. I clearly in your mind. But Elijah's ministry had always been challenged, and in some did not finish, although he wanted it to. Is measure ashamed, by the fact that some of it not a mercy that God does not answer these great giants seemed to be able to get all our prayers? "0 Lord, take away my up at a very early hour; but I noticed when life." He did not, you know, He gave it back I read through John Wesley's Journal, not only to him when he got up but when he went to bed—and I remember reading in the life of Robert I found that if he got up an hour or so Murray McCheyne these rather lovely words: earlier than I did, he went to bed a couple of "At the very time when I was beginning to hours sooner. Let us be sensible, let us be give up in despair, God gave me tokens of His practical, let us be realistic, and let us presence." Fancy Robert Murray McCheyne remember that God's will is concerned not giving up in despair! You see, the giants just with our souls but with our bodies. The are in it, all of them. And if you think that first thing that God did to this man, who was you are a kind of peculiar exception because utterly worn out: He said, "You need sleep you go through dark hours when it seems that and food, food and sleep. Go to bed, man." you must give up, you are not an exception; That was what God said. And for some of us, you are in very good company. I would the first step out of the darkness into light not
16 might be to get a bit of rest for our tired, tired have done well, but you will do better work bodies. I only hope, missionary, that your yet than anything you have done. You will society has some sense as to the number of find Elisha, and then you will train him to meetings you should speak at. One of the work; and what you do when you go back tragedies about the average furlough of the is going to be more than you have done up average missionary is that they go back more till now. What will you find? You will find tired than when they came home. again the guidance of God directing your way There is a very practical ministry here, and and bringing you into touch with lives you the first thing was that this woman came can bless. You will find the evidence of God's along. I feel sure it was a woman. The word power manifest. Maybe you will find a fellow- "angel" does not necessarily mean angel in our ship that at last ends the loneliness. But I sense of the word, it just means "messenger." know this: that if you do go back, you will An angel came, and she looked after the tired find at the end the surprise of your life. You man until his strength returned. will find, like Elijah, that there is a reward There was not only a very practical ministry, coming that far exceeds anything you have but then came a very personal message: "The ever thought or dreamed of. word of the Lord came to him." I wonder if you Go, return. God's cure for this man who noticed in that little quotation I gave you from wanted to run away, was to give him more Sister Eva, a very suggestive and significant work to do. How it was faced. Very practic- phrase: "In myself I saw nothing but sin, ally, that ministry that indicated a need for incapability and weakness. I was almost too being sensible about it, that message was so tired to speak or eat. I took my Bible and personal: the word of the Lord coming to went out and laid myself down on a bed of him It would be wonderful, would it not, if moss." "I was almost too tired to speak or this afternoon somebody took their Bible, eat. I took my Bible—" "The Word of the and if the Word of the Lord should come to Lord came to him." If ever we needed the you through it, and into the darkness would Word of God, it is an hour like this. If ever come the first gleam of light, and you you want the light of the truth of God, it is realise suddenly that you are not cast off, when there is darkness in your soul; and I you are not done yet. This is just the dark would say that if there is a soul here in the hour of the soul. Have you ever noticed how dark, then take your Bible with you, and in Psalm 23 the Psalmist says, "Yea, though see if the Word of the Lord does not come I walk through the valley of darkness, I will to you. fear no evil, for Thou art with me." But How unspeakable blessed it was, and how what is a valley of darkness? Surely, the way infinitely tender and gentle God was. No from one green pasture to another: that is earthquake for Elijah, no rent mountains and all. And you have been going through the rocks, no fire now—this man was beyond the dark hour. You are not alone, Christian reach of these things—but just a quiet voice. friend, you are not alone. Giants of the There was rebuke, but it was very gentle. faith have been there. You are found in it, And a still small voice spoke. Is there a voice but it is just the way from one pasture to that wants to speak with you today? Not the another. It happens to be dark for a while, voice of anger, not the voice that will rend, the sun has gone out of the sky; but keep but just the quiet voice of the Lord. What close to the Shepherd, and He will lead you does He want to speak to you about? Well, a through and lead you out. mission, that is all. A bit of work that He Is anybody wanting to die? No, God did has for you to do. You see, there is no not want Elijah to die at all: and he never discharge from the service of the King. did. God gave him .a wonderful home- And this man who was running away, heard coming. Then the chariot of fire came, and a voice saying: "Go, return." took the tired but faithful servant home to Go, return, back to that station, back to glory. The day will come when God will say that Sunday-school class, back to that shop, to you, "Now then, your time is up. It is back to that hospital, back to that school, back time you came." Then we will be glad to to that job, back to that ward, back—go, go; and we will be so thankful that we did return, go return ; there is no release, no dis- not give up, and we did not drop out. Do charge. God back—why? Because you have you know the lines— not finished your work, and God has not On, bear and suffer all things; finished with you. Do you know that there 'Tis but a stretch of road: may be an Elisha waiting for your return? And then, wondrous word of welcome, There may be a life waiting, a bigger work, a And then, the Face of God. better work; there is a man you have not met Wonderful welcome when we see that Face, yet, there is a life you have not seen yet. You and we realise that when the dark hour came we did not give up, but went through.
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Wisdom from Above
BY DR. PAUL REES.
AM going to talk to you about a text that thian passage, "But God hath revealed them will require you to follow me as unto us . . ." Not that He will one day reveal carefullyI as you can, and with as little pre- them when we stand within the pearly gates; judice as possible. I want the Word to speak but He has already done it: "God hath for itself, but I am quite frank with you, to revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the tell you that I have been drawn to a text Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things that in the popular mind is used, in my of God." Paul in that passage is showing that judgment, quite superficially, as compared the realities of redemption can never be seen with the depths that are really here in the or known by us, by our unaided powers of mind of the Holy Spirit; and I want to try to mind or imagination or reasoning: they must bring you along as persuasively, as be made known to us by God the Holy Spirit. convincingly as I can, with God's help, so Now, similarly, what have we done with that this great text may speak to you. James 1:5? Well, I think you know what Now here it is: "If any of you lack we have done. Again and again, when we wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to have been facing some problem or confronting all (the word men, you notice, in the Authorised some very difficult situation, we have gone to Version, is in italics: it is not in the Greek), God in prayer for His direction, His guidance ; who giveth to all—all who ask, all who and in our prayer—a perfectly proper prayer confess, all who believe—liberally, and up- —we have said, "Lord, Thou hast told us in braideth not; and it shall be given him" Thy Word, that if any man of you lack (Jas. 1:5). wisdom, let him ask of God . . . and it shall You see, my dear friends, the fact that a be given him." Now, beloved, the fact that passage of Scripture is widely known and God has often answered that prayer does not often quoted does not of itself carry proof signify that that is the primary meaning that that it is being correctly interpreted. As a was in the mind of James when he wrote matter of fact there are a few passages in this verse. Scripture which popular usage and rather That brings me to my main proposition. I indiscriminate application have so obscured, am going to speak to you this afternoon that it is really difficult to get the finer mean- entirely in propositions, not in points, as we ing across. so often do; and the main proposition is this, How well I remember a professor of mine That the wisdom referred to here is not in the in my university days, who every now and first instance divine illumination or divine again in certain contexts and a certain mood, guidance and direction; it is rather, such an speaking about immortality, would quote very experimental knowledge of God Himself and feelingly St. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians His resources in grace, as will make possible 2:9, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, a consistently holy and triumphant life. neither hath entered into the heart of man, Now at this point I should tell you how I the things that God hath prepared for them personally stumbled upon this. One day, be- that love Him"; and it is impossible to say ginning from a totally different passage in how many funeral sermons have been Scripture, in which this word "wisdom" occurs, preached on that verse, the implication being I turned to one of the most respected Greek- that here is a great word .about the indescrib- English lexicons of the New Testament, able glories of heaven—and it is not that at Thayer's, and there found a very exhaustive all! There are other passages in the New treatment of the various appearances of the Testament where you will find the matchless word "wisdom" in the New Testaments, and glories of heaven set forth: but not here. the shades of meaning that the word carries, in For Paul goes right on to say in that Corin- a variety of contexts.
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What first arrested my attention was this, like that? I claim that you do not. That that Thayer says that the Greek word trans- is the language you use when you are talking lated "wisdom" is used very diversely, and its to Christians. precise shade of meaning in the New So here are two things you notice. First, these Testament needs to be interpreted each time who are promised this wisdom are in the carefully in the light of its context. That was brotherhood; and secondly, they are in the the general comment. Then, running down battle. Battle with what? With temptation. the references in Thayer, I came to James 1: 5. The battle that never ends. The scene of the Here is his comment: "The word here means battle may change; the tactics of the enemy the knowledge and the practice of the may shift and alter—as they will—but the requisites for godly and upright living." battle never ends. They are in the brother- Well, then it dawned on me: why, this hood of faith, and they are in the battle wisdom is not primarily intellectual—a matter against the foes of faith. Now to such persons of illumination. The ministry of the Spirit in comes this great word of our text: If any illumination is a wonderful ministry, and has of you lack . . . Put a circle around that its place ; but here it is primarily experimental, "you"—you who are brethren, and as such and it has to do with a living knowledge, a have been born again ; you who are in the living communion with God, in which—may battle against the foes of faith ; if any of I borrow an inelegant Americanism for a you lack—as I daresay some of you are moment—a certain "know-how" about already prepared to admit that you do—if any Christ-like living, is implied. of you have come with a gnawing sense of Now, I have tried to state clearly the main lack . . . Oh, I know you probably do not proposition. Now I am ready for the specific even require that I should say it: but lest propositions of the message. any of you should misunderstand me, perhaps (i) This wisdom is a gift. A very simple I should say in parenthesis that there is a statement, but it is important. It is a gift. "If sense in which always we lack, from the point any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, of view of full and final maturity, about who giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; which James has a word to say in just a and it shall be given him." It is a gift that is moment ; but here is lack that need not be described very beautifully by such terms as —that is the point. Lack that need not be. this: "He upbraideth not," which the Revised "If any of you, my brethren, in the battle, but Version translates, "reproacheth not." If you being defeated, if any of you lack . . . let lack this, says James, and you come to God him ask." So we come to— quite humbly and earnestly about it, He will (iii) This wisdom is a gift of grace, and not not reproach you—either because of the past of His sovereignty. Now, let me make clear mercies you have already received at His what I mean. You will recall that in 1 Corin- bountiful hand, or because of any present thians 12 St. Paul has a remarkable and unworthiness which you are still bound to revealing study of what we call the gifts of confess—as we always are. He upbraideth the Spirit. not. Among these several gifts of the Spirit It is a gift that is described also, and again there is one that Paul describes as "the word so winsomely, by James, when he says, "He of wisdom," which some Bible expositors hold giveth liberally"—or "generously" (R.V.). That to be a gift particularly imparted to those who speaks of something overflowingly full, and are entrusted with the responsibility of ex- utterly adequate. It is a gift. It is not pounding the Word of God. "The word of something to be •achieved, but to be received. wisdom": special insight into God's Word. (ii) It is a gift for Christians. What is the I am sure we are ready to recognise that such evidence of that? Look at verse 2. To whom is a gift is imparted from time to time. There James speaking? "My brethren." May I remind have been men who have stood on this you that the New Testament, when it uses this platform across the years, so rarely gifted word "brethren," or "brothers," uses it to in the exposition of God's Word, so remark- describe those who are in the family of God, ably endowed both with insights into Scripture those who have been born again, who are in and helpful ways of intrepreting those insights the family of God by the miracle of the new to others, that when they finished the exposi- birth. "My brethren, it is to you that I am tion of some passage of Scripture, you could speaking," says James. Not only so; these are not but feel that this is more than just a man people concerning whom James can say, applying his mind to the opening up of a "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers literary passage. Far more than that. This temptations." Now, do you ever talk to is the Holy Ghost, endowing this man with a unconverted people particular gift of wisdom. And we recognise
19 that. My point is, that the language used by Paul I wish I had never been made!" To which to describe the several gifts of the Spirit—not her sister said, "My dear, you are not made only the word of wisdom, but the gift of yet; you are just in the making, and you are prophecy, the gift of healings, the gift of quarrelling with the process!" That was what tongues, the gift of interpretation of tongues, was happening with some of these to whom the gift of governments, of helps, etc.—the James was writing: they had broken down language Paul uses speaks to us of sovereign under testing, and had not endured as they selection on God's part; whereas the language should. that James uses to describe this wisdom in An endurance that was undependable. As our text, is the language of unrestricted James says in verse 8: "A double-minded man promise to all of God's hungry and believing is unstable in all his ways." Not only so: people. For example, in 1 Corinthians 12 there was a breakdown in another area of Paul says that God divides these gifts severally their Christian life and experience. Not only to every man as He wills: no one gift being was there an endurance that was undepend- imparted to all believers. Some receive this able, but also a tongue that was untamed: gift, some another; and we are to covet at least in certain circumstances. And conse- earnestly the best. But God does not promise quently James had to say some severe and them as a matter of redeeming grace, as part searching things to these Christians about the of the provision of His grace. No. He offences of which they were guilty in the use divides them severally as He will. That is of their tongues. And he finally reaches the what I mean by sovereign. But James does point where he says, "But the tongue no man not use language like that. He says, If any can tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly of you lack—any of you—let him ask of God, poison" (3:8). I am glad James does not say who giveth to . . . how many? All. Not one "The tongue is something that God cannot here, or one there, or one over yonder, but tame." No man can tame it. all. Am I speaking to somebody who has cut? It is a gift of God's grace, and not of His You have cut people to ribbons in the office sovereignty. where you work, in the house where you live (iv) It is, moreover, a gift that is related to and love, in the church of which you are a the successful meeting of the tests of Christian member; you have cut people to ribbons living. Now, it is obvious from a number of with your untamed and un-Christlike tongue. passages in this epistle, that notwithstanding My text has a word for you. "If any of the fact that those to whom James wrote were you lack . . . let him ask." brethren, and were in the brotherhood and in Someone has said, "If you can hold your the battle, there were points of breakdown tongue, you can hold anything." There is in their Christian discipleship. For example, something to that, isn't there? Oh, how in the opening verses of chapter 1, James often the untamed, unruly tongue has brought refers to what we may call an endurance that hurt to others, and griefs. Here is the terrible was undependable. For example, "Knowing reproof of the Holy Spirit to our own souls. this, that the trying of your faith worketh Not only an endurance that was undepend- patience"—or, as it may be rendered, "en- able and a tongue that was untamed, but a durance." "But let endurance have her per- jealousy that was unsubdued. Notice 3:14, fecting work, that ye may be perfect and "If ye have bitter envying and strife in your entire, wanting nothing" (vv. 3, 4). That is, hearts . . ." Now a later translation says that ultimately you may be complete, fully "jealousy" for "envying." Yesterday I mature, in your Christian life and character. received a letter from a lady who wrote to That is the ultimate. But meanwhile, your tell me that two years ago here at Keswick endurance which has been breaking down at God convicted her of the frightful heart-sin this point, or that, or the other, needs to be of jealousy, and released her from it. He repaired; for God does not want you to break will release you. A jealousy that is unsubdued. down. He is working on you, He is working Remember that jealousy rankles within long in you, He is making you into a finished before it becomes rife without. It is because product in the end. Some of you are break- eventually it becomes rife without, and in- ing down in the process. volves others and produces all sorts of tension I remember hearing how two sisters were and frictions, and maybe unhappy divisions, talking to each other, and one was saying, that James says, "Where envying and strife is, rather peevishly—both were Christian women, there is confusion and every evil work." Is but one had been severely tested, and was God's Holy Spirit showing you this right now, quite defeated in her spirit: her morale was so that you can say, "Ah, I begin to see what way down, and with a deep sigh she said, "Oh, it means to lack wisdom. I've broken down
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11.911171r here in n Christian life, and there is the is purity. Oh, beloved, coming to Keswick, rankling of this jealousy in my spirit"? a place of meeting with God; a place of Not only so: "An ambition that was un- deep, rich and abounding blessing, may I say cleansed. James says, "If ye have bitter envy- this to you? Whatever you do, whatever ing and strife in your hearts, glory not . . ." happens, do not let anything, no subtle scheme and instead of the word "strife," some of our or snare of Satan, put you off the line. If translations have "selfish ambition." Selfish you want God's best, you must submit to ambition: ambition that has not been laid on God's purging. Too many Christians are for the altar, for Christ to lay a nail-scarred hand ever teasing God for power, but have little upon it. Take that ambition and cast it out, or no concern about purity—purity of heart, if it is for something unworthy, something purity of mind, purity of motive, purity of contradictory to the purpose that He has for purpose. "The wisdom that is from above is your life. Or else, take it and elevate it, lift it. first pure." A friend of mine had an ambition to be Now it seems to me that we have reached known as an eloquent preacher; but when the point where the Holy Spirit through the Holy Spirit of God brought him to the James is saying: "Here is this wisdom-gift deeper crisis in his Christian life, He showed I am talking about, and here is its equivalent: him that to be known as an eloquent preacher it is coming into such an intimate oneness was a selfish ambition, for that would bring with God, and God's dear revealing Son honour to him, fame to him. He had to Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, that His own reach the place where he said, "Lord, if it is holiness 'becomes an operative reality in your for Thy greater glory that I never get a repu- life, as it has not been before." First, purity. tation for eloquence, I want to be fully identi- But, lest anyone think that this heart-purity, fied with Thee and Thy mind and Thy Cross." this holiness of which James is speaking, is a That man entered into the fulness of blessing negative thing, a barren and austere thing, he in his life, and do you know what happened? does a wonderful thing for us through the God took that ability of his to speak fluently Holy Spirit. Now, when I was a boy I would and beautifully and impressively, God took occasionally get hold of a glass prism, and I that—once he had handed it over to Him— would have a lot of fun passing a ray of and sanctified it, purified it, and made it the sunlight through it, and seeing that prism means, in Christ's hands, of bringing multitudes refract, break up, that white light into its of people into the Kingdom of God, and prismatic components—red, orange, yellow, multitudes of Christians into the fulness of blue, violet, and so on. Well now, that is blessing. just a little analogy. James takes this white What about your ambitions? An ambition ray of Christian holiness, and he passes it in friendship, it may be. Your heart is set for our benefit through the prism-glass of upon a young man, a young woman; but it is revelation, the revelation of the Holy Ghost, out of the will of God. An ambition for a and he says, "I want you to see what this profession, a craft, a calling; but it is out purity is when you get it in its beautiful com- of the will of God. An ambition for notoriety, ponents." And so he tells us what its traits for fame of some sort. You have not been are, the traits of this purity, this Christian willing to put it into Christ's hands. If any holiness. of you lack . . . if there have been break- He says it has some passive traits. It is downs—this gift of wisdom is related to that. peaceable; not quarrelsome. If the occasion (v) This is a gift whose first and all-inclusive requires, it will be firm, it will contend quality is purity. Now, may I show you where earnestly for the faith, for sound things in that is found? After saying these strong things principle: but it is not contentious. It is not in 3:14-16, St. James presents the contrast. quarrelsome in its temper and make-up. In "If there have been envying and strife in the Readers' Digest I read not long ago some- your hearts, glory not; lie not against the thing that a censor who served with our truth." That is, don't let your life 'be a con- American forces in the war told. He said tradiction of God's truth. "This wisdom," that in one of the letters that a G.I. overseas this earthly thing, this carnal thing, "descendeth was sending to his wife, with whom there were not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devil- not, apparently, the happiest relations, he ish for where envying and strife is there is said, "Please don't nag at me any more in confusion and every evil work . . . But, but your letters. I want to enjoy this war in the wisdom that is from above," this wisdom peace"! And there are some people who just that you can ask of God and receive, as His don't seem to be quite happy unless they are child, "the wisdom that is from above is first starting something: they are always picking pure . . ." Its first and all-inclusive quality and fussing. So James says, When you let
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God give you this heavenly wisdom-gift, that out your loyalties, but you are delivered from teaches you how to live the godly life amid your snobberies. That is this purity—this the pressures and circumstances of an every- wisdom-gift. day world, you will not be quarrelsome: you "Without hypocrisy"—oh, what a glorious will be peaceful. thing, a purity that excludes pride and induces Gentle—that is another passive trait that meekness. Purity that excludes the bitterness this heart-holiness has. Then, "easy to be of contentiousness and quarrelsomeness, and entreated"—that is a passive quality, too. entails the sweetness of goodwill. A purity Benjamin Whichcote was Provost of King's that drives out pretence and guile, and bums College, Cambridge, many generations ago, in the love of the truth, the transparency that and after he died, Tillotson said, "Though God is pleased with, every day. Whichcote had a most profound and well- (vi) This, finally, is a gift that is receivable poised judgment, yet was he of all men I ever here and now. If you are really humble: if knew the most patient to hear others who you are really desperate for God—"If any of differed from him, and the most easy to be you lack ... let him ask of God, that giveth convinced when good reason was offered." to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and Is there something like that in you? Yet he it shall be given him. But let him ask in had judgment, conviction: he was not a man faith": that's next. "Let him ask in faith, of putty. But he would listen courteously and not wavering; for he that wavereth is like a respectfully if people differed from him; and wave of the sea, driven of the wind and when good reasons were presented for chang- tossed." ing his mind, he was not above doing so. Has God brought you to a crisis moment Easy to be entreated. in your life? I spoke about an untamed But this purity has also positive traits. tongue, an un-Christlike temper. I remember "Full of mercy and good fruits." I like that. very well starting back to my home in Minne- Full of them—good fruits. Ah, sometimes in apolis from one of our greatest Western cities church history people have developed strange in the States, and before going to the railway and erratic notions of holiness. And so you station that last night, one of the deacons of have a Simeon Stylites, on a pillar, day in the church drew me into a side room. He and day out, month in and month out, going said, "I know you must go in a moment, but through all sorts of physical contortions and God has broken me. I am a deacon in this self-abasements, to make himself holy. Iso- church, and I am employed in a certain lated from the flow of life, isolated from men factory, and I have less influence for Christ and women, boys and girls, in the great traffic over the men with whom I work than I had of the world, whom he might have helped. the first year after my conversion." "Oh," I That is not Christian holiness in the New said, "That's a sad thing. Why have you less Testament, my dear friends. God wants to influence now, than you had the first year of put you right in the stream of things, and let your conversion?" "Oh," he said, "It's that you there be such an example of the fruit of dreadful temper of mine These men have the Spirit—love and joy, goodness and gentle- seen me display this ugly temper, and have ness and long-suffering—that people will be felt the sting of my tongue; and I've less attracted, not to you, but to your lovely Lord influence with them now than the first year by reason of the working of His Holy Spirit of my conversion." And I said, "You know, in you. my dear brother, God is not going to destroy Then there are two negative traits that this your temper. He gave you your temper. But purity has. It is "without partiality"—without if you will let Him, He will fill it with love: a selfish and unreasonable partisanship James the love of God shed abroad in your heart by illustrated it, you remember, when he says that the Holy Spirit. He will give you a well- if somebody comes in with a gold ring, who tempered temper. Greater is He that is in is obviously an aristocrat, you don't fall over you than he that is in the world. If provoca- yourself to fawn on such a person, and give tion arises you may sense it as provocation; him the finest seat in the synagogue, whereas but the Holy Spirit within you, if He is really if somebody comes in rather shabby clothes, in full possession, and you are relying upon obviously a nobody, you treat him curtly and Him, will enable you to express, not the carnal say, "Sit down over there!" You have respect mind, but the mind of Christ. One goes to for people as people, persons as persons; you the Cross: the other goes out as a witness treat them with kindliness. You are not with- before men."
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23 Revival the Supreme Need of the Church BY THE REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN, M.A. URING my recent world tour and minis- those who are ministers or bishops, elders or try to the Church in many lands, the deacons. Are we likely to be in such a move- convictionD and conclusion to which one is ment of the Spirit of God, or are we going driven is a simple one, namely this: that the to be left on one side? The verdict of history, supreme need of the Christian Church to-day as well as the record of the Scriptures, warns is for revival, for a movement in power of the us that again and again when revival touches Spirit of God that will both cleanse and ener- the Church, the movement seems to leave on gise the Church of Christ everywhere. one side the very people we would have ex- Here in this great tent at Keswick Christians pected to be in the heart of it. are gathered once again in their thousands for But consider also (ii) The Opportunity they a week of waiting upon God, and the ancient never Sensed. We might well ask why? Why prayers will once again be found upon their was it that the disciples were so by-passed lips— when such a work was to be done? Does the "Wilt Thou not revive us again, that Thy Scripture here give us any answer? There people may rejoice in Thee." are two verses that hint at possible reasons: "0 that Thou wouldest rend the heavens in v. 8 we read, "they were gone into the city and come down, that the mountains might to buy meat"—a very necessary and legitimate flow down at Thy presence." concern; but was it possible that bread for I want therefore to study with you in the themselves occupied their minds to the ex- briefest outline what a former Keswick clusion of blessing for others? Were they too speaker, Dr. S. D. Gordon, once called "The pre-occupied in these legitimate and necessary Sychar Revival" as recorded in John 4. I but material things even to sense the need all believe that there are lessons here to which around them? I wonder if that was it—was it the Church would do well to pay heed. pre-occupation? All I know is that to-day it is tragically true that too many Christians are I. A WARNING HERE THAT IS ALARMING, so pre-occupied with material and social mat- and the warning centres round the simple fact ters that they have no time to sense, let alone that the disciples of the Master seem to have minister to, the spiritual needs around. No had little to do with it. In v. 8 we read of time for the prayer meeting at the church, no their arrival in the city, but as far as one can time to give to the winning of others to the judge their arrival caused not a ripple of in- Master. Is pre-occupation the cause? terest in the city. Consider- Or was it something else then—is it some- (i) The Tragedy they must Represent—the tragedy of being by-passed by the Spirit of thing else now? In v. 9 we read: "the Jews God, of being left out of this great experience. have no dealings with the Samaritans"—pre- After all, they were the disciples of the occupation, or was it prejudice? Had the Master; they had both a position and a disciples washed their hands of the people that God had planned to bless. Prejudice—is that prominence that would have led people to still a characteristic of the Church? What believe that they would be in the very centre about the attitude of many Christians to the of anything their Lord was planning to do: unconverted folk around, the neighbour next- but they weren't, they were left on one side, door, the fellow he works with, that girl in while the stream of blessing flowed by on the office—have we already made up our another course. minds that God has no intention of doing any- What a warning is here for those of us who thing there: they are too hard, they are not profess and call ourselves Christians; what a interested, they are so worldly; and so, like challenge lies here for those of us who hold the disciples, we pass by the opportunity that office in the Church, who hold positions, it God has already sensed. may be of greater or less prominence, for Whatever the reason, then in history, or
24 now, the warning that strikes a note of alarm with her sin. There is still an ethical pre- in my mind is that it is possible, only too pos- requisite for revival. Who was it that said sible, to find that the disciples are left out. that the vessels God uses need not be of gold Should revival touch the Church of Christ or silver, but they must be clean? where you are, would you be in it; would you Is it true to-day that the only thing that welcome it, or would the Spirit of God pass holds up revival is the unrepented sin of the you by on the other side? Yes, there is a Church? Was it Finney who said that "Revival warning here that is alarming—but there is consists in a new obedience"? Let us recog- more. There is— nise that Christ did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. Thank God, grace has II. A WONDER HERE THAT IS ARRESTING, replaced the law as far as our standing before and the wonder lies in the instrument God God is concerned: we are not justified by the used. If the arrival in the city of the disciples works of the law; but nor are we absolved caused not a ripple of interest, the arrival of from its demands in Christian living. Possibly the prostitute woman threw the whole popula- one of the greatest needs within the Christian tion into a ferment of excitement, and in Church to-day is such a facing up to the minutes the whole city was streaming out to ethical pre-requisites for revival as will bring meet with Christ. The wonder of this revival, us to the place of repentance. like any other in history, is first of all- Yes, penitence found its place in the pre- (i) A Wonder of Grace: compare the paration of the instrument—and prayer. "Give disciples, after all, with the prostitute! No me," and what an intensity of desire must one would have had any doubt as to which have gone into that prayer. "If thou hadst instrument God would use—the disciples, known thou wouldst have asked . . . " said obviously: but no, they would have been the Master, and then unfolded such a picture wrong; it was the woman that God used that of what He Himself could be that her heart day. cried out for it. If lack of penitence be A wonder of grace; not only a woman, but part at least of that which hinders revival, is such a woman! a prostitute. lack of prayer the other part? Is this the Has it not always been so? Has revival other great failure of the Christian to-day? not always had as its instruments the unlikely, It was this penitent and prayerful heart that the unworthy? We have no time here to illus- was so transformed so that a whole com- trate, but read for yourselves not only the munity was startled and arrested, and com- Scripture, but the history of the Church, and pelled to ask, as others were to ask later, see how again and again the principle is found "What meaneth this?" exemplified that "God hath chosen the foolish A warning here that is alarming; a wonder things of the world to confound the wise; and here that is arresting; and finally— God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty; and base III. A WORK HERE THAT IS ABIDING. things of the world, and things which are The last arrival in the city was the arrival of despised hath God chosen, yea, and the the Master Himself. Consider- things which are not, to bring to nought (i) The Preacher they heard. "We have things which are." heard Him ourselves," they said to the How absolutely true, and how absolutely woman. Is there anything more desperately thrilling—for this brings hope to all of us who needed today in the life of the Church and the feel our unworthiness, who know ourselves Christian than a listening to the word of the to be such ordinary people: if God could use Master? How desperately those who seek to such a woman as that then, could He not use lead the Church need to recognize that they such a Christian as myself now? A wonder themselves must acknowledge the One who of grace, but it was more than that: it was— is the Head of the Church. The charges that (ii) A Wonder of Power. The instrument the Master brought against the religious used that day was no doubt unexpected, people of His own day are charges that He but it was not unprepared—the woman was could still bring against the Christians of not just a prostitute but—can we doubt today. Do you remember His words: "Ye it?—a prostitute who had found a place for have made the Word of God of none repentance. The woman who startled a city, effect through your tradition," and again, who set the people marching out to meet "Ye have taken away the key of with Christ—she was a changed woman. The knowledge, ye entered not in yourselves, power of Christ had changed her, but in that and them that were entering in ye very transformation two things had found a hindered"—"It is written, my Father's place in her experience. The first was house shall be called the house of prayer, but penitence—'Go, call thy husband"—she had ye have made it . . ." what? A new listening been faced
24 to the voice of the Master is surely what we heard, and that was— need—that is why we are at Keswick. We are (ii) The Presence they knew. We read "He not here to listen to preachers, but to meet abode there." Revival surely is not more and with God; to expose our lives to the search- not less than the presence of Jesus Christ in light of its truth. the soul. It is the practical implication of this fact At the first Convention God gave to the that we need so desperately to work out. The cry founder-leaders the words of Psalm 62, "My of the Old Testament prophet was that "the soul, wait thou only upon God," and that mountains might flow down at Thy presence." has been the purpose of this Convention ever Nothing less than this will do; and this by itself since. They were able to say, "We have heard will be enough. Him ourselves." Can you say that? Can our "Wilt Thou not revive us again, that Thy ministers and leaders say that; the members of people may rejoice in Thee." our churches say that—"we have heard May the story of the Sychar Revival be Him"? Yes, that was the Preacher they your story and mine, for His Name's sake.
,„,
25 The Street Called Straight
BY THE REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON
And the Lord said unto Ananias, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus; for, behold, he prayeth . . .—Acts 9:11.
HIS is one of the most thrilling conversion Gentiles—a flaming evangelist indeed, perhaps stories recorded in the New Testament. the greatest evangelist of all times. He was SaulT of Tarsus was a notorious enemy of the completely transformed. Of course, it was a Lord Jesus Christ and of the infant Church, miracle, as every conversion is; a wonder- and at this very time when God apprehended working of God Himself in the life and soul him and brought him as a penitent to His of this man. feet, he was intent upon the extermination of Then the Lord spoke about him to Ananias that baby Church that had been brought for in every work of God there are many links into being; he was searching out the Christians in the chain. Ananias was one of His faithful in order to arrest them and put them in prison. servants, quite an obscure man, but one who He was absolutely sincere. He tells us, when was in touch with God; a praying man, one he gives his testimony later on in this Book of who was living sufficiently near to the Lord Acts, that when he was doing all this he to be able to hear His voice. "And the Lord believed he was doing God's will. You can said unto him, Arise, and go into the street be sincere, but sincerely wrong. He was which is called Straight, and enquire in the misguided, and spiritually blind. He thought house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus that the Lord Jesus Christ was an imposter, and for behold, he prayeth." Ananias could hardly that the Christians were deceived men and believe his ears. He said, "But, Lord, have I women; that Christ was not the Messiah, and heard aright? Can this possibly be? I have therefore those following Him were deceived. heard about this man; he is bent on Then suddenly, in a most dramatic and destruction, and has been capturing my brothers wonderful way the Lord Jesus Christ met him and sisters, your children, and putting them and spoke to him, for "as he journeyed he in prison. Lord, have I heard aright?" And came near Damascus, and suddenly there Ananias expostulated with the Lord; but the shined round about him a light from heaven; Lord said, "You have heard aright; wonderful and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice things are happening, Ananias. Have you not saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest been praying? Look, here is the address Saul thou me? And he said, Who art Thou, of Tarsus, c/o Judas, Straight-street, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus . . . Damascus." And by the way, if you go to I am alive, here I am; you are looking at me, Damascus they will still take you down and I am looking at you. I am standing Straight-street, and I have no doubt someone before you in all my majesty and glory and would show you pretty quickly the house dignity, the risen Christ, the Saviour of the which it is supposed that Judas lived. world, the one whom you believe to be an So the Lord gave to Ananias, His servant impostor. Here I am, I am Jesus." the name and address of the one to who he In a flash this proud, religious man, this was to go and minister. You see, my dear sincere man, this enemy of the Church, was friends, the Lord knows all about us. There humbled to the dust; he was convicted in his is not a single detail about any one of us heart and in his spirit; he was converted by with which the Lord is not acquainted. "Can the power and grace of God. At the same any hide himself in secret places that I shall time he was commissioned to a wonderful life- not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill work, for he was to become the apostle to the heaven and earth?" "Thou knowest my down-
26 sitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my how foolish to suggest that such a thing could thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path be possible. Epilepsy? No. Others have and my lying down, and art acquainted with all suggested that he had sunstroke. But, my my ways. For there is not a word in my dear friends, what actually happened was this. tongue, but, lo, 0 Lord, Thou knowest it He had a revelation of the risen Lord in all altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and His majesty and glory; and seeing Jesus standing before, and laid Thine hand upon me ... at the right hand of God in all His Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or immaculate beauty and dignity and honour, whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I Saul of Tarsus was converted. And not only ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I converted: he became convinced of several make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there; if things. I take the wings of the morning, and seek to In a moment he realised that Jesus was no get away from Thee, Lord, Thou art imposter, for he had seen Him alive. He there." No, we cannot get away from God; realised, also, that He was the Son of God, we cannot hide from Him. He knows all as He had said. He realised that His death, about every one of us, just as He knew about therefore, must have been an atoning, a sub- Saul of Tarsus, and just as He knew about stitutionary, a vicarious death. He realised Ananias, and directed the one to go to the that Christ must have risen again from the other. dead, and ascended, for there He was alive, I want you to think with me about this at the right hand of God. He was the true "street called Straight," and about what hap- Messiah, the One who had been promised, pened there; for certain things happened to the One who had in fact come; He was the Saul in that house in Straight street, that can Saviour of the world, the One who rightly happen to you in this tent. claimed all the love and devotion and adora- First, that the "street called Straight" was a tion of his heart. Oh yes, he was convinced place where a man was gloriously converted. No of all this in a moment of time, when the one ever becomes a Christian apart from Lord revealed Himself to him. conversion. That is elementary, but it is funda- Have you had this revelation? Have you mental. The Lord Jesus said, "Except ye be been converted? Oh, perhaps not dramatically converted and become as little children, ye like Saul, perhaps very quietly, but nevertheless shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. very wonderfully, by the power and grace of And Saul was converted. If he were asked, God. Converted, turned right about, a "Saul, what happened in Straight street?" he transformed life. Can you look back to the would reply, "Why, the greatest miracle of my time when it all happened? I could take life. I associate all that God began to do in you tonight to my "street called Straight." It is my soul when He revealed Himself to me, called Wickham-avenue, Bexhill-on-Sea, with that wondrous experience that I had by where in a little tin church, on June 28th, His grace in the house of Judas." He was 1929, I saw the Lord, and by the grace of born again of the Holy Spirit; he was made the God was converted. Can you give a testi- recipient of eternal life; he was justified, he was mony like that, and say, "It happened to me"? brought into the family of God. All that Second, this "street called Straight" was a happened when Jesus appeared before him place where a man really began to pray. The on the Damascus road. And all that began Lord told Ananias that he would be able to to dawn upon his lightened soul, as now in the identify Saul of Tarsus by the fact that, when house of Judas in Straight street, down on his he got to the house, he would find him praying. face before God, he marvelled at the mercy "For behold, he prayeth" (v. 11). Saul must and grace of God that had been have said a great many prayers during his manifested that day. lifetime, for he was a very religious man. But Do you know, some people have suggested you can be religious yet utterly devoid of any that what really happened to Saul on the spiritual life. Saul of Tarsus must have prayed Damascus road, was that he had an epileptic much, but all his praying had been just a fit; that he was tired and overstrained and in a formal matter. You remember how Jesus het-up condition, because he was bent on a once told a man who went into the Temple terrible errand, and as a consequence, he had and "prayed with himself," not with God. He an epileptic fit. C. H. Spurgeon said of this, had no contact with God; his prayers were "0, blessed epilepsy, if it produces a just saying prayers. But now, Saul of Tarsus conversion like this!" Would it not be a had been converted, and my, what a glorious thing if we could find some new difference! It was, incidentally, also an serum that would produce such a marvellous evidence of a new life, because when a man transformation of life and character! Well, is really converted be begins to pray,
27 and other people can identify him as a true from the Lord. The Lord is more anxious to Christian because of the ministry of prayer bring you into the centre of His will for your that is effective in his life. life-work, than ever you can be. If you ask Let me ask you, Do you know how to Him, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” pray? You see, I know in my own experience —well, He may not want you to be an how easy it is to kneel down to pray, yet evangelist or a missionary, as was Saul of only to pray with oneself, because I did that Tarsus, but he has a plan for you. He may for years before I was converted. Do you want you to be a doctor or a teacher or an know how to pray? Can you lift up your architect or a builder; He may want you to heart to the Lord and have constant access be a nurse; He may want you to be at home into His presence, and speak to Him as friend or abroad; He may want you to be a parent with friend. Oh, how true this is, as the to bring up children for Him. He has a plan hymn has it— for you, and the thing for you is to be intent on getting to know the will of God. I often say my prayers, Yes, in the "street called Straight" Saul did But do I ever pray . . .? covered God's will for his life. What a glorious thing it is to be able to say that, 'by the grace Do you know how to pray? Well, that is of God, we believe we are moving on in the the the second thing that Saul would ever will of God. Can you say that? If you can- associate with the "street called Straight " He not, or if you have any doubt about it, I would say, "That was where I first learned pray you get alone with the Lord, and say, to pray to my Lord." "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do." And Then notice in the third place, that this God will answer. was the street where a man discovered the will Next, in the "street called Straight" a man of God for his life. Look at verse 6. "And was filled with the Holy Ghost. Ananias he trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what "entered into the house, and putting his hand wilt Thou have me to do? And the Lord on him said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord, even said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as and it shall be told thee what thou must do." thou tamest, bath sent me, that thou mightest You see, God guides us a step at a time. receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Ghost" (v. 17). The thing to notice is this, Lord." The Lord did not give to Saul of that Saul was filled with the Holy Ghost on Tarsus a blue-print for his life, and say, "Well the very threshold of his Christian life. He now you have been converted, you are com- did not have to wait. It was not that he had ing into the stream of salvation blessing. Here been a Christian for five or ten years; he did is a plan: you are to live for so many years, not have to wait for some sort of maturity, or and you are going to all these places, and to experience, but right at the beginning of his do this, that, and the other." No, no. All Christian life the Lord met him and filled him He said was—the next step, "Go into the possessed him, brought him under the domina- city, and it shall be told thee." But God tion of the Holy Spirit. And of course, this is had a plan for Saul's life. How do we know God's plan and glorious provision for every that? Because He revealed it to Ananias: "He one of His children. is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name Now why was it so necessary for Saul to before the Gentiles, and kings, and the be filled with the Holy Spirit? Because God children of Israel: for I will show him could only implement His purpose in and how great things he must suffer for my through the life of Saul of Tarsus as the Holy name's sake" (vv. 15, 16). And God has a Spirit not only came into his heart, but took plan for your life, and for mine. Have you possession of his whole personality. It was discovered God's plan for your life? necessary for Saul in order that he might live When Wilfred Grenfell, who became the effectively for the Lord, and serve the Lord great missionary doctor to Labrador, was first not in his own strength, but in the power of invited to consider going there, he wrote to the Holy Spirit. his mother about it, and she gave him some What a glorious thing it would be, would it wonderful advice, which I would like to pass not, if every new convert had an Ananias to on to young people here tonight. "Wilfred," help him in this way! What failures an she said, "every day pray this prayer: '0 frustrations and breakdowns and depressions Lord, teach me to do the thing that pleases and disappointments would be avoided if new Thee.' "It is so simple, but that is the very converts, at the beginning of their new life in crux of the whole matter: you cannot pray a Christ, were instructed in the fact that God’s prayer like that without getting the answer glorious provision is the Pentecostal blessing,
28 the infilling of the Holy Spirit; the anointing, These people must have thought the same the enduement with power, in order that we kind of thing; but I ask you, Was his con- might live for the Lord and serve the Lord in version real? Indeed it was! But have you the demonstration of the Spirit and of identified yourself with your Lord, and do power. you belong not only to Him but to His In the "street called Straight" a people; and are you uniting with His people man openly identified himself with the Lord and in the testimony and witness of His name? with His people. "Immediately there fell from Or are you one of those Christians who dodge his eyes as it had been scales, and he received about from place to place, and never accept sight forthwith, and arose and was baptised" responsibility with any local assembly or (v. 18). What a tremendous thing that was church of God's people? Saul was not like for Saul of Tarsus! He did this, of course, in that; and one of the things that he would obedience to the Lord's command, for one ever associate with the "street called Straight" of the last things that Jesus said to His was this, that it was there that he was united disciples before He ascended was: "Go into to the Lord publicly and openly, and con- all the world and preach the Gospel to every fessed his oneness with Him in death and creature, and wherever people believe, burial and resurrection, and with His people. baptise them into the name of the Father, Two more things I leave with you as I close. and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Of This "street called Straight," was a place course, there was nothing denominational where a man was introduced into a new and about this, and I would not dare even to wonderful fellowship, the fellowship of the suggest the way in which, or the method by saints, the family of God, the royal family which, or the mode in which Paul was of heaven, the family of the redeemed. And baptised. The truth we are emphasising is there is no fellowship in the world like that. this, that Saul identified himself with the When my wife and I went to Australia and Lord's people. He had been born into the New Zealand a few years ago, to preach family of God, and he was now identifying the Keswick message, at every stage of himself with his Lord and with His people, our journey we met Christians—and at once in death and burial and resurrection. we had immediate fellowship in Christ. When I went to the shipping office to make But just think what it meant for Saul. This arrangements for the journey, I found the man, who had been an enemy, a persecutor, clerk I was speaking to was a Christian, and so greatly feared by the Christians. What a immediately we had fellowship. When we testimony it was! The whole world was to started out, at Tilbury the man in the know now that Saul, the rebel, had been Customs office was a member of one of our converted by the Redeemer; and who can just imagine what must have happened in the Baptist churches in Peckham, and he actually minds of the Christians who stood round spoke to us by name, and said, "How far are when Saul was baptised. "I hope it is real; I you going?" We opened our passports and saw him yesterday, and I never saw a man said, "Look." Christians—immediate look more fierce; I really do hope it is a work fellowship. In the Emigration Department the of grace; I hope it will last." All those things same thing happened; and when we got on must have been said, or have gone through board ship the steward was a Christian. And the minds of those Christians—do you not as we went on our journey—as I could go think so? Would you not have thought those on telling you—Christians, Christians, things if you had seen this man suddenly Christians, all demonstrating this glorious fact baptised? I remember reading of a that we are "all one in Christ Jesus." Communion Service in Africa, where not This is beautifully brought out here. "Saul many years previously the people had been arose . . . and when his eyes were open he saw cannibals. Suddenly a young fellow got up no man, but they led him by the hand" (v. 8). from the Communion Table and went out, Can you tell me who the "they" were? Well, and an older Christian went after him and we do not know; but would it be wrong to said, "What is the matter?" And he replied, "I suggest that "they" may well have been opened my eyes just as I was about to take Christian people, eager to help this new con- the bread and wine, and I saw the man who vert. Oh, what a wonderful fellowship it is, had eaten my father." And it took a few is it not? Then, look at verse 11: "And the moments for that young fellow to get a grip Lord said unto Ananias, Arise, and go into the on himself. You see, he could hardly believe street which is called Straight, and enquire in that a man who had eaten his father could be the house of Judas . . ." Well, Judas might so completely transformed by the grace of have been a wealthy man, but it is more God. But do not let us limit the grace of God.
29 probable that he was a Christian man, who Christ in the synagogues, that He was the Son said, "I have a room in my house, and will of God... Saul increased the more in strength, gladly have this new convert." You see, it and confounded the Jews which dwelt in is a fellowship into which we come when Damascus, proving that this is very Christ we become Christians: and what a precious (vv. 20, 22). At once he became, not only a thing it is. Christian, but a witnessing Christian. You may Then in verse 17 we read: "And Ananias be a Christian, but are you a witnessing went his way, and entered into the house; and Christian? Is your life so transformed by the putting his hand on him said, Are you Saul of grace of God that you are a living witness to Tarsus?" Oh, no, he did not say that! He the power and glory of God in a human life? might have said that previously. If he had Tell me, is there a street, a place, somewhere gone before, he would have trembled and been on this earth, where all this happened to you; frightened, and he might have addressed him where these experiences that are associated in a respectful way: but now it was all differ- with the commencement of the Christian life ent. He put his hands on him and said, have happened to you? If so, thank God "Brother Saul." What a difference—"Brother for it. Think back to the time when God Saul." And look at verse 19: "And when he met with you, and in your heart sing, "0 had received meat"—I wonder who made that happy day!" But if these things have not meal for him? Do you not think it may well happened in your experience, why should they have been some dear Christian sister, or Mrs. not happen now? The Lord is waiting to do all Judas, perhaps? Yes, someone who was doing this for you—and very much more, of it for love of the Lord, and for love of this course. If you will say to Him, quietly, and man who had newly come into the family of sincerely, "Who art Thou Lord?" He will say God. What a fellowship this is, is it not? to you, "I am Jesus your Saviour." And like Again, look at verse 19, "When he had received Saul, you can fall at His feet, and like meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul another of whom we read, you can say, "My certain days with the disciples." That is what Lord and my God." And all heaven will real fellowship is. He now belonged to the bend down to witness the scene that will take glorious company of the redemeed, the saved; place as you are apprehended by the Lord; the and so- recording angel will write down your name, Finally, this "street called Straight" was a and it will go something like this—your name, place where a man became a living and a vital c/o the big tent, Skiddaw-street, Keswick, witness for the Lord. "Straightway he preached Cumberland, England. This may be your "street called Straight."
30 MONDAY, JULY 14th
10 a.m.—BIBLE READING THE GOSPEL AND THE HUMANITIES (i) THE AFFECTIONATE MAN DR. PAUL REES 11.5o a.m.—FORENOON MEETING UNCONSCIOUS SIN REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS 3 p.m.—AFTERNOON MEETING THE CONVERSION OF THE CONVERTED REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON
7.45 p.m.—EVENING MEETING Skiddaw-street Tent: A TIME OF FINDING DR. PAUL REES
LORD, IS IT I? REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON Eskin-street Tent: DIAGNOSIS OF THE DISEASE OF SIN REV. JAMES PHILIP UNBELIEF REV. A. W. RAINSBURY
31 The Pertinent Question of Sin MONDAY began much more promisingly so Gerald Griffiths led in prayer. From our far as the weather was concerned, with the Lord's word to Peter in Luke 22:32, Mr. sun shining strongly between drifting clouds Dixon spoke on the arresting theme of "The and imparting a golden-hued glory to the Conversion of the Converted." splendour of the encompassing hills. Con- For the first of the relay services the large tent was filled well before the time of com- siderably larger numbers were out for mencement, with a great crowd also standing prayer at 7 a.m. than on Sunday, but divided around. A "welcome" was expressed by the into two streams, several hundreds going to Chairman, the Rev. A. T. Houghton, to the the small tent for the first of the missionary ninety-one centres sharing the service with the prayer meetings, led by the Rev. A. T. great congregation at Keswick ; and the Houghton. A descriptive account of both "theme hymn" of the week, "Church of God, series of prayer meetings will be found at the beloved and chosen" united all in an act of end of the book. worship. After prayer by the Rev. G. B. It was with keen anticipation, whetted by Duncan the first address was given by Dr. his ministry at Keswick two years ago, that Paul Rees. He began by reading Psalm 32: a great congregation completely filling the tent 1-6, and said that there are two possible lines gathered at 10 a.m. for the first of the Bible of interpretation—that this is the voice of Readings by Dr. Paul Rees on "The Gospel Israel calling upon God in a time of distress ; and the Humanities"—and he explained that or the personal experience of the Psalmist, he used the term "Humanities" non-technic- against the background of his own sin. Adopting ally, to "describe the human traits and quali- the latter view. Dr. Rees emphasised the soul's ties of the Gospel-worthy life, as they shine conviction (v. 4), concealment (v. 3), and forth in the Epistle to the Philippians." In confession (vv. 1, 2). his inimitable, glowing, gracious manner, Dr. The hymn, "Sinful, sighing to be blest," Rees lit up this introductory study in the expressed what must have been the thoughts Epistle with asides and humorous anecdotes. of very many ; and then the Rev. Francis He brought us into the very circle of the Dixon spoke on the scene in the Upper Room apostle and of his friends at Philippi, and made as our Lord foretold His betrayal and the us eager for the further studies of the follow- disciples replied, "Lord, is it I?" (Matt. 26: ing days. 22). In the small tent there were just a few The early sunshine had given place to over- empty seats at each end, as Mr. Leith Samuel cast skies during the morning; but many new- introduced a new speaker to the Keswick comers to Keswick went off after the Bible platform—the Rev. James Philip, of Edin- Reading to explore the town and to walk by burgh. He not unnaturally seemed a little the lake. The tent was therefore about three- nervous at first, but soon gripped the large quarters full for the noon meeting, over which congregation with his intensely earnest the Rev. A. W. Rainsbury presided—there diagnosis of the soul's malady—the very root being a departure from precedent this year, and heart of all sin, self-centredness. A youngish in that several meetings were "chaired" by man, with a pleasant Scottish accent and speakers who are not members of the Con- characteristic Scottish earnestness of thought vention Council. The Rev. Gerald Griffiths, and manner, Mr. Philip made a most favourable paying his second visit to Keswick as a impression in all his addresses. His first speaker, gave a penetrating message on message was forcefully complemented by the "unconscious sin," which undoubtedly brought Rev. A. W. Rainsbury's equally passionate to many a new conception of sin as God re- exposure of the sin of sins, the very quintes- gards it. sence of sin—unbelief. The clouds dispersed about lunch-time, and In both tents a number of people remained Keswick enjoyed a glorious afternoon and for counselling after the meetings, while the evening. Despite the attractions of Lakeland congregations dispersed—goodly numbers on a lovely July day, there was a large atten- going to the Market Place for the first of the dance to hear the Rev. Francis Dixon at 3 p.m. open-air meetings. Dr. H. J. Orr-Ewing presided; and the Rev.
32 The Gospel and Humanities
STUDIES IN ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. I. THE AFFECTIONATE MAN. BY DR. PAUL REES.
UR approach to St. Paul's letter to the ment, you remember. It might conceivably O Philippians is one that we are making have been written from Ephesus. But almost primarily through the figure of Paul himself certainly, I repeat, from Rome. This morning we want to see Paul as the Spirit Here he is a prisoner. It is his first impri- of God shows him to us us in chapter 1, as sonment, assuming the correctness of the theory the affectionate man. Tomorrow we shall see that he was released subsequently, and that him as the alert man, and how alert! The there was a later imprisonment. And these following day, please God, as the aspiring man, friends of his at Philippi, in Macedonia, near the and on Thursday, as the adequate man. north-western shore-line of the Aegean Sea, The human qualities that appear in the have not been able to form any link with him Philippian letter are so notable that it would be for quite some time. They love him dearly; difficult to find any New Testament scholar they have been praying for him; they are who has not made some observation about it. wondering how he is. More than that, they Let me quote just one of many, from Bishop realise that he must have some temporal needs. Moule, whose name is so fragrantly associated So they have taken up a collection, and by the with Keswick in years gone by—"So the Letter hand of one of their esteemed members, opens, with greeting, with benediction, and Epaphroditus, they have sent this offering to then with an outpouring of sympathies full at Paul. They have sent it with the intention, it once of the warmest, tenderest humanity and seems, that Epaphroditus should remain with of the inmost secrets of divine truth and life" Paul for an indefinite period of time. He H. C. G. Moule, in Philippian Studies (italics became ill, however, and seems to have become his). Many other commentators might be homesick—and homesickness can be one of the brought on to the witness stand, to indicate worst kinds of illnesses. Paul therefore felt it that here in Philippians the Spirit of God per- best, probably out of the magnanimity of his heart, mitted Paul to express himself in so many to send him back sooner than the church might human forms, and with so many human en- have expected him to return; and in sending dearments. For example, we find him saying him back, Paul wants to thank them for this gift, right at the opening of the first chapter, "I this collection, that they have sent by the hand of have you in my heart"—a beautiful phrase! Epaphroditus. You see how simple, how natural And that heart of love will utter itself all it is; from one point of view it is very through this epistle in great and gracious mundane, very earthly. However, there is a abandon. second reason why Paul wrote this letter. It Now so far as the setting of the epistle is concerned, let me swiftly touch upon certain seeems that Epaphroditus, in giving a report to things, that we may have that setting freshly Paul on conditions in the Philippian church— fixed in our minds. For example, the occasion and one can see them there talking, Paul with the of the writing of it we may certainly call very chain round his wrist, and a soldier standing human. Paul is in prison, almost certainly in guard, about the situation in Philippi—and in Rome: two other cities have been indicated as fairness to all of the facts Epaphroditus has to possible places from which this letter might say, "Brother Paul, there are some things that have been written, but neither has anything like give us concern." the mass of evidence to support it that Rome Now, you ladies will not blame me for this, has. It might have been written, some say, at will you? It is here in this epistle, and I cannot Caesarea, where Paul did have an imprison- by-pass it. He has to say to Paul, "We
33
have two women who are not getting on with never thought of questioning his authority, each other!" He actually names them, as we he does not have to say, as he does in the case shall see. And you know how this is: it of some of his other churches, that he is an threatens to become a serious breach, a serious apostle. He simply says, "servant of Jesus division, a very unhappy thing in the life of Christ." His co-sender was Timothy. That the church. does not mean that Timothy was the co-writer: Then Epaphroditus seems also to have he was the co-sender—probably due to the fact brought Paul some evidence which really that Paul had such a great heart that he wanted alarms him: that there were some teachers who to include Timothy along with himself; and were misleading the people—misleading those also due, no doubt, to the fact that Timothy who were most easily influenced at least, in also was held in high regard by the Philip- ways that would finally confuse the issues of pians. the Gospel, and detract from the all-sufficient So far as the subjects are concerned, they glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now because are—note this—"all the saints in Christ Jesus of this, Paul feels impelled by the Holy Spirit, who are at Philippi, with the bishops and as he proceeds with this informal note of deacons." By the way, you will notice that thanks, this love-letter, to deal with these I am reading from the Revised Standard Ver- things. He does not do it as extensively or sion. I have chosen to do that after some with the laboured arguments which you find in careful thought. There are places where I Galatians, or in Romans, or in parts of the shall freely comment on the Revised Standard Corinthian correspondence: but it is there, Version, because I feel the translation is weak. nevertheless, as one of the motives lying back However, may I quickly add we are so close of the writing of this letter. to the Revised Standard Version that many of Well, here we are. It is about the year 61 us have some prejudices that will pass as time or 62. Professor David Smith says 60, but passes. If we had been living when the Auth- not many New Testament scholars feel that orised Version was given to us, we should have was the year. A year or so later; and one had the same prejudices exactly. I can imagine morning Epaphroditus starts away from the how shocked Evangelicals today would be if imperial city after this wonderful session with this Authorised Version had come out in our Paul, striding back to Philippi, and tucked day, calling the Holy Spirit an "It"—yet that under his tunic is what Professor David Smith is what the Authorised has done for more than calls "the tenderest thing that Paul ever wrote." three centuries. There is no version that satis- Is it not remarkable, my friends, that al- fies us all, by any manner of means ; and it is though Philippi today—once a great city, and a marvellous thing, I think, that the Holy Spirit a city that was given colonial status: it was a has a way, in spite of the limitations in the Roman colony, so that its citizens were on human agents who are used for translation and exactly the same level as the citizens of Rome revision purposes, of preserving the essential itself; a city that once had fabulous silver and revelation, of keeping it intact. After all, as gold mines around it, from which enormous informed Evangelicals, all we have ever wealth came—is now an assortment of melan- claimed, even for the most extreme view of choly ruins, nevertheless every week in every verbal inspiration, is that this applies to the year the ancient city of Philippi is memorial- original manuscripts, not one of which we ised by the fact that millions of people either possess! But it seems to me that it is a mar- read or hear read the word "Philippians," as vellous ministry of superintendence and pre- we have it right here before our eyes today: servation, that in the versions we have the and all because a Christian prisoner in Rome essential revelation carried forward. wrote a love-letter inspired by the Holy Ghost "To all the saints in Christ Jesus." There to his friends. are those who would tell us that a saint is one Now let us look at the letter. who has been canonised. The embarrassing First, there is a salutation—vv. 1, 2. That thing about that is, that it takes place long was customary with Paul. The saluation in after you are dead! Then there are those who this instance includes sender, subjects, and sub- would say that a saint is one who has been stance. As far as the sender is concerned, it cleansed, meaning full, ethical purging. A is the apostle himself. We sign our names at wonderful thing! There is place for that in the end of a letter: Paul signs his at the begin- Christian teaching. But the New Testament ning. The very first word: Paul. And in this says that a saint is one who has been claimed. instance, because of the situation which existed Whoever he is, if he has been claimed by between himself and these very dear friends Christ, and has responded to that claim and of his, who loved him and respected him, and has received Christ's life, he is one of the
34 saints, from the New Testament point of view. you with a great well-spring of thanksgiving to And I think that J. B. Phillips can defend the God? essential correctness of his translation when in There was the joy, moreover, of intercession. his Letters to Young Churches, instead of "Always in every prayer of mine for you all using the word "saints" here, he says, "true making my prayer with joy" (v. 4). How glad- Christians": these are the subjects to whom some Paul is, as his love offers itself to these Paul is writing. friends of his. One expositor makes this verse Next, the substance of the salutation: the pretext for asking a question, "How many "Grace to you and peace from God our American Christians"—this is an American ex- Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Grace, positor who has recently written a book on which is cause, and peace, which is effect. Philippians; he :has some excellent things in it, and some things not so excellent!—"how many Grace is God in saving action; American Christians prayed for Hitler and Peace is man released from friction. Mussolini during the war?" Well, that question is quite fair, taken by itself, apart from this context; but it seems to me that it is quite out of Paul knew it so well, that he was always order, as related to this particular verse: wanting to impress it upon those to whom he "Always in every prayer of mine for you all was writing. From our Father God, and the making my prayer with joy." If I prayed for Lord Jesus Christ the mediating Son. Hitler and Mussolini—and I dare to believe The salutation out of the way, Paul the that I did at times—it wasn't with any joy, but affectionate proceeds to deal with these intimate with grief and with burning, that somehow the matters that are upon his mind, in light of this spirit of anti-Christ might be cast out of those tender relationship that exists between them men, and they be brought to a saving know- and him. Now we come to the first section, ledge of Jesus Christ. Totally different, you which I have called— see, is Paul's outlook here, as he thinks about these Christians in Philippi, and prays for them I. PAUL'S PRAISE-3-8. For here the affec- day by day with great gladness because of all tionate man is letting his soul flow out in a the happy remembrances of them that he great cascade of joyous expression and thanks- carries in his mind. giving, both to God and to his friends to whom Then there was the joy of participation. he is writing. For instance, we have the joy "Thankful for your partnership in the Gospel of recollection: "I thank my God in all my from the first day until now" (v. 5). Your remembrance of you." What do you think partnership, your fellowship in the great Paul had in mind, when he used that phrase, koinonia. It is a word that appears frequently in "in all my remembrance of you"? What a the New Testament. Professor Ernest Scott feels collection of memories Paul had from Philippi! that it has at least three strands of meaning that He could remember that Sabbath day—his first go to make up its total significance. The first is Sabbath in Europe, let us not forget—when he the fellowship of Christians with one another; met with Lydia and some of her friends. And the second is the fellowship of Christians with while he was telling the story of Messiah Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit; and thirdly, the —as Arthur Way puts it in his translation—the fellowship or partnership of sharing, of Lord opened Lydia's heart, and this shrewd stewardship, of doing what these Philippians and probably rather wealthy business woman had actually done where Paul was concerned, became the first-fruits of the Gospel in Europe. taking their material substance and sharing it in "Every remembrance of you." Christ's name with one of the pastors of Or that morning in the pre-dawn darkness Christ's Church. Now Paul says to them, I am when the Philippian jailor, after the earth- thankful for your partnership with me in the quake, and after Paul and Silas had been re- Gospel. The fact that Paul regarded them as leased, came and bathed the bleeding, battered partners seems to me to be an indication of the backs of these servants of Jesus Christ, and sheer greatness of his soul. He did not look that morning became a Christian. Or those down upon them; they were partners with him. former occasions when these Philippians had And here is this interlacing and interlocking done what they had latterly done, when they of love and life and service, in the community had given him material aid, and aid also for of the Christian Church. I wish we made more the poor Christians in Jerusalem. "Every re- of it than most of us do. membrance"—the joy of recollection: a great Then there is the joy of anticipation: "I am thing, isn't it, to have such an inventory of sure that He who began a good work in you memories to think back over, and to provide will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus
35 Christ." I find myself wishing sometimes that the Greek word for love: but I say it that way passages like this could be taken for just what because this is not mere human affection, it is they say, without trying to run them through not sentimental love, it is certainly not erotic the mangle of some rigid theological notion or a sensual love, in the sinister or the more that some people may have—or even convic- legitimate meaning of sensual love. It isn't tions, as far as that's concerned. Beloved, the that. This is divine love. This is the love that, Bible is a book of extremes, but it is also a as someone has said, supplies its own motives. book of balance, if you will follow it through You see, it begins with God: God did not love to the end. Paul would say sometimes, in us because we deserved it; we deserved hell. certain situations, rather extreme things—and But He loved us because of the grace that was if you were to put a period right there, an within His heart; that is, He loved us as an ultimate full stop, you might not get the full expression, not of our deserving, but of His truth. But follow Paul on a little way, and compassion. And in that love, and as a he will say something else that does not con- demonstration of that love, He gave us His tradict it, but complements it, and gives you well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Now this love the full truth. So it is in this very epistle. is reciprocal; that is, when we receive it, when Later, Paul is going to say to these Philippian we really gaze upon Calvary, and the Holy Christians that he wants them to hold fast the Spirit enables us to realise, by a love that we word of life, lest it be shown that he, their did not deserve, through a holiness of which spiritual leader, had run in vain, and laboured we can never be anything but unworthy, we in vain (2:16). Now, get those two things, and have been redeemed. We have been trans- hold them as two hemispheres that form one formed. We have been fashioned anew, and complete sphere. Paul says here, "I am sure are being conformed to the image of His Son. that He who has begun a good work in you It has an evoking effect. It is reciprocal love. will bring it to completion at the day of Then we begin to know the meaning of the Christ." I see you, Paul seems to cry, as you simple lines— will finally be clothed in the Resurrection brightness of your Lord, and I am reminding My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art you and reminding myself that it was neither mine; of your deserving nor of your doing that the For Thee all the pleasures of sin I resign: work of grace was begun in you. And it will My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art be neither of your deserving nor of your doing Thou: that that work will at last be complete. It will If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. be His mercy and His might all the way: the Initiator is also God the Finisher. Let us be But I suspect that Bishop Moule is right when thankful. he takes the position that the phrase, "your Thus, with the joy of recollection, the joy of love"—"that your love may abound yet more intercession, the joy of participation, and the and more"—signifies that these who have ex- joy of anticipation, the apostolic heart flows perienced the love of God in Christ and are on and out in affectionate grace. And if any responding to it, must let that response not only one complains that Paul is going to excess in go up to the Lord Jesus, but go out to their this outpouring of love toward these Philip- fellow-Christians. If you really love the Lord, pians, he is ready to take exception: he says you love those whom He loves. And Paul in v. 7, "It is right for me to feel thus about says, "I want that; I'm praying for that in your you all." He says it quite deliberately, you experience, that your love may abound yet see; and he adds strongly, that it is with the more and more." very affection—here is a wonderful word—it The word "abound" is an interesting one is with the very affection of Christ Jesus that —and I hope you are interested in words! he loves them and longs for them. Forgetting now the Greek word for "abound," Now the soul of this absent pastor turns just take the Latin word from which we get from song to supplication, and so we have— our English word "abound." It literally means "wave after wave"; it is an oceanic thing. Paul II. THE APOSTLE'S PRAYER-9-11. "It is my says, "Don't dole out your love to the brothers prayer that your love may abound yet more and the sisters in parsimonious pinches! Let and more, with knowledge and all discern- that love cascade out!" That is what he is ment." Just a word about the petition itself: praying for. That your love may abound, "That your love may abound yet more and wave after wave; and not only toward the more." This is agape-love: now I know that source of all love, the Lord Jesus, but toward is a redundant way of speaking, for agape is others who, like you, are undeserving of His
36 love. Well, that is the petition itself. dangerous. But love giving itself to hard think- Now this petition has an implication, and I ing and sensitive discrimination, is a delight shall only touch on this. Beloved, before love to God and a priceless benediction to the can abound, it must first abide. You can't Church community, and to society at large. grow in love in the Christian sense unless the Take, for example, this important distinction, love of God has been "shed abroad in your which I am afraid many of us overlook, hearts," as Paul has it in Romans 5, "by the between the absolutes of the Christian revela- Holy Ghost who is given unto us." It is no tion, and the relativities. Now there are abso- use to try to pump this up, work it up, lutes. There is an absolute where idolatry is generate it by self-effort. It is true that you concerned. But there are also relativities. Take will need to maintain a disciplined attitude, a the matter of the principle of giving thanks. disciplined spirit, in order that the Spirit of Nobody can question that the principle of God may increase the range and enrich the giving thanks is a sound Biblical principle, but expression of Christ's love in you toward it can be quite wrong in application in a given others; but the implication is that it will situation. I simply remind you that in the early never abound until it is first abiding. It period of our Lord's public ministry He healed must be a gift before it can be a growth. a leper, and said to him, "See that thou say Now what about the direction in which this nothing to any man." The man was thrilled prayer proceeds? Well, Paul says, "It is my over his deliverance, and just as thankful as prayer that your love may abound more and thrilled; and ignoring the Master's instruction more, with knowledge and all discernment, so "he went out," says Mark, "and began to that you may approve what is excellent." Let publish it much, and to blaze abroad the us be very frank about this. If we are going matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more to be New Testament Christians, it must be openly enter into the city" (Mark 1:40-45). made clear to us that there is no rift between Now, it is a good thing to give thanks, but the enkindled heart and the enlightened mind. in a given situation it may not be the right And I should like to add that light without love thing. For that man, in that situation, at that can be awfully cold, as cold as an iceberg in stage of our Lord's ministry, the right thing the moonlight. But on the other hand, love would have been the obedience of silence. without light can be disastrous, as disastrous There are relativities in the Christian life. as a forest fire in the grasses. Here is Paul's Take the matter of modesty. I was brought balance. Not merely the love of impulse, but up in a minister's home by some of the sternest the love of insight, is the thing for which he is traditions of the Spartans and the Puritans— praying: "That it may abound in knowledge and I shall always be thankful to Almighty and in all discernment." Not long ago I read God for it. Now, my mother both bore me a fine biography of Melanchthon, the man who and reared me without ever wearing a wedding did so much in the Reformation, but whose band. Why? Because even the wedding band work is always overshadowed by that of Martin was put in the category of needless jewellery, Luther. Professor Manschreck, of Duke Uni- and therefore immodest self-display. But when versity, in this book has a very interesting dis- I was a grown man, twenty-five, my father and cussion of Carlstadt and Munzer, two of the mother asked me to go with them on a trip colleagues of Luther and Melanchthon, con- around the world. My mother had never cerning whom we know very little. Now, why travelled abroad, and a very dear friend of do they not appear as larger figures in the hers, who had travelled all over the world, perspective of history? Well, here was one said, "Now, my dear, I know how you feel, reason. These two men, unlike Luther and and how your husband feels, but believe me, Melanchthon, took the position that education you will be seriously misunderstood in some was out of order. They urged young people parts of the world if you don't wear a wedding to leave their schools and colleges, and be band!" And when she arrived in England, satisfied to be Christians in the trades or in she had one on! Had my mother abandoned the crafts. Then Munzer, who was more ex- the sound New Testament principle of modesty treme than Carlstadt, went on to claim that he and simplicity? No! She had only realised had a revelation from God that was superior that if she came to a land like this, to be with- to the Word; and finally reached a point of out that symbol of her married state would be such fanaticism that he declared he was going far more immodest; therefore with love's in- to inaugurate the Kingdom of God by force. sight and love's discrimination, she gave in. God could have used their warmheartedness, That leads me to say in passing, that because but He had severely to discount their hot- our light on these matters of conscience and headedness. Love as unregulated impulse is judgment and sensitivity varies in different
37 parts of the Christian Church and the Christian Only that in every way, whether in pretence or world, we need to be very careful about sitting in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I re- in judgment on each other, and to see to it joice" (vv. 15-17). That is the poise of this that we are stern with ourselves and charitable man. to others. Only so, it seems to be, shall we be Now what is the underlying confidence that "pure and blameless for the day of Christ, makes possible such an unbreakable, unshatter- filled with the fruits of righteousness which able poise as this? Well, look at verse 19: come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and "Yes, and I shall rejoice. For I know that praise of God" (vv. 10, 11). Now come to— through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deli- III. PAUL'S POISE-12-21. As I have verance." Two things underline this confidence already suggested, far away in Philippi the of Paul's. One, the prayers of the saints; and Christians were wondering how things were the other, the power of the Spirit. I doubt if going with Paul. Their concern for him was anybody ever lived in Christian history who very deep; their love for him was very strong, prized mutual intercessory prayer more than for he was a prisoner in Rome, subjected to all St. Paul. He prayed for them—already he has this restriction of movement, and this indignity, assured them of that—every day, with thanks; shall we say, of status. But now look at Paul's and he knows that they are praying for him. magnificent poise in the midst of it all. For This sustains him, this steadies him, even he says, "I want you to know, brethren, that though pagan power imprisons him, and even what has happened to me—my imprisonment though some of his own fellow-Christians out of —has really served to advance the Gospel, so motives of rivalry will exploit his privation in that it has become known throughout the whole order to gain further prestige for themselves. But, praetorian guard and to all the rest that my he says, "You are praying for me." And then imprisonment is for Christ." Ten thousand the Spirit—there far away the prayer reaches soldiers in the praetorian guard; word circu- them—the Spirit is right there within him, lated through them that here is a different kind "closer than breathing, and nearer than hands of prisoner. He is not here for criminal and feet"—the "supply of the Spirit." Now reasons; he is not here for political reasons; whether this means that the Holy Spirit Himself he is here for the sake of this strange One, is the supply, or that the Holy Spirit does the called Christ. And one by one they listened, supplying (it is a fine point, debated by New and for all we know Paul may have had oppor- Testament scholars; and where they get into a tunities for more than just one-by-one witness. tangle, I just take both—I am so greedy, I Anyhow, the Gospel was being advanced. want everything that is there!) I think it is Listen, beloved. Ask the Lord to give you within the New Testament facts to say that the some of this poise of Paul's. To advance the Holy Spirit is the supply, because He is given Gospel is everything: to be chained to a by the Father through the Son. And He, Roman soldier in order to do it, is nothing. dwelling within us, furnishes boundless "What does it matter?" says Paul. "My very resources to enable us to stand fast regardless difficulties have been turned into doors, and of what the circumstances may be. my thwartings have become thoroughfares over which the Gospel has marched forward." The And now, a word about— poise of this man! There are two things to be noted here. One IV. PAUL'S PROBLEM-22-26. He says in v. is, that Paul says, "I am in nothing daunted 21, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" so long as the Gospel is promoted," and (I'll come back to that in just a moment). "If it is secondly, "I am in nothing daunted so to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labour long as Christ is proclaimed." So he goes for me." Now, the dilemma which Paul faces— on to say, "Most of the brethren have been for that is the word used by both Moffatt and made confident in the Lord because of my im- Weymouth, coming on down to verse 23: "I am prisonment, and they are much more bold to hard pressed between the two; I am in a speak the Word of God without fear." That dilemma (as Moffatt has it). My desire is to does not apply at all. "Some indeed preach depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on goodwill. The latter do it out of love, know- your account. Convinced of this, I know that I ing that I am put here for the defence of the shall remain—that is, that my stay is for your Gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of good—and continue with you all, for your partisanship, not sincerely, but thinking to progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? may have ample cause to glory
38 in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you Christ"—he pleads for consistency. "So that again." whether I come and see you, or in absence I Now the dilemma is this: on the one hand, may hear of you that you stand firm in one purely personal desire as a Christian. "I am spirit"—the second plea is for constancy. in a strait betwixt two. I want to depart and Consistency: "Let your manner of life be be with Christ." I think this, in the acute form worthy." Worthy of what? The Gospel. in which Paul experienced it, probably does Secondly, the plea for constancy: "Stand firm not come to younger people: that ought to be in one spirit, with one mind striving side by said, to keep the realism of everything steadily side for the faith of the Gospel." And that before us. A young Christian, for instance, plea for constancy involves two things• a con- may say, "Yes, eventually I desire to depart stancy that must be maintained in the face of and to be with Christ; but I can't say I want persecution: "Not frightened in anything by that for today, because life is before me; Christ your opponents. This is a clear omen to them has claimed me as His own; He has a service of their destruction, but of your salvation, and for me to perform, a ministry for me to carry that from God." It is to be maintained in the out, and so I want to remain in His will and face of persecution; and it must be maintained providence for that." But where Paul was, in the fellowship of pain: "For it has been at his age and in his circumstances, it was a granted to you—this is charis, the gift of God real dilemma; but the desire, purely personal, —for the sake of Christ that you should not is subordinated to a sense of duty: so "I will only believe in Him but also suffer for His remain with you," says Paul. Wonderful to sake, engaged in the same conflict which you have that feeling about it all! A lady was on saw and now hear to be mine." the Atlantic ocean in a terrible storm, and people were panic-stricken; and somebody said Mrs. Lee, a missionary to India, and her to her, "How can you be so calm about this?" husband, lost all six of their children in a And she replied, "Well, maybe one reason is landslide at Darjeeling, in the Himalayas, years that I have two daughters. One of my ago. A friend of mine heard Mrs. Lee tell daughters is in heaven, and the other is in New the story to more than a thousand missionaries York, waiting for me. If the ship gets through at a great conference some years later, and the storm I'll see one of them, and if it goes then conclude by saying, "I thank God for down I'll see the other!" Finally— the sorrow that came to us." And my friend said that as she said it there were tears in her V. PAUL'S PLEA-27-30. "Only let your eyes; but they were tears, not of grief, but of manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of joy.
39 Unconscious Sin
BY THE REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS, BA., B.D.
E are gathered at this Convention in order regenerate days, he confessed sadly in his letter to Wto meet with God; in order to enter into Timothy that he had done it all "ignorantly in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of unbelief." Christ. And if we are to know His blessing, it is Sins committed ignorantly—that is the essential that we should know our sin. The burden of the Psalmist's prayer. "Who can teaching of this Convention is like the rungs discern his errors?" We do not know our own of a ladder, and if we are to know that topmost sins. The depth of our self-ignorance that is the rung of the fulness of the Holy Spirit, it is first thing we have in this text. "Who can essential that we should have our feet upon the discern his errors?" the Psalmist cries out, first rung of the ladder, which is our concern almost in despair. Oh, the depth of self-deception today: a knowledge of that which hinders divine he has discovered in his own heart. His question blessing—sin. Judgment must begin at the house implies that men cannot tell their own faults. of God. We are not capable of marking our own Our text is found in Psalm 19:12, in the examination paper. This is a task for which God Revised Version, "Who can discern his errors? alone is competent. Clear Thou me from hidden faults." The This question involves the limitation of our Psalmist here divides his sins into two groups, his conscience. We cannot always rely upon our conscious and unconscious sins. He calls his conscience to tell us the difference between known sins "presumptuous," because they are right and wrong. Some of us place far too much committed wittingly; but in our text he speaks confidence in the dictates of our conscience. "I do of other and more subtle sins. "Clear Thou me what my conscience tells me, and so long as I from hidden faults"—by which he means faults obey my own conscience I am content." How hidden from himself. many people talk like that! Such We all have our unconscious sins. No unquestioning faith in our conscience is reflective mind can doubt this. How many of unwarranted. Conscience can make serious our sins are committed unawares! The mistakes. It can be wide of the mark. Certainly the Buddhist monks of Ceylon, who recently ultimate sanctions of conscience derive from threatened Christian, Hindu and Moslem God. God has placed the voice of conscience minorities with violence unless they quitted the as a watch-dog to raise the alarm when the island, issued their ugly ultimatum in the intruder would attack the citadel of our souls. name of devotion to the Buddha. Hindus once But this watch-dog can be drugged and put to burned widows with their deceased husbands, as sleep. Conscience can be manipulated and an act of piety. The early New England conditioned; it can be trimmed and tinkered Christians were known to have burned witches with. This is the meaning of the closing verse in in the interests of a pure Christianity. The the Book of Jonah, which describes the people atrocities of the Inquisition were perpetrated by of Nineveh as those who "cannot discern zealots who believed that they were serving the between their right hand and their left." Of cause of truth. Who can discern his errors? course the people of Nineveh had a conscience, But we need go no further than the New but their consciences had been put to sleep. There Testament for a classic example of unconscious are forces which put our consciences to sleep, and sin. When Saul of Tarsus gave his vote for it is well that we should be on our guard Stephen's death, when he hounded and harried against them. the Christians out of Jerusalem, he persecuted Our conscience can be distorted by the the Church in the fervent confidence that he was world, by the sinful environment in which we doing God service. But when, in later life, the live. The advent of a television set into a converted Paul looked back upon the Christian home provides a vivid and sad illus- misguided scene of his un-
40 tration of the debasing effect of a sinful society church does not stand in judgment on us, upon our moral ideals. Perhaps the set was neither does the Lord of glory. brought into the home for the news features But we cannot lay all the blame for these and cultural programmes. There was no in- distorted consciences at the door of a sinful tention of ever allowing the night club to society, or of a backslidden Christian church. The invade the home; but gradually the resistance basic cause of our self-delusion of God's standards to those banned programmes weakened. One lies in ourselves. First, in our disobedience. Are night we turned on the set right into some there not sins under which we once smarted programme which belonged very much to the which are now hidden from us? When you first underworld. It was brilliantly produced, we began to tell a certain lie, were you not a little became interested and intrigued. For the time embarrassed? Did you not feel that it was being we were won over, and only when the contemptible? But what has happened? That programme ended did we realise to our dis- lie has been so repeated that you have begun may that we had enjoyed a programme which to fool yourself into thinking that it is hardly a once we would have vehemently denounced. lie at all. Years ago, perhaps, you stooped to a Is that the story of your home? Is that what sharp practice in business; and after it, how the advent of the television set has meant in did you feel? You felt the pangs of remorse, you your family circle? Certainly there are hun- felt that you had done something that was dreds of Christian families who tolerate by unworthy of your Lord and of your Christian their own firesides and in the heart of their testimony. But now you do it every day and homes evils which once they would have think nothing of it. "It is the way of the loathed. We are mentally and morally con- world," you say, and "business is business." Or ditioned by that television set, and indeed by is it an unholy alliance? You once saw that our papers and our magazines. We must exer- unholy alliance to be starkly wrong; but today you cise the most vigilant and jealous guard over live with that person, and the personality has what we see and hear if we are to keep our overwhelmed the principle. consciences sensitive to God's standard of right Conscience can be shouted down. It can be and wrong. "Brain-washing," you see, is by silenced if we persist in known sin long enough. no means the preserve of Communist coun- Jesus never spoke to Herod Antipas after he tries. Every medium of public propaganda silenced the voice of John the Baptist. To use a tends to manipulate our deepest convictions, familiar illustration, have you ever had the and to make us conform more and more to experience of sleeping in the rear of a house the evil morality of this present world. It whose garden backs on to a railway bank? Did becomes increasingly difficult to prevent our you sleep that first night? All night long you consciences from being toned down and heard those noisy engines puff and chug and diseased by the muggy moral climate in which rattle and whistle. You wished them far away! we live and work. Society all too often cor- But familiarity brought fitful sleep, and after a rupts conscience. few weeks you slept like a top. The engines It is sad to say that even the organised might still puff and chug and rattle and whistle, Church of God can have the same enervating but you slept on as if they were not there. effect upon our souls. We preachers of the Conscience is like that. It is one of the evil Gospel may have much for which to answer weapons of the devil himself to make us in the day of judgment. Like the Pharisees, insensitive to God's holiness. We can be troubled we may be no more than blind leaders of the by the warning voice of conscience, and then blind. How many of our churches are self- shout it down until we become deaf and dead to deluded, as was the church of Laodicea. That it. church was not aware of its own desperate But the fundamental cause of our self- plight. What was our Lord's verdict upon it? deception and distorted consciences lies deeper still. "Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with It lies in the fundamental tragedy of human goods, and in need of nothing; and knowest nature; it is rooted in the fact that we are not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and fallen creatures. "In Adam," says the Bible, "all poor, and blind, and naked . . . " God may die." We were all born in sin and shapen in see fit to put some of us into such a church iniquity. Mothers in this congregation need no as Laodicea as a witness, but let us never proof of this; no mother needs to teach her child forget the spiritual dangers of being in a to lie and cheat and lose his temper. These backsliding church. It is dangerous to be in vices are inbred in every child. Original sin is churches where Christ is not honoured, and our basic tragedy. Sin is in our blood. We have where His Word is not faithfully preached, been grievously perverted and deformed. Our for we may so easily slip into the grievous personalities are error of thinking that because a backslidden
41
marred; the gods of this world have blinded tures, "is Thy servant warned." Not by the our eyes. We can no longer discern our own conscience of this evil world. "The whole faults. Jeremiah, appalled by the degree of world lieth in the evil one." Not by the con- self-deception in fallen human nature, cried science of the best men that we know. "God out, "The heart is deceitful above all things, hath concluded all men under sin." Not by and desperately sick: who can know it?" the conscience of the Church of God: the The depth of our self-ignorance. Church may have a name to live and be dead. Now, secondly, comes the path to self- Not by our own conscience, for even when knowledge. Can anyone, then, know his own our conscience is clear, that is no guarantee heart; or are we self-deceived beyond all that we shall be acquitted at the bar of God's remedy? The Psalmist is not in despair! The eternal justice. The apostle Paul, in 1 Corin- cellar of our hearts may be full of all kinds of thians 4, protests, when he is severely criticised, hidden, depraved thoughts and feelings and that he is innocent. Some of the Corinthian motives. Our subconscious may be plunged church members have levelled certain charges in sinful darkness beyond our view. Yet the against him, and he says, "I am innocent." Psalmist knows of a light which can flood the Then he adds this significant qualification, "I darkest cellars with holy illumination. That am innocent so far as I can tell." So far as I light is the Word of God. can tell, "for," says he, "I know nothing That is the grand theme of Psalm 19—the against myself, yet am I not hereby justified: but perfect adequacy of the Word of God to be he that judgeth me is the Lord." our guide. If our subconscious is dark, the Sin is the transgression of the law of God — Word will illuminate it. If our consciences not, as certain holiness teachers will have it, the are distorted and blunted, the Scriptures will transgression of a known law, but the readjust and make them sensitive. Where we transgression of the law of God, which our are ignorant of sin's true nature, the law of Lord Jesus Christ epitomised in two com- God will educate us. The psalmist here exults mandments—"Thou shalt love the Lord thy over the Scriptures as his final rule of faith God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and conduct. "The law of the Lord," he says, and with all thy strength and with all thy "is perfect"—it is without flaw or error-- mind; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as "converting the soul." It enables a man to thyself." Any infraction, any coming short of take his bearings by God's compass. "The that perfect love to God and perfect love to testimony of the Lord is sure"—it does not my neighbour, is sin. Sin is the transgression of fluctuate; it bears witness to God's eternal the law. Here is the measuring-line by which standards. "The fear of the Lord is clean"— we are to measure ourselves; the compass by the fear which the Word of God produces which we must plot our course; the mirror by leads to true holiness of life. "The judgments which we are to see our own face. This is of the Lord are truth"—they are not relative what God requires of us, that we should values. Here is the written and incarnate keep His law. Only as we bring our all to the Word of God's absolute truth. "By them," scrutiny of God's written and incarnate Word says the psalmist, "is Thy servant warned." It can we discover our hidden, our unknown, our is, you see, the light of God's holy Word unconscious sin, and recognise our true and our alone which banishes the moral darkness of real state in the sight of God. Only as we our unregenerated consciences. bring ourselves under the judgment of God's To change the figure, the Word of God is a Word and allow His Word to search us, shall we mirror in which we see ourselves as we understand what sin is, and be led out into the really are in God's sight. Have you ever been fulness of divine blessing. busy with a job and suddenly been confronted A last word: a prayer for acquittal. All with a mirror—amazed, and perhaps amused this, you see, leads the psalmist to pray, "Clear as well, to see how black your face was! You Thou me from hidden faults." We are guilty of did not know until you looked in the mirror. sins though we know them not. That is the Or, to change the figure again, the Word of warning of Leviticus. "If any one sin and do God is the answer-book by which we must things which the Lord commandeth not to be check our solutions. You know the arith- done, though he knew it not, yet is he guilty, metic books which have the answers at the and shall bear his iniquity." We are guilty of back, which enable us to check our own per- the sin which we have not begun to suspect is in formances. The Word of God is the answer- us. How this drives us to find shelter beneath book, the infallible answer-book by which we the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! How many are to check our own lives. By the Word we there are who see no need of being born again are to measure ourselves. That is the teaching of God's Holy Spirit, of this Psalm. "By them," by the Scrip-
42 who see no need for seeking pardon as an owned. And our God has brought us together undone sinner beneath the Cross of our in order that we may see what up to the Saviour. You say to me, "But I have never moment we do not see. It is the ministry of done anything wrong in my life. I have always His Holy Spirit increasingly to convict His lived a decent life. I do not see the need for people of their sin. It is not His will that the being saved, for being pardoned, and born sins now hidden from our dim and fallen again of God's Holy Spirit." My dear friend, sight should remain so; and .as we wait before do you not see your plight? If you talk in Him, because He is a holy God, we shall this self-righteous, complacent fashion, you are surely find that He will lay bare our hearts. not proclaiming the magnitude of your virtues, It is a dangerous thing to come to a meeting you are only proclaiming the measure of your of this kind: if we come just to meet our blindness. Your plight is just this, of which friends and to have a happy time, nothing may the psalmist speaks: you do not know your happen; but if we mean business, if we do sins. You have not yet had a vision of your- with all our heart long to know the fulness of self as you stand in the presence of a holy the grace of the Gospel of Christ, it is dan- God. But God knows them. Pray that He gerous—for judgment must begin at the House will sensitise your conscience; that He will of God, and the Lord, by His Holy Spirit, take the searchlight of His Word down into will reveal to us the hidden part. Expect Him the very cellar of your being; that He will to reveal your secret sins. And as He does bring the mirror, that you may see yourself so, may God give us grace to be obedient, as you really are. Pray that He will open lest our known sins become presumptuous sins. your eyes, that you may recognise your plight Let us pray to be led on and on through the and come as a sinner to seek pardon at that knowledge of ourselves into deeper and deeper fountain which has been opened for sin and holiness of life. all uncleanness. Not one of us knows the extent of his own Search all my sense, and know my heart, sinfulness; yet we may dare to pray with the Who only canst make known; psalmist, "Clear Thou me from hidden faults." We may dare to ask forgiveness of sins we do And let the deep, the hidden part not yet suspect. What depths of unbelief, of To me be fully shown. pride, and passion and vanity lurk in every human heart. How terrible the sight of our- Thus prostrate I shall learn of Thee, selves can be. Yet the Lord is ready to clear What now I feebly prove, the sins we do not know. For there is infinite That God alone in Christ can be merit in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Unutterable love. He clears us of all sins, original and actual, known and unknown. He forgives that inner And daily and constantly may the prayer of corruption of which we know so little. He our hearts be the closing prayer of the Psalmist: pardons not only the sins that we have seen, "Let the word of my mouth, and the but that greater, vaster iniquity of what we are meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy before Him. Blessed be the God who pardons sight, 0 Lord, my Strength and my the iniquity we have not yet recognised or Redeemer."
43 The Conversion of the Converted BY THE REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON.
I THINK it would be true to say that Peter going to happen, one of which is that you are is one of the best loved characters in the going to strengthen your brethren" (Luke New Testament. There are several reasons for 22:32). So although Peter was converted, there this. First of all, Peter was a very ordinary was a sense in which he still needed to be man. He was a fisherman in the ordinary converted. rough and tumble of life; and Peter was Now, there is no doubt at all about the fact in some ways an ignorant man—he was that Peter really did belong to the Lord. He spoken of in one place as "an unlearned was a believer; he was a regenerate man; he man." He had no special qualifications. Of knew the sweetness of sins forgiven; he course, he knew how to catch fish; but apart was a disciple of Christ; he had had wonderful from that he was just a very ordinary fellow. revelations given to him—you remember the And I suppose that is true of most of us, and Caesarea Philippi revelation, when he said, that is why we love Peter. "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living Then, of course, Peter is loved by most of God," and Jesus said, "Flesh and blood have us because he was so very human. Like our- not revealed it to thee, but my Father which is selves, he was impulsive and impetuous; oh, so in heaven." Moreover Peter was one of the often did Peter fail and fall; and so often did three most intimate friends of our Lord; and Peter speak, and then wish he could get back he was present at the Passover at which our the words, because he spoke so impetuously Lord instituted the Last Supper. All this was and impulsively. And because we fail so much, true of the man, and much more: yet there is we love Peter, don't we? a sense in which Peter still needed to be "fully turned." A third reason why we like Peter, is because Now this raises a tremendous question in he was so wonderfully transformed by the our minds, does it not? Do we need to be power and grace of God. If we read the story converted? Many of us, if not all, have been of Peter as it is recorded for us in the Gospels, born again. We know what it is to trust and then if we turn over to the Acts of the Christ as our Saviour, and we are engaged in Apostles, and on to those letters that came His service—and what a privilege that is. But from the pen of Peter—my, what a transforma- do we still need what Peter needed? Does tion we see. We say to ourselves, "Can this our Lord draw near to us, and say, "When be the same man?" But we know it is the thou art converted—when you are wholly same man—yet not the same, because after turned round; when you are ready to go further Pentecost Peter was completely transformed, with me in your dedication and consecration by the indwelling and infilling of the Holy and abandonment . . ." Spirit. The other day one of our Christian leaders What then is the explanation of the great said that the trouble in our churches is that change that took place in Peter? How can we many of our members are only half converted. account for it? Well, I suggest to you that the That's it. And I would remind you that one explanation lies in the fact that Peter was con- of the prophets has something to say about verted after he was converted. Do you under- Ephraim who was "a cake not turned"—done stand what I mean? You see, Peter was a on one side. And if we read through Luke 22 it believer, and in an initial sense he was a con- is easy to see why Peter still needed to be verted man. Yet there needed to be some- converted; to be brought into a place of com- thing deeper, something more real and radical plete abandonment to his Lord and Master. I in his spiritual experience; therefore our Lord want to pick out some of those reasons; arid said to him, "Peter, when you are converted— perhaps we shall discover that we, too, need fully turned round—then marvellous things are to be converted.
44 First, look at v. 24: "There was also a strife minister unto us. He is our great example. among them, which of them should be I suggest to you that the first reason why accounted the greatest." Notice that this verse Peter needed to be converted, was that this comes after "Jesus took bread and gave thanks matter of his pride had not been dealt with. and break it . . .” (vv. 19, 20). They were The second reason is indicated in v. 33. The gathered round His person, and He was insti- Lord had said, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan tuting the Lord's Supper; and it was against hath desired to have you, that he may sift you the background of that most solemn fact of as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy the broken bread and the poured-out wine, the faith fail not . . . " and Peter replied, "Lord, symbols of our Lord's cross, His blood-shed- I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison ding, His sacrifice, that we read, "And there and to death. Lord, nothing's going to turn was a strife among them, which of them should me aside. I'm absolutely confident that I am be accounted the greatest." Oh, think of it! going to win right through!" And the Lord What dreadful pride is indicated here. And we said, "I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow do not doubt, though we love Peter, that when this day before that thou shalt three times it says there was a strife among them, Peter deny that thou knowest me." was in that little group. "But, Lord, surely that couldn't be! Why. When Dr. Barnhouse was last here, the Lord, I'm going to go right through with you!" thing that struck me most about his ministry You see, Peter was suffering from self- was one little phrase he used—"The way to up confidence. The Lord knew Peter, of course, is down." But what a long time it takes some far better than Peter knew himself And He of us to learn that! The trouble is that we are knows us, too. I wonder if you are a self- not willing to go down, and to be nothing. sufficient person; an independent Christian, Oh, what dreadful pride comes out here. What or if you have come in any measure to the end of is our opinion of ourselves as we meet in the yourself and of your own resources; whether presence of the Lord? I wonder if there is in any way it could be said of you that you any trouble in your church. It is a solemn are nothing, you have nothing, and you can do thing to talk about; but I am going to say this: nothing. For like the apostle, "Not that we are that if there is trouble in your church, it is sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of because of pride on somebody's part. I believe ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." We so that is always true. Pride on the part of a often imagine that we can live the Christian minister, or on the part of the deacons, or life and serve the Lord; and God has to show on the part of the elders, or on the part of a us that we cannot. member, or pride on—is it your part? Some- one who will not get down, and who is un- Do you know how He does it? Well, one willing to say, "I'm sorry; it was my fault. I way He does it—perhaps the only way: "Satan made a mistake. I shouldn't have said it. I hath desired to have you, that he may sift you shouldn't have done it." What a long time it as wheat." Well, thank God for the removal takes some of us to get to the point where of the chaff of self-confidence. Maybe the we are willing to put aside our wretched, Lord is saying, "You know, I love you. You horrible pride, and to get right down low at are my child; but 'when thou art converted'— Jesus' feet. Can you apologise, when you have when this self-confidence has been smashed done something or said something that you and broken, and you are willing to find your ought not? That is a good test as to whether all-sufficiency in me, then when thou art con- there is anything of the grace of humility verted. . ." I love the story of the young operative in your heart and life. student preparing for the Christian ministry, Look at vv. 26, 27: "Jesus said, He that is who went out to preach for the first time. He greatest among you, let him be as the younger; mounted the pulpit with confidence; but alas, and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. halfway through he broke down, and had to For which is greater, after all, he that sitteth finish his sermon very confusedly. A dear old at meat, or he that serveth? Is not 'he that deacon came up to him afterward and said, sitteth at meat? And I am among you as He "You know, young man, if you had gone up that serveth." What a wonderful word that is. as you came down, you would have come down The Lord Jesus, the King of Glory, the high as you went up!" What a lesson that is for and lofty One, the One upon whom rests all some of us to learn, and how slow we are to the majesty and glory and dignity of heaven, learn it. Tell me, do you need to be converted? came and dwelt among men; and He was Notice the third reason why Peter still among men as a servant, as a slave, not to be needed to be converted in this fuller sense: vv. waited upon and to be ministered unto, but to 44-46, "And being in an agony Jesus prayed
45 more earnestly, and His sweat was as it were chairman of the missionary society in which she great drops of blood falling down to the was working, and the chairman asked her, "How is ground. And when He rose up from prayer, it that you can't work with this other missionary?" and was come to His disciples, He found them She replied—and I say this tenderly, because sleeping for sorrow; and He said unto them, some of us know something about this, to our Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter own condemnation: "The reason is that every into temptation." It is quite obvious that these time she comes near me, she puts my back up!" disciples knew little of what Paul calls "the And do you know what the chairman said? "My fellowship of His sufferings." Of course there dear sister, don't you realise that by now you was much about these moments in Gethsamane shouldn't have a back that goes up?" What a that the disciples could not enter into; but they great thing it would have been if we only realised failed badly, for three times our Lord gently and that when things provoke us and the devil tempts lovingly rebuked them for sleeping: "Could ye not us and others make us want to put our backs up, watch with me one hour?" This makes me ask these are occasions to die and to glorify the myself and ask you, What about our prayer-life? Lord and to be triumphant through the power I know it is the elementary thing in Christian of grace divine. Tell me, does your back go up? experience and service, but what about it? And Is that why there is trouble in your missionary what about our concern for the souls of others? society, or in your church? What a grand Does the Lord come to us and say, "You need thing it would be if you should go back from to be converted. You are not entering into the Keswick with a converted back! deep things at all. You don't pray, and you're Then the fifth reason, in v. 54: "They took not really concerned about the salvation of men Jesus, and led Him to the high priest's house. And and women. You are enjoying the Christian life, Peter followed afar off." Think of it, the man but you are not —as Mr. Duncan reminded us on who was ready to die for Him: "Lord, I'll go Saturday—getting under the burden, and right through with You; I'll die for You and with entering into our Lord's compassion over a lost You." Now what's happening? Face up to it humanity." Some years ago a lady came to me honestly: are you following afar off? You're still a after a meeting with tears running down her face, Christian, and you still love the Lord, and serve and said, "I've been a Christian ten years, and I Him; you are prepared to belong to Him, and . . haven't even tried to lead another soul to . oh, so many things are true of you, as they were Christ." Her friend was standing by her side, true of Peter. But you are out of touch with also shedding tears, and she said, "It's worse Christ, and the song in your heart—or the dirge in with me. I've been a Christian and a member of your heart—is, "What peaceful hours I once this church for fourteen years, and I've not even enjoyed: how sweet their memory still." But it tried to lead a soul to the Lord"—not even is a past experience. tried. I remember a person coming to me, and I can Do you not think that was one reason why still see the anguish in her face and hear it in Peter still needed to be converted? And may it her voice as she said, "When I married my not be the reason why some of us who are at husband, whom I dearly love, we used to spend a ease in Zion still need to be converted in this long time in prayer every day. He used to go fuller sense? out with a burning desire to win someone else Look at the fourth reason, in v. 50: "And for Christ. He was a bright and shining witness. I one of them smote the servant of the high don't know what's happened, but now he hardly priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus ever seems to pray, he hardly ever seems to answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And He open his Bible, and it's a long, long time since touched his ear, and healed him "Oh, Peter, I've even heard of him speaking to anybody about you were very rash there! That was the Lord." Following afar off. He used to do impetuous and impulsive; that was carnal, these things. Past tense. You used to do these wasn't it? That was fleshly energy. One of things. What has happened? What a great thing our commentators has said, "How busy we it would be if you would admit that you have keep the Lord putting on ears that we have been backsliding, that you have grown cold and rashly and mistakenly cut off." Perfectly true, careless, and have lost your joy and peace and isn't it? Oh, the rash words we speak, oh the power; and the Lord has brought you here to tell- rash letters we write, oh the rash actions we engage you something—that you need to be converted. in, oh the rash tempers that flash out because Then there's the sixth reason, in v. 55: they are not under the control of the Holy Spirit. "When they had kindled a fire in the midst of Not long ago a missionary stood before the
46 the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat said, Man, I am not. And about the space of down among them" — among the Christ- one hour after another confidently affirmed, rejectors, among the world, where all his iden- saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with tity as a follower of the Lamb of God was Him, for he is a Galilean. And Peter said, gone. Where was Jesus? In the judgment Man, I know not what thou sayest. And im- hall. And where was Peter? Mixed up in the mediately, while he spake, the cock crew." world. "Blessed is the man that walketh not Oh, Peter, how you shame us; for we are all in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in guilty just here. Now, isn't it easy to see why the way of sinners, not sitteth in the seat of Peter needed to be converted; isn't it easy to the scornful." But that was what Peter was see also why some of us need still be converted? doing. Oh, Peter, have you gone back to the Will you admit it? world—and so soon after telling the Lord that I want to show you something very precious you were going to be all out for Him? Are and comforting as I close. In v. 32: "When you among the world now, sitting by the thou art turned again, strengthen thy brethren"; world's fire? and in v. 61, "And the Lord turned—the same Edith was converted in an evangelistic cam- word—and looked upon Peter, and Peter paign; and she did so long that John her hus- remembered the word of the Lord, how He band should be converted too. She prayed for had said unto him, Before the cock crow thou him, and she spoke to him. One day John shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and came to Edith and said, "Look here, I'm get- wept bitterly." Oh, that look, and that pardon ting fed up with this. There is a barrage going and invitation and restoration. Has the Lord on; wherever I turn you're against me. You're Jesus, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, yet trying to persuade me to become a Christian, whose eyes are filled with most tender love and but I can't see anything in it," "Oh, but surely compassion and desire for you, looked upon you can?" she said. "Now look here," he said, you this afternoon? "I go to the cinema, but so do you. I fill in On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples football pools, but so do you. I smoke, but were all gathered together in one place with so do you. I sometimes swear when I'm pro- one accord, they were all—Peter included— voked, but then, Edith, so do you. I get angry filled with the Holy Ghost. Then it was that when your mother comes, but then so do you. Peter was converted, "right about turn," com- What I want to know is, what's the difference? pletely brought into adjustment to his Lord, You say you are a Christian, and I don't. But and his whole personality brought under the what's the difference? Of course, I know that sway and dominion and sovereignty of Christ. you go to church, but otherwise, what's the And if we would get to that place where the difference?" And what's the difference when Holy Spirit, who dwells in our trusting, be- Peter is warming himself at the world's fire? lieving hearts, takes full possession of our Are you a worldling? If so, you need to be whole being, so that we can truly say, "By Thy converted. grace I am under Thy sway, Lord," then it will And the seventh reason is in vv. 56-60—and be that God in heaven will be able to say of us, notice the progression in these verses, from bad "This is a converted man in the full sense of to worse. "A maid beheld him as he sat by the word. This woman's a converted the fire, and earnestly looked upon him and woman." said, This man was also with Jesus. And Peter "When thou art converted, Peter, what a denied Him, saying, Woman, I know Him strength you'll be to your brethren." And not. And after a little while another saw him, what a strength Peter was. and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter Do you need still to be converted?
47 A Time of Finding
BY DR. PAUL REES.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I keep silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring—or better, my groaning —all the day along. For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found . . .—Psalm 32: 1-6. IF you have the Revised Version before you, Scripture again and again the "hand of God" you will observe that there is a slight altera- is a symbol of God in action; God's power. tion suggested in the margin, for verse 6. Sometimes it is His power in mercy and in Instead of "in a time when Thou mayest be grace, and sometimes it is His power in judg- found," it reads "in a time of finding” The ment, in conviction, in condemnation. "The reason for that is that Hebrew scholars have hand of the Lord was against them of Ashdod, found this phrase an exceedingly difficult one and He smote them." Now, says this man, to translate into English. There are some who whose life has been broken on the wheel of think that David is speaking here of the great sin, this royal sinner, this man whose con- times of stress and perhaps of catastrophe in science has been stained with the foulest of the life of the children of Israel, when they sin, and then, thanks to the miracle of the cried unto God for His help and deliverance— grace of God, utterly healed—this man says, and were not left without that help and deli- There was a time when I felt the pressure verance. That is an experience which all of of God's condemning and convicting hand us have had at one time or another, if we upon me, until it seemed that I would die. have been living the Christian life. The other "Day and night Thy hand was heavy upon point of view from which this text may be me." To whom am I speaking tonight who is considered, is quite different. We think of the aware—perhaps only dimly aware, or maybe Psalmist as speaking here against the back- clearly aware—that God's hand, the hand of a ground of his own experience of sin and holy God, has been upon you disapprovingly, failure. Out of that experience, in which at condemningly, convincingly; and that in con- last he found, to his unutterable relief and un- sequence life has been a wretched thing for utterable joy, the forgiveness and the cleansing you? There has been no peace in it, there and the peace of God, he now says: "If you has been no joy in it, there has been no sense really want to find yourself, if you really want of self-fulfilment in it. You somehow know to find God, if you really want to find the way that you are a misfit—that is what man is in of life, this is what you must do. I had to do God's world who is not in God's will; who it; it is inescapable. This is essentially what has sinned and has not been dealt with. He must be done." Many of us have already is a misfit. It does not matter where you live, found during these Convention days that this it may be a palace or a hovel, things are just is a place and this is a time of discovery— not right if the hand of God is convictingly discovery within ourselves, self-discovery, self- upon you. disclosure; and it is not pleasant. Yet that Secondly, I would suggest that we have not is the very thing that is the prelude of blessing. only the soul's conviction, but the soul's con- First, let me speak of what I shall call the cealment. The Psalmist says in verse 3, "when I soul's conviction. In the fourth verse we have kept silence." When I refuse to be open a figurative phrase—"For day and night Thy with God, when I refuse to face up to my hand was heavy upon me." Now, in Holy sin—the hypocrisy of it, the immorality of it,
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the murder of it—"when I kept silence, my boundary. In the United States, frequently bones waxed old through my groaning all the you will see this sign--"No trespassing." day long. You had a distinguished man in this Maybe it is a forest preserve. Men want to go land of yours, Sir Oliver Lodge, who said, in there and hunt, but they are not allowed to do "Modern man is not worrying about his sins." I so—no trespassing. To go beyond this point is disagree, for man is worrying about his sins. to violate the law. Do you know what sin is? What is characteristic of modern man is that he Do you know what sin has been in the lives of is worrying about them without being willing to some of us? It has been for us to take this will call them sins. That is why you have so many of ours and fling it against God Almighty's "no mental hospitals, provided for people with all trespassing" sign. God said, "Thou shalt not," sorts of emotional and nervous disorders and and we did. He said, "Thou shalt not have any breakdowns. That is why there are so many other gods before me," and we have let anxieties, so many phobias, so many suicides. It something else become the supreme allegiance is sin in the life, and we are worrying about it, of our lives. It may be a passion, it may be a even though we are not willing to call it by its lust, it may be a friendship, it may be a Biblical name, and we are not quite willing to mania for making money. God said, "Thou be honest about it; sometimes, alas, because in shalt not," and we did. He said, "Remember the neo-paganism of our time people do not the sahbath day, to keep it holy," and we did know their Bibles well enough to know what to not do it. He said, "Thou shalt not commit call it. In other cases, where there is a mind that adultery," and we have committed adultery. He is better informed and a conscience that has laid said, "Thou shalt not murder," and if we upon it the burden of the truth of God have not murdered in the full criminal, legal Almighty's revelation, we do know what to call sense, we have had hatred in our hearts, which it but we are not quite honest about it. "When I Jesus says is the equivalent of murder. I knelt kept silence." Remember that unconfessed sin beside an aged church member, a lady, in one of remains unforgiven sin. Let me speak from the our middle county towns in mid-America some point of view of the New Testament revelation of time ago. As the Spirit of God dealt with the Gospel, the good news of the Gospel in that woman, and she acknowledged that she had Christ: unconfessed sin never, never goes revenge in her heart against another member of under the blood. If you want your sin under the the church, instead of her finding release that blood of Christ—and if it is not under the blood night, she got up from her knees and shaking of Christ, it is on you, whoever you are —then her head, said, "I will not forgive her." We confess it. have flung ourselves against God Almighty's That leads to the third consideration, the "no trespassing" sign. soul's confession. "When I kept silence, my The next word here is also in verse 1—the bones worked old through my roaring." I word sin. This corresponds to a very familiar actually was getting old before my time. This Greek word for sin in the New Testament, and thing was such a disturbing, such a pestering unlike "transgression" this is more negative: this factor in my life. Then, "I acknowledged my is falling short, coming short of the mark. What sin" (v. 5). Here comes the way out. "I is the sin that needs to be confessed in acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine our lives? It is not only the sin of iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess having violated God's "no trespassing" my transgressions unto the Lord . . ." Now let sign, having gone ahead when God said, us analyse this. What is there here to be faced? "Thus far and no farther": this is the sin of What is there here to be confessed? Under the having failed to do what we know God had convicting hand of God, and now no longer ordered for our lives. "To him that knoweth determined to conceal, but rather willing to face to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." up to things with honesty, and without evasion: When the younger of my two daughters was a what is there to confess? I should like to deal little less than five years old, one cold autumn very briefly with four revealing words that are night in Minneapolis I was downstairs, and found in this brief lesson and form part of our she and her brother, who is two years older context. than she is, were talking upstairs; and I could First is the word transgression {v. 1). Now we tell from the tone of their voices that they were in are not concerned at this moment with the some deep discussion. Presently my little blessedness of the man whose transgression is daughter came to the head of the stairs, and forgiven. That comes later. I am concerned called down, "Daddy!" I said "Yes?" "Isn't it now with what precedes the blessing. The sin if you know you ought to do a thing and you confession of transgression as transgression. don't do it?" Five and seven, they had been The word means, literally, to pass beyond a
49 in theology! Is it not sin when you know you sheba and Uriah affair. What frightful ought to do a thing and you don't do it? There is hypocrisy! What pretence! Short of that, a lady in a far away city tonight, who only a there are many forms that guile can take. I was few weeks ago had a wonderful meeting with preaching in a college some time ago, and a the Lord, after literally years of spiritual young lady asked to see me for counselling. She fumbling, making a wretched mess of her life; said, "I know this will not be strange and and when she really came back into line with shocking to you, but God has made me so God's will, the first thing she said to me was (she ashamed of it I feel I must make confession of is a supervising nurse): "I should have been on it, and I want Him to release me from it." She the mission field years ago." You can sin said, "I have such a craving for the attention of against God by your evasions, as certainly as by people, such a desire to be the centre of your transgressions. This is to be confessed. attention, At times I have actually pretended Take this next word—in fact, the next two. to faint, because I knew people would hover over They are most searching words, and both in me, and I would be the centre of attention." I verse 2. First, iniquity, literally inequity, that grant you that is an extreme case. A which is uneven. What is there in your life that psychiatrist might want to say something about has made you so vacillating, so mercurial, so up it. But, believe me, there are many subtle and down, so spiritually undependable? Whatever ways in which people want to draw attention to it is, face it, pray about it, talk to God about it. themselves. The whole thing is guile; it is deceit. Whatever you do, do not be indifferent to it. Are you prepared to let the Lord go right down The next word, guile—"In whose spirit there is to the very depths of your spirit, and purge you no guile." My dear friends, you and I will never of your guile? That is the confession to be made. get to the bottom of the sin-problem until we And in this final moment may I simply say by realise that sin is more than something we do; way of reviewing our text, "For this shall every sin is something we are. "In whose spirit one who is godly—concerned about godliness— there is no guile." There had been guile in pray unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be David's spirit, and he knew it. There has been found." There is the soul's crisis. A time of guile in his whole handling, or mishandling finding. This, I deeply believe, is your time one should say, of the Bath- of finding. God grant that it shall be so.
50 Lord, Is It I? By THE Rev. FRANCIS W. DIXON.
And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto Jesus, Lord, is it I?—MATTHEW 26:22.
HEY were in the upper room together: around Him. Do you wish you could have Jesus, and the twelve. Just a little while been there? I wonder. Wait a moment before previouslyT He had washed their feet, and now you answer—and yet, it is just like that now; they were to celebrate the last Passover and after all, He is here sitting down with us: not He was to institute the Lord's Supper. It with the twelve now, not with Peter and John was a most solemn time; indeed, it was the and James and the others, but with us here, for last time they were to be together, for soon "where two or three are gathered together in my would be the anguish and the shame of name, there am I in the midst of them." The Gethsemane, the arrest, the trial and the most wonderful and blessed and significant dreadful cross. And suddenly, John tells us thing about this service at Keswick tonight, is in his Gospel, our Lord became troubled in that the Lord is in the midst. spirit. Evidently John was watching the Lord, We know the truth of this so well in theory, for he was sitting near to Him and leaning but could we pause a moment and ask our- upon His breast, and he noticed upon His face selves the question, Do we not sometimes fail a look of trouble, a shadow of anguish that in the experience of this, in the experimental was a– reflection of His spirit. Then it was realisation of the fact that we have come into that our Lord made this dreadful prediction, the presence of the Lord, to meet with Him. "One of you shall betray me." He is here in our midst, and we are here with Then what happened? "They were exceeding Him. How humbled we should be. How sorrowful, and began every one of them to dreadful is His presence, the presence of Him say unto Him, Lord, is it I?" Peter said it, with whom we have to do; and equally how and John said it, and Andrew said it, and joyful we should be, how reverent, loving, James said it, and Matthew said it, and worshipful and adoring we should be. Have we Bartholomew said it, and all the others said really come to meet with the Lord, and to get to it, and Judas Iscariot said it ; and if you and know what He has to say to us? "When the even if I had been there, we would have said it— was come"—it is just like that now—the evening "Lord, is it I?" In fact, I want us in thought time. He sat down with them: the fellowship and in spirit to go there for these few they shared. Then we notice in this context— moments, and notice some of the experiences that these twelve had in the presence of their II. THE WARNING THEY RECEIVED. Lord that have a direct spiritual bearing upon "As they did eat He said, Verily I say unto ourselves. Indeed, there are marks of you, that one of you shall betray me" (v. 21). similarity between that upper room experience This must have been a shock to those disciples. of long ago, and this upper room experience Of course, it was no shock to our Lord. that we are enjoying at this moment. Look You may wonder why I say that. I say that into that upper room and notice, first— for this reason, that I heard it suggested a little while ago over the wireless that it must I. THE FELLOWSHIP THEY SHARED. have been a tremendous shock to our Lord "Now when the even was come, He sat Jesus when He realised that He must die. down with the twelve. And as they did eat That, of course, is blasphemy. Why, our . . ." (vv. 20, 21). That was real fellowship Lord was born to die, and He knew it. His over a meal, was it not? Just picture the scene. The Lord Jesus had gathered the twelve
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death was not accidental or uncalculated or III. THE SORROW THEY EXPERIENCED. unexpected. He came to die, for only thus Jesus said, "Verily, I say unto you, that one could you and I be redeemed and brought of you shall betray me. And they were into His family and into His favour. But, of exceeding sorrowful." What is your reaction course, these twelve were so slow to under- to your sin and failure; and what is your stand. They still hoped that our Lord was reaction when you remember that it hurts the just about to set up a glorious earthly king- Saviour? "One of you shall betray me"— dom of splendour; but the Lord Jesus knew you are going to act in such a way as will that soon He would be arrested, and tried, and actually mean that I shall be arrested and then crucified on the cruel and bitter cross. hung upon the cross. When they heard that And He knew the part that Judas was going their reaction was this: they were exceeding to play in all this—indeed the part he had sorrowful. And I think they were sorrowful already played in this dreadful matter. for two reasons. First, because they knew the Just think of it, my friends, the Lord Jesus depth of evil in their own hearts. They knew sold for thirty pieces of silver. I wonder what what has been described in days gone by from price we put upon Him tonight? Remember, this platform, quite rightly and Scripturally, as He is the altogether lovely one, He is the the "the plague of the human heart." Oh, darling of the heart of God, He is the fairest the capabilities for evil that were within them! one in heaven, He is the one whom God has That was one reason why they were sorrowful. exalted and upon whose brow He has put And another reason was because this evil all the dignity and honour and royalty of thing that our Lord was speaking of, this heaven itself. What price do we put upon betrayal, was going to mean the death of their this all-glorious one? Judas betrayed Him dear Lord. Oh, beloved, when we think of with a kiss and sold Him for thirty pieces of what our sin, our failure, our carnality, our silver—the equivalent, perhaps, of three or four inconsistency does to Him, are we not exceed- pounds in our money. And our Lord knew ing sorrowful? I know there is a sense in and expected all that was about to happen; which we need to look away from ourselves.. in fact He predicted it, for it was a matter of I am quite sure that one of the reasons why prophecy—"Yea, mine own familar friend, in Christians so often get into bondage, and fail whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, and are overcome and defeated, are joyless hath lifted up his heel against me." The Lord and useless, is that they will keep on looking Jesus knew all about Judas and what he was at themselves, instead of looking off unto going to do and how it would affect Him ; Jesus. There is a real danger of morbid intro- and He knows all about us. spection; but there is a time and a place for it, and this is the time of finding the Lord Now, let us forget Judas who betrayed the and His forgiveness and His purpose and His Lord. What about ourselves: have we not grace. Oh, let us search and try our ways. failed Him in so many ways? As we sit in HIS "Search me, 0 God, and know my heart ; presence, are we not smitten with a deep try me, and know my thoughts: and see if consciousness of our own sinfulness and un- there be any wicked way in me." worthiness? "Depart from me, 0 Lord, for I am a sinful man." Oh, let us be very slow Search me, 0 God! any actions try, to condemn Judas. Have we never betrayed And let my life appear Him? Do we love Him as we should? Are As seen by Thine all-searching eye, we not sometimes, as Judas was, hard and To mine my ways make clear. calculating, and yet withal hypercritical, like Judas? Do we not let the Lord down by our un-Christlike ways, by our pride, our envy Search all my sense, and know my heart, and jealousy and irritability and temper and Who only canst make known; selfishness? All these unworthy things, how And let the deep, the hidden part do we feel about them, as we sit in the To me be fully shown. presence of the Lord of glory? Do we not Throw light into the darkened cells, over and over again, in the words of the Where passion reigns within; writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, "Crucify Quicken my conscience till it feels the Son of God afresh." Oh beloved, the Lord knew all that was in the heart of Judas, The loathsomeness of sin. and He knows all that is in your heart and Search all my thoughts, the secret springs, my heart; and referring to Judas, He said, The motives that control; "One of you shall betray me." What took The chambers where polluted things place next? The third thing is- Hold empire o'er the soul.
52 Tell me, Christian, what happens when you tried to hide the thing that he had done. He tell a lie? Are you filled with sorrow? "They committed this secret sin; it was a hidden sin in were exceeding sorrowful . . ." Tell me, his life, something that no one else knew about Christian, what happens when you lose your until a given moment of time, It was a secret temper, when pride rises up within you, when sin—"Lord, is it I?" you are gripped by the passion of jealousy, And Miriam, what did she do? She spoke when unbelief is such a real thing, when you against the Lord's servant Moses. And God's find you are not trusting God, even after judgment came upon her, and she was stricken years of Christian profession and service? Oh, with leprosy. She was like a person who I heard of a dear brother who, after several speaks against her minister, or who, behind years of witnessing for the Lord, was tripped the scenes, wrecks the church because of her up by the enemy, and went back and took idle, unkind, devilish gossip. Speaking against a lot of drink and got drunk. And do you the Lord's anointed. Undisciplined, careless, know, the Christians in the church of which out of touch with God, an instrument of Satan he was a member cold-shouldered him—a within the assembly of God's people. Oh, dreadful thing. The pastor called a meeting Lord, is it I? of the church, and said, "Last night I went Samson, David—why is it that these sins of to see brother so-and-so. He is unwell, and I the flesh, these things that have to do with found him in bed; and as I went to his bedside unbridled passions, things that have to do with and knelt there to speak with him and counsel lust, why are they so often mentioned in the with him, I found that his pillow was sodden Holy Word of God? Because, my dear with his tears." It is a dreadful thing to grieve friends, there is an instinct within us so strong the Lord; and it is a wonderful thing to have a that if it is not brought under the lordship of tender conscience, responsive to the gracious Christ and the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, ministry of the Holy Spirit, who in our time it will wreck our lives spiritually. Samson, of failure makes us feel sorrowful and makes David-0 Lord, is it I? And Jonah ran away our heart break within us, and makes us as when God wanted him to do a sudden job those people of whom David speaks, who of work. Lord, is it I? And Peter followed have a humble and a contrite heart. afar off. Ananias and Sapphira—deceit. And The fellowship they shared, the warning Joseph of Arimathea—a disciple of Jesus, but they received, the sorrow they experienced. secretly, for fear of the Jews. John Mark, Now will you notice— who turned back; and Demas, who became a thoroughly worldly Christian-0 Lord, is it I? IV. THE QUESTION THEY ASKED. And Diotrophes—yes, he was a prominent "They began every one of them to say member of the church, and he loved to have unto Him, Lord, is it I?" (v. 22). Notice the pre-eminence; indeed, he had to have the those words, every one. One by one said, "Is it pre-eminence, everything had to minister to I?" And so, as I have already reminded you, himself. He did not faint—oh no, he did not John said it, and Peter said it, and James call attention that way, but he was always said it, and all the others said it. Tell me, pressing to the front and always blustering do you say it? Is the hand of God on you? around; everything had to circle around him. Lord, are You putting Your finger on some- What a tragedy to have a man like that in thing in my life? Notice, they did not say, any assembly of God's people. Diotrophes "Lord, is it John?" Peter did not say, "Lord, who loves to have the pre-eminence, Dio- is it Matthew?" They said, "Lord, is it I?" trophes who must be first. Lord, is it I? Oh. it is a merciful thing to have a tender and an active conscience. Is your conscience Oh, my dear friends, as I stand here and exercised, Christian? Are you sensitive to the say these things, how humbling it all is; but voice of the Holy Spirit? You know, Lot how we thank God for 1 John 1:9, that "if was a righteous man, and he belonged to the we confess our sins, He is faithful and just Lord. But Lot had a saved soul and a lost to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from life. Lot was an unseparated man, a wordly all unrighteousness"—but remember, uncon- man. Lot was the kind of man who, when fessed sin, unrenounced sin, unforsaken sin is he came to the end of the journey, as far as unforgiven sin. we know, was saved by the skin of his teeth, And so I bring you to the last thing in this "saved, though as by fire." "Lord, is it I?" little story— Achan was an Israelite, and as you know, he V. THE SHOCK THEY SUSTAINED. stole something that did not belong to him; "And Jesus answered and said, He that and in order that he might hide his sin, he dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth as
53 it is written of Him; but woe unto him by But when Judas took the sop and kept up whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had his pretence of innocence, it was too late; he been good for that man if he had not been passed over a deadline. But oh, what a born. Then Judas, which betrayed Him, shock it was to the others. Just think of it! answered and said, Master, is it I? And Jesus Judas, the cultured man of that company; said unto him, Thou hast said (vv. 23, 24). Judas the preacher, Judas the healer, Judas the There is something so very solemn there, treasurer, Judas an apostle, but a man who but oh, so wonderful! It does not appear had never been born again. Yet Judas it in this Gospel of Matthew, for the Gospels was; and they saw him get up and go out— are complementary and supplementary; but and it was night. But you need not do that, in the Gospel of John we are told, "Now there thank God. You need not go out and away was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His from the Lord. Indeed, my dear friend, disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter you must not, you dare not, you will not, therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask because you can get right with God now, if who it should be of whom He spake. He then only you will come to Him and respond to lying on Jesus' breast said unto Him, Lord, Him. Will you do that? who is it?" You see, there was a secret con- versation going on, and John whispered to the And so the others, when Judas had gone out, Lord, "Lord, who is it to whom you refer?" were left alone with the Lord Jesus; and that And Jesus answered, "He it is to whom I is where I want to leave you. Oh, forget shall give a sop when I have dipped it." And Judas, and forget the others, and even forget when He had dipped the sop He gave it to yourself, and think only of Him: for it is in Judas Iscariot. But the wonder of it is this, Him, our glorious Lord, that there is all we that the sop was only given as a mark of need in this great and solemn moment of find- affection, of love, of peculiar regard. Oh, ing. I am going to suggest that we bow how wonderful; our Lord wanted Judas to together as we bring this service to a close. know how much He loved him. Judas, I am Let us search and try our ways, and turn to going to single you out. It is true, you are the Lord. "Seek ye the Lord while He may going to betray me; but look, I give you, as be found, call upon Him while He is near: let if you were the honoured guest, the one I love, the wicked forsake his way, and the un- the one I want-0 Judas, come back; do not righteous man his thoughts ; and let him return do this thing—I hand you the sop, Judas, the unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon token of my love for you. There is still time, him; and to our God, for He will abundantly Judas, if only you will repent! pardon." "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."
54 Diagnosis of the Disease of Sin BY THE REV. JAMES PHILIP, M.A.
He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again-2 CORINTHIANS 5: 15.
HEN a doctor is called upon to treat a sick edge of consecration from his life. I have no Wpatient, his first concern must be to diagnose doubt that in these days of holy convocation the real nature of the sickness, and then to the spirit of worldliness will be exposed in prescribe a cure. Everything depends upon a many a heart and many a life. correct and an adequate diagnosis; and Tell me, are you a worldly Christian? Or is without such an accurate diagnosis no really your problem what the New Testament calls effective help can be given to the patient. carnality. Perhaps you are beyond the And that is an analogy which holds good in outward-worldliness stage, but there are things the spiritual life also. There is a bountiful like bitterness and spite and ambition, strife provision in Jesus Christ for a life of and envy, jealousy and impurity and lust—the spiritual wholeness, spiritual health; but we things that corrode the human breast: are these must first get at the very root of our your problem? These are the things which spiritual need, our spiritual malady, before the wrecked the Christian fellowship at Corinth. spiritual cure can be applied in all its fulness What a fellowship that was, what gifts these and power. Christians had, and what potential for God. Yet Now I am sure that we have come together everything was marred by the factions and with a real sense of hunger and longing in our divisions there, and the unholy spirit of hearts; a hunger to know the truth—the truth ambition that riddled that fellowship, Tell me, is about ourselves, and the truth about the riches there trouble in your fellowship; and is it caused of our inheritance in Christ. And the prayer by your petty querulousness, your envy, your of many of us has really been, "Search me, jealousy, your bitter spirit? or are you like 0 God, and know my heart"; and as the Diotrephes, "who loveth to have the pre- white light of God's Holy Spirit probes and eminence"? penetrates into our inmost beings, through the But I believe that the Holy Spirit has yet Word, it is certain that the thoughts of many something deeper to say to our hearts. For hearts are being revealed. although the testimony of the Scriptures is What do you think sin really is? What is against all these things, we have not yet said its true essence? For sin is the spiritual the deepest thing about sin. Paul puts malady with which we are all touched. What his finger at the root of the matter in this is it that the Spirit of God sees in your life verse, when he speaks of men who "live unto and in mine that grieves Him, and that is themselves." This, he says, is what the hindering us from being true and effective Cross of Christ delivers men from: living Christians? In these days is the Holy Ghost unto themselves. And this is one of the convicting you of worldliness? Let us be deepest possible insights into human sin. And quite clear on this matter. Worldly things, until we have understood this fact, we have not worldly considerations, worldly interests, and really begun in the deepest sense to know the worldly people are battling for the allegiance truth about ourselves. Deep down in the heart of our hearts day by day. And there is of each one of us there is a central citadel, at nothing quite so sad as to see the shadow of the very heart of our being, where self reigns the world's hand coming over a Christian's supreme; and every sin that we care to name life, gradually, steadily, imperceptibly; nothing derives its seriousness from the fact that it is the so sad as to see a man being beguiled from expression of this evil and bitter root within the simplicity that is in Christ, losing the fine us, self. A self that is
55 inverted, and perverted against the loving I wonder if you know these words: "The God. last enemy to be destroyed in the believer is I bid you be very, very careful, in your con- self. It dies hard. It will make any con- cern about the deep things of the Spirit, lest cessions if allowed to live. Self will permit you fail to have this problem dealt with. It the believer to do anything, give anything, is a terrible tragedy, and a terribly frightening sacrifice anything, suffer anything, be any- thing when a man under the impression that thing, go anywhere, take any liberties, bear he is being saved from sin, merely changes any crosses, afflict soul and body to any his sins from one set of sins to a more degree, anything, if it only can live. It will respectable set of sins, and calls that the life consent to live in a hovel, in a garret, in the of victory. Satan is quite happy if a man slums, in far away heathendom, if only its should stop let us say—worldly entertain- life can be spared." ments, if by so doing he turns into a smug I put it to you, that that is the real pro- and complacent and censorious and frowning blem with which we are confronted. This is Christian. Satan is quite happy that a man the heart of the matter. The essence of sin should be delivered from quarrelsomeness or is not so much that I do this or do that which envy, or even from lust, if he is going to is evil. It is that in me which is always confirm that man in a life of chronic self- clamouring, "My desires must be satisfied. centredness and self-absorption. We have an My lusts must be gratified. My way must be example of this danger in the parable of the taken. My will must be done." As it is Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee's written in the word of the prophet, "We have religious record was very impressive: let us turned every one to his own way." give the man his due honour. He had taken Now obviously this is going to mean im- his religion with the utmost seriousness. He morality and degeneracy in some people, but said, "I fast twice in the week" . . . do you in others it is going to take much more fast? "1 give tithes of all I possess" ... do respectable and much less obvious turns. But you tithe your income for God? There was whether we are beset with this particular sin no obvious mark of carnality in that man's OT that is not the really important thing, in life. But look at his words again. "I thank face of this terrible, voracious appetite which Thee, God, that I am not as other men . . ." concludes us all under sin in the deepest I fast. I tithe. I, I, I, I. He was completely sense; this thing which causes sins in our self-centred in his religion. He was absorbed lives. Here are some words written by in himself; that was the man's sin, and that William Temple, the late Archbishop of was why he went away unjustified and un- Canterbury: "A great deal too much atten- blessed. He was turned in upon himself. tion," he says, "has been given to sins, as Why, the Scripture even tells us that he compared with sin; and so if it happens that "prayed within himself". "The Pharisee stood I cannot think of any particular wrong thing and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank that I have done, or any particularly good Thee . . ." It seems to me that there is a thing that I might have done and neglected, significance in the conjunction of these two yet still must I ask God to be merciful to me, words: "He prayed thus with himself—God," a sinner. For I share the common sin of That is the truth about that man's life. Self mankind, and make myself in a host of ways was god in his life. Self was his problem. the centre of the world. I think like a man, The real tragedy of his heart was that self and not like God." I make myself in a was entrenched deeply within him: a horrible host of ways the centre of the world. thing. May God, by His Holy Spirit, allow Are you a self-centred Christian? "The us to see what a terrible thing self is in our ground of a certain rich man brought forth life; a voracious thing, a thing with a dread plentifully, and he thought within himself, appetite that sucks in all the virtue that saying, What shall I do, because I have no should go to the glorifying of the Name of room where to bestow my fruits. And he God. And it is this thing that we need by said, This will I do. I will pull down my the Holy Spirit's grace to have uncovered and barns and build greater, and there will I be- exposed to ourselves. We must learn to see stow all my fruits and my goods, and I will it as the loathsome, terrifying thing it is. say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much fruit It is as black as hell. And we must learn laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, how it expresses itself in all manner of ways, drink, and be merry. But God said, Thou and perhaps particularly and supremely in the fool, this night shall thy soul be required of realm of the spiritual life. It is in the thee." Now, what caused his doom? There spiritual life that self takes up its last and final is no mention of dishonesty in that parable; stronghold. no mention of evil living; no mention of
56 unscrupulous dealings in business. But look were rolling down the old man's face. He did at the chronic self-centredness of the man. not think of him. He thought of himself. That No one was ever allowed to break into that was his problem. That lad was a prodigal isolation that he had made for himself. He long before he left home. He was born a locked up himself in a little world all of his prodigal, with self entrenched in the very heart own, and never at any time did he escape of his being. from himself. And that is what sin is. That Think of David; the man after God's own is what is so terrifying and so tragic about heart sinned a great and grievous sin. In sin. passing we may remember that you can sin Let me ask that man some questions. "You David's sin with a look and with a thought, as say, 'What shall I do, because I have no room well as with an act. But if you look at where to bestow my fruits.' What of that poor David's sin more closely, and seek to trace it widow down the road, in dire need? What to its bitter root, this is what you will find: I of the lepers who need care and help? What suppose David had told himself that he loved of the orphans who need a home? What of Bathsheba. But what his secret heart was the hundreds of deserving charities that you saying was different. What his secret heart might have contributed to?" And I think was saying was this, "I love me, and want I can hear him say, "'Why, I never thought her." And there is all the difference between of that. It never occurred to me." Exactly! heaven and hell in these two attitudes. And that is his condemnation. Why did it You see, the terrifying thing about sin is that not occur to him? Because he had never each sin is a twofold reality. Every sin stands seriously thought of anybody except himself. by itself as an affront to a holy God. But it also He had made himself in a host of ways the stands as an expression of a dread reality: a self centre of the world. perverted against Him. May I suggest some An this is the ominous thing. I am quite things that are implied in living unto oneself; sure the man was perfectly unaware that he living selfish, self-centred lives? The man who was self-centred. It would never have dawned lives unto himself is a man who is robbing God. on him—and there are multitudes of Christian And we rob God on two counts. God has people on whom it never seems to have made us for Himself. But more, God has sent dawned, that the deepest truth about them is His Son to die for our salvation, and paid an that they are self-centred; that the real pro- infinitely costly price for us. In these two ways blem of their lives is a self that has never we are owing God a life, twice over. And the been broken, and never been crucified. I do man who lives unto himself is nothing more not know what particular burden or problem than a thief in the sight of God. And the may be weighing on your heart to-night, commandment says, Thou shalt not steal. Will whether it be a vicious habit or a forbidden a man rob God? My dear friend, is this the truth thing, but I ask you in the Name of God to about your life to-night? Are you robbing God trace that thing, whatever it is, back to its of what is His rightful due? roots, and see whether I am not right when Secondly, the man who lives unto himself is I say that the real problem in our lives is committing the sin of idolatry. Sometimes we self, this bitter root that has remained un- sing: disputed within us. What are the crying sins of the Church of The dearest idol I have known, God to-day? Envy? Malice? Ambition? Whate'er that idol be, Temper? Impurity? Uncleanness? I want Help me to tear it from Thy throne, And to say this: we do not commit these sins worship only Thee. primarily because we are weak and wayward, but because we are at heart selfish and self- But for the man who lives unto himself, the centred. Think of the prodigal son. We "dearest idol" is self. That is the dearest idol in know that he was a wayward young man, a self-centred man's heart; and that man will be easily led and impressionable, foolhardy and prepared to part with the dearest thing in life impetuous. But none of these things get to before he is prepared to place self on the altar the root of his problem. The real problem, and let the fire of God burn it out. Self- the real curse of his life was this, that he said centredness is the most refined but also the to his father, "Father, give me the goods that most horrible form of idolatry, and in such a falleth to me." Me! Me! Me! It did not life there is an inner shrine where God has never matter to him that as he went away to the been allowed His rightful place. far country, with a light heart and a full Thirdly, and in some senses most seriously of purse, he had left his father with a broken all, to live a life that is self-centred, to live heart behind him. It did not matter that tears
57 unto oneself, means that the marks of the pit it terrifies you. Does it not make you are upon our soul. Cast your mind back to afraid as you realise that the nature of sin has the story in Genesis 3, the temptation and something demonic in it, something that is fall of Adam and Eve. What was the bait of the devil; and that when we see it in all its that Satan offered them? Satan came and loathsome character we see it as a dread said to Eve, "Ye shall be as gods!" And that cancer enveloping us? We cannot break it. is the language of hell. That was the sin that It is far too powerful for us. But you see, brought Lucifer down from the glory into that is precisely what the Lord Jesus came the pit. Listen to these words, "How art to deal with. And it is that which is thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of offered us in the Gospel—a deliverance the morning; how are thou cast down to the from that dread monster. "He died for all, ground, which didst weaken the nations! that they which live should not henceforth For thou hast said in thine heart, I will live unto themselves, but unto Him who ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne died for them, and rose again." The answer, above the stars of God, I will sit also upon and the only answer to this tragic and the mount of the congregation, in the terrifying dilemma of self-centredness, is in sides of the north, I will ascend above the the Cross of Calvary. It is in the experience heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most of the Cross, and only there, that the High." And every sin that Satan tempts us infernal, cursed thing is broken, smashed with has this in it: it panders to our self- and destroyed. centredness; it leaves self on the throne—and And when you and I at last come to the that is the tragedy and the horror of a self- place where we really see sin as it is, centred life. Do you not hear the echo of stripped of all its disguise, ugly with the these dread and vaunting words of Satan in ugliness of the pit, and in that agony of the parable of, the Pharisee and the publican, horror and fear we cast ourselves helpless when that poor and pathetic man prayed and forlorn upon the Rock of Ages, it is with himself and unto himself, "I, I, I, I." then, and at that point, that the blessed music The man had a devil. Do you not hear the of the Gospel of grace sings in our ears, vaunting words of Satan echoing in the when it says, "Our old man has been parable of the rich fool. "I will say to my crucified with Christ, that the body of sin— soul . . . I will build barns .. ." I, I, I. I the monster within us—might be destroyed, wonder if you have ever heard these dread, that henceforth we should not serve sin." vaunting words of Satan echoing from your "He died for all, that they which live own heart even in the place of prayer? should not henceforth live unto themselves— This is something that terrifies me. I hope self-centred lives-but should live unto Him," and in Him, day by day.
58 Unbelief
BY THE REV. A. W. RAINSBURY, M.A.
. . . Yea, hath God said . . .?—GENESIS 3: 1.
E have heard much today already on the the divine command, by his one act he and all his W subject of sin. In this concluding talk children would be constituted sinners, would forfeit I shall speak, as God enables me, on the basic eternal life, and would be consigned to sin of all sin, the first sin, the most universal condemnation and death. The very severity of sin, the most disastrous sin, the very quintes- this penalty was calculated to keep Adam free sence of all sin—and yet, despite all that, the from so terrible a transgression. sin which is least esteemed as sin—the sin of But there was an even stronger deterrent unbelief. I shall speak mainly of origin; still, on the positive side. And that was all the then, briefly, of its development; and finally evidence he had on every hand in the Paradise of its cause. around him of the love and goodness of God. To see this sin in its true colours we must But the strongest deterrent was his personal begin by tracing it to its origin, in the Garden experience in his own soul of the unspeakable love of Eden. And to see the significance of what of God as day by day he walked with Him in happened there, we must fully understand the unclouded fellowship in Paradise. How could he nature of Adam's trial. God created man in ever be persuaded to forfeit that? Surely he His own image, that is, as a moral being who must have known from that fellowship that such had the power to discriminate and to choose a God would not have made such a prohibition between right and wrong. As the crown of except in uttermost love to his soul; and that God's creation his was also to be the crown- having assigned such solemn penalties to ing privilege of glorifying his Maker most of disobedience, He must fulfil them. all, by choosing to do the right, in the face of Yet, despite all these deterrents, Adam fell. temptation, for very love of God. How? Simply through the sin of unbelief—that Nor was that temptation in any way un- sin which may seem so trivial to you and me, but reasonable. For God freely gave to Adam all is so terrible in the sight of God. the thousands of other trees in the Garden for It is instructive to recall the sequence of his enjoyment, and, to test his obedience, for- events. With what diabolical cunning the bade him only one. Besides which, God did serpent set to work! He did not make a direct all in His power to restrain Adam from sin, attack upon Adam, but attacked him through the while ac the same time allowing him the woman whom he loved. See the Satanic subtlety exercise of his free will. He clearly warned of his approach to Eve. He got her alone. He got him that the consequence of disobedience her when she was near the tree. He got her when would be death: "But of the tree of the know- she was evidently reflecting upon what God had ledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat it: said about this tree. for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou Truly did Jesus say of the devil, "He has shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). nothing to do with truth, because there is no But there was an even stronger deterrent truth in him When he lies, he speaks according than that. From other parts of Scripture we to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father learn that this prohibition was really in the of lies" (John 8:44, R.S.V.). In this, his very form of a covenant. Hosea 6: 7, R.V., speaks first appearance in Scripture, in his very first of Adam "transgressing the covenant." In sentence he mouths at least four lies or half-truths this covenant Adam was the head and repre- through the serpent. sentative of all his seed. They, to their remotest First, he lied in his very tone of voice, by generations, were to stand or fall in him. representing himself as the woman's friend Should Adam, as their representative, disobey
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when in fact he was her deadly enemy. Then, to God. She was well aware, too, of all that his very first word, "Yea," was a lie, because he was at stake. Yet, instead of rounding on the was pretending to agree with what the woman speaker and sending him about his business, was saying in her heart as she reminded herself she stayed to parley, and in her parleying re- of the divine prohibition, whereas in vealed that the serpent's seeds of unbelief fact he was denying it. Thirdly, had fallen on fertile soil. the very name he gave to God was For in her half-hearted reply she, too, mis- only a half-truth. For it was to quoted and perverted what God had said. Elahim the impersonal "God" of creation Firstly, she followed the serpent in omitting that he referred in his question, cunningly any reference to the liberality of God's giving, avoiding the use of the covenant title merely saying "we may eat of the fruit of the Jehovah. I know that the full significance of trees of the garden," instead of "Of every this great name was not again revealed until tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat." the time of Moses (Exod. 6: 3), but the Secondly, she followed him in omitting the deliberate and invariable use of the title covenant name, although as I have suggested, "Loan God" throughout the whole of this God had already revealed Himself to her particular section of Genesis except in this by this name, for she used it in the first verse conversation seems designed to suggest that of the next chapter, when, after the birth of God initially revealed Himself to our first Cain she said, "I have gotten a man from the parents as the Covenant God. So the serpent LORD." Thirdly, she "added to the Word of was afraid that the use of that name might God," for God had ever said "neither shall remind the woman of the loving personal ye touch it." Lastly, she "took from the Being with whom they were in covenant, who Word of God," for she substituted a mere had given this command. possibility of judgment, "lest ye die," for an Fourthly, he falsely implied in his question absolute certainty of judgment, "thou shalt that God had forbidden the use of all the surely die." trees of the Garden, "Did God say, ye shall The fatal sin of unbelief had gained its first not eat of any tree of the Garden?" (3:2, foothold in a human heart. With what rapid R.S.V.). Fifthly, he falsely suppressed all strides it made advance! From incipient reference to the liberality of God's giving, for doubt to flagrant denial of the word and God had actually said, "Of every tree of the character of God was but a step as she Garden thou mayest freely eat." Most diabolical accepted the serpent's next assertion, "Ye shall of all, he so framed his two-edged question not surely die: for God doth know that in as to face the woman with a double tempta- the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be tion: either to doubt the Word of God, or to opened, and ye shall be as God knowing good doubt the character of God. "Did God in and evil" (3:5, R.V.). Then, from denial of fact say this, and, if He did say it, can He be the word and character of God to open a good God?" Those are his main lines of rebellion was but another step, for "she took attack still—to try to cause us to doubt either of the fruit thereof, and did eat." And alas, the Word of God, or the character of God. from Eve to Adam was but one step more, At that moment Eve was faced with the for "she gave also unto her husband with her ; greatest human decision of all time. We have and he did eat." not minimised the force and subtlety of the "He did eat"! Despite all the divine temptation. But neither must be minimised deterrents—despite the sentence of death on the moral responsibility of the woman. Griffith himself, despite the sentence of death on his Thomas rightly says, "Nothing is more remark- race, despite all the visible evidence of the able in the whole history of man's moral life love of God, and despite his own soul's sweet than the powerlessness of the devil to overcome experience of that love, "He did eat." us apart from our own assent and consent. It So attractive did he find the fruits of un- is this simple fact that constitutes man's ulti- belief that he deliberately hardened his heart mate responsibility. He can never say, 'I was against all these deterrents, deliberately chose overpowered in spite of myself.' All that he to believe a fallen, lying woman, and deliber- can say is, 'I was overpowered because of ately chose to disbelieve the Lord God. For myself.' " the actual eating of the fruit Was only a So with Eve. She was not overpowered in practical expression of the unbelief to which spite of herself. All the powers of hell could he had opened his heart—unbelief in the love not have forced her hand to take the fruit of God which had made the prohibition, and against her will. She was overpowered because unbelief in the word of God which had of herself. She was well aware that this was warned of judgment. not the voice of God, for the serpent had So sin stormed the heart of Adam through already said enough to reveal his antagonism
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the gate of unbelief. Ere he had sin, that original corruption each one of us swallowed the first bite of the forbidden brings into the world with us, which renders fruit the image of God had faded from us liable to God's wrath and condemnation. his soul; he had forfeited for ever the There are many poor souls that think them- fellowship of God; he opened the flood- selves fine reasoners, yet they pretend to say gates of sin, of sorrow, of disease and that there is no such thing as original sin ; death; and he had made possible the they will charge God with injustice in imputing everlasting Hell of millions of men and Adam's sin to us ; although we have got the women—all through the sin of unbelief. mark of the beast and of the devil upon us, But we must never forget that Adam's yet they tell us we were not born in sin .. . sin in the Garden was our sin in the Yet when conviction comes all carnal reason- Garden. By that I mean that as we have ings are battered down, and the poor soul been watching Adam and Eve under trial we begins to feel and see the fountain from have really been seeing ourselves, for all which all the polluted streams do flow. . . . that they did we did in them. No mere "Did you ever feel and experience this, any detached and academic interest in this of you—to justify God in your damnation—to story will suffice. We can never regard own that you are by nature children of wrath, ourselves as mere spectators, for we were and that God may justly cut you off though actors in that Garden. The doctrines of you never . . had committed one actual representation and of imputation are funda- sin . .. in all your life? If you were ever mental doctrines in Scripture. If we do not truly convicted . . . you would be made to accept the imputation of Adam's guilt see and feel this. And if you have never neither can be accept the imputation of the felt the weight of original sin, do not call righteousness of Christ, for both derive from yourselves Christians. I am verily persuaded the same principle. original sin is the greatest burden of a true How can we account for millions of people convert ; this sin grieves the regenerate soul, being involved in Adam's punishment if the sanctified soul." Does it grieve you, my they were not in some way involved in his dear professing Christian friends? guilt? The Word of God is unmistakably However, we must also see that our guilt clear on this question of identification. doesn't finish with our involvement in Adam's "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ sin. For though unbelief began in the Garden, shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). it didn't end there. That serpent's poison Why do "all die in Adam"? Because of unbelief has been transmitted by natural all sinned in Adam. Romans 5:12, generation to every son of Adam, save One. R.V., "Therefore, as through one man sin So now I want to speak, briefly, of the entered into the world, and death through development of unbelief. sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for The long history of our race is simply the that all have sinned"—A.V. margin reads history of our unbelief and its earthly conse- "in whom all have sinned." And v. 19, "by quences. Here and there it has been relieved one man's disobedience many were consti- by the appearance of men of faith, but even tuted sinners. . ." By that one act of in all of them there was the constant—and not that one man you and I were there and then always victorious—battle with unbelief. constituted sinners in the sight of God. This history reached its climax when— As much as we need to feel and to despite all the evidences of His diety—we did confess and to repent of our actual to death the incarnate God Himself, through transgressions in our life-time, so much do unbelief. No wonder He said, "When the we need to feel and to confess and to Holy Spirit is come He will convict the world repent of our original sin committed in the of sin, because they believe not on me" (John Garden of Eden. If we've never seen 16:9). o u r s e l v e s in that garden long ago, But, to come down to our own day. Is the never heard ourselves parleying with that serpent's two-edged question not working its serpent, never seen our hand go out to havoc still? Cannot all the sin of Christendom take that forbidden fruit, never owned today be traced to one of these two sources— that that rebellion was our rebellion, then unbelief in the Word of God, or unbelief in we've never seen ourselves as God sees us. the character of God? What is the present- Listen to George Whitefield—the greatest day controversy on "fundamentalism" but preacher this country has ever seen— an attack on the truth of God's Word—"Yea, preaching to thousands of people in a hath God said?" And what are all the false Scottish Kirkyard one Sabbath morning two doctrines and false practices which so abound hundred years ago. "Before you can speak in Christendom today but the consequence of peace to your hearts you must not only be convinced of your actual transgressions against the law of God, but likewise of the foundation of all your transgressions. And what is that? I mean original
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either "adding to" or "taking from" the Word tinually every day is blasphemed" by the world of God, as Eve did, in unbelief? because of our manifest unbelief in the love This is not our particular sin, as Evan- of God and the truthfulness of God, and gelicals. It is our boast that we believe this millions of men and women, influenced by our Word of God to be verbally true. "God hath unbelief, rush on to the eternal torments of said!" we indignantly retort to the serpent. that hell which exists as truly as God is God, But while we assert it to be verbally true with and which He will inflict on all unbelievers as our lips, we assert it to 'be essentially untrue by truly as He fulfilled His threat to Adam. our lives, far too often. It is not God's holy A final word about the cause of unbelief. Word but God's holy character that we belie We must not go away with the idea that our —an equally grievous sin. "The record is a unbelief is a mere misfortune. It is sin. It is true statement of what God said," say our lips; the sin of sins, for "he that believeth not God "but the Speaker is not to be trusted," shout bath made Him a liar" (1 John 5:10). our lives. Its root is not intellectual, but moral—that For is this not the language of many of is why it is sin. Let me just remind you of a our lives in this tent? "Like Adam, I don't few of the reasons that Jesus gave for unbelief really believe that He is a God of love, for —all of them moral reasons. In John 5:44, He denies me things, too, that I'd like to have speaking to the unbelieving Jews, He put it —so I just take them." Hence the cursed down to double-mindedness, "How can ye compromise in the Church today. Our lives believe, which receive honour one of another, continue speaking, "He promised life to Adam and seek not the honour which cometh from on condition of obedience, but Adam didn't God only?" believe His promise was worth having, and I In Luke 17:5-10, when the disciples asked don't believe that His promises are worth Him to increase their faith, He put their lack having either: He has made the most glorious of faith down to selfishness—inconsiderateness promises in this Book covering every possible toward their servants. need of my life—for forgiveness, for victory, In Mark 16:14 He put it down to hardness for peace, for grace, for power, for guidance, of heart. "He upbraided" the eleven "with for service—but they're not worth the paper their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they're written on! They are accurate—but they believed not them which had seen Him not true! Just look at my defeated life! after He was risen." Look at the furrows on my brow! Look at In John 3:19 the root reason of unbelief is the fears in my heart! Look at the ineffective- given, "men loved darkness rather than light." ness of my service! His promises simply are Adam loved the darkness which went with the not true," shout our lives. forbidden fruit, so he hardened his heart into "Then," our lives continue, "He threatened unbelief, and his hand went out in sin. It Adam with death, but Adam didn't believe is not that we cannot believe, but that we will Him, and I don't believe Him either. For He not believe. For who can do anything else has made the most terrible threatenings of but believe who, with a surrendered will and a eternal torment in hell for those who do not single-minded heart calmly contemplates the believe on Him. But every enlightened person Word of God, and the One whose Word it is? today—many 'evangelicals' included—knows For "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by that 'hell' doesn't mean hell, 'eternal' doesn't the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). mean eternal, and 'torment' doesn't mean May God the Holy Spirit break our hard torment. And even if they did, He's too good hearts. May He reveal to us that it is the a God to inflict such punishment. I agree father and mother of all our sins. And may with the serpent, 'They shall not surely die'— He enable us to bring it and all its hell-born so I don't put myself about unduly for the brood to the Cross of Calvary—which it lost!" caused—there to confess it for what it is, and So shout our lives. And, my friends, "The to receive the forgiveness and the cleansing Name (i.e. the holy character) of God con- which we so sorely need.
62 TUESDAY, JULY 15th
10 a.m.—BIBLE READING THE GOSPEL AND THE HUMANITIES (ii) THE ALERT MAN DR. PAUL REES
11.50 a.m.—FORENOON MEETING SAVING GRACE REV. E. F. KEVAN 3 p.m.—AFTERNOON MEETING ABLE TO SAVE TO THE UTTERMOST REV. A. W. RAINSBURY 7.45 p.m.—EVENING MEETING Skiddaw-street Tent: OUR ADVOCATE WITH THE FATHER REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS CHRONIC SICKNESSES OF THE SOUL REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN Eskin-street Tent: PENTECOSTAL POWER MAJOR IAN THOMAS HE MUST INCREASE . . . I DECREASE REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON
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The Pertinent Question of Victory Over Sin LTHOUGH not marked out as distinctive the Rev. E. F. Kevan gave the first of three A in any particular respect, Keswick 1958 addresses on different aspects of grace—this, was a Convention characterised not only on "Saving Grace." Simultaneously with this by a serious note—matching the serious news gathering, a meeting for ministers was held in coming during the week from the Middle the Methodist Church; an account of this is East—but by a very happy prevailing spirit, given among the appendices. and sense of purposefulness in seeking the A thunder-storm delayed the full assembly face and will of God. The guiding, over-ruling of the afternoon gathering, and people were sovereignty of the Holy Spirit was once again still streaming in—streaming wet—as the wondrously manifest in the way the various opening hymn, "Approach, my soul, the speakers, without premeditation or pre-arrange- mercy-seat" was sung. From the words "He is able" in Hebrews 7:25 the Rev. A. W. ment, fitted in together and complemented one Rainsbury asked and answered four another, in their messages. Even the fact of questions, leading up to the pertinent question having two evening meetings did not disturb for the day, concerning victory over sin. the sense of unity, in purpose and fellowship. The weather was a characteristic Keswick Steady rain prevented any from standing mixture of sunshine and showers—the latter outside the large tent for the evening meeting, varying between a sudden thunderstorm, short and quite a while before 7.45 p.m. crowds were being deflected to the small tent in Eskin- and sharp, and an entire afternoon and evening street; so that by the appointed hour both of steady downpour. But there were some tents were full. The Chairman intimated beautiful mornings and at least one glorious that ninety-nine relay centres were "listening- sunset. in" to the proceedings in the large tent. The Attendances seemed to be about the same "theme-hymn" was followed by prayer led by as last year—though the exceptionally huge the Rev. James Philip; and the singing of numbers at the opening meeting had indicated "Eternal Light." Then the Rev. Gerald that still further increases might be possible Griffiths announced that he was during the week. Every year since the war commissioned to bring good news—and he has seen growth, breaking all previous records: did so, stirringly, in exposition of 1 John 1:1, but it appears that "full capacity" has been 2. reached at Keswick certainly in the accom- modation available in the town and its vicinity. This logical, orderly presentation of the The "outreach" through relays of the evening charge against us, and the one ground of our meetings is capable of indefinite expansion, pardon, was followed by an equally stimu- however: and this year's figures reached a lating and challenging message by the Rev. total of 112 centres participating—as compared G. B. Duncan. After reading the story of the with fifty in 1956 and eighty-four last year. woman cured of an issue of blood (Mark 5: Not all "listened-in" together: the highest 24-35) he asked, "Can Jesus Christ cure the number on any one evening was 103; some chronic sickness of the soul?" centres "received" for certain evenings only, In the small tent, Mr. Leith Samuel presided and not all four of the relays. It was thrilling and Major Ian Thomas—who conducted the to hear of excellent reception in very many open-air meetings this year—gave his first and widely scattered centres, with attendant address from the Keswick platform, and the blessing. only one at the Convention—that is, at the On Tuesday, another sunny morning saw main meetings; he also spoke twice to the still larger attendances at the prayer meetings; young people. The Rev. Francis Dixon spoke and at 10.45 it was with keen expectancy that on the words of John the Baptist concerning the great crowd once more not only filled the Christ, "He must increase, and I decrease." tent, but overflowed to the grass bank outside, Happily the rain ceased just in time for the for the second of the Bible Readings. open-air to be held, and a goodly crowd At the Convention meeting which followed, heard stirring testimonies by Service men,
64 The Gospel and the Humanities
STUDIES IN ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. II. THE ALERT MAN.
BY DR. PAUL REES.
HAVING addressed ourselves yesterday to the upon in this connection. He uses the word "If," affectionate man, as we see Paul expressing you will notice: "If there is any encouragement himself through the Holy Spirit in chapter 1 of in Christ"—not because there is any uncertainty Philippians, we are to look this morning at — in the apostle's mind, for there is not; he uses the word rhetorically. It is his way of saying, "This is THE ALERT MAN. Near the end of yesterday's what you have in Christ," and if you don't study we found Paul saying in 1:27, "Stand recognise this, the purpose of Christ for the unity of firm in one spirit." Now that links with what the congregation will miscarry. "If there be any Paul is concerned to do in chapter 2, namely to encouragement in Christ" in the direction of this deal with this threatened division in the unity; "any incentive of love; any participation in congregational life of the Philippian Church. the Spirit; and affection and sympathy .. ." How As far as the evidence in the epistle is con- important it is to realise that we can never cerned, there was just one flaw in the collective maintain the unity of the body of Christ except as life of the church, and that was threatening a we recognise these graces and ministries which are breach of the unity of the congregation. Later in indicated here. "Any encouragement in Christ"— the epistle Paul will single out two parties who the encouragement, for example, of His own seem to present the most serious threat to this practice, who had shown His own disciples, in peace, and he will insist that every step and those days before Pentecost, how totally out of measure be taken to end this friction between place were rivalries, bigotries, intolerances, these ladies of the church, as quickly as jealousies. possible. Meanwhile, in terms less personal Not only the encouragement of His practice, but Paul says, in effect, "My dear brothers and also of His prayer. "Holy Father, keep through sisters, I want now to show you that there is no Thine own name those whom Thou hast given need for this division to develop. It should me, that they may be one, as we are" (John be nipped while it is still in the bud, and before 17:11). Should it not be a tremendous it comes to its unhappy flowering. If you will encouragement to us, if we are concerned about make use of the resources that are so the unity of congregational life, that Jesus Christ abundantly yours in Christ, you can meet and is praying that we may be one? overcome every threat of division, of strife, that Then Paul says, "any incentive of love"—the would destroy the peace of the congregation." love for the increase of which he prayed, you Now, that being the case, first of all we are to remember in 1:9—always moves in the direction, be concerned with what we shall call— not of discord, but of concord. The incentive of love. I. THE VALUE OF UNITY-2: 1, 2. "Any participation in the Spirit": com- Paul has already directed their attention to it: munion—it is that word koinonia again. Com- "Stand firm in one spirit" (1:27). Now this, munion. "Participation" is a good word, as is says Paul in effect, is exceedingly important; and "partnership"; it is this living union of the to emphasise how important it really is, he says, individual believer, on the one hand, and of the Nothing else than harmony in the congregation whole body of Christ, with the Holy Spirit; a will confirm Christ's purpose for you. union which nevertheless we often fail to There are four things that Paul touches recognise.
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And then this fourth, double expression, he put his head down between his hands, and "any affection and sympathy." I remember for a good long minute held it there. Then, reading years ago a book by William Clow, looking up at his visitor he said, "Please go, a Scottish minister and teacher, who gave this my friend, and leave me with my Lord to as a characterisation of love: "Love is the search my heart." Esteeming others better insight and sympathy that craves to bless and than ourselves. delights to commune." The insight and When the conceit is burned out of our sympathy—sympathy, this feeling with an- hearts by the fire of the Holy Spirit, which is other, the ability to put yourself in another the fire of love, pure, cleansing love, and we person's place. I don't hesitate to tell you, begin to look upon others as better than our- dear friends, that if we recognised this as be- selves, we have gone a long way to defeating longing to the purpose of Christ for His all the stratagems of Satan, in his attempt to Church, and would put ourselves in the place destroy and divide. The requirement of of the other person, we should not have the humility terrible strifes and the tragic quarrelling that There is not only humility's requirement, we do have among Christians. there is humility's root. "When each of you This is the value of unity. Not only is looks not only to his own interests, but also Paul concerned to say that if we fail of this to the interests of others"—the same thought, unity we will not confirm the purpose of you see, as in humility's requirement—but Christ; he says the value of unity may be seen now "have this mind in yourselves which you also in that it will complete the pleasure of have in Christ Jesus." "Have this mind"— Christ's servant: notice v. 2, "complete my now the Revised Standard Version here has it joy." I already rejoice in you, says Paul, but "among yourselves," and I may say in all oh, I warn you: don't let this thing get out fairness that there is some scholarly support of hand that is now developing. Instead of for that rendering; but in spite of it I am that, let my joy in you, as your spiritual going to take the position that the rendering father and shepherd, be complete. Take this of the Authorised Version is to be preferred. threat to your unity, and by the resources Vincent affirms it to be so; and Lightfoot: that are yours in Christ Jesus fling it away "Let this mind be in you, which was also in from you, as some dangerous, unworthy Christ Jesus"—in you. Of course, the impli- thing." cation is that it is "among you," but I like Now that brings us to— the thrust of the little phrase "in you"—which II. Tim VIRTUE OF HUMILITY-2 : 3-11. may be understood both personally and cor- Think first of the requirement of humility porately. "Let this mind be in you, which was "Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but also in Christ Jesus." in humility count others better than your- Do you want to hear a few of the variant selves." That is the requirement, the impera- renderings of this? Sometimes these variant tive of the Holy Ghost, speaking through His renderings throw light upon a verse. Moffatt inspired servant. says, "treat one another with the same spirit Sometimes a tale is far more effective than that you experience in Christ Jesus." Good- a treatise. A friend called on Alexander speed says, "have the same attitude that Christ Whyte, and told him that he had gone to Jesus hath." In Weymouth, "Let the very hear an evangelist who was conducting a spirit which was in Christ Jesus be in you mission in Edinburgh. And he said, "Dr. also." Now in the International Critical Whyte, this man was lashing out at the Commentary there is a preference shown for ministers, and he said among other things that our English word "disposition," and I like that. Dr. Hood Wilson was not a converted man!" I think that is very close to the meaning of At which Alexander Whyte's face went dark Paul, the meaning of the Greek. "Let this with indignation, and he leaped to his feet disposition be in you." For obviously there from his study chair, and pacing back and it has nothing directly to do with Christ's forth in the study, he said, "The rascal! Hood intelligence as such. It is His spirit, His Wilson not a converted man! The rascal!" temper; and it is that in relation to the Then this visiting friend, rather startled at situation that concerns Paul in this moment, this flaming indignation displayed by Dr. namely this threatened division. And Paul Whyte, said, "And Dr. Whyte, that isn't all. is saying, "Now, if there is, real humility He said that you are not a converted man!" among you, if you are not conceited, and if And when he said that, Dr. Whyte's pacing you look upon others as better than your- in the study suddenly stopped. He walked selves, and are concerned about their interests over to his study chair and in absolute silence as well as, if not more than, your own interests, you won't have any serious breaches.
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But brethren," Paul is saying, "you'll never be Equality with God. And such is the Greek able to do this. This humility is not a natural construction in this phrase that we may take virtue"—a self-achieved thing. This is an Paul to mean either one of two things: either evangelical grace; and it comes only as the that this equality was His by complete right disposition, the very spirit, the very nature of and fitness, and not by the slightest presump- Christ, dwells in you. tion; or that it was something on the retention But this nature is such that Christ gives, of which the Lord Jesus would not insist, from His infinite level, what I want you to do, when by letting it go—this status of equality possessed with His Spirit, at your human with God—when by renouncing its heavenly level, right here in the life of the Christian expression, He might reveal His infinite con- assembly. Well, what did He do? Here is cern for you and for me. an instance where out of the most trafficking, This was His own interest. He might have everyday situation, there will emerge in the held on to it. He had a perfect right to. writings of St. Paul some of the sublimist un- But instead of that, He turned His back upon foldings of truth, that have absolutely im- it, because you and I needed a Saviour. From mense, colossal theological significance. This that lofty elevation Jesus came down. is one of the great Christological passages of Not only does Paul speak to us of the the New Testament: "Let this mind be in exaltation that He enjoyed, but the reputation you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, that He renounced—"He emptied Himself." though He was in the form of God, thought That is indeed a fair rendering of the Greek. it not robbery to be equal with God, but Weymouth has, "He stripped Himself of His made Himself of no reputation." glory," and Phillips is somewhat similar—"He Humility's requirement; humility's root; stripped Himself of all privilege." humility's revelation. Here it is, as it has How far did that self-renunciation go, that never been seen anywhere else—I started to self-disglorification, to use the extraordinary say anywhere else in all the world—in all the phrase of P. T. Forsyth. Did it extend universe. "Who, though He was in the form to His deity? How could it, if He was of God, thought it not robbery to be equal essentially and eternally God? No! Did with God"—or, as the Revised has it, "did not it extend to His knowledge? It the sense count equality with God a thing to be of voluntary self-limitation, yes, in ways grasped." But what did He do? On the that are so mysterious that while we must contrary, "He emptied Himself, and took recognise them they are really quite beyond upon Him the form of a servant." us. We read of our blessed Lord that in the Will you consider, first, the exaltation that days of His flesh "He grew in wisdom." He enjoyed. He was "in the form of God" We have to face the implications of that. We (v. 6). Our English word "form" scarcely read again of Him that according to His own captures the richness of the Greek. This is confession, as we have it in Mark 13:32, "form" neither in the sense of material shape "But of that day and that hour (His Second or of seeming likeness. It is a very difficult Coming) knoweth no man, no, not the angels word to get over into English. You get an which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the approach to it, I think, in something that Father." Yet I hasten to add that the church sometimes appears in very mundane conversa- universal, and the church evangelical particu- tion. You talk about tennis players, or cricket larly, has always insisted, and rightly, that players, and say, "Ala, he was in top form whatever may have been the self-imposed to-day!" You mean that in this particular limitations of our Saviour's knowledge, they instance something that belongs to the very were not such as to lay Him open either to excellence of this man's game, somehow got incompetence or to error. through. Now in this case it is an irregular, Did He empty Himself of His sinlessness? an intermittent thing: sometimes he is on his Never! Did He empty Himself of His non- form, sometimes he is off it. But what the temptability? He did. Here again is a Holy Spirit is saying is, that that which con- mystery. For we read of Him in Hebrews stitutes the very essence of God, that God- 4:15 that "He was in all things tempted like nature, God-hood—not merely Godhead now, as we are, yet without sin." He emptied but Good-hood—has belonged for ever, and Himself. You recall Milton's words? There will belong for ever, to Jesus Christ. are those who believe that this whole passage That is not the only thing that Paul says in Philippians 2 was a kind of hymn that was about His exalted position. He says that He sung: it wasn't stiff, formal theology, so much had equality with God. Now here the phrase as it was a great expression of adoration. You speaks of relationship more than of nature. remember Milton's words-
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That glorious form, that light insufferable Will you look at it, this amazing deed. You He laid aside, and here with us to be, see Him in the carpenter's shop, helping Joseph Forsook the courts of everlasting day, to make a yoke, in that little place of labour And chose with us a darksome house of in Nazareth. Yet this is the One who, apart mortal clay. from His self-emptying, could far more easily make a solar system, or a galaxy of systems. Think next of the identification that He Look at Him again, dressed like a slave, with accepted—"He emptied Himself, taking the towel and basin—the equipment of a menial — form of a servant, being born in the likeness bathing the feet of some friends of His, who of men" (v. 7). These two phrases, "the form but for their quarrelsomeness should have been of a servant"—He so identified Himself; and bathing His feet. Yet apart from His self- "the likeness of men"—He so identified Him- emptying and self-abasing He is no servant, self. Our Lord's identification of Himself but the Master of an army of servants, angels in with the life and the labour of a bondservant white livery, who rejoice to fly at His beck rests upon an identification that needs care- and nod. He humbled Himself. This is the fully to be interpreted. This word "likeness" revelation of humility, and this is the root of —"in the likeness of men"—does not suggest unity. You see how it is all linked together in anything artificial about our Lord's humanity. Paul's thinking and in this unveiling of truth He was not just seeming to be a man; He was that comes to the Philippian church through real man. If we are Evangelical in our credal him. thinking we believe that He was as truly man Think finally of the crucifixion He endured. as if He had not been God. He was not Still in v. 8, "even the death of the Cross." seeming to be man. It isn't likeness in that When we read that our Lord became obedient sense. It wasn't something artificial, just a unto death we see that He stooped to parade. This word "likeness" does suggest mortality. But when we read the phrase, that His humanity gives Him a true com- "even death on a Cross," we see that He munity with men ; but not a complete identity. stooped to ignominy. Now we know, of That is to say, He is really human, but He course, that God cannot die. One writer, is at the same time more than human. So grappling with this fact, said that God-be- it is that in the paradox of what we call the come-man can die. The sentence is well- Incarnation, we have the union of the divine intended, but surely it is inaccurate. If God and the human, the infinite and the finite, the becomes man, what we have is man—a state- eternal and the temporal, the sovereign and ment that would never have satisfied the the servant. This is the stoop of God down apostles, or the makers of the Nicene or the to the level of our desperate need and lostness. Athanasian Creeds. What is true is that the God-man—not man-become-God, or God-be- Came now and view that manger: come-man—but the God-man, Jesus Christ, The Lord of glory see in the perfect union of the divine and human A houseless, homeless Stranger, natures, has a mode of existence in which one In this poor world for thee. of the many acts it is possible for Him to There see the Godhead glory choose, is the act of dying—and choose it Shine through that human veil, He did. "Therefore doth my Father love me, And, willing, hear the story because I lay down my life" (John 10:17, 18). Of love that's come to heal. There it is. "That I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of Think of the humiliation that He endured— myself." "And being found in human form He humbled Himself." As though it were not enough for "Even the death of the Cross." Now with Him to come to Bethlehem's manger; as that brush-stroke, the portrait of our Lord's though it were not enough for Him to come self-abasement is complete. to a town that was a by-word among the Still, 0 soul, the sign and wonder citizens—Nazareth; as though it were not Of all ages see: enough for Him to come to lead the kind of Christ thy God, the King of glory life of which He could say, "The foxes have On the Cross for thee. holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man bath not where to lay That is the revelation of and the key to His head"—as if that were not enough. He unity. humbled Himself and became obedient unto Now what follows is the reward of humility. death. The humiliation that He endured. "Therefore God path highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above
68 every name" (v. 9). What name is that? Now will you notice what the voice of respon- Well, in a moment like this I always feel it is sibility says. It says, God's salvation is yours: rather depressing to a congregation for the work it out. Your salvation is also God's minister to have to confess, "I don't know!" salvation. The two things belong together: I'm going to share with you what I like to they are forever linked. To be sure, as to believe is true, but candour requires one to the initiation of it, and the resources that say that some of God's most competent ser- make it possible, this is of God; but God vants in the work of exposition and exegesis always treats His children, not as puppets, not disagree as to what this name is: "God has as machines, but as freely responding mortal given Him a name which is above every beings. So Paul says, "I want you to feel name." Some think it is the name Jesus; responsibility for giving expression to all of some have said it is the name, Lord; some the high and the holy meanings of this salva- say it is Jehovah. Dr. Lightfoot insists that tion, which is yours by the grace of God, it is not a name at all; it is simply reputation, through our Lord Jesus Christ." rather than appellation. You see, Jesus made Not only does Paul want us to work out Himself of no reputation; now the Father has our own salvation, with fear and trembling; seen to it that all of that is recovered. The he wants us to realise that there is a splendour reward of humility. associated with our salvation, and that is to On the other hand, I must say I am deeply shine out. God's salvation is yours: work it moved when I read Alexander Maclaren on out. God's splendour is yours: let it shine this. I want to share just a few sentences out. So we hear him saying, "Do all things with you. Maclaren feels that the name is without grumbling or questioning, so that you Jesus; and he has this lovely suggestion— may be blameless and innocent, children of whether it is correct or not—"The simple, God without blemish, in the midst of a personal name, Jesus, was given indeed with crooked and perverse nation, among whom reference to His work, but had been borne by you shine as lights in the world." many a Jewish child before Mary called her Think of the significance of our shining. child Jesus; and the fact that it is this Jesus, you remember, said, "Ye are the light common name which is now exalted above of the world." Paul here says, "You shine every name, brings out still more strongly the as lights." Both of those statements have thought already dwelt upon, that what is thus at the back of them another one—the state- exalted is the manhood of our Lord. You ment of Jesus concerning Himself, "I am and I have a man in the glory, who is plead- the light of the world." ing for us—His name, Jesus." To illustrate this: If you go out on a cloudless night and a full moon is shining, Jesus, the name high over all you gaze up at that beautiful moon, and if In hell, or earth, or sky; you know your astronomy at all you know Angels and men before Him fall, that the moon is not shining by its own light. And devils fear and fly. Its light is a reflected light. It is catch- ing the light of the sun and reflecting it. Now let us proceed to the recognition of By itself, apart from the sun, the moon the fact that if this mind, this disposition, is a dead, lack - lustre thing. It only shines which has now been analysed by Paul, is in with beauty — the kind of beauty that us through our union with Christ, there can poets love to write about, the kind of beauty be no ravages of disunity and discord and that lovers like when they go out: you know, strife and quarrelling, in the assembly of the someone has said that the moon affects the Lord. For the sake of this name, you and tide and the untied!—but the light of that I must say, "I dare not, I dare not breach moon it not the moon's, it is merely the light the peace." of the sun which the moon catches and Now finally we have— radiates. Now Jesus is light original, eternal, central, HI. THE VOICE OF RESPONSIBILITY-2 : 12- underived; but you and I as His redeemed 30. disciples are light in a relative and a derived First, the voice of responsibilty speaks sense, when we are rightly related to Him. As through Paul: "Therefore, my beloved, as the moon being rightly related to the sun you have always obeyed, so now, not only in catches its light and reflects it, so when you my presence but much more in my absence, and I are rightly related and adjusted to Him, work out your own salvation with fear and His radiance becomes ours, and we become trembling. For God is at work in you, both the reflectors of His glory in this world. to will and to do after His good pleasure." And as for the sphere of your shining—it
69 is two-fold. It is among your fellow-believers, correction in the congregational life. And for one thing, where you are to "do all things what a man was Timothy. Notice what Paul without murmurings and disputings"—or says about him: "I have no one like him who "without grumbling," as the Revised has it. will be genuinely anxious for your welfare. You know, when you are grumbling you are They all look after their own interests, not not shining. Murmuring was the sin of the those of Jesus Christ." What a selfless man children of Israel, after they got out of Egypt, was Timothy. Others look after their own before they got into Canaan; while they were interests, not those of Jesus Christ. wandering round in the wilderness they always How easy it is for us to be concerned only murmured, and it's a bad sign. You need about our own family, or our own little group, a good, deep Keswick blessing if you are a our own little clique, and be very little con- murmuring, fault-finding Christian! When cerned about others. "But Timothy's worth you are grumbling and whining and whimper- you know, how as a son with a father he hath ing, you are not shining. served with me in the Gospel." What a man This word relates to this whole matter of —not only of selflessness but of serviceable- unity. When the American counterpart of ness, was Timothy. "I hope therefore to send the Anglican Church, the Protestant Episcopal him just as soon as I see how it will go with Church of America, first started working in me, and I trust in the Lord that shortly I Korea, they had a terrible time getting a satis- myself shall come to you." factory Korean translation of the title of the Then in the last phase of this concluding Church: Protestant Episcopal Church. They section we have the voice of responsibility had scholars of all kinds, excellent in Korean through Epaphroditus—"I thought it necessary and English alike, working on it. Finally one to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and day in conference one man proposed a trans- fellow-worker and fellow-soldier, and your lation, and at first it sounded all right; but messenger and minister to my need." What then one scholar spoke up and said, "Well, I would emphasise in this closing moment, is I'm afraid that won't do, because if you that Paul is calling for responsible Christian translate that literally back into English, it living, the very opposite of the kind of callous reads, 'Society of Disputing Overseers'!" And living, which lacks sensitiveness, lacks humility, in my travels about I've met a lot of people lacks responsiveness. You see it embodied in that I think were candidates for membership Paul: he was full of it. You see it in in that! Timothy, whom Paul will entrust with the No: "do all things without murmurings and responsibility of representing him for further disputings"—that is, quarrelling, fussing, fum- ministries to this church. You see it in ing—"that ye may be blameless and harmless" Epaphroditus, in whom the stream of re- —and be really shining. sponsibility flows both ways—it flows from The other sphere of shining is in the the church at Philippi to Paul, through presence of the ungodly. For Paul says that Epaphroditus: "Your messenger and minister it is to be "in the midst of a crooked and to my need." They sent him out, commis- perverse nation" that we are to shine. Do you sioned to take this gift of money to Paul. And notice that? In the midst of a crooked and he discharged his responsibility faithfully; and perverse nation. Around us are the ungodly, Paul now says, "I want you to know that I the warped and the twisted in their thinking, regard him as my brother, my fellow-worker those who have strange, weird, utterly illogical and my fellow-soldier." ideas about the Christian Church, and about But now the stream of responsibility is going Christians. You and I sometimes find it im- to be reversed, and it will flow from Paul, possible to reason with them. But if Christ through Epaphroditus, back to the church. can shine through us, they will be made to "Indeed he was ill and near to death: but see the light, through the ministry of the Holy God had mercy on him, and not only on him Spirit. but on me also, lest I should have sorrow Now the voice of responsibility not only upon sorrow. I am the more eager to speaks through Paul, but it speaks also through send him." They sent him to Paul ; he dis- Timothy—"I hope in the Lord Jesus to send charged his responsibility with fidelity and Timothy to you soon, so that I may be graciousness; now Paul says, "I am sending cheered by news of you" (v. 19). That is to him back to you, that you may rejoice at say, Paul is going to send Timothy to meet seeing him again, and that I may be the less personally with these Philippians and to be anxious. So receive him in the Lord with all his commissioned representative, to enquire joy, and honour such men, for" hark now! into their state, to minister to their needs, to "he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking correct things that may still be in need of his life to complete your service to me."
70 Where are the Christians, each pulling his C. T. Studd said when he was out in Africa— road; each contributing to, rather than de- tracting from, the unity of the body of Christ? Some want to live in sound of church or Where are the Christians who are willing to chapel bell; take some risks for Christ? Paul had seen I want to run a rescue-shop within a yard soldiers gambling, throwing their dice; and so of hell. had Epaphroditus. And Paul says, without giving us the details as to what it was, whether And sitting out there in the deep of the he was attacked on the way by animals, or African wild, with no desk to write on but a by robbers, or what, but Epaphroditus "took goods' box, he was so cavalier about it, with his life and flung it down as dice"—a holy never a touch of self-pity, that he would start gamble. "He risked his life in the service of his letter "From Buckingham Palace." That's Christ, the service of the church, the service it. He risked his life, in the service of the of the church's leader. Don't you love what church.
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Saving Grace
BY THE REV. E. F. KEVAN, B.D., M.Th.
N the notice board of many a little place grace." He speaks not merely of glorious O of worship up and down the country can grace—though grace is glorious—but the glory be found an announcement like this: "The of His grace. Grace is one of God's glories, Gospel of the Grace of God will be preached and He is to be praised for His grace because here next Lord's Day." Well now, it is the He is to be praised for His glory. This is one grace of God on which I want to invite your of the brightnesses of God. His grace. prayerful thought, not only in this session, but in Again, what does Paul mean by this word, other sessions we shall share together. which has passed into our evangelical vocabu- Yesterday God revealed to many of us our lary so that it almost slides off our tongues sin. How can I be free from sin? By what without a thought? Grace; no, that is not a means may I be pardoned and purified? So, thing, that is not a power. Grace is not some- first of all this morning, we are to think of the thing apart from God Himself. It is God saving grace of God. Will you turn to Himself. Grace is God in one of His perfec- Ephesians 1. It is almost impossible to find tions; God outshining in His readiness to re- any isolated verse in this chapter, because ceive the sinner who comes to Him. All this Paul's writing goes on like a torrent without a is for God's own glory. The end, the design full stop ; and where our translators have in- of all God's doings is that, and nothing short serted a full stop, they would have done better in of that. All things were created by Him and many cases to have put just a semi-colon. We for Him. Paul reaches one of the great have somewhat to by-pass the punctuation. Will climaxes of the Epistle to the Romans at the you therefore look at verses 6 and 7, "To the end of chapter 11 when he says, "-for of Him praise of the glory of His grace, wherein. He and through Him and to Him are all things." hath made us accepted in the Beloved; in whom The motive of the grace that saves us, the we have redemption through His blood, the motive of saving grace, is the glory of God. forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of And the display of that grace is the display of His grace." In the previous verses, which are God's glory; of course inseparable from these, both You will remember that on one occasion grammatically as well as theologically, Paul Moses came to the Lord and said, "I beseech has said that we have been "chosen in Christ Thee, show me Thy glory. And He said, I before the foundation of the world, that we will make all my goodness pass before thee, should be holy and without blame before Him in and I will proclaim the name of the Lord love; having predestinated us unto the adoption before thee, and will be gracious to whom I of children by Jesus Christ Himself, will be gracious, and will show mercy on according to the good pleasure of His will, to whom I will show mercy" (Exod. 33: 18, 19). the praise of the glory of His grace." God's glory is His grace. Paul, in this very Observe here, first— epistle, in 2: 7, says, "That in the ages to- come He might show the exceeding riches of His I. THE MOTIVE OF SAVING GRACE. grace in His kindness toward us through Christ "To the praise of the glory of His grace." Jesus." The exceeding riches of His grace are Look at the words. "Praise." Praise does not to be shown--that is God's motive in saving increase or enhance grace in itself. The grace of grace. "This people," He says to Isaiah the God possesses the infinitude of God, and you prophet, "have I formed for myself; they shall cannot add to it; but the praise of His grace is the show forth my praise." And Peter takes up extolling of it, the making it great in our own the thought, and says that the very purpose eyes and in the eyes of others. Again, to be of our salvation is that we should show forth careful in observing what Paul writes, it is "to the praises of Him who has brought us out of the praise of the glory of His darkness into His marvellous light. It is to
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the praise of His glory that we are saved. make to God. God's grace cannot be pur- Now this will, if rightly understood by us, chased, it cannot be earned, it cannot be put our conversion into its true perspective. It demanded as a right: we have no ground for will make it clear to us that in our salvation saying that God ought. All we must do is, from sin, God is sovereign. Here, we notice smiting upon our breast, cry, "God be merciful in verses 4 and 5 how Paul builds up his state- to me a sinner." Let us remember this in our ment concerning the glory of God's grace, evangelism; and in your missionary work, in speaking of the eternal purpose, and the effec- your Sunday-school teaching, as you speak at tual calling of God by which sinners are the women's meeting or lead your Bible class, brought to His feet. His is the grand prero- remember this: that though it is for man, in gative, and none shall in the honour share. that God loved him and Christ died for him God is sovereign: that is to say, He is on the and the Spirit works in him, yet God is to be throne in the exercise of His saving grace. exalted far above all, and all is for the praise God is no helpless pleader at the closed door and the glory of His grace. Let us be sure, of man's heart. He is on the throne, to dis- both in our own personal trust in the Lord pense grace to those who kneel before that Jesus, and in our preaching of Him to sinners, throne. In saving grace God is Lord of all and that we leave Christ on the throne; that the Lord in all. He effectively brings about the re- impact of our Gospel preaching is, "Worthy generation and the faith of the sinner; and by is the Lamb!" His invincible grace all that the Father in But, look a little more closely into the verse, eternity gave to the Son are found in time and we learn— coming to Him. We preach no disappointed Christ, no frustrated Holy Spirit. "All that THE METHOD OF SAVING GRACE. the Father givetla me shall come to me, and First, at the end of verse 6, it is His grace him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast "wherein He hath made us accepted in the out." The glory of His grace is to be praised. Beloved." The first thing in the divine method God is sovereign, and man is the suppliant. of saving grace, is our acceptance. Oh, I In these days we have come almost uncon- know it is perfectly true to quote the Scrip- sciously to think of man as the measure of all ture which says that "This is a faithful saying, things. But that is a mistake. The chief end and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him came into the world to save sinners"; and for ever. Therefore the chief end that God there is therefore perfect justification for our has in our salvation is the praise and the bidding the anxious soul receive the gift and glory of His grace; that God shall be great, accept the Saviour. But let us not lose sight that God shall be glorious, that His Son shall of the other way round of this. Dr. Rees have the pre-eminence. No, we are not ends was telling us yesterday morning to keep in in ourselves; we have no rights, we have no mind the balance of the Word of God, and claims, we have no standing. It is perfectly here it is. My salvation and yours depends, not true that it is to us that God's mercy is ex- so much upon our acceptance of Christ, but tended. It is quite correct that it is to us His Christ's acceptance of us. And here we have grace is given; but the reason is in God Him- it. "Wherein He 'lath made us accepted in self, and for God. Our salvation enhances the the Beloved." glory which is God's. And the highest pur- This word "accepted" is a delightful word. pose of God's saving grace is to magnify His Perhaps we can measure it best by using the glory in receiving us. "All things," says the word "engraced." We are "engraced," made apostle, "are for your sakes" (2 Cor. 4:15). acceptable, in the Beloved. This word occurs That is where we are graciously brought in. in only one other place in the New Testament "All things are for your sakes," that is the pur- —in the salutation of the angel to Mary. pose, the motive, the goal—"that the abundant "Hail, thou that art highly favoured" (Luke grace might through the thanksgiving of many 1:28). The literal rendering of that is: "Thou redound to the glory of God." It was one of that art much graced." That is the truth here. our old Puritan writers who summed it up this We are much graced in Christ Jesus; engraced way: "God's chief end was not to bring Christ in Him. In other words, it is the unmerited into the world for us, but to bring us into the favour of God by which we are accepted and world for Christ." His is the glory and the in which we become acceptable. As is Paul's crown. God is on the throne in saving grace, custom, he does not take long to traverse in and He rejoices to bestow His mercy upon thought to the Lord Jesus—"accepted in the those who seek it. Well, then, let us kneel Beloved." He is the One in whom all grace before that throne. is found. He alone in Himself is the grace- This is the kind of approach that we must full One. "This is my Beloved Son," said the
73 Father, as He broke through the clouds at our solve to purchase the liberty of a slave. And Lord's baptism, "My Beloved Son, in whom I whereas one particular word was used to des- am well pleased." And Paul tells the Colos- cribe the money put down when you bought a sians that they had been "translated out of the slave to use him, another word was used to kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His describe the money put down when you bought dear Son"—again, it is "the Son of His love," a slave to release him. That is the word that the One in whom and upon whom the divine Jesus uses here, commonly rendered in English love of complacency and joy rested. And for by the word "ransom," a liberating price. And all the loveliness and beauty that are in the it is from this that the whole conception of Lord Jesus, you and I are accepted. As truly our redemption, our being purchased into free- as David perceived in Mephibosheth all the dom, derives. loveliness that was in Jonathan, and accepted Paul speaks to Timothy about our Lord him for Jonathan's sake, so, says Paul, "God having given Himself "a ransom for all." This for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." "Ac- ransom price, Paul explains in verse 7, is cepted in the Beloved," engraced in Him; and "through His blood," or literally "in His it is insofar as the sinner is seen in Christ that blood." It is by the shed blood of the Lord he is received. Jesus Christ that we have our redemption. Here is the truth, the doctrine of imputed Galatians 3:13 is redemption from the curse, righteousness; the righteousness of Christ. By "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of one man's disobedience many were made sin- the law, being made a curse for us." Do you ners, so by the obedience of One are many know that degree of redemption, or are you made righteous. I can well understand why still under the condemnation, the curse of your John Wesley translated that German hymn by own wrongdoing? And not only from the Count Zinzendorf- curse of sin, but also from the power of it. Writing to Titus, the apostle speaks of Him Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness who has "redeemed us from all iniquity." And My beauty are, any glorious dress; Peter says, "You are not redeemed with Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, corruptible things, as silver and gold"—from With joy shall I lift up my head. what? From your empty way of life, "your vain conversation received by tradition from This spotless robe the same appears, your fathers." You are delivered from an When ruined nature sinks in years; empty way of life, learned from the people No age can change its glorious hue; about you, by the precious blood of Christ. Its glory is for ever new. And the praise of the host in heaven reflects this: "Thou hast redeemed us to God by Oh, let the dead now hear Thy voice, Thy blood." Oh, it is to God we want to live! Bid, Lord, Thy banished ones rejoice; We have been living to sin, we have been Their beauty this, their glorious dress, living to self; but our redemption is unto God, Jesus the Lord our Righteousness! and for His glory. "For liberty," says Paul to * * * the Galatians, "has Christ made us free." 'Tis He instead of me is seen What saving grace this is! It knocks off the When I approach to God. shackles from your wrist, it frees your feet, open your lips, it gives you liberty. "Being But Paul goes on to explain the method of then made free from sin, and become servants saving grace more deeply: "In whom (Jesus) to righteousness." That is how the apostle we have redemption through His blood" (v. describes our redemption in Christ. No 7). "The Son of man came . .. to give His bondage any more. "If the Son shall make life a ransom for many"—these words that our you free, ye shall be free indeed." Lord used concerning the giving of His life, Paul gives us three things here as he ex- and the effect of it, employ a metaphor taken pounds the method of saving grace. At the from the slave-markets of His day. Here were end of verse 7 he goes on to say, "the forgive- youths and maidens, and old men and women ness of sins, according to the riches of His for that matter, who had been captured in the grace." Our acceptance, our redemption, our wars by the Romans, brought to the market forgiveness. Now, redemption and forgiveness to be sold as slave labour. There were various are here put side by side. They are always ways in which the business was transacted, and found together in the experience of the various terms were used in connection with it. believer; but they are not identical, nor are Occasionally a man of tender heart and under- they co-extensive. Redemption relates to our standing sympathy would go to the slave mar- person; remission relates to our sins. Here it ket, and feeling moved with pity, would re- is the forgiveness of sins. God had to deal
74 not only with the sinner, but with his sins. riches of His grace." I expect you delighted And the word that Paul uses here for sin is the in that neat phrase of Dr. Rees yesterday— word that the Lord uses when He bids us pray "Not in parsimonious pinches!" Here, the for the forgiveness of our trespasses—our falls, riches of His grace; according to the extent our breaking of God's holy law. Remission, of His wealth in glory, according to the or forgiveness, is the word meaning "to send infinitude of the perfections of God, so is His away," to cancel, to obliterate: and this is what grace. How vast! Multitudes of all climes God does for us, by His saving grace. There and tongues, all sorts and conditions of men— is the cancellation of our indebtedness, the how deep it goes to the lowest, how far it blotting out of the handwriting that was reaches to the worst, how long-suffering, how against us, the sending away of our guilt, for it tireless, how inexhaustible, how patient, how no longer rests upon us. Where, then, does compassionate, how broad and inclusive, how it go? "Behold the Lamb of God, which strong! "Wherefore He is able also to save beareth away the sin of the world." It is to the uttermost them that come unto through the efficacy and sufficiency of our God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make Lord's substitutionary death that you and I intercession for them." may find the freedom from sin for which we At the end of chapter 3 Paul has another of long. his unfinished sentences. In verse 18 in the Do you remember Paul's great words in course of his prayer for their real possession Roman 3:24, 25—"Being justified freely by of all the glory and fulness of God, he goes His grace through the redemption that is in on to say: "that ye may be able to Christ Jesus, whom God bath set forth to be comprehend with all saints what is the a propitiation—a means of making right rela- breadth and length and depth and tions between—through faith in His blood, to height." He does not finish that sentence. declare His righteousness for the remission Translators and expositors have made their of sins that are past." When the apostle John shrewd guesses to try and complete that sen- wants to give evidence of the love of God, he tence. Well, it is one of those sentences which does not do as some liberal theologians of the perhaps Paul did not finish because it was present day would argue, and say, "God is so impossible to finish. It applied in every loving, therefore sin does not get in the way direction of the perfections of God; and oh, and God does not have to do anything about what depth and height, what length and breadth it." Listen to what John says: "Herein is there are in the saving grace of God! love, not that we loved God, but that He ... I know not where His islands lift sent His Son to be the propitiation for our Their fronded palms in air; sins." Propitiation? Yes, God is always loving, and nothing can be done or has to be I only know I cannot drift done to make Him loving ; yet the very love Beyond His love and care. that God bears toward the sinner, the very Grace to the uttermost ; abundant grace. "Let grace that He shows him, is always grace which the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighte- breaks through righteousness. ous man his thoughts, and let him return unto It was in the sin-bearing death of the Lord the Lord, for He will have mercy upon him ; Jesus that propitiation was made. "This," said and to our God, for He will abundantly the Saviour at the Last Supper, "is my blood pardon." "According to the riches of His of the new covenant, which is shed for many grace"—no limit, no boundary, no definition. for the remission of sins": that is the theme "Where sin abounded, grace did much more of the Gospel. "Repent and be baptised every abound." "The grace that was shown to me," one of you, for the remission of sins." "Him says Paul, "was exceeding abundant." And hath God exalted," said Peter, "to be a Prince oh, my friends, I want to tell you what possi- and Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, bly you have heard many times before, but and forgiveness of sins." And Paul echoes the maybe to match your sense of need at this same: "Through this man is preached unto moment, that there was nothing so heinous, or you the forgiveness of sin." dark, or depressing, or sinister, revealed yester- day concerning the depths of inbred sin in Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, your heart, that is beyond the saving grace of Who like thee His praise should sing? the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul gave a charge to Timothy about Gospel preaching, he Here is the last thought from this passage— said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of III. THE MEASURE OF SAVING GRACE. all acceptation"—and I think he metaphorically "In whom we have redemption through His swept his hand around the circle of the great blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the crowds that he could see in his mind's eye;
75 rich and poor, educated and uneducated, lonely sovereignty and mercy of God in it; and let and sad, joyful, young and old ; there they us take the water of life freely. How may I were, those with good backgrounds, those with be saved and cleansed from my sin? Through bad, those who had been preserved from so saving grace. many outward sins, but others who had gone into open and disgusting sin—"worthy of all Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, acceptation", "for whosoever shall call on the Weak and wounded, sick and sore; name of the Lord shall be saved." Abundant Jesus ready stands to save you, grace. What shall we do in the presence of Full of pity, joined with power: such grace? Well, let us praise and magnify He is able, He is willing, the glory of it. Let us submit ourselves to the Doubt no more.
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Able to Save to the Uttermost BY THE REV. A. W. RAINSBURY, M.A.
Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.—HEBREWS 7:25.
THIS letter was written to professing Hebrew fore He is able"—and that word wherefore Christians who were swaying over the reaches back into the previous context, and it edge of the precipice of apostasy. Externally, gathers into itself all that has already been they were branded by their fellow-countrymen said to demonstrate the ability of the Lord as traitors to the religion of their forefathers ; Jesus Christ. As we examine that context we they were ostracised and persecuted. Internally, see that His ability has already been demon- their spiritual lives were at a low ebb, and strated in three ways. First, because of the in some indeed there was no spiritual life at order to which He was appointed; secondly, all, Consequently they were looking wistfully because of the nature of His appointment; back to the religion which they had forsaken ; thirdly, because of the manner of His appoint- the appeal of ritual and ceremony and ment. Let us look at these more closely. The tradition was very strong, and they were sorely Lord Jesus is able- tempted to abandon their profession of faith (i) Because of the order to which He was in Christ; indeed, some of them had already appointed. "Jesus made an high priest . . . done so. We are faced with a very similar after the order of Melchisedec" (6:20). These situation in our own country today, for Jews so venerated the Levitical priesthood wherever there is a lack of spiritual reality, that they were almost selling their souls to there is the desire to get back to mediaevalism, return to its jurisdiction. But the writer points ceremonialism, ritualism, trying to supply the out that the Lord Jesus belongs to an infinitely spirit which is missing. higher order than that of Levi: He belongs The object of this letter was threefold. First, to the order of Melchisedec, who was not only to warn them of the dangerous position in a priest but a king, a royal priest in type of which they stood. Secondly, to remind them Jesus. Melchisedec's position was so great of the immeasurable superiority of Christianity that even Abraham, who was regarded by all over Judaism. Thirdly, to tell them of the the Jews as their greatest ancestor, acknow- infinite resources which were theirs in their ledged the superiority of Melchisedec over temptation, available in the Lord Jesus Christ. himself, by giving him a tenth part of the In chapter 7, the writer is constrasting the spoils of battle. The word that is used for priesthood of the Lord Jesus with the Levitical "spoils" means literally "the topmost part of priesthood, showing the incomparable the heap," that is, the pick of the spoils— superiority of the Lord Jesus over the which was normally presented by the heathen priesthood that they had forsaken. And to their gods. These, Abraham presented to in our text he is showing the super - Melchisedec, acknowledging that Melchisedec iority of the intercession of the Lord Jesus was far greater than he was. If, then, Mel- at God's right hand, over the interces- chisedec was greater than Abraham; and sion of the earthly priest in the Temple in Abraham was, by common consent, greater Jerusalem. We can perhaps analyse the mean- than Levi, then Melchisedec was that much ing our our text by trying to answer four greater than Levi. And Jesus was appointed questions. First, who is able? Second, what to the order of Melchisedec; therefore Jesus is He able to do? Third, for whom is He was that much greater than Levi. Indeed, we able to do this? And the last, why is He able might say, not only greater than Levi and to do it? Abraham, but Jesus was greater than Mel- I. WHO IS ABLE? The answer—"where- chisedec too, as much greater as the substance
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is greater than the shadow. For that was all days when God the Holy Spirit has been Melchisdec was. Jesus was the real eternal searching our hearts and convicting us afresh royal High Priest. That is the reason why of our innumerable sins, is it not precious to "He is able . ." That is the first reason; and remember that Jesus is able to save! He the second we find in verses 15 and 16— is able to save us from the guilt of all those (ii) Because of the nature of His appoint- sins that press upon our souls at this minute. ment. "Another priest"—and that means not He is able to save us from the pollution of just a different one, but someone of a different that guilt; He is able to save us from the kind—"arises in the likeness of Melchisedec, punishment of it all. Why? Because of the who had become a priest, not according to a sacrifice which He offered. "Not the blood legal requirement concerning bodily descent of bulls and goats"—verse 27 reminds us that but by the power of an indestructible life" "He needeth not daily, as those high priests, (R.S.V.) You see, the institution to the to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins Levitical priesthood depended entirely upon and then for the people's: for this He did natural descent, but the appointment of the once for all, when He offered up Himself." Lord Jesus did not depend upon mere natural Oh, it is good to know that as in faith we descent, but upon His unique inherent spiritual avail ourselves of that once-for-all sacrifice qualifications. It was "by the power of an upon the cross, the Holy Spirit comes to us indestructible life." What does that mean? and applies its eternal efficacy to the deepest Well, it means that Jesus was not interested depths of our souls, and washes us whiter than in pedigree, but in power. Indeed, Jesus had the driven snow. Our sins are forever for- the pedigree as well as the power; in fact, given and forever forgotten when we come His pedigree infinitely surpassed the pedigree to that cross of Christ afresh. of Levi, for Jesus was appointed High Priest I will cast in the depths from eternity. But Jesus had not only the Of the fathomless sea pedigree: He had also the power which Levi All your sins and transgressions, so miserably lacked. The Levitical priesthood Whatever they be; had the law engraven on tables of stone, yet Though they mount up to heaven, could not give the power to live up to that law: Though they reach down to hell, but that is what Jesus can do. "Wherefore They shall sink in the depths, Jesus is able"—why? Because that inde- And above them shall swell structible life of Jesus enters into the life of All my waves of forgiveness the man and the woman who comes to God So mighty and free: through Jesus, in contrast with those who I will cast all your sins tried to come to Him by the Levitical law. In the depths of the sea. Think of it. You have the very power, the indestructible life of Jesus within you, my In the deep silent depths, Christian friends, to enable you to live Far away from the shore; victoriously. "Wherefore Jesus is able," Where they never may rise up thirdly— To trouble thee more; (iii) Because of the manner of His appoint- Where no far-reaching tide ment. "Those who formerly became priests With its pitiless sweep took their office without an oath, but this May stir the dark waves one was addressed with an oath, The Lord Of forgetfulness deep: hath sworn and will not change His mind, I have buried them there, Thou art a priest for ever' " (v. 21). What Where no mortal can see; does it mean? My friends, when in the solemn I have cast all your sins councils of eternity God appointed Jesus as In the depths of the sea. High Priest, he did not merely give a promise. Almighty God took an oath. Nothing less Bless His Name! than the oath of Almighty God guarantees the But the emphasis of our text is not on the efficacy and the eternity of the Priesthood of mere negative deliverance from the conse- our blessed Lord Jesus. Surely, then, in view quences of our sins, but on the positive deliver- of the order to which Jesus was appointed, ance from the power of our sins. We thank in view of the nature of His appointment, in God for the first, but we thank God even view of the manner of His appointment, we more for the second. Just look at it. "He is may rightly say, "Jesus is able." Now our able to save . . . to the uttermost." This word second question— "uttermost" has in the Greek a dual meaning: II. WHAT IS HE ABLE TO Do? Our text it refers both to extent and to duration. answers, "To save to the utteituost." In these
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Let us look, first, to the extent. "He is able to Name them now in your heart before God. save to the uttermost extent." What does Say to them one by one—to the uttermost; that mean? It means what it says—that my Jesus is able to save me from you to the there is no sphere of our lives, body, mind, or uttermost. That is what God's Word says. spirit, in which we need ever experience defeat. Ah, you might say, that is all very well while That is what it means. Is there anything I am here at Keswick. What is going to beyond "the uttermost"? It would not be the happen when I get home into the thick of the uttermost if there was! Is there anything battle again? How many times this has been excluded from the uttermost? No, my friends; said, even this very morning, to many of us! when God says "uttermost" He means utter- Do you remember that I said that this word most. But this standard has never been fully "uttermost" has a dual meaning, referring not attained by any except our blessed Lord only to extent, but also, praise God, to dura- Himself, we freely admit. But that this has tion. Indeed, the Revised Standard Version been the case, has not been due to any defici- translates it, "He is able for all time to save." ency in the grace or power of God. And that Do you notice it? Not just for Keswick this standard should be the constant unquali- time, but for all time. To save to the utter- fied aim of every child of God is clearly taught most. Now— us in the Word of God. Nothing less will III. To WHOM IS HE ABLE TO Do Tins? satisfy God; nothing less will satisfy you. There it is, in your Bibles, in black-and-white: Indeed, as we examine this chapter more "Them that come unto God by Him"—in con- closely we see that the whole point of its trast to those that tried to come to God by argument is to show that the very weakness of the impotent Levitical priesthood. "Them that the Levitical priesthood was its inability to come unto God by Him." Two things are bring the sinner to perfection, to wholeness, implied here. First, a sense of need which to completeness, as the word means. But the impels us to come to God; and secondly, a very glory of the High Priesthood of the Lord faith that God is willing and able to do this Jesus is that He can do what they could not thing for us. Oh, thank God that no high and do. That is the whole argument of the unattainable qualifications of character or chapter. "If therefore prefection were by the attainment are laid down in this verse. This Levitical priesthood . . . what further need door of blessing is wide open to all who will was there that another priest should rise after come. Is there some unconverted person here? the order of Melchisedec, and not be called Even now, with all your sin and rebellion, you after the order of Aaron" (v. 11). And again, can come to God through Jesus Christ, and "The law made nothing perfect, but the bring- He will save you ; He will save you from ing in of a better hope did" (v. 19). Did what? eternal hell. He will wash out all that is past, Made perfect, complete, made whole. The if you will but acknowledge your need and Lord Jesus Christ did it: "by the which we come in simple trust to God through Jesus draw nigh to God"—in contrast to them who Christ. But this text goes on to say—oh yes, draw nigh to a miserable, earthly sinful fallen yes, thank God for that; but He has better in human high priest. But the whole argument store even than that: He is able to go on of the chapter culminates in our text, which saving—but I am anticipating. I must repeat emphasises again that in contrast to the this, for maybe someone is in such a deep Levitical priest Jesus is able to save to the experience of defeat, and you have tried and uttermost, which they could not do (v. 25). have failed so often. And oh, you say, is this Could anything be clearer than that? Oh, for me? May I tell you? I once heard this it would be to beggar language to put any verse paraphrased briefly, "from the gutter- other meaning on it than that! most of the uttermost." And it does not only My friends, this statement is either true or refer to the social "guttermost," though it false. If it is not true, then let us burn our includes that; it refers to the spiritual "gutter- Bibles. It was for this that Jesus shed His most." If you, my dear brother, my dear blood, and nothing less. But if it is true, oh, sister in Christ, are in the very "guttermost," let us lay hold upon it by faith and apply it and have come to Keswick as a last hope—ah, to our own particular needs and temptations. look not to Keswick, but to Jesus, your great Tell me—or do not tell me; tell God, who High Priest, who has brought you here to life is reading your heart—what is your most you from the "guttermost" to the uttermost. besetting sin? Unbelief, pride, malice, temper, A final question— impatience, impurity, sensoriousness, worry? IV. WHY IS HE ABLE TO SAVE SUCH If I have not named it, you name it in your TO THE UTTERMOST? The answer is—"seeing heart. And do not stop at your besetting sins. He ever liveth to make intercession for Bring them all up, all that ever troubled you. them." Did you ever hear the likes of that? "Seeing He
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ever liveth"—what more? My friend, Jesus brance before the Lord" (v. 29, R.S.V.). He is is in heaven for you this afternoon; not for in the holy place, bringing your name continu- Himself, but for you. He ever liveth to ally to remembrance before the throne of God. make intercession for you. That is what the Oh, what a wonderful picture of the inter- Book says. Why should the Almighty Son of cession of our Lord Jesus for us! As He Almighty God ever live just to make inter- appears in the presence of God now for us cession for the likes of you and me? The He bears our individual names, as it were, reason for that intercession we find in verse 22, upon His shoulders, the place of strength; "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a and upon His heart, the place of love. He better covenant." From eternity God ever liveth to intercede unceasingly, that the appointed Jesus as the surety, the guarantor, of new covenant may be fulfilled in you and in the new covenant. What does that mean? A me. surety is someone who is bound with another In Hebrews 4:14-16, which also deals with person for the payment of a debt. If the Christ's heavenly intercession, we learn that debtor defaults and does not pay, the surety His intercession is not just general and has to pay; and the surety is someone bound impersonal, for the Church as a whole, but with another for the fulfilment of an under- that it is applied to the specific needs of each taking, and if this other person defaults in the believer, at each specific moment of his life. fulfilment, the surety makes the fulfilment on For the promise that we will "find grace to help his behalf. Now apply this to Jesus, for in in time of need" means that we shall find both senses Jesus is our Surety at God's right timely help. Oh, just the special help we need hand. It was because you and I could not at the special moment of temptation; and as fulfil the obligations of the covenant, that Jesus I speak to you, the Lord Jesus is interceding in His love and mercy undertook to fulfil them for me as I speak, and for you as you listen. on our behalf, that we might enjoy all the And He will continue to pray for each one of benefits of that new covenant. In the first us until we put off this earthly tabernacle. place, He undertook before God as our Surety to answer for all the sins, for all the debts of Oh, my friends, why is it that we are not those who were to be made partakers of that saved "to the uttermost"? Oh, surely, it is new covenant; and on the cross of Calvary not because of any deficiency in the purpose as our Surety Jesus paid it all. Bless His Holy of God, or in the power of God, or in the love Name. of God? You are on His heart. Or any In the second place, Jesus as our Surety deficiency in the grace of God, or in the undertook that the terms of the new covenant provision which God has made for this life would be fulfilled in us. Those terms are for you and me? Oh no; there can only be quoted from Jeremiah in Hebrews 10: 16— one reason why we are not so saved—because "This is the covenant that I will make with we do not "come unto God by Him." Oh yes, them after those days, saith the Lord: I will we came once perhaps; but do we continue put my laws into their hearts, and in their coming, with a continuous sense of our utter minds will I write them." No longer on helplessness, and a continuous trust in His external tables of stone, but God Almighty uttermost power to do it for us? Way trans- promises—what? "I will put my laws into lates this verse: "And for this reason He had their hearts, and in their minds will I write power to continue saving, wholely and per- them." By His intercession at God's right fectly, those who, by His mediation, are hand Jesus is fulfilling the suretyship He under- through all time drawing near to God, because took, to write God's law upon our heart. What He is for ever living to intercede for them." does that mean? Oh, to make us love what Coming up to Keswick in the car with Mr. we ought to do. And upon our minds—to Leith Samuel, I mentioned to him the text make us know what we ought to do. In other that God had laid on my heart for this after- words, Jesus is at this moment praying, both noon, and he drew my attention to the fact that we may know what we ought to do, and that this verse was the text of the last sermon that we may love to do what we know we preached by Evan Hopkins—to whom, ought to do. That is the reason for His under God, the Keswick Convention owes unceasing intercession. And oh, how beauti- more than to anybody else. His last sermon, fully it is foreshadowed in Exodus 28, where preached in his son's church, All Souls, East- Aaron, representing the Lord Jesus, bore the bourne, in 1916, was a summary of the over- names of the children of Israel upon the coming Gospel he had preached for forty years ephod upon his shoulders, and upon the breast- —thirty-nine of them at Keswick. Hebrews plate upon his heart, when he went into the 7:25, and as he delighted to render it, "He is holy place, "to bring them to continual remem- able to be saving to the very end those who
80 are in the habit of coming unto God through find one place marked with two lines; it was Him." That's it! everything to my poor lad." The leaves were Are we "in the habit of coming unto God turned, the stick was found to have scored through Him," with the outstretched hands of two lines at the side of Hebrews 7:25, "He is need and trust? That, I believe, is the secret able also to save them to the uttermost that of "the uttermost" of which this passage come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth speaks—the "full salvation" for which Keswick to make intercession for them." That verse stands. was everything to that poor gipsy. May God Bishop Handley Moule tells the story of a make it everything to you and me. saintly Nonconformist pastor in West Dorset, Would you like to commemorate this who had striven to teach a sick man, a young Keswick afternoon by marking this verse in gipsy in a wandering camp, to read and to your Bible with two lines? Would you like come to Jesus. The camp moved on after a to call one of them "uttermost need"—"need" while, and the young man, dying of consump- for short, to fit it into the margin; and the tion, took a Bible with him. Time rolled on, other, "uttermost trust." My friends, where and one day a grey-haired gipsy came to the these two things exist side by side, we shall be minister's door. It was the young gipsy's able to write between them, "He is able"— father, with the news of his son's happy death, He is able to be saving to the very end, as and with his Bible. "Sir," said the gipsy, "I He did that gipsy boy; to the very end those cannot read a word; but he was always read- that are in the habit of coming unto God by ing it, and he marked what he liked with a Him, seeing "He ever liveth to make stick from the fire. And he said you would intercession for them."
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Our Advocate with the Father
BY THE REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS, BA., B.D.
I AM commissioned this evening to bring you Christ the righteous. He is an invincible good news—the good news of these advocate. He has never been known to refuse troubled and tempestuous days. The good news a case, desperate as the brief may be; He has which has set the Christian Church singing for never been known to lose a case. He is in- nineteen hundred years; the good news which fallible in His advocacy. And here, set before belongs to the very essence of the Gospel: the world to read, are the secrets of the invin- that we have a God who pardons iniquities. cible advocacy of our Lord Jesus Christ on Our text is in the Apostles' Creed—"I believe behalf of sinners at the bar of God's eternal in the forgiveness of sins," and we turn in the justice. New Testament to 1 John 2:1, 2, "And if any I suppose the success of a human barrister man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, may be accounted for along three lines. First, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the pro- it may be that the case is easy: the prosecu- pitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, tion has very little to say against the defen- but also for the sins of the whole world." dant. The defence is obvious, and so strong "I believe in forgiveness," said a learned that it almost fights itself: any barrister could philosopher in my hearing recently; "but the win the day. Such is not the case in the trial forgiveness I believe in has nothing at all to before us here. To represent sinners before a do with the Cross of Jesus Christ. I simply holy and incorruptible Judge is a very dif- refuse to believe that Jesus Christ had to die ferent matter. upon a Cross in order that God might forgive What plea can our Barrister present? He sin. God forgives men and women because cannot plead our innocence. "If any man they are sorry, that is all. I believe in redemp- sin . . ." It is acknowledged that we are tion by human regret." So said the voice of sinners. Nor can He plead that we are guilty the human philosopher. But divine revelation but not responsible—that is a valid plea in teaches something altogether different. It is British law: guilty but not responsible. But that God's forgiveness has simply everything God's statute book will not accept that plea. to do with the atoning death of our Lord Jesus That plea is being attempted by the psycho- Christ upon the Cross. "Without the shedding logist, who will try to persuade us that human of blood there is no remission of sins." So freedom is a fiction, it does not exist: we are testifies the Old Testament and the New Testa- all at the mercy of our circumstances and of ment. "In whom (i.e., Christ) we have redemp- our heredity. But that plea of shifting the tion through His blood, even the forgiveness responsibility is as old as Jeremiah, for, many of sins." What can wash away my sins? asks centuries ago, the Jews in Jerusalem tried that the guilty conscience. And to that the Word plea. "Our fathers," they said, "have eaten of God makes one reply: "Nothing but the sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set blood of Jesus." What can make me whole on edge. We never had a chance." To which again? "Nothing but the blood of Jesus." God replied plainly and bluntly in both Jere- That is the teaching of our text. miah and Ezekiel: "The soul that sinneth, it "If any man sin, we have an advocate with shall die." "Every man must bear his own the Father." An advocate, a barrister. That burden." Every man is responsible for his suggests the picture of a legal trial. We see own sin. We are both guilty and responsible the barrister and the accused, the witnesses at the bar of God. and the jury, and the judge. God is our judge, It cannot be, then, that our advocate is suc- before whom we must all appear at the last. cessful in every case simply because the battle We are the accused, standing at the bar of He has to fight is a small one. No human eternal justice ; and God, in His infinite mercy, barrister could take this on; indeed, every has provided for us an advocate in Jesus human barrister is in the dock in this trial:
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yet, difficult and almost impossible as the case be started on what was called a "special" may be, we are assured of the fact that we defence. have an Advocate. What is a special defence? Well, a special A second secret of a barrister's success lies in defence is a defence where a new factor is his own ability. How exciting it is to read the introduced into the trial which alters the account of a trial and to see how a barrister, by situation altogether. "A" is accused of being his brilliant cross-examination, by his timing of guilty, and the defence brings forward the witnesses, and by his eloquent plea to the another culprit, "B." Substitution of another jury, secures the acquittal of a man who culprit is special defence in law; and it seemed to be certainly doomed. Many a man is the very heart of our Gospel that God who has stood in the dock has owed almost pardons iniquity by the special defence of our everything to the sheer brilliance of his counsel; divine advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ. He and certainly, the advocacy of the Lord Jesus substitutes, not another culprit—there is no Christ has every gift and every qualification attempt here to whitewash your sin and mine; required for the difficult task. Read the no attempt to talk it away or talk it down. matchless qualifications set out in this text. "If Mine, mine was the transgression. I am the any man sin, we have an advocate with the offender in the sight of God. Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." His The substitution is not that of another cul- understanding of sinners is perfect, His name is prit; it is that of another victim. The Lord Jesus. And if ever there was a person fitted to Jesus Christ, the divine advocate, substituted plead the cause of sinners it must be Jesus, the Himself in your place, and mine, as a victim. Friend of publicans and sinners. He is He has paid the penalty of the broken law: specially commissioned of God to His task of "If any man sin, we have an advocate with delivering men. His name is Jesus Christ, the the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is Christ. That means the Anointed One. It was the propitiation for our sins"—propitiation one God Himself who anointed Him for this task. of the great massive words of the Bible. It is Says Galatians, "It was God who sent forth the term that speaks of sacrifice, of His Son, born of a woman, to redeem them atonement, of God's wrath turned away from that were under the law." He came our sin. For God is implacable in His holiness, commissioned and equipped of His Father to and cannot look upon sin. But Jesus Christ has be our Redeemer. He is Jesus Christ the covered our sin with the perfect sacrifice of righteous. Himself. To put it into a sentence: what the Not all human barristers are righteous. Lord Jesus Christ did on the Cross on Good Some human barristers win their case because Friday afternoon is to put right what sin has they are not always scrupulous; but God's Son put wrong. Sin separates from God; the Cross does not insinuate that the guilty are brings together again. Sin rears a barrier innocent. He would not stoop to emotional between God and man; the Cross breaks pleas which cloud justice. He is righteous, down that barrier, and opens the way for He upholds the claims of God's law. More sinners to come freely to the very heart of the than that, He is described as the Righteous. He Father. Sin leads to bondage; Christ has embodies, He incarnates the law of God. He given Himself a ransom to set us free. Sin alone is perfect. He alone among men has incurs a debt; and He has cancelled that kept the law of God fully and perfectly. What debt. Sin involves a burden, and the Lord wonder, then, that He has power to secure God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. the pardon of the vilest offenders; for if He is Sin incurs an awful responsibility at the last commissioned of God to the task, and if He day in the presence of God, and that awful has complied with all God's holy requirements, responsibility has been exhausted by the Lamb how could He fail? of God who taketh away the sin of the world. But ultimately, a barrister wins his case on the "There is now therefore no condemnation to strength of his defence. And what defence can them that are in Christ Jesus." the righteous Saviour make on behalf of us It is the death of the Cross that secures our sinful men and women? Not that we are sorry, pardon. The Bible says so: "Behold the Lamb not that we shed tears; that would be sentiment. of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." What defence is it that Jesus Christ presents The great creeds of the Church affirm it. The before the throne of God on behalf of us sinful death of Christ, to quote those fine words of men and women? It is the defence that hit the the Thirty-nine Articles, is that "perfect re- headlines in a recent famous British case. demption, propitiation and satisfaction for all You remember how the headlines announced the sins of the whole world, both original and the fact that this case was to actual; and there is none other satisfaction
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for sin but that alone." A children's hymn the sins of the whole world." Ask God by puts it into a sentence—"He died that we His Holy Spirit to extend your mind to be might be forgiven." able to take it in. The sins of the whole world. All the sin that has ever been com- This, then, is the sinner's plight. mitted—all the scandal you have ever heard about your friends and your neighbours, every- Day and night the accuser makes no pause, thing sordid you have ever read in the news- Day and night protest the righteous laws paper, all the nameless crimes of Belsen and Siberia, of the Pharaohs and Nebuchadnezzars, And here is our pardon— the Neros and the Napoleons, the Mussolinis and the Hitlers and the Stalins—all of the sin Day and night our Jesus makes no pause, recorded in history-books and locked away in Pleads His own fulfilment of all laws, human hearts. Try now to conceive it. See Veils with His perfections mortal flaws; the mountain of human iniquity arise, and Clears the guilty, pleads the desperate cause. then read again the text: "He is the pro- pitiation for the sins of the whole world." Pleads and always wins the day! And then make a list of your own sins; ask God to bring them all to your remembrance. I believe in the forgiveness of sin—do you? And when you bring that little ant-heap of Do you expect mercy? Do you know the yours and place it side by side with the moun- calm of sins forgiven? On what ground? tain of human iniquity, can it be that God The Bible knows of one ground alone: by the has made an exception of you? merit of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and and of His Cross. And this Christian pardon just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us is marked by three things. First, the pardon from all unrighteous." "There is plentiful of the Cross is a certain pardon. How des- redemption in the blood that has been shed." perately sin-sick men and women need to hear Because pardon depends upon the perfect Jesus say to them: "Go in peace; thy sins sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for- are forgiven thee." Is that your desperate giveness is certain for you. But it must be need now? claimed: "If any man sin, we have an I believe that in this vast concourse of advocate." Have you an advocate? Have people there must be one heart tormented by you claimed Him? Have you committed unforgiven sin. You look at your own your case to His confidence? You must com- heart and you say to yourself, I will never mit your sin to Him, for unconfessed sin is be good enough to be a Christian. Or maybe unforgiven sin. It is available for the whole you are a Christian, but you are held down world. It avails only for those who can say, by a crushing sense of guilt. Perhaps you "I have an Advocate." have disobeyed God on some major issue, and And Christian pardon places upon us an have never felt forgiven since. Maybe some infinite indebtedness to our Lord Jesus Christ. particular sin comes back to you down the It is all of Him. We are absolutely bank- months and the years—it maybe back in your rupt, every one of us, deserving only to be adolescent years; and these ghosts of the past cast into the pit at the last; and we shall stand come trooping up the months and years and in God's everlasting presence throughout the start up before your mind as a black shudder- aeons of eternity to worship and adore Him, ing horror, and you shrink away in utter self- by the merit of the Cross of our Lord Jesus loathing, and you say, I did it, I did that. Christ. You cannot be pardoned by tears, but And you may know what it is to weep and can we be pardoned without tears? Is this weep and weep over your own sin; and when not perfectly amazing, when we look into our the devil, who tries to keep you with your own hearts and our own rebellion, and remem- conscience callous, sees you in that state of ber that God has pardoned us by the merit of penitence, he persuades you that you cannot what the Lord Jesus Christ His Son wrought be forgiven. for us. Not callously, not cold-heartedly, but Friend, if you say to-night, "I'll never get in wonder lost, we take the pardon of our back to where I was. I shall never know God. again the pure joy of God's service and the blessings for which I yearn," let me ask you To Thee, Thou bleeding Lamb, I all things to read the text again: "If any man sin, we owe, have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ All that I have and am, and all I know: the righteous: and He is the propitiation for All that I have is now no longer mine, our sins; and not for our sins only, but for And I am not my own, Lord, I am Thine.
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Chronic Sicknesses of the Soul By THE REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN, M.A.
And much people followed Jesus, and thronged Him. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse, when she heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched His garment; for she said, If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And His disciples said unto Him, Thou seest the multitude thronging Thee, and sayeth Thou, Who touched me? And He looked round about to see her that had done this thing. And the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before Him, and told Him all the truth. And He said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath 'made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. -MARK 5:24-34. AS I have been praying about this evening's and our spiritual condition seems to remain meeting I found myself held to this particular unimproved year after year. If you had incident, and have found myself asking the known a Christian like this twelve years ago, question, Can Jesus Christ cure the chronic you would recognise the same marks of sicknesses of the soul? For I believe that spiritual inadequacy as you find tonight. Were this story may have light to throw on one of they touchy and difficult to work with then? the tragedies of the Christian Church, that They are touchy and difficult to-day. Were there are so many people who seem to suffer they unreliable? For twelve long years that chronically from sicknesses of the soul. As has been their reputation. Did they resent I tried to analyse the significance of this in- an injury done to them? For twelve long years they nourished it in their hearts, and cident and its component parts, it seemed to every detail is as fresh now as it was the day me that first of all we do well to note that— after it happened. Did they not come to the prayer meeting then? Nor do they come I. CERTAIN FACTS ARE FACED HERE. now. Did they have a flaming temper then, The first fact that we find concerning the that brought dishonour on the name of sickness of the body—reflecting, I believe, in Christ? It is as uncontrolled tonight. The parable, the sickness of the soul—concerns chronic sicknesses of the soul. And the thing the duration of it. "A certain woman, which that is shattering, devastating, shameful, is had an issue of blood twelve years . . ." The that Christians can tolerate situations like that period of time was long: twelve long years. year after year. And one of the things that alarms and Are you that kind of Christian? Do you frightens and shames me, is the discovery how know anything about a chronic sickness of long certain situations can go on in Christian the soul? How many mission stations bear living, how long some Christians are sick witness to this. I wonder if there is a mission- from some diseases of the soul. If you had ary home on furlough, and the rest of the folk met that woman in the twelve long years, if on your station are thankful that you have you had met her at the beginning and at the gone. Is it possible? Senior? Experienced? end, you would have found her the same; With years of service on your record sheet: the same trouble. and the rest are glad you are away, because Have you come across a Christian like that? for years you have been so difficult, so domin- It may be that we are one of them ourselves, eering, so autocratic. How many churches
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are like hospitals for incurables? My father people. You come right against it--the used to visit such a hospital. What a name chronic situation, the chronic failure, the thing for a hospital—the hospital for incurables! that has remained unhealed, unrectified; and The churches are full of them. it has gone on and on and on, and you call How many homes, how many lives, have that a Christian life! Is there somebody here to face this fact of the duration of a chronic and you do not know you are in that state, sickness of the soul that remained unhealed, but everybody else does. Your wife knows unchecked, untouched year after year. Is there it, maybe your husband knows it, your child- a Christian here, and you are suffering in ren know it, your minister knows it, the folk your Christian life and in your Christian you work with know it. You are suffering relationships from something that has been from chronic sickness of the soul, and you going on for twelve years or more? I want are not a bit like what a Christian should be. to ask you, How much longer is it going on? Facts are faced here. That is what we are The second fact is, not just the duration of doing at Keswick, are we not? But also— it, but the deterioration in it. To call the condition unchanged is not quite accurate; it II. FAITH IS FUNCTIONING HERE. is worse now than it was then. In verse 26 The wonderful thing about this particular we read that "she was nothing bettered, but woman is, that although she was desperately rather grew worse." There had been a ill, and although it had gone on for so long, noticeable decline. she did not want it, she did not like it. Have Has there been a decline in your spiritual you ever come across people who enjoy poor condition? Is there, indeed, anything static health? They really do. They would be most about sin? One of the most drastic utter- unhappy if they were really well, if they did ances concerning the moral law is that in not have rheumatism to talk about! What Galatians 6:7, "Be not deceived; God is not will some people do in heaven when there is mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that not rheumatism to talk about? But this shall he also reap." Ah, then, that means woman did not enjoy it, she wanted to be that between the sowing and the reaping rid of it. So we find that faith is functioning there is a growing. No, there is nothing here. Faith is functional, rather than emotional. static about sin, there is always deterioration. I think that is where a lot of us get astray The consequences of sin will be multiplied and on this question of faith. multiplied and multiplied. The chain of sin, I want to note just three things about habitual sin, will be fastened and riveted more this faith as it functions in this particular firmly. And the ultimate issues, the taking us story. First, the evidence upon which it away into a realm of experience we never rested. "She heard of Jesus," All I will say dreamed we would enter. is, that surely it is true to say that faith is Deterioration. Has a rot set in in your based upon knowledge. In Romans 10:17 we soul? The facts are faced here: the duration are told that "faith cometh by hearing, and of it; the deterioration in it; and the destitu- hearing by the Word of God." Faith is not tion through it. We read that this woman ignorance, and the life that remains ignorant had spent all that she had. Ultimately she of Jesus Christ is going to know precious little had no resources left; everything was gone, of Christian faith. The life that is undisciplined including hope. There is nothing more tragic and erratic in its reading of the Word of God, than when the soul is reconciled to what it through which our faith will grow, and out of believes to be the inevitable. I wonder if this which our faith based upon our knowledge woman had gone to the place of despair? of Him, will emerge, that kind of life will She tried so long, so many different remedies; find itself without any foundation to its faith. she had spent so much, and nothing was left. I She heard of Jesus. wonder if you are a chronic. There has been What have you heard of Him? We have something going on in your life for so long. been hearing about the efficacy of the blood There is something about you that is so of Jesus Christ, His death upon the Cross; utterly wrong. Everybody knows about it, that it atones for all sin, that in the light of but nothing will change it. For years your it He is able to forgive; and that He is faithful Christian life, although it has been one of and just to forgive us, and to cleanse from position in the church, it may be even of all unrighteousness—all, all, all unright- importance, has been a sheer scandal and a dis- eousness. What an amazing thing to know! grace. We shall never have faith in the forgiveness I am worried about this. You find it of sins unless we know that. Do you know everywhere. You run into it every time you it? I remember spending nearly one hour come in touch with a community of Christian talking to a missionary home on her first
86 furlough from the field. She had gone out ful about this woman; and if ignorance has with all the thrilling expectancy of her call. She little to do with faith, if indolence has little to had returned with a tragic record of failure, and I do with faith, indifference has less still. She had to spend one hour in getting that Christian wanted something. I remember hearing missionary to believe in the forgiveness of sins. Alexander Frazer at Portstewart commenting on She was prepared to believe that there was this very incident, and on the words of the forgiveness for a whole heap of sin, but not for disciples, "Thou seest the multitude thronging this one. I remember taking her to 1 John 1, and Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched me?" I pointing her to that verse: "If we confess our always remember Frazer saying, "The flesh sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our throngs, faith touches." There is something sins, and to cleanse us from all purposeful about faith. This woman knew unrighteousness," and I said to her: "Don't what she wanted, and she knew where she you dare make an exception where God could get it. She said, "If I may but touch ... makes none!" I shall be whole," and there was an experience But, you see, the evidence upon which faith will for which faith was reaching out. Are you on rest is the knowledge of the truth of the fact— your toes, are you reaching, or are you just and unless we know, how can we believe? She thronging? There is a multitude here, but heard of Jesus. what are we here for? Are we in the crowd The evidence upon which faith rests; and the because we want to reach Jesus Christ, or are efforts to which faith rises—we find not only we here just because we are curious? Yes, that she heard, but that she came. The distance facts are faced, and faith is functioning. Just she came we are not told. Had it been a day's one other thing— journey, or more? We know not. Had she been disappointed in her search to find the Master, III. FREEDOM WAS FOUND. and feared lest she should miss Him Can Jesus Christ cure the chronic sicknesses altogether? I want to say that if ignorance has of the soul? That is the question I found very little to do with faith, so has indolence. A pressing in upon my mind and upon my lot of Christians will know very little of faith. heart, as I thought in terms of my own life and Do you know why? Just because they are of the life of the Church, whether at home or sheer plumb lazy. "Oh, I have not got time to overseas. Can Jesus really handle the chronic read my Bible." Don't you believe it! Do you things, the things that go on year after year, know why you don't read your Bible? maybe going on in your life for long enough. Because you are too lazy. I remember asking Can He really handle it? All I can say as I a Christian once, "How are you getting on with read this story, is that freedom was found. reading your Bible?" She replied, "I do not There are three things that mark the freedom; read it very much. You know, I do not feel in and first, that it was conscious. We read: "She the mood for it." I inquired, "What about felt in her body that she was healed," and in work? Do you go to work every day?" "Yes." verse 33, "knowing what was done in her . . ." It "Do you always feel in the mood for it?" "No," was conscious. She knew it. I wonder if you she acknowledged, "I don't." "Do you stay at have ever noticed that there is a subtle but home, then, when you don't feel in the mood tremendously important distinction in the for it?" "No," she said: "I go." "Next Word of God between promises and time," I said, "you come to your Bible and you statements. There are certain promises that we don't feel in the mood for it, get down to it can claim, but they are promises and are and read it. It is not a question of feeling in the usually conditioned. There are also statements. mood; it is a matter of laziness." Let us be Here is one. Do you worry? Is that your honest and frank about it: the reason why chronic disease? Are you a worrying person some of us have very little of a faith that is and therefore very difficult to get on with? functioning, is because we are too lazy—we Here is a statement, not a promise. "All things are too lazy to think, some of us ; we are too work together for good to them that love God." lazy to read, too lazy to meditate, too lazy to That is something you can know. That is pray. something you can be conscious of. That is Faith is not laziness. There is an effort to something that has nothing to do with emotion, which faith will rise. And there is an ex- or fulfilling any condition or promise to be perience for which faith will reach. "If I claimed. It is something you can know, if you are may but touch . . ." She knew what she a Christian, if you are among those who love wanted; and when she heard, she came, she God and who fear Him; here is a statement, touched. "If I may but touch . . . I shall be here is something you can know. "All things whole." There is something very purpose- work
87 together for good"—then I need not worry. and testimony on the lip—a closer connection Dear old Bishop Taylor Smith used to say than sometimes we realise? "If thou shalt from this platform, that that verse does not confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and say "Ninety-nine things out of a hundred," shalt believe in thine heart . . . thou shalt be but "ninety-nine and one"—all things. That, I saved." I wonder whether or not the freedom believe, is the kind of position into which that you and I are to find, even as this we will ultimately come and in which we will woman, is not only something that we are to find freedom, when we know things. We are know, but something we are to testify to. We not just praying for them, we are not just are not to testify to ourselves, ever; and we are asking; we have done that, but we are know- not to go on confessing our failure again and ing them now. The woman ". . . knowing in again and again. I do not find that in the herself what was done." Word of God; but I believe we can give our The forgiveness of sins: that is something testimony to Him, His faithfulness, what we we can know. Is your problem the difficulty have discovered Him to be. of the old life within? There is something It was not only a conscious freedom, it was a you can know about this: "Knowing this, confessed one; and it was a complete one. The that our old man has been crucified with thing that had plagued her life for twelve years, Christ." You say, "Well, if he has been was dealt with in a moment. "Daughter, thy faith crucified and if he is supposed to be dead, hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be all I can say is, my old man may be dead, whole of thy plague." That final phrase was but he won't lie down!" Ah, but the apostle the one that came to me with particular does not just give us an historical fact as a challenge, "Be whole of thy plague." This thing basis for our liberation from the self-life that has been in your life, is going out. I wonder within. There is the faith to reckon on it; whether God's word to some Christian here, is but we are not to reckon on something that is that God's purpose for your life is that you not true: we are reckoning on something that should be whole of your sickness, your chronic we can know. "Knowing this" and reckoning sickness, this thing that has been making such a on it. It would be a stupid bit of counsel mess of it all for so long; God wants to have the of St. Paul's in Romans 6, to tell us to thing written off. He wants you to be whole of reckon on something that was not true. I your plague. do not reckon on the fact that I am a Facts are faced, faith is functioning, and millionaire. I would get into an awful muddle freedom found. If you were to ask that if I did; I would go and order a Jaguar car woman afterwards, "What was the secret of it here and a couple there, and I would plan a all?" she would sum it up in one word. She most wonderful holiday—and then I would would just say, "Well, it was Jesus." I wonder if wonder how to get out of the mess and pay we can let that fact sink right in for just a all the bills, because I am not a millionaire! moment of quietness. It is Jesus. Where is It is no good reckoning on it if it is not true. He? Jesus is living in me. Is it really true? But when St. Paul says, "Reckon ye your- Christ my life? Yes it is, and your body, selves to be dead indeed unto sin," he told us your personality, at this very moment, Jesus is to reckon on it because it is true. And our your life. You can know that; and if He really appropriating faith will lay hold of something is your life, can you not be whole of your that is true, and find that it becomes a con- plague? Can He not really master it, and scious experience. make you like Himself? It was conscious; and then it was confessed. Facts were faced, faith was functioning, and She gave her testimony concerning this. I freedom was found—when? When the woman am afraid that my Scottish background makes touched Jesus. You do not touch Him. Are it very difficult for me to ask people to come you listening? You do not touch that Man. out into the open over anything, but I always You have? The risen, glorious, wonderful, feel a sense of challenge about this, because risen Christ is your life, your health, your our Lord made this woman come out. He wholeness. Touch Him now, praise Him now, would not let her go. I wonder whether there thank Him now; and go out and find your is any connection between faith in the heart freedom, too, from your plague.
88 Pentecostal Power
By MAJOR W. IAN THOMAS, D.S.O., T.D. HIS is the fourth day of the Convention. I strange thing, for all who have called upon T wonder if some of you are feeling a the name of Jesus Christ and been cleansed in little bit battered? You have been under fire His precious blood, have received this seal, the from a good many directions; and it may be indwelling of the third Person of the Trinity, that as a result of this bombardment by the to impart to them according to the exceeding Word of God, in a spiritual sense, you are great and precious promises, the divine nature. feeling a bit battered. You have come under Hasn't this happened to you?" the pressing hand of God. There have been They replied, "We have not so much as heard moments when you have slipped away into the whether there be any Holy Ghost." And when quietness, and have been conscious of your he asked them, "Unto what, then, were you sin. God has been convicting you of prayer- baptised?" they said, "Unto John's baptism." lessness, lust or greed, pride or laziness, or a Then, of course, he understood. Paul said, thousand and one other things that God "John verily baptised with the baptism of re- reveals to us by His divine Spirit as we listen pentance, saying unto the people that they to His Word, which is His sword. And I should believe on Him which should come want at this stage to interject a word of warn- after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. Haven't ing, because it is precisely at this stage, when you heard that Jesus Christ has come? Haven't we have been wounded, when we have been you heard of the shed blood of the Cross? hurt, that we are in danger of falling prey to Haven't you heard that He cried in mighty sentiment or self-pity or self-interest. It is victory, in a voice that reverberated across the precisely at this stage of seeking forgiveness to city of Jerusalem, 'It is finished!' Haven't you ease a bad conscience, rather than to release heard that?" And they were ignorant of the power. You see, there is a quality of repen- simple, essential basis of redemption upon tance, and there is even a quality of forgive- which they could be reconciled to a holy God. ness which falls short of the divine purpose. And we are told in the record that when they Turn with me to Acts 19. "It came to pass were informed of the finished, vicarious, atoning that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having death of Jesus Christ, they called upon His name. passed through the upper coasts came to They found not only the sweetness of sins Ephesus; and finding certain disciples he said forgiven, but they received power by the presence unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost of the Holy Spirit. since ye believed?" Paul had heard about this Now, had these disciples not repented? Had little company of disciples, and he was con- they not known and tasted some measure of cerned for their spiritual well-being. So he forgiveness? We need to remind ourselves of the turned aside to visit them; but when he came nature of the message they had heard, and under into their midst he discerned that there was which they had submitted themselves to something strange, something sadly lacking. He baptism. In Mark 1 we read, "John did did not challenge their sincerity, but he had baptise in the wilderness and preach the baptism been accustomed to the manifestations of the of repentance for the remission of sins." John presence of God the Holy Spirit, clothed with preached repentance, and forgiveness; and the redeemed humanity of forgiven sinners. these disciples in Ephesus were numbered among This is what he had anticipated when he came those who had given sincere evidence of true into the midst of this company of alleged dis- repentance, and with deep desire within their ciples. Yet there was a lack of power, a lack hearts to be at peace with God, had claimed of joy, a lack of certainty, a lack of assurance; the kind of forgiveness that John had offered. and he was a bit baffled. He said, "Have you But it was a pre-crucifixion repentance, and it received the Holy Ghost since you believed? was a pre-Pentecost pardon, which left them If you haven't, it is a most unusual and without post-Pentecostal power. It
89 was a quality of repentance, it was a quality are prepared to confess your sins—as indeed of pardon; but both fell short of the ultimate those did who came out to repent under divine purpose of God, in Jesus Christ. John's baptism—and yet to miss the point of Of course, this is what the Lord Jesus Him- the purpose for which forgiveness in the grace self underlined in that midnight conversation of God is made available to God's redeemed that He had with Nicodemus. One may antici- people. pate that Nicodemus was numbered with those What did the Lord Jesus say? "I am come who went out and submitted to the baptism that ye might have forgiveness": was that the of John. He was an honourable man, of great declared intention of the Lord Jesus? Jesus religious integrity: he was not a hypocrite, like said, "I am come that ye might have life, and many of the Pharisees. He was genuinely that ye might have it more abundantly" (John concerned to know the truth, and to obey it; 10:10).—I haven't come that you might have and I think we may reasonably suppose that forgiveness, I am come that you might have he, too, expressed a heart-felt desire to be at life. But the only basis on which my holy peace with God. "The same came to Jesus by Father can restore to you the life that sin has night, and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know forfeited, is that your sin should be forgiven. that Thou art a teacher come from God, for no It is for that purpose that I set my face like man can do these miracles that Thou doest a flint to the Cross, that I, by one atoning act, except God be with him. Jesus answered and one sacrifice for sins for ever, might lay the said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, holy foundation upon which a holy God can Except a man be born again, he cannot see restore to you life. the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto Regeneration. It is possible for me to come Him, How can a man be born when he is old? to Jesus Christ and claim forgiveness on the can he enter the second time into his mother's basis of His death as an historical fact 1900 womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, years ago, and be forgiven, yet to live my life verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born as a Christian without any experience of the of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter power of Jesus Christ as the risen Lord who into the Kingdom of God.” —It is one thing, has come to occupy my humanity, to be Himself Nicodemus, to be repentant toward God and clothed with me twenty-four hours every day. to claim the kind of forgiveness that is born And if I claim forgiveness through the blood of repentance, but it is something far more of Jesus Christ, without recognising the great wonderful to know the power of the indwelling purpose for which God has provided forgive- God by His divine Spirit. ness, that my body might be presented as the I think our Lord was probably reminding temple of the living God, then I cheat Jesus Nicodemus of what He knew John the Baptist Christ of that for which His blood was shed, had taught. "I indeed have baptised you with and I miss the whole point of the Cross. I water, but He shall baptise you with the Holy claim my inheritance in Him as a forgiven Ghost."—I can bring you to the place where sinner, and anticipate a place in God's heaven, you are sorry for your sins; I can bring you to but I rob Jesus Christ of His inheritance in the place where you will cry out to God and me. And that member of His body, baptised want peace with God, and want forgiveness; by the Holy Ghost into body membership, of but, said John the Baptist, I can bring you no which body He alone is the Head in heaven, is farther. But One is coming, mightier than I, not available for His service. the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy Christ shed His blood upon the Cross that to stoop down and unloose; He will baptise you, being convicted of your sins, might first you with the Holy Spirit . . . Behold the Lamb repent toward God, and claim cleansing of God, which taketh away the sins of the through the blood that was shed—not as an in- world! surance policy to get you ultimately to heaven, This was the ultimate purpose of God in but that your body might be presented now, Christ: not that a man might be forgiven just in total availability, to the risen Christ, who by for forgiveness sake, but that a man, on the His divine Spirit claims the right not only to grounds and basis of forgiveness, might be occupy your humanity, but to direct all its restored to that relationship with God which activities. This is salvation. Anything less would make him a partaker of the divine than that is less than the Gospel as we find it nature. This is the ultimate in God's redemp- in the Word of God. tive plan upon the Cross; and it is all too pos- When you claim forgiveness through the sible to come to a Convention such as this, shed blood of Jesus Christ, that is redemption; and to be convicted of sin genuinely and sin- that is one thing. You are in Christ in some cerely, to be brought to the place where you wonderful way which maybe we shall never
90 fathom. Your sin was imputed to Him upon Jesus Christ, that He henceforth may have the the Cross, and His righteousness has been im- right to be Himself in you and through you. puted to you, and God sees you a forgiven Has your repentance, and the forgiveness sinner in the Beloved, made acceptable, washed that you have claimed in the name of Jesus, in His blood. This is redemption: you are in placed you at His disposal; or is the kind of Christ. But that is not your salvation; that is forgiveness that you claim from God simply only the threshold of your salvation: that is something to quieten and to ease your con- only the crisis that precipitates the process. In science or to secure your ultimate destination? the economy of God, being now in Christ, you The Lord Jesus not only claims the right, but become the recipient of the Holy Spirit; and deserves the right, to occupy your humanity this is the ultimate seal of your cleansing: that with Himself, that His life might be released the Holy Spirit dwelling in a heart through you, making its quickening, cleansed from sin, Christ might be in you. regenerating impact upon your fellow men. That is sanctification. It is not a blessing; it is not an experience; it is not a technique; it is What kind of a cleansing are you seeking not a method of holiness: it is Christ in you, here at Keswick, from the sins of which by living His own life, as He lived it 1900 years God's divine Spirit you have been convicted? ago on earth, the only difference being that Is it the kind of forgiveness which is vested today He clothes Himself with our redeemed in self-interest, or is it the kind of interest in humanity. This is the essential difference be- God's purpose that makes you the recipient tween the kind of repentance and forgiveness of His power? that John taught, and the kind of repentance When the Lord Jesus called to Himself and forgiveness that was made available to blind Bartimaeus, He asked him a strange men all the world over on the day of Pentecost. question: "What wilt thou that I should do When you are in Christ, you are redeemed; unto thee?" It might seem an obvious and Christ in you is the only solid basis of question to ask a blind man, but maybe the your sanctification. And the measure in which Lord Jesus Christ was seeking to emphasise you allow the Lord Jesus to be Himself in all this very truth. "Do you understand the that He is and all that He wishes to do, as significance of the miracle that I am about and when and where He wishes to do it, that is to perform, Bartimaeus? Is it simply that the measure of your sanctification, and that is you want me to give you a cushion upon the measure in which you are fulfilling the which to sit, that you may beg in greater purpose for which you have been cleansed. comfort? Or are you prepared to recognise When you are in Christ, that changes your the inevitable implications of having your destination—heaven instead of hell. When eyes opened and your sight restored? For Christ is in you, that is designed to change the moment I touch your eyes and you can your destiny. But there are all too many whose see, you can beg no more. You will assume destinations have been changed through the new responsibilities which you cannot escape." forgiveness that God vouchsafes in His mercy, The pierced hand of Christ is outstretched whose destiny has never been changed by that to each one of us tonight—of that I am pro- yielding to His indwelling sovereignty, that foundly convinced: but I believe He would makes the redeemed humanity of the forgiven ask us the question that He asked Bartimaeus. sinner the vehicle of His divine life. And that You came here as a begger. I know you is to miss the point of the Cross. were converted. I know you were saved. On the day of Pentecost that message was But as a Christian, deep down in your proclaimed by Peter and those others who heart you have already been convicted of stood up as the human vehicle of the voice of the fact that you came here as a beggar, the risen Christ; and the people were pricked impotent and powerless in your testimony. in their hearts and said to Peter and to the You have been convicted of that, and you are rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what sorry for the fact, and you want forgiveness shall we do?" Peter said unto them, "Repent . and cleansing. But to what end? To go back . ." for there is still need to recognise sin for home and beg more comfortably? Or are you what it is, and to turn from it ". . . and be prepared to accept the ultimate implications baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus of the kind of forgiveness that the blood of Christ for the remission of sins . . ." for there is Jesus Christ, shed upon the Cross, was also forgiveness through His name ". . and designed to offer, that would place your you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost"— body at His disposal, that you might walk no you will be baptised with the Spirit of the longer in the flesh, but in the power and living God into the body of the Lord energy and victory of His Spirit?
91 He Must Increase, I Decrease
BY THE REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON.
He must increase, but I must decrease—JOHN 3:30.
HE " He who must increase " is, of course, the though you are fading out of the picture. But T Lord Jesus Christ. He is presented to us in a John said, "Yes; that's all right; you see, he that wonderful way in this chapter—as the Son of hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the Man (v. 13); as the atoning Saviour (v. 14); as friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and the Bestower of eternal life (v. 15); as the Son heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the of God (v. 16); as the Christ, the Anointed One bridegroom's voice. He is willing to fade out of God (v. 28); as the Bridegroom (v. 29); and now; the bridegroom is the important person" in v. 31, as the One who is above all. So the (v. 29). And John added: "He must increase "— one who must increase is the Lord Jesus. the time has come when the Lord Jesus must take The "I" who must decrease, was John the the central place, the supreme place: "He must Baptist. But not only John the Baptist. For increase, but I must decrease" (v. 30). when he makes this statement, “He must That is exactly what did happen, for John increase, but I must decrease," does he not went right away into obscurity, and later on express the longing of every Christian heart? he was beheaded. But I want us to forget If I could ask you this question directly, John the Baptist for these few moments. For would you not say to me, "Yes, my greatest there is a tremendous spiritual significance longing is that He should increase and that I and personal application of these words, "He should decrease." must increase, but I must decrease." What John the Baptist was a remarkable man. He have they to say to you and to me? I want to had a supernatural birth; he was filled with place before you four vital and progressive the Holy Spirit from his birth, and his ministry propositions that emerge from this tremendous was predicted in the Old Testament. He was statement. First, that it is possible for a the forerunner of the Lord Jesus; and Jesus Christian to be Christ-filled, or self-filled; said of him, "There has not risen a greater dominated by self or dominated by the Lord than John the Baptist." In connection with his Jesus. ministry, he was right in the limelight; there If you read your New Testament carefully was a time when every eye was directed toward you will discover that there are two kinds of him, and everybody was talking about him In Christian—the carnal and the spiritual Christian. fact, in one of the Gospels we read, "Then There is the Christian who is being went out to him Jerusalem and all Judaea, and conquered, and the Christian who is more all the region round about Jordan." His name than conqueror. There is the Christian who is was upon everybody's lips, and his picture, as a vessel unto honour, and the Christian who is a it were, was in everybody's vision. vessel unto dishonour. There is the Christian Then suddenly there was a great change. who is walking worthily, and the Christian who The Lord Jesus began His public ministry, and is walking carelessly, in an undisciplined way. all the attention was now focused away from There is the Christian who is walking after John the Baptist, and on to the Person of the the Spirit, and the Christian who is walking after Lord Jesus. And, very naturally in one way, the flesh. And there is the Christian in whose John's disciples were upset about this. So they life Christ is increasing, and the Christian in came to him and said, " Rabbi, He that was whose life self, ugly, horrible, sinful, wretched with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest self, is increasing. witness, behold, the same baptiseth, and all Now this touches every one of us, and should men come to Him.” —It seems to us, John, as make us ask ourselves the question, How is
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it with me? What kind of a Christian am self should fill us and possess us and dominate I? Am I carnal or spiritual? Am I defeat- us. In other words, that He might increase, ing the devil or being defeated by the devil? and we decrease. Am I walking worthily or walking carelessly? Some of our best hymns express this long- Am I walking after the Spirit, or after the ing. Theodore Monod's great hymn confesses, flesh? in the first verse, "All of self, and none of You know, we don't have to look into the Thee." The second verse progresses to "some New Testament to discover the fact that there of self, and some of Thee"; the third verse, " are two kinds of Christians. We have only less of self, and more of Thee"; and the to look around us. How is it with you? Is fourth verse, " none of self, and all of Thee." self on the throne, or Christ? That is God's purpose and God's plan. Or Secondly, this verse describes the purpose there is another great hymn— of God for every Christian: that Christ should increase, and self decrease. Now what is a My Saviour, Thou hast offered rest: Christian? Well, here is the simplest possible Oh, give it then to me; definition: a Christian is Christ-in. When the The rest of ceasing from myself, Lord Jesus crosses the threshold of a man's To find my all in Thee. life, that man becomes a Christian. But is that the end of the matter? Oh dear no! He Or there is the chorus we were singing a little who comes in, waits to fill the life, to increase earlier in this meeting— in the life, until the moment comes when He truly possesses and dominates and controls the Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord, life. In other words, Christ's great purpose Oh, to be lost in Thee; is not only to come in, but to be King; not Oh, that it might be no more I, only to be resident, but to be president; not But Christ that lives in me. only to have a place or to be prominent, but You see, its the whole thought of it, isn't it. to be pre-eminent in the life: or to sum up— He must increase, but I must decrease. that He should increase, and that we should go down, down, down, and decrease. Lower and lower, dear Saviour, we pray, Now what do the words mean, "This is the Losing the self-life still more every day. will of God, even your sanctification"? Well, they mean this: " He must increase, but I Have you ever noticed Paul's testimony? At must decrease." What do the words mean, one point he said, "I am least of the apostles." "Put off the old man; put on the new man "? Then a year or two afterwards he said, "I am They mean, "He must increase, but I must less than the least of all saints." You see, he decrease." What do the words mean, "Not is going down. Then a little later he wrote I, but Christ"? Why, the same thing, "He another letter, and he said, "I'm the chief must increase; I must decrease." What does of sinners." Here is the glorious doctrine of the apostle mean when he says, "Put on the a decreasing estimate of oneself. Oh, that Lord Jesus Christ"? He means just the God might work that into our hearts and our same thing, that Christ must increase and that lives. Oh, to be nothing, nothing; simply to self must decrease. What does Paul mean lie at His feet. when he says, "My little children, of whom I When Saul of Tarsus was converted he was travail in birth again until Christ be formed called Saul. But what does Saul mean? It in you ...? Why, he means the same means great, big, important. He was all that. glorious thing: that He should increase, but But a few years afterwards we no longer find that I should decrease. him referred to as Saul, but as Paul—and do I suggest also—as I have already done in you know what Paul means? It means little, a word or two—that John 3:30 describes our diminutive. You see, here is the whole prin- own deep longing. Isn't that true? I hope ciple worked out in a man's life in very it is. Could not the desire of your heart be reality. He must increase, but I must de- summed up in such words as these: "Oh, crease. that the man I am might cease to be. Oh, When William Carey was dying, he turned that self, this ugly self, might decrease, and to a friend and said, "When I have gone, do that Christ might increase." That, of course, not speak about William Carey, but think and is not the world's philosophy: but we are not talk about William Carey's Saviour. I desire here concerned with the world's philosophy: alone that Christ might be ..." and then he this is heaven's philosophy, and God's pro- used a significant word, "that Christ might vision—that this old, sinful self should go be magnified." And you know what to magnify right out of the picture, and that Christ Him-
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a thing means; it means to make it big. You This brings us right to the heart of the see the idea, don't you? He must increase; I greatest problem of all : How can self be con- must decrease. quered? The one thing we all want to know. Christ can increase in us only as self de- Do we not say with the apostle Paul, "To creases in us. Increase and decrease are, of will is present with me, but how to perform course, words of degree. Moffatt puts it like that which is good I find not. For the good this: "He must wax; I must wane." You that I would I do not, and the evil which I know what that means. We talk about it most would not, that I do. Oh, wretched man that commonly in reference to the moon. "Oh, I am, who shall deliver me from . . ." this the moon's waning." What do we mean? ugly, sinful, horrible, wretched self? What We mean it's getting smaller. I don't know is the way of deliverance? How can I de- that we say the moon is waxing; but we know crease and Christ increase. Let me say this, the difference. One means getting bigger; the though it has been said a hundred times, per- other means getting smaller. And you see, the haps, already. Not by any struggling or Lord Jesus can only increase in us as we are effort or striving or exertion of my own. It prepared for the self-life to decrease. "He is utterly impossible for self to conquer self. must ,grow greater, and I must grow less," It is utterly impossible for self to subjugate says Weymouth. And one of our great writers self. of a bygone age said, "In what measure a Here is a threefold secret. How can self man dies to himself, and grows out of him- decrease and Christ increase? First, we must self, in the same measure does Christ enter die to ourselves. Self must die. That is what into him." You see, it is a kind of spiritual the apostle Paul meant in Romans 6:6 and law of displacement. If I had a tumbler here in Galatians 2:20 when he said, "I have been half-full of milk, and I want to fill that tum- crucified with Christ." When he looked back bler right full with water, you know very well to the Cross of Calvary and saw the Lord that I can only fill it with water in proportion Jesus dying there, by faith he knew that in to the amount of milk that I pour out. If the purpose of God he had died in Christ; and I only pour out a little of the milk, I can he reckoned himself as dead with Christ and only get some of the water in. If I want the in Christ. By an act of faith, he identified whole of the water to go in, I must empty the himself with Christ in His death; and there milk out. Only then can I fill the tumbler was a moment in the life of the apostle when with water. he went to his own funeral. Have you been His love can only increase as my un-love to your funeral? Oh, it's a place of great decreases. His light can only increase in me joy; but it is a place of mourning. Have as my light dies out. His humility can only you stood around your own graveside, because be manifest in me as my pride is smashed. in God's reckoning when the Lord Jesus died, His purity can only increase as my uncleanness you who believe on Him and belong to Him, is cleansed away. His gentleness can only you died. God wants you to reckon upon take possession of me as my harshness is that, to reckon yourself to be dead indeed brought into subjection. His beauty will only unto sin and unto self, and alive unto God. be seen as my ugliness is covered by His Reckon upon it. Just believe it is true be. beauty. He can only increase as I decrease. cause God says it. If we would be delivered That means that if He is increasing in me from self, in order that Christ may increase and the self-life is decreasing, my life will in us, we must die to ourselves. be more and more characterised by His life. There is a foe whose hidden power My life will be more and more characterised The Christian well may fear; by His position, and I shall be more and more More subtle far than inbred sin, like Him. Instead of wanting my way I shall And to the heart more dear: want His way. And instead of self-pleasing it will be, "What will please the Lord Jesus?" It is the power of selfishness, The measure in which I decrease He will It is the wilful I; increase, and His interests will become my And ere my Lord can live in me, interests, and His mind will become my mind, My very self must die. His disposition will be my disposition. In- stead of doubt and fear and worry and That is a very painful business; but out of anxiety, and all these things which threaten to death comes life. In the measure in which we spoil my life, now, if Christ is increasing, there are willing to die to ourselves, Christ is able will be faith and confidence, peace and joy to live and to reveal His life in us and through and power. But only as self decreases, and US. Christ increases.
94 How may I know the victory? so many cry. know, I'm only the best man. I'm not the Commit thyself to Calvary. Consent to die. important one. I've been the forerunner of the Lord; but having done that, I'm not the You can't kill yourself. But you can important one. It's the bridegroom and the consent to die, and God will bring you into bride, they are the important ones." The the place of identification with Christ and the bridegroom in this case is the Lord Jesus; and Cross, and to the place where you by faith are we are His bride. Isn't that wonderful? reckoning His death yours. "Wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that God's way of gain is seeming loss: ye should be married to another." You are We die to live; married to Christ. He is the bridegroom and And His life comes as to the Cross you are the bride; and the third part of the My life I give. secret of deliverance from the self-life is de- lighting in the bridegroom, being so in love That is the first thing. The second thing is with the Lover of your soul that He increases this—We must depend upon the Holy wonderfully as you decrease. We are married Spirit. In Romans 8 the apostle uses this little to Christ. Oh, what holy intimacy, what sentence which sums up the whole wonderful closeness ; and if we cultivate this teaching: "The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus close walk with Him by prayer and by com- hath made me free . . . " There is more to munion and by reading His Word, He will it than that, of course' but that is the increase, and self will decrease. summary. You see, it is the Holy Spirit Joan was a nice enough girl, but she was who forms Christ in the believer, and who completely self-centred. Everything had to go frees the believer from sin and from self. around Joan, and what Joan wanted and what That is what the apostle means when he says Joan was. . It was all Joan, Joan, Joan. in Galatians 5, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye Then one day Joan met John. John was a shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." In fine fellow, and they fell in love and got other words, bring your life under the married. And Joan was absolutely trans- sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, and self will formed: her whole life became completely be kept in the place of subjugation and changed. Do you know how it happened? death, and Christ will increase. You can't do Well, Joan was no longer Joan-centred, she it yourself. It is not your own effort, your was John-centred. She so loved John that own struggling, your own striving. Self cannot somehow or other she was not now living deal with self. Self cannot subjugate self. But unto herself; John filled her horizon, and her the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus can make me whole heart and life went out in love and free from sin and self. devotion to him She decreased and he in- And finally, we must delight in the creased. Lord. I love verse 29, "He that hath the Oh, my dear friend, He must increase, and bride is the Bridegroom." I believe John the we must decrease. Baptist was really saying something like this: "You
95 All things were made by Him: Light, and the wondrous newness of each morn; The first breath given to a thing new-born; Great, surging seas; a dewdrop in a flower; Each atom, fraught with devastating power. And I am His. He took the form of man; Was born, a tiny Babe, in stable crude, And throngs of angels marvelled as they viewed. The door of that unheeding inn was shut Against Him; hard His manger-cradle. But All heaven was His.
A Man of Sorrows He; Mocked and despised, and set by men at nought— They pierced those hands so dear that good had wrought. Shall I not count my richest gain but loss, Bear the reproach of Christ the Saviour's Cross? For I am His. He went to Calvary. Sent by His Father to reveal His grace Whereby in heaven we sinners find a place, He bore the dreadful weight of guilt for us, Died, shedding His redeeming Blood. And thusHe made me His.
He shall return again! My risen Lord, at God's right hand on high One day will come with splendour in the sky Then, when from east and west voice echoes voice, I will make haste to meet Him, and rejoice That I am His.
-BARBARA CHILVERS.
96 WEDNESDAY, JULY 16th
10 a.m.—BIBLE READING THE GOSPEL AND THE HUMANITIES (iii) THE ASPIRING MAN DR. PAUL REES 11.50 a.m.—FORENOON MEETING A SUMMONS TO CONSECRATION REV. JAMES PHILIP 3 p.m.—AFTERNOON MEETING SURRENDER-BUT HOW FAR? DR. PAUL REES
7.45 p.m.—EVENING MEETING Skiddaw-street Tent: SANCTIFYING GRACE REV. E. F. KEVAN
A LIVING SACRIFICE REV. A. W. RAINSBURY Eskin-street Tent: THE LIMITS OF CONSECRATION REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS OBEDIENCE THE KEY TO LIFE'S PROBLEMS REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN
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The Pertinent Question of Consecration
AMOST inviting morning on Wednesday saw able situation. It is unhealthy to live in this excellent attendances at both prayer meetings; emotional conflict; unhappy, and unprofitable. and again there was earnest prayer, It indicates a defective surrender—perhaps not only for the appointed themes, but also one "idol" disputing the Lordship of Christ. for the troubled situation in the Middle East. The innermost idol of all is self: so many are ready to bring marginal things to the altar but Rapt attention is a hackneyed phrase; but hold on to themselves. That usurping ego how else shall one describe the eager listening must go, that our inmost hearts might become of the -great congregation to the third of the a consecrated shrine for the indwelling of Bible Readings by Dr. Rees? How can one God. But the text leads us on to a decisive capture in print the indefinable "atmosphere" submission—"but Thy name only we acknow- of a meeting, when there is an intimate bond ledge." of true Christian fellowship between speaker Immediately after this meeting the mission- and hearers; a sense of mutual "communica- ary reception was held in the small tent; a tion" in the Word of life? It was not merely report of it appears later in the book. that the people were "drinking in" the message It was the small tent which had an "over- of Dr. Rees, for that implies a "one-way- flow" crowd standing round for the evening traffic"; rather, there was a going-forth in meeting—as many as the grounds would receptive, response faith on the part of the accommodate—and well before the time of hearers—a rejoicing together in the riches of commencement streams of people were being revealed truth. deflected to the large tent. This was comfort- Continuing his studies in Philippians, he ably filled; and the Rev. A. T. Houghton suggested that in chapter three the aspect of greeted listeners at 103 relay centres. St. Paul's character particularly revealed is The Rev. E. F. Levan gave a clause-by- that of the aspiring man; and he made us see clause exposition of Titus 2:11-14, which he more clearly than ever before, the personality described as a summary of St. Paul's doctrine. of the apostle shining through the epistle—an The predominant theme of Mr. Kevan's example and inspiration to every redeemed address, however, was expressed in his title, reader. "Sanctifying grace." A considerable number had gathered for the After the hymn, "Oh the bitter shame and noon meeting when the Rev. A. W. Rainsbury, sorrow," the Rev. A. W. Rainsbury issued a who presided, announced the hymn, "Join all call to consecration from Romans 12:1. the glorious names," and after offering prayer The Rev. Francis Dixon presided in the called upon the Rev. James Philip to deliver small tent, and the speakers were the same as his address. This was the first time he had at Tuesday's relay service—the Revs. Gerald spoken in the large tent, and he was followed Griffiths and George Duncan. Although Mr. with close attention as he expounded the im- Duncan expressed the hope that the messages plications of Romans 12:1. had been so clear, and the issues so plainly Dr. Rees spoke again at the afternoon meet- presented that none would need counselling, ing, from Isaiah 26:11-14. A divided but rather that all would go and settle matters sovereignty is indicated in the words, "other personally with the Lord, quite a number lords beside Thee." and that is an intoler- remained for conversations with the speakers.
98 The Gospel and the Humanities STUDIES IN ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS III. THE ASPIRING MAN. By DR. PAUL REES. E come this morning to chapter 3 in our They were those who said, in effect, "You W study in the Philippian letter. I would must be a Jew, in order to be a Christian. remind you that this entire series is dedicated You must be saved by the law and by grace." to the proposition that in Philippians we have And included in that contention was insistence Paul the man—the man inspired by God, to upon the ancient Jewish rite of circumcision. be sure, and redeemed by Christ, but the Now Paul is hitting at that, in this word man—coming through his writings in a way of admonition. For he calls these people that is perfectly fascinating, a way that we "dogs"—an expression that sounds rather do not find in his other writings to the same hideous to us, and terribly severe, but which extent. Now, in to-day's study we shall discover probably did not strike the ears of those who that Paul is more intimately baring his soul. first read this letter in exactly the same way. There is something remarkably autobiographi- What Paul is actually saying is, "These people cal about much that we shall find in chapter are like scavengers. They are like the pariah 3, which we are studying under the heading of dogs that one finds in the East. What they THE ASPIRING MAN. are doing is to try to take the revelation of Christ, and to make some kind of merchandise First will you notice— out of it. They want you to be brought I. THE APPROACH THAT PAUL PURSUES- around to their point of view, that they may 3:1-7. have the satisfaction of seeing you circumcised. "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Now," says Paul, "if you do that, in the name To write the same things to you is not irksome of Christ, thinking thereby to make yourselves to me, and is safe for you" (v. 1). There is acceptable to God, you are doing nothing but a note of apology in that, you will notice. mutilating the flesh." Because since Christ And precisely what Paul means is not easy came He has blotted out the handwritting of to determine—whether he is referring here to ordinances—including the circumcision of the his frequent references to joy, or to what he flesh: so far as it. is a religious ritual, that has to say about this matter of Christian is done away with. Now it has no spiritual unity, which we had before us yesterday. significance, as it had under the old covenant; Whether it be the one or the other, Paul is therefore if you insist on doing it, and saying, "I hope that you won't be bored with doing it in the name of the Christian Gospel, this, my brethren, because it delights me. I you are merely mutilating the flesh. find it necessary to do it, and it is delightful Then there is a word of acknowledgment: to do it, and I hope it will be profitable for "We are the true circumcision, who worship you." God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and Then follows a word of admonition, and put no confidence in the flesh" (v. 3). Here, it is a stern word. "Look out for the dogs, you see, are things that characterise those look out for the evil workers, look out for who have an understanding of the Gospel. those who mutilate the flesh"—which, by the They have a distinctive ritual, for one thing: way, is a vastly better translation than this "We worship God by the spirit"—and difficult and obscure word "concision" (v. 2). here I follow Phillips and others who hold Now here is Paul dealing, rather briefly, but that Paul really has in mind the Holy Spirit: severely, with those who are generally classified "We worship God by the Spirit"—capital as Judaising teachers, or Judaising Christians. "S." Christian worship does not despise forms, and
99 cannot indeed dispense with them; but it so dogmatically and so confidently, then I never relies on them. Its reliance is upon could boast even more. I don't. Something the vitality and the potency of the Spirit of has happened to me that rules it out entirely; the living God. He takes the forms and but I could." informs them, with the strength of living What credits Paul had, of which he was conviction and the warmth of genuine once so proud! then he sent them all to the emotion. Ah, yes, Evangelical Christians have a junk-pile! What kinds of pride do we have distinctive ritual. There is, besides, a dis- here? Well, notice very quickly. tinctive rejoicing, which we must acknow- There is pride of ancestry. "Circumcised ledge as those who repudiate this hybrid on the eighth day." What does that mean? Christianity of both law and grace as a means Well, it means that he was no Johnny-come- of salvation. "We glory"—rejoice, it may be lately to the fold of Israel, but a member of rendered—"in Christ Jesus." Whereas some the covenant community from the beginning. may boast of their legal and external rites, "Of the people of Israel." What does that their ceremonies and ordinances, our boast is mean? He belonged to the princely nation. in the One of whom we sing in that lovely "Of the tribe of Benjamin." He was out of hymn— the sturdy little tribe that gave Israel her first king. "A Hebrew born of Hebrews," no Not all the blood of beasts mixed blood, since both parents were Hebrews. On Jewish altars slain, Pride of ancestry. "I could boast of that, if Could give the guilty conscience peace, that did me any good in commending me to Or wash away our stain: God, in making me His child." Then there is pride of orthodoxy. "As to But Christ, the heavenly lamb, the law, a Pharisee." Now Pharisees, particularly Takes all our sins away; the earlier Pharisees, are not to be confused A sarcifice of nobler name, with those pious rascals whom Jesus so And richer blood than they. drastically denounced in Matthew 23. They were not all like that. The Pharisaic party Ours is a distinctive rejoicing. started with fine intentions to rescue the old Ours also is a distinctive renunciation. law. They were the Fundamentalists. They Notice, "And have no confidence in the flesh." were the ones who insisted on the purity of Now here one can say quite confidently, I the law of Moses. And they weren't rationalists, think, you have an illustration of how the as the Sadducees were, who denied the word "flesh," particularly in the Pauline writ- existence of angels, and denied the resurrec- ings, needs to be studied carefully and taken tion. The Pharisees did none of that. Pride in context. When he says that these Judaisers of orthodoxy. Paul could have boasted of insist upon circumcision, and that it is merely that. One never speaks carelessly about the the mutilation of the flesh—that is, flesh in value of orthodoxy, especially when one is the physical sense, the literal, physical sense. thinking about the sacredness of the truth of But when Paul says here, "We put no con- Christian revelation. I hope that nothing I fidence in the flesh," it seems quite clear that suggest is taken by you as an indication that I he is using the term in the way in which he disparage sound Evangelical teaching. We frequently uses it; it is not primarily the need far more of it, and we need to reaffirm it physical body that he has in mind, but the to-day as never before. But believe me, that flesh-principle, the principle of the self-life. whether it be the old orthodoxy that Paul We have no confidence in self, and self- represented in his pre-Christian days, or generated goodness or righteousness, self- certain species of orthodoxy that we may have achieved salvation, which is always a fiction. It to-day, orthodoxy by itself is never enough. doesn't actually exist, because "by the works of When orthodoxy is lifeless it is arrogant, the law we are never justified before God." and when it is loveless it is putrid. And it Now all of this is by way of the approach was that in Paul's case. that Paul is making. In this acknowledgment There is not only pride of ancestry and he says now a very personal thing. He says, pride of orthodoxy, but also pride of activity. "If any other man thinks he has reason for "As to zeal, a persecutor of the church." Pride confidence in the flesh, I have more. Actually of activity. Works-righteousness can be both I am among those who renounced the flesh, blind and brutal, and even when it is not and have no confidence in it, but I remind brutal, it is still blind. It is blind because it you," says Paul, "that if we were to base our fails to see that by self-effort one can never acceptance with God upon these things of make himself acceptable to God: that the which certain teachers are speaking to you attempts of fallen, unregenerate, unholy man,
100 to make himself acceptable to and harmonious market place. In the second, the metaphor with a holy God, are for ever condemned by is that of friendship: "That I may know Him." God in His holiness. And if we don't see And in the third, "That I may attain to the that no matter how much activity we may resurrection of the dead," the metaphor is engage in, and however many committees we that of a race. may serve upon, and however faithful we may be at the Holy Communion, we are guilty Now the words, "That I may gain Christ" of pride of activity in the attempt by these do not, I think, mean acquire Christ, which is means to make ourselves justified before God. one possible interpretation. That, of course, is in the background, because he has acquired I could illustrate how this pride sometimes Christ. They mean rather, "That I may in its very intensity makes us amazingly brutal, discover in Him my true wealth, as contrasted as it did in Paul's day. "Why," he said, "I with these futile things of which I once made persecuted these Christians to strange cities, so much, but which I have now had to fling I haled them to court, I put them in jail." away as so much refuse." That I think is Pride of activity had even cruelty attached the underlying thought. to it, because in his zeal he was thinking he Now what is this "gain"? Well, for one was doing God's service. thing, it is the gain of a new perception. "But And then, pride of morality. "As to right- whatever gain I had"—past tense—"in my eousness under the law, blameless." I think noble ancestry, in my orthodoxy, in my zeal- that Alexander Maclaren is right when he ous activity . . . whatever gain I had, I count comments on this, "Here Paul evidently is loss for the sake of Christ." Profit and loss speaking of outward actions and a blameless- —that is where the market place comes in. ness in the judgment of men. Not blameless That is now set down as so much loss, so before God, but blameless in the eyes of men. far as its being the basis of salvation is con- The man whom they once called Saul had cerned. Believe me, dear friends, it's a great kept the Pharisaic rules so well that the most day when really and finally you see that searching inquisitor could not have found nothing, absolutely nothing, that you can do fault." as an unregenerate human being, merits, de- serves, purchases, acquires the justifying mercy But now, as I have said, the fly in this of God; on that day life is revolutionised for ointment is that this is all self-functioning. you. Your whole outlook is changed. John This is our own doing. My doing, therefore Ruskin has an interesting sentence. He says, I have myself to thank for it, and in effect "I believe the root of every schism and heresy God is on the side-lines. Therefore I am from which the Christian churches suffer has that worst-of-all lost souls—a soul that is lost been the effort to earn salvation, rather than without knowing that it is lost. There you to receive it ; and that one reason why preach- have this manifold pride that Paul says "once ing is so ineffective is that it calls on men was in my heart; it once led me to believe oftener to work for God than to behold God vainly that I was acceptable to God. All of working for them." Now when you see that this I must now acknowledge." Now that once and for all, it is a revolutionising out- brings us to verse 7, where Paul says, "But look: I therefore speak of it as the gain of whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for a new perception. the sake of Christ." That brings us to— And Paul maintains this attitude. He says, "Indeed, I counted . . ." past tense (v. 7); II. THE ASPIRATION THAT IS PROCLAIMED and 8, "I count everything as loss because of —3:8-17, the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus Let me first single out the three pivotal my Lord." points, if I may so describe them, in this Now coming to v. 9, we have the gain of a passage, where the apostle's ardent aspiration new position—"and be found in Him." Put is simply affirmed—"That I may gain Christ" a circle around that little phrase "in Him." (v. 8); "That I may know Him" (v. 10); and That's your position. There is probably "That I may attain to the resurrection of the nothing more characteristic of Paul than this dead" (v. 11). Those are the focal points in tremendous line of teaching and of emphasis this aspiration that Paul, having affirmed, now on the believer's union with Christ. "To be analyses for these Philippian friends to whom found in Him." And Bishop Moule, I am he is writing. In connection with each of sure, is completely correct when, in his notes these aspirations there is either employed or on Philippians, he cautions us against assuming implied a metaphor; that is, the idea is lit that in this phrase Paul is thinking only of up by a metaphor. In the first one, "that I some far future event in the judgment, to be may gain Christ," the metaphor is that of the found in Him then. No, no! It is every day.
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It is in Carlisle, and Glasgow, and Liverpool, Version—it is Weymouth, I think, who has and Manchester. To be found in Him. A it "laid hold of"—when Christ laid hold of hundred-and-sixty-four-times in the Pauline him, and said to him, in effect, "Saul of letters this phrase occurs—using either the Tarsus, at last! Like the hound of heaven I pronoun "Him" or "Christ." This is the have been pursuing you, and I've got you. position. If I say, "Where do you live"? I want you to know what it's for!" you reply, "Oh, my address is . . ." But you Do you know why Christ has laid hold of have another address, if you are a Christian. you? "Oh, yes!" you say, "I know why. You not only live in London, you live in It's to save me from the doom of hell." Christ. Do people know where to find you? That's the way a lot of Christians answer: Do they know your spiritual address, not in and that isn't it. "Oh, yes, I know why Christ the world? For you are not in the world, has laid hold of me. It's to take away the except physically, and for certain reasons in guilt of my sins." That's what a lot of which you must practically respond to your Christians say. "Oh, I know why Christ laid earth environment; you are really in Christ. hold of me, and saved me in His mercy. It How important it is that you and I shall was to break these foul habits in my life, realise both the new perception and the new that I couldn't break." That isn't it. All of position. those things are valuable; they are priceless: Now let me come to this second metaphor, but they aren't it. of friendship. Paul says, "That I may know Do you know why He has seized you, Him, and the power of His resurrection" saved you? That you may know Him. An (v. 10). Oh, that I may gain Christ, that I everlasting intimacy, an intimacy that has may realise how much I have really won— such dimensions of height and depth and not lost. Humanly speaking it sounded like length and breadth, that there is room for loss when I said, "All these things I renounce, everlasting exploration. That I may know that I may take the wealth of Christ, His love Him. and grace, forgiveness and cleansing." That There are heights of sweet communion that is one aspiration. Now comes this one: "That I may know Him." are all awaiting me; There, you see, the principle thrust is in There are ocean depths of mercy that are terms of a very personal communion or flowing full and free; friendship: "That I may know Him." That There are precious pearls of promise that I may know the person of Christ. "That I can ne'er be priced in gold; may know Him. Not simply about Him, There's a fulness in my Saviour that has but know Him. And not only know Him never yet been told. initially, as I came to know Him that day on the Damascus road, and later in the city Let's get on with the business of getting to of Damascus itself, and still later in the know Him. The passionate craving of Paul Arabian desert, when I had this further meet- is to get on with that. ing with God, when it pleased God to reveal Not only is it to know the person of Christ, His Son in me. (He revealed Himself to me but also to know the power of Christ. `That in Damascus; He revealed Himself in me I may know Him, and the power of His in Arabia). Not only that, but all the way resurrection" (v 10). Neither the historic fact along finding in Jesus Christ's personality ex- of Christ's resurrection nor the prophetic fact haustless depths of truth and love and beauty. of the Christian's resurrection is in Paul's mind That I may know Him." primarily here. What is in view is the dynamic Incidentally, let me draw you just a moment fact of the believer's spiritual oneness with the to the thing that Paul says just a little further risen Christ, with all that this implies of on, when he speaks about the reason why exhaustless energy that may be tapped for the Christ had laid hold of him as He did. He carrying out of God's purposes, both by the says, "Not that I have already attained, either individual Christian and by the churches as were already made perfect . . . Brethren, I a whole. Oh, I wish we could get a grip do not consider that I have made it my own. of that! It would change our vocabulary. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies There have been people here at Keswick, right behind and straining forward to what lies on these grounds, who have said, "Oh, this ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize unforgiveness, this bitterness in my heart—I of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." can't, I can't . . ." Sometimes we say, "Well, What Paul wants us to realise is that when it just isn't natural to do it." Why, of course Christ captured him, when he was "appre- it isn't! I remember years ago, when I was hended," as you have it in the Authorised not much more than a boy, I heard Stuart
102 Holden preach, and he said something that ing with respect to the racecourse. "Not that has stuck all through these years. He said, I have already obtained this, or am already "Christianity exists by the supernatural to perfect; but I press on." See the racer stripped achieve the impossible." Glorious sentence! for action, bulging muscles, taut face, eager And you keep saying, "Well, it isn't natural eyes, riveted on the goal. "I press on to make to do this or that or the other, this thing that it my own, because Christ Jesus has made is in keeping with the mind of Christ, this me His own." thing that the New Testament insists upon." Now it is important that we see this text Of course it isn't natural. This is by the in its context. What Paul is saying here is power of the risen Saviour released in you that he looks forward to a resurrection per- through His Holy Spirit. fection, which he immediately disclaims. I Not only the power of Christ, but the want you to notice that, please. A disclaimer passion of Christ. "That I may know His that rules perfection out: "Not as though I person—Him. His power—the power of His had already attained, or were already perfect" resurrection. And His passion—the fellowship in the resurrection sense. "At which time"— of His sufferings." Mr. Robert Laidlaw, of and this is important to remember—"at which New Zealand, whose booklet entitled The time there will be the completion of God's Reason Why is known to so many of you, work in my character. At which time, further, remarks that in his travels he has been in a I shall be introduced to an order of perfection good many homes receiving hospitality where . . ." and this is very sound New Testament he has observed the motto, "Saved to serve." truth ". . . an order of perfection in which But he adds, "I have yet to be in a home glorification has crowned sanctification." A where they have a motto "Saved to suffer." body beyond death's reach; a mind with Yet Paul would have subscribed to that. powers immeasurably heightened; the soul's Saved to suffer. This easy-going, rubber- discipline ended; the battle with temptation tyred, soft-cushioned culture of Western past. Redeemed for ever in the unveiled civilisation has such an effect upon us that presence of Christ. I don't have that. I am even Christians seem to be appalled at the pressing toward it; but that must be dis- thought of anything hard or anything painful claimed. "Let none of you think," says the in the Christian life. apostle, "that I fancy myself now to be the My dear friend Leith Samuel drew my possessor of such qualities of perfection as attention to the fact that yesterday morning these. As prospects they claim me; as posses- I hopped over 2:17, where Paul speaks about sions it would be fantastic if I claimed them." himself as "a libation upon the sacrificial But in the very next breath there is a offering of your faith." It is a beautiful figure towering testimony that Paul raises, the signi- of speech. The Philippians' faith—or faithful- ficance of which I think is too little appreciated ness, as some expositors think it means—is by many of us. Notice: "But one thing I do represented by Paul as an offering; then Paul's . . I press on toward the goal." I'd like suffering in their behalf, his ministry to them, you to ponder that very well. If in the pre- what he suffered at Philippi to bring them the ceding statement there is a disclaimer that Gospel, and what he is suffering now in con- rules perfection out, here, I suggest, is a nection with his imprisonment in Rome to declaration that brings perfection in. "This get this truth to them—all of this, he says, is one thing I do." That is to say, perfection of like a libation, an offering poured on the a kind—relative and not absolute; developing sacrifice. Sometimes it was of water, some- and not static; the derivative of divine grace, times of honey. This crowns the sacrifice. and not in any sense a display of human Instead of feeling sorry for himself, Paul says, goodness. "It is an honour that has been conferred on I think one here very naturally recalls that me, to be so related to you and to the pro- word in Psalm 86:11, "Teach me Thy way, motion of your spiritual interest, that I can O Lord; I will walk in Thy truth: unite my suffer in the Saviour's name in your behalf." heart to fear Thy name." "Unite my heart" The passion of Christ. What an aspiration —and F. B. Meyer, as some of you will was that! know, has a chapter on this in his book The Now we come to the third metaphor, of Soul's Pure intention. He calls the chapter the racecourse. You notice that Paul says "The Undivided Heart." "The Undivided in v. 11, "That if possible I may attain the Heart"—is that an empty phrase, or does it resurrection from the dead." How sugges- enshrine something tremendously real? It tively that gives us our clue. "That I may did with Paul. attain unto something ahead . . ." a goal. Years ago there stood on this platform You have the beginnings of this figure unfold- again and again an Anglican minister,
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Prebendary Webb-Peploe, with his scholarly never forget the death of our Lord. What expositions of the Word. And he says, "For are these that are to be forgotten? many years I was a minister and a faithful Forget, for instance, your defeats. If you preacher of the doctrine of justification, but I have really faced them, if you have really let had no joy for every moment, no rest in the them be dealt with at the Cross, forget them. midst of trouble, no calm amid the Our defeats may humble us, but they should burdens of life. I was strained and over- never, once they have been dealt with at the strained, until I felt that I was breaking down. Cross, be allowed to intimidate us. The mind Then came new light from God." That much I of a perceptive forgetfulness. have quoted, and now I'm not quoting: There Not only a mind that is perceptively for- came this new light from God to WebbPeploe, getful: it is a mind that is passionately for- through an illuminated text that he saw on the ward. In one of my dictionaries a definition wall: "My grace is sufficient for thee." There of the word "forward" is "ready"—eager; that was the instant, half-irritated reaction of his is the sense in which I am using it now. So frustrated soul, "It is not sufficient: it is not here is Paul's magnificent obsession, if you sufficient." The conflict that goes on at will: "Forgetting what lies behind, and strain- Keswick in many a heart. Then he found ing forward toward what lies ahead, I press himself saying, "Oh God, it isn't sufficient, toward the mark, for the prize of the high but make it so." And a rebuking inner voice calling of God in Christ Jesus"—or as the said, "You fool! How dare you ask God to Revised has it, "I press on toward the goal, make what is?" Then there was the chastened for the prize of the upward calling of God in response—"O God, whatever Thou dost say in Christ Jesus." Thy Word I believe and, please God, I will Dr. Hoodman has a comment in his exposi- step out upon." There was the further tion of Philippians that I pass on to you. revealing, reassuring word of Galatians 2:20, "It is needless," he writes, "to distinguish, or "Not I, but Christ liveth in me." And then the to try to distinguish, between what is sym- release—the release from —what? Listen. The bolised by the word 'goal' and what is divided mind. symbolised by the word 'prize.' Both refer Oh, Christians, this is why we are here. to the exalted destiny to which God has The divided mind is the curse of many a summoned the apostle and His people." There Christian's life. The inability in honesty and in are a lot of things that could be said on that, fact to say, "This one thing I do." "Then," says but I must omit them now. Whatever it is, Webb-Peploe, "When the truth came, `Not I, it is the mind that is passionately forward- but Christ liveth in me,' the rest of faith looking. I press toward it eagerly, zestfully, became practically known in my own life." exhilaratingly. This is the outlook. I want us to think about that because there is "Let those of us who are mature be thus this relative perfection, which you and I can minded" (v. 15). The word "mature" is to have here and now. Forsyth in his little volume be understood in the sense of having arrived called Christian Perfection says, "Our perfection at adulthood; not having a finally finished therefore is not to be flawless, but to be in tune character, but having this undividedness of with our redeemed destiny in Christ." I think mind and purpose and heart. "As many as that is a beautiful phrase, "To be in tune with have come to this adultness, be thus minded. our redeemed destiny in Christ." Believe me, And if in anything you are otherwise minded, dear friends, this is more than process, though God will reveal that also to you. Only let us there is an everlasting process involved in it: hold true to what we have attained." It is this is a crisis as well, as it was in Webb- important, says Paul, that you remain true to Peploe's life. every bit of light that God has given to you, Now, in these five minutes that remain, let us and be grateful for every experience of see how much ground we can cover! "One thing grace that He has communicated to you. I do; forgetting what lies behind"—forgetting Then in these final verses you have two what lies behind in this kind of evangelical further things indicated— perfection, this relative and derived and always growing sort of perfectiveness—"this one thing III. THE ANATHEMA THAT IS PRONOUNCED- I do, forgetting what lies behind"—this is the 3:17-19. mind of perceptive forgetfulness. That is, it's "Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark selective. There are things that are to be those who so live as you have an example forgotten; there are things that are never to be in us. For many, of whom I have often told forgotten. The Holy Communion is a reminder you, and now tell you with tears, live as that we must enemies of the cross of Christ." They say they are friends, but they are enemies. Paul
104 has dealt with the legalists in the first part of this body. Never. That's Gnosticism. The body in chapter, but here are the libertarians. They say, itself is not sinful. Maybe it is the instrument of "I'm in grace, and I have a position in Christ! sin, but it may also be the instrument of Nothing can alter that." Paul says, "Look out! righteousness. "And will change our lowly body Their end is destruction; their god is the belly. to be like His glorious body." They glory in their shame, with minds set on Then the sufficient resource: "By the power that earthly things." A preacher said to a friend of enables Him even to subject all things to mine, in a moment of terrible private crisis, "I'm Himself" (v. 21). You say, "How is He going to living in adultery, but I preach better than ever I resurrect the dead? How is He going to re- did." "Shall we sin, that grace may abound?" design—re-scheme, as the Greek is here—these Then— our lowly bodies. I don't know! It isn't necessary to know. I don't know how they split the atom. IV. THE ANTICIPATION THAT IS Oh, I've read enough about it, but how they do PICTURED-3: 20, 21. it, and release that fantastic power . . . And if "Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, man can do that, what cannot God do? Our and they glory in their shame, with minds set on God can take these bodies that need to be re- earthly things. But our commonwealth—our fashioned. citizenship—is in heaven." Philippi was a Roman What poor, frail things they are. A man of colony. Its citizens enjoyed the same status and God in my country preached an Easter sermon privileges as the people who lived in the city of and a woman who had a congenital deformity in Rome. Paul had that in mind almost certainly one leg and had limped pathetically all her life, when he said, "We Christians, we believers, we are listened to this account of the resurrection of down here on earth; but really our citizenship, our the dead bodies that are going to be like the true life, is in heaven. From it we await a Saviour, resurrection body of the Lord Jesus. And when the Lord Jesus Christ." A sure return! And we are the sermon was over she came limping down not going to wait in vain: He is coming again. Do the aisle, her face radiant, to shake hands with you believe it? He is coming again in power and the minister and to say. "Thank you for the great glory. And a splendid redemption: when He sermon." And then she added, "I have dragged comes again He will "change our lowly bodies"— this old foot all my life, but I realise that I'll not how much better that is than "our vile bodies." have to drag it beyond the grave." And she Our body is not inherently evil, and real won't. She'll have a body resplendent with the Christianity never disparages the beauty and endowed with the capacities of the resurrection body of Jesus.
105 A Summons to Consecration
BY THE REV. JAMES PHILIP, M.A.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.— ROMANS 12:1.
IN these well-known words the apostle Paul it. clearly what the Scriptures mean by is presenting to us a summons to consecration, consecration of heart and life to Jesus Christ. and I want you to think with me of the meaning Consecration is, in other words, man's glad and and implications of that tremendous word. By spontaneous response in gratitude and in love way of introduction I would draw your to the goodness and the mercy of God in attention to the point in this Epistle at which Jesus Christ. One translation of this verse ends Paul makes this appeal. It comes after the with these words—instead of "which is your unfolding of the wonderful provision made for reasonable service" it says "which is the least that us in the work of Christ on the Cross. In this you could do." That is, on the basis and in the supremely important epistle Paul expounds great light of the mercies of God. "I beseech you by and mighty truths; he presents to us the the mercies of God." propitiation made in the blood of Jesus Do you recall the story of how Moses sent the Christ—that blood which speaketh better things spies into the Promised Land and how they than the blood of Abel; the blood that not came back, ten of them with a bad report and only speaks to the guilty heart of man, but two of them, Caleb and Joshua, with a good speaks also to the holy heart of God, and to report. You recall that Caleb said, "We are well the memory of God, and makes Him say, able to go in and possess the land" (Num. "Your sins and your iniquities will I remember 13:30). Why was he able to say that? It was no more." The apostle expounds the mystery of because God had already given them the land justifying mercy, by which we are accounted and in the promise: that was why Caleb was so accepted as righteous in God's sight—the glorious confident—"We are well able," in the strength of mystery of pardon and peace with God. He God and in reliance on the mercies of God, "to expounds the doctrine of the union of the believer go in and possess the land." Now in these days with Christ in His death and resurrection: that of holy convocation we have been hearing mighty emancipating doctrine which sets a man much of the great wealth that is ours in Christ free from the dominion and bondage of sin. He Jesus, and we must really understand the extent of expounds the soul-transforming doctrine of life our marvellous inheritance in Christ before 1R14 in the Spirit—"the law of the Spirit of life in can fully appreciate the true possibilities of the Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of life of consecration and faith. sin and death": that doctrine which leads us into There are two ways of looking at consecration. the glorious liberty of the children of God. All Sometimes when we look at this mighty word, this before he feels able to say, "I beseech you, the totality of its challenge makes us shrink brethren, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, with fear and dismay, and we feel like saying, as holy and acceptable unto God." certain Jews did when they listened to Jesus, Now, notice what the apostle is doing. First "This is a hard saying; who can hear it?" exposition, and then exhortation. First the Because, in effect, we see that the challenge to great indicatives, and then the great imperative. consecration is a call to come and die. "I lay in That is the order in the Scriptures; and it dust life's glory dead." But against the teaches us that it is on the basis of the un- background of what God has done for us in Jesus speakable mercies of God manifested in the Christ, this message of consecration is Gospel, and against that background alone, we are able to see
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entire life. Viewing that man's wonderful life as a whole, this is the impression that the in- transformed: it does not change from being a entirespired life. Viewing commentator that man’s rec eived. wonderful Abraham life death, but it becomes a door into blessing. as a obeyed; whole, and this this is the is the impression principle thatwhich the must Do you recall the story of the Mount of inspiredunderlie comment every a trulytor received.Christian life, Abraham for faith is Transfiguration? One of the Gospels records obeyed;obedience. and this is the principle which must that Moses and Elijah "snake with Jesus con- underlieThat every is how truly the Christian apostles life, looked for faith at it is also. cerning His decease which He should accom- obedience.Listen to what Peter said one day, in discussion plish at Jerusalem." The word in the Greek Thatwith is the how Pharisees the apostle and lootheked Scribes. at it He also. said for "decease" is exodos, an exodus. Moses Listen-- andto what oh, Peterwhat saida wonderful one day, in thing discussion to come and Elijah spoke of Christ's death as an with fromthe Pharisees a man whoand hadthe Scribes. failed— "WeHe said ought— to exodus, a way out. For Christ it was a way and oh,obey what God a wonderfulrather than thing men." to come And from the greata out of the straitening, an anti-crucifixion man apostlewho had to failedthe Gentiles,—“We oughtwhen tohe obeygave Godhis testi - straitening. He could not save the world until rathermony than atmen.” the court And theof Kinggreat apostleAgrippa, to said,the "I He had the baptism of His Passion, and for Gentiles,was notwhen disobedient he gave histo the testimony heavenly at vision." the Christ it was a way out. And, dear men and courtBut of obedience, King Agrippa, as we know, said, is “I a wascostly not thing; women, when we see consecration in its right disobedientso a life toof consecration the heavenly is a vision.” costly thing. But It light, we see that it is a way out—out of bond- obedience,is a sacrificial as we know,life, as is Paul a costly makes thing; plain so in a this age, out of restriction, out of straitening, into life oftext: consecreation "Present your is a bodies costly a thing. living It sacrifice." is a the broad tableland of the living God, where sacrificialDepending life, as upon Paul th makee way plainyou look in this at it,text: it is in we rejoice in the fulness of His grace. “Presentsome senses your a bodies grim, and a almost living frightening sacrifice.” life; Look with me at the life of Abraham as an Dependingand the upon thought the wayof ityou is profoundlylook at it, it disturbis in - illustration of the implications and meaning of someing. senses Hebrews a grim, 11:8 and says almost of Abraham, frightening "He life; went consecration. Abraham, the man whom God and theout, thought not knowing of it iswhither profoundly he went." disturbing. He went chose for the furtherance of His mighty Hebrewsout into11:8 thesays unknown;of Abraham, a leap“He wentin the out dark., redemptive purposes. And at the outset, we not knowingSmall wonder whith thater he men went.” shrink He from went the out chal - do well to remember that although none of into lenge the unknown; of the living a leap God, in and the are dark disturbed. Small by us is likely to ascend the heights of prominence wonderit, because, that men let shrink us be from frank, the to challenge meet with of the that Abraham ascended, nevertheless God has livingliving God, God and areis andisturbed extremely by it,disturbing because , letthing. a place and a plan and a purpose for each of us beI wonderfrank, to if meetI am speakingwith the toliving some God this ismorning an our lives. There is a work that only you can extremelywho, in disturbing these days thing under. I the wonder searching if I amof the do; there is a work fitted for me. We all have speakingSpirit to of some God, this have morning almost who,become in theseafraid to a part to play in God's great onward march days comeunder intothe searching the tent? of A the student Spirit atof Aberdeen God, in redemption, and God needs consecrated haveUniversity almost become some afraid little to time come ago into had the been lives in order that His purposes be fulfilled tent?attending A student an at evangelical Aberdeen Universitychurch in somethe city, He must have a willing people in the day of little and time then agostopped had going; been so attendinga Christian anasked His power. evangelicalthat student church why in the he city, had and stopped. then stopped "I am not Abraham was a spiritual giant. The Jews going;going so a backChristian there," asked he that said. student "Why why not?" he "Be - always looked back upon his life with awe and had stopped.cause I do “I not am wantnot goingto end back up inthere,” Africa." he Do reverence, and we are concerned to see from said. you“Why not not? see” there“Because is a disturbing I do not want element to in his life-story just what it takes to get where end God's up in Africa.” gracious Do dealings you not with see us. there Abraham is a he was. The story of Abraham's life occupies disturbingobeyed, element and having in God’s adopted gracious this as the dealings principle many chapters in the Book of Genesis-12 to with ofus .his Abraham life, it cost obeyed him andeverything having thatadopted he had. 25; but we have a divinely-inspired comment- this He as thewent principle out. of his life, it cost him ary in Hebrews 11 which focuses attention everythingI wonder that he if hadconsecration. He went is out. going to mean for upon the salient features of that great life, and I wondermen and if consecration women in Keswick is going thisto mean year, for going the divinely-inspired commentaries on Scrip- men out, and going women right in out? Keswick Abraham this year,went goingout from ture are always the best and most authentic out, Ur going of the right Chaldees, out. Abraham from all wen that out he fromknew as commentaries. Will you turn with me to Ur ofhome. the Chald The archaeologistsea’s, from all thattell ushe thatknew Ur as was Hebrews 11:8—"By faith Abraham, when he homepart. The of archaeologists an advanced civilisation; tell us that it Ur was was not a was called to go out into a place which he part primitive of an advanced hovel that civilization; Abraham it left. was When not a he should receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and primitivewent hovelout at thatthe behest Abraham of God, left. heWhen was hea rich he went out, not knowing whither he went" wentand at the a cultured behest ofman: God, and he he was went a rich out and from a an Abraham, when he was called . . . obeyed. culturedadvanced man; civilisation. and he went The out absur fromdity an of it, That is what consecration meant to Abraham; advanfromced civilization.his friends' Thepoint absurdity of view. of What it, from would and I want us to be clear on this matter today. his friends’they have point thought, of view. as they What saw would him theyleaving Consecration is not a mystical exhilarating havecomfort, thought, as security, they saw affluence, him leaving influence, comfort, and feeling that we may obtain; consecration security,going affluence, off into the influence, desert? It and was goimadness!ng off But is a moral attitude of a will that is bent wholly into hethe went. desert? He It obeyed was madness! the call ofBut God; he went.and the toward God in utter obedience. Abraham He obeyed the call of God; and the obeyed. That was the principle underlying his
108 interests and the attractions of this world were earthly affection and love. He applied the spoiled for the man, in order that the powers knife to every tie that bound him to this life, and the sweetness and the grace of the world and Abraham found the whole inward fabric to come might become his portion. "He looked of his life being shattered and burned and for a city which hath foundations, whose blasted beyond endurance. Why? Why this builder and maker is God." He obeyed. And terrible, frightening, appalling discipline from as time went on the full implications of having on high? Just this. God's purpose was to adopted this principle became clear in his life, make of him an utterly believing man. The for it was like a knife striking at every part Epistle to the Galatians has a word for it: of his natural life. It was indeed the pruning- "Shut up unto faith." God's plan was to bring knife of the living God at work in his deepest the natural Abraham to an end of himself, so heart. that the only thing possible was a complete Think with me for a moment of how the and utter casting of himself upon God. That story of Abraham proceeds. There came very is faith. Coming to an end of ourselves, and quickly a point at which he was separated from venturing only upon God. his beloved nephew; and one can well imagine The apostle Paul found precisely the same just what that parting must have meant for principle at work when he said, "I was not him on a lonely pilgrimage in the desert, after disobedient to the heavenly vision." In one of he had left all that he knew as home. There is his experiences, "We were pressed out of a sense in which Abraham was called to a life measure, above strength, insomuch that we of loneliness. Listen to these words by C. despaired even of life: but we had the sentence H. Spurgeon: "No one knows but he who of death in ourselves, that we should not trust has endured it, the solitude of a soul that has in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead." outstripped its fellows in zeal for the Lord of The prophet Jonah had the same experience. hosts. It dare not reveal itself, lest men count When he ran away from God, God cornered it mad. It cannot conceal itself, for a fire him, and from that bending of the will he cried burns within its bones. Only before the Lord out in his desperation: he came to an end of does it find rest." himself; he died; the natural Jonah was slain. Nor was that all. Soon it was the natural tie And when we see Jonah in the third chapter that bound Ishmael and Hagar to Abraham that going into Nineveh, waxing mighty in the had to be severed. The sacred text makes it Word of the Lord, it is as a man who came abundantly plain how deeply attached to back from the dead; and he moved that entire Ishmael Abraham was, and how painful it must city. The sentence of death was passed upon have been for him to be separated from the him, that he should not trust in himself, but in lad: but at the behest of God it was done. God who raiseth the dead. And we begin to "Cast out the bondwoman and her son" was understand what Paul says of Abraham, that the word from the Lord, and Abraham obeyed. "against hope he believed in hope," and And I may be speaking to some who, during "staggered not at the promise of God through these days of Convention, have faced a painful unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to and costly separation from someone very dear, God." It was because he was shut up unto because it has not been God's will for you. faith. Dear child of God, you are feeling the pain Now I believe this is a principle that has to of consecration just now; but there is another apply, and will apply on ever-deepening levels side. "0 Joy, that seekest me through pain." of Christian experience. It is seen first in the There is a joy there; a holy, ineffable joy. experience of conversion—that form of con- Nor was that all. There came a crowning secration by which we begin the Christian life. instance in the offering up of Isaac on Mount Every true conversion is a shutting up unto Moriah, that costly and appalling act of sub- faith. Every door is closed—the door of self- mission and surrender, performed so unhesitat- righteousness, the door of good works; every ingly. God said, "Abraham!" and Abraham avenue of escape is closed to us, and God replied, "Here am I." "Take thy son, thine shuts the door upon us, and opens the door only son Isaac, and offer him." And the next that is Christ's. And God does this in a variety verse says, "And in the morning he took his of ways—sometimes through the discipline of son." Abraham obeyed. Unhesitatingly, al- His Word and of His Spirit, sometimes though his heart was breaking, he was obedient through the crises of sorrow or pain or tragedy to God. Do you not see how, to use a phrase of or disappointment in our lives. God has many St. Paul's, how contrary to nature his whole history ways of shutting a man up unto faith, but He proved to be in ever-increasing measure. God brings us always to an end of ourselves. And in utterly detached him from every that self-despair new life is born. Is that what God
109 has been doing with you this week? battles of victory. God is allowing them as a The principle is seen also when the Spirit of gracious discipline, to teach you to lean utterly upon God begins to work afresh in the heart and Him; they are all part of His purpose to make life of a believer who has lost the fire and you what you ought to be. the fine edge of his spiritual life; who has grown cold and careless. And if I am not mis- That is how we must explain and interpret taken, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Abraham's life. It was because God had a Word of God, has been fetching stroke after mighty purpose for him that he went through the stroke upon many a heart and life in these mill as he did. The story is told of a man who was days, slaying all manner of base and unworthy watching a butterfly coming out of its chrysalis; things, and shutting men unto faith all over and as he watched it struggling desperately to again, and unto obedience to God's good and break through the walls that were binding it, the perfect will. My dear Christian friend, is that man took pity on the thing, and slit the what God has been doing with you—shutting chrysalis right down. Of course, the butterfly got the doors upon you, cornering you, in your out without any difficulty, but when it came out it coldness of heart, in your sin-sick state? If was a shrunken thing; and the man learned a that is your position, then, quite simply, the lesson that day. He learned that it was the very issue facing you is the issue that faced Abra- wrestling, the very discipline of breaking out, that ham. Obey God. put glory in the butterfly's wings. And it is the This principle is seen also, and seen discipline that the living God lays upon our lives supremely, in the life that has begun to obey that puts character into the Christian. God will God. There is a mistaken idea that when not spare any natural thing in our lives: the knife once we have consecrated ourselves to Christ, must touch it all. Paul described it thus: "Always everything will be a bed of roses. But that is bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord not New Testament teaching. You have only Jesus." That is the life of consecration: and it is to examine the apostle Paul's life to see this— a costly life indeed. tumults, labours, chastenings, sorrow, buffet- But look at the other side: look at its com- ings, perplexities, discouragements, hindrances, pensations. Look at what it meant to Abraham. That frustrations, difficulties, oppositions. That is was the pain; this is the joy. I think we may sum it what it meant to Paul to go out in obedience all up in two well-known phrases associated with to the will of God; and the fact is that Paul Abraham's name. I wonder if Abraham was was again and again being brought to an end shrinking from these terrible inexorable claims of of himself on ever-deepening levels, and shut the living God upon his soul. There came a day up to faith again and again. Why, Satan does when God said, "Fear not, Abraham," fear not. not even begin to take a Christian seriously And He says that to every soul facing the until he is consecrated. Do you remember challenge of consecration today. "Fear not. I am that strange and startling incident in the Acts thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." of the Apostles, about the sons of Sceva, who Abraham entered into an unspeakable fellowship tried to cast out devils, and the evil spirit they and friendship with God that coloured and were trying to cast out said: "Jesus I know, transfigured his whole experience. He went and Paul I know: but who are ye?" Are you down in history as "Abraham my friend." a marked man in Satan's eyes? Does he have There is a facile way of talking about to reckon with you as a power to be feared friendship with Jesus which sometimes verges on because you are consecrated to Jesus Christ? It the blasphemous; a kind of easy familiarity with holy is when we are utterly given to God that we enter things, which only reveals with ghastly clarity the the battle against evil. What is that Paul says spiritual poverty of such a life. But that is not when he describes the glorious liberty of the what Abraham experienced. It was God who said, children of God? He tells us that we are raised "Abraham my friend." Think of it—friend of together with Christ, and made to sit together God. What would it not be worth to enter such a with Christ in the heavenly places. But that is friendship. precisely where the battle takes place. We Secondly, Abraham has come down in history wrestle with principalities and powers in the as the father of the faithful. His life, in the heavenly places. It is precisely when we get deepest sense, was fruitful in the hands of God. there, that the wrestling with the powers of The purpose of his life was fulfilled He became darkness really begins. So do not let us be the father of many nations, the father of all that discouraged when these pressures come upon believed. us, these testings, these trials and mighty battles. May I direct your attention to a verse in I am not speaking about the battles of defeat, Romans 5 where Paul says of Christ, "By the I am speaking about the
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obedience of one many are made righteous." this step; well able for it in face of what Now that refers, of course, to the unique and Christ has wrought on your behalf on Calvary. lonely splendour of the atonement that Christ And oh, look at its ineffable compensations. wrought upon the Cross; and as such it stands, Look at the reward. Friendship with God, and must stand, absolutely alone. But it also and fruitfulness in His service. enshrines a principle which is valid in the life A story is told of a missionary who gave a of every believer. Obedience is that in a be- radiant testimony to the reality of triumphant liever's life which makes him fruitful in the Christian living, at a missionary meeting; and service of God. Look at the lives of the giants as she finished and sat down, someone behind of the faith who have moved the world for her was heard to whisper very wistfully, "I'd God. Look at Paul, at Wesley, McCheyne, give everything I had to have a testimony like and Hudson Taylor. Their faith waxed mighty, that." The missionary overheard the remark, and they became the father of the faithful in and smiled and said, "That is exactly what it their various spheres, because they had learned cost me." "I beseech you therefore, brethren, the costly walk of a life of utter obedience by the mercies of God, that ye present your unto God. bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto Oh yes, consecration costs; and it may be God, which is the least you can do." that our hearts are sore as we think of just Abraham, when he was called, obeyed. Is how much it is going to cost us in our personal God calling you? Oh, yes, there is no doubt lives. But please look at it in its setting. Look at it against the mercies of God in Jesus Christ, of that, my dear friend. God is calling you, and remember that Caleb said, "We are well and He is calling you now. The great question able." My dear friend, you are well able for is, will you, like Abraham, obey?
111 Surrender—But How Far? By DR. PAUL REES
0 Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have ruled over us; but Thy name alone be acknowledged.--ISAIAH 26:13, R.S.V. I AM constrained to talk to you about what dictated to by my body." Does that find an I would call "Surrender, but How Far." echo in anybody's life here, young or old? The first thing that I want to remind you of, is Business given over to God; family life given this matter of— over to God; friendships given over to God: but a physical appetite, a bodily appetite that I. DIVIDED SOVEREIGNTY. "Other lords be- still usurps the place that Jesus Christ should side Thee." I need do no more than remind have as absolute Lord of our lives? You see, you that it was the oft-repeated failure and this person knew that the spirit should have the sin of God's covenant people, that they main- mastery: the body is to be kept under, but tained a pretence of worship of Jehovah, while the spirit informed, indwelt, mastered by the at the same time they gave recognition and Spirit of the living God, is to be in the ascend- even worship to the gods of the peoples around ant. Many a person comes to emotional them. And always, of course, when that was breakdown—whatever the doctors may say the case, they were a pathetic failure in their about it—through a spiritual cause. national life, and came sooner or later to drastic judgment: because from God's point It is not only unhealthy, it's unhappy. It's a of view it was a completely intolerable situa- miserable state to be in. Someone has defined tion. "If Baal be god, worship him: if God happiness as a frame of mind in which one is be God, worship Him." This matter of divided going somewhere whole-heartedly. But if there loyalties, of shared sovereignties—which, of are idols of the heart disputing the perfect course, is strictly speaking an inconsistency, an lordship of Jesus Christ as Sanctifier in your incompatibility—is intolerable to God. Yet life, you are not going forward whole- as you and I face certain situations in our own heartedly. You are going haltingly. And that lives, and as we come to know how people is never a happy situation. are living in the Church of Jesus Christ, we Moreover, it is unprofitable. There is a are bound to face up to the fact that there is remarkable word in Deuteronomy 4:25, which something that corresponds to this in the life Moffatt excellently renders, "When you pro- of many today. "Other lords beside Thee." duce children"—this was a kind of melancholy forecast of what was to take place after the Let me suggest three things that are very children of Israel got into the Promised Land — wrong about this divided sovereignty in your "When you produce children, and children's life and mine For one thing, it is un- children, if you lose your freshness in the land healthy: it is not good for our physical health, and deprave yourselves by carving an idol in our emotional well-being, nor for our spiritual the sight of the Eternal, your God, I call life, to live in this conflict—partly for self and heaven and earth to witness against you. . ." partly for Christ. Those of us who are called You notice that? When you lose your fresh- upon to do counselling come to discover what ness. Once you were in the place of blessing. havoc is being wrought in the personalities of Ah, maybe this is God's word to somebody men and women in our churches, because they here. There was a time in your life when are trying to live the Christian life by fractions. there was no question about who was Lord-- They are neither all out for the Kingdom of not only Saviour, but Lord. You had sanctified God, nor are they all out for this world. There Christ in your heart as Lord. But let an idol, is a divided loyalty. whatever it is, come between you and the Lord, For example, here is one Christian who says, and see how the freshness goes out of your in a very frank moment, "I'm tired of being life. Oh, what dullness, what deadly dull-
112 Then there is a surrender that is defective, not 'because it is hypocritical but because it is ness, comes in. It was a minister of the Gospel ephemeral—and quite literally so, for the word caught in the conflict between divided sovereignties "ephemeral" means "for one day." You decided who said, "My ministry is all on the surface. I am an one day, some of you, that you were going to activist. I've been getting by. I'm critical, and I'm take the crown of absolute lordship and put it critical because I'm not inwardly secure." That's a upon the brow of your lovely Lord. And you did very revealing confession, my dear friends—"I'm it. Then the next day, or the next week, or the critical, because I'm not inwardly secure." It's a next month, you reached out and took it back, and terrible thing to have self on your hands. It's a great went strutting off in it yourself. All you need to do job when you get it off your hands, and on to the is to come to a situation where you say, Cross where it belongs, to die. "Nobody's going to tell me what I'm going to Unhealthy, unhappy, and unprofitable—that is the do. I'm going to have my own way. I'm going to threefold charge we can fairly level against a live my own life." If you are a true child of Christian discipleship that is divided in its God, living in the centre of His will, you never sovereignty. And that 'brings me to the second talk like that. Live your life? If you are a point. Think for a moment about— sanctified, holy child of the living God, you have no independent life of your own to live. It is II. THE DEFECTIVE SURRENDER that is "not I, but Christ living in me." You had to have suggested here. The two things, of course, are very your own way in that argument, even though you closely related. If there is a divided sovereignty, a had to go storming through a bit of bad temper divided ownership in your life and mine, if it be true to have it. You had to take that money, that that "other lords beside Thee" are ruling over us, the Lord wanted you to separate to the cause of then it must be because the one rightful sovereign is missions, or some other aspect of the work of His not being accorded the utter and unreserved Kingdom. Instead of that you took it, and got a commitment that is His right. Mind you, there is a later model television set, or put it in savings surrender that is defective because it is hypocritical. bonds. You had to have your way about it. Is He The false consecration of Ananias and Sapphira was Lord of your possessions? Oh, yes, you made of that sort (Acts 5). There were others in that first Him that for a day, for a week, for a month ; but Christian Church in Jerusalem, like Barnabas, who you haven't gone through with it, and so some of were bringing all. And Ananias and Sapphira sold a the Christians that you and I know, are in the piece of property, and kept back part of the price. unhappy business of taking things off the altar that Now, their sin was not in keeping back part of the they once put there. I wonder, is the Spirit of proceeds from the sale of that property; their sin lay God saying anything to any of us right now, in pretending to give all of it. That was the sin. about a fleeting, an intermittent sort of There is a defective consecration that is defective surrender, and God wants it to be final? It is to because it is hypocritical. I recall something that I be for life. heard the late Samuel Logan Brengel, one of the A Christian worker, who was once greatly used commissioners of the Salvation Army, say when we by the Lord, but now had been sidelined, laid on were together in a convention at Brooklyn, New the shelf, confided to a friend, "My consecration York, years ago—"I sometimes fear that one of the today is like smouldering embers." What a figure easiest ways for some people to tell lies is to sing the of speech! Once it was a great flame, a holy consecration hymns of the Christian Church." holocaust, going up in ardour and devotion, in spontaneity and totality. Today the fire of that All for Jesus, all for Jesus, consecration has gone out—smouldering embers. All my being's ransomed powers; All my thoughts and all my doings, When you begin taking back what you have All my days, and all my hours. given to the Lord the glow goes out of your soul, and the fire goes out of your discipleship. Let my hands perform His bidding; There is a third defect that often mars our Let my feet run in His ways; surrender: the defect of being partial. Some of Let my eyes see Jesus only; us are mostly surrendered to the Lord, but Let my lips speak forth His praise. there's one habit we are clinging to, and we are making an idol of it. I don't know what it is, but There is not a Christian in this company this if I took a dozen guesses I suspect I could hit it afternoon who has not sung those lines at one with some of you. Whatever it is, you have used time or another. But I ask you, Is it the truth? the old argument many a time. It's threadbare. You've said,
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"Well, I don't think there's any harm in this." £10,000. Well, they got excited over it, and had a But is there any question in your mind, if you consultation about it, and it was decided by those are prepared to be utterly honest, but that in authority that there must be some mistake: you would be a cleaner, finer, stronger Chris- so they wrote a letter of thanks, and said to tian if that habit were broken and for ever him, "Now, you perhaps didn't send the done with? My dear father, who was a amount you intended to send; or if you did, Quaker minister, used to tell a great many you have done this impulsively and rashly, and we interesting stories about some of the distin- are therefore returning this cheque to you." And guished Quaker preachers of America. One they got back a cheque for a still larger sum, of his very dear friends was a Quaker by the and a letter saying, "God told me to do this. name of David Updegraf, who once in a while This is not acting impulsively. And I have had would say some very plain and pungent things a big thrill in doing it, because now I know to Quakers who still were addicted to the use that this does not belong to me, and what I do of tobacco. He went to hold a series of meet- with this fortune God had entrusted to my ings in a certain Quaker community, and there hands is not my business, it is His." Just think was a leading Quaker in this church who was of what we could do with missions, and still very fond of his old pipe. And he knew Christian education, and the general what David Updegraf occasionally said in his advancement of the work of the Church of Jesus preaching on this matter. The two men met Christ in all its branches if we had that spirit on the street, before the first meeting was of utter surrender at the practical level of held; and the Quaker said to the preacher, control over money. "Well, David, I suppose thee has come to hit my tobacco!" And Updegraf, who had a rare Some of us are mostly surrendered to our sense of humour, looked at him and said, Lord, but there is the idol of friendship that we "Friend, if I couldn't hit thee lower down than are not prepared to give up. Other things? Oh, thy mouth, I wouldn't hit thee at all!" And yes. But this one friendship. . . You have one you know, the Spirit of God did the hitting. set of convictions, young man, and she has Lower down than the mouth—in the heart: another set—and her set are not necessarily that's where the real trouble lies. Christian. Or young lady, he has no interest in the mission field, and God has called you to the "Wherefore having these promises," says work of missions. There's the rub. There's 2 Corinthians 7:1, "let us cleanse ourselves the conflict. Here's the thing that is going to from"—ninety-five per cent of the filthiness of bring you to the depth. Will you let that idol of the flesh and spirit? No! "Let us cleanse our- friendship go? Will you die to it. "Whosoever selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, doth not bear his cross, and come after me, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27). Is there a partial surrender, while to some idol of the soul you are still giving a measure You will listen to me very carefully, now. of your allegiance? Some of us are mostly won't you? Some of us are mostly surrendered to surrendered to our Lord, but there's the con- our Lord, but there is that innermost, trol over our money that we are not quite bottom-most idol of all, our selves. Oh, the willing to relinquish, and give over utterly into Christians who are perfectly willing to lay His nail-pierced hands. The story was told to marginal things on the altar—time, talents. me some four or five years ago, about a young business, friendships, family, everything, while man in England who came to Norman Grubb they hold on to themselves! Yet what was it we for instruction on the Christian experience of were singing a little while ago? being really filled with the Holy Spirit. Among other things Norman Grubb said to him, "You Make me a captive Lord, must realise that the Spirit's fulness means And then I shall be free; much more than the meeting of your personal Force me to render up my sword, satisfaction in joy and peace, and even in holi- And I shall conqueror be. ness. It means that all you are and all you have will be made available to God for His Me. There is a false and usurping ego that use, in the carrying out of His purposes in this must die, that your God-created self, your 'broken world." Now this young man had a God-created personality, may be the shrine for considerable fortune that he had inherited, and the holy indwelling of your wonderful Lord, the week after he had his great meeting with through His Holy Spirit. God, God mightily invaded him with His I hold you for but one moment or two cleansing, empowering Spirit. And the post- longer as I suggest a third thing: the decisive man arrived at the office of the W.E.C., and submission. Oh, I thank God for this part of from this young man was a cheque for over our text: "0 Lord, other lords besides Thee
114 have ruled over us, but, no more, no longer— The dearest idol I have known, Thy name alone we acknowledge." The deci- Whate'er that idol be, sive submission. You recall Frances Ridley Help me to tear it from Thy throne, Havergal's familiar consecration hymn: in one And worship only Thee. couplet, you remember, we sing— His eye is on us right now. He sees those Take my voice, and let me sing compromises in our lives; He sees those eva- Always, only for my king. sions that are there; He sees those rationalis- ings of ours. We try to defend ourselves, and to explain why we are not out-and-out. He And in another sees through the whole thing, and He is saying to us, "Come now, no longer shall 'other lords Take my silver and my gold; besides me' have their dominance in your life. Not a mite would I withhold. I want it all. I want it all." Whatever hesi- tancies there have been, whatever divided And on and on. But the climax comes when allegiances, will you realise now that the root we sing— of it all is this uncrucified self-life? Will you say, "Lord, this is too deep and too much for Oh, come and reign, Lord Jesus, me. I give my consent to die, that Thy Lord- Rule over everything; ship may be undisputed and undivided in me." And keep me always loyal, And true to Thee, my King. Dear Christ, I hear Thy peading call: To spurn I cannot move; That is the decisive part of it. My heart is conquered; take my all, For less insults Thy love. Florence Nightingale at thirty wrote in her diary, "I am thirty years of age, the age at 0 Lord, I fall at Thy dear feet, which Christ began His mission. Now no Compelled by love divine: more childish things, no more vain things. My consecration make complete; Now, Lord"—note that decisiveness?—"Now Let me be wholly Thine. Lord, let me think only of Thy will." Years later, near the end of her illustrious, heroic Oh, beloved, let God take you down to the life she was asked for her life secret, and she depths of the meaning of that. What I am replied, "Well I can only give one explanation. asking you to do now is more than just to go That is, I have kept nothing back from God." through a kind of procedure that we often call And then remember C. T. Studd, who said, a re-consecration. Some of us have done that "If Jesus Christ is God, and died for me, then until it is a scandal, and we are nothing the no sacrifice is too great for me to make for better for it. But will you let God go to the Him." very depths with you and claim everything that My dear fellow Christians, I hope you realise is in you and about you, giving you a clean that there is One standing among us who is heart and a mastered personality—a personality asking you to let go that last idol, and to say brought under the mastery and the discipline to Him- of the indwelling Spirit?
114 Sanctifying Grace BY THE REV. E. F. KEVAN, B.D., M.Th. YOUNG man once came to a Christian must grow in grace and in the knowledge of doctor and said, "I want you to tell me our Lord Jesus Christ. howA I can overcome sin, but I don't want to This word "teaching" means teaching by become a Christian." The young man had it precept—the kind of teaching that is gained by made plain to him by the doctor that he could a study of the Scriptures, a reading of the Word not have victory without becoming a Christian. of God. The term also means teaching by How many there are who would not, perhaps, experience, by discipline. Most of us have to put is quite so openly as that, but who are learn our spiritual lessons in the school of wanting sanctification, victory over sin, without experience—and grace begins by teaching. first receiving the forgiveness of sin. They want Says old Matthew Henry in his rich commentary, the fruit without the root. We must know "The Gospel teaches us not only how to believe the Lord's saving grace before ever we can and hope well, but also how to live well." The know His sanctifying grace. purpose of the revelation of God in the Lord It is equally true and important to remember Jesus Christ is not creed but character. that we do not really possess saving grace in Now this teaching expresses itself in a twofold our lives unless it is becoming manifest in the way: first negatively, and second positively. work of sanctifying grace. Therefore I want And looking at the verse, we examine first the us to think together upon sanctifying grace. negative instruction. "Teaching us that, denying Will you please turn to Titus 2:11-14. Paul ungodliness and wordly lusts ..." There are, writes, "For the grace of God that bringeth then, two things to deny. Now Paul's word salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching "deny" means "make no room for." Elsewhere us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, he says, "make no provision for the lusts of the we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in flesh" . . . "put off the old man" . . . "renounce— this present world; looking for that blessed hope, say No." That's what "deny" means. And by the and the glorious appearing of the great God and grace of God this is one of the lessons that our Saviour, Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for we learn in the school of following Christ; this us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, is one of the experimental lessons the grace of and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, God operative in our hearts teaches us—that zealous of good works." This passage is there are some things that are utterly almost a summary of Paul's doctrine. It is a inconsistent with the glory of God, with our sermon on what might be called the Epi- faith in the Lord Jesus, and with our witness. phany—for that is Paul's word "appearing" So our very experience of saving grace begins here—the Epiphany, the appearing of grace; to teach us that there are some things that do not the grace of God that bringeth salvation has belong henceforth to our way of life. made its appearance. Now these two things that are thus to be denied and renounced, to which we have to This saving grace that has made its appear- say No, are indicated here. First, ungodliness. Of ance teaches us—and here is Paul's first step— course, when you found the Lord Jesus Christ, that after salvation in the forgiveness of sins, or rather, when you were found by Him, you comes sanctification in the deliverance from ceased to be ungodly in one of the senses of that sin. Now, that sanctifying grace is— word; but oh dear, how much ungodliness still I. CONVEYED BY INSTRUCTION. belongs to the godly! "The grace of God that bringeth salvation What do I mean? You see, we are not hath appeared to all men, teaching us . . ." anti-godly, because we have been reconciled to The child of God must know; he must add to Him by the death of His Son; but it is so his faith knowledge. He must learn. He
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easy to live as if God were not. I like to tell for God that trembles at His Word, that the children this little verse— grieves to grieve Him. Said the robin to the sparrow, These are the three things to pursue. Be "I should really like to know, sober in character, righteous in behaviour, Why these anxious human beings reverent in worship. To live, as J. B. Phillips says, "responsible, honourable and God-fearing Rush about and worry so," lives." Do you see, by way of an aside here, Said the sparrow to the robin, how "down to earth" this is. Sanctification "I suppose that it must be is not to be found in dreams and visions and That they have no heavenly Father imaginations and ecstasies and waftings. No, Such as cares for you and me." here it is. Put out ungodliness and worldly Do you see the possibility of ungodliness in lusts. Pursue righteousness, sobriety, godli- the godly. In our creed we believe in God, ness. And, says Paul, "in this present world." but in our conduct we act as if God were Our glorification belongs to the next world; not. Now one of the first things that sanctify- our sanctification by God's grace is here and ing grace does, is to drive out the ungodliness now. In my pastoral experience, I remember that is, the life from which God is shut out. a middle-aged lady coming to me, some twenty May God end the ungodiness of the godly. years ago now, about her very bad temper. The other thing to be denied, Paul describes She said, "I suppose I am to keep this to the as worldly lusts. These have been more fully end of my days." She was forgetting the dis- expounded by the apostle John in his first tinction between sanctification "in this present epistle, 2:16, where he says, "All that is in the world" and glorification in the next! world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of Now this reference to the present world the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the carries Paul's thought forward to the anticipa- Father, but is of the world." That is the list tion of the next world. And so our second of outstanding, diabolical, notable evils. That main thought is, that sanctifying grace is— description can cover the most respectable kind of person. Worldly lusts. Let us no longer think of II. INSPIRED BY HOPE. wordliness in terms of notorious and flagrant Hope of what? The Lord's glorious return. evil. It was Cromwell who defined worldli- I have heard it said that the note of the ness, in words like this: "It is whatsoever Lord's second coming is not often sounded. cooleth thine affections after Christ." And Well, here it is, and you and I believe in His oh, how much entertainment we give in our return. That is the glorious hope that inspires hearts to things that cool our ardour for Him. our sanctification. Paul first speaks of what Of course, "they that are Christ's have cruci- we may call the object of Christian hope: fied the flesh with the affections and lusts." "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glori- It is worldly lusts to which Paul refers. You ous appearing of the great God and our see, grace is more than skin deep. It goes Saviour Jesus Christ." What is the object of down to the deep places, the fountains of our Christian hope? His glorious appearing. The desires and of our wishes, our secret longings. epiphany of grace leads to the epiphany of The grace of God in us is such that we should glory; the appearing of the glory of Jesus live no longer to the lusts of men, but to the Christ, our great God and Saviour. This word will of God. "appearing" is used of our Lord's first coming, Denying ungodliness; denying worldly lusts. and it is here used of His second coming. Put these things out. In 2 Timothy 4:8 Paul says, "Henceforth Positively, the grace of God that brings there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- salvation teaches us that we should live soberly, ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall righteously, and godly. Three things to pursue. give me at that day ; and not to me only, but To live soberly: that means in accordance to all them also that love His appearing." with wisdom, and "the wisdom that is from Here, then, is a glorious description of our above is first pure, then peaceable . . ." This Lord as the majestic divine Saviour. I will has to do with character; this has to do with not delay you with discussions about the ourselves. Righteously—this has to do with Greek sentence here. It does not distinguish our behaviour, the justice of our actions, two persons in this verse: it is not the appear- honourable conduct in relation to others. ing of the great God and the appearing of Godly—here is the opposite of ungodliness. our Saviour Jesus Christ; it is the appearing The word that Paul uses is the one that the of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the great God. Greek Old Testament uses for "the fear of It is God who appears, as truly as it was God the Lord." I want a holy fear, a regard who came to Bethlehem—Emmanuel. So also
116 the second coming is the advent of God in the ourselves of a source of strength. Paul lived triumph of His Son. And, says Paul—it is with the Cross of Christ behind him and the "the glorious appearing" in our Authorised judgment seat of Christ before him. Version, but in the Revised Version margin the words are brought out better: it is "the Lo! He comes with clouds descending, appearing of the glory." Now this is a blessed Once for favoured sinners slain; hope, says Paul. The blessedness, then, of the Thousand thousand saints attending Christian hope, must be kept before our hearts. Swell the triumph of His train ... Hallelujah! come, Lord, come! 0 blessed hope! with this elate, Let not our hearts be desolate, That is the hope that inspires sanctification. But, strong in faith, in patience wait Finally, in v. 14 Paul points out that sancti- Until He come. fication is— Christ was once offered to bear the sins of III. SECURED BY REDEMPTION. many, and unto them that look for Him shall Paul cannot proceed far in expounding our He appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation without bringing us to the Cross. salvation. We are to love His appearing; we This is the place where all our salvation is are to look for His appearing. found. "Be gave Himself up for us, that He Perhaps there is no more certain test of might redeem us—not merely from our guilt. vital godliness than the attitude of the believer but—from all iniquity; that He might purify to the Lord's return. Is it a blessed hope to us"—that is, that He might take out every you? Or is it an unwelcome thought? If it unclean thing from our lives, and that so is unwelcome, perhaps it is because you are doing He might make us His peculiar people, a unsaved. If it is unwelcome, perhaps it is people for His own possession. There are because you are unsanctified. Do you dread common possessions in your home—the chairs and the unveiling of Jesus because you know at tables, knives and forks: they belong to the same time it will be an unveiling of you? everybody; but none of you wives and But to those who love the Lord and who are mothers would welcome it if your sons or in Christ, it is a blessed hope. husbands started rummaging in your handbags. And this hope is to be exercised. "Looking" You would say, "Here! That's mine!" That is (v. 13). "Looking for that blessed hope and the meaning of this word "peculiar" here. the glorious appearing . . ." No, it's not Something that is your private possession. You dating it. But it is being alert to it, it is under- and I are now no longer our own. We are standing it, it is expecting it, welcoming it, bought with a price. We do not belong to working toward it as that end, so that every ourselves; we are His private property, His peculiar part of our being cries, "Thy Kingdom come." treasure. And with what an end in view: "To purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous Now it is the exercise of this hope in our of good works." Paul's word is a noun, "a Lord's return that has so sanctifying an effect. zealot for good works." We might even "He that hath this hope," says John, "in Him translate it in the modern term "a fanatic for (he does not mean the man that has this hope good works." Fly abroad, thou blessed in himself; the 'Him' refers to Christ) he that fanaticism! Zealous of good works. has this hope in Him purifieth himself, even Redemption from always implies redemption to. as He is pure." Says Peter, "Gird up the loins Having been translated out of the kingdom of of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end darkness, we are translated into the Kingdom of for the grace that is to be given unto you at His dear Son. Sanctifying grace. the revelation of Jesus Christ." Oh, my friends, has this blessed hope this Grace there is my every debt to pay, effect on you? Does it quicken your desires Blood to wash my every sin away, after godliness. To be content with any lower Power to keep me spotless day by day, motives for righteousness than this, is to rob In Christ for me,
117 A Living Sacrifice BY THE REV. A. W. RAINSBURY, M.A.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. -ROMANS 12:1.
IT was my great privilege to play a small part the doctor. He paddled all day and pulled in at in Billy Graham's mission to Cambridge in night to the river's bank, where he gently laid her 1955, and to be present at a special meeting which down, wrapping her up and making her as was held for Christian students in the Union on comfortable as he could. On the second morning when he lifted the blanket to see her the last Sunday morning. It was an face, he saw that a great change had taken unforgettable meeting, as Billy Graham, place—for the worse. In anguish he cried, speaking on this subject, appealed to those "Oh, not you too, Mary!" and she gently undergraduates to consecrate themselves replied, "Yes, John, me too!" He bent over unreservedly to the Lord Jesus Christ—an appeal her while she whispered something to him before which, to all appearances, met with a wonderful she fell asleep in Jesus, with her unborn babe. And response. In the course of his address he told after he had lovingly laid to rest all that was the story of a wealthy young American couple, mortal of Mary, he got into his canoe and Mary and John, who lived in Virginia in a large paddled out to mid stream, and sat there looking house, with a large garden, and a large car, and down river in the direction of Virginia—home. with a large bank balance, and a big swimming After a few minutes he turned his canoe around and faced upstream. For those last pool, and everything they wished for. John and whispered words of Mary's were, "Go back to Mary were saved, and started attending the local the station, John. They need you there." church. One Sunday morning a missionary was the I don't mind admitting that as I listened to preacher, and as he presented the claims of the that story the tears streamed down my face, as I mission field God spoke to Mary and John, and believe they did down the face of many another called them both to the foreign field. They man in that Cambridge University Union. But as heard the call; they responded, and turned I reflected on it afterwards, I must confess that I their backs on that beautiful home and all its felt ashamed, not indeed, because I had been comforts, and all the prospects that stretched moved by the story of Mary and John—for what before them in Virginia, and they set out for the heart of brass could but be moved by such a story field, where after a time they were sent to an of such sacrifice; but I was ashamed because I isolated station on the frontier. found myself relatively so little moved by the Some time later one of their two little boys mercies of God referred to in my text, which sickened with a strange fever. The nearest relate fundamentally to an infinitely greater sacrifice doctor was hundreds of miles away down than that. My purpose, then, in this closing river, so they applied what medical knowledge address of this day, is a twofold one: To they had, to no avail: the child died. A few remind you, first, of what those mercies are; and days later the other boy developed similar second, how those mercies should affect you and symptoms. Again they fought for his life; me. again in vain. They laid him to rest, beside This first verse of Romans 12 is the bridge his brother. Then Mary sickened with the between the two main sections of the great same disease. Despite the long journey by epistle, the doctrinal and the practical; and to see canoe, John decided in a desperate effort to the connection between these two parts, we must save her life, to risk the several days' journey, to remember that the whole of the worship of the ancient east, and of the ancient world,
118 centred around sacrifice. Now there were two sents a fact—the fact that from His boyhood main groups of Jewish sacrifices—those which Jesus was about His Father's business; and were offered before reconciliation, in order His Father's business was the redemption of to obtain it; and those which were offered a lost world. It also reminds us of the fact after reconciliation, in order to commemorate that somewhere even then that dread tree was it by consecration. The first eleven chapters growing apace, as Jesus grew. of this epistle have been occupied solely in Think of the reception we accorded Him. expounding the great sin-offering that God has "He was in the world, and the world was made made in order that you and I might be recon- by Him; and the world knew Him not." "He ciled to Him, and the blessings which flow was despised and rejected of men, a man of from that sacrifice. These are the "mercies" sorrows, and acquainted with grief. We hid to which Paul refers in my text. And upon as it were our faces from Him." Think of these mercies he then bases his appeal to the Him in the garden. It has been my solemn Roman Christians, for them to offer the second privilege to visit the place called Gethsemane, kind of sacrifice, that which symbolised the and kneeling under the olive trees to seek to utter consecration to God of the life of the enter into something of what my Saviour suf- reconciled sinner, in thanksgiving to God. So fered there for me. Think of E. V. Rieu's the rest of the epistle is the exposition of the translation of Mark 14:33, 34, "He took with practical outworking of that consecration. Him Peter and James and John, and in the Now let us turn to a closer consideration consternation and the desolation that came of those mercies upon which everything hinges. upon Him now, He said to them, 'My heart St. Paul uses the plural "mercies," because he is heavy to the point of death'." How is thinking of the manifoldness of the blessings literally true this was, you see as you read that they all derived from the one all-inclusive the next verse: "He went forward a little and mercy he referred to in 3:24, 25—"The re- fell on the ground." So heavy was His heart demption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God that His knees could not bear His body up: set forth to be a propitiation by His blood," to He sank to the ground. His human body was be received by faith. Oh, how can we read crushed to the ground by the weight—oh, it such words as these calmly and coldly? We seemed almost as if a physical weight was may be able to offer so precise and orthodox crushing Him, so terrible was the prospect of an explanation of their meaning as to satisfy Him, the sinless God-man, bearing our filth the most critical mind, but do we ever sit and sin upon His sinless soul, bearing the down and think of what it meant to God wrath of God against our sin. Had the Father to set Jesus forth to be a propitiation? Do we not sent an angel to strengthen Jesus, He ever sit down to think of what it meant to would have died in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus to be made a propitiation by His blood? Do you realise that? He said, "My soul is I think we owe it to Him, to do this from time sorrowful, even to the point of death." But to time, even if it hurts—and hurt it does. that death would not have been a propitiation, Think, then, first of all, of the Incarnation for it had to be upon an accursed tree, and it of our Lord Jesus Christ. How can we ever had to be by blood. "And being in an agony," understand what it meant to Him, the infinite continues the sober record, "He prayed with God, Creator and Sustainer of the universe, even greater vehemence, and His sweat was as to come down to this little planet in the form it were great drops of blood falling down to the of a helpless babe, this planet which is but a ground." So intense was His agony that the speck of dust in relation to God's great blood burst through the capilliaries, colouring universe. Indeed. Dr. Barnhouse used to say and enlarging the drops of perspiration which that for Jesus to become a man was relatively poured from the sacred body to the ground, to become as a speck of dust on a speck of for you and me. dust. Think of His boyhood. I believe that "Mr. Rainsbury," said an old saint to me from His earliest days He knew who He was, in Portrush, twenty years ago, "One sin of and what He was destined to do, and that the mine alone would have been enough to bring cross cast its shadow even across His boyhood the bloody sweat to the brow of my Saviour years. I remember buying an illustrated New in the garden!" Ah, yes, she knew more Testament in Palestine; and one of its pictures of the holiness of God than I did. And as I shall never forget. It depicted beautiful I looked at her sweet, pure face, I thought springtime in Galilee, and a young lad stand- to myself, "One sin of yours—what about one ing with his back to a growing tree, measuring of mine! What about all of mine?" And himself against it, as it were, with arms out- what about all of yours? stretched. The caption was, Sic to amo—"I Think of His arrest after the ordeal, fol- love you so." It may be fancy, but it repre- lowed by a wholly sleepless night during the
119 mock trial in the house of Caiaphas, at the dismiss His spirit yet, for He had to make conclusion of which St. Matthew tells us that propitiation by His blood upon the accursed they spat in His face, and punched Him with tree. For it was those who hung upon the their clenched fists. Then the trail to Pilate, tree who bore the curse, who were accursed and the trail from Pilate to Herod, who with of God. So with indomitable will He endured, his men of war mocked Him and set Him for you of me. at naught, followed by the trail back to Pilate Even the pity of a Pontius Pilate was again. Then when Pilate had completed his aroused as he brought Him out and said, farce, Matthew tells us that he had Him "Behold, the man!" Ah, my friend, if it had scourged, which involved being stripped and been anyone else, by that time he would have tied to a pillar, in a bending position, being had to say, "Behold, the corpse!" You see, flogged with a multi-thonged whip with nails that is the significance of it. There never was and bones worked into it. My friends, this is seen a man as the God-man was seen that day. true. This happened. "The ploughers ploughed And all that He had suffered in His body at upon my back. They made long their fur- the hands of men, and suffered in His body rows." That was the literal effect of that still when He was crucified in that condition, treatment. that was little by comparison with what He Not content with that, Pilate handed Him suffered in His soul at the hands of God. over to the sadism of the whole band of sol- And upon that Cross, for our sake He made diers, about six hundred strong, and it was Him to be sin, who knew no sin ; and all from through them that Satan unleashed all the which He shrank in the garden became a venom of hell. And the Greek again reveals reality, when He became a curse for us, the full horror of that scene; as a Greek accursed as every one that "hangeth on a scholar has pointed out to me, John 19: 2 tree," when it pleased the Lord to bruise Him reads, "And the soldiers having plaited a —as it means literally, "to crush Him to crown of thorns, put it upon His head, and pieces." they cast about Him a purple robe ..." listen!". . were coming to Him and were saying, Hail, All that transpired upon that cross that day King of the Jews!" They "were coming to we can never know, when He who had an Him." Do you know what that means. As in infinite sensitivity was punished on your behalf our Coronation the nobility came in and mine, by Him who had an infinite capacity procession and paid homage to our Queen, for punishing sin—the holy God. All we can kneeling before her one by one, and kissing know is this, in the words of Calvin: "That her hand, so these human brutes queued up, Jesus endured in His soul all the torments and "were coming" to Him in procession; one by of .a condemned and lost man." Or as Spur- one they were making their mock-homage to geon put it, "He was ground between the the King of kings. The first soldier hailed Him, upper and the nether millstones of the wrath "King of the Jews," then mockingly bowed of God." For you, my friend, and for me. his knees; then rose up and struck Him on His And His cry of dereliction was the climax; thorn-crowned head with a rod; then spat in His "My God, my God, why has Thou forsaken face. Then the next, and the next, and the me?" You notice it was not, "My Father, next, and the next. Man by man they were my Father!" It was not as a son that He coming in this ritual of hell, till their sadistic was being dealt with by His Father, but as lust was satiated, and they got tired of it. the sin-bearer of the world by God the judge And all the time Jesus made no attempt to of all the earth. That sin-bearing necessarily protect Himself. He says through Isaiah, "I involved desertion by a holy God. So it is, gave my cheeks to them that plucked off the my friends, that Jesus made propitiation by hair, and I hid not my face from shame and His blood. spitting." Oh, no wonder Isaiah goes on to tell Oh, think of what it meant to the Father us that "many were astonished at Him. His to set Him forth for that. For whatever it appearance was so marred, beyond human cost the Lord Jesus, it cost the Father the semblance, and His form beyond the sons of same. Think of what it meant to the Son to men." What does that mean? Beyond human be set forth for that. And ask yourself, semblance, beyond the form of the Son of Whence did all this proceed? This was, my man. Ah, others have suffered most terrible friends, the answer. See those arms out- atrocities at the hands of men, but no one stretched upon that cross: what do they say? I ever suffered as much as Jesus did that day love you so. The mercy of God for fallen for you and me. For all others would have men—that is the fundamental mercy, and succumbed long before; but Jesus could not from it flow all the other mercies of justifica- tion, sanctification, glorification, which are ex-
120 panded in the following chapters. And upon man. It denotes the body and all the faculties them all Paul bases his great appeal. which find expression through the body; the What is it? As to how these mercies should whole personality. "Present your bodies a living affect you and me. Mary and John knew the sacrifice . . . to God." In very truth we must answer to that question, didn't they? It is not be willing to say to God, in the light of what enough that we should be moved, or even that He has done, and in humble gratitude for what our tears should flow at the contemplation of the He has done, the following things—"0 God, by mercies of God. No, my friends. Feelings Thy grace I lay on Thy altar my heart, with all have their place, and a rightful place in the its affections, henceforth to love what Thou Christian life; for it is a relationship of love. dost love, and to hate what Thou dost hate. I But feelings divorced from obligation are mere give Thee my mind, and ask Thee henceforth sentimentality, which hurts Jesus infinitely more to bring into captivity every thought to the than the mock-homage of the Roman soldiers. obedience of Christ. I give Thee my will: No, our feelings of gratitude to God for our henceforth not my will but Thine be done. I give redemption must be allowed to move our wills. Thee these eyes, to see only what Thou wouldst The great sin-offering for reconciliation has have me see—and to see all of that. I give been made by God: now it is incumbent on Thee these ears, to hear only what thou wouldst the pardoned sinner to offer his sacrifice, the have me hear—and to hear all of that. I give sacrifice of himself to God in utter gratitude Thee this tongue, to say only what thou to Him for so great a mercy. wouldst have me say—and to say all of that. I That sacrifice we have described for us in give Thee these hands, to do only what thou words which emphasise that it must be a wouldst have me do—and to do all of that. I voluntary sacrifice. "I beseech you that ye give Thee these feet, to go only where present . . ." It does not automatically follow Thou wouldest have me go—and all of that." that every justified believer will make this My beloved friends, this is a "reasonable sacrifice, otherwise there would have been no service." As you and I have reflected upon need for Paul's appeal—his beseeching them. what He has done for us, I ask you, is it And alas, how few appear to do so! reasonable—to use the translation which Mr. Secondly, it is a complete sacrifice. "Your Philip did this morning, speaking on the same bodies, a living sacrifice." The body of a verse—"It is the least you can do." If you sacrificial animal denoted the whole animal. In really feel that so, will you bow your head the case of a man, it denotes the whole now in the presence of this risen Saviour?
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The Limits of Consecration
BY THE REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS, B.A., B.D.
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. . . . He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself so to walk, even as He walked.—I John 2: 1, 6.
THE theme of this day is consecration; but which is indicative of particular actions; so before Mr. Duncan brings to us that theme it that the real thrust of these words is this" is important that we should ask ourselves These things write I unto you, that ye sin not the question, "Has God set any limit to our at all." Not one solitary act of sin—not one consecration? " How far up the road of holi- sinful deed, not one sinful word, not one sin- ness is it possible for us to go? This question ful thought, not one sinful emotion: no sin- stabbed me broad awake recently while in ning whatsoever. conversation with a young Indian student on Now that is a tremendous statement! I sup- the fringe of an open-air meeting on Princes- pose there will be those of us ready to brush street, Edinburgh. He made one remark that that aside and say, "I don't believe it. That remained with me with tremendous challenge. is a counsel of perfection. That may be all He said that so far as he was concerned, all right for angels and archangels, but for sinful that is in religion is pardon. I indicated to men and women with frail human passions, him that so far as the Gospel of our Lord Jesus it is impossible." And I suppose there are those Christ is concerned, there is infinitely more who would try to explain the words away. than pardon. He is not only able to pardon Someone may reply, "There is an explanation our sin, but to prevent us from sinning. But to those words psychologically. John is an as I went home that evening the sentence rang old man, and when people get old they tend in my ears, "All that is in religion is pardon." to give way to exaggeration, and are not to be It came home to me forcibly that all too often taken too seriously." But if you read the letter that is the sad tale we have to tell. There may carefully, you will find no indication of intel- be the unsearchable riches of Christ, but so lectual dotage. Then someone else says, " I far as we are concerned experimentally this can explain it spiritually. I have known people is as far as we get in. We sin; we ask God to who talk like this. I knew a man who pardon that sin; we may vow and resolve not said solemnly that since the day of his baptism to fall in that particular temptation again, but he had not sinned in thought, word or deed. it isn't long before we are defeated once more. But I did not take him seriously, because I So the wheel turns full circle and we are back knew he did not understand the Scriptural again in the place of sin, repentance, and teaching of the serious character of sin." There pardon. are easy-going perfectionists like that—and Last evening we were reminded of the John makes very short work of them, for he promise made in the first chapter of this says in 1:10, "If we say that we have not letter, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse not in us." If there are people who glibly say us from all unrighteousness." But is there more that they have got to this place, the proba- than that? Can we get beyond the place of bility is that they belong to these libertine per- pardon? What is the limit of Christian holi- fectionists, condemned by the apostle John. ness? How far can we be consecrated? How They don't understand the meaning of sin. far can the Lord Jesus Christ take us? The No, John is not being complacent and smug answer is to be found in our text, " My little when he talks like this. John knows how children, these things write I unto you, that subtle and deep-seated sin can be; he knows ye sin not" In the A.V. that is a tremendous the truth that the more we live in the light statement, " that ye sin not," but when we turn of God's presence, the more we become con- to the original we find it is even more chal- victed of sin. I suppose there are hearts in lenging, for the tense that is used is the aorist, this congregation tonight who would acknow-
122 ledge they have become acutely aware of things that is the old Adam, the old nature. in their lives which troubled them not all Whatever you leave behind on Saturday morning, before they came to Keswick; and as you there is one thing you will not be able to leave read the first chapter of this letter, you find behind, and that is sin. This sinful nature; that John says that God is light, and that if this old Adam; the flesh, as the New Testament we have fellowship with Him who is the light, calls it, is something that will be with us right the consequence of that will be confession of up to our dying day. The Westminster sin; and— Confession is right when it declares that the souls of the believers are made perfect in the They who fain would love Thee best, moment of death. We are made perfect in Are conscious most of wrong within. holiness the moment we pass into the Lord's presence and leave this body behind. Until The more we live in the light of God's then, we have a sinful nature, the old Adam, presence and the searchlight of His Word, the flesh. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the more bitingly aware are we of the reality with every Christian—the flesh lusting against of sin within us. Yet, says John, "These things the spirit. Yet, says the apostle John, "My write I unto you, that ye sin not." Then some- little children, these things write I unto you, body says, "Well, I have the explanation to that ye sin not at all." Not one sinful act this: we can explain this sentence away theo- not one sinful word, or thought, or feeling. logically. I've got the label for this man This is the Word of God, and whatever is John. John is an eradicationist." There are taught in the Scriptures is incumbent upon us such people. They believe that your sinful as believers. The New Testament is our rule nature can actually be eradicated; that by of faith and conduct; and God does not waste the means of the diligent use of the means of words: what He says, He intends to be taken grace, of much prayer and much waiting upon seriously. It is a command of God, and God's God and much reading of His Word, or by commands are His enablings. And it is an some cataclysmic spiritual experience, it is often-repeated command throughout the New possible to get this root of sin right out of our Testament. nature. We know that foul waters proceed How, then, is it possible for us, men and from us because the fountain is foul, and they women handicapped as we are by the fact teach it is possible for you to get to the place that we carry original sin, that we carry the where that fountain is dried up once and for flesh, the old nature, the old Adam, with us — all; that you can become like the incarnate how is it possible for us to be obedient to the Son of God Himself, with no sinful nature command to sin not at all? Scripture within and original sin uprooted. Well, read answers Scripture, and the questions raised this first chapter and you will discover that by the New Testament must be answered by you have to take your words back. John is the New Testament. And here it is given in not an eradicationist: he says quite plainly in verse 6, "He that saith he abideth in Him, 1:8, "If we say that we have no sin, we ought himself so also to walk, even as He deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." walked." That is the description of the Chris- There is a great difference between, sinning tian—he "abideth in Him." What is a Chris- and having sin. Sin is the particular act, tian? A church member, a respectable citizen, but having sin is the fountain, the factory someone doing his best to keep to the within from which the individual sins come. commandments? A Christian is a person who is Later in this letter John says, "He that hath "in Him." As we heard in the Bible Reading the Son hath life," and we have everlasting this morning, every Christian is a man in Christ. life by the miracle of the new birth. The Lord We have been born again of God's Holy Jesus Christ dwells within us. We have life; Spirit. The miracle of the new birth has but says John, we also have sin. We have an actually taken place within our personality. evil principle, we have a sinful nature, we What happened in that moment when, as a have the old Adam within us. sinner, I claimed the pardon of the Cross and One of the saddest things after a Convention took the Lord Jesus Christ to be my Saviour— is the spiritual anti-climax that comes to some what happened? This: we were indwelt by Christians. They go home and suddenly discover the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy that all they have vowed has come to Spirit. "Unto as many as received Him, to nothing. They wonder why it is they feel so them gave He power to become the sons of differently the week after the Convention. Quite God." And who was it by the Holy Spirit who often the reason for that is theological: they came to dwell within us? The Lord Jesus Christ; have not grasped the fact that there is one the everlasting Son of the Father; the One by thing we take away with us from Keswick, and whom the world was first created;
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the One who came down from eternity into that we ask or think, according to the this world of time and space. The Lord Jesus power that worketh in us ..." Christ, the One who made blind to see, the Ought, must; this is not a question of deaf to hear, and the lame to walk; the One people having a special Keswick blessing. This who cast out devils; the One who said to is not a question of people living on a certain Lazarus, when he had been in the tomb four height which is impossibe to other Christians. days, "Lazarus, come forth," and he came Every Christian is to live like this. This is forth. The One who is seated in the place of why we have been saved. We have not been absolute authority on the right hand of the saved merely in order that we might come to Father; the One to whom all power and God and ask for pardon, but in order that authority has been committed; the One who we might be kept from falling; in order that comes again to judge the quick and dead—the Christ may live in us. The name given to everlasting Son of the Father dwells in us. missionaries quite often is "Jesus man"—and Christ in us, the Lord of glory. that is what every Christian is intended to be, We do not believe in eradication, but we the Jesus man. Where lies the trouble, then? must believe in counter-action. Take the It lies in this operative word, "He that saith miracle of flying—how is it that that aeroplane is he abideth in Him"—not merely that the Lord able to keep in the air, maybe 25,000ft. above dwells in us, but that He possesses us; that sea level? The law of gravity is operating, and His life is flowing through us; that He is com- by the law of gravity there is a downward pletely Lord in our lives. That He has all pull all the time. How is it that an aeroplane we have, and every part of our personality is is able to keep itself up? Because it has a saturated with Him and under the constraint counteracting power. But if its engines cut out, of His gracious Holy Spirit. tragedy will ensue. That aeroplane is able to Is that what you claim? You claim that keep up only so long as it has counteracting - power; power within the aeroplane to keep it Jesus Christ lives in you, do you not? You there. claim that the miracle of the rebirth has taken That is the teaching of the New Testament. place; can you claim that you have yielded "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself all, so that He may dwell not only in one so also to walk." It is because we are born room in your house, but He is completely again of the Holy Spirit, it is because God has Master and Lord in the personality that He graciously visited our personalities and made has redeemed. It is question of obedience us partakers of the divine nature and imparted to the Lord; and if we let the Lord of glory His very self to us, it is because of that that the really have the whole of us, then we shall command is given, "These things write I unto indeed be enabled to obey His command, you, that ye sin not at all," And notice what "These things write I unto you, that ye sin it says—ought: we are under an obligation. It not at all." is not merely that this life is possible to us, it This is the teaching of the New Testament. is not merely that a few people can live up in Nothing less than this is the limit of Christian this rarefied atmosphere, but that every consecration. This is the prayer of Paul for Christian is under an obligation to walk like this. the Thessalonians, "And the very God of peace This is God's purpose for every one of us. The sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your Lord Jesus Christ is not limited. He who was whole spirit and soul and body be preserved the Word by whom God created the universe, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus He who brought Lazarus from the dead, He is Christ." "Now," says the writer to the able to live His own life in us today. He is Hebrews, "the God of peace, who brought not limited in time; He who lived the life that again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great was free from sin in Palestine nineteen hundred Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of years ago, is able to do it today; for Jesus the everlasting covenant, make you—what? Christ in the same yesterday, today and forever —make you perfect in every good work to do more. He is not limited "Unto Him who is able His will, working in you that which is well- to do exceeding abundantly above all pleasing in His sight." "These things write I unto you, that ye sin not at all."
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Obedience, the Key to Life's Problems
BY THE REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN, M.A. Reading: JOHN 2: 1-5
HERE comes clearly back to my memory a "Whatsoever He saith unto you"; the un- T visit to Keswick as a young scoutmaster, and questioned authority of the Lord; and the finding my way on the Sunday morning to the unqualified acceptance of the word. It is Methodist Church, having been attending the "whatsover." This is unlimited, unrestricted. meetings and not having got anywhere There are no confines, no boundaries, no particularly. The Convention then used to run limitations we are imposing. This is an un- over a second week-end. Canon St. John questioned acceptance. "Whatsoever He saith Thorpe was the preacher that morning, and I unto you, do it." Now may we put this into remember he spoke on "Five Whatsoevers' of the wider setting of both Scripture and the Christian Life." Among them was "The Christian experience. What place does obedi- 'Whatsoever' of Christian Obedience," and I ence have in your life and mine? The first is suddenly realised that obedience holds the key this, that in our obedience lies— to the problem of God in our lives. It is the I. THE PURPOSE OF OUR REDEMPTION BY old question that our parents asked again and GOD. I Peter 1:2 says that we are "elect unto again when we were small, "When will you obedience." The final achievement of the out- learn to do as you are told?" It is as simple as working of the purpose of God's redemption that; and I believe that the problem in the is that our lives should be brought into average Christian life is not the problem of obedience to His will. I heard in my theo- ignorance, but of obedience. As I have the logical college days many discussions on the privilege of ministering at many conventions, I problem of election, but I never heard one dis- sometimes feel it would be a good thing if we cussion on its purpose. Its purpose, I would had one convention for a week when not a submit, is more important than its problem. single address was given, but that the Christian What is the purpose of our election? That we folk there examined themselves on one point — should live lives of obedience, that is all. It not on, "What do I not know," but " In what was disobedience that marked man's fall from realm of my life am I not obeying? " the purpose of God, and obedience Before we examine this in detail, note the characterises his return. unquestioned authority of the Lord: "What- What does this entail and involve? I think it soever He saith unto you . ." What we have entails two things: first, an obedience which will in mind is the obedience we owe to Jesus lead to an acceptance of the Cross. We begin Christ. Not to any man and or any church; there: "elect unto obedience and sprinkling the obedience we owe to Him. You remember of the blood of Jesus Christ." That is the first that tremendous threefold note struck out in act of obedience that God requires. It is the opening verses of Hebrews: "God hath possible that your obedience has not even got spoken." It is what He is saying that we are you that far. The first obedience that God concerned with; and surely His authority is requires is our acceptance of the Cross, and unquestioned. You know the story of our the One on it, as the grounds of our redemp- present Queen when she was a little girl. Her tion, our salvation, our reconciliation with God. father and mother were entertaining, and the I ask you, Has your obedience brought you little Princess was wanting to say something; there? Have you accepted the Cross? Do you but nobody was paying any attention, not to a value the blood? Oh, I know that there are little girl. Feeling rather grieved and dis- some people who hate the words, "the blood tressed, she made her way to the centre of of Jesus." I am thankful that our Anglican the room, and stamped her foot on the floor. liturgy (and I speak now as a Presbyterian!) not When she got attention and silence, she said, only has kept it but adorns it. "Royalty is speaking! "
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Every time we come to the Lord's Table, we dard. One of the most glaring illustrations speak of "His most precious blood." comes from the Old Testament. The will of The first aspect of the obedience in the out- God had been made absolutely plain to King working of God's purpose in our redemption Saul, that he was utterly to destroy Amalek; is an acceptance of the Cross; but it is more but we read that instead he and the people to- than that, it is our allegiance to a Crown. gether took of the spoil, the sheep and the "Elect unto obedience." oxen, the chief of the things that should have When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the she received a wonderful letter from that most Lord in Gilgal. Samuel met this man who was regal and stately of all figures that have graced offering a substitute for obedience, and said: our royal family, Queen Mary, her grand- "Hath God as great delight in burnt offerings mother. It was a letter of sympathy, but it and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the was more than that, it was a letter of Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacri- allegiance, for that stately, regal figure was now fice." Here was the king saying, "I am not the subject of a stripling of a girl. She signed obeying God but I am giving Him something her letter to her grand-daughter with these else that I think is rather lovely. I am holding words: "Your loving grandmother and a great thanksgiving service." And God said, devoted subject." "I do not want it." An allegiance to a crown. I want to ask you, is the purpose of God's redemption being What kind of a substitute are, you offering worked out in your life? It possibly helps to God as a proof of your devotion? Is it the us to throw that allegiance against the back- holding of office in the church? You say, I ground of the pattern of the life of the unre- am a deacon, I am an elder, I am a minister, generate man. In Ephesians 2: 2, 3, St. Paul I am a Sunday-school teacher. Are you holding describes the principles that govern the lives that out as a substitute for your personal of those who are not Christians. He says there obedience? Is it the singing of hymns? We are two governing principles about the uncon- love joining in the worship of a congregation. verted man—he is walking according to the But are you making that a substitute? Or course of this world; and he is fulfilling the is it your work for God? You do not mind desires of the flesh and of the mind. That is doing all sorts of things for the Church of to say, a person who is not a Christian does Christ, and you are known as a reliable per- things because other people do them: he takes son. Is that your substitute? It may even his guiding principle from society, and shapes be the giving of your money; you are known his conduct from what others do. The second as a generous supporter of all the work of the guiding principle is himself: what he wants. church. But none of these things are what The Christian has rejected both of these. A God wants. What about your obedience to Christian does not do things because other the will of God in your personal life? Is people do them; and never does things just that real? If it is not, you do not love God because he wants to do them, or does not at all. I do not care what office you hold, or want to do them. We have an allegiance to what words you use to affirm that you love a crown. The hall-mark of the genuine Christian God. You do not love "Him one scrap unless is simply this, that he does whatsoever His you do His will. Lord requires. Are you that kind of Christian? No substitute will do for obedience. I That is why you have been saved, that is wonder if some parents here know what it is why Christ died, that is why the Holy -Spirit to give a direction to your child, and have this has come. That is to be the pattern of your reply back: " I am just finishing the chapter! " living. That is the purpose of your redemption What is that? That is disobedience. No, the by God. "Elect unto obedience." That is the substitutes that you and I find have no weight first thought; and here is the second. In our with God. It is exactly the same cry in the obedience lies not only the purpose of our opening chapter of Isaiah: "To what purpose redemption by God, but— is . . . your sacrifice unto me, said the Lord; I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and II. THE PROOF OF OUR DEVOTION TO HIM. the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the Let us notice this. John 14: 21, " He that blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. hath my commandments and keepeth them, Bring no more vain oblations. . . . Wash you, he it is that loveth me." John 15:14, "Ye are make you clean . . . If ye be willing and my friends if ye do whatsoever I command obedient"—that is what I want. George Adam you." In our obedience to the will of God, Smith comments, " Over against the prophetic and in that alone, lies the proof of our devo- view of religion sprawls and reeks the popular tion to Him. Think for a moment of the —religion as a smoky sacrifice, assiduous wor- substitutes that we try to find for this stan- ship, and ritual." And God wanted obedience.
126 Are we giving it Him? There lies the proof let down your net for a draught." There was of our devotion. That is the standard we the command. They could have argued about must take. There is no other standard in that—indeed, they did; but what our Lord the Word of God that will give the proof of wanted them to do was to act upon it. Again, our devotion. when the ten lepers faced Him, He said to What an extraordinary change-round there them, "Go, show yourselves unto the priest." is going to be when we get to glory, and all They could have argued about that, but He those who held prominent positions in the wanted them to act. An experiment that Church of Jesus Christ are going to go to the faith will make; yes, but make it. bottom of the class, while some unknown little There will then come the experience that faith widow woman living in one room on an old- will meet. What is it? The experience of God, of age pension is going to go right up to the what He can do. Turn back to those top! What is the proof of your devotion— miracles. "Lord, we have toiled all the night your obedience? Are you doing the will of and taken nothing." There is the argument God? Is it controlling your money? When rising up. If that argument had held, it would you spend your money do you ask God, "Is have been the end. "Nevertheless, at Thy this the way You want it spent?" Have you a word, I will." There is the experiment; and realm of reservation—you give so much of "when they had this done, they enclosed a your money. You say, "I do not mind great multitude of fishes." There is the experi- supporting the church, but the bulk of my ence. What was the pathway to their experi- money I am controlling myself. I am not ence? Their obedience. What was the crux going to have God interfering with my money, of it, what was the determining point? It and I am not going to have God interfering was when Simon Peter said, "At Thy word I with my business. I am not going to have will." What a motto for a Christian! Would you God interfering with my leisure, and I am not dare to make it your motto? "At Thy word, I going to have God interfering with my friend- will." ships. Take all the reservations you like, and The same with the lepers. I have always then cancel right out any love for the Lord. wanted to preach a sermon on the lepers but You just do not love Him. Whatever you I have not been able to get three points for it, may say, whatever position you may hold, you so I have not preached it! But what is the do not love Him; for in your obedience lies key phrase here? "Go, show yourselves unto the proof of your devotion to Him. the priest." That was the command. And Just one last lesson we can learn. In our we read, "As they went they were cleansed," obedience lies— not as they waited, but as they went. Half of us are waiting, and we will wait till Dooms- III. THE PATHWAY TO OUR EXPERIENCE OF day and know nothing more. It is when we go. GOD. If any man do His will, he shall You want to know something about prayer? know " (John 7:17). Here is another verse— Well, you will never learn it in books. Do Romans 12:1, "Present your body . . . that ye you want to know how God answers prayer? It may prove." I wonder if this is bringing some- is to pray. Do you want to know what God can body to the crux of the whole business of our do through your life in reaching other lives, spiritual problems? We are not experiencing so that you cease to be just a passenger of the God's grace in our daily lives. Do you know church? Well, get out in testimony and in why? Because we are not obedient. The service, and obey God. If God says to you, reason why so many of us know so little is "There is a person I want you to start because we obey so little. Obedience is the praying for, even if it means praying for twelve pathway to experience. There is no other months, until you win them by your way. This is brought out vividly in the friendship, your understanding"—"At Thy miracles; and I want from a couple, to illus- word I will." Then you discover to your trate two principles as we come to a close. utter amazement that God can actually use In this obedience which becomes the pathway you as an instrument for the conversion of to our experience of God there is an experi- another man or woman. You never dreamt ment that faith will have to make. The com- that it was possible, but it is. What is the mand may take us beyond what we fully pathway? Your obedience. Oh, my friends, I understand, but the command will be clear in think that this is the heart of it. Is it any its content if not in its consequences; and it is wonder that Finney said that "Revival consists always conditional—that is to say, until we in a new obedience." obey we do not know. Take a miracle like the May I ask you this, as I close. Is there miraculous draught of fishes. Our Lord said to anything in your life that consciously you are His disciples, "Launch out into the deep and disobeying God about? Is there any realm
127 of your life that you are keeping under your ecstasy which may never come, we get down to own control? about which you are saying, something very practical in the meantime, and "Well, the will of God is not touching this." Is that is this: " Whatsoever He saith unto you, do there? Then that is God's issue with you. it." Is He asking something from you? How can "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." Does you come to Keswick and be under the ministry that mean letting something go out of your of the Word of God and of the Holy Spirit, life? Well, it means letting it go, that is all. Does without finding that God has something to say it mean fitting something into your weekly to us? You have found that, have you? I have. programme? Then it means fitting it in. How Have you done it? Was it an apology? Was it many of you go to your church prayer meeting? an act of repentance? Was it a forsaking of Do you think God wants you to go? Do you something? God told you to do it. Have you thing He does not? If God told you that you done it? You will make no headway until you were to go to your church prayer meeting do. When we come to that point, when the will every week, would you go? That is the of God says to us something very clearly that pattern. Is there something in your business we have to do, if we do not do it, then we life that is not strictly honest? You would not begin to recede away from it until God brings like it brought out at the Kirk Session, the us back to the same point. He will not by-pass Church Council, the Deacons' Court. You His own will in your life. make money out of it. Does God approve of It would be a wonderful thing if from this that? If He does not, are you going to cut it meeting tonight there went up a great cry from out, lose money over it? Well, our Lord said the heart of every truly born-again man and something about gaining the world and losing woman here, that we -dared to take the words of your soul. He said it was a bad bargain. Simon Peter and make them our own, saying to What a transformation would come over the the Lord: "At Thy word I will." Will you dare life of the Christian Church if we simply to do it, and trust the love that is asking you learned to do as we are told. Do not let us to do it? "And when they had this done, they think that the secret of Christian living is to be enclosed a great multitude of fishes." "As they found in some emotional kind of ecstasy. God went, they were cleansed." In our obedience lies does sometimes give to some people—very the purpose of our redemption by God, the rarely—something of that nature. Usually they do proof of our devotion to God, the pathway to not say much about it, but everybody else can our experience of God. "At Thy word, I will." see that something has happened. But I would Will you dare to do that? Concerning that submit that it is more urgent that, instead of thing that He has spoken to you about, "At Thy waiting for some kind of emotional word, I will."
128 THURSDAY, JULY 17th
10 a.m.—BIBLE READING THE GOSPEL AND THE HUMANITIES (IV) THE ADEQUATE MAN DR. PAUL REES ix.5o a.m.—FORENOON MEETING SERVING GRACE REV. E. F. KEVAN 3 p.m.—AFTERNOON MEETING SCRIPTURAL MOTIVES FOR EVANGELISM REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS
7.45 p.m.—EVENING MEETING Skiddaw-street Tent: HOLY ANOINTING REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN Eskin-street Tent: THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN DR. PAUL REES THE PERIL OF A FADING GLORY MR. LEITH SAMUEL
129 The Pertinent Question of Enduement With Power THURSDAY was a day of brilliant sunshine, Dixon. The descent of the Holy Spirit upon our in which the unsurpassed beauties of Lakeland Lord in bodily shape, like a dove, at His were seen at their very best. No wonder many baptism, was the theme; the significance of this of the young folk climbed Skiddaw, while symbolism was explained, and its implication for others thronged around the lake, enjoying a trip every believer. on Derwentwater or a walk along its entrancing This message was summed up in the hymn, banks. "Thy Holy Spirit, Lord, alone . . ." and the Coming in the last of his Bible Readings to Rev. G. B. Duncan presented the final issue of Philippians 4, Dr. Rees suggested that here Paul the Convention, from the words, "Be filled with is revealed as the adequate man: for an abounding the Spirit." The exact meaning of this term was adequacy is indicated in his words, "I know how. . clearly explained, and the experience it describes . I can do . . ." (vv. 12, 13)—in Christ. was set forth as the will of God for every listener—that Christ might be manifested and This thought set the key-note of the day, for glorified in the lives of His people. Then the the predominant theme throughout was the fruit of the Spirit will be revealed in the enduement by the Spirit for the life of victory over character: those complementary qualities and sin, and of effective service for the Lord. On graces set forth in Galatians 5:22, 23. In direct earlier days the inadequacy of even earnest challenge and appeal Mr. Duncan asked, "Is Christians had been frankly faced: inadequacy to there a manifestation in your life of the risen live aright and to witness worthily. The demand Christ?" of the Lord, that self shall go to the Cross, in an utter renunciation and identification with Christ in Upon that note the relayed part of the His death, had been faithfully declared. But service closed; but the congregation in the tent the message of Keswick, true to that of the remained in the attitude of worship for the Bible, is not merely negative: surrender of quiet singing of— self is unto the experience of newness of life in Christ. Conformity unto. His death is in order Our blest Redeemer, e'er He breathed that we might know the power of His resurrection. His tender, last farewell, Consecration is the gateway into the Spirit-filled A guide, a comforter bequeathed, life. This "fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of With us to dwell. Christ" is the goal to which all Keswick teaching leads. In the small tent, meanwhile, a similar theme characterised both messages. Dr. Paul Canon T. F. C. Bewes was chairman at the Rees read Luke 11:1-13, and said that as any noon meeting, when the Rev. E. F. Kevan father gives a fitting thing to his child, so the spoke from 1 Corinthians 15:10 on "Serving Heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit in Grace." response to the prayer of faith—but we must be A hot afternoon notwithstanding, the large tent importunate in our request, truly earnest in our was well filled for the meeting presided over by desire. Then Dr. Rees expounded the Lord's the Rev. G. D. Duncan and addressed by the Rev. Prayer as indicating the ministry of the Spirit in Gerald B. Griffiths. Speaking from 1 our lives. Corinthians 9:23 on "Motives of evangelism" Mr. Leith Samuel, who presided, gave the he insisted that we cannot escape our missionary closing address, on 2 Corinthians 3:13-18, obligation. stressing especially "the peril of a fading Both tents were filled for the evening meetings— glory" through sins allowed in the life, which the highest aggregate attendance of the week; and Mr. Samuel indicated in a very practical and happily a beautiful evening allowed a "capacity" heart-searching manner. In contrast to this, "be number to sit and stand outside the large tent. transfigured—a progressive experience—from It was the last of the relay services, and one one degree of radiant holiness to another" hundred centres were sharing in it. After the (Weymouth). opening hymn Canon Bewes sought in prayer the Once more in both tents the counselling of crowning blessing of this week of Convention, quite large numbers proceeded until a late upon the meeting; and "Walk in the light" hour, and many signified their surrender of life introduced the first ad- dress, by the Rev. Francis entirely to the Lord, and received by faith the "life more abundant."
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The Gospel and the Humanities
STUDIES IN ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS
IV. THE ADEQUATE MAN.
BY DR. PAUL REES.
THOSE of you who have been following this the man of ardent aspiration. Now today we series in Philippians will know that we have see him as the man of abounding adequacy. been approaching the epistle from the point of One of our distinguished American ministers view of its rare and beautiful human qualities—a is Dr. Daniel Poling, editor of the American phrase which takes nothing away from the divine Christian Herald and for many years President inspiration of the letter, but is simply a way of of Christian Endeavour International. Dr. saying that God permitted Paul, for His own Poling, as some of you may know, had a purpose and glory, to disclose in this Epistle, preacher son who was one of the four chaplains in an extraordinary and a charming way, both who went down on the Dorchester not far his own redeemed manhood and those very from your British coast, in those dark days human qualities emerging out of the human of World War II. They gave their lifebelts situations of which he had knowledge in the to their fellows, these four chaplains who went Philippians. down with the ship. Now Clarke Poling was Once again, in this fourth and final chapter, not only the son of a distinguished minister, this humanness of things comes through very but he was the father of a lovely family, and remarkably. Paul is obliged to say, right at before he left he wrote a letter to the family the beginning of the chapter, that there are and to his father and mother; and in that letter two women, whom he names, who have had he said, "I know I shall have your prayers; differences between them, and those differences but please don't pray simply that God will must be quickly rectified and reconciled, or the keep me safe. War is a dangerous business. church will be torn with serious strife. He is Pray that God will make me adequate." That furthermore obliged, out of the graciousness of was a great word. his own heart, to do now what he had suggested he was going to do in the opening I. THE EXPLANATION OF PAUL'S ADEQUACY. chapter, namely, to acknowledge with great Ability to cope with life. Now do you see thanks the gift of money that had been sent to how pointedly that comes out. For example, him by the church, by the hand of Epaphrodi- in verses 12 and 13: "I know how . . . I can do tus. Further, he is going to convey—and again all things . . ." I know how. To be sure, see how very natural, how very human this is— taken as a bare statement that doesn't sound the greetings of his friends and colleagues in very Christian: one has to remember the setting Rome to their comrades in Philippi. of it, and to that we shall address ourselves In a context like that, this beautiful Epistle when we come to it. I know how. I can do. will come to its close. Now I would say a word That is the meaning of this adequacy. about the significance of our title for this final As for the means of this adequacy, it lies study. In chapter 1 we saw Paul as the man suggestively in the fact that seven times over of warm affection; in the second chapter we in this chapter—eight times, indeed, if you saw him as the man of amazing alertness, so count verse 21—Paul uses this pregnant phrase keen to see that everything is in order in the "in Christ" or its correlative, "in the Lord," life of the church, so quick to detect even or "in Him" (vv. 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 13, 20). Then an incipient rift or breach in the fellowship the final time is in the closing greeting: "Greet of the church; and yesterday we saw Paul as every saint in Christ Jesus." Now "in Him"
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are those resources that make the redeemed deteriorate further into a serious 'breach, but to man adequate. mend matters while there was time. You see, my dear friends, it is the mischievous II. THE EXPRESSION OF PAUL'S ADEQUACY. way of minor irritations in church life to grow First, we have the adequacy that is expressed into major disputes. The tiny squall becomes a in Paul's teaching. Notice that he interprets to thundering storm. The Holy Spirit's way is to the Philippians a love that is adequate. check the mischief at the first ominous puff "Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and of an ill wind; that's exactly what Paul was long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in doing here. the Lord, my beloved" (v. 1). He links what Next, he interprets to his friends at Philippi a he is now saying with the reference to the joy that is adequate—not only a love that is coming again of the Lord Jesus at the close of adequate, but a joy that is adequate. "Rejoice in chapter 3. This enforces it. If you believe that the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice" (v. you are now a citizen of heaven, though you 4). I wonder why Paul repeated himself like live and move and serve on earth, and you are that? I really don't know. I've just got to waiting with eager, loving, warm heart for the guess; and my guess may be as good as coming of Christ: then I have this word to say to yours—it may not be! I rather suspect that you. It is a word of love. It is a spacious what made him repeat himself was the fact word. There is room in this love for all of you, that he had used that surprisingly strong word even for these dear women, Euodias and "always"—"Rejoice in the Lord always"—and Syntyche, who for the time being cannot get suddenly he thought as he dictated this, "Now along with each other happily, as well as for the when the friends at Philippi read this, they will helpful Clement, and the other yoke-fellow say, 'Surely Paul did not mean always. Most of whose name is not given. the time, perhaps: we could understand that. It is a spacious love. Don't reserve all of But always? Hardly!' "So Paul says, "No, my your love for the nice and the congenial people in brothers and sisters; I repeat myself because I your church. You need a love so spacious that it want you to know I mean exactly this. Rejoice includes the cantankerous people, the awkward in the Lord always." and the difficult people. I like the prayer of the Now what do we say about that? It is little girl who said, "Lord, make the bad people more than just a counsel of perfection, a nice- good, and make the good people nice." I think sounding bit of phrasing. Paul means business. Euodias and Syntyche were good women, but There are two things, it seems to me, that they needed to be made nice—nice in the come out here. One is that, with Paul, this Christian sense, in their relationship with each Christian joy which he mentions again and other. again in this letter—as you know, he says It is a solicitous love—not only spacious, but eleven times to these Philippians, "Rejoice," solicitous. Paul has a burden. "I entreat and five times he uses this forceful monosyllable, Euodias and I entreat Syntyche to agree in "Joy." There is an incessant something about the Lord, And I ask you also, true yoke- this joy, and there is an independent fellow, help those women, for they have something about it. Always it sings, but it laboured side by side with me in the Gospel does so because it is independent of mere cir- together with Clement and the rest of my cumstances as to its source. Here the key- fellow workers, whose names are in the book of phrase is, "in the Lord." Not "in prosperity," not life" (vv. 2, 3). Don't leave one stone unturned "in popularity," not "in congeniality," because to bring about a reconciliation, a complete prosperity may take wings, and popularity may healing, of this difficulty between these sisters. leave, and congeniality may not be yours at all— We are not told what the difficulty was; we are with others, or with your circumstances. But you not told exactly what caused it—there has been a still have Him. And in Him you can rejoice. great deal of profitless speculation about it: but It is a remarkable thing that the grimmer there it was, and it needed to be dealt with. our Lord's circumstances became, the more Euodias may be translated "prosperous He talked about joy. The closer He got to journey" or "sweet fragrance," while Syntyche His Passion, to His agony, to His Cross, the may be rendered "fortunate" or "affable." Since more He talked about joy, until right in the Euodias' conduct was exuding something other shadow of the Cross He said, "These things than fragrance, and Syntyche's reaction was have I spoken unto you that my joy might be something less than affable, they needed this in you, and that your joy might be full" (John tactful counsel and help of Paul's unnamed 15:11). Is your joy full and running over in yoke-fellow, who is urged not to let the affair Him?
132 Down in Louisville, Kentucky, there was a Again, this solicitous apostle wants his man about whom a friend of mine told me, a Philippian friends to know that Christ has for layman in the church, who travelled very little, them an adequate security. "The Lord is at and when he did he never used the trains on hand. Have no anxiety about anything" (vv. the Lord's day. He had a strong scruple about 5, 6). Now, do you see how I am construing the use of trains on the Lord's day. On one Paul here—and I must try to defend this for a of his rare trips from Louisville he found moment. Actually we have two decisions to himself in St. Louis, Missouri, on Saturday make here, one in construction and the other night, too late to get home without Sunday in interpretation. As for the decision in inter- travel. So he registered at a hotel and decided pretation: when Paul says, "The Lord is at to stay the Lord's day in St. Louis, where he hand," does he mean that the return of the was an absolute stranger. On Sunday morning Lord is at hand? Is he speaking about the he went out from the hotel to find a place of imminence, the nearness, of the return of worship. He had no idea where he was going. Christ? Or is he speaking about this ineffable The streets were rather deserted, but he saw intimacy and immediacy of the risen Lord's a police officer; so he went up to him and said, actual presence with him, through the Holy "Officer, I'm a stranger in St. Louis. I'm a Spirit? Now there is the problem, and you Protestant, and I want to go to church to can find fine men, competent in the exegisis of worship. Could you suggest a place?" The Scripture, who divide on this. Great old clas- officer said, "I will," and he named a church sical scholars like Lightfoot and Alford both and gave him directions how to get there. The hold that it is the Return of Christ. But I man thanked him and started to go; then am going to come down on the other side suddenly he stopped, turned round, and said, of the fence. Canon Guy King and Bishop "By the way, officer, there must be several Handley Moule are hardly equal to these giants churches on your beat. Why have you named I have mentioned, in terms of exegetical ability, this particular one for me to go to?" And the nevertheless I believe they are right in this officer said, "I'll tell you why! I'm not a very matter; and I go with Philipps, who translates religious man; I'm not a church man. There it, "Never forget the nearness of your Lord." are several churches on my beat. I'm sending So that what we have here, if this interpreta- you to this one because I've observed for tion is correct—I'm not dogmatic about it—is years that the people who come out of that Paul's wonderful confidence in the fact that church are the happiest looking church-people though he was a prisoner, the Lord was imme- in St. Louis!" How little those people realised diately there, closer than breathing, nearer than that an ungodly police officer had taken notice hands and feet; and Paul was in His keeping of the fact that there was the evidence of the —that was his security. joy of the Lord upon their countenances, as But the decision on the point of construction they came out of His sanctuary. still remains. Does the sentence, "The Lord There is not only an adequate love and an is at hand," belong to what the apostle has adequate joy, that Paul interprets, but also already said, or to what he was about to say? an adequate gentleness. "Let all men know That is to say, does it mean "Let all men know your forbearance . . ." (v. 5). Philipps trans- your forbearance: the Lord is at hand"? Or lates it, "Have a reputation for gentleness." does it mean, "The Lord is near, therefore Reading St. Paul, one gains the unmistakable have no anxiety about anything"? Now, I impression that here was a balanced soul. Paul am voting for that second construction: and believed in the beauty of each Christian grace, the scholars who are unbiased about it, say but he believed in the symmetry with which that it may be taken either way. Isn't this a these graces are to adorn our lives. And that glorious security? "Have no anxiety about symmetry is lacking in so many of us. Who anything, but in everything by prayer and has not seen the Christian who, although a supplication with thanksgiving let your requests lion in courage, seems never to have blended be made known to God. And the peace of this vociferous valour of his with any of the God, which passes all understanding, will keep lamb-like quality of gentleness. A disciple of —will stand like a sentinel, a 'guardsman' over the Lord is not apt to utter the impudent or you, keeping your hearts and minds in Christ the impure word; it is much more likely that Jesus." he will speak the impetuous or the imperious Four things at least stand related to this word, with a hurt, a needless hurt, in someone's whole matter of the Christian's security, in a heart as a consequence. After all, as the poet world of peril and of panic, a society of agony has said— and of anxiety. One, the provocation. What- The bravest are the tenderest; ever it is that tempts to worry and fretfulness— The loving are the daring. family troubles, financial reverses, unernploy-
133 ment, ill-health, old age, loneliness—whatever Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.'" He the provocation, the things that normally, said, "I suddenly said to the Lord, 'Well, Lord, naturally give rise to anxiety, to corroding if You are going to stay awake tonight, there's worry and fretfulness: if you are in Christ, no point in my doing so too! So will You you have an answer to it. The provocation; please give me some sleep.' And I got it." then the prayer: "Let your requests be made "The peace of God which passeth understand- known unto God." Three, the praise: "With ing shall safeguard your minds and hearts." thanksgiving." I hope that we all as Christians Now still thinking about this Christian have learned not to praise God only when we adequacy that St. Paul is interpreting or teaching feel like it, but to praise Him on principle— to these younger Christians in Philippi, I want and then we'll begin to feel like it! It's a very you to note, finally, that he teaches them sound Biblical thing. We find that in the concerning an adequate inspiration. "What psalms again and again. It is a mistake for us you have learned and received and heard and only to thank God when we feel like it. Thank seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be Him on principle. Thank Him because He with you" (v. 9). I suggest two things here: deserves it. Begin to exercise yourself in praise, there is a double incentive, or a double inspira- and the emotions will be generated; you will tion. First, Paul offers to these Christians at begin more and more to feel like it. And Philippi the inspiration of what I shall call a fourthly, the peace: "And the peace of God personalised pattern. "You have seen something which passes all understanding . . ." It is an in me: I want you to think about it"—a ineffable thing: you can't look at your circum- personalised pattern. Secondly, the inspiration stances and account for it. It is a divine and of a peace-giving presence: "The God of peace a supernatural gift, which passes all under- shall be with you." standing, and will keep—guard, safeguard if Now think of the first of these. These Philip- you will—your hearts and your minds in pians are reminded that when Paul was with Christ Jesus. them, what they learned, received, heard and During the war some friends of mine were saw, was not merely a set of abstractions about going across the Atlantic; there were many the Christian life and how to live it adequately. missionaries as well as other travellers aboard, No; what they saw in Paul was a burning con- and out in the Atlantic the ship was torpedoed sciousness of Christ which the apostle not only by an armed German freighter. It was a har- talked about, but embodied. And this is rowing experience. The passengers were forced gathered up now by Paul in the use of a word — to jump into the water, and then they were it is the only time that Paul uses this particular pulled out of the cold waters of the Atlantic Greek word, translated "excellence"—"Finally, by the crew-men on this German freighter; brethren, whatever is true . . . if there be any and the men were put in one hold, and the excellence . . ." (v. 8). Paul is saying, "What the women in another. They had to sleep as best Greeks call excellence or virtue, Jesus Christ they could on the bare floor of this deep hold gives. I have found it so. Through Christ the in this German freighter, with no idea what ideals that remain only airy ideals outside of the Germans were going to do with them or Christ, are realised. I think you have seen that where they were going to take them. And the in me, by the grace of God; and I want you to first morning they came upon deck, so my regard it as a pattern." friend said, these missionaries got together, Now, what is this excellence? Shall we comparing notes, "How did the ladies get back-pedal just a moment, through v. 8: through the night? How did the men? Were "Brethren, whatever is true . . ." DID we realise, you frightened? Were you cold?" Everybody my dear friends, that trtith is not a matter of made some comment, except a veteran Lutheran man's creation or of man's manufacture; there missionary. Rather tall and extremely thin, is an order of truth and reality that is inde- he was a wraith. Somebody said to him, pendent of us, because it is grounded in God. "How did you manage in the night?" And Your business and mine is not to conduct a this was his answer. He said, "Well, when I Gallup Poll to see what the popular opinion is. stretched out on that hard floor I wondered Your business and mine is to realise that Jesus if I'd ever sleep. I don't have much padding! Christ is the final revelation of God; that He But," he said, "I began my communion with not only spoke the truth, He is the truth. "I am the Lord, and His Spirit reminded me of Psalm the way, the truth, and the life," and while that 121, `My help cometh from the Lord, which refers supremely to the redeeming truth—not, for made heaven and earth. He will not suffer example, to scientific truth —nevertheless it thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee provides us with a key to the very nature of the will not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth universe, and the nature of
134 life; and it will be found—I must beg pardon for rendering here would be, "whatever is fair- speaking so briefly on a theme so vast as this— speaking." Dwell on that which strikes the that in the last analysis there is no truth of any Christian mind as being attractive, high-toned, kind that is contradictory of the truth that is in winsome. John Wesley said an interesting and Jesus Christ. striking thing, when he said, "One of the advantages of the grace of God is that it makes a Take Thou our minds, dear Lord, we man a gentleman without the aid of a dancing humbly pray; master." In Wesley's day, in eighteenth century Give us the mind of Christ each passing day: England, if you moved in polite society and Teach us to know the truth that sets us were to be graceful and cultured, you must go to free; a dancing master. Well, John Wesley said, you Grant us in all our thoughts to honour Thee. can save your shillings! If you have the grace of God, it will make you gracious. Grace in the "-Whatever is honourable." This, too, belongs heart will be graciousness on the lips and in the to the Christian excellence they had seen in Paul. character. The Authorised Version has "honest," which is not Now, "think on these things." Think, dwell on so adequate a word—it does not have the rich them. And the word for "think" here really means overtones of the Greek, as does "honourable." It "calculate," "reckon on them." As Dean Wicks put means that which commands respect. Paul's point it, "Take account of these things, with a view to is that if Christ is given sway over our minds, committing yourselves to them." Not merely the things that are unworthy of reverence will think in a detached and abstract way, mere secure no controlling hold upon our minds. contemplation, but think in the sense of "Whatever is just": some translators suggest reckoning these things as part of your this means right, or righteous. It obviously is character and conduct. "And that you have a summons to us to give righteousness every seen in me," says Paul. "Let the inspiration of appropriate expression in our conduct as it have its effect in your life. Christians. It is very important that we should But the adequacy of this inspiration is now know simple Christian righteousness, or justice, in enhanced by this further and even greater fact, our dealings with others, in our behaviour in of God's peace-giving presence. "The God of life. We had in the States a Y.M.C.A. peace will be with you" (v. 9). A moment ago secretary who was a godly fellow. He heard we noticed in verse 7, "the peace of God." Now it from the secretary of the Y.W.C.A. that some is "the God of peace." We have the peace of girls in the hostel were working in a small God for our guarding, and hallelujah! we have factory where sweat-shop wages were being the God of peace for our going. All the way paid. So this secretary went to talk to the along the God of peace shall be with you. manager of this company, and asked him if he wouldn't increase the wages of these girls. The I cannot know why suddenly the storm manager declined to do so, but he said, "Mind Should rage so fiercely round me in its you, if you would like us to make a gift to the wrath; Y.W.C.A. we shall be glad to do so." Willing to But this I know, God watches all my times, be charitable, but not willing to be just. They And I can trust. hadn't seen anything like that in Paul. He said, "The Christian excellency you have seen in me, I may not draw aside the mystic veil that I want you to follow, is one of That hides the unknown future from my righteousness." sight; Not only what is just or right, but "whatever is Nor know if for me waits dark or light, pure." Martin Vincent's comment, in his But I can trust. Vincent's Word Studies, on the Greek word for "pure," is noteworthy. He say, "Not to be limited I have no power to look across the tide here to freedom from the sins of the flesh. It To see while here the land beyond the covers purity in all departments of the life, river; motives"—mark it—"as well as acts." But this I know, I shall be God's for ever, "Whatever is lovely": that is the next clause. And I can trust. The word for "lovely" may be translated "admirable." What is in view is that which is Peace-giving presence. love-worthy, that which calls forth admiration. And now, the adequacy that is emphasised in Then, "whatever is gracious." The literal Paul's testimony. Beginning with verse 10, Paul writes in very personal terms. He begins
135 more and more to speak about himself—in less or popular, life or death—"I'm content." Christ all the while: not apart from Christ, Oh, if we could get this, that cures the frightful but in Christ. Therefore I speak of it as the emotional wretchedness and the growing dis- emphasis upon the adequacy of the Christian content in the lives of people in our day—and life as we see it in Paul's personal testimony. many of them are in our churches—it would We discover, to begin with, that Paul testifies to revolutionise things—in our church life, in our an adequacy that masters the extremes of life. family life, and all the way along. Notice that carefully, please. It is only fair to And not only mastery of the extremes of life. say, however, that this testimony emerges as There is also something else that Paul suggests a by-product of the purpose that lies back of here. He says, "I've learned the secret of this concluding section of his letter. His facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. purpose is to take the topic of thankfulness, I can do all things through Him who strength- which he had referred to briefly in 1:5 and ens me." Mastery of the extremes of life; and expand it into a full-scale acknowledgment of the ministry of Christ as the means of this the gift that these friends had sent him, mastery. "I can do all things in Him who through Epaphroditus. strengthens me." I suggested at the outset that One wonders, by the way, if there was anyone if Paul had said, "I can do all things"—full in all that first century—in fact, in any century stop—it would have been absurd, wouldn't it? of the Christian era—who took more delicate But when he says, "I can do all things in Him," pains to express thanks than Paul takes here. in Christ, then, you see, he is telling us that He even makes it an occasion to indulge in it is not his ability, it is not power that he gentle pleasantries, word-plays, which we generates. This adequacy is not of him at don't get so well in the English as in the all: it is of the Lord Jesus. Greek. Professor Eerdman's tribute is not So many people know how to say, "I can't." exaggerated: he says, "We have here a rare It's refreshing to hear somebody say, "I can"! blending of affection, of dignity, of delicacy, You know how it goes: "I can't give a testi- with a certain undertone of pleasantry." After mony. I can't pray in public. I can't get along expressing this grateful gladness of his, both for with my mother-in-law. I can't control this the sending of the gift and because of the temper of mine. I can't give a tithe of my sending of the gift, and after saying to them so income to the Lord's work. I can't, I can't, I Courteously, so thoughtfully, "I know you would can't." It's a monotonous and a defeatist sort have done it earlier if you had had an of refrain. Oh, blessed be Christ, there's an opportunity, but you didn't have an opportunity: answer to that defeatism, in Him, and the I rejoice in the Lord greatly. And your power of His Holy Spirit released in us. There concern for me—you were indeed concerned is that which turns the "I can't" into "I can." for me, but you had no opportunity Let that be an encouragement to somebody previously." Then he added, "Not that I com- who has been living a defeated sort of life. plain of want." And here you get the main Now this mastery is mediated very often thrust: adequacy for the extremes of life— through the helpfulness of others. Of course, "Not that I complain of want; for I have the central key to it is Christ Himself. But learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be con- interestingly enough, and humanly enough, it tent." Mastery of life as it swings like a pen- is mediated through the helpfulness of others. dulum from one extreme to the other. "I You notice what Paul says in v. 14, "It was know how to be abased, and I know how to kind of you to share my trouble. You Philip- abound; in any and all circumstances I have pians yourselves know that in the beginning of learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, the Gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church abundance and want." Isn't that a tremendous entered into partnership with me in giving and testimony? Mastering the extremes of life. receiving, except you only." A mastery, an This is something, dear friends, that Paul adequacy, that is mediated through human says you have to be initiated into: "I have agents. learned the secret"—a word that evidently is This is a very wonderful part of Christian taken from the vocabulary of the mystery living, dear friends. You not only see the religions, the mystery cults of Paul's day. Get: greatness of Paul when you see how much he ting initiated. Only now it is the Holy Spirit was able to give to others through Christ: you who does the initiating. He brings a man so see something of the greatness of Paul when into Christ, into union with Christ, into the you discover how humbly and gracefully, if I realisation of the limitless, the exhaustless re- may so express it, he was able to receive from sources of Christ, that no matter whether it is others. I know that we read, "It is more light or dark, rich or poor, sick or well, friend- blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).
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But I'm afraid some people have interpreted Paul has now in the closing sentences to that to mean that there is no blessing in re- discharge a threefold courtesy. First, there is ceiving. That isn't what it says. It says it is a doxology: "To our God and Father be glory more blessed to give than to receive. So there for ever and ever" (v. 20). Here the word must be some blessing in receiving. And Paul "glory" means "praise"—"Be praise for ever is confessing this very humbly and gratefully. and ever." And I like to think that here, Paul He says, "I was at the receiving end. Your —who would have been dictating, very prob- help came in the nick of time, and it enabled ably, because it was difficult for him to write, me, under God, to meet—to master—the situa- with his sore eyes and his faulty vision—I like tion here in Rome." to think that at this point he reached over and Paul is now fast coming to the close, and took the stylus from the hand of his amanu- he says, "Not that I seek the gift"—this gift ensis, and said, "I want to write this myself." that you've sent. I don't want you to think "To our God and Father be the praise for ever that I'm bidding for another gift! "Not that I and ever." What a doxology-soul was Paul. seek the gift; but I seek the fruit which in- Then the salutation: he begins this epistle creases to your credit." That's a commercial with a salutation, and he ends with one, "Greet term; it really refers to interest on principal. every saint in Christ Jesus." Don't forget What Paul is actually saying is that as he even Euodias and Syntyche. They are naughty viewed it their gift was something which, while for the time being, but we send them a greet- it benefited him, was really a love-gift to the ing nevertheless. Pray that this difficulty will Lord, and He would see to it that it redounded be healed. "The brethren who are with me to them in enrichment and reimbursement. Oh, greet you." Who are they? Well, I sup- how wonderful it is to see to it that all that pose they were those who from time to time we do, even for friends, for missionary societies, visited Paul: Tychicus, Timothy, Aristarchus, for others, is unto the Lord. Andrew Fuller, Mark, Luke, others—"the brethren that are who was associated with William Carey in the with me." What a privilege it must have been founding of the modern missionary movement, to be with Paul. went to a friend and solicited a gift from him. And the friend said reluctantly, "All right, Lord Nelson had a junior officer who after- Andrew. Seeing it is for you, I'll give you five wards became Sir Robert Stockford. Once pounds for missions." And Andrew Fuller they were chasing the enemy across the Atlantic said, "I'm sorry, but I can't take it if it is for to the West Indies. It was a frightfully dan- me." The man thought a moment, and said, gerous expedition, and the men suffered enor- "Oh, I see. You are quite right. Seeing it is mous hardships. But Stockford wrote back for the Lord, I'll give you ten pounds." home, "We are half starved, and otherwise in- Now this mastery—this adequacy which convenienced by being so long out of port; means mastery in the extremes of life; mastery but our reward is, we are with Nelson." I that is often mediated through human agents, wonder if Timothy and Tychicus and Aristar- even though Christ is the central means of it— chus didn't feel that way about Paul? What this mastery is made possible, so far as its a man to be with! major is concerned, by all that God is to us "All the saints greet you, especially those in His Son. "My God will supply every need of Caesar's household." Those were not mem- of yours according to His riches in glory in bers of the royal family! I think Lightfoot Christ Jesus" (v. 19). It doesn't say, "out of has shown that. But rather, civil servants and His riches in glory," but "according to His employees in the imperial palace. But they riches in glory." If I were walking down one had become Christians. Lotus flowers lift of the streets of Keswick with a millionaire their pure faces to the sun from settings that friend of mine—I don't happen to know any are dismal and foul; and there were Christians round here!—but if I were, and we should in Paul's day who lived in the moral victory come upon a beggar who should appeal to us and sanctity of Jesus Christ in unbelievably for a pittance, and I should give him a shilling foul and pagan situations. "They send their and my millionaire friend should give him a greetings, too." shilling, we could say that we gave to him out Finally, the benediction. When Paul wrote of our resources; but my friend couldn't say his letters, you see, he did something more that he gave according to his resources: be- than just say, "Cheerio." The briefest of his cause if I gave a shilling, my millionaire friend benedictions comes at the end of the Colossian could give very much more than a shilling epistle, "Grace be with you"; and the longest What is made available to us is "according to comes at the of 2 Corinthians, "The grace of His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." That's the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, the major of it. and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with
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you all." This benediction is in between: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit," as a fellowship, as a community. "Don't spirit." If he had said "spirits" he would look on your own things, but look upon the probably have meant this highest capacity that things of Christ, even as I told you, who man knows, the uttermost, bottom-most capa- emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form city of his being, where we are dead until we of a servant. Do that, and all will be well. are quickened by the Holy Ghost and sanctified The greatest of humans had written the by the indwelling Christ. But since he uses it warmest of his letters. The love-task is in the singular, he probably means the cor- finished. It is nightfall. And tomorrow porate spirit. He has been concerned about morning, leaving behind the man who still has that, you see. The spirit was good, but it was a chain on his wrist and a soldier by his side, imperilled; there was a threat to its unity, its Epaphroditus will be seen striding out toward beauty, and its sanctity. So he says, "The Philippi, with this under his tunic.
138 Serving Grace
BY THE REV. E. F. KEVAN, B.D., M.TH.
A PASTOR was re-visiting a town where he in an emphatic position in our English trans- emphatic position in Paul's Greek, and it is lation. " By the grace of God . . ." that's the had previously been the minister. Meeting one foremost thing: "that's what accounts for my of his old-time flock he greeted him, "Hallo, new position," says Paul. The grace of apostle- John! Are you still a worker in the ship included the antecedent grace of conver- sion. Only converted people can preach the church?" "Oh, no, pastor," he said, "I'm a Gospel. Only those who have tasted can tell deacon now!" Well, with respectful apologies to how sweet it is. Only those who have been all the deacons here, "deacon" comes from the lifted can tell others what it is to be lifted. Greek word meaning "to serve," and this I like to tell a lovely story which I heard morning, having thought about saving grace and here in Keswick thirty-three years ago. It then about sanctifying grace, I want to invite was by a preacher from Edinburgh about a you to think with me about serving grace. Welsh preacher who had a dream. He was In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul puts this down as on holiday. It was Saturday evening, and part of his autobiography: " By the grace of he was wondering where he could go to God I am what I am: and His grace which was hear a good sermon on the Lord's day. He bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I was examining the newspaper laboured more abundantly than they all: yet announcements of Sunday services, and his not I, but the grace of God which was with eye fell on a large anouncement which said me." Serving grace. that the archangel Gabriel would preach the next day at a certain church at a certain hour. I cannot work my soul to save, Well, what an attraction for the sermon- For that my Lord has clone: tasting Welshman, to hear an angel preach! But 1 would work like any slave He was beginning to say to himself, "That's where I'll go," but with the awkwardness of For love of God's dear Son. things, just as he was comfortably making Now in our text, the word "grace" occurs up his mind that that was to be his exquisite three times. Our service is saturated with delight, his eye fell on another announcement grace. But first, looking at the instruction this about another preacher at another place, and passage contains, we learn that— this announcement said that Simon Peter would be preaching. And, of course, with I. GRACE MUST CHANGE THE LIFE. That the perversity of things, at the same hour. is the first thing: you and I have no part nor lot You couldn't do there what you even do at in the service of the Gospel until we know it in Keswick—follow your favourite preacher its power and glory. So here is our first around ! So what was he to do? This was a thought: Grace must change the life. "By the dilemma for a Welshman. The archangel grace of God I am what I am." How Gabriel—it made his mouth water! Simon destructive Paul's former life had been; but Peter—it made his heart beat fast. While now, how altered. It has been said that it is he, was uncertain, in his dream, someone the prerogative of God alone to say, "I am that I am"; it is the privilege of the believer to tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Are say, " By the grace of God I am what I am." you uncertain whom to hear? I can help you. The Brussels Exhibition has as its motto, "The I have heard them both, and the angel told achievements of man," but there are no me to hear Simon Peter. My name is achievements of man in this realm. "We are Cornelius!" I can see that at least some of His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto you are familiar with the Book of the Acts! good works." We are nothing but what God Well, now, the angel was not entrusted with makes us to become. the good news that the hungry and thirsty This word, " by the grace of God," is in an heart of Cornelius longed to know. Why?
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It is a Simon Peter with all his sin and failure, with here." Do you know the Lord? Theological all the consciousness of his own weakness, yet at student, you may be brilliant theologically, you the same time with all his experience of the may get all sorts of honours in your Lord's saving grace; it was Simon that was sent to examinations, but if you don't know Him you Cornelius, because Simon alone could tell, as a can't tell anybody about Him. sinner must tell it. Here's the first thing in Christian service. Seven years ago the late Mr. Fred Mitchell gave Are you converted? Are you born again? Are the Bible Readings here, on the Book of you saved by the grace of God: "I am what I Revelation. Speaking on the singing up in am"? Let me say this as a kind of com- heaven, he quoted these words, which have plementary thought, that whoever you are, never left my imagination from that day till however limited your gifts, however stumbling now— your speech, however unqualified you may feel when you compare yourself with other people, Holy, holy, holy, is what the angels sing, if you know the Lord, then you've got some- And I expect to help them make the courts thing to say. And if your heart is warmed of heaven ring; toward Him, then it is "out of the abun- But when I sing redemption's story, they will dance of the heart that the mouth speaks." fold their wings, Then let your full heart overflow with warm For angels never felt the joy that our salvation speech. Serving grace is first of all changing brings. in its effect in the life. The second thing we learn in this context It is to those who have tasted and seen that the of saving grace, is that— Lord is good, that the testimony of that goodness is entrusted. "I sought the Lord, and II. GRACE. MUST MEET WITH RESPONSE. He heard me, and delivered me from all my "His grace which was bestowed upon me was fears." I acknowledged my sin unto Thee... not in vain." Paul's word "vain " is a word and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sins." that means empty, or fruitless. Now in saying that the grace was which was bestowed upon I came to Jesus as I was, him was not in vain, Paul may have been Weary, and worn, and sad; referring to his missionary activities, to his I found in Him a resting place, sufferings for Christ, to the blessings that And He has made me glad. attended his ministry, or to all three; but this is the emphasis that he makes, that grace must be That is the authentic note in Gospel preach- fruitful. It must not be stultified; it must not ing. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." be empty. Serving grace, then, must first change the life. The good seed, if we may borrow our Lord's May I speak with tender, brotherly understanding. parable, needs good soil, and then it springs Minister of the Gospel here this morning, Has up and bears fruit. Is the grace of God meeting the grace of God changed your life? Do you with response in your life? The grace of God is know anything about conversion? Sunday- there; you are accepting the first point now as school teacher, perhaps you were pressed into established, that the grace of God has service in your early teens, because the changed you, you have been born again, you superintendent was hard up for helpers, and you have been renewed by His Spirit. You can were a bright-looking person; and he asked you truly say, "By the grace of God I am what I to teach in the Sunday-school. And you have am." But now, this grace that is bestowed just gone on. In your own heart of hearts you upon you must not remain empty, it must not have known that you've had nothing to say. Of remain sterile, it must not be unfruitful. Is course, you could tell the story of Daniel in there anything in your life, perhaps, which the lion's den, and ring the changes with you have allowed to choke the word, so that it David and Goliath. But you know, unless becomes unfruitful? Are you what our Lord you know the way to the Lord Jesus you can't would have called "a fruitful tree"? "Every show a child the way to the Lord Jesus. Has tree that bringest not forth fruit is hewn the grace of God changed you? "By the grace down and cast into the fire." But you know, of God," says Paul, "I am what I am." Not "I there is such a tenderness about all the teach what I teach," but "I am what I am." ministry of grace, as the very word "grace" Missionary, was it the glamour of some great ought to tell us. Do you remember this tender missionary need; medical missionary, was it a parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted sense of the qualifications that you had, that in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit made you say, "Ah, well, I can lend a hand thereon, and
140 found none. Then said he unto the dresser which was bestowed upon me was not in vain." of his vineyard, Behold, these three years We have a responsible trust. I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the We give Thee but Thine own, ground? And he answering said unto him, Whate'er that gift may be: Lord, give it another chance—Lord, let it All that we have is Thine alone, alone this year also—a fourth year—till I A trust, 0 Lord, from Thee. shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou You have had grace bestowed upon you. The shalt cut it down." Has God been sparing greater the privilege, the greater the respon- you, as the vine dresser wanted to spare a sibility. Our Lord told the parable about the fruitless tree? Has God been merciful to you, man who gave his money to one of his ser- perhaps in bringing you to Keswick, in order wants, and when he returned, because the to say just this one sentence to you? Has servant had been idle about it, he rebuked him, God been patient with you in allowing you to and said, "I should have received mine own continue in your ministry and on the mission from you with usury." Has your pound gained field and in your Sunday-school class, even anything? Is the grace of God that has till now. And it has been fruitless. No, I'm been bestowed upon you proving to be a not thinking of success. Please don't equate barren gift? Salvation must be worked out. fruitfulness with successfulness—they are "Work it out," says Paul, "for God has totally different. The fruitfulness is what worked it in." "If these things be in you, comes out of the life; successfulness is what and abound," says Peter, "they make you that God in His sovereignty bestows upon the ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in preaching of the Gospel. But your life has been the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." And barren and unfruitful. Has God been sparing the word "barren " here, means " idle." Is you to this moment, to make you fruitful? it idleness, then, that explains your unfruit- Or perhaps you have not been engaged in fulness? It's something that doesn't work, any Christian service at all. You have just that is barren. been listening, and at the receiving end all the Serving grace. But Paul goes on to say time. The Lord has come looking for the that it was "not in vain." Now here is the fruit of dedicated, consecrated service, and response: "I laboured more abundantly than you have had all sorts of plausible reasons they all." The response to grace is works. The why you could not serve. You have been em- response to grace is labour. How Paul de- ploying the vocabulary of "I can't" for a lighted in the word "labour"! We had it in long time—perhaps for three years, and now the Bible Reading this morning—those who the Lord is saying to you, "I've spared you were "labourers " with the apostle. And the till now, that there may be fruit; and if not, word he used is a word for exertion. It is a then your life becomes a moral failure." word for exhausting toil. You see, there are Is there some obstruction of selfishness and some people who will engage in Christian ser- pride in the way of fruitfulness in you? vice "if they have time," if they are not too "Except a corn of wheat fall into the tired, if this and if that. But Paul was pre- ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it pared to go to the extent of exhausting toil. die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Grace must "In labours abundant," he says; "I have not be empty; bestowed grace must not be toiled hard." Here "the least of the apostles" stultified. It was this dread of stultification has borne the heaviest load. Oh, I wonder, that led Paul to exclaim to these Corinthians, have you in your life this suitable response "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so to the grace that has been bestowed upon you? fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but Do you labour? I buffet my body, and bring it into subjection; For the last thirteen years now, since I have lest by any means, when I have preached to been in the London Bible College, my ministry others, I myself should be rejected" (9:26, has taken me from church to church on all 27). When he say "a castaway" he is not sorts of anniversary as well as ordinary occa- meaning that he will be thrown out of grace. sions, and it has been wonderful to see the No, once in Christ, always in Christ. But devotedness of those who are serving the Lord, Paul was wanting to be approved as a good sometimes under great difficulties. But one servant; he was wanting the crown that came of the things that has pained and grieved my to those who won the race. So he said, I am heart—and some of my brethren in the minis- keeping myself under control lest, after having try can bear testimony to this—is this, that told other people what they ought to do, I often the people who are carrying the heavy myself don't pass the examination. "The grace load are frail of body, already hard pressed
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with a hundred-and-one other responsibilities. going to be stirred about work five thousand But there are young people, or able-bodied miles away. And of those to whom God will people, or people who have not the same cares, speak tomorrow in this great tent, there will and whose hands are not so full, who are pre- probably be but a restricted number to whom pared to let them work. Oh, how unequally God is saying, "Go to Japan," or "Go to distributed the labour is in some of our Chile," or "Go to the Arctic." But— churches. I know that there are sometimes people who won't let anybody else work— There's a work for Jesus, ready at your hand; that's another kind of evil that needs to be Why stand idly waiting for some life-work rebuked; but I think there are far more who grand, are prepared to let other people carry the When the field of Jesus seeks your reaping load. No! "I laboured," says the apostle. hand? Is that the response of the bestowed grace in your life? Don't say there's nothing that "Go home and tell." That is the responsibility. you can do. Then thirdly, as we look at serving grace ex- Have you heard the story about the man pounded to us in this verse, we see that— who was applying for a job at a large works, and the staff manager said he was sorry, but III. GRACE MUST HAVE ALL THE there wasn't a job he could offer him. As the GLORY. "By the grace of God I am what I man was about to leave he turned and said, am: and His grace which was bestowed upon "Can't you give me a job? The little bit me was not in vain; but I laboured more of work I do wouldn't notice! "I wonder abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the sometimes whether we don't under-estimate the grace of God which was with me." An gifts that God has bestowed upon us. There- immediate correction of a possible false fore, because you think your little bit of work impression—perhaps a correction to Paul wouldn't notice, you don't do it. And so himself, as he pulls himself in, lest he himself someone else has to do it, and the extra bur- should forget that all he did was not of den is upon someone else. Are you a himself, but God. "Yet not I." Paul had used labourer? How grateful a minister is for this expression earlier, when he wrote to everyone who metaphorically takes off his coat Galatians, and said, "I live, yet not I, but and rolls up his sleeves and works. "I lab- Christ liveth in me"; and " so I laboured, yet oured," says Paul. not I." Grace must have all the glory. Earlier Dr. F. B. Meyer was once visiting a great in this letter he had said, "So then neither is Baptist church in Germany, and speaking to he that planteth any thing, neither he that the pastor, he asked him, by the way of sym- watereth; but God that giveth the increase" pathetic interest, how many workers he had (3:7). And later, he says, "There are in his church. To which the pastor replied, diversities of operations "—that is to say, we "Three thousand!" And Dr. Meyer, think- are not all preachers—what a good thing—" ing perhaps there had been a misunderstand- there are diversities of operations, but —here's ing between the English and the German in the thing—it is the same God which worketh this conversation, said, "Pastor, I didn't say all in all " (12:6). how many members; I asked how many You and I ultimately, you know, are only workers have you!" "Oh," said the German the tools. The worker is God. We said just pastor, "the number's the same!" Is it, in now in our hymn: "0 use me!"—and a your church? Well, you just can't do any-think worker uses a tool. Grace must have all the about the other ninety-nine church members of glory. The grace of God worked with Paul in your church, but you can make yourself a so overwhelming a manner that it was no worker. Consecration means toil. longer his own working; yet, to observe Paul's And all this is "by the grace of God." Oh, language accurately, you observe it was " the what work there is in the harvest field! Paul, grace of God which was with me," and Paul who says, " The grace that was bestowed upon used a preposition that joins together, "to": it me was not in vain; but I laboured more was God with Paul—yes, co-agency if you abundantly than they all," he was the man like, with complete subordination of the junior who in a small prayer meeting at Antioch partner to the great Worker; but it was never- heard God say, "Separate me Barnabas and theless " with me." "As though God," says Saul, for the work whereunto I have called Paul, "did beseech you by us." The voice of them." There's a work for Jesus, ready at God is a human voice; the feet of God are your hand. human feet; the hands of God are human Now tomorrow is the missionary meeting; hands. "The grace of God which was with me." But the grace of God. Yes, His glory emotions and hearts and faith and prayer are must be unsullied.
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What amazing grace this was that turned heart, to his destruction. And it is so easy the foremost persecutor into the foremost for a Sunday-school teacher who happens to preacher. Can we be anything but moved as have been given special gifts, to take the we read a paragraph of autobiography that credit to himself. So easy for some preachers Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:12, "I thank who have skill in commanding great Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, audiences, to take the kudos to themselves. for that He counted me faithful, putting me "Not I, but the grace of God which was with into the ministry; who was before a blas- me." The only path of usefulness is the path phemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but of lowliness. So we prayed just now, in our I obtained mercy." It was mercy that thrust opening hymn— him into ministry. Thus, even though Paul Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me, was conscious of his own zeal and diligence A clean vessel in Thine hand; and service, he is still a debtor to mercy. With no power but as Thou givest The essential qualification for the service of the Gospel is a humble spirit. When Graciously with each command. Nebuchadnezzar said, "Is not this great Baby- Will you seek serving grace as sincerely as you lon that I have built?" God struck him down. sought saving grace, and are seeking sanctify- When Uzziah grew strong, he lifted up his ing grace?
143 Scriptural Motives for Evangelism
BY THE REV. GERALD B. GRIFFITHS, B.A., B.D.
And this I do for the Gospel's sake, that I might be a partaker thereof with you. -1 CORINTHIANS 9:23.
simply cannot escape our missionary John 3:16. And, "He is the propitiation for WE obligations. To be a Christian is to be our sins, and not for ours only, but for the an evangelist. Tomorrow morning's missionary sins of the whole world," says 1 John 2:2. meeting will emphasise the obligation to preach "He died for all." "The Lord is not willing the Gospel overseas, and we are confident that that any should perish, but that all should some will respond to the appeal of the Spirit. come to the knowledge of the truth." "God Yet we are all evangelists. Evangelism is a must now commandeth all men everywhere to in every Christian church, and in every repent." These familiar Scriptures remind us Christian life. Why? Why engage in how vast and universal is God's love in missionary work? Why at Keswick make an Christ. It covers the seven seas and the five appeal for young people to indicate their continents. No man is excluded from the readiness to serve the Lord overseas, should embrace of our Lord's outstretched arms on His Spirit so constrain? Why preach the the Cross, and no man must be excluded from Gospel? Why organise and conduct evan- the witness of the Christian Church. gelistic appeals? Why evangelism? Again, the Gospel is unique in its salvation. This question of motive is essential, for it is It is the one and only salvation that God has possible for us to engage in Christian evan- prepared for men. There is no other religion gelism from motives that are not Christian; of redemption in the world. Other religions and unless our motives are Christian the there are--Animism, Confucianism, Shintoism, quality of our evangelism will suffer in this Buddhism, Hinduism, Mohammedanism; but world, and in the world to come it will be these have no word of pardon, no salvation to declared to be as nothing before the judgment offer to the guilty soul of man. As Joseph seat of Christ. The motives of evangelism Parker once put it, "Comparative religions are essential; and perhaps just because evangelism there may be, but Christianity is not one of is in the air, and there is more evangelistic activity them." This claim to be the one and only in recent years than there has been previously, salvation for the world is borne out by our it is all the more urgent that we should turn to Lord Himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the Word of God to discover what are the the life. No man cometh unto the Father, !but Scriptural motives for evangelism. Here, in the by me." Peter and John repeated this same compass of this one verse, clearly, concisely, and exclusive, intolerant claim before the Sanhe- crisply, are set before us the true motives of drin: "Neither is there salvation in any other: evangelism. "This I do," replies Paul— for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be I. "FOR THE GOSPEL'S SAKE." The Gospel saved." Paul is equally insistent in writing to being what it is, we have no option but to Timothy: "There is one Mediator between make it known. The very character of the God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." Christ Gospel constitutes our missionary charter. died and rose again for all men, and without What do we know of the Gospel? This first: Him all men are lost and will perish. that it is universal in its scope. It is for all Unless men receive the Lord Jesus Christ, men, without distinction of race, of class, of they remain eternally lost. colour, or of culture. It is for every human None other Lamb, none other Name, being. "God so loved the world . . . " says None other hope in heaven or earth or sea;
144 None other hiding place from guilt and unto me, if I preach not the Gospel!" Whether shame, he wants to tear half-way across the globe to None beside Thee. preach Christ or not, he must. He is under a solemn obligation. He says, "Necessity is laid Only Jesus bears the name of Saviour. upon me." What is that necessity? What is the necessity that is laid upon every Christian Here is sufficient reason to drive us all out, heart. Read the passage: Paul goes on to say willing to burn ourselves out in making known that a dispensation—a house-managershiphas the unsearchable riches of His grace. Christ been committed to him. Christ has committed is for all men, and He is the only Saviour of to him the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. men. But God, knowing the sluggishness of Not to the Pope, not to some specially ordained our hearts, has seen St to press home this order of men, are the keys of the Kingdom obligation upon us, in the pictures that are committed, but to every believer. In the given to us of the Christian life in the New moment of our believing in Christ, He hands Testament. Have you noticed how many of to us the keys, and now we must go forth to these pictures urge upon us our responsibility share his bounty with a famished world. to engage in evangelism and missionary work? Take, for instance, the picture of trusteeship. To be a Christian at all, says the New Testa- Every Christian, the Bible insists, is only a ment, is in that very act to become a debtor. trustee of God's grace. "But as we were The moment a scientist makes a discovery allowed of God to be put in trust with the which will alleviate the sufferings of humanity, Gospel, even so we speak," writes Paul to the he is under obligation to publish it. When Thessalonians. The spiritual wealth com- Sir James Young Simpson, that famous Edin- mitted to us is not our private property, but burgh surgeon, hit upon the anaesthetic pro- a trust lodged with us for the benefit of others. perties of chloroform, he immediately made I suppose there is more than one trustee haste to introduce it into the operating theatres present here this afternoon. I happen to have of the world; and what a boon it has been ever the privilege of being a trustee of the Eventide since. But Sir James confessed that the Home that belongs to Charlotte Chapel. I greatest discovery he ever made was the dis- suppose that our assets would be worth some- covery that he had a Saviour. Was he at thing approximating to £10,000 were they liberty to keep this greatest discovery of all realised; but the fact that I happen to be a to himself'? trustee of that home does not mean that I If men of science freely recognise their debt am at liberty to call together the other trustees to humanity to share their findings, how much and to suggest to them that we should sell the more the men of grace. It is this obligation property, realise the assets, share out the pro- which Paul owns in the first chapter of ceeds, and then go on a world tour. Were we Romans: "I am debtor both to the Greeks to do that, we should find ourselves in serious and to the Barbarians; both to the wise and to trouble. And that is our position with the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am reference to the unsearchable riches of our ready to preach the Gospel. . ." Saviour's grace. We are, to change the picture The Gospel is also called an inheritance, slightly, "stewards of the mysteries of God"; as we learn from the doxology which breaks and "it is required in stewards that a man from the pen of Peter as he opens his first be found faithful." A stewardship, or a letter. "Blessed be the God and Father of house-managership, was a position of high trust our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His in the ancient household. You remember that abundant mercy bath begotten us again to a Joseph was a steward; and it was said on one lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ occasion, that his master Potipher "knew not from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, what was in the house." He had committed and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Paul, all his wealth to Joseph. He had the key on too, exults over this thought of our inheritance: his girdle. He was to unlock the doors of his "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and master's storehouse, and it was his responsi- joint-heirs with Christ." I heard a minister bility to distribute his master's bounty to the use this idea of inheritance recently in connec- other members of the household. We do not tion with the spiritual responsibility of parents possess the Gospel as private property. We in the upbringing of their children. Whether are all only trustees of it, holding it for the it was with reference to infant baptism or benefit of others. Christian dedication is not relevant at the It is this sense of obligation to a famished moment. But he stressed that the supreme task world which makes Paul cry out in this pas- of parents is to acquaint their growing children sage, "Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is
145 of their glorious inheritance in Christ. Christ, ity. Our debt of love must be discharged, and he said, had left a last will and testament in in the house of mourning where all life's hopes which he had bequeathed to men the priceless lie buried, we must read aloud to men and gift of His salvation; and the greatest respon- women the testimony which announces how sibility of Christian parents was not merely to wonderful is their inheritance by the atoning provide food and the amenities of temporal death of our blessed Redeemer. All this is a welfare and education for their children, but command. But the world remains unevangel- by their lives and by their teaching to lead these ised because of the disobedience of the Church. little children to know and to enter into their Maybe our own loved ones do not know the inheritance in Christ Jesus. That is the supreme Gospel because of our disobedience. That is privilege of Christian parents, to play the part the first motive for Christian evangelism—the of the evangelist to the children God has Gospel's sake. Secondly— graciously committed to their hands. But that requires a postscript: this inheritance II. FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS. "This I do is not confined to the children of Christian for the Gospel's sake," Paul says; and adds, parents—it belongs to every child the world "that I might be partaker thereof with you." over. The Lord Jesus Christ died to make We have now been in Edinburgh for four years possible an inheritance for every man. This —a lovely and a fascinating city—and I sup- applies to the Auca Indians, and to the 60,000 pose in the course of those four years I must stone-age savages in New Guinea. This is the have seen the Forth Bridge scores of times. pathetic truth about men and women now torn Yet I never tire of seeing it—one of the by passion, frayed by care, worn out with frus- wonders of the world. No man should go tration. They are like a beggar who walks our North of the Border without taking a trip to streets, cold, down-at-heel, and not knowing stand in awe and astonishment beneath that where his next meal is to come from, when all marvellous bridge. How proud that engineer the time the forgotten elder brother has left a may well be of his achievement. Yet if during fortune of which he lives in complete ignor- the war that bridge had had a direct hit, it ance. Our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ, has left would have buckled up like a safety pin. But the world a boundless and eternal heritage by let a mother bring her child to know the Lord; His death; and this is our honourable calling' let a Sunday-school teacher yearn over her we are like solicitors whose task it is to inform Sunday-school children, and have the untold the beneficiaries of what has been left to them privilege of bringing them to a knowledge of under the last will and testament of their saving grace; let a missionary spend all her blessed Lord, and to invite them to claim their life in some lonely outpost of the Empire to heritage. bring one to the cross—and here, something is One more picture: evangelism is a com- done for eternity. Oh, may God write this mand. We may judge of the urgency of this upon our hearts, that the greatest thing we can command by the fact that all four Gospels do in this world, the only thing that's worth record it. Matthew: "Go ye therefore, and doing, is this: however wealthy we may be, make disciples of all nations." Mark: "Go ye however bright and however clever, whatever into all the world, and preach the Gospel to may be the gifts of our personality, the highest every creature." Luke: "And that repentance service we can possibly render to any human and remission of sins should be preached in being is to introduce them to the Lord Jesus His name among all nations." John: "As the Christ; to deliver them from the second death, Father hath sent me, even so send I you." And and to bring them into the glorious liberty of as the astonished disciples watched their Lord the children of God. Surely as we dwell upon ascend from the Mount of Olives, this was the the glories that are yet to be revealed to the last command that rang in their ears from His redeemed—as you think of your blessedness lips: "Ye shall be witnesses unto me . . . to in the everlasting glory of God at the Second the uttermost parts of the earth." This is our Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, you must Lord's last command; and it leaves us with no long that others should share it too. For the option but obedience. "If ye love me, keep sake of others; for their eternal salvation, for my commandments." their glorious liberty as the children of God, This is, then, the first motive-power of all we must be ready to burn ourselves out, that true Christian evangelism—the character of our by life and by lip our Lord Jesus Christ may Gospel. It is for all. It is the one and only be known to them. And thirdly— Gospel God has provided for men. Our Master's trust must be faithfully distributed; III. FOR OUR OWN SAKES, we must engage His bounty must be broken to starving human- in the work of evangelism. "This I do for the
146 Gospel's sake, that I might be partaker of His presence always. There are times when thereof with you"—and the force of the Greek our hearts are cold and callous and careless: here is very significant. Paul is not ashamed we seem like infidels. Our Lord never said, to confess that he gives himself without reserve "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end to the work of winning others to Christ, that of the world." Sometimes we quote another he himself might truly and fully partake of the promise: "'Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, powers of the Kingdom. What we are there- that will I do": words that are not exactly fore saying this afternoon has relevance to the true. What was it that our Lord said? When theme of this day: the fulness of the Holy we read that last verse in Matthew's Gospel Spirit. We cannot know the fulness of the aright, we shall remember that it begins with Holy Spirit if we are merely seeking emotional the word "and." "And, lo, I am with you excitement. We can know it only as we are alway..." "And" is a conjunction, which engaged in His service. Paul regarded personal links on with what has gone before. What evangelism as one of the most effective means is it that has gone before? These words—"All of spiritual growth and of spiritual enlarge- power is given unto me in heaven and earth. ment. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all When John Wesley was compelled to defend nations, baptising them in the name of the his new method of open-air preaching against Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: the wrath of his critics—for open-air work, now teaching them to observe all things an essential part of the witness of the Church, whatsoever I have commanded you: and. was regarded as an innovation of very doubtful .." then, "lo, I am with you alway, even unto merit—and Wesley wrote in his Journal, "A the end of the world." The sense and the desire to be a Christian, and a conviction that succour and the strength of our Saviour's whatever I judge conducive thereto, that is to presence has been promised to Christians being an effective Christian, that I am bound and to churches who are engaged in this task to do. Wherever I judge I can best answer of obedience to His commission. this end, thither it is my duty to go. On this So it is with prayer: this same conjunction principle I set out for America. On this I "and" occurs—"And whatsoever ye shall visited the Moravian Church; and on the same ask . . ." What, then, goes before this? "He am I now ready, God being my helper, to go that believeth on me, the works that I do shall to Abyssinia, or China, or withersoever it shall he do also; and greater works than these shall please God by His conviction to call me." Of he do, because I go unto my Father. And . . ." course John Wesley preached the Gospel for then ". . . whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, the glory of God; but he was a sufficiently that will I do." The promise is made to those acute student of the soul to know that no man who work the greater works of Christ. It is in can talk of Christ to others without deriving the thick of the battle that our Captain gives incalculable good to his own soul. For his own us the strongest evidence of His presence. And spiritual good John Wesley went to America in the greatest proof of prayer-power is given the first instance. For his encouragement in only to those who know what it is to yearn and the faith after his conversion, he visited the to wrestle and to travail with Christ for the Moravian Churches. And now in his Journal, souls of men. when he has to give an account of his open-air What is our state now? What is your state preaching, he says, "I do it for my own sake— at this present moment? Has something gone for my own spiritual profit." Evangelism is a out of your life? Does the lamp that once means of grace. This is Scriptural teaching. It burned so brightly now only flicker? Has enabled Paul and Wesley to partake in a prayer become a dead formality, and not a fuller, deeper measure, of Christ. And our living, vital power in your life? Is our Chris- own lives are greatly impoverished if we do tian witness a shabby thing; are our lips sealed not give ourselves day by day to this immense and our hearts cold? When did we last speak honour and privilege of telling others about to another about the Master? I'm not saying our blessed Lord. as a minister, "When did I last preach a How often it is that we misquote passages sermon?" What I have to say to myself is, of Scripture. How often it is that we take "When did I last, outside of the pulpit, engage promises to ourselves that God never caused in a vital conversation with somebody about to be written in His Word. For instance, we his own soul?" I have no business to hide sometimes quote, "Lo, I am with you alway, behind this pulpit. When I'm out of the pulpit even unto the end of the world." Our Lord my privilege and responsibility are the same did not say that. Neither is it true as a matter as yours: to seize my opportunities. When of spiritual experience. We are not conscious did you last have a vital conversation—not
147 about church unity, not about religion, not The Lord in His mercy is calling us back to a about some theological problem, but a vital, place of obedience to this command—for the tender conversation with a seeking soul? Gospel's sake; for the sake of others; for my More seriously than that, when were you own sake, that I may be kept spiritually vital last in a bus or in a railway compartment, and alive, that I may know the joy of His and the yearning came over you that God by presence and experience glorious answers to His Holy Spirit would give you an opportunity to prayer, that I may see the work of God's Spirit at speak for Him? More seriously even than that, work in my own life. when did you last purposefully intercede before Of course we can't finish there. We dare God for the salvation of somebody in not. I would not be faithful to my commission particular? It is one thing, my dear friends, to if I did. For our hearts tell us that the ask the Lord to bless our missionaries: it is a supreme reason for all witness is— more vital evidence of real Christian com- passion and love, when I begin to plead with W. THE SUPERLATIVE EXCELLENCE OF OUR the Lord for the conversion of one individual. LORD JESUS CHRIST. He alone is worthy to Are you doing that? be preached to all men; He alone is worthy to You see, the Holy Spirit is not given to us for be the theme and the subject of our con- the sake of passing emotion. We have been versation. He is the Wonderful Counsellor, reminded already this week that the Holy Spirit the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. He is was given to us functionally, in order to enable us the fairest among ten thousand, and the alto- to fulfil the work of God. If I want to be filled gether lovely One. He is the express image of with the Holy Spirit why do I want to be filled God's person, the outshining of His glory. He is with the Holy Spirit? Surely only in order that I the only Mediator and Redeemer of men. He may be obedient to my Lord's commands—and is the Son of God, Light of light, God of God, this is one of them. Oh, how our churches are Very God of Very God. He alone is worthy: trying this and trying that. Isn't this the place of in His Cross alone can men find forgiveness and blessing—obedience to our Lord's last newness of life. Only the leaves of His tree can command. bring healing to the nations; and only in His John Wesley writes in his Journal, with glorious appearing lies the hope of the world. almost monotonous repetition, "Today I went He loved the world and gave Himself for it; to Newcastle and I offered them Christ... and He is satisfied only when He sees of the Today I visited the prisoners at Bristol and I travail of His soul. I may be satisfied when I am offered them Christ. . . This day have I been to successful in some particular realm—when I visit the sick, and I gave them Christ. . . Today have a new car, or something like that. He is I preached on my favourite text, 'Christ is made satisfied only when He sees of the travail of His unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and soul in men and women. Oh, for His sake, let sanctification, and redemption.' "No wonder the us bring joy to His heart, by bringing men and man was so full of Christ himself. Does this women to His feet in repentance and faith. explain the secret of our poor, ineffective This is the supreme motive, the highest reason Christian living, why we know so little of peace for all our endeavour. For Christ's sake. God and joy and power—our own idle hands, our Himself asks for no higher motive than that. own silent lips, our own disobedient wills? Can we?
148 Holy Anointing By the REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON
Now when all the people were baptised, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptised, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.—LUKE 3:21, 22. anointing was resting upon Him. But you WHEN the Lord Jesus was baptised by know, this experience was not only for the John the Baptist, at the commencement of His Lord Jesus; it was also for His first followers. In public ministry, the Holy Ghost descended this same chapter we read, "John answered, in bodily shape like a dove upon Him. saying unto them all, I indeed baptise you with And there is no greater need in your life or water; but One mightier than I cometh, the in mine, than that the same Holy Spirit should latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to come upon us like a dove. Before ever we unloose: He shall baptise you with the Holy can live victoriously, or serve effectively; Ghost." And you will remember how the Lord before ever we can be the men and women Jesus, before He ascended, said to His God would have us to be, we must experience disciples, "Tarry in Jerusalem until ye be en- this holy anointing. Indeed, it is not too much dued with power from high. . . Ye shall to say that the reason for all our failure in receive power after that the Holy Ghost is Christian living may be traced to the fact that come upon you." And "when the day of we try to live for the Lord, and to serve the Pentecost was fully come, they were all with Lord, without this anointing of the Holy one accord in one place, and they were all Spirit. This is our greatest need. It is the filled with the Holy Ghost." The Holy Ghost great imperative. descended upon them like a dove. And as we Now the Lord Jesus, of course, was con- go on through the Book of the Acts we read ceived of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the over and over again that the Holy Ghost came Holy Spirit, and He lived a perfect, holy, sinless upon them, and "they were all filled with the life. He came into this world gladly and Holy Ghost." voluntarily, to save sinners. But before our My dear friends, this blessed, wonderful, Lord Jesus Christ could begin that work for life-transforming, service-empowering anointing which He had come, He needed this holy was not only for the Lord Jesus; and was not anointing, this mighty enduement with power. only for those first disciples and followers of And at His baptism, while He stood in His; but is for every one of us—for every Jordan's water and prayed, the Holy Ghost Christian everywhere. This is the indispens- descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon able qualification for victorious Christian Him. Afterwards He was able in the syna- living, and for fruitful Christian service. This gogue to say, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon is our greatest need today in the Christian me, for I have been anointed to preach the church. This is your greatest need. Gospel"; and later, Peter in one of his sermons There is a great mystery here, that our Lord was able to say, "God anointed Jesus of Jesus Christ, though He was holy, harmless, Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with undefiled, and separate from sinners, yet power." needed this great qualification before He could This, my friends, for the Lord Jesus, the enter upon His public ministry. There is no blessed Son of God, our Saviour, was a definite mystery about the fact, but it is actual history experience. There was a before and an after. that the disciples received this anointing. And There was a time before when this anointing what a transformation was wrought in them was not His ; and ever after, during those three and through them _ ! And before we can live years of public ministry, this holy, blessed for the Lord as He would have us live, and
149 before we can serve Him effectively, we must Oh, that in me the sacred fire know what it is for the same blessed Holy Might now begin to glow; Spirit to come upon us like a dove. Burn up the dross of base desire, Why "like a dove"? This surely is signifi- And make the mountains flow. cant. I think it is because the dove is noted for four qualities: purity, beauty, humility, and Thou, who at Pentecost didst fall, alacrity. Purity—in Song of Solomon 6:9, Do Thou my sins consume; the bridegroom is speaking to the bride, and Come, Holy Ghost, for Thee I call; he calls her "my dove, my undefiled." Beauty — Spirit of burning, come. Psalm 68:13, "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove, Refining fire, go through my heart, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow Illuminate my soul; gold." Humility, gentleness—Jesus said, "Be ye Scatter Thy life through every part, harmless as doves." And alacrity, swiftness And sanctify the whole. and readiness to obey—Psalm 55: 6, "Oh that I had wings like a dove." Why the wings of a Or if you like to use the word I have chosen dove? So that I can get away quickly. —"purify the whole." And so I repeat that Alacrity. the first thing we shall know when the Holy Ghost comes upon us like a dove, is that we Now in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, shall know His purity. Jesus said, "Ye shall the Holy Spirit came upon Him enduing Him receive power," but when that power came on with power like a dove, because He already the day of Pentecost there was a deep inward possessed these dove-like qualities. He already cleansing and purifying. Just think for a possessed in perfection purity, beauty, humility, moment how carnal these Christians were, and alacrity to do God's will. The Holy how full of terrible failure, until the day of Ghost came upon Him as a seal from heaven, Pentecost. Then what a change was seen in because here all these graces and virtues were them. Why, they had disputed among them- seen in absolute perfection. But in our case, selves who should be the greatest; and a little because we are sinful humans and so unlike later on they came to Jesus and said, "Master, our Lord, the Holy Ghost comes upon us like we saw one casting out devils in Thy name. a dove to impart these qualities of purity and and we forbad him, because he followeth not beauty and humility and alacrity. Jesus was us." And, "Lord, shall we command fire to already pure and beautiful and humble and come down from heaven to consume them?" ready to do God's will in every single respect; The impurity of pride and sectarianism and but you and I need the Holy Ghost to make vindictiveness, and, we might add, jealousy and us pure, to make us beautiful, to bring us down envy and criticism. But when the Holy Ghost into the place of humble subjection to the will of came upon them like a dove, there was a deep God, and to make us ready always to do His inward cleansing. will. Thomas Goodwin, that great old writer, said, O Spirit of faith and love, "All apparitions of God at any time, made of Work in our midst, we pray, Himself, were made not so much to men to And purify each waiting heart ... show what God is in Himself, as to declare what effects He will work in us." So that That's it. "Baptise us with power." Is not this when the Holy Ghost came upon the Lord our need? Do we not possess these impurities? Jesus as a dove, it was not so much to declare Do we not long to be free from them? What the purity and the beauty and the humility and is the way? The Holy Ghost must come upon the alacrity of the Lord Himself, but to show us like a dove. And if He were to come down that these qualities would afterwards be im- upon us, we should have this dove-like quality parted to us in the power of the Holy Ghost. of inward heart-purity, and thus power to live The Holy Ghost, in other words, comes like a for the Lord lives that are radiant; and power dove to show us that He would make us to serve the Lord. dove-like. That means, first- One who has several times stood on this WE SHALL KNOW HIS PURITY. My dear platform gave his testimony once at Keswick friends, whatever theories we may have about —not at a meeting but in the speakers' house the Pentecostal blessing, we simply cannot party; and this is what he said. "You know, evade this: that when the Holy Ghost came brethren, for years I was praying for power. upon the early Christians, they were purified. Then one day God showed me that what I We were singing just now- needed to pray for first of all was purity." Perhaps that is a word for someone in the tent
150 tonight. How can I know this purity? The "I apologise for saying that the other day. I Holy Ghost must come up on me like a dove. ought not to have said it." That was a mark But the second thing is— of humility. A Christian in Keswick wrote a letter because of something that had been said II. WE SHALL REFLECT His BEAUTY. One in one of the meetings, and God had put His of our favourite choruses is, "Let the beauty finger upon her life. That was a mark of of Jesus be seen in me." I'm quoting it in the humility A man the other day went to an- "revised version"— other Christian and said, "Look here, I demand an apology!" That was a mark of pride; that Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, was the gall of bitterness and contention. All His wondrous compassion and purity: Oh, beloved, meekness is not weakness. Jesus Oh, Thou Spirit divine, said, "Learn of me, for I am meek and Make all this nature Thine, lowly. . ."—and if you are going to be my Till the beauty of Jesus is seen in me. followers, surely you will share my humility. How? When the Holy Ghost comes upon you That is the only possible way for the beauty like a dove; because there is no gall of con- of the Lord Jesus to be really, adequately re- tention or pride in the Holy Spirit. When He flected in our lives. It can never be by striving comes, we are made gentle and loving and and by effort, by external things. This is God's meek and easy to live with—in a word, we purpose in saving us—"He shall beautify the are made Christ-like. Said a person to me meek with salvation." the other day concerning her husband, "You Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was a know, he's never very good in the morning." mighty preacher. Then he was apprehended You know what was meant? How can that and brought before the council; and as he sort of thing be dealt with? Well, it can. made his defence, we read that "all that sat in When the Holy Ghost comes upon us like a the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his dove. Finally, when the Holy Ghost comes face as it had been the face of an angel." The upon us like a dove— beauty of the Lord was upon him. How do you account for that? Well, it is surely signi- ficant that three times in that chapter we are IV. WE SHALL RECEIVE HIS ALACRITY. How told that Stephen was filled with the Holy swift the dove is! Chambers Dictionary says Spirit. In other words, he knew what it was that alacrity means "readiness, eagerness, glad- for the Holy Ghost to come upon him like a ness, promptitude." In what way does the dove, anointing him for ministry, for living, and Holy Spirit impart this dove-like quality? for the service that God required of him. And Well, He makes us eager and ready to do the when the Holy Ghost comes upon us like a will of God; swift to obey God's will; longing dove, we too shall know purity, and we shall to do what God wants, and swift to do it. "Then reflect His beauty, and— said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do Thy will, 0 God." III. WE SHALL SHARE His HUMILITY. There is "Thy law is in my heart." The whole something deeply humbling about this. purpose of my life, let it be to do Thy will right "Harmless as doves," said Jesus. How gentle up to the hilt. How can I do that? When the the Lord Jesus was. And those fishermen who Holy Ghost comes like a dove. A burning by nature were so rough and ready, how gentle desire to do the will of God, to be in the place they became under the anointing of the Spirit of His choice, doing the thing of His choice: of God. Dr. F. E. Marsh, in his book, "Thy will be done in my life, 0 God, at all Emblems of the Holy Spirit, says that one costs." reason that is given for the gentleness of the Philip was told, "Arise, and go . . ." and in dove, is that the bird has no gall, the gall the next verse we are told, "He arose and being considered by the naturalists of old as went." I little later on, "the Spirit said unto the fountain of contention, the bitterness of Philip, Go near," and the next verse says, the gall being supposed to infuse itself into "Philip ran. . ." What was the secret? He was the spirit. So here, you see, we have a con- filled with the Holy Ghost. trast: the gall of pride and contention and Now may I say two things. First, when did bitterness, and the dove of gentleness and the Holy Spirit come upon the Lord Jesus like meekness and humility. a dove? The first answer to that question is How often our lives are spoiled by the gall of this: the Lord Jesus was wholly abandoned to pride; and how little sometimes they are the Father's will. And second, while He characterised by humility. Said a missionary in stood in the waters of Jordan, "He was India in my hearing, to another missionary, praying." There was intimate communion
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with His heavenly Father. He was moving My dear friends, make sure that your life along in the line of the will of God, and with is fully given over to the Lord; and that you His will laid down: "Here I am, 0 Father; it is desire above everything else to be in the centre for this purpose I came into the world. I have of God's will; then get alone in the place of come to do Thy will." prayer, and wait there until God meets with "While He prayed"—that's important, as you. God is longing to meet with you—and well as the abandonment of the will. The dis- you'll have His purity, and His beauty, and ciples had a ten days' prayer meeting before His humility, and His alacrity. the Day of Pentecost. In Acts 4:31, it was Can you see the Lord Jesus standing there while they prayed that "the place was shaken . in Jordan's water praying? Suddenly the Holy . . and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost descended in bodily shape like a dove Ghost." In Acts 9, it was while Saul of Tarsus upon Him. That can be your experience. was praying that the Holy Ghost came upon Beloved, it must be your experience if you are him—and he went out to live and to labour for ever to be the man or the woman God would His Lord. have you to be.
152 Filled With The Spirit
BY THE REV. GEORGE B. DUNCAN, M.A.
I WANT to base our thoughts in the closing be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many moments of this great meeting on five words days hence." So the term is used prophetically that we find in Ephesians 5:18, "Be filled before Pentecost; retrospectively after with the Spirit." In counselling this week, the Pentecost. 1 Corinthians 12:13, "By one questions raised have centred in one way or Spirit have we all been baptised into one another around the Person and ministry of body." When did that baptism take place? The the Holy Spirit; and I feel led this evening to Church was constituted the body of Christ by bring your life and mine before these five the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the day pregnant words of St. Paul. It seems to me that of Pentecost; and when we came into that they suggest at any rate three angles of body at the moment of our conversion, we thought. First— entered into the meaning of that baptism. The command of the New Testament, in the lan- I. WE HAVE HERE A CHALLENGE TO BE MET. guage of the New Testament, is—not "Be And the challenge of our text lies in: (i) the baptised"—but "Be filled." I would submit obligation these words lay upon us. Here we that to you purely for the sake of accuracy, face a command which is not selective, but that's all. It may be that in using different comprehensive. There is no hint here that teiuunology we are seeking after the same ex- some of the Christians at Ephesus were to be perience; but that can lead to confusion. If we filled with the Spirit and others not. The com- want to be New Testament Christians, let us mand is addressed to, and the obligation is use New Testament vocabulary. laid upon, the whole church; each individual The second reason why we have here a Christian. "Be filled with the Spirit." challenge to be met, lies in: (ii) the implication I want to note in passing the vocabulary and these words lay before us. Here I feel it terminology of the New Testament here. The important to make another distinction, between command is, "Be filled with the Spirit"—it is not, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the functions "Be baptised with the Spirit." If we want to be or ministries of the Holy Spirit. I have heard New Testament Christians we should use some people go so far as to say that unless a New Testament language, and thereby avoid Christian has a certain gift of the Holy Spirit he confusion of thought. I often come across cannot be filled with the Spirit: whereas the the use of the word, " the baptism of the Holy explicit teaching of the New Testament states Spirit"—it has been quoted in its correct completely the opposite. In 1 Corinthians 12, context tonight. In the New Testament, this you will find the language of the New expression seems to me to be used to describe Testament: " Now there are diversities of gifts, an experience of the Holy Spirit at the initiation but the same Spirit . . . " and the diversities of of a relationship, never as a subsequent gifts are set forth in the verses that follow, experience. Indeed, there are those who leading right on to v.11, where St. Paul says would suggest that the phrase " the baptism of the expressly, " All these worketh that one and the Holy Spirit"—and here I quote Dr. Graham selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as Scroggie as an authority—should strictly be He will." And the apostle reaches the final limited to what happened on the day of conclusion of the matter in verses 29, 30. He Pentecost, and our being united with the has been discussing the gifts of the Spirit: eternal significance of that event, at the now he asks these questions, "Are all moment of our conversion. Before Pentecost apostles?"—and the answer is, No. "Are all the word is used prophetically. John the prophets?"—No. "Are all teachers?" No. "Are Baptist said, "I indeed baptise you with all workers of miracles?"—No. "Have all the water, but He shall baptise you with the Holy gifts of healing?" No. "Do all speak with Ghost" (Mark 1:8). Our Lord takes that up, tongues?"—No. "Do all interpret?"—No. and defines it more precisely. "Ye shall Listen. "All these worketh
153 that one and selfsame Spirit, dividing to every upon the matter: "Be ye continually being man severally as He will." filled with the Spirit." This suggests two things, The gifts of the Spirit are quite distinct from the in the light of what we have already said. There ministries of the Spirit. Some people get are apparently: (i) some discoveries that must be confused because they haven't a particular gift of made concerning the nature of the ministries the Spirit; but the Spirit may not have given of the Holy Spirit. What has He been given to you that gift. And the possession of one gift me for? This brings us right to the heart of the or another is not any evidence at all of the matter—that if you and I are going to know the fulness of the Spirit. This question of gifts of Holy Spirit in His fulness, we shall know Him, the Spirit is a realm in which God's sovereign not doctrinally, not emotionally, but we shall will operates, and it has nothing to do with you know Him functionally. or me. "The Spirit dividing to every man As the Holy Spirit fulfils His ministries, then severally as He will"—not as I want: but as He we shall be entering into the experience of will. We are not therefore concerned with the what He is and what He can do. I mention gifts of the Spirit. God is concerned with that. only some; I cannot possibly go into details. He But we are concerned with His ministry, with His is given to glorify Christ—"He shall glorify me" functions. (John 16:14). Then, is the glory of Christ, I feel that a lot of Christians would avoid rather than my own glory, my overruling confusion concerning the meaning of being concern? Am I allowing the Holy Spirit to do that? He is given to teach—" When the filled with the Spirit if they asked themselves Comforter is come, He shall teach you all what the implications of being filled with the things" (John 14: 26). Then do I give Him an Spirit would be, in terms of the functions or opportunity to teach me in my daily life? The ministries of the Holy Spirit, which are not significance of the "quiet time" is not that I selective, but are an integral part of His Person shall conform to a pattern of evangelical piety, and ministry in the soul. but that I am allowing the Holy Spirit to fulfil To begin at the other end—thinking not this ministry in my life, to teach me. He has doctrinally but functionally for a moment—and been given to seal my life—" In whom " that is, in asking ourselves, What are the implications of Christ—" having believed, ye were sealed with being filled with the Spirit, may I put them into the Holy Spirit " (Eph. 1:13). What is the one brief but pregnant sentence? function of a seal? It indicates ownership: so A man who is filled with the Spirit is a man in one of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to whose life the ministries of the Spirit are being make actual the ownership of God in my fulfilled. Years ago at the Carlisle Convention the life. Do I hold back part of my life from His Rev. H. W. Oldham said three things: two I control, from His authority? Then I'm not knew, but the third I didn't. First, he said that allowing the Holy Spirit to fulfil that ministry, every believer has the Holy Spirit. I knew that. He is given, also, as an earnest of our Second, he said that any believer can grieve the inheritance (Eph. 1:14). What is the meaning, Holy Spirit. I knew that. Third, he asked, How the function of an earnest? Well, an earnest is do we grieve the Spirit of God? Then came the a pre-sample, plus a guarantee of something to sentence that I believe is the crux of the come. What does that mean? The Holy Spirit whole business: "We grieve the Holy Spirit has been given to enable me to live now the when we fail to allow Him to do in us that for same quality of life that I shall live hereafter Which He has been given." A man who is in the eternity to come. Do I refuse to live filled with the Spirit is a man in whose life that kind of life? Is the world my sphere? the ministries of an ungrieved Spirit are being Then I am not allowing the Holy Spirit to do fulfilled. So the implication of our text is this. I'll only mention one more ministry of challenging, because it means this: that I have to the Spirit: He is given to help us in our be willing, if I am to be filled with the Spirit praying—"We know not how to pray as we of God, to allow the Holy Spirit to fulfil His ought, but the Spirit Himself maketh ministries in my life—and that is not an intercession for us with groanings which option; that is an obligation. "Be filled with cannot be uttered" (Rom. 8:26). Do I pray, the Spirit." A challenge to be met. then? What is the significance of spending time Maybe already we've got a hint of the second in prayer? So that I can be an orthodox truth that emerges. This command "Be filled evangelical and a praying man? No, it isn't. with the Spirit " brings before us not only a The value and the significance of time spent challenge to be met, but— in prayer is that I am allowing the Holy Spirit to do something He has been given to do. II. A CONDITION TO BE MAINTAINED. The There are discoveries that must be made. literal translation of the text throws fuller light God holds no brief for spiritual laziness, and
154 if you and I are not prepared to get down hear some people claiming the fulness of the to the business of learning what the Holy Spirit Spirit of God, I confess myself not so much has been given to us to do in our lives, then interested in their claim as in their character. God has no time for triflers. These are There are just two things I want to say some of the discoveries that must be made if about this as we close, about this character — this condition is to be maintained. this Christ to be manifested, this fruit of the Does that suggest something else? If this Spirit. First, note: (i) the perfection of it—of condition is to be maintained, there are dis- Him. Listen. Here's a man who is being filled coveries that must be made; and there are: with the Spirit of God: he hasn't claimed it; but (ii) disciplines that must be managed. It is these are his characteristics. Love, in its so often a lack of discipline which fails to unselfish affection, and in its unceasing allow the Holy Spirit to do within us that for activity. Joy, that will go on singing in spite which He has been given. A discipline of of difficult places and difficult people, and our time, it may be. A discipline of our sometimes of enduring pain. Love, joy; and thought. It is here that the relationship be- peace—peace that remains undisturbed and tween grace and what we call " the means serene, because it holds the secret of the of grace" comes in; between faith and effort. possession of adequate resources. Longsuffer- We cannot create the fulness of the Spirit, ing, a patience and endurance that holds itself but we can condition the fulness of the Holy steady in the work it endeavours for God, and Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit, but we can with the weakness it encounters in others. grieve Him by failing to allow Him to do in Gentleness, that is so concerned with the feel- us that for which He has been given. Fail ings of others that it will not cause needless there, however, and you fail everywhere. hurt; that knows nothing of abruptness or I would submit this to you, that the dis- rudeness. Goodness—and that in a foul world; ciplines that we must manage are usually the remaining untainted and solidly good, in a disciplines that are unseen. The secret of world where standards are all awry. Faithful- spiritual fulness has no public audience. You ness, that shows a reliability and a depend- meet a man in whose life this condition is ability which never disappoints and never lets being maintained, in whom the ministries of down. Meekness—an ability to receive injury the Spirit of God are being fulfilled, and without resentment, and praise without pride. you will find that in his life there is an abso- Self-control—a balanced, disciplined life, in lutely iron discipline that is making absolutely perfect working order. dead certain that whatever the ministries of That's the kind of life of a man or a woman the Spirt are, the Spirit of God is being given who is being filled with the Spirit of God. I an opportunity to fulfil them in that life. And would be slow to claim it. Do you know what you will find that the secrets of that man's somebody said once about the Keswick plat- life and godliness are never seen in public. form? "Instead of the speakers coming up It is not what happens in this meeting that and giving their carefully prepared addresses, will determine whether or not you are going it might be a good thing if their wives came to go on being filled with the Spirit of God. it up instead, and told us how it all works out." is what happens behind a closed door in your No, we are not interested in claims; we are home. interested in character, and a perfection of it. A challenge to be met; a condition to be This verse brings this tremendous thought to maintained; and our final thought— us, that there is a Christ to be manifested in your life, in the perfection of His own III. A CHRIST TO BE MANIFESTED. For if character. the functions and ministries of the Spirit are There's just one other thought concerning being exercised fully in a life, the fruit of the this fruit of the Spirit. We have thought of Spirit will be evidenced in that life. You can- the perfection of it, but immediately arising not separate fulness from fruit. And what is out of that: (ii) the attraction of it. How the fruit of the Spirit? May I give it to you in searching it is to read of Him in the Gospels, one word? Character. Now grip that For that "they came to Him." Do they ever come you can recognise a man who is being filled to you? Why did they come to Jesus? Be- with the Spirit of God. He won't claim it; but cause they were drawn. There was an attrac- you can see it—and you can see it, where? tion about Him, and they couldn't keep away When he's in the pulpit? No. You can see it from Him, Do they ever come to us? He in his character. I find that the fulness of Himself said, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw the Holy Spirit is commanded in the New all men unto me." Here's an attraction of Testament; it is recorded in the New Testament; character and of life that's arresting, com- but it is never claimed. When I pelling. Have we that quality of life—a Christ
155 likeness of character that can only be ex- said, "Mummy, I think Jesus must have been plained in terms of what God is doing? like Mr. So-and-so when he smiles." A Christ One of the loveliest testimonies that I have to be manifested. ever heard was a testimony of a small boy No excitement here: not just the letter of of about seven, spending a holiday at the sea- Christian doctrine, but a manifestation in your side. Under the banner of the Children's life and mine of a living Christ. That's what Special Service Mission, a group of young it means: "Be continually being filled with people were bringing Christ to the children the Spirit." A challenge to be met; a condition at morning services on the beach, and after- to be maintained; and ultimately and finally, noon games. This little fellow had joined in a Christ to be manifested. it all for several days, and on this night was being put to bed by his mother, when sud- May I ask you a question? Are you con- denly he asked, "Mummy, what was Jesus tinually being filled with the Spirit of God? like?" His Mummy did not know just what to Are you? That's the command. "Be filled say, and was silent a moment as she thought. with the Spirit." And others won't think of Then suddenly the little fellow went on, "Oh, I you, and you won't think of yourself. They'll think I know, Mummy," and then, naming be seeing Him, and you'll be worshipping Him. one of the workers among the children, he "For He shall glorify me."
156 The Holy Spirit in the Life of a Christian
BY DR. PAUL REES.
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.—Luke 11:13.
I SHOULD like you to dismiss from your known to the leaders of the Church in minds any thought that I am going in this Jerusalem, they sent unto them Peter and message to overlook the fundamental fact that John, who prayed for them, that they might every Christian from one point of view has receive the Holy Spirit. It was by the Spirit they the Holy Spirit. For "if any man have not had received life and the forgiveness of sins; but the Spirit of Christ he is none of His " (Rom. let us not forget—again, the Church has got so 8: 9). To be a Christian at all means that there far away from this that it rather shocks some has been a transaction in which the ministry of people to be told the early Church lived with a the Spirit of God has been operative in testimony and a ministry so clear on this point— your life, and He has imparted to you the that those who were in Christ Jesus, knowing eternal life of God's dear Son, Jesus Christ, Him as their Saviour, were encouraged to and has borne witness to that fact: let this believe that as dedicated Christians they be clear. But it is not clear to all Christians, might have the fulness of God's anointing I am sorry to say, that in a variety of places through His Spirit on their lives, and they might in the New Testament Christians are live in holiness and righteousness and encouraged to believe that for them as the fruitfulness before Him all the days of their children of the Father, there is a ministry of lives. I want to do something that I believe is the Holy Spirit in clearing and control—will rarely attempted—I rarely do it myself, but I feel you mark both of those words, please—which constrained to do it tonight: I want for masses of them know nothing about. For suggestive reasons to treat this word of our example, in the Acts of the Apostles, which Saviour's, as I may be helped by the Spirit, in the as a whole is greatly neglected in the Church of light of this most moving and revealing context, Jesus Christ. One reason why there needs to Luke 11: 1-13. be centres such as Keswick for such an emphasis I want to deal, first, with the source of this gift as we have here, is that, taking our church life and fulness of the Holy Spirit in the life of the as a whole, we have so little clear teaching on Christian. Secondly, the significance of it, as that the total New Testament message concerning the significance appears in two ways—first, in the work and Person of the Holy Spirit in the life Lord's Prayer, and secondly in the parable of of the Christian. I have a very dear friend, a the man who came at the midnight hour minister in the Lutheran Church, and God did asking for bread; the man to whose door he a mighty thing in his life, absolutely came didn't have it, therefore he went in great revolutionised his ministry through an desperation to a neighbour and got it. And experience of being filled with God's Holy finally, the secret of this fulness. A word Spirit. I remember him saying, "For years after about- I came out of the theological college and began my ministry, I by-passed the Acts of 1. THE SOURCE OF IT - " If ye then, the Apostles. Much of it was mystifying to bring evil, know how to give good gifts me." unto your children, how much more shall Now, don't forget that in a chapter like your heavenly Father . . . " Do you Acts 8 we read, "When the apostles which see what that implies? In the light of the were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had setting here, it implies at least two things: received the word"—and may I remind you, first, the relationship that is still yours. Every- they received it so gloriously, so savingly, that body has to do with God as Creator. That is great joy filled the city—when that became inescapable. Everybody, whether he is
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conscious of it or not, has to do with God as you in the fulness of His Holy Spirit, if you Judge, and more particularly will have to do ask Him. with Him one day. But not everybody has to do with God as Father. If you are able to say "my Now what about— heavenly Father," then I am authorised to tell you that you as a member of His family can look II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HOLY up to Him and say, "Father, I know I'm Thy SPIRIT in the life of the Christian? First, child; as Thy child, I want to be filled with will you see it against the background Thy Spirit." of the Family Prayer for a moment. I It is a great thing, you know, to be able to say cannot deal with it in any exhaustive way; I that He is your Father. I remember when my just want to lift up two or three suggestions. eldest child was just a little lassie, I'd been away What I want us to see is the significance of for several weeks, and Mrs. Rees had been with our being filled with God's Holy Spirit from me. It was the longest trip on which we had the point of view of our own personal life gone since our first child had been born to us, and experience ; then in the parable we shall and we were both extremely keen to get back to see the significance of it from the point of view her. She had been staying with her aunt, Mrs. of our relationship to a needy world around Rees' sister, who had written asking us to stop us. First, in this personal way, I want to at the edge of the city and telephone, so that say a pointed thing: and I beg for your careful she could have our Evelyn all ready for us. We attention to what I shall say. I am deeply did so; and drove in to the driveway of this convinced that Christendom as a whole through home, and our little Evelyn came tearing across its very familiarity with the so-called Lord's the lawn—I had to slam my brakes on to keep Prayer, is guilty of an appalling abuse of it. the car from going right into her, because she Even more, I believe deeply that in the fullest ran at us excitedly. And as she came up—I never sense, no Christian can pray the Lord's Prayer forgot it—her hands went together like this, " as it ought to be prayed without knowing the Daddy! "You know, I had seen a lot of little fulness of the control of the Holy Spirit in girls in those weeks I had been away, but not his life, or else desiring just that. one of them had said "Daddy": that was the cry Now, take the beginning of it: do you of filial recognition. Tonight, maybe you have notice just after the address "Our Father, known God as creator, as judge, as governor, which art in heaven," you have in succession for a long, long time; but I ask you, Have three petitions introduced with the little word you come into that relationship with Him "Thy." through the new birth in which you cry "Father" "Thy name be hallowed." How do you and you know that you're His child, having passed hallow God's name? Does anybody in this from death unto life? tent think that you can really hallow God's The second thing implied here is the response name merely by saying with a pious tone, that is fitting. If you are His child, come to "Our Father, which art in heaven." I tell Him as your Father and ask Him for the you, that kind of thing can be a stench in Holy Spirit in the full possession and cleansing God's nostrils. How do you hallow God's and mastery of your personality. Do you name? You hallow it only as you long to know what Jesus says?—your Father will give you be brought into conformity with the character a suitable response. You see how He puts it. He which the name represents. The name in the says, "If a son asks bread of any of you that Bible—both with humans and with God—is is a father, will the father give him a stone?" related to character. "Take off the shoes from Obviously not. If he asks for fish, will he for a off thy feet, Moses, because the ground on fish give him a serpent? Manifestly not. Of if which thou standest is holy ground; and when he shall ask an egg, will he give him a they ask in Egypt who sent you, by what scorpion? No. He will give him the needful authority do you come to lead the children thing, the appropriate thing, the fitting thing. of Israel out of Egypt, say, 'I AM hath sent Lifting our thought to this infinitely high me unto you—the everlastingly Holy One.'" level of our heavenly Father, Jesus says, "He Alexander Maclaren has pointed out that the knows your need; and if you will come, form of language here, "Hallowed be Thy expressing that need, humbly and definitely and name," is precisely the same as in that remark- earnestly, you need not fear what the able passage in Peter where he says, " Sanctify response will be. As certainly as an Christ in your heart as Lord"—hallow Him. intelligent and affectionate father will give his And you do that by telling Him that above child bread when the child asks for it, everything else in all the world, you want your because bread is proper and bread is necessary, heart to be conformed to Him. There's only so certainly will the heavenly Father meet one answer to that, and that is the Holy Spirit.
158 "Thy Kingdom come." Now there is an had nothing to set before the destitute. Being aspect of the Kingdom clearly revealed in the destitute, he became desperate and began New Testament which is future. "Then shall knocking at his neighbour's door. At first the the righteous shine forth as the sun in the neighbour did not want to get up and give him Kingdom of their Father." Thank God that what he wanted; but finally, because of the day is coming, when our Saviour returns. John man's importunity, unashamedness—he was so Bunyan knew what he was talking about when desperate, "It must be I have something with he gave us that whole interesting system of which to meet this man's need." And Jesus metaphors, figures and characters related to says he got up and gave him as many as he what he called Mansoul. Your heart, your needed. God wants to send you away no personality, that's man's soul; and Emmanuel longer destitute, no longer compelled to say is the King, Bunyan said. God wants the whole "I have nothing to set before you "—an kingdom of Mansoul for Himself. And what's enquirer; I have nothing to set before a neighbour the matter with some of us tonight? We of mine, a friend of mine, a class-mate of aren't saying—and if we are saying it, it is mine, a business associate of mine who needs not really true—" Thy Kingdom come." Do the Saviour. Or a struggling Christian who you really mean that are you prepared for needs to know the secret of holiness and victory the King to establish His utmost and undivided in the life. control over your life: your thought-life, your What's the secret? "To them that ask . ." As habit-life, your business-life, your social-life, I comment on this, I am going to ask you to your pleasure-life, everything: "Thy Kingdom bow your heads. "To them that ask . . ." Will come." I tell you, that miserable ego of yours you ask hungrily? If a son asks for bread, will have to abdicate if His Kingdom is to the Father won't give him a stone. Is there come. There's only one answer here, and that's hunger in your heart? You want self-will to the Holy Spirit. You can't do it, but He can. be ended, and the will of God to prevail? You He can bring the Lordship of Christ to the want the divided sovereignty that is yours place where it is a living experimental reality tonight, partly living for Christ, partly living for in your life. self, to be brought to an end, and the Kingdom "Thy will be done."—See that pocket of to come in fulness of power? You want really to self-will that is still there in your life; that hallow His name—you want to have inner pocket of resistance. God's will, gener- something to set before a man in need? Then ally speaking, is acceptable to you; but there ask for it; ask hungrily, ask definitely; don't be is that one area where self-will still holds out. vague, don't be nebulous, don't say I want to Do you see what I mean when I say that in feel better, or I just want a blessing. Say, the last analysis you cannot go over the great "Lord, it is the Holy Spirit, and all His phrases of this prayer and really mean them cleansing and conquering fulness in my life." unless the Spirit of God is in control, or you And ask believingly. Andrew Murray said want Him to be in control? Are you pre- there are steps, and if Christians will take them pared to accept this as the significance of being and mean business with God, the fulness of filled with the Spirit; to hallow His name by blessing will come; and these were the steps he being brought into conformity with His heart; suggested. First, "I believe there is such a to let His Kingdom come, so that He waves blessing"—do you? Step No. 2, "I believe it is the sceptre of absolute authority over you— for me"—do you? Not merely for the His will, not yours, is the good and acceptable apostles, not merely for an Andrew Murray and perfect will of God, in relation to your or a George Muller or a Hudson Taylor or a life. Bishop Moule; I believe it is for me. Third, " What about the significance of being filled I believe it is for me now"—not tomorrow, with the Spirit as far as our relationship with not the next day, not the next Convention I the world of need about us is concerned? Here may attend, but now. And the fourth step is a is the picture of the man who came at mid- difficult one: here is the rub really, said night. He was lost in the night, and he was Andrew Murray—"I am prepared to give up hungry. He knocked at a door, and the man anything and everything that clashes with it." came to the door and said, "Come in; but Are you? Tell God you are. And the next step: I've nothing to set before you." Did you "By simple faith. I do it now." notice that in what Jesus said—" I've nothing "To them that ask." Lord, we thank Thee to set before you"? So the householder, for Thy faithfulness to all of our hearts in destitute in the presence of need, went to his this quiet moment. We ask, that faith—an neighbour. Does that say anything to any- appropriate, a realising faith—may take this body in the hush of this hour—what about word of our Saviour's right to our hearts, the spiritually hungry and thirsty people around victoriously, for Thy name sake. Amen. you, and you've been so barren; you have
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The Peril of a Fading Glory
BY LEITH SAMUEL, B.A. Reading: 2 CORINTHIANS 3: 13-18.
DURING the early days of this week many of this has just gone over their heads; they haven't us have experienced the churning of our really been able to take it in—filled with the hearts in a way we have never known Spirit—no. You're battling against God as before. We have seen afresh the plague of God is saying to you, "I love you—I've got our own hearts, and we have shrunk with a wonderful plan for you. Let me have all loathing from our sinful selves. We have lost your life"; and like a fool you are saying, sight of the other people we had thought to "My plan is better." Oh, let me tell you, be so dreadful, so awful, so shocking. We your plan isn't better. God's will is good, God's have stopped looking with scorn on the failure will is acceptable, God's will is what?—per- of others, and have confessed with shame our feet. own failure and sinfulness. If someone has been missing out, it is be- Tears of contrition, tears of real repentance cause they haven't really put everything in His have been shed in Keswick this week; not just hands, and therefore couldn't say, "Lord, fill sentimental tears, but tears which reveal that me." Bishop Taylor Smith used to delight the Spirit of the living God has been making to say from this platform, "What I offer, the Book live to us, showing us ourselves and God takes; what He takes, He cleanses; what showing us our Saviour. Many of us have He cleanses, He fills; and what He fills, He laid hold of the promise in 1 John 1:9, "If we uses." That is an epitome of Keswick teach- confess our sins, He is faithful—He will never ing; but those who imagine that it points to a belittle sin—and just—He will never overlook blessing that is to be obtained at Keswick and Calvary—to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse taken away from Keswick, are sadly mistaken. us from all unrighteousness." And yesterday, The great emphasis of Keswick is not, "Here having come from the sense of sin to the claim is a blessing, come and get it," but rather, of cleansing, many of us came to the point "Behold the blesser, fall at His feet, receive when we put ourselves utterly and without any what He has for you, go away and walk with reserve at the disposal of the Lord Jesus; and Him." Enter into the life of blessedness; some of us went to sleep last night with a possess your possessions. Don't try to stop here, deep sense of the Lord's favour resting upon sitting on a point of blessing, and saying, us. We knew that what we had offered, He "Well, if I go away, it will evaporate." If you had taken; and what He had taken, He had stop, it will evaporate. It is like trying to sit cleansed; and now tonight, what He has on a bicycle with the brakes on and firm pres- cleansed and taken, we have asked Him to fill, sure on the pedal: you will fall off sooner or and we believe that He has filled us here, sit- later, you know—you can't keep it up for ting in the tent. ever, however clever you are. You've got to But last night some of us didn't get to a keep going forward if you are to enjoy the point of peace, because while there was a bit fulness of blessing. No retreat, no standing of us that wanted to let go, there was another bit that said, "Well, yes, of everything still, but forward, ever forward with the Lord. but ... that." I was talking with a man In the Old Testament it was, "Here am I, this afternoon who couldn't get peace send me": in the New Testament the Lord simply because there was that ... He had let says, "Other sheep I have, which are not of go of everything but that ... He didn't want this fold: them also I must bring"—coming that in Keswick, mind you; but somewhere with me? I'm going, He says; are you coming else, maybe—that, and there was no peace. with me? A walk with the Lord. Maybe there is somebody here who is still like Holiness is a way for us to walk in, not a that: place for us to stop in—a way. There are
160 rests by the wayside, but they are only for us to to happen to us; or are we going to press on gather fresh strength and fresh vision that we in the life of blessedness, thanking Him for the may go on in the way to which He calls us. It testing that is a proof of our sonship; that is a is a life for us to live. We are called, not proof of the fresh blessing He has poured into to an experience of sanctification and that's it; our hearts? we have been to Keswick and we've got it. Now, will you look with me at verses 17 We are called to a life of holiness, a life of and 18: "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and sanctification; that practical sanctification without where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." which no man shall see the Lord. That's what We have asked the Lord who has sent His we are called to. "He that saith He abideth in Spirit to dwell in our hearts, to fill us with His Him, ought to sit still because he abideth ... Holy Spirit; and as we have asked Him, if we no! He that saith he abideth in Him, ought have believed, He has filled us. For when you himself so to walk as He walked." ask, believing, you receive. You haven't spoken In a few hours we shall be back in the rush in tongues? Don't worry—it is only one of and bustle of life. Some of us will be running nine manifestations mentioned in 1 into bigger testings than we've ever faced in Corinthians 12 for those who are filled with our lives before. Let's sombre ourselves for a the Spirit! There are the other eight left! You moment. Bereavement lies in front of us, that can be quite sure of this: if you have asked, we can't anticipate at the moment. Heartache, the Lord has filled; and He who has filled you, disappointment, frustration, loss of promotion has filled you with Himself. because we're too keen, because we won't sell our soul to the business and live for that and Christ by His Spirit is living in me; Satan nothing else. While the man who hasn't our defeated far from me must flee; All qualifications and maybe hasn't our integrity is because Jesus is living in me. raised over us and may take advantage of us— The Saviour who has come to live by His and the Lord will let him, because the Lord isn't Spirit, fills me with His Spirit when my vessel is after pushing us into the biggest places in this yielded to Him. And what is it for? That I world; the Lord is after pushing the biggest may be free—in the context, freed from en- likeness to Himself into us in this world: that is deavouring to get right with God by rules what the Lord is after. Not our comfort, or there and regulations, by the various demands of wouldn't be all the suffering and ghastly pain the old covenant. But more than that, that there is in the world: He is after something freed from the grip and dominion of sin. "Sin's far bigger than our comfort, He's after our dominion crushed and broken"—freed from the character—that we shall be like Him who dominion of lust, freed from the dominion of loved us and gave Himself for us. We are fear. Lots of you came to Keswick under the going to be like Him one day, if we are born dominion of fear, and if you hadn't been at again into God's family. We are predestined to be Keswick the news in the newspapers would have conformed to the image of God's Son. made you considerably more alarmed this If we have received blessing this week, we week than you have been. But here in a can be sure of this, however, the blessing will be vestibule of heaven, we haven't worried so contested, and the proof it was a real blessing much—the dominion of fear, freed from it, from God will be if the enemy is allowed to when the Lord the Spirit is really Lord. contest it. So don't be shattered if you run What does the Spirit bring when He fills my into some storm, that you've never anticipated. heart? Why, He brings the fulness of life in Don't say, " I can't reconcile this with Keswick; I Christ; the fulness of the Saviour's love—as thought the Lord would safeguard me, would much of it as I can hold; and He goes on filling wrap me round with..."—well, what did you me, so that I start overflowing, and instead of think He would wrap you round with? Cotton overflowing with bad temper I overflow with wool, no. Loving arms, yes. Whatever of the love. You overflow with whatever you are storm hits you, has to go through the cracks in filled with, you know. If you have a glass His hands first; and He won't allow anything to hit full of water, and you jar it, it overflows with you that He hasn't weighed out carefully first. "He water—not with lemonade. If you jar it when it knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we is filled with milk it overflows with milk. are dust." That it is that we forget, and try to Whatever you do when you are jarred, reveals behave as though we were super-human. The what you are filled with. If you are filled with question is, Are we going to wince and the spirit of love, you overflow with love. If recoil, and wonder why on earth the Lord is you are filled with the spirit of joy, you allowing this overflow with joy; filled with the spirit of peace, you overflow with peace.
161 When the Spirit of the Lord comes, He not only the consciousness that you got through to fills us with the Saviour's life, He fills us also God; you don't speak to people about the with light, and we see things in the Word of Lord Jesus—you couldn't do a thing like that; God that we couldn't see before. I know some you might have done once, but a veil has risen Christians who get a new Bible when their hearts over your soul, the glory has departed. Thank are filled with the Spirit of God! The Word lives God, the glory can come back; you can take as it never lived before. And not only with this the veil off, you can strip yourself before God light, but also with liberty: filled with liberty. Almighty, who so loved you that He sent His This life is a life of resting in the Lord, as well Son to die for you; and down at His feet as of making progress. I am no longer trying to you can say, "Lord, forgive me for this bluff; pull myself up to the standards: the Lord is forgive me for this camouflage, this pretending, lifting me. I know I can't. Whenever I stand in a this carrying on a part while all time my heart pulpit, whether the congregation is large or small, has been naked and empty, but no-one has I know I daren't speak to those people just out known because I have gone on using the right of my head. Oh, yes, I know orthodox theology. I jargon, the right phrases, I carried on with know, I think, most of the fundamentals of my Christian service, I have been doing all Keswick teaching. I know—but listen; I daren't the things I did before, and nobody knows speak, myself. I have to say, "Lord, I can't, but the emptiness and hollowness of my heart. 0 You can. Please do it through me." And God, forgive me." there's liberty. The strain goes, and you no Where there is an empty heart, there's un- longer feel, "Am I going to let Him down; am I belief; where there's an empty heart, there's going to let them down?" You know that the fear; where there's an empty heart, there's the Lord has charge, and the Lord is filling you, and dominance of worry. You have been like that, the Lord is going to overflow; and you know that and you have been carrying on outwardly. God it doesn't matter so much about your sermon, is here, and that to bless you with the Spirit's because He is here to meet the people who are quickening power. Someone says, "Well, I've hungry for blessing, and He is going to bless only just got the glory; I've only just opened them—He is going to do it Himself, because He my heart to Him, and it's wonderful to think is longing to bless. We haven't to persuade a that the Lord has filled me! My, to think it's reluctant God to give us a bit more than we have as simple as that; all I have to do is to ever had before, to take away from Keswick. We come to Him and to put myself in His Hands, come to a Heavenly Father, as Dr. Rees has and He took me and cleansed me as I con- reminded us, who is longing to pour into his fessed my sins, and then He filled me; I children's hearts all things that are good for thought I might leap. I've got that 'joy, joy, them. Those who are fathers know something of joy, down in my heart.' I've sung it before, that longing to give your children the best, and to but now it's really there." It's one thing to keep the worst away from them. That's your sing things, isn't it? But it is another thing for Father in heaven. the blessing really to be there. Listen, the Where the Spirit of the Lord is, residing and blessing is there. Thank God for that. The presiding, there is liberty. Going away to a life Lord has met you, and filled you; thank God of liberty—a life of service and yet liberty, a for that. But let me warn you: the devil is life of slavery and yet liberty, a bond-slavery after that blessing, and if he can put a veil to Christ, the Lord of life, the Lord of glory, the over that glory, he will. If he can push in wonderful Lover of our souls, whose service is between the life of the Lord Jesus as He lives perfect freedom. out His life in you, and hide the glory of the The second thing for us to think of is, the Lord Jesus as He would shine forth the glory life-long peril—and it is a life-long peril, of from you, he will. fading glory. "Not, as Moses," says v. 13; "Who They say that fore-warned is fore-armed; put a veil over his face." Why? So that the and most doctors much prefer preventive medi- people couldn't see that the glory was fading. cine to curative medicine. May I do a little There are people here who have had a veil over prevention. Let me warn you of some of the their faces. They wear a badge, carry a Bible, go things that have assailed the Christian who to meetings, say "Amen" at the right places; has been blessed. Here's the first: the but it is a veil, it is a bluff. The glory neglected Bible. "I've got such a blessing underneath has faded years ago. But you manage now I don't need to read my Bible. I'm guided to camouflage it. You don't read the Bible on your by the Spirit; I'm filled with the Spirit. These own and get real blessing from it; you don't silly old people who have the Bible, legalists, pray and get letter-killers; I've got the Spirit." I warn you, my friends, against neglecting the Word of God—for this is the mirror in which the glory
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of Christ is seen, and if you don't look in the the words and your heart wasn't behind them : mirror you will not behold the glory; and if the glory won't stay. You won't retain the you don't behold the glory, you won't reflect glory if you've got pride in it, and go back and the glory. Any day of neglecting to look in say, "I've got a big blessing at Keswick, much the mirror—my word, you wouldn't do it with bigger than so and so." There won't be any- the ordinary mirror, would you? You're not thing left of it then; or if there was pride in a cave man! Any day of neglecting to look in your gift, or ability, or your training. the mirror, will tell on your spiritual health. You won't be able to keep the blessing, But as you behold Him; as you behold afresh either, if there is an ambition you have not the glory of His pre-incarnate existence, the yielded; or envy or coveteousness that you glory of His lowly life, the glory of His have not turned away from. The unkind word atoning death, the glory of His bodily resur- and the unfettered temper, these drive away rection, the glory of His session at His Father's the glory in the home. Your wife won't see right hand, and the glory of His coming again the glory if you speak unkindly to her, or if in majesty and power, and His coming to take you act in an unkindly way to her. The un- His waiting people home—as you behold that disciplined home, the dirty home, the neglected glory, the glory of the Lord, you will be trans- home, the untidy home, that's enough to take formed into the same image. the edge off the glory. In our church fellow- That's God purpose; not to bless you, but ship, if we just don't bother about the rest— to transform you into the same image as He they're not keen enough, they're not our type brings many sons unto glory. Oh yes, I know —the glory will soon go. How do you think that we are going to be like Him one day; but they are ever going to be your type if you keep it is the will of God that we shall grow more away from them? Unnecessary controversy: like Him every day. That is the will of God some controversies are necessary, some we can —not just the longing, as it is in so many of keep out of without being traitor to our Lord. our hymns— Unnecessary controversy takes away the glory. Untiring self-justification. "Oh, we're never May His beauty rest upon me in the wrong," it's always the others—and the As I seek the lost to win glory goes. Unashamed talk about our failure, And may they forget the channel, instead of deep humility and humiliation—the Seeing only Him. glory goes. Unrestrained criticism about another; if we have to be critical, that is to Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, say, we have to distinguish between what is All His wondrous compassion and purity; right and what is wrong, what is sound and what Oh, Thou Spirit divine, make all His nature is unsound; but unrestrained criticism is in- mine, compatible with love—and the glory goes. An Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. unforgiven slight," or if I do forgive them, I shan't forget it," there is no forgiveness if Not only in our hymns, not only in our you are not prepared to forget—and the glory choruses, it is in the Word—that is why it is goes. Passing on to others what has been in our hymns. And it is in our hearts, isn't told us in the strictest confidence; and there it? Isn't your longing tonight to be like your is far too much of that in evangelical circles— Lord, like Jesus? I long to be like Jesus. I and the glory goes. "Only for prayer, dear love Him, so I want to grow like Jesus day brother, only for prayer; you will remember, by day. When the world sees believers grow- won't you." It wasn't for prayer, it was for ing more like Jesus, the world's ears will flap scandal, it was for gossip—and the glory goes. to hear our message. But when the world sees I am warning you. "Behold," as the Lord Christians cantankerous, cross and peevish, and said, "I have told you before." falling out with one another, and crossing one Exaggerating our successes: saying the place another's t's, and dotting one another's i's, was full when it wasn't, it was only half full, and excommunicating one another, and doing or three-quarters full; belittling those of all we can to hurt, malign and slander one others; playing down our failures, making another, the world says, "Not that for me I much of the failures of others—and the glory know what they are talking about, but they goes. Respect of persons, fawning on those don't live it." I think are above me, and no time at all for Oh, that the love-life of the Lord Jesus those I think are below me—snobbery, and the could be seen in us! It won't be, if we neglect glory goes. Undisciplined friendships: love the Bible. It won't be, either, if we neglect and time are far too precious to be wasted, prayer. You can't expect glory to stay if you and undisciplined friendships can rob us of neglect to pray; if you rush into your prayer the glory. So can undisciplined spending; and it is just meaningless—you've just said and so can undisciplined viewing. Have you
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got TV? Be careful that it isn't the Trojan Church, Chicago, for the Moody centenary horse in your home. I know some Christians celebrations. On the way over he lost his who would not be seen indulging certain things voice—you can do that if you walk round the outside, but unashamedly enjoy those things deck too much, in a strong wind. When the inside their homes: things that one day will Bishop arrived, Dr. Harry Ironside met him make their children rise up and call them and said, "My dear sir, what are you going cursed for allowing their morals to be so to do? You can't speak!" The Bishop re- lowered and their standards to be so debased. plied, "I must speak! I've come across the Christian homes watch the Trojan horse. A Atlantic to speak." I don't know whether they good horse if you keep it on a short rein: had a loud-speaker equipment as good as this there's lots of instruction in it; but I know at Keswick, but he stood on the platform and Christians who have lost all joy they had in spoke for forty minutes—and the first few the Lord, and all desire to win others, because rows heard him, but all the rest didn't: and they have become as glued to that screen as that church seats four thousand! But there any worldling who ever sat at a show. was a man up in the gallery who made his Being a slave to other people's opinions, way down to the vestry afterwards, and he being a slave to other people's programmes, went up to Bishop Taylor Smith and said, being slaves to books, or being a slave to dress "Bishop, I didn't hear a word you said, I —these can rob us of the glory. Failing to was too far away; but Bishop, as I watched speak a word when the Lord served it up your face, I became convicted that I must so easily before us; but we were afraid of become a Christian." The explanation?—" I what they thought of us, instead of being con- watched your face." cerned for what they thought of Him—and the "We all, with unveiled face beholding as in glory goes. The unshouldered burden which in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being is waiting for you when you go back—pick it transfigured into the same image from glory up, or the glory will go. The resented limi- to glory—from one degree of radiant holiness tation: "Why, oh why should I be tied up like to another." this? Frustrating circumstances and dis- appointments: "Why, I am not going to John Wesley was preaching at Spitalfields, stand for it, it is not right, when you think and two fellows, very hard drinkers, were cross of so-and-so and the easy life they have because he was denouncing the sins of Spital- "embitterment, and the glory goes. You can't fields and not the sins of Moorfields; and one nurse a grudge against God or your neighbour said to the other, " Let's do him in, Bill." and reflect the glory. "Yes," said Bill. So they got two big boulders The last thought, the luminous pathway of and made their way to where they could get progressive transformation. Do you know at Wesley. They had just got to a good vantage what "changed" means, in verse 18? It point, and were about to heave, when Wesley's means "transformed," as in Romans 12:2. Do subject changed: from sin, he started to talk you know what "transformed" means? It means about the Saviour. And as he talked of his transfigured, as in Matthew 17:2, "He was Saviour, Wesley's face lit up: he told what a transfigured before them, and His face did wonderful Saviour He was, what a glorious shine as the sun." Transfigured; and our Saviour; and Bill and his pal stood there transfiguration is to take place progressively: transfixed, stones in hand. Wesley saw it, and "changed from glory unto glory," progres- when he finished proclaiming the wonderful sively; as Weymouth delightfully renders it, riches of forgiveness and liberty in Christ, he "from one degree of radiant holiness to came down from his box and went over to another." Bill and his pal, and the stones just dropped This is the will of God to you: that you out of their hands. Wesley put one hand should grow more like the Lord Jesus day on one head and the other hand on the by day; that more of His life should be seen other head and he said, "God bless you, in you day by day. Do you want to grow my boys. God bless you," and walked like Him? Is the glory of God going to be on. Bill turned to his friend, and said, "Was seen in your life and in your face? Dr. Rees it God Almighty Himself?" And his friend was telling me that Bishop Taylor Smith went said, "No, Bill, but it was a man like God." over the Atlantic to the Moody Memorial Will you be that man?
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FRIDAY, JULY 18th
10 a.m.—MISSIONARY MEETING "TO MEET THIS HOUR" 3 p.m.—AFTERNOON MEETING TAKE CARE HOW YOU LIVE DR. PAUL REES
8.15 p.m.—COMMUNION SERVICE ABIDE WITH US REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON
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The Pertinent Question of Effectual Service THURSDAY'S glorious weather was not a "Keswick deputation" speaker in Australia and repeated on Friday, which dawned overcast and New Zealand, America and Africa during the threatening. There were, however, very large past six months. This revealed how the attendances at both prayer meetings. In the large Keswick message is indeed bearing fruit world- wide; and how eagerly welcomed at tent, a period was set aside for praise and "Keswick" Conventions in many lands are testimony, and with great spontaneity people speakers from the "parent" Convention. rose to their feet to praise God for blessing Rain was falling heavily as the great congre- received during the week—for sins forgiven, for gation assembled for the last time at 8.15 p.m. restored faith, and for new experiences of the for the United Communion Service. The tent Lord. was filled to its utmost capacity, and—the bad According to custom the morning was devoted weather preventing an "overflow" outdoors— from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, to the missionary some two hundred or so people had to go to meeting, at which the challenge of unpreceded the rest tent, where the service was relayed need and opportunity world-wide, in view of the and where they participated in the act of tensions created by intense nationalism, and remembrance of our Lord's death "till He the consequent threat of closing doors, was come." The service began with some in- presented by speakers representing varying fields vocatory Scriptures read by the Rev. Francis and spheres of work; and afterwards some Dixon, who presided. Then we sang, "Hail, two hundred or more young people asked for Thou once despised Jesus," and Mr. Dixon the forms to sign, indicating their response to the gave a brief meditation on the story of our call of the Lord to serve Him wheresoever He Lord's conversation with the two disciples on might appoint. the road to Emmaus. While the large tent was being prepared in the James Montgomery's communion hymn— afternoon for the Communion Service with which the Convention would close, the small tent was filled to capacity for a meeting arranged According to Thy gracious word, especially for the benefit of those who during In meek humility, the week had responded to the voice of God, This will I do, my dying Lord: whether calling to service or a deeper quality of I will remember Thee. life. In his brief address from the chair, Mr. was sung; and then, in impressive, worshipful Leith Samuel turned attention to three phrases in silence the elements were distributed to the Colossians 3: the peace of Christ, the word of great company—representing many denomina- Christ, and the name of the Lord Jesus, tions and from many different lands, yet "all stressing the necessity to maintain fellowship one in Christ Jesus"—and all united in the with Christ, taking time to study His Word as a supreme act of Christian fellowship and means of becoming like Him in character. worship. Dr. Paul Rees, addressing his great audience as The missionary challenge of the morning "my dear tired friends," said he realised how was linked with this worship and fellowship of tired they must be after such a week, and he and the eventide in the singing of the famous Mr. Samuel had prayed that the Lord would put hymn by a Keswick speaker whose ministry something into the service that would be at the Convention is still gratefully remem- deeply exhilarating, even physically. That prayer bered by very many, Dr. W. Y. Fullerton— was manifestly answered, as with appreciative attention he was followed in a most helpful I cannot tell why He, whom angels worship, exposition of Ephesians 5:15, "Take care, then, Should set His love upon the sons of how you live" (Goodspeed) and its context. men . . . At 5 p.m. a "Keswick Fellowship" meeting — which was not included in the printed pro- Then, after the Benediction and the Doxology, gramme—was held, at which the Rev. G. B. the congregation quietly dispersed for the last Duncan gave a stirring account of his ministry as time, and "Keswick 1958" was ended.
166 To Meet This Hour EWS of the disturbed and threatening sentative of work among Jews; and the Rev. N situation in the Middle East, consequent Roger Allison drew a picture of unprecedented upon the massacre of the royal family of Iraq, responsiveness to the Gospel on the part of and turmoil in neighbouring states, imparted Jews, both in this country and in Israel. an even more urgent note than usual to the Cherished prejudices are being broken down, great missionary meeting at the Keswick Con- and an understanding approach to Jews is vention, to which the whole of the Friday meeting with response. In Israel, religion—and morning was devoted. The sky was overcast many of the younger people especially are as the great crowd assembled, completely filling estranged from it—leaves them far from satis- the large tent. There was a keen sense of the fied. There is generally a keen interest in the seriousness of the days in which we live, and Hebrew New Testament; the higher forms in that the present opportunities for the fulfilling Government schools give it place in their cur- of our Lord's last commission might not be riculum, and young soldiers in the Israeli army ours for long. This urgency was perfectly are encouraged to read it. This is the day of expressed in the final hymn, written by Mrs. opportunity. Albert Head, wife of a former Chairman of the Convention- THE MOSLEM WORLD The Rev. Ross Tully, of West Pakistan, who 0 Breath of life, come sweeping through represented the Moslem world, stressed how us, deeply involved all Moslems are in the complex Revive Thy Church with life and and dangerous situation in the Middle East. power ; There is a strong fellow-feeling between all 0 Breath of life, come cleanse, renew us Moslem communities; what affects one area And fit Thy Church to meet this hour. has repercussions among all the 400 millions who comprise one-seventh of the world's popu- "To meet this hour"—that was the keynote lation. The Moslem is very proud of his race of the gathering, running through most of the and religion. As Mohammed was born six brief addresses of the missionary speakers, and hundred years after Christ, they regard him as re-emphasised again and again by the Chair- God's last messenger, and the Koran as God's man in his concluding appeal. last word to man. In their eyes, Jesus Christ Promptly at 10 a.m. the Rev. A. T. Houghton was merely a prophet. Islam attacks the very —formerly a missionary in Burma and now vitals of the Christian faith. For a Moslem to general secretary of the B.C.M.S.—announced confess Christ is regarded as highly unpatriotic the opening hymn, "Oh, the deep, deep love of and shameful; Christian communities are Jesus," after which 1 Corinthians 13 was read despised, and accused of being subservient to by Canon T. F. C. Bewes, C.M.S. secretary the "Vest. Yet despite all this, more Moslems are for Africa and himself a former missionary reading the Word than ever before, and some among the Kikuyu. Prayer for the world was are seeking and finding the Saviour. In West offered by the Rev. G. B. Duncan. "Wilt Pakistan, the Christians are a tiny minority, Thou not send forth Thy light and truth ... only one per cent of the population. The and to that end bless Thy Church, the chosen most urgent need is for revival within the instrument of Thy grace. Relate Thy Church Church; nevertheless the Lord is raising up to the tensions, anxieties and darkness of the Pakistani Christians as His witnesses to their world.... May this meeting be fruitful in the own people. fulfilling of Thy purposes of redemption unto the ends of the earth." TROPICAL AFRICA The cry of the human heart the world over, WORK AMONG JEWS said William Nagenda, from Ruanda, is ex- Tradition at Keswick accords priority of pressed in the words of the psalmist, "Who place among the missionary speakers to a repre- will show us any good thing?" (Psa. 4:6). Hav-
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ing looked for good things in this life, they the presence of quite a number of West Afri- remain unsatisfied, and can find the answer to cans in the congregations at Keswick. A their longing alone in Christ. It had been the matter of great concern, however, is the spread cry of his own heart for twenty-two years. of Islam. Dense forests form a natural barrier Although reared in a Christian home, and con- between West Africa and the Moslem north. firmed, he was muddled and confused, even at Protestant missionaries have penetrated these Christian conferences. At length four Africans forests, by river and jungle treks, and a glorious came to his town and preached Christ, "and I work has been done among the animistic tribes had never known Him to be so good!" he inhabiting them. In the last decade or two, exclaimed. That was twenty-two years ago, however, modern communications have opened and he had found that Christ fully satisfies. up these regions to the outsider: and Moslems But many in Africa are still crying as he had have not been slow to take advantage of them. done. "The teaching of Christianity has be- Their method is that of "peaceful penetration," come rather complicated for some of us—how and there are mosques all over the area. All Moslems are missionaries of their religion. to be justified, and sanctified, and receive a They offer hospitality in the cities to pagans third or fourth or fifth blessing! Then I learned coming into towns to find work, and the only that Jesus is the fulness of God, and all I payment they seek is the hope that their guests want is Jesus! will become adherents of their faith. Islam is ETHIOPIA AND CHRISTIAN therefore self-propagating and self-supporting. LITERATURE It has undoubted attractions: it offers a religion of works—not too onerous—and brings a cer- An agriculturalist, Mr. C. M. G. Blair, repre- tain culture and prestige: it is not surprising sented both Christian witness in Ethiopia and that so many pagans are embracing it. In the ministry of Christian literature. In spite face of this challenge, the Bible Society has of the advance of radio and TV, the printed appointed missionaries to visit training insti- book is still the greatest force in the spreading tutions and alert students to the threat of Islam, of ideas, he affirmed. The Communists are and to enlist volunteers who go out among aware of this, and scatter cheap books of pro- Moslems, discussing the questions of faith, and paganda everywhere. Christians, on the other seeking to win them for Christ. In West hand, are too slow to take advantage of this Africa also there are sixty translation projects method of disseminating the Gospel. We have proceeding under the auspices of four Bible much to be proud of in the record of mission- Societies; and colporteurs are taking the Scrip- aries in the translation of the Scriptures; but tures to both Moslems and pagans. It is the too often other forms of Christian literature Word that brings light. are neglected. A striking contrast was then presented by the speaker between the hundreds MEDICAL MISSIONS of books available on the bookstalls at Kes- Recipient of the O.B.E. in the recent Birth- wick, and the total of five books provided for day Honours, Dr. E. B. Wild, of Iran, told of Ethiopian Christians in their own language. a British lecturer in that country who was The problem is accentuated by the fact that asked, "Are you a Christian?" and on his re- few missionaries know the language well plying "Yes" received the disconcerting re- enough to translate books into it; and fewer sponse, "Then why don't you say so!" That Ethiopians are qualified to write books. was symptomatic of the need in Iran to-day. Ethiopia is one of the lands of the East with The meeting of that need is no easy matter, an ancient Christian Church; if that Church however. There are seventeen million pople, had been true to the Word, missionaries would with closed minds to Christianity: they believe not be needed today. But the Word of God they defeated the Christians in the Crusades. was displaced by the traditions of men. There One effectual means of showing forth the is today, happily, a widespread interest in the Gospel, however, is medical work. Dr. Wild Bible. A Bible-based revival in Ethiopia instanced several cases in which the life of the could be the most significant thing in the his- Christian nurses has had a great effect—among tory of Africa. both tribesmen and villagers, rich and poor. One girl burned her face severely and was so WEST AFRICA scarred that she was ashamed to go out. Representative of the Bible Society in West Months of careful nursing and skin-grafting Africa, the Rev. E. M. Roulet said that a won- gave her a new face—but more important, she derful work is being done by missionaries in found a new Saviour. "It's not much of a that area, as evidenced by the vigorous national face, for I'm not much of a plastic surgeon," Church, excellent schools and hospitals—and Dr. Wild observed, "but it is beaming for her
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Lord." The training of nurses and medical Dansey. There is, indeed, a new upsurge of students presents great opportunities, too. Yet Buddhism, with an aggressive missionary spirit. in Iran, where there used to be five mission But there is encouraging progress among the hospitals, there are now only two; and in one tribal animists. Burma is "The land of Golden of these there is only one doctor. "What are Earth," a land of plenty—with abounding rice, you going to do about it?" timber, minerals. Yet there is darkness in the hearts of the people. Only three-and-a-half During the singing of the hymn, "They come per cent are Christians. Eighty-four per cent and go, the seasons fair," the offering was are Buddhists, in double darkness, for their taken; then the survey of the fields white unto Buddhist beliefs are super-imposed upon old harvest was continued with- fears of evil spirits. The early missionaries, DOHNAVUR finding how stubborn were the Buddhists, The Chairman recalled that the first mis- turned to the hill people, and accomplished sionary sent out to the field by the Keswick good work among them; and there are to-day Convention was Miss Amy Wilson Carmichael, churches, schools, and hospitals among them. who established the work at Dohnavur among But there are not more than eight thousand children rescued from a life of shame and true Burmese Christians among the Buddhists. degradation in Hindu temples. Miss M. Wil- These include, however, some influential people, kinson told of the early days of the work, and who present a steadfast witness—including the said that although the dedication of girls for Attorney-General, Professors and lecturers in temple service is now illegal, the powers of evil the university, and others in high office in represented by this system are not to be broken Rangoon. The son of a High Court Judge by the passing of a law. There is a great in- was turned out of his home when he became a crease in the number of houses of ill-repute, Christian, and is now a missionary to the tribal and women in these houses even take girl people. babies, to bring them up to a life of prostitu- THAILAND tion. It is harder to find the evils to which The first missionary from Thailand ever to unprotected boys are exposed. There are be- speak from the Keswick platform—"so far as I tween four and five hundred children in the know," cautiously added the Chairman—Dr. Homes, most of non-Christian parentage and June Morgan described it as a "land of the with a Hindu background. In the eleven free." Thailand has always been an independent years since India's independence, they have country; never under Western control. The been as completely free to bring up these constitution is similar to the British; there is full children as if they were in a Christian home freedom of religion in law—but in practice, not in this land. But we do not know how long always so. Some teachers have lost their jobs this opportunity will continue. because they would not bow to Buddha at the EDUCATIONAL WORK IN INDIA beginning of the day; officials have lost their Introduced as the niece of a beloved Indian posts, and students failed in their exams. There is Bishop, Miss T. B. Tarafdar spoke of educa- also freedom to sin. Buddhism is a highly tional work in her country. Although there moral creed; but a dead Buddha gives no power are many schools, of all grades, the masses of to live according to that creed. But there is the people are still illiterate, she said. There freedom to preach; yet until seven years ago is a great scarcity of trained teachers, and some there was no missionary within a hundred have to manage over sixty children. Christian miles of where Dr. Morgan is now stationed. teachers are welcomed by heads in non-Chris- In all Thailand there are fewer Christians than tian schools, because they are recognised as would fill the tent at Keswick. 'When missionaries being more responsible and conscientious than left China, some came to Thailand. A Christian non-Christians. There is therefore great scope hospital, clinics, leprosy work, and children's for the training of Christian teachers: and meetings by the riverside, open-air preaching in what great opportunities they have, if they are the markets, all commend the Gospel. Dr. truly Christian. Many government officials still Morgan concluded with a parable. In Burma choose mission schools for their children: they the floods rise annually and fertilise the rice. recognise the better teaching and character- "We have yet to see the flood of blessing." Yet training the children receive there. a few are corning to the Lord—a washer-woman left by her husband because she contracted BURMA leprosy, and is now cured, in both body and Small progress has been made by the Church soul; a school-girl, thrown out of her home— in Burma during 130 years of Christian witness and then asked to come back because she was among its Buddhist people, said the Rev. D. the best cook in
169 the family and they missed the meals she pre- industrialisation bears witness; agriculture is pared!; an actor, now at the hospital, writing and being modernised, and the social services being composing hymns which the church loves. But brought up to date. No wonder the South there is no flood. Is this because there is no American is also confident! But what of the flood of prayer? spiritual side? He is essentially religious. There is an upsurge of Roman Catholicism, FORMOSA rising to accept the challenge of today. A riposte by Miss A. K. Heath, to an observation Every type of exotic cult has its addicts. As a by the Chairman, caused a ripple of laughter result of over one hundred years of Gospel throughout the congregation. Mr. Houghton witness, a national Church has emerged. Brazil introduced her as "formerly of China," but is in the forefront, and sets the pattern concern- she swiftly reminded him that "Formosa is one ing the Church: it is strong, virile, and accepts of the provinces of China!" It was so in little responsibility for evangelising its own people. It more than name until it was returned to China at accepts missionary co-operation—not domi- the end of the war. Only two hundred miles nation. There is still room for missionaries: long, and eighty wide, it used to have a there is still room for you—within the frame- population of six millions—now swollen to ten work of the national Church. millions by the influx from the mainland. There are today hundreds of churches and chapels CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS there, and over two hundred pastors and The bird's-eye-view of many-sided Christian evangelists; yet only one per cent of the people witness in many parts of the world completed, are even nominally Christians, and a large area the congregation sang "0 Breath of life," and on the west coast is virtually unevangelised. In then the Chairman said that if the Christian the mountains are seven tribes of Indonesian Church throughout the world were really re- origin, each with its own language. Japan forbade vived, there would be no difficulty in meeting missionary activity among these; but during the the need represented to us this morning. We war a remarkable work was done, and there has pray—in the words of the hymn just sung- " been a "mass movement" to Christianity. Yet . .. and fit Thy Church to meet this hour." their knowledge of Christian truth is limited, We have to acknowledge that we are not fit, and the pastors sorely need more teaching and if we look to ourselves individually. May the oversight. Miss Heath asked for prayer for prayer be ours, "Lord, send revival, and begin conferences and camps about to be held— in me." especially for one for pastors and evangelists, at As we acknowledge our unfitness, unworthi- which Dr. Paul Rees would be speaking. ness and insufficiency, the Chairman proceeded, we are in a position to face the cost of being SOUTH AMERICA prepared "to meet this hour": it might involve In a graphic metaphor, Mr. W. B. Forsyth our coming to the place of brokenness at the described South America as "the teen-ager foot of the Cross. But God does not allow among the continents," and its republics as "the us to be bent and broken before Him without adolescents among the nations." The periodic the promise of making us vessels fit for the upheavals of which we hear so much are but the Master's use. Yet if the Holy Spirit is to "fit growing pains of these younger nations Like His Church to meet this hour" in revival, it teenagers, they are aware, alert, confident. The must begin with what David called "the sacrifice Latin American is aware of the vast resources at of a broken heart." That, He will not despise. his disposal—land to spare; minerals enough for Can we come in that spirit? We are nothing; centuries; oil already gushing from a hundred but our Lord Jesus Christ, He is to be the wells; soil—well, if anything will grow anywhere, Lord of our lives, that no longer shall we be it will grow in South America! He is also alert to misfits, but rather made fit for the Master's use. the opportunities offered him, and resolved that Our Lord will not be satisfied until all those he will live in the fulness of this atomic age. "other sheep" are gathered into His fold. In True, there are some in the jungle who still live the last verse of that hymn we pray, "Equip in the stone age: but they are the minority; the Thy church to spread the light." Each of us spirit of the atomic age predominates. The has a part to fulfil in that: not one is excluded. South American will point to his wonderful On some He will lay the burden of the world. cities; and if he is a Brazilian, to Brazilia, a We must take time to pray—not desultorily, miracle of town-planning, and with architecture but rather in the exercise of systematic, fer- admired throughout the world. Yes, he is living in vent, effective intercession. the twentieth century: as the rapid progress of Has He shown to us the cost involved in
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furtherance of the Gospel in terms of finance That will necessitate special training.... "Equip Thy these days? Some think that missionary work is Church to spread the light." The sacrifice of still maintained on the same expenditure as fifty time in preparation will be well worth while, if years ago. "When one thinks of the paltry thereby you are better equipped to go forth. amount given to missions in comparison with "Whom shall I send?" was the word of God to what is spent on the world's pleasures, one is the prophet—and to you today. Send ... to the ashamed," the Chairman exclaimed. "Do you ends of the earth—as a missionary, or in any give according to your income? Have you begun other capacity; or at home. "Young man, young to tithe? At least that portion of your income woman, are you prepared?" was the should be set aside for the Lord's work. Chairman's ringing challenge, "in the presence of "But we haven't done with sacrifice yet," the Lord's people, to stand to signify your Mr. Houghton gave warning; and he asked answer, 'Here am I, send me!' Respond not to older parents, who cannot go themselves, my words, but to His call." whether they would be prepared to offer their And without hesitation young people in all children to serve the Lord overseas, if He parts of the tent stood up—some two hundred should call them. And how much the Lord and twenty, according to the number of forms could do with the qualifications we have, here at requested afterwards, for signing to "seal" their home—and the Chairman instanced the need dedication — and then, while all bowed in of missionary societies for shorthand-typists, prayer, the Chairman commended them to the ready to serve the Lord at lower salaries than Lord, and to His leading in all their future the commercial world can offer. way. Finally, a clear-cut call to the young people, In that solemn act of surrender and self- to equip themselves for service at home or dedication the service closed, with the singing of abroad. Are you prepared to lay aside am- the Doxology: and many besides the two bitions and prospects. He laid aside His glory, hundred and twenty went out to face the impli- for our salvation; are you ready to lay aside a cations of their pledge to serve Him with all cherished ambition? The best qualifications can their hearts and lives and soul and strength . . and must be used in the Lord's service. . even unto the ends of the earth.
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Take Care How You Live!
By DR. PAUL REES.
Reading : EPHESIANS 5 : 8-21.
LET me bring you back to verse 15, which in for from the Christian point of view, what is the Authorised Version reads, "See then that right is wise, and what is wrong is foolish. And ye walk circumspectly," but which Goodspeed please, younger Christians, do not let any of tronslates, "Take great care, then, how you the clever friends of yours who are living a wordly life, ever convince you otherwise. What is live." Certainly this afternoon, near the close of contrary to the mind of Christ is foolish. It is this Convention, is a good time to remind stupid in the last analysis. Make no mistake ourselves that the Christian Gospel is not only about it. And what is in keeping with His concerned about what you and I believe, and mind is the wisdom of life; and in the end it what you and I experience; it is concerned will be shown to be so. about the way and the fashion in which we Now, the larger setting of our text is most serve. A Quaker meeting-house was just being interesting. Paul says, for instance, Take this emptied at the close of an hour of worship, when very ordinary matter of relationships—relation- a man came hurrying up, thinking he would not ships right in the family. If you are going to be too late to have some part in that be the kind of Christian, if you are going to worshipping experience; but seeing the friends live with the guardedness and the victorious- coming out, he said to one of them, "Is the ness with which Christ wants you to live, you service over?" "No," said this friend, "the must have the Christian management of these meeting is over, but the service has just begun." relations: and the very wisdom of God will A fine point, is it not? The meeting is over, the be required. What does Paul say? "Hus- bands, love your wives." What else does he meeting with our Lord, the meeting we have say? "Wives, submit yourselves unto your had with one another in His house; but the husbands." What I want you to see is, that service has just begun. It is upon that that according to the wisdom of the Gospel the law we are now embarked. The Convention is of self-interest is to be cancelled out, and the over, or very nearly so; but the service, the life law of mutuality, of regard and of affection, to be lived and the service to be rendered, is to prevail. Listen. If you quote this verse to these have just begun. Now what is involved your wife, "Wives, submit yourselves to your in this? First I suggest that living and serving husbands" and you make that, or attempt to as we should as children of light, involves— make it, the Biblical basis for being ruthless, I. THE WISDOM OF GOD FOR OUR ILLU- tyrannical with your wife, you are a first-class MINATION. This is a requirement without which rascal, and you are abusing Scripture. For the we cannot get on. Hence you find Paul saying same passage also says, "Husbands, love your here, "Not as fools, but as wise" (v. 15). Has it wives." You get it, do you not? The jungle ever struck you in reading the Sermon on the law of individuality goes, and the Christian law Mount, that when our divine Master came to the of mutuality prevails. That is the wisdom of close of it He did not say, as we might have Christ about how to live, how to behave. The expected Him to say, "Whosoever heareth these same thing occurs in the relationships between sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken parents and children. If, on the one hand, him unto a good man." What did He say? "I children are taught to obey their parents, the will liken him unto a wise man." Conversely, parents are never to take advantage of that, the Master did not say, "Whosoever heareth and think they are to be martinets with their these sayings of mine and doeth them not, is like children because they happen to be older, or a wicked, unrighteous man." He did not say that. happen to have the authority. They are not to He said, "a foolish man," provoke their children to wrath, but are to
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bring them up in the nurture and admonition of tier in the upper balcony. That afternoon 596 the Lord, by the exercise of loving persuasion, people were burned to death in that inferno. It sometimes by sterner disciplines, but in general happened that there was a man in the theatre by setting a godly example and being consistent who escaped. In order to get out, he had to about it. climb over the trampled down bodies of women Secondly, if we are to live and serve as Christ and children. Earlier that afternoon a young wants us to, not only must we have the wisdom man whose uncle was one of Chicago's dis- of God for our illumination, we must have— tinguished ministers, had been talking in the study with his preacher uncle, and as he went H. THE WORK OF GOD FOR OUR OBLIGA- away his eye fell on the manuscript of the TION. Look at v. 16, "redeeming the time," sermon prepared for the next morning. The and the original here is most picturesque" text was, "To this end was I born, and for this buying up the opportunity." It is really a cause came I into the world, to bear witness to market place term, and presumably comes from the truth," and that phrase, "to this end was I the practices of the eastern bazaars. If you born," fascinated for a moment that nephew's have travelled in the East you will know that if mind, and he said, "Uncle, I wish I knew why you go into a shop or market you do not have I had been born. I am not sure that I do." labels and price signs. You say, "How much is Whereupon his uncle told him what it means for this?" and you gasp dramatically at the reply the will of God to prevail in our lives, and for the merchant gives you, because it is away up, us to give our wills over to that will as it is far higher than he expects to get for it. Then revealed in Jesus Christ; that is the purpose of begins this process of haggling. life, whatever particular mode or profession of Oh." you say, "that is much too high." Well, he comes down a little bit. And you say, " Oh no, I life we may have. The young man went out, will give you." "Oh, no, I cannot possibly and was walking down the street when he sell it for that." Presently he names a price, heard the clanging of firebells. He discovered and you say, "All right, I'll take it." Now, in a that he was close to the scene of the fire. crude way, that is the meaning of the word " Already smoke and flames were pouring out of buying up your opportunity." Here it is. It will the upper windows. Taking in the situation, he not last for ever. That opportunity to influence got a couple of fellows to help him, and they somebody for Christ. That opportunity to send a went upstairs in the building opposite, across book by post. You met a person, and the Holy the alleyway from the theatre. They got some Spirit said, "You know a good book for him; boards and projected them across the alley, post it to him, make him a present of it. Write and improvised a bridge. Then this young a nice little word inside it." Speak a word on fellow stationed himself in a precarious the train. Offer your services to a neighbour place close to the burning building, and began who has illness in the home; maybe make a to lift people out of the window and over the cake or prepare a nice sweet and take it to that window-ledge and across this temporary bridge neighbour. You see? That opportunity will not to safety. That was going on when all at always be there; and once gone, probably gone once a burning ember from above, of which he for ever. Buy up your opportunities. was unaware, fell and struck him. He lost his This brings sombrely before us the worldwide balance, and his body went hurtling to the fact of sin and man's need of redemption, and concrete alleyway below. He lived only for a the supreme service that any of us can render, few hours, but long enough for that preacher which is not such a thing as baking a cake— uncle to reach him, and to say to him, "Do which in its way may be very valuable and may you know why you were born? It was to give be very spiritual; but this brings us to the thrust your life for others." of the kind of witness in which we confront The curtain drops and some months go by. An people with Jesus Christ as the one and only American traveller is in an hotel in Switzerland, Saviour. You are not saved merely for your and a gentleman walks up to him and engages own sake; you are saved for Christ's sake, and for him in conversation, when suddenly this a dying world's sake. You are not sanctified for gentleman, who had accosted the first man, ceases your own sake; you are sanctified for His sake to speak coherently and intelligibly, and begins to and unto His service, and for the ministry mutter something that the man cannot that you are able to give to a bleeding, broken understand. Immediately a third man appears world all around you. and leads this poor muttering chap away. This In the year 1906 on a Saturday afternoon in makes the first man terribly curious. Later in the the winter, a theatre in the city of Chicago caught day he had an opportunity to enquire who this fire when it was packed to the topmost man was; and he found that he was a rich man from Chicago, who had
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been in the theatre the afternoon it had burnt. says, "Finding the will of God is not He was the man who had climbed out. He half as difficult as some people think, only it had saved his life by climbing over the bodies requires a colossal honesty." A well taken of women and children. He could not sleep point. Two young men in college were talk- that night, nor the next, nor the next, and he ing one night. One said to the other, "I began to say to his wife and members of the wish I knew what God wants me to do with family, "Oh, I have saved nobody but myself." my life." His friend said, "You have got Finally, there came an emotional and a ner- to pray." He said, "I have prayed, but I vous breakdown, and the man had to be do not find out." The friend said, "Are you ordered by his physician to go under the care sure you have prayed?" He said, "Yes, I of a guardian for a holiday in Europe, where have prayed; but there are one or two things it was hoped that he would recover. "I have which if God asked me to do, I would not saved nobody but myself." Oh, what a terrible be willing." Then we call that praying! That thing it will be for any Christian to come to is not praying, that is a mild form of blas- the judgment seat of Christ and there have phemy. If you really want God's will for to say, "Lord, I have saved nobody but my- your career, come to Him with an open hand self." "Redeeming the time because the days and an open mind, and say, "Lord, I am not are evil." my own. I reached a crisis in my life when There is a third thing that is required here I said— by what the Holy Spirit says through Paul. Not only do we need the wisdom of God for Here I give my all to Thee; our illumination, and the work of God for Friends, and time and earthly stores. our obligation; we need— Soul and body, Thine to be For evermore. III. THE WILL OF GOD FOR OUR DIREC- TION. "Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but "I am not my own. I have been bought understanding what the will of the Lord is" with a price. My life is not my own to live; (v. 17). May I draw a distinction, which is my time is not my own to spend. My talents, not original with me at all; it has been touched such as they may be, are not my own to upon many many times, but it has practical invest; they are Christ's. The mark of the value. God's will for your character is clearly blood is upon me, the blood of Calvary. Now, and fully revealed in the Word. God's will for Lord, is my open hand; here is my open your character, as a redeemed man or woman, mind, here is my open heart. Tell me, what boy or girl, is Christlikeness. "This is the do You want me to do with my life? "Under- will of God, even your sanctification." God standing what the will of the Lord is. You wants you to be a Christ-possessed and a dear people in England gave to the Christian Christ-mastered Christian, able to say through Church and the world in the last century one the crucifixion of the self-life, both crucially of the greatest soul-winners of modern Church and progressively, "Not I, but Christ liveth in times, General William Booth. Did anyone me." God's will for your career is not in detail ever tell you that the man who had the privi- and individually revealed in the Word: that lege of influencing General Booth as no other must be revealed to you through the Holy Spirit. human agent did, was a Canadian, by the To be sure, He will again and again make use name of Coy. He was a pastor in Canada, of something in the Word to guide your and he had begun for some time to feel that thinking; but His will for your career, what his ministry in that pastorate was coming to you are to be—butcher, baker, candlestick- a close; but he was loath to leave the con- maker; whether you are to be a nurse, a gregation—and I can appreciate that, having doctor, a grocer, a scientist, a teacher, an gone through a similar experience after twenty industrialist, or an insurance man; whether years with a congregation that I came to love you, girls, are to be a parson's wife, or a very dearly. Yet this inner voice kept saying, farmer's wife; whether you are to have a "I want you to go out into the evangelistic separate career, it may be unmarried—and field." And one day James Coy said, "Lord, there are such, in the will of God. This is if this is Thy voice speaking to me, I must be not specifically revealed in the Word. You clear on it." So he took time really to wait will have to wait upon your Lord for that. on God; and as he waited and reminded the But I want to say quite categorically, that if Lord that all he was asking was guidance, there you really want His will for your life, you was no rebellion, there was no resistance. can find it. Sentimentally there was some reluctance, but My friend Sam Shoemaker, a very godly deeply and centrally there was no resistance. Episcopal pastor and writer in the States, "Lord, I simply want to know Thy mind."
174 And he said, "The inner Voice spoke so his system. But oh, friends, forget now the quietly but so clearly.' On such and such a crudity of the story and, not in an imaginary Sunday read your resignation Have it effective way, not in a way that mocks reason and at such and such a time. Make your plans to mocks reality, but in genuine fact and truth, go to Britain.'" He did exactly what God led him if you let the Holy Spirit of God have body, to do; and it was while he was here in this soul and spirit, He will make you strong to wonderful land of yours that the Spirit of God do the will of God. "Ye shall receive power used him to lead that young man to the after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you." Saviour, who became General William Booth. Young man, young woman, do not think that "Understanding what the will of the Lord is." the experience of being filled with the Holy We need that. Spirit is just for parsons and missionaries and I have tried to suggest three things to you: that maybe for theological teachers. Oh no, it is if we are to live to serve as Christ would have us, for every Christian. You need it to make you we must have the wisdom of God for our the purer, the conquering, the useful, the un- illumination, we must have the work of God selfish servant and representative of Jesus for our obligation, we must have the will of Christ that He wants you to be in that shop God for our direction. Now finally, we must where you work, in that school where you have— attend, on that team of which you are a mem- ber in athletics or sport. Be not drunk with IV. THE WINE OF GOD FOR OUR INSPIRA- wine—the wine of God. Oh, the Christians TION. The wine of God? Yes. "And be not that have come to Keswick through the years, drunk—intoxicated, if you please—with wine, and other places where some of us have had wherein is excess (as the Revised has it, 'wherein the joy of ministering—beaten people, beaten is riot') but be filled with the Spirit." You have souls. There something has happened that there two kinds of intoxication. A disabling had more than just the emotional exhilaration intoxication: that is, if a man is drunk with wine, of a moment; something occurred that gave alcoholic beverages, he is less of a man, not them the secret of the Lord. That is what more. He may think that he is more, but he "the fulness of the Holy Spirit " means. It is is less of a man. He is disabled. On the other the secret of living the "not I" life, so that it hand, there is the enabling intoxication of the is broken-ness every day; it is brokenness all Holy Spirit. Oh, what a mocker alcoholic the while. "Not I, but Christ who liveth in beverage is! A man thinks that he is rich when me." he is intoxicated, and he is not at all. A man thinks that he is strong, when he is not so at Take us, Lord, oh, take us truly, all. There are great fighters down in Tennessee, Mind and soul, and heart and will! and there is rivalry between the mountaineers of east Tennessee and those of west Tennessee. Empty us and cleanse us throughly; One came down to Memphis on the Then with all Thy fulness fill. Mississippi river and got drunk, and in his drunken state looked round and said, "I can Lord, we ask it, hardly knowing whip anybody in Tennessee." One man let him What this wondrous gift may be; have it right in the jaw. It flattened him out; But fulfil to overflowing, and when he got up a moment or two later, he Thy great meaning let us see. said, "I took in a little too much territory." He felt he could do it, but you see, he was We want it; and that is what God wants. rendered incompetent by this wretched stuff he We want to receive it; and He wants to bestow it. had in
175 "Abide with us, for it is Toward Evening "
BY THE REV. FRANCIS W. DIXON. MAY I turn your thoughts for a few gether for worship; not the fact that the moments to the story recorded in Luke 24. meeting is being held in this large tent—but, Two troubled disciples were walking the the fact that the Lord Himself is in very truth seven-mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus. here in our midst. "He went in to tarry with They were dejected, depressed and dis- them"—and He is here now, with us. appointed. Then, suddenly, "Jesus Himself Finally, notice the results that followed. drew near, and went with them." Then There were at least five—First, there was followed a time of humbling and of fellowship with Christ, indicated by the words revelation. "with them" (vv. 29 and 30). "With" is the "And they drew nigh unto the village, important word here, for it speaks of fellow- whither they went: and He (Jesus) made as ship. Here at His Table is the place where we though He would have gone further. But they enjoy the very highest fellowship possible this constrained Him, saying, Abide with us; for side of heaven—the sweetest fellowship we it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. shall know until, through His grace, we are And He went in to tarry with them. And it present at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, Then, there was submission to Christ, for He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and we read that "as He sat with them, He took gave to them. And their eyes were opened, bread ..." (v. 30). The important word here and they knew Him . . . And they rose up the is "He"—the guest became Host! When He same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, saying, entered into the house He at once assumed the The Lord is risen indeed . . ." (Luke 24: 28- first place, the place of pre-eminence. He was 30, 33-34). the Head One; it was from Him that they Notice, first, the request that was made. received the bread, and in so doing they "Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and recognised and acknowledged His Lordship. the day is far spent." For us also, it is toward Again, there was recognition of Christ, for evening, and the day is far spent. Is it the as they sat in His presence, "Their eyes were longing of our hearts that the Lord Jesus opened" (v. 31). The Lord reveals Himself to should manifest His presence to us while we us in so many ways, but most intimately when sit at His table? We know He is present, for we sit round His table. It was so all those we have His own promise, "Where two or years ago—"He was made known of them in three are gathered together in my name, there the breaking of bread" (v. 35); and it is am I in the midst of them"—but, is it the always so. longing of our hearts that He should manifest Next, there was certainty about Christ, be- His presence to us? We are told that Jesus cause we are told that as they sat there "they "made as though He would have gone knew Him" (v. 31). In a flash, all their doubts, further." Why was this? The simple explana- their fears, their disappointments and their tion is that He wanted these two disciples to depression went—and they knew that they realise and to confess their need of Him, and were in the presence of their own dear Lord. He longed to hear them doing just that! Are Finally, there was testimony for Christ, for a we telling Him now that we need Him—"Dear little later on "they rose up the same hour, and Lord, please draw very near to me, and to returned to Jerusalem" to tell of their each one in this tent . . ."? experience (vv. 33-34). In a few hours' Then, notice the response that was given. time we shall be on the way back to "He went in to tarry with them." How our Jerusalem—to Manchester, or Liverpool, wonderful that was Surely they would never or Bradford, or Dover, or maybe to Australia, or forget that occasion; and some of us will South America, or ...? What word is in our never forget this service. But remember, hearts and upon our lips as we go? Surely this the sublime thing about this Communion word, "The Lord is risen indeed!" Service is not the size of the crowd; not the Yes, the Lord is risen indeed! fact that people of so many nationalities are met to-
176 Early Morning Prayer HEN the general prayer meetings at 7 a.m. Jesus my Lord." He "lives for ever with His Wdaily were transferred, two years ago, to saints to reign." Hope dawned when Christ the large tent from the smaller one in Eskin- arose, giving triumph over our fears. On street—in order to release the small tent for the Monday, "bread-winning day," the theme was missionary prayer meetings, which had out- the morning of supply (Exod. 16). Only a few grown their former venue, the Methodist weeks after the deliverance of the children of Church—there was some apprehension lest the Israel from Egypt they became absorbed in vast "canvas cathedral" should prove too huge, immediate needs and started to grumble. So we and the prayers be "lost" in it. An experiment sometimes forget the blessings of spiritual was tried of using a microphone for those deliverance and become anxious about our leading audibly in prayer, but this mechanical daily bread. God's answer was: "In the morning "aid" threatened to "kill" the meeting, in- ye shall see the glory of the Lord." He rained volving as it did the coming forward of those bread from heaven: and He who sent the wishing to pray, with consequent checking of manna will supply your need. spontaneity. It is amazing, however, that From Psalm 30:5, Mr. Kevan spoke on Tuesday within so short a time the concern then felt on the morning of joy. How precious is such a should now seem quite needless; for this year promise, after the night of sorrow and weeping. the meeting was thoroughly "at home" in the The searching messages of Monday might had large tent. Of course, even a thousand people deepened the darkness of some, as they seem comparatively few in an area seating realised the horror of sin. Let chastening do its 4,500—and the prayer meetings earlier in the perfect work! It might be good if some learned week did not reach the four-figure mark. But to weep; we tend to become so hardened to even then the proportion was as high, in rela- spiritual things. Weeping has a part in God's tion to total capacity, as the congregations of grace; it prepares for the morning of joy. most churches! By keeping together in a com- pact body in the centre of the tent; and by Wednesday's text was 2 Kings 19:35 — the observing the rules of turning toward the centre morning of deliverance. Deep forebodings and speaking out, the true spirit and "atmo- often belong to a sleepless night, but in the sphere" of a prayer meeting was fully realised: morning the sinister spectres depart with the and only seldom was there any difficulty in rising sun, for those whose trust, like Hezekiah's, hearing the prayers. Most of those taking is in the Lord. Thursday's meditation centred part heeded the admonition to pray briefly and round the story told in 2 Kings 3—the morning to the point; and each morning there was an of proof. There are times when God expects us unbroken chain of intercession. to prove Him by some act of obedience: and He The meetings were conducted this year by will answer in blessing. On Friday, the morning of the Rev. E. F. Kevan, who every morning glory (2 Pet. 1:19). To step on that shore— greeted the congregation with the words, "This heaven! To breathe new air, and that celestial is the day the Lord bath made"—to which air! To feel invigorated and know it to be they replied, "We will rejoice and be glad in immortality! To wake up to find it "glory." The it." He gave a series of devotional talks on morning of glory would be when that day "The Mornings of God," beginning on Sunday really dawned. What a blessed hope was the with the morning of hope (Luke 24:1-7). The glorious appearing of our Saviour! We should women had come to do a tender task at the stand as men that wait, for "The dawn is tomb, and found that God had been there purpling in the east." before them. "Death cannot keep his prey .. .
Missionary Prayer Meetings IN spite of somewhat unsettled weather, each ings, but there was a re-grouping this year morning was fine for the prayer meetings, and which helped to focus prayer more effectively on a large number gathered daily in the Eskin- countries related geographically. This was street tent, which has now become the settled especially noticeable on the first day when home of the Missionary Prayer Meetings. As prayer was called for Europe, the Jews and the usual, an attempt was made to cover the whole Middle East, leaving the whole of the continent world in the course of five morn- of Africa for the next day. Central
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Asia and Nepal were grouped with India, but greatly encouraged by a clear reception Pakistan and Ceylon; and China, from which, of the Overseas Broadcast service which had alas, there is little firsthand news, was suitably transported them in spirit to the crowded linked with South East Asia, now coming Tent at Keswick. much more to the fore with the return of The general practice each morning of allot- missionaries on furlough from Thailand, In- ting a few minutes to enable a large number of donesia, etc. Burma, too, was well represented people to mention before the Lord individuals this year, with its multi-racial and religious by name has led to the reciting of lists of problems of a resurgent Buddhism as well as names, often heard only by those in the im- its many animistic hill tribes. Finally, on the mediate vicinity. There was a noticeable dif- Friday morning it was not such a giant stride ference, however, when as in the case of to take in. Japan, Korea, and Oceania, and longer prayers people were asked to stand up then pass to North and South America. In and give a name and place so that all could recent years the lack of firsthand knowledge hear and uphold them in prayer. of the situation in Japan has resulted in a Perhaps the most notable impression gained notable lack of prayer for that country, but by our worldwide effort in prayer was the this year there was a gratifying response when realisation of the gaps in knowledge and in for a few minutes we concentrated in prayer scope, and as Romans 8 was the subject of on Japan. The ganging-up of the Afro-Asian the introductory reading each morning, we group in the United Nations had its much took refuge in the knowledge that "the Spirit more satisfying spiritual counterpart when helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what nationals of both areas prayed movingly for we should pray for as we ought: but the one another in their respective countries. Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with The crisis in the Middle East as the result groanings which cannot be uttered." Even of the coup d'etat in Iraq, and the continuing so, with such a large number from all over the rebellion in the Lebanon, focused prayer on world, able to pray with firsthand knowledge that distracted area, and this was made more and experience, the Missionary Prayer Meet- realistic by a letter received during the Con- ings must be unique, and, as usual, we came vention from a group of missionaries and away feeling it had been a great inspiration refugees gathered within the sound of firing, and privilege to attend. A.T.H.
Reception for Missionaries and Overseas Visitors SIXTY different countries were represented at "0 rest in the Lord," and the Rev. the reception for missionaries and visitors G. B. Duncan gave a message of en- from overseas, at Keswick this year, held as couragement to any who might be feeling usual on the Wednesday afternoon of Con- wearied or discouraged, from our Lord's vention week. This was revealed by the roll- words to the disciples, "Ye are they which call; but during the informal half-hour which have continued with me in my preceded the official welcome to the guests temptations"— a tribute of gratitude to His expressed by the Chairman, it had been a own. How few were their numbers; only a true experience of the reality of the Keswick tiny group. That is true also to-day in motto, "All one in Christ Jesus," to mingle many mission fields. How insignificant among fellow-Christians from all parts of the the little group of His witnesses seems to globe, exchanging greetings and news concern- the world; and how inadequate they feel for ing the work of the Lord in their respective the task committed to them. Yet forth from lands. What an aid to such happy informality that tiny spring has flowed a stream of is the wearing of lapel-badges, with name and Christian grace into all the earth. sphere of Christian service! There seemed to Not only how few they were, but how be an especially large contingent from India— faithful their nature . . . "ye have including several Salvation Army officers. continued . . ." Trials had tested their Australia, South Africa, Malaya and Congo faithfulness—as they do to-day. Loneliness also were well represented. was a test; and failure—"many walked no After the roll-call Mr. Tim Buckley sang more with Him," and humanly speaking the ministry of Jesus
178 was one of the greatest failures the world has fragrant the name! Yet though graven in ever seen. They also had to endure hatred— stone, that stone will one day disintegrate and as did the Lord; and so do many to-day- the name be gone ; but the love of the Master on the field out of love to the people as well will never forget His own—there is a place as to the Lord, but they do not want you or where their names will shine with unfading your Saviour. Time also is a test—as the lustre for ever. As unknown—from the world's word "continued" implies. Continuance is the viewpoint—yet known in heaven! proof of faithfulness. After this heartening word, the meeting But how fragrant their names. Mr. Duncan closed with the Lord's Prayer—each saying told how, during his recent visit to Africa, he preached in Kampala Cathedral, and it in his own language, and in the case of saw in the churchyard a grave with a stone missionaries, in the language of the lands of cross bearing one word—the name Mackay. their adoption. How Meeting for Ministers MOST of the clergy and ministers attending has outer effects in our conduct and deport- the Convention wear "mufti," for many visit ment. "Make it your ambition to be quiet," Keswick during their holiday, and those said the apostle; and certainly there will be no accompanying house-parties feel that informal great preaching without hours in which the heart attire is more appropriate than their customary is hushed in the presence of God. Without "dog-collar." It is therefore always difficult serenity, our deportment will be fussy and fidgety, to assess how many ministers are present at and its effect will be disrupting. Serenity is that the Convention—until Tuesday morning, indefinable, ineffable thing that comes to a soul when a special meeting for ministers is held that has been quiet with God. in the Methodist Church. Even then it is Likewise, humility is rooted in the inner not possible to make a reliable estimate, for life. As in the Bible Reading, Dr. Rees quite a number of laymen "gate-crash," in- referred to the sublime illustration of this trait cluding even some members of the Brethren, given to us in Philippians 2. But humility has who eschew an ordained ministry! But for the its distortions, even in the ministry. Some ministers' meeting this year the Methodist prate about it, and reveal a tremendous ego in Church was practically full: so about four so doing. For a man to be for ever self- hundred were present. consciously demeaning himself, can be a form The Rev. A. T. Houghton presided; and of self-pity. But if humility has its distortions, it after the singing of "Lord, speak to me," he has also its demonstrations—and Dr. Rees read Acts 20:17-28, and expressed the sense quoted the comment of a friend concerning a of privilege which all felt in having as speaker certain evangelist, "I think that man in his someone with such an insight into the needs preaching can give us more of Christ and less of ministers as Dr. Paul Rees. of himself than any other I've ever heard." To Very quietly, and in an intimate heart-to- be preoccupied with Jesus is the secret of heart manner, Dr. Rees then talked upon "the humility. We can never become humble by inner life of the minister." He quoted a saying trying to be so. Self can never cast out self. It he had read that "all leaders are public figures is only as His fulness comes in that self is cast with private lives." Ministers are public out. figures: inescapably so; what is going on in Next, sensitivity. It is easy to be accustomed — those private lives of ours? Paul exhorted professional—in our ministerial responsibilities: the Ephesian elders, "take heed to yourselves," we need ever understandingly to identify first; and then, "to the flock . ." ourselves with others. And finally, importunity — With these thoughts as background, Dr. passion in our praying and preaching. Only as Rees then considered some traits of the inner we really care can we be of blessing to others. life. First, serenity—an inner quality which Young People's Meetings HERE was general regret that the Rev. L. was unable to lead the young people's meetings TF. E. Wilkinson (known affectionately as at Keswick this year. Up to a month before "Wilkie" to a wide circle of Christian friends) the Convention was due to begin he was hoping
179 to fulfil the task, but his medical advisers in- "Love, courtship and marriage" before the sisted that he should have a thorough rest main address, one consequence of which that during his summer vacation. quite a number sought personal advice from Some 1,200 gathered on the Sunday evening the counsellors available. Canon Bewes gave: at 9 o'clock while the rain was beginning to Two rules for a Christian home: (i) Be a fall. Mr. Leith Samuel, who deputised Christian yourself. (ii) Marry a Christian, and throughout the week for Mr. Wilkinson, spoke put your home daily under His control. Two very simply on 2 Timothy 1:12. Any who things to be avoided: (i) Flirting, playing at were not certain that they knew the Lord love—to the one party it may mean nothing, Jesus personally, were invited to stay for a to the other everything Endearments are al- further instruction talk, and some thirty did ways meant to lead up to marriage. (ii) The so. Of these over a dozen confessed during heresy that "you cannot help falling in love"— the week that they had committed themselves in the early stages you can. You are the com- to the Saviour. plete master of the situation at the beginning, Choruses were sung during the week from when the will and judgment are unimpeded, 11.30 to 11.45 a.m., so as to give the maximum before emotion sweeps you past the bounds of time to the speaker. On Monday morning, reason. Only when reason and conscience about the same number being present, as on approve should you allow yourself to fall in each subsequent day, making the tent look love. Two prayers: (i) Be honest. Tell the three-quarters full, the Rev. James Philip gave Lord Jesus when you are drawn to someone an earnest talk on prayer and Bible reading. who may be your life-partner. Ask Him to The example of the great saints of the Word, bring His will to pass without any wangling on and especially of our Lord Himself, was set your part. (ii) "Oh God, I don't want to be before the young folk, and the imperative married outside your will." Finally, remember necessity of having a daily quiet time was some of the greatest saints and heroes were not impressed upon them. Mr. Samuel spoke for married, for the Kingdom's sake. five minutes early in the meeting in answer to On the last morning, after a short talk on the question, "How can I know I am a "Guidance" from Mr. Samuel, Major Thomas Christian?" developed the teaching of the bankruptcy of Major Ian Thomas spoke on Tuesday morn- the flesh and its impotence to fulfil the will of ing on the hopelessness of trying to live the God. Too many young Christians are Christian life in the energy of the flesh. Amalek given a pattern for living after conversion, was traced through the Old Testament as a instead of 'being instructed that in Christ they type of the flesh or self. People began to join have a living, indwelling Saviour. Major the League of the Morning Watch this morn- Thomas invited those who were concerned to ing, and by Friday over a hundred had pur- know more to meet him in the small tent in posed in their heart to have at least a quarter the afternoon for half an hour, and some of an hour's quiet time every day. Mr. Samuel hundred and twenty gathered with serious answered briefly, "How can I grow as a desire for further instruction and prayer. Christian?" Mr. Tim Buckley's solos at the meetings On Wednesday the Rev. George Duncan were a blessing to many. During the week gave a searching address on the danger of an several backsliders were restored, and one incomplete consecration, illustrated from the or two agnostics converted, as well as a large life of Balaam. The motives of the heart were number going away strengthened in faith, laid bare, and there was a great sense of the and settled in heart that for them each day Lord working in many lives. Canon T. F. C. must be lived on the basis of "not I, but Bewes gave a much appreciated short talk on Christ who lives in me."
Open-Air Meetings NCE again the Market Place was the scene number of local inhabitants and visitors, but Oof the Convention open-air meetings. At the majority came down from the tents after 8.45 each evening the civic authorities kindly the evening meetings had finished, and filled co-operated by closing the roads and diverting up the space available. the traffic, a platform was erected in the This year the meetings were arranged and square, and the whole area in front of the led by Major Ian Thomas, and the plan was— Moot Hail was available for the large crowd Sunday: How does God speak to man? which gathered. Around the edge were a Monday: Does a man need God?
180 Tuesday: Why the Cross? ence the Lord Jesus Christ had made to their lives, the sense of purpose He had given, and Wednesday: Is forgiveness all God offers? a hope for the future. Miss Mary Hope, a Thursday: What of the future? nurse, said that not only had God forgiven her The weather was kind, except on Sunday sins, but He had given her a three-fold purpose evening, when the rain was so heavy that the in living: first, to grow more like Jesus; meeting had to be cancelled. However, a good secondly, to know that her life was outlined for start was made on Monday, and Major Thomas her by God; and thirdly, to spend every minute introduced the subject for the evening. of each day about her Master's business. Life Throughout the week, Mr. Tim Buckley sang with Christ was an adventure, and one never appropriate solos, which were a blessing to knew what a day would bring forth. Mr. many a heart. On this first evening, not only Darlfield, a retired builder, told how he had did he sing, but he also spoke of his young gone as an atheist to break up one of Dr. days in Ireland, and especially of a day when Torrey's meetings, but came away converted. he noticed the hands of his widowed mother He warned of the folly of atheism, and spoke worn with hard work for the sake of her of his visit to Russia, where he saw the miser- children. When he shewed his concern, she able shrivelled-up body of Lenin in a glass replied that it did not matter about her hands, coffin, the man who set himself up against but there was One whose hands were wounded God. Miss Sylvia Smith was once a Teddy for his sake, and she urged him to respond to girl, but unsatisfied with glamour, paint and such a loving Saviour, which he later did. jazz, told how Jesus found her after she had Also on this first evening, Dr. Capper spoke come to an end of herself. Although she had of his conversion at a Swiss V.P.S. Camp, and never heard the Gospel before, she realised at later, after a period of wandering both in the once that religion could not change her life, actual and spiritual desert, was restored to but the Lord Jesus Christ could. Christ at Anzio during the war, and was Space forbids telling of all who spoke of able to minister to a newly converted officer the great things God had done in them. Many straight away. The Rev. Bill Bathman gave told of a new purpose in life, and Major himself to preaching after his life had been Thomas used the illustration of a burst pipe in preserved when he was carried over the edge a house. The trouble can be cured by turning of a waterfall, but only later came to know the water off at the main: but that is not a real the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Fraulein cure, and it is only by calling in a plumber Hertha Stobl, a schoolmistress from Austria, and mending the break that the system is cap- was called upon at short notice to give a able of being used for its intended purpose. reason for the hope within, and deeply It was with such illustrations as these that impressed her hearers as she spoke of her Major Thomas linked the programme together, Roman Catholic upbringing, and of her need emphasising the salient points, and urging the being met in Christ Himself. hearers to put their trust in the Saviour who As the week progressed men and women had been set forth before them. D.T. from every walk of life testified to the differ-
ALL who are interested in the Keswick Convention and its message should read THE LIFE OF FAITH, a weekly paper for the deepening of the spiritual life, which has been closely associated with the Convention from its earliest days. It brings the "atmosphere" and teaching of Keswick into the homes of its readers, week by week, all through the year. Fullest news concerning the Convention is given, and reports of similar gatherings throughout the world. Keswick speakers are among its frequent contributors; and its regular features include a Bible School, to which well-known Bible students contribute series of lessons—a new session on the Life and Letters of St. Paul is just beginning, with lessons contributed by eminent Bible teachers, renowned throughout the world; daily notes on the Scripture Union portions; news of Evangelical work in all parts of the world; reviews of books of interest to Evangelicals, and the answering of readers' questions in "Christian Workers' Forum." A full descriptive account of the 1959 Convention will appear in the special numbers next July. It is a most informative and helpful paper for Christians of all ages. Published on Thursdays at 4d. THE LIFE OF FAITH is obtainable from all newsagents provided a regular order is placed for it. Full particulars of delivery by post, and of the Bible School, are obtainable from Marshall, Morgan & Scott, Ltd., 1-5 Portpool Lane, London, E.C.1.
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