light and the life of creation, the source and power of all existence. The
beautiful trees, the green grass, the bright sun, God created that they
might show forth His beauty, His wisdom and His glory. The tree of one
hundred years old--when it was planted God did not give it a stock of life
by which to carry on its existence. Nay, verily, God clothes the lilies
every year afresh with their beauty; every year God clothes the tree with
its foliage and its fruit. Every day and every hour it is God who maintains
the life of all nature. And God created us, that we might be the empty
vessels in which He could work out His beauty, His will, His love, and the
likeness of His blessed Son. That is what God is for, to work in us by His
mighty operation, without one moment's ceasing. When I begin to get hold of
that, I no longer think of the true Christian life as a high impossibility,
and an unnatural thing, but I say, "It is the most natural thing in
creation that God should have me every moment, and that my God should be
nearer to me than all else." Just think, for a moment, what folly it is to
imagine that I can not expect God to be with me every moment. Just look at
the sunshine; have you ever had any trouble as you were working or as you
were studying or reading a book in the light the sun gives? Have you ever
said, "Oh, how can I keep that light, how can I hold it fast, how can I be
sure that I shall continue to have it to use?" You never thought that.
God has taken care that the sun itself should provide you with light; and
without your care; the light comes unbidden. And I ask you: What think you?
Has God arranged that the light of that sun that will one day be burned up,
can come to you unconsciously and abide in you blessedly and mightily; and
is God not willing, or is He not able, to let His light and His presence so
shine through you that you can walk all the day with God nearer to you than
anything in nature? Praise God for the assurance; He can do it. And why
does He not do it? Why so seldom, and why in such feeble measure? There is
but one answer: you do not let Him. You are so occupied and filled with
other things, religious things, preaching and praying, studying and
working, so occupied with your religion, that you do not give God the time
to make Himself known, and to enter in and to take possession. Oh, brother,
listen to the word of the man who knew God so well, and begin to say: "My
soul, wait thou only upon God."
I might show that this is the very glory of the Creator, the very life
Christ brought into the world, the life He lived, and the very life Christ
wants to lift us up to in its entire dependence on the Father. The very
secret of the Christ-life is this: such a consciousness of God's presence
that whether it was Judas, who came to betray Him, or Caiaphas, who
condemned Him unjustly, or Pilate, who gave Him up to be crucified, the
presence of the Father was upon Him, and within Him, and around Him, and
man could not touch His spirit. And that is what God wants to be to you and
to me. Does not all your anxious restlessness, and futile effort, prove
that you have not let God do His work? God is drawing you to Himself.
This is not your own wish, and the stirring of your own heart, but the
everlasting Divine magnet is drawing you. These restless yearnings and
thirstings, remember, are the work of God. Come and be still, and wait upon
God. He will reveal Himself.
And how am I to wait on God? In answer I would say: first of all, in prayer
take more time to be still before God without saying one word. What is, in
prayer, the most important thing? That I catch the ear of Him to whom I
speak. We are not ready to offer our petition until we are fully conscious
of having secured the attention of God. You tell me you know all that. Yes,
you know it; but you need to have your heart filled by the Holy Spirit with
the holy consciousness that the everlasting, almighty God is indeed come
very near you. The loving one is longing to have you for His own. Be still
before God, and wait, and say: "Oh, God, take possession. Reveal Thyself,
not to my thoughts or imaginations, but by the solemn, awe-bringing,
soul-subduing consciousness that God is shining upon me bring me to the
place of dependence and humility."
Prayer may be indeed waiting upon God, but there is a great deal of prayer
that is not waiting upon God. Waiting on God is the first and the best
beginning for prayer. When we bow in the humble, silent acknowledgment
of God's glory and nearness, ere we begin to pray there will be the very
blessing that we often get only at the end. From the very beginning I come
face to face with God; I am in touch with the everlasting omnipotence of
love and I know my God will bless me. Let us never be afraid to be still
before God; we shall then carry that stillness into our work; and when we
go to church on Sunday, or to the prayer-meeting on week-days, it will be
with the one desire that nothing may stand betwixt us and God, and that
we may never be so occupied with hearing and listening as to forget the
presence of God.
Oh, that God might make every minister what Moses was at the foot of Mount
Sinai; "Moses led the people out to meet God," and they did meet Him until
they were afraid. Let every minister ask with all the earnestness his
soul can command, that God may deliver him from the sin of preaching and
teaching without making the people feel first of all: "The man wants to
bring us to God Himself." It can be felt, not only in the words, but in the
very disposition of the humble, waiting, worshiping heart. We must carry
this waiting into all our worship; we will have to make a study of it; we
will have to speak about it; we will have to help each other, for the truth
has been too much lost in the Church of Christ; we must wait upon God about
it. Then we shall be able to carry it out into our daily life. There are so
many Christians who wonder that they fail; but think of the ease with which
they talk and join in conversation, spending hours in it, never thinking
that all this may be dissipating the soul's power and leading them to spend
hours not in the immediate presence of God. I am afraid this is the great
difficulty: that we are not willing to make the needed sacrifice for a life
of continual waiting upon God. Are there not some of us who would feel it
an impossibility to spend every moment under the covering of the Most High,
"in the secret of His pavilion?" Beloved, do not think it too high, or too
difficult. It is too difficult for you and me to attain, but our God will
give it to us. Let us begin even now to wait more earnestly and intensely
upon God. Let us in our homes sometimes bow a little in silence; let us in
our closets wait in silence, and make a covenant, it may be, without words,
that with our whole hearts we will seek God's presence to come in upon us.
What is religion? Just as much as you have of God working in you, that
alone is religion. And if you want more religion, more grace, more strength
and more fruitfulness, you must have more of God. Let that be the cry of
our hearts,--More of God! More of God! More of God! And let us say to our
souls, "My soul, wait thou upon God, for my expectation is from Him."
ENTRANCE INTO REST.
IV.
_Hebrews 4: 1_.--_Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of
entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it._
_Hebrews 4: 11_.--_Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall after the same example of unbelief_.
I want, in the simplest way possible, to answer the question: "How does a
man enter into that rest?" and to point out the simple steps that he takes,
all included in the one act of surrender and faith.
And the first step, I think, is this: that a man learns to say, "I believe,
heartily, there is rest in a life of faith." Israel passed through two
stages. This is beautifully expressed in the fifth of Deuteronomy: "He
brought us out, that He might bring us in"--two parts of God's work of
redemption--"He brought us out from Egypt, that He might bring us into
Canaan." And that is applicable to every believer. At your conversion, God
brought you out of Egypt, and the same almighty God is longing to bring you
into the Canaan life. You know how God brought the Israelites out, but they
would not let Him bring them in and they had to wander for forty years in
the wilderness--the type, alas! of so many Christians. God brings them out
in conversion, but they will not let Him bring them in into all that He has
prepared for them. To a man who asks me, "How can I enter into the rest?" I
say, first of all, speak this word, "I do believe that there is a rest into
which Jesus, our Joshua, can bring a trusting soul." And if you would
know what the difference is between the two lives--the life you have been
leading, and the life you now want to lead, just look at the wilderness and
Canaan. What are the points of difference? In the wilderness, wandering for
forty years, backward and forward; in Canaan, perfect rest in the land that
God gave them. That is the difference between the life of a Christian who
has, and one who has not entered into Canaan. In wandering backward and
forward; going after the world, and coming back and repenting; led astray
by temptation, and returning only to go off again;--a life of ups and
downs. In Canaan, on the other hand, a life of rest, because the soul has
learned to trust: "God keeps me every hour in His mighty power." There is
the second difference: the life in the wilderness was a life of want; in
Canaan, a life of plenty. In the wilderness there was nothing to eat; there
was often no water. God graciously supplied their wants by the manna, and
the water from the rock. But, alas! they were not content with this, and
their life was one of want and murmurings. But in Canaan God gave them
vineyards that they had not planted, and the old corn of the land was there
waiting for them; a land flowing with milk and honey; a land that lived by
the rain of Heaven and had the very care of God Himself. Oh, Christian,
come and say to-day, "I believe there is a possibility of such a change
out of that life of spiritual death, and darkness, and sadness, and
complaining, that I have often lived, into the land of supply of every
want; where the grace of Jesus is proved sufficient every day, every hour."
Say to-day: "I believe in the possibility that there is such a land of rest
for me."
And then, the third difference: In the wilderness there was no victory.
When they tried, after they had sinned at Kadesh, to go up against their
enemies, they were defeated. In the land they conquered every enemy; from
Jericho onward, they went from victory to victory. And so God waits, and
Christ waits, and the Holy Spirit waits, to give victory every day; not
freedom from temptation; no, not that; but in union with Christ a power
that can say, "I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me." "We
are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." May God help every
heart to say that.
Then comes the second step. I want you to say not only, "I believe there is
such a life," but, second, "I have not had it yet." Say that. "I have never
yet got that." Some may say, "I have sought it;" some may say, "I have
never heard about it;" some may say, "At times I thought I had found it,
but I lost it again." Let every one be honest with God.
And now, will all who have never yet found it honestly, begin to say,
"Lord, up to this time I have never had it?" And why is it of such
consequence to speak thus? Because, dear friends, some people want to glide
into this life of rest gradually; and just quietly to steal in; and God
won't have it. Your life in the wilderness has not only been a life of
sadness to yourself, but of sin and dishonor to God. Every deeper entrance
into salvation must always be by the way of conviction and confession;
therefore, let every Christian be willing to say: "Alas! I have not lived
that life, and I am guilty; I have dishonored God; I have been like Israel;
I have provoked Him to wrath by my unbelief and disobedience. God have
mercy upon me!" Oh, let it go up before God--the secret confession: "I
haven't it; alas! I have not glorified God by a life in the land of rest."
Then comes the third word I want you to speak and that is: "Thank God, that
life is for me." Some say, "I believe there is such a life, but not
for me." There are people who continually say: "Oh, my character is so
unstable; my will is naturally very weak; my temperament is nervous and
excitable, it is impossible for me always to live without worry, resting in
God." Beloved brother, do not say that. You say so only for one reason: You
do not know what your God will do for you. Do begin to look away from self,
and to look up to God, Take that precious word: "He brought them out that
he might bring them in." The God who took them through the Red Sea was the
God who took them through Jordan into Canaan. The God who converted you is
the God who is able to give you every day this blessed life. Oh, begin to
say, with the beginnings of a feeble faith, even before you claim it, begin
even intellectually to say: "It is for me; I do believe that. God does not
disinherit any of His children. What He gives is for every one. I believe
that blessed life is waiting for me. It is meant for me. God is waiting to
bestow it, and to work it in me. Glory be to His blessed name! My soul says
it is for me, too." Oh, take that little word "me," and looking up in the
very face of God dare to say: "This inestimable treasure--it is for me, the
weakest and the unworthiest; it is for me." Have you said that? Say it now:
"This life is possible to me, too."
And then comes the next step, and that is: "I can never, by any effort of
mine, grasp it; it is God must bestow it on me." I want you to be very bold
in saying, "It is for me." But then I want you to fall down very low and
say, "I can not seize it; I can not take it to myself." And how can
you then get it? Praise God, if once He has brought you down in the
consciousness of utter helplessness and self-despair, then comes the time
that He can draw nigh and ask you, "Will you trust your God to work this
in you?" Dearly beloved Christians, say in your heart: "I never, by any
effort, can take hold of God, or seize this for myself; it is God must
give it." Cherish this blessed impotence. It is He who brought us out, who
Himself must bring us in. It is your greatest happiness to be impotent.
Pray God by the Holy Spirit to reveal to you this true impotence, and that
will open the way for your faith to say, "Lord, Thou must do it, or it
will never be done." God will do it. People wonder, when they hear so many
sermons about faith, and such earnest pleading to believe, and ask why it
is they can not believe. There is just one answer: It is self. Self is
working; is trying; is struggling, and self must fail. But when you come to
the end of self and can only cry, "Lord, help me! Lord, help me!"--then the
deliverance is nigh; believe that. It was God brought the people in. It is
God who will bring you in.
One should be willing, for the sake of this rest, to give up everything.
The grace of God is very free. It is given without money and without price.
And yet, on the other hand, Jesus said that every man who wants the pearl
of great price must sacrifice his all, must sell all that he has to buy
that pearl. It is not enough to see the beauty, the attractiveness and the
glory, and almost to taste the gladness and the joy of this wonderful life
as it has been set before you. You must become the possessor, the owner of
the field. The man who found the field with a treasure, and the man who
found the great pearl, were both glad; but they had not yet got it. They
had found it, seen it, desired it, rejoiced in it; but they had not yet got
it. Not until they went and sold all, gave up everything, and bought the
ground, and bought the pearl. Ah, friends, there is a great deal that has
to be given up: the world, its pleasures, its favor, its good opinion. You
are to stand to the world in the same relation as Jesus did. The world
rejected Him, and cast Him out, and you are to take up the position of your
Lord, to whom you belong, and to follow with the rejected Christ. You have
to give up everything. You have to give up all that is good in yourself
and to be humbled in the dust of death. And that is not all. Your past
religious life and experience and successes--you have to give all up and
become nothing, that God alone may have the glory. God has brought you out
in conversion; it was God's own life given you: but you defiled it with
disobedience and with unbelief. Give it all up. Give up all your own
wisdom, and your own thoughts about God's work. How hard it is for the
minister of the Gospel to give up all his wisdom, and to lay it at the feet
of Jesus, to become a fool and to say: "Lord, I know nothing as I should
know it. I have been preaching the Gospel, and how little I have seen of
the glory of the blessed land, and the blessed life!"
Why is it that the blessed Spirit can not teach us more effectually? No
reason but this: the wisdom of man prevents it; the wisdom of man prevents
the light of God from shining in. And so we could say of other things;
give up all. Some may have an individual sin to give up. There may be a
Christian man who is angry with his brother. There may be a Christian woman
who has quarreled with her neighbor. There may be friends who are not
living as they should. There may be Christians holding fast some little
doubtful thing, not willing to surrender and leave behind the whole of the
wilderness life and lust. Oh, do take this step and say: "I am ready
to give up everything to have this pearl of great price; my time, my
attention, my business, I count all subordinate to this rest of God as the
first thing in my life; I yield all to walk in perfect fellowship with
God." You can not get that and live every day in perfect fellowship with
God, without giving up time to it. You take time for everything. How many
hours a day has a young lady spent for years and years that she may become
proficient on the piano? How many years does a young man study to fit
himself for the profession of the law or medicine? Hours, and days, and
weeks, and months, and years, gladly given up to perfect himself for his
profession. And do you expect that religion is so cheap that without giving
time you can find close fellowship with God? You can not. But, oh, my
brothers and sisters, the pearl of great price is worth everything. God is
worth everything. Christ is worth everything. Oh, come to-day, and say,
"Lord, at any cost help me; I do want to live this life." And if you find
it difficult to say this, and if there is a struggle within the heart,
never mind; say to God, "Lord, I thought I was willing, but I see how much
unwillingness there is; come and discover what the evil is still in the
heart." By His grace, if you will lie at His feet and trust Him you may
depend upon it deliverance will come.
Then comes the next step, and that is to say: "I do now give up myself to
the holy and everlasting God, for Him to lead me into this perfect rest."
Ah, friends, we must learn to meet God face to face. My sin has been
against God. David felt that when he said, "Against Thee, Thee only, have
I sinned." It is God on the judgment seat whose face you will have to meet
personally. It is God Himself, personally, who met you to pardon your sins.
Come to-day and put yourself into the hands of the living God. God is love.
God is near. God is waiting to give you His blessing. The heart of God is
yearning over you. "My child," God says, "you think you are longing for
rest; it is I that am longing for you, because I desire to rest in your
heart as My home, as My temple." You need your God. Yes, but your God needs
you, to find the full satisfaction of His Father heart in Christ in you.
Come to-day and say: "I do now give up myself to Christ. I have made the
choice. I deliberately say, 'Lord God, I am the purchaser of the pearl of
great price. I give up everything for it. In the name of Jesus I accept
that life of perfect rest.'"
And then comes my last thought. When you have said that, then add: "And
now, I trust God to make it all real to me in my experience. Whether I am
to live one year, or thirty years, I have heard it to-day again: 'God is
Jehovah, the great I AM of the everlasting future, the eternal One; and
thirty years hence is to Him just the same as now;' and that God gives
Himself to me, not according to my power to hold Him, but according to
His almighty power of love to hold me." Will you trust God to-day for the
future? Oh, will you look up to God in Christ Jesus once again? A thousand
times you have heard, and thought, and thanked--"God has given us His Son;"
but will you not to-day say, "How shall He not with Him give me all things,
every moment and every day of my life?" Say that in faith. "How shall God
not be willing to keep me in the light of His countenance, in the full
experience of Christ's saving power? Did God make the sun to shine so
brightly, and is the light so willing to pour itself into every nook and
corner where it can find entrance? And will not my God, who is love, be
willing all the day to shine into this heart of mine, from morning to
night, from year's end to year's end?" God is love, and longs to give
Himself to us.
Oh, come, Christians, you have hitherto lived a life in your own strength.
Will you not begin to-day? Will you not choose a life in which God shall be
all, and in which you rest in Him for all? Will you not choose a life in
which you shall say: "Oh, God, I ask, I expect, I trust Thee for it. I
enter this day into the rest of God to let God keep me; to let God keep me
every hour. I enter into the rest of God." Are you ready to say that? Be of
good courage; fear not, you can trust God. He brings into rest. Listen to
God's word in the Prophets once again: "Take heed, and be quiet. Fear not,
neither be faint-hearted." Joshua brought Israel into the land. God did
it through Joshua; and Joshua is Jesus, your Jesus, who washed you in His
blood; your Jesus, whom you have learned to know as a precious Saviour.
Trust Him to-day afresh: "O my Joshua, take me, bring me in and I will
trust Thee, and in Thee the Father." You may count upon it. He will take
you and the work will be done.
THE KINGDOM FIRST.
V.
_Matt 6: 33_.--_Seek ye first the kingdom of God_.
You have heard what need there is of unity in Christian life and Christian
work. And where is the bond of unity between the life of the Church, the
life of the individual believer and the work to be done among the heathen?
One of the expressions for that unity is: "Seek first the Kingdom of God,"
That does not mean, as many people take it, "Seek salvation; seek to get
into the Kingdom, and then thank God, and rest there." Ah, no; the meaning
of that word is entirely different and infinitely larger. It means: Let the
Kingdom of God, in all its breadth and length, in all its Heavenly glory
and power; let the Kingdom of God be the one thing you live for, and all
other things will be added unto you. "Seek first the Kingdom of God." Let
me just try to answer two very simple questions; the one: "Why should the
Kingdom of God be first?" and the other: "How can it be?" The one, "Why
should it be so?" God has created us as reasonable beings, so that the
more clearly we see that according to the law of nature, according to
the fitness of things, something that is set before us is proper, and an
absolute necessity, we so much the more willingly accept it, and aim after
it. And now, why does Christ say this: "Seek first the Kingdom of God?" If
you want to understand the reason, look at God, and look at man. Look at
God. Who is God? The great Being for whom alone the universe exists; in
whom alone it can have its happiness. It came from Him. It can not find any
rest or joy but in Him. Oh, that Christians understood and believed that
God is a fountain of happiness, perfect, everlasting blessedness! What
would the result be? Every Christian would say, "The more I can have of
God, the happier. The more of God's will, and the more of God's love,
and the more of God's fellowship, the happier." How Christians, if they
believed that with their whole heart, would, with the utmost ease, give up
everything that would separate them from God! Why is it that we find it so
hard to hold fellowship with God? A young minister once said to me, "Why is
it that I have so much more interest in study than in prayer, and how
can you teach me the art of fellowship with God?" My answer was: "Oh,
my brother, if we have any true conception of what God is, the art of
fellowship with Him will come naturally, and will be a delight." Yes, if we
believed God to be only joy to the one who comes to Him, only a fountain of
unlimited blessing, how we should give up all for Him! Has not joy a far
stronger attraction than anything in the world? Is it not in every beauty,
or in every virtue, in every pursuit, the joy that is set before us that
draws? And if we believe that God is a fountain of joy, and sweetness, and
power to bless, how our hearts will turn aside from everything, and say:
"Oh, the beauty of my God! I rejoice in Him alone." But, alas! the Kingdom
of God looks to many as a burden, and as something unnatural. It looks like
a strain, and we seek some relaxation in the world, and God is not our
chief joy. I come to you with a message. It is right, on account of what
God is as Infinite Love, as Infinite Blessing; it is right and more, it is
our highest privilege to listen to Christ's words, and to seek God and His
Kingdom first and above everything.