servant and a slave, one who is trusted and loved, but still entirely a
servant; second, as master. Potiphar made him overseer over his house and
his lands, and all that he had, so that we read afterward that he left
everything in his hands, and he knew of nothing except the bread that
came upon his table. I want to call your attention to Joseph as a type of
Christ. We sometimes speak in the Christian life, of entire surrender, and
rightly, and here we have a beautiful illustration of what it is. First,
Joseph was in Potiphar's house to serve him and to help him, and he did
that, and Potiphar learned to trust him, so that he said, "All that I have
I will give into his hands." Now, that is exactly what is to take place
with a great many Christians. They know Christ, they trust Him, they love
Him, but He is not Master, He is a sort of helper. When there is trouble
they come to Him, when they sin they ask Him for pardon in His precious
blood, when they are in darkness they cry to Him; but often and often they
live according to their own will, and they seek help from themselves. But
how blessed is the man who comes and, like Potiphar, says, "I will give
up everything to Jesus!" There are many who have accepted Christ as
their Lord, but have never yet come to the final, absolute surrender of
everything. Christians, if you want perfect rest, abiding joy, strength to
work for God, oh, come and learn from that poor heathen Egyptian what you
ought to do. He saw that God was with Joseph and he said, "I will give up
my house to him." Oh, learn you to do that. There are some who have
never yet accepted Christ, some who are seeking after Him, thirsting and
hungering, but they do not know how to find Him.
Let me direct your attention to four thoughts regarding this surrender to
Christ: First, its motives; second, its measures; third, its blessedness;
lastly, its duration.
First of all, its motives. What moved Potiphar to do this? I think the
answer is very easy: he was a trusted servant of the king and he had the
king's work to take care of, and he very likely could not take care of
his own house. All his time and attention were required at the court of
Pharaoh. He had his duty there; he was in high honor; but his own house got
neglected. Very likely he had had other overseers, one slave appointed to
rule the others, and perhaps that one had been unfaithful, or dishonest,
and somehow his house was not as he would have it. So he buys another
slave, just as he had formerly done, but in this case he sees what he had
never seen before. There is something unusual about the man. He walks
so humbly, he serves so faithfully and so lovingly, and withal so
successfully. Potiphar begins to look into the reason for this, and finally
concludes that God is with him.
It is a grand thing to have a man with whom God is, to entrust one's
business to. The heathen realized this, and between the need of his own
house and what he saw in Joseph, he decided to make him overseer. I ask
you, do not these two motives plead most urgently that you should say: "I
will make Jesus master over my whole being?" Your house, Christian, your
spiritual life, the dwelling, the temple of God in your heart,--in what
state is that? Is it not often like the temple of old, in Jerusalem, that
had been defiled and made a house of merchandise, and afterwards a den of
thieves? Your heart, meant to be the home of Jesus, is it not often full
of sin and darkness, full of sadness, full of vexation? You have done your
very best to get it changed, and you have called in the help of man, and
the help of means; you have used every method you could think of for
getting it put right; but it will not come right until He whose it is,
comes in to take charge.
If there is any trouble in your heart, if you are in darkness, or in the
power of sin, I bring to you the Son of God, with the promise that He will
come in and take charge. As Potiphar took Joseph, will you not take Jesus?
Has He not proven Himself worthy to be trusted? Come and say, "Jesus shall
have entire charge; He is worthy." Think not only of His Divine power, but
think of His wonderful love; think of His coming from heaven to save you;
think of His dying on Calvary and shedding His blood out of intense love
for you. Oh, think of it; Christ in heaven loves every one who is given to
Him, and whom He has made a child of God. "Having loved His own that were
in the world, He loved them unto the end."
Must I plead in the name of the love of the crucified Jesus; must I plead
with you Christians, and say, Look at Jesus, the Son of God, your Redeemer,
and ask you to make Him overseer over all? Give Him charge of your temper,
your heart's affections, your thoughts, your whole being, and He will prove
Himself worthy of it. Joseph had been for a time just a common slave, and
with the other slaves had served Pharaoh. Alas! many a Christian has used
Christ for his own advancement and comfort, just as he uses everything in
the world. He uses father and mother, minister, money, and all else the
world will give, to comfort and make him happy; there is danger of his
using Christ Jesus in the same way. But oh, brethren, this is not right.
You are His house, and He has a right to dwell therein. Will you not come
and surrender all, and say, "Lord Jesus, I have made Thee overseer over
all?"
But now, secondly, the measure of that surrender. We read in the 4th verse:
"All that he had he put into his hands." Then in verse 5: "And it came to
pass from the time that he made him overseer over all that he had"--there
you have it the second time--"the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house, and
the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had"--there the third time.
Then in verse 6: "And he left all that he had"--there you have the words
the fourth time--"in Joseph's hand, and he knew not all he had, save the
bread which he did eat." What do I see here? That Potiphar actually gave
everything into Joseph's hands. He made him master over his slaves. All the
money was put into Joseph's hands, for we read that Potiphar had care of
nothing. When dinner was brought upon the table, he ate of it, and that
was all he knew of what was going on in his house. Is not this entire
surrender?--he gives up everything into the hands of Joseph. Ah, beloved
Christians, I want you to ask yourselves: "Have I done that?" You have
offered more than one consecration prayer, and you have more than once
said: "Jesus, all I have I give to Thee." You have said it, and meant it;
but very probably you did not realize fully what it meant.
With the word surrender there seems always to be a larger and more
comprehensive meaning. We do not succeed in carrying out our intentions,
and afterward we take back one thing and another until we have lost sight
of our original intention. Beloved Christians, let Christ Jesus have all.
Let Him have your whole heart, with its affections; He Himself loves, with
more than the love of Jonathan. Let Him have your whole heart, saying,
"Jesus, every fiber of my being, ever power of my soul, shall be devoted
to Thee." He will accept that surrender. He spoke a solemn word: "You must
hate father and mother." Say you to-day: "Lord Jesus, the love to father
and mother, to wife and child, to brother and sister, I give up to Thee.
Teach Thou me how to love Thee. I have only one desire, which is to love
Thee. I want to give my whole heart to be full of Thy love."
But when you have given your heart, there is yet more to give. There is the
head--the brain with its thoughts. I believe Christians do not know how
much they rob Christ of in reading so much of the literature of the world.
They are often so occupied with their newspapers that the Bible gets a very
small place. Oh, friends, I beseech you bring this noble power which God
has given you, the power of a mind that can think heavenly, eternal, and
infinite things, and lay it at the feet of Jesus, saying, "Lord Jesus,
every faculty of my being I want to surrender to Thee, that Thou shouldst
teach me what to think, and how to think, for Thee and Thy Kingdom." Bless
God, there are men who have given their intellect to Jesus, and it has been
accepted by Him. And in this connection there is my whole outer life. There
is my relation to society, my position among men, my intercourse in my own
home, with friends and family; there is my money, my time, my business; all
these should be put in the hands of Jesus. One cannot know beforehand the
blessedness of this surrender, but blessed it surely is. Come, because He
is worthy; come because you know you can not keep things right yourself,
and make Christ master over all you have. Give father and mother, wife and
child, house and land, and money, all to Jesus, and you will find that in
giving all you receive it back an hundred fold.
Thirdly, look at the blessing of the entire surrender. You have here the
remarkable words: "And it came to pass from the time that Potiphar made
Joseph overseer over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's
house for Joseph's sake, and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he
had in the house, and in the field." I ask you Christians, If God did this
to that heathen man, because he honored Joseph; if God, for Joseph's sake,
blessed that Egyptian in this wonderful way, may a Christian not venture to
say: "If I put my life into the hands of Jesus, I am sure God will bless
all that I have?" Oh, dare to say it. Potiphar trusted Joseph implicitly
and absolutely, and there was prosperity everywhere, because God was with
Joseph. Beloved friends, if you but surrender everything, depend upon it,
the blessing from that time will be yours. There will be a blessing within
your own inner life, and a blessing in your outer life. He blessed Potiphar
in the house, in the field, everywhere.
Oh, Christian, what is that blessing you will get? I can not tell all, but
I can tell you this: if you will come to Christ Jesus and surrender all,
the blessing of God will be on all that you have. There will be a blessing
for your own soul. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is
stayed on Thee." Try that; trust Jesus for everything, and trust everything
to Him, and the blessing of God will come upon you--the sweet rest, the
rest of faith. It is all in the hands of Jesus; He will guide you; He will
teach you; He will work in you; He will keep you; He will be everything to
you. What a blessed rest and freedom from responsibility and from care,
because it is all in the hands of Jesus! I do not say trouble and trial
will never come; but in the midst of trial and trouble you will have the
all-sufficiency of the presence of Jesus to be your comfort, your help, and
your guide. Joseph was sold by his brethren, but he saw God in it, and he
was quite content. Christ was betrayed by Judas, condemned by Caiaphas, and
given over to execution by Pilate; but in all that, Christ saw God, and
He was content. Give over your life, in all its phases, into the hands of
Jesus; remembering that the very hairs of your head are numbered, and not a
sparrow falls to earth without the Father's notice. Consent now and say: "I
will give up everything into the hands of Jesus. Whatever happens is His
will regarding me. Whether He comes in the light or in the dark, in the
storm or on the troubled sea, I will rest in that blessed assurance. I give
up my whole life entirely to Him."
In reading the Book of Jonah, we find God's hand in each step of Jonah's
experience. It was God who sent the storm when Jonah went aboard the ship,
who appointed a whale to swallow him, who ordered the whale to cast him
out; and then afterwards it was God who caused the hot wind to blow when
the sun was sending down its scorching rays, until the soul of Jonah was
grieved, and made the gourd to grow, and sent the worm to kill the gourd,
and set a sea-wind to dry the gourd up quickly. Do we not thus see that
every circumstance of our living, every comfort and every trial, comes from
God in Christ? There is nothing can touch a hair of my head. Not a sharp
word comes against me; not an unexpected flurry surrounds me, but it is all
Jesus. With my life in His hands, I need care for nothing. I can be content
with what Jesus gives.
God blessed Potiphar in the field; in the visible life outside of his
house; and God will bless you, that, in your intercourse with men, you may
be a blessing; that by your holy, humble, respectful, quiet walk, you may
carry comfort; that by your loving readiness to be a servant and a helper
to all, you may prove what the Spirit of God has done within you. Oh, my
brother, my sister, you have no conception of it,--I have not--how God is
willing to bless the soul utterly given up to Jesus. God can delight in
nothing but Jesus. God delights infinitely in Jesus. God longs to see
nothing in us but Jesus, and if I give up my heart and life to Jesus, and
say, "My God, I want that Thou shouldst see in me nothing but Jesus," then
I bring to the Father the sacrifice that is the most acceptable of all.
Oh, believers, come to-day; come out of all your troubles, and all your
self-efforts and your self-confidence, and let the blessed Son of God
take possession.
Let me direct your thoughts, lastly, to the duration of this surrender. I
want to emphasize this--because in many cases the surrender does not last.
Some go away, and for a time have much gladness and joy, but it soon begins
to decrease, and in a few weeks or perhaps months is all gone. Others who
do not lose it entirely, complain sadly at times, that it goes away and
comes again. They say: "My life has been very much blessed since that
surrender I made to God, but it has not always been on the same level."
What did Potiphar do? We read in the 4th verse: "He made him overseer over
his house, and all that he had he left in Joseph's hands." What a simple
word! He left it there.
And oh, children of God, if you will only get to that point and say, "For
all eternity I leave it in the hands of Jesus," you will find what a
blessing it is. Potiphar found now that he could do the king's business
with two hands and an undivided heart. I might try to rescue a drowning man
by holding fast somewhere with one hand, while I reached out the other hand
to the man, but it is a grand thing for a person to be able to stretch out
both hands, and that person is the one who has left all with Jesus--all his
inner life, all his cares and troubles, and has given himself up entirely
to do the will of God. Will you leave it there? I must press this, because
I know temptations will come. One temptation will be that the feelings you
had in your act of surrender will pass away; they will not be so bright;
another, that circumstances will tempt you. Beloved, temptations will come;
God means it for your good. Every temptation brings you a blessing. Do
understand that. Learn the lesson of giving up everything to Jesus, and
letting Jesus take charge of everything. Leave all with Jesus. Do not think
that by a surrender to-day or on any day, however powerful, however mighty,
things will keep right themselves. You need every morning afresh, when
God wakes you up out of sleep, to put your heart, and your life, and your
house, and your business, into the hands of Jesus. Wait on Him, if need be,
in silence, or in prayer, until He gives you the assurance, "My child, for
to-day all is safe; I take charge." And morning by morning He will renew to
you the blessing, and morning by morning you will go out from your quiet
time in the consciousness, "To-day I have had fellowship with my King, and
it is all right." Jesus has taken charge. And so, day by day, you can have
grace to leave all in the hands of Jesus.
In conclusion let me speak to two classes. There are times when your heart
is restless; there are times when you are afraid to die.
There are some true believers who have perhaps never yet understood that it
was their duty to give up everything to Christ. Beloved fellow Christians,
I come with a message from your Father, to come and to-day take that word
into your hearts and upon your lips, even though you do not understand it.
"Jesus, I make Thee Master of everything and I will wait at Thy feet, that
Thou wilt show me what Thou wouldst have me be and do." Do it now. And
let me say to believers who have done it before, and who long with an
unutterable longing to do it fully and perfectly,--Child of God, you can
do it, for the Holy Spirit has been sent down from Heaven for this one
purpose, to glorify Jesus; to glorify Jesus in your heart, by letting you
see how perfectly Jesus can take possession of the whole heart; to glorify
Jesus by bringing Him into your very life, that your whole life may shine
out with the glory of Jesus. Depend upon it, the Father will give it to you
by the Holy Spirit, if you are ready. Oh, come, and let your intercourse
with God be summed up in a simple prayer and answer--"My God, as much as
Thou wilt have of me to fill with Christ, Thou shalt have to-day." "My
child, as much of Christ as thy heart longeth to have, thou shalt have; for
it is My delight that My Son be in the hearts of My children."
DEAD WITH CHRIST.
IX.
_Gal. 2: 20_.--_I am crucified with Christ_.
The Revised Version properly has the above text "I have been crucified
with Christ." In this connection, let us read the story of a man who was
literally crucified with Christ. We may use all the narrative of Christ's
work upon earth in the flesh as a type of His spiritual work. Let us take
in this instance the story of the penitent thief, Luke 23: 39-43, for I
think we may learn from him how to live as men who are crucified with
Christ. Paul says: "I have been crucified with Christ." And again: "God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom I have been crucified to the world, and the world to me." We
often ask earnestly: How can I be free from the self life? The answer is,
"Get another life." We often speak about the power of the Holy Spirit
coming upon us, but I doubt if we fully realize that the Holy Spirit is a
heavenly life come to expel the selfish, and fleshly, and the earthly life.
If we want, in very deed, to enjoy fully the rest that there is in Jesus,
we can only have it as He comes in, in the power of His death, to slay what
is in us of nature, and to take possession, and to live His own life in the
fullness of the Holy Ghost. God's Word takes us to the cross of Christ, and
it teaches us about that cross, two things. It tells us that Christ died
_for_ sin. We understand what that means, that in His atonement He died as
I never die, as I never can die, as I never need die; He died for sin and
for me. But what gave His death such power to atone? It was this: the
spirit in which He died, not the physical suffering, not the external act
of death, but the spirit in which He died. And what was that spirit? He
died _unto_ sin. Sin had tempted Him, and surrounded Him, and had brought
Him very nigh to saying, "I cannot die." In Gethsemane He cried: "Father,
is it not possible that the cup pass from me?" But God be praised, He gave
up His life rather than yield to sin. He died to sin, and in dying He
conquered. And now, I can not die for sin like Christ, but I can and I must
die to sin like Christ. Christ died for me. In that He stands alone. Christ
died to sin, and in that I have fellowship with Him. I have been crucified,
I am dead.
And here is the great subject to which I want to lead you.--What it is to
be dead with Christ, and how it is that I can practically enter into this
death with Christ. We know that the great characteristic of Christ is His
death. From eternity He came with the commandment of the Father that He
should lay down His life on earth. He gave Himself up to it, and He set His
face towards Jerusalem. He chose death, and He lived and walked upon earth
to prepare Himself to die. His death is the power of redemption; death gave
Him His victory over sin; death gave Him His resurrection, His new life,
His exaltation, and His everlasting glory. The great mark of Christ is His
death. Even in Heaven, upon the throne, He stands as the Lamb that was
slain, and through eternity they ever sing, "Thou art worthy, for Thou
wast slain." Beloved brother, your Boaz, your Christ, your all-sufficient
Saviour, is a Man of whom the chief mark and the greatest glory is this: He
died. And if the Bride is to live with her husband as His wife, then she
must enter into His state, and into His spirit, and into His disposition,
and ever be as He is. If we are to experience the full power of what Christ
can do for us, we must learn to die with Christ. I ought not, perhaps, to
use that expression, "We must learn to die with Christ;" I ought, rather,
to say, "We must learn that we _are dead_ with Christ." That is a glorious
thought in the 6th chapter of Romans; to every believer in the Church of
Rome--not to the select ones, or the advanced ones, but to every believer
in the Church of Rome, however feeble, Paul writes, "You _are dead_ with
Christ." On the strength of that he says, "Reckon yourselves dead unto
sin." What does that mean--You are dead to sin? We can not see it more
clearly than by referring to Adam. Christ was the second Adam. What
happened in the first Adam? I died, in the first Adam; I died to God; I
died in sin. When I was born, I had in me the life of Adam, which had all
the characteristics of the life of Adam after he had fallen. Adam died to
God, and Adam died in sin, and I inherit the life of Adam, and so I am dead
in sin as he was, and dead unto God. But at the very moment I begin to
believe in Jesus, I become united to Christ, the second Adam, and as really
as I am united by my birth to the first Adam, I am made partaker of the
life of Christ. What life? That life which died unto sin on Calvary, and
which rose again; therefore God by his apostle tells us: "Reckon yourselves
indeed dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus." You are to reckon
it as true, because God says it--for your new nature is indeed, in virtue
of your vital union to Christ, actually and utterly dead to sin.
If we want to have the real Christ that God has given us, the real Christ
that died for us, in the power of His death and resurrection, we must take
our stand here. But many Christians do not understand what the 6th chapter
of the Epistle to the Romans teaches us. They do not know that they are
dead to sin. They do not know it, and therefore Paul instructs them: "Know
ye not that as many of you as are baptized into Christ Jesus, are baptized
into His death." How can we who are dead to sin in Christ live any longer
therein? We have indeed the death and the life of Christ working within
us. But, alas! most Christians do not know this, and therefore do not
experience or practice it. They need to be taught that their first need is
to be brought to the recognition, to the knowledge, of what has taken place
in Christ on Calvary, and what has taken place in their becoming united
to Christ. The man must begin to say, even before he understands it, "In
Christ I am dead to sin." It is a command: "Reckon ye yourselves indeed to
be dead unto sin." Get hold of your union to Christ; believe in the new
nature within you, that spiritual life which you have from Christ, a life
that has died and been raised again. A man's acts are always in accordance
with his idea of his state. A king acts like a king, otherwise we say,
"That man has forgotten his kingship," but if a man is conscious of being
a king, he behaves like a king. And so I cannot live the life of a true
believer unless I am filled with a consciousness of this every day: "I
thank God that I am dead in Christ. Christ died unto sin, and I am united
with Christ, and Christ lives in me and I am dead to sin." What is the life
Christ lives in me? Ask what is the life Adam lives in me? Adam lives in me
the death life, a life that has fallen under the power of sin and death,
death to God. That life Adam lives in me by nature as an unconverted man.
And Christ, the second Adam, has come to me with a new life, and I now live
in His life, the death-life of Christ. As long as I do not know it, I can
not act according to it, though it be in me. Praise God, when a man begins
to see what it is, and begins in obedience to say, "I will do what God's
Word says; I am dead, I reckon myself dead," he enters upon a new life. On
the strength of God's everlasting Word, and your union to Christ, and the
great fact of Calvary, reckon, know yourself as dead indeed unto sin. A man
must see this truth; this is the first step. The second is--he must accept
it in faith. And what then? When he accepts it in faith, then there comes
in him a struggle, and a painful experience, for that faith is still very
feeble, and he begins to ask, "But why, if I am dead to sin, do I commit so
much sin?" And the answer God's Word gives is simply this: You do not allow
the power of that death to be applied by the Holy Spirit. What we need is
to understand that the Holy Spirit came from Heaven, from the glorified
Jesus, to bring His death and His life into us. The two are inseparably
connected. That Christ died, He died unto sin, and that He liveth, He
liveth unto God. The death and the life in Him are inseparable; and even so
in us the life to God in Christ is inseparably connected with the death to
sin. And that is what the Holy Ghost will teach us and work in us. If I
have accepted Christ in faith by the Holy Ghost, and yield myself to
Him, Christ every day keeps possession, and reveals the full power of
my fellowship in His death and life in my heart. To some this comes
undoubtedly in one moment of supreme power and blessing; all at once they
see and accept it, and enter in, and there is death to sin as a Divine
experience. It is not that the tendency to evil is rooted out. No; but the
power of Christ's death keeps from sin, and destroys the power of sin; the
power of Christ's death can be manifested in the Holy Spirit's unceasingly
mortifying the deeds of the body.