The MASTER'S INDWELLING
ANDREW MURRAY
1953
The following papers were in substance delivered by the author in a series
of addresses at the Northfield Conference of 1895, but later rewritten and
revised by him for this permanent and authorized publication.
CONTENTS
I. CARNAL CHRISTIANS
II. THE SELF LIFE
III. WAITING ON GOD
IV. ENTRANCE INTO REST
V. THE KINGDOM FIRST
VI. CHRIST OUR LIFE
VII. CHRIST'S HUMILITY OUR SALVATION
VIII. THE COMPLETE SURRENDER
IX. DEAD WITH CHRIST
X. JOY IN THE HOLY GHOST
XI. TRIUMPH OF FAITH
XII. THE SOURCE OF POWER IN PRAYER
XIII. THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL
CARNAL CHRISTIANS.
I.
_1 Corinthians 3: 1_.--_And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal_.
The apostle here speaks of two stages of the Christian life, two types of
Christians: "I could not speak unto you as unto _spiritual_, but as unto
_carnal_, even as unto babes in Christ." They were Christians, in Christ,
but instead of being spiritual Christians, they were carnal. "I have fed
you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it,
neither yet are ye able, for ye are yet carnal." Here is that word a second
time. "For whereas"--this is the proof--"there is among you envying, and
strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one
saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal?" Four
times the apostle uses that word carnal. In the wisdom which the Holy Ghost
gives him, Paul feels:--I can not write to these Corinthian Christians
unless I know their state, and unless I tell them of it. If I give
spiritual food to men who are carnal Christians, I am doing them more harm
than good, for they are not fit to take it. I cannot feed them with meat,
I must feed them with milk. And so he tells them at the very outset of the
epistle what he sees to be their state. In the two previous chapters he had
spoken about his ministry being by the Holy Spirit; now he begins to tell
them what must be the state of a people in order to accept spiritual truth,
and he says: "I have not liberty to speak to you as I would, for you are
carnal, and you cannot receive Spiritual truth." That suggests to us the
solemn thought, that in the Church of Christ there are two classes of
Christians. Some have lived many years as believers, and yet always remain
babes; others are spiritual men, because they have given themselves up to
the power, the leading and to the entire rule of the Holy Ghost. If we are
to obtain a blessing, we must first decide to which of these classes we
belong. Are we, by the grace of God, in deep humility living a spiritual
life, or are we living a carnal life? Then, let us first try to understand
what is meant by the carnal state in which believers may be living.
We notice from what we find in Corinthians, four marks of the carnal state.
First: It is simply a condition of protracted infancy. You know what that
means. Suppose a beautiful babe, six months old. It cannot speak, it cannot
walk, but we do not trouble ourselves about that; it is natural, and ought
to be so. But suppose a year later we find the child not grown at all, and
three years later still no growth; we would at once say: "There must be
some terrible disease;" and the baby that at six months old was the cause
of joy to every one who saw him, has become to the mother and to all a
source of anxiety and sorrow. There is something wrong; the child can not
grow. It was quite right at six months old that it should eat nothing but
milk; but years have passed by, and it remains in the same weakly state.
Now this is just the condition of many believers. They are converted; they
know what it is to have assurance and faith; they believe in pardon for
sin; they begin to work for God; and yet, somehow, there is very little
growth in spirituality, in the real heavenly life. We come into contact
with them, and we feel at once there is something wanting; there is none of
the beauty of holiness or of the power of God's Spirit in them. This is
the condition of the carnal Corinthians, expressed in what was said to the
Hebrews: "You have had the Gospel so long that by this time you ought to be
teachers, and yet you need that men should teach you the very rudiments of
the oracles of God." Is it not a sad thing to see a believer who has been
converted five, ten, twenty years, and yet no growth, and no strength, and
no joy of holiness?
What are the marks of a little child? One is, a little child cannot help
himself, but is always keeping others occupied to serve him. What a tyrant
a baby in a house often is! The mother cannot go out, there must be a
servant to nurse it; it needs to be cared for constantly. God made a man to
care for others, but the baby was made to be cared for and to be helped. So
there are Christians who always want help. Their pastor and their Christian
friends must always be teaching and comforting them. They go to church, and
to prayer-meetings, and to conventions, always wanting to be helped,--a
sign of spiritual infancy.
The other sign of an infant is this: he can do nothing to help his
fellow-man. Every man is expected to contribute something to the welfare of
society; every one has a place to fill and a work to do, but the babe can
do nothing for the common weal. It is just so with Christians. How little
some can do! They take a part in work, as it is called, but there is little
of exercising spiritual power and carrying real blessing. Should we not
each ask, "Have I outgrown my spiritual infancy?" Some must reply, "No,
instead of having gone forward, I have gone backward, and the joy of
conversion and the first love is gone." Alas! They are babes in Christ;
they are yet carnal.
The second mark of the carnal state is this: that there is sin and failure
continually. Paul says: "Whereas there is strife and division among you,
and envying, are ye not carnal?" A man gives way to temper. He may be a
minister, or a preacher of the Gospel, or a Sunday-school teacher, most
earnest at the prayer-meeting, but yet strife or bitterness or envying is
often shown by him. Alas! Alas! In Gal. 3:5 we are told that the works of
the flesh are specially hatred and envy. How often among Christians, who
have to work together, do we see divisions and bitterness! God have mercy
upon them, that the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, is so frequently
absent from His own people. You ask, "Why is it, that for twenty years I
have been fighting with my temper, and can not conquer it?" It is because
you have been fighting with the temper, and you have not been fighting with
the root of the temper. You have not seen that it is all because you are in
the carnal state, and not properly given up to the Spirit of God. It may be
that you never were taught it; that you never saw it in God's Word;
that you never believed it. But there it is; the truth of God remains
unchangeable. Jesus Christ can give us the victory over sin, and can keep
us from actual transgression. I am not telling you that the root of sin
will be eradicated, and that you will have no longer any natural tendency
to sin; but when the Holy Spirit comes not only with His power for service
as a gift, but when He comes in Divine grace to fill the heart, there is
victory over sin; power not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And you see
a mark of the carnal state not only in unlovingness, self-consciousness
and bitterness, but in so many other sins. How much worldliness, how much
ambition among men, how much seeking for the honor that comes from man--all
the fruit of the carnal life--to be found in the midst of Christian
activity! Let us remember that the carnal state is a state of continual
sinning and failure, and God wants us not only to make confession of
individual sins, but to come to the acknowledgment that they are the sign
that we are not living a healthy life,--we are yet carnal.
A third mark which will explain further what I have been saying, is that
this carnal state may be found in existence in connection with great
spiritual gifts. There is a difference between gifts and graces. The graces
of the Spirit are humility and love, like the humility and love of Christ.
The graces of the Spirit are to make a man free from self; the gifts of
the Spirit are to fit a man for work. We see this illustrated among the
Corinthians. In the first chapter Paul says, "I thank God that you are
enriched unto all utterance, and all knowledge, and all wisdom." In the
12th and 14th chapters we see that the gifts of prophecy and of working
miracles were in great power among them; but the graces of the Spirit were
noticeably absent.
And this may be in our days as well as in the time of the Corinthians. I
may be a minister of the Gospel; I may teach God's Word beautifully; I may
have influence, and gather a large congregation, and yet, alas! I may be a
carnal man; a man who may be used by God, and may be a blessing to others,
and yet the carnal life may still mark me. You all know the law that a
thing is named according to what is its most prominent characteristic. Now,
in these carnal Corinthians there was a little of God's Spirit, but the
flesh predominated; the Spirit had not the rule of their whole life. And
the spiritual men are not called so because there is no flesh in them, but
because the Spirit in them has obtained dominance, and when you meet
them and have intercourse with them, you feel that the Spirit of God has
sanctified them. Ah, let us beware lest the blessing God gives us in our
work deceive us and lead us to think that because he has blessed us, we
must be spiritual men. God may give us gifts that we use, and yet our lives
may not be wholly in the power of the Holy Ghost.
My last mark of the carnal state is that it makes a man unfit for receiving
spiritual truths. That is what the apostle writes to the Corinthians: "I
could not preach to you as unto spiritual; you are not fit for spiritual
truth after being Christians so long; you can not yet bear it; I have to
feed you with milk." I am afraid that in the church of the nineteenth
century we often make a terrible mistake. We have a congregation in which
the majority are carnal men. We give these men spiritual teaching, and they
admire it, understand it, and rejoice in such ministry; yet their lives are
not practically affected. They work for Christ in a certain way, but we can
scarce recognize the true sanctification of the Spirit; we dare not say
they are spiritual men, full of the Holy Spirit.
Now, let us recognize this with regard to ourselves. A man may become very
earnest, may take in all the teaching he hears; he may be able to discern,
for discernment is a gift; he may say, "That man helps me in this line, and
that man in another direction, and a third man is remarkable for another
gift;" yet, all the time, the carnal life may be living strongly in him,
and when he gets into trouble with some friend, or Christian worker,
or worldly man, the carnal root is bearing its terrible fruit, and the
spiritual food has failed to enter his heart. Beware of that. Mark the
Corinthians and learn of them. Paul did not say to them, "You can not bear
the truth as I would speak it to you," because they were ignorant or a
stupid people. The Corinthians prided themselves on their wisdom, and
sought it above everything, and Paul said: "I thank God that you are
enriched in utterance, in knowledge, and in wisdom; nevertheless, you are
yet carnal, your life is not holy; your life is not sanctified unto the
humility of the life of the Lamb of God, you can not yet take in real
spiritual truth."
We find the carnal state not only at Corinth, but throughout the Christian
world to-day. Many Christians are asking, "What is the reason there is so
much feebleness in the Church?" We can not ask this question too earnestly,
and I trust that God Himself will so impress it upon our hearts that we
shall say to Him, "It must be changed. Have mercy upon us." But, ah! that
prayer and that change can not come until we have begun to see that there
is a carnal root ruling in believers; they are living more after the flesh
than the Spirit; they are yet carnal Christians.
There is a passage "from carnal to spiritual." Did Paul find any spiritual
believers? Undoubtedly he did. Just read the 6th chapter of the Epistle to
the Galatians! That was a church where strife, and bitterness, and envy
were terrible. But the apostle says in the first verse: "Brethren, if a man
be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the
spirit of meekness." There we see that the marks of the spiritual man are
that he will be a meek man; and that he will have power, and love to help
and restore those that are fallen. The carnal man can not do that. If there
is a true spiritual life that can be lived, the great question is: Is the
way open, and how can I enter into the spiritual state? Here, again, I have
four short answers.
First, we must know that there is such a spiritual life to be lived by men
on earth. Nothing cuts the roots of the Christian life so much as unbelief.
People do not believe what God has said about what He is willing to do for
His children. Men do not believe that when God says, "Be filled with
the Spirit," He means it for every Christian. And yet Paul wrote to the
Ephesians each one: "Be filled with the Spirit, and do not be drunk with
wine." Just as little as you may be drunk with wine, so little may you live
without being filled with the Spirit. Now, if God means that for believers,
the first thing that we need is to study, and to take home God's Word, to
our belief until our hearts are filled with the assurance that there is
such a life possible which it is our duty to live; that we can be spiritual
men. God's Word teaches us that God does not expect a man to live as he
ought for one minute unless the Holy Spirit is in him to enable him to do
it.
We do not want the Holy Spirit only when we go to preach, or when we have
some special temptation of the devil to meet, or some great burden to bear;
God says: "My child can not live a right life unless he is guided by my
Spirit every minute." That is the mark of the child of God: "As many as are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." In Romans V. we read:
"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto
us." That is to be the common, every-day experience of the believer, not
his life at set times only. Did ever a father or mother think, "For to-day
I want my child to love me?" No, they expect the love every day. And so
God wants His child every moment to have a heart filled with love of the
Spirit. In the eyes of God, it is most unnatural to expect a man to love
as he should if he is not filled with the Spirit. Oh, let us believe a man
_can_ be a spiritual man. Thank God, there is now the blessing waiting
us. "Be filled with the Spirit." "Be led by the Spirit." There _is_ the
blessing. If you have to say, "Oh, God, I have not this blessing," say it;
but say also, "Lord, I know it is my duty, my solemn obligation to have
it, for without it I can not live in perfect peace with Thee all the day;
without it I can not glorify Thee, and do the work Thou wouldst have me
do." This is our first step from carnal to spiritual,--to recognize a
spiritual life, a walk in the Spirit, is within our reach. How can we ask
God to guide us into spiritual life, if we have not a clear, confident
conviction that there is such a life to be had?
Then comes the second step; a man must see the shame and guilt of his
having lived such a life. Some people admit there is a spiritual life to
live, and that they have not lived it, and they are sorry for themselves,
and pity themselves, and think, "How sad that I am too feeble for it! How
sad that God gives it to others, but has not given it to me!" They have
great compassion upon themselves, instead of saying, "Alas! it has been
our unfaithfulness, our unbelief, our disobedience, that has kept us from
giving ourselves utterly to God. We have to blush and to be ashamed before
God that we do not live as spiritual men."
A man does not get converted without having conviction of sin. When that
conviction of sin comes, and his eyes are opened, he learns to be afraid of
his sin, and to flee from it to Christ, and to accept Christ as a mighty
deliverer. But a man needs a second conviction of sin; a believer must be
convicted of his peculiar sin. The sins of an unconverted man are different
from the sins of a believer. An unconverted man, for instance, is not
ordinarily convicted of the corruption of his nature; he thinks principally
about external sins,--"I have sworn, been a liar, and I am on the way to
hell." He is then convicted for conversion. But the believer is in quite
a different condition. His sins are far more blamable, for he has had the
light and the love and the Spirit of God given to him. His sins are far
deeper. He has striven to conquer them and he has grown to see that his
nature is utterly corrupt, that the carnal mind, the flesh, within him, is
making his whole state utterly wretched. When a believer is thus convicted
by the Holy Spirit, it is specially his life of unbelief that condemns him,
because he sees that the great guilt connected with this has kept him from
receiving the full gift of God's Holy Spirit. He is brought down in shame
and confusion of face, and he begins to cry: "Woe is me, for I am undone. I
have heard of God by the hearing of the ear; I have known a great deal of
Him and preached about Him, but now mine eye seeth Him." God comes near
him. Job, the righteous man, whom God trusted, saw in himself the deep sin
of self and its righteousness that he had never seen before. Until this
conviction of the wrongness of our carnal state as believers comes to each
one of us; until we are willing to get this conviction from God, to take
time before God to be humbled and convicted, we never can become spiritual
men.
Then comes the third mark, which is that out of the carnal state into the
spiritual is only one step. One step; oh, that is a blessed message I bring
to you--it is only one step. I know many people will refuse to admit that
it is only one step; they think it too little for such a mighty change. But
was not conversion only one step?
So it is when a man passes from carnal to spiritual. You ask if when I talk
of a spiritual man I am not thinking of a man of spiritual maturity, a
real saint, and you say: "Does that come in one day? Is there no growth in
holiness?" I reply that spiritual maturity cannot come in a day. We can not
expect it. It takes growth, until the whole beauty of the image of Christ
is formed in a man. But still I say that it needs but one step for a man
to get out of the carnal life into the spiritual life. It is when a
man utterly breaks with the flesh; when he gives up the flesh into the
crucifixion death of Christ; when he sees that everything about it is
accursed and that he can not deliver himself from it; and then claims the
slaying power of Christ's cross within him,--it is when a man does this and
says: "This spiritual life prepared for me is the free gift of my God in
Christ Jesus," that he understands how one step can bring him out of the
carnal into the spiritual state.
In that spiritual life there will be much still to be learned. There will
still be imperfections. Spiritual life is not perfect; but the predominant
characteristic will be spiritual. When a man has given himself up to the
real, living, acting, ruling power of God's Spirit, he has got into the
right position in which he can grow. You never think of growing out of
sickness into health; you may grow out of feebleness into strength, as the
little babe can grow to be a strong man; but where there is disease, there
must healing come if there is to be a cure effected. There are Christians
who think that they must grow out of the carnal state into the spiritual
state. You never can. What could help those carnal Corinthians? To give
them milk could not help them, for milk was a proof they were in the wrong
state. To give them meat would not help them, for they were unfit to eat
it. What they needed was the knife of the surgeon. Paul says that the
carnal life must be cut out. "They that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh." When a man understands what that means, and accepts it in the
faith of what Christ can do, then one step can bring him from carnal to
spiritual. One simple act of faith in the power of Christ's death, one act
of surrender to the fellowship of Christ's death as the Holy Spirit can
make it ours, will make it ours, will bring deliverance from the power of
your efforts.
What brought deliverance to that poor condemned sinner who was most dark
and wretched in his unconverted state? He felt he could do nothing good of
himself. What did he do? He saw set before him the almighty Saviour and he
cast himself into His arms; he trusted himself to that omnipotent love and
cried, "Lord, have mercy upon me." That was salvation. It was not for
what he did that Christ accepted him. Oh, believers, if any of us who are
conscious that the carnal state predominates have to say: "It marks me; I
am a religious man, an earnest man, a friend of missions; I work for Christ
in my church, but, alas! temper and sin and worldliness have still the
mastery over my soul," hear the word of God. If any will come and say: "I
have struggled, I have prayed, I have wept, and it has not helped me," then
you must do one other thing. You must see that the living Christ is God's
provision for your holy, spiritual life. You must believe that that Christ
who accepted you once, at conversion, in His wonderful love is now waiting
to say to you that you may become a spiritual man, entirely given up to
God. If you will believe that, your fear will vanish and you will say: "It
can be done; if Christ will accept and take charge, it shall be done."
Then, my last mark. A man must take that step, a solemn but blessed
step. It cost some of you five or ten years before you took the step of
conversion. You wept and prayed for years, and could not find peace until
you took that step. So, in the spiritual life, you may go to teacher after
teacher, and say, "Tell me about the spiritual life, the baptism of the
Spirit, and holiness," and yet you may remain just where you were. Many of
us would love to have sin taken away. Who loves to have a hasty temper? Who
loves to have a proud disposition? Who loves to have a worldly heart? No
one. We go to Christ to take it away, and he does not do it; and we ask,
"Why will he not do it? I have prayed very earnestly." It is because you
wanted Him to take away the ugly fruits while the poisonous root was to
stay in you. You did not ask Him that the flesh should be nailed to His
cross, and that you should henceforth give up self entirely to the power of
His Spirit.
There is deliverance, but not in the way we seek it. Suppose a painter had
a piece of canvas, on which he desired to work out some beautiful picture.
Suppose that piece of canvas does not belong to him, and any one has a
right to take it and to use it for any other purpose; do you think the
painter would bestow much work on that? No. Yet people want Jesus Christ to
bestow His trouble upon them in taking away this temper, or that other sin,
though in their hearts they have not yielded themselves utterly to His
command and His keeping. It can not be. But if you will come and give your
whole life into His charge, Christ Jesus is mighty to save; Christ Jesus
waits to be gracious; Christ Jesus waits to fill you with His Spirit.
Will you not take the step? God grant that we may be led by His Spirit to
a yielding up of ourselves to Him as never before. Will you not come in
humble confession that, alas! the carnal life has predominated too much,
has altogether marked you, and that you have a bitter consciousness that
with all the blessing God has bestowed, He has not made you what you want
to be--a spiritual man? _It is the Holy Spirit alone who by His indwelling
can make a spiritual man_. Come then and cast yourself at God's feet, with
this one thought, "Lord, I give myself an empty vessel to be filled with
Thy Spirit." Each one of you sees every day at the tea table an empty cup
set there, waiting to be filled with tea when the proper time comes. So
with every dish, every plate. They are cleansed and empty, ready to be
filled. Emptied and cleansed. Oh, come! and just as a vessel is set apart
to receive what it is to contain, say to Christ that you desire from this
hour to be a vessel set apart to be filled with His Spirit, given up to be
a spiritual man. Bow down in the deepest emptiness of soul, and say, "Oh,
God, I have nothing!" and then surely as you place yourself before Him you
have a right to say, "My God will fulfill His promise! I claim from Him the
filling of the Holy Spirit to make me, instead of a carnal, a spiritual
Christian." If you place yourself at His feet, and tarry there; if you
abide in that humble surrender and that childlike trust, as sure as God
lives the blessing will come.
Oh, have we not to bow in shame before God, as we think of His whole Church
and see so much of the carnal prevailing? Have we not to bow in shame
before God, as we think of so much of the carnal in our hearts and lives?
Then let us bow in great faith in God's mercy. Deliverance is nigh,
deliverance is coming, deliverance is waiting, deliverance is sure. Let us
trust; God will give it.
THE SELF LIFE.
II.
_Matt. 16: 24_.--_If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow me_.
In the 13th verse we read that Jesus at Caesarea Philippi asked His
disciples, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" When they had
answered, He asked them, "But whom say ye that I am?" And in verse 16 Peter
answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus
answered and said unto him: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonas, for flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven.
And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Then in verse 21 we read how Jesus began to tell His disciples of His
approaching death; and in verse 22 how Peter began to rebuke Him, saying,
"Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee." But Jesus turned
and said unto Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense unto
me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of
men." Then said Jesus unto His disciples, "If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me."
We often hear about the compromise life and the question comes up What lies
at the root of it? What is the reason that so many Christians are wasting
their lives in the terrible bondage of the world instead of living in the
manifestation and the privilege and the glory of the child of God? And
another question perhaps comes to us: What can be the reason that when we
see a thing is wrong and strive against it we cannot conquer it? What can
be the reason that we have a hundred times prayed and vowed, yet here
we are still living a mingled, divided, half-hearted life? To those two
questions there is one answer: it is _self_ that is the root of the whole
trouble. And therefore, if any one asks me, "How can I get rid of this
compromise life?" the answer would not be, "You must do this, or that, or
the other thing," but the answer would be, "A new life from above, the
life of Christ, must take the place of the self-life; then alone can we be
conquerors."
We always go from the outward to the inward; let us do so here; let us
consider from these words of the text the one word, "self." Jesus said to
Peter: "If any man will come after me let him deny _himself_, his own self,
and take up the cross and follow me." That is a mark of the disciple; that
is the secret of the Christian life--deny self and all will come right.
Note that Peter was a believer, and a believer who had been taught by the
Holy Spirit. He had given an answer that pleased Christ wonderfully: "Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Do not think that that was
nothing extraordinary. We learn it in our catechisms; Peter did not; and
Christ saw that the Holy Spirit of the Father had been teaching him and He
said: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonas." But note how strong the carnal
man still is in Peter. Christ speaks of His cross; He could understand
about the glory, "Thou art the Son of God;" but about the cross and the
death he could not understand, and he ventured in his self-confidence to
say, "Lord, that shall never be; Thou canst not be crucified and die." And
Christ had to rebuke him: "Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou savorest not the
things that be of God." You are talking like a mere carnal man, and not as
the Spirit of God would teach you. Then Christ went on to say, "Remember,
it is not only I who am to be crucified, but you; it is not only I who am
to die, but you also. If a man would be my disciple, he must deny self, and
he must take up his cross and follow me." Let us dwell upon this one word,
"self." It is only as we learn to know what self is that we really know
what is at the root of all our failure, and are prepared to go to Christ
for deliverance.
Let us consider, first of all, the nature of this self life, then denote
some of its works and then ask the question: "How may we be delivered from
it?"
Self is the power with which God has created and endowed every intelligent
creature. Self is the very center of a created being. And why did God give
the angels or man a self? The object of this self was that we might bring
it as an empty vessel unto God; that He might put into it His life. God
gave me the power of self-determination, that I might bring this self every
day and say: "Oh, God, work in it; I offer it to thee." God wanted a vessel
into which He might pour out His divine fullness of beauty, wisdom and
power; and so He created the world, the sun, and the moon, and the stars,
the trees, and the flowers, and the grass, which all show forth the riches
of His wisdom, and beauty, and goodness. But they do it without knowing
what they do. Then God created the angels with a self and a will, to see
whether they would come and voluntarily yield themselves to Him as vessels
for Him to fill. But alas! they did not all do that. There was one at the
head of a great company, and he began to look upon himself, and to think
of the wonderful powers with which God had endowed him, and to delight in
himself. He began to think: "Must such a being as I always remain dependent
on God?" He exalted himself, pride asserted itself in separation from God,
and that very moment he became, instead of an angel in Heaven, a devil in
hell. Self turned to God is the glory of allowing the Creator to reveal
Himself in us. Self turned away from God is the very darkness and fire of
hell.
We all know the terrible story of what took place further; God created man,
and Satan came in the form of a serpent and tempted Eve with the thought
of becoming as God, having an independent self, knowing good and evil. And
while he spoke with her, he breathed into her, in those words, the very
poison and the very pride of hell. His own evil spirit, the very poison of
hell, entered humanity, and it is this cursed self that we have inherited
from our first parents. It was that self that ruined and brought
destruction upon this world, and all that there has been of sin, and of
darkness, and of wretchedness, and of misery; and all that there will be
throughout the countless ages of eternity in hell, will be nothing but the
reign of self, the curse of self, separating man and turning him away from
his God. And if we are to understand fully what Christ is to do for us, and
are to become partakers of a full salvation, we must learn to know, and to
hate, and to give up entirely this cursed self.
Now what are the works of self? I might mention many, but let us take the
simplest words that we are continually using,--self-will, self-confidence,
self-exaltation. Self-will, pleasing self, is the great sin of man, and it
is at the root of all that compromising with the world which is the ruin of
so many. Men can not understand why they should not please themselves and
do their own will. Numbers of Christians have never gotten hold of the idea
that a Christian is a man who is never to seek his own will, but is always
to seek the will of God, as a man in whom the very spirit of Christ lives.
"Lo, I come to do Thy will, oh, my God!" We find Christians pleasing
themselves in a thousand ways, and yet trying to be happy, and good, and
useful; and they do not know that at the root of it all is self-will
robbing them of the blessing. Christ said to Peter, "Peter, deny yourself."
But instead of doing that, Peter said, "I will deny my Lord and not
myself." He never said it in words, but Christ said to him in the last
night, "Thou shalt deny Me," and he did it. What was the cause of this?
Self-pleasing. He became afraid when the woman servant charged him with
belonging to Jesus, and three times said, "I know not this man, I have
nothing to do with Him." He denied Christ. Just think of it! No wonder
Peter wept those bitter tears. It was a choice between self, that ugly,
cursed self, and that beautiful, blessed Son of God; and Peter chose self.
No wonder that he thought: "Instead of denying myself, I have denied Jesus;
what a choice I have made!" No wonder that he wept bitterly.
Christians, look at your own lives in the light of the words of Jesus. Do
you find there self-will, self-pleasing? Remember this: every time you
please yourself, you deny Jesus. It is one of the two. You must please Him
only, and deny self, or you must please yourself and deny Him. Then follows
self-confidence, self-trust, self-effort, self-dependence. What was it
that led Peter to deny Jesus? Christ had warned him; why did he not take
warning? Self-confidence. He was so sure: "Lord, I love Thee. For three
years I have followed Thee. Lord, I deny that it ever can be. I am ready
to go to prison and to death." It was simply self-confidence. People have
often asked me, "What is the reason I fail? I desire so earnestly, and pray
so fervently, to live in God's will." And my answer generally is, "Simply
because you trust yourself." They answer me: "No, I do not; I know I am
not good; and I know that God is willing to keep me, and I put my trust in
Jesus." But I reply, "No, my brother; no; if you trusted God and Jesus, you
could not fall, but you trust yourself." Do let us believe that the cause
of every failure in the Christian life is nothing but this. I trust this
cursed self, instead of trusting Jesus. I trust my own strength, instead of
the almighty strength of God. And that is why Christ says, "This self must
be denied."
Then there is self-exaltation, another form of the works of self. Ah,
how much pride and jealousy is there in the Christian world; how much
sensitiveness to what men say of us or think of us; how much desire of
human praise and pleasing men, instead of always living in the presence of
God, with the one thought: "Am I pleasing to Him?" Christ said, "How can ye
believe who receive honor one of another?" Receiving honor of one another
renders a life of faith absolutely impossible. This self started from hell,
it separated us from God, it is a cursed deceiver that leads us astray from
Jesus.
Now comes the third point. What are we to do to get rid of it? Jesus
answers us in the words of our text: "If any man will come after me, let
him take up his cross and follow me." Note it well.--I must deny myself and
take Jesus himself as my life,--I must choose. There are two lives, the
self life and the Christ life; I must choose one of the two. "Follow
me," says our Lord, "make me the law of your existence, the rule of your
conduct; give me your whole heart; follow me, and I will care for all." Oh,
friends, it is a solemn exchange to have set before us; to come and,
seeing the danger of this self, with its pride and its wickedness, to cast
ourselves before the Son of God, and to say, "I deny my own life, I take
Thy life to be mine."
The reason why Christians pray and pray for the Christ life to come in to
them, without result, is that the self life is not denied. You ask, "How
can I get rid of this self life?" You know the parable: the strong man kept
his house until one stronger than he came in and cast him out. Then the
place was garnished and swept, but empty, and he came back with seven other
spirits worse than himself. It is only Christ Himself coming in that can
cast out self, and keep out self. This self will abide with us to the very
end. Remember the Apostle Paul; he had seen the Heavenly vision, and lest
he should exalt himself, the thorn in the flesh was sent to humble him.
There was a tendency to exalt himself, which was natural, and it would have
conquered, but Christ delivered him from it by His faithful care for His
loving servant. Jesus Christ is able, by His divine grace, to prevent the
power of self from ever asserting itself or gaining the upper hand; Jesus
Christ is willing to become the life of the soul; Jesus Christ is willing
to teach us so to follow Him, and to have heart and life set upon Him
alone, that He shall ever and always be the light of our souls. Then we
come to what the apostle Paul says; "Not I, but Christ liveth in me." The
two truths go together. First "Not I," then, "but Christ liveth in me."
Look at Peter again. Christ said to him, "Deny yourself, and follow me."
Whither had he to follow? Jesus led him, even though he failed; and where
did he lead him? He led him on to Gethsemane, and there Peter failed, for
he slept when he ought to have been awake, watching and praying; He led him
on towards Calvary, to the place where Peter denied Him. Was that Christ's
leading? Praise God, it was. The Holy Spirit had not yet come in His power;
Peter was yet a carnal man; the Spirit willing, but not able to conquer;
the flesh weak. What did Christ do? He led Peter on until he was broken
down in utter self-abasement, and humbled in the depths of sorrow. Jesus
led him on, past the grave, through the Resurrection, up to Pentecost, and
the Holy Spirit came, and in the Holy Spirit Christ with His divine life
came, and then it was, "Christ liveth in me."
There is but one way of being delivered from this life of self. We must
follow Christ, set our hearts upon Him, listen to His teachings, give
ourselves up every day, that He may be all to us, and by the power of
Christ the denial of self will be a blessed, unceasing reality. Never for
one hour do I expect the Christian to reach a stage at which he can say, "I
have no self to deny;" never for one moment in which he can say, "I do not
need to deny self." No, this fellowship with the cross of Christ will be an
unceasing denial of self every hour and every moment by the grace of God.
There is no place where there is full deliverance from the power of this
sinful self. We are to be crucified with Christ Jesus. We are to live with
Him as those who have never been baptized into His death. Think of that!
Christ had no sinful self, but He had a self and that self He actually gave
up unto death. In Gethsemane He said, "Father, not My will." That unsinning
self He gave up unto death that He might receive it again out of the grave
from God, raised up and glorified. Can we expect to go to Heaven in any
other way than He went? Beware! remember that Christ descended into death
and the grave, and it is in the death of self, following Jesus to the
uttermost, that the deliverance and the life will come.
And now, what is the use that we are to make of this lesson of the Master?
The first lesson will be that we should take time, and that we should
humble ourselves before God, at the thought of what this self is in us; put
down to the account of the self every sin, every shortcoming, all failure,
and all that has been dishonoring to God, and then say, "Lord, this is
what I am;" and then let us allow the blessed Jesus Christ to take entire
control of our life, in the faith that His life can be ours.
Do not think it is an easy thing to get rid of self. At a consecration
meeting, it is easy to make a vow, and to offer a prayer, and to perform an
act of surrender, but as solemn as the death of Christ was on Calvary--His
giving up of His unsinning self life to God,--just as solemn must it be
between us and our God--the giving up of self to death. The power of
the death of Christ must come to work in us every day. Oh, think what a
contrast between that self-willed Peter, and Jesus giving up His will to
God! What a contrast between that self-exaltation of Peter, and the deep
humility of the Lamb of God, meek and lowly in heart before God and man!
What a contrast between that self-confidence of Peter, and that deep
dependence of Jesus upon the Father, when He said: "I can do nothing of
myself." We are called upon to live the life of Christ, and Christ comes to
live His life in us; but one thing must first take place; we must learn to
hate this self, and to deny it. As Peter said, when he denied Christ, "I
have nothing to do with him," so we must say, "I have nothing to do with
self," that Christ Jesus may be all in all. Let us humble ourselves at the
thought of what this self has done to us and how it has dishonored Jesus;
and let us pray very fervently: "Lord, by Thy light discover this self; we
beseech Thee to discover it to us. Open our eyes, that we may see what it
has done, and that it is the only hindrance that has been keeping us back."
Let us pray that fervently, and then let us wait upon God until we get away
from all our religious exercises, and from all our religious experience,
and from all our blessings, until we get close to God, with this one
prayer: "Lord God, self changed an archangel into a devil, and self ruined
my first parents, and brought them out of Paradise into darkness and
misery, and self has been the ruin of my life and the cause of every
failure; oh, discover it to me." And then comes the blessed exchange, that
a man is made willing and able to say: "Another will live the life for me,
another will live with me, another will do all for me," Nothing else will
do. Deny self; take up the cross, to die with Jesus; follow Him only. May
He give us the grace to understand, and to receive, and to live the Christ
life.
WAITING ON GOD
III.
_Psalms 62: 5_.--_My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is
from Him_.
The solemn question comes to us, "Is the God I have, a God that is to
me above all circumstances, nearer to me than any circumstance can be?"
Brother, have you learned to live your life having God so really with you
every moment, that in circumstances the most difficult He is always more
present and nearer than anything around you? All our knowledge of God's
Word will help us very little, unless that comes to be the question to
which we get an answer.
What can be the reason that so many of God's beloved children complain
continually: "My circumstances separate me from God; my trials, my
temptations, my character, my temper, my friends, my enemies, anything can
come between my God and me?" Is God not able so to take possession that He
can be nearer to me than anything in the world? Must riches or poverty, joy
or sorrow, have a power over me that my God has not? No. But why, then, do
God's children so often complain that their circumstances separate them
from Him? There can be but one answer, "They do not know their God." If
there is trouble or feebleness in the Church of God, it is because of this.
We do not know the God we have. That is why in addition to the promise, "I
will be thy God," the promise is so often added, "And ye shall know that I
am your God." If I know that, not through man's teaching, not with my mind
or my imagination; but if I know that, in the living evidence which God
gives in my heart, then I know that the divine presence of my God will be
so wonderful, and my God Himself will be so beautiful, and so near, that I
can live all my days and years a conqueror through Him that loved me. Is
not that the life which we need?
The question comes again: Why is it that God's people do not know their
God? And the answer is: They take anything rather than God,--ministers, and
preaching, and books, and prayers, and work, and efforts, any exertion of
human nature, instead of waiting, and waiting long if need be, until God
reveals Himself. No teaching that we may get, and no effort that we may put
forth, can put us in possession of this blessed light of God, all in all
to our souls. But still it is attainable, it is within reach, if God will
reveal Himself. That is the one necessity. I would to God that every one
would ask his heart whether he has said, and is saying every day: "I want
more of God. Do not speak to me only of the beautiful truth there is in the
Bible. That can not satisfy me. I want God." In our inner Christian life,
in our every-day prayers, in our Christian living, in our churches, in our
prayer-meetings, in our fellowship, it must come to that--that God always
has the first place; and if that be given Him, He will take possession. Oh,
if in our lives as individuals every eye were set upon God, upon the living
God, every heart were crying, "My soul thirsteth for God," what power, what
blessing and what presence of the everlasting God would be revealed to us!
Let me use an illustration. When a man is giving an illustrated lecture
he often uses a long pointer to indicate places on a map or chart. Do the
people look at that pointer? No, that only helps to show them the place on
the map, and they do not think of it,--it might be of fine gold; but the
_pointer_ can not satisfy them. They want to see what the pointer points
at. And this Bible is nothing but a pointer, pointing to God; and,--may I
say it with reverence--Jesus Christ came to point us, to show us the way,
to bring us to God. I am afraid there are many people who love Christ and
who trust in Him, but who fail of the one great object of His work; they
have never learned to understand what the Scripture saith: "He died, that
He might bring us unto God."
There is a difference between the way and the end which I am aiming at.
I might be traveling amid most beautiful scenery, in the most delightful
company; but if I have a home to which I want to go, all the scenery, and
all the company, and all the beauty and happiness around me can not satisfy
me; I want to reach the end; I want my home. And God is meant to be the
home of our souls. Christ came into the world to bring us back to God, and
unless we take Christ for what God intended we should, our religion will
always be a divided one. What do we read in Hebrews vii? "He is able to
save to the uttermost."--Whom? "Them that come to God by Him;" not
them that only come to Christ. In Christ--bless His name--we have the
graciousness, the condescension, and the tenderness of God. But we are in
danger of standing there, and being content with that, and Christ wants to
bring us back to rejoice as much as in the glory of God Himself, in His
righteousness, His holiness, His authority, His presence and His power. He
can save completely those who come to God through Him!
Now, just a very few thoughts on the way by which I can come to know God as
this God above all circumstances, filling my heart and life every day. The
one thing needful is: I must wait upon God. The original is,--it is in our
Dutch version, and it is in the margin, too,--"My soul is silent into God."
What ought to be the silence of the soul unto God? A soul conscious of its
littleness, its ignorance, its prejudices and its dangers from passion,
from all that is human and sinful,--a soul conscious of that, and saying,
"I want the everlasting God to come in and to take hold of me and to take
such hold of me that I may be kept in the hollow of His hand for my life
long; I want Him to take such possession of me that every moment He may
work all in all in me." That is what is implied in the very nature of our
God. How we ought to be silent unto Him, and wait upon Him!