Spirit a man can now begin to live and grow, deeper and deeper, into the
fellowship of Christ's death. New things are discovered by him in spheres
of which he never thought. A man may at times be filled with the Holy
Ghost, and yet there may be great imperfections in him. Why? For this
reason: because his heart, perhaps, had not been fully prepared by a
complete discovery of sin. There may be pride, or self-consciousness, or
forwardness, or other qualities of this nature which he has never noticed.
The Holy Spirit does not always cast these out at once. No. There are
different ways of entering into the blessed life. One man enters into the
blessed life with the idea of power for service; another with the idea of
rest from worry and weariness; another with the idea of deliverance from
sin. In all these aspects there is something limited, and therefore every
believer is to give himself up after he knows the power of Christ's death,
and say continually: "Lord Jesus, let the power of Thy death work through,
let it penetrate my whole being." As the man gives himself unreservedly up,
he will begin to bear the marks of a crucified man. The apostle says: "I
have been crucified," and he lives like a crucified man.
What are the marks of a crucified man? The first is, deep, absolute
humility. Christ humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. When the death to sin begins to work mightily, that is
one of its chief and most blessed proofs. It breaks a man down, down, and
the great longing of his heart is, "Oh, that I could get deeper down before
my God, and be nothing at all, that the life of Christ might be exalted. I
deserve nothing but the cursed cross; I give myself over to it." Humility
is one of the great marks of a crucified man.
Another mark is impotence, helplessness. When a man hangs
on the cross, he is utterly helpless, he can do nothing. As long as we
Christians are strong, and can work, or struggle, we do not get into the
blessed life of Christ; but when a man says, "I am a crucified man, I am
utterly helpless, every breath of life and strength must come from my
Jesus," then we learn what it is to sink into our own impotence, and say,
"I am nothing."
Still another mark of crucifixion is restfulness. Yes. Christ was
crucified, and went down into the grave, and we are crucified and buried
with Him. There is no place of rest like the grave; a man can do nothing
there, "My flesh shall rest in hope," said David, and said the Messiah.
Yes, and when a man goes down into the grave of Jesus, it means this: that
he just cries out, "I have nothing but God, I trust God; I am waiting upon
God; my flesh rests in Him; I have given up everything, that I may rest,
waiting upon what God is to do to me." Remember, the crucifixion, and the
death, and the burial are inseparably one. And remember the grave is the
place where the mighty resurrection power of God will be manifested.
And remember those precious words in the 11th of John: "Said I not unto
thee"--when did Christ say that? It was at the grave of Lazarus--"that if
thou believest, thou shalt see the glory of God?" Where shall I see the
glory of God most brightly? Beside the grave. Go down into death believing,
and the glory of God will come upon thee, and fill thy heart.
Dear friends, we want to die. If we are to live in the rest, and the peace,
and the blessedness of our great Boaz; if we are to live a life of joy and
of fruitfulness, of strength and of victory, we must go down into the grave
with Christ, and the language of our life must be: "I am a crucified
man. God be praised, though I have nothing but sin in myself, I have an
everlasting Jesus, with His death and His life, to be the life of my soul."
How can I enter into this fellowship of the cross? We find an illustration
in the story of the penitent thief. Thomas said, before Christ's death,
"Let us go and abide with Him." And Peter said, "Lord, I am ready to go
with Thee to prison, or to death." But the disciples all failed, and our
Lord took a man who was the offscouring of the earth, and he hung him upon
the cross of Calvary beside Himself, and He said to Peter, and to all: "I
will let you see what it is to die with Me." And He says that word to-day,
to the weakest and the humblest; if you are longing to know what it is to
enter into death with Jesus, come and look at the penitent thief. And what
do we see there? First of all, we see there the state of a heart prepared
to die with Christ. We see in that penitent thief, a humble, whole-hearted
confession of sin. There he hung upon the cursed tree, and the multitudes
were blaspheming that man beside him, but he was not ashamed publicly to
make confession: "I am dying a death that I have deserved; I am suffering
justly; this cross is what I have deserved." Here is one of the reasons why
the Church of Christ enters so little into the death of Christ; men do not
want to believe that the curse of God is upon everything in them that has
not died with Christ. People talk about the curse of sin, but they do not
understand that the whole nature has been infected by sin, and that the
curse is on everything. My intellect, has that been defiled by sin?
Terribly, and the curse of sin is on it, and therefore my intellect must go
down into the death. Ah, I believe that the Church of Christ suffers more
to-day from trusting in intellect, in sagacity, in culture, and in mental
refinement, than from almost anything else. The Spirit of the world comes
in, and men seek by their wisdom, and by their knowledge, to help the
Gospel, and they rob it of its crucifixion mark. Christ directed Paul to go
and preach the Gospel of the cross, but to do it not with wisdom of words.
The curse of sin is on all that is of nature. If there be a minister who
has delighted in preaching, who has done his very best, who has given his
very best in the way of talent and of thought, and who asks, "Must that
go down into the grave?" I say, "Yes, my brother, the whole man must be
crucified." And so with the heart's affection. What is more beautiful than
the love of a child to his mother? In that lovely nature there is something
unsanctified, and it must be given up to die. God will raise it from the
dead and give it back again, sanctified and made alive unto God. So I might
go through the whole of our life. People often say to me: "But has God made
all things so beautiful, and is it not right that we should enjoy them? Are
not His gifts all good?" I answer, yes, but remember what it says; they are
good, if sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. The curse of sin is on
them; the blight of sin is on everything most beautiful, and it takes much
of God's Word, and much of prayer to sanctify them. It is very hard to give
up a thing to the death, and it is hardest of all to give up my life to the
death, and I never will until I have learned that everything about that
life is stamped by sin, and let it go down into the death as the only way
to have it quickened and sanctified.
The penitent thief confessed his sin, and that he deserved death. Then,
next, he had faith in the almighty power of Christ. A wonderful faith. It
has no parallel in the Bible. There hangs the cursed malefactor with Jesus
of Nazareth, and he dares speak, and say: "I am dying here, under the just
curse of my sins, but I believe Thou canst take me into Thy heart, and
remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom." Oh, that we might learn to
believe in the almighty power of Christ! That man believed that Christ was
a King, and had a Kingdom, and that He would take him up in His arms, and
in His heart, and remember him when He came into His Kingdom. He believed
that, and believing that, he died. Brother, you and I need to take time to
come to a much larger and deeper faith in the power of Christ, that the
almighty Christ will indeed take us in His arms and carry us through this
death life, revealing the power of His death in us. I cannot live it
without personal contact with Christ every hour of the day. Christ must do
it; Christ can do it. Come therefore and say: "Is He not the Almighty One;
did He not come from the throne of God; did He not prove His omnipotence,
and did the Father not prove it when He rose from the dead?" Would you be
afraid, now that Christ is on the throne, of doing what the malefactor did
when Christ was upon the cross, and entrusting yourself to Him to live as
one dead with Him? Christ will carry you through the very process He went
through; will make His death work in you every day of your life.
I note one thing more in the penitent thief--his prayer. There was his
conviction of sin, and his faith, but there was, further, the utterance of
his faith in prayer. He turned to Jesus. Remember that the whole world,
with perhaps the exception of Mary and the women, was turned against Christ
that day. Of the whole world of men as far as I know, there was but that
one praying to Christ. Do not wait to see what others do; if you wait for
that,--alas! I desire to say it in love and tenderness,--you will not find
much company in the Church of Christ. Pray incessantly: "Lord Christ, let
the power of Thy death come into me." For God's sake, pray the prayer. If
you want to live the life of Heaven, there must be death to sin in the
power of Jesus. There must be personal entrustment of the soul into His
death to sin, personal acceptance of Jesus to do the mighty work.
We have seen what the preparation is on the part of this man; let us look,
secondly, at how Christ met him. He met him, you know, with that wonderful
promise, with its three wonderful parts: "To-day shalt thou be with me in
Paradise." A promise of fellowship with Christ,--"Thou shalt be with me;"
a promise of rest in eternity, in the Paradise from which sin had cast man
out,--"With me in Paradise;" a promise of immediate blessing,--"To-day
shalt thou be with Me." With that three-fold blessing Jesus comes to you
and me, and He says: "Believer, are you longing to live the Paradise life,
where I give souls to eat of the Tree of Life, in the Paradise of God, day
by day? Are you longing for that uninterrupted communion with God that
there was in Paradise before Adam fell? Are you longing for perfect
fellowship with me, longing to live where I am living, in the love of the
Father? To-day, to-day; even as the Holy Ghost says: 'To-day shalt thou
be with me!' Longest thou for Me? I long more for thee. Longest thou for
fellowship? I long unceasingly for thy fellowship, for I need thy love,
my child, to satisfy my heart. Nothing can prevent My receiving thee into
fellowship. I have taken possession of Heaven for thee, as the Great High
Priest, that thou mightest live the Heavenly life, that thou mightest have
access into the holiest of all and an abiding dwelling place there. To-day,
if thou wilt, thou shalt be with me in Paradise." Thank God, the Jesus of
the penitent thief is my Jesus. Thank God, the cross of the penitent thief
is my cross. I must confess my sinfulness if I want to come into the
closest communion with my blessed Lord. There was not a man upon earth
during the thirty-three years of Christ's life that had such wonderful
fellowship with the Son of God, as the penitent thief, for with the Son of
God he entered the glory. What made him so separate from others? He was on
the cross with Jesus and entered Paradise with Him. And if I live upon the
cross with Jesus, the Paradise life shall be mine every day.
And now, if Jesus gives me that promise, what have I to do? Let go. When a
ship is moored alongside the dock, with everything ready for the start and
all standing on the quay, the last bell is rung and the order is given,
"Let go." Then the last rope is loosened, and the steamer moves. There are
things that tie us to the earth, to the flesh-life, and to the self-life;
but to-day the message comes: "If thou wouldst die with Jesus, let go."
Thou needst not understand all. It may not be perfectly clear; the heart
may appear dull, but never mind; Jesus carried that penitent thief through
death to life. The thief did not know where he was going, he did not know
what was to happen, but Jesus, the mighty conqueror, took him in His arms,
and landed him, in his ignorance, in Paradise. Oh, I have sometimes said
in my soul, bless God for the ignorance of that penitent thief. He knew
nothing about what was going to happen, but he trusted Christ; and if I can
not understand all about this crucifixion with Christ, and the death to
sin, and the life to God, and the glory that comes into the heart, never
mind, I trust my Lord's promise, I cast myself helpless into His arms, I
maintain my position on the cross. Given up to Jesus, to die with Him, I
can trust Him to carry me through.
Shall we not each one take the blessed opportunity of doing what Ruth did
when she, in obedience to the advice of her mother, just cast herself at
the feet of the great Boaz, the Redeemer, to be His? Shall we not come into
personal contact with Jesus, and shall not each one of us just speak before
the world these simple words: "Lord, here is this life; there is much in it
still of self, and sinfulness, and self-will, but I come to Thee; I long to
enter fully into Thy death; I long to know fully that I have been crucified
with Thee; I long to live Thy life every day." Then say: "Lord Jesus, I
have seen Thy glory, what Thou didst for the penitent one at Thy side on
the cross; I am trusting Thee, that Thou wilt do it for me. Lord, I cast
myself into Thy arms."
JOY IN THE HOLY GHOST.
X.
_Romans 14: 17._--_For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but
righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost._
In this text we have the earthly revelation of the work of the Trinity. The
Kingdom of God is righteousness; that represents the work of the Father.
The foundations of His throne are justice and judgment. Then comes the work
of the Son: He is our peace, our Shiloh, our rest. The Kingdom of God is
peace; not only the peace of pardon for the past, but the peace of perfect
assurance as to the future. Not only the work of atonement is finished, but
the work of sanctification is finished in Christ, and I may receive and
enjoy what is prepared for me. The new man has been created, and I may in
Him live out my life; if a kingdom is established in righteousness, if the
rule is perfect, there can be perfect rest. If there be peace, no war
from without, and no civil dissension within, a nation can be happy and
prosperous. And so there comes here, after righteousness and peace, the
joy, the blessed happiness in which a man can live; "The Kingdom of God is
righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." May we regard this joy
of the Holy Ghost, not only as a beautiful thing to admire, not only as a
thing to have beautiful thoughts about, but as a blessing that we are going
to claim.
We often see a fruiterer's or confectioner's shop, with beautiful fruit or
cake temptingly displayed in the window. There is a great pane of plate
glass before it, and the hungry little boys stand there and look, and long,
but they cannot reach it. If you were to say to one, "Now, little boy, take
that fruit," he would look at you in surprise. He has learned that there is
something between. If he had never known of glass he might attempt it. The
plate glass is sometimes so clear that even a grown man might for a moment
be deceived and stretch out his hand. But he soon finds there is something
invisible between him and the fruit. This represents exactly the life of
many Christians; they see, but they cannot take. And what now is this
invisible pane of plate glass, that hinders my taking the beautiful things
I see? It is nothing but the self-life; I see divine things but cannot
reach them, the self-life is the invisible plate glass. We are willing, we
are working, we are striving, and yet we are holding back something; we are
afraid to give up everything to God. We do not know what the consequences
may be. We have not yet comprehended that God and Christ Jesus are worth
everything. Whatever is told us of the blessed life of peace and joy, we
say, "Praise God; God's Word is true; I believe the Word;" and yet, day by
day, we stand back. When some one says, "Take it," we say, "I can't take
it; there is something between." Would we were willing to give up the
self-life; would we had the courage to give up to-day, and let the joy of
the Holy Ghost be our religion. That is the religion God has prepared for
us; that is the religion we can claim; not only righteousness, not only
peace, but the joy of the Holy Ghost. That is the Kingdom of God.
What is this joy? First of all, it is the joy of the presence of Jesus.
We are often inclined to speak most of two other things, the power for
sanctification, and the power for service. But I find there is a thing more
important than either of those two, and that is that the Holy Ghost came
from Heaven to be the abiding presence of Christ in His disciples, in the
Church, and in the heart of every believer. The Lord Jesus was going away,
and His disciples were very sad; their hearts was sorrowful; but He said to
them, "I will come back again, and I will come to you. Your hearts shall
rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you." What took place with
them, may take place with us too. The Holy Spirit is given to make the
presence of Jesus an abiding reality, a continual experience. And what was
that joy that no man could ever touch? It was the joy of Pentecost. And
what was Pentecost? The coming of the Lord Jesus in the Holy Ghost to dwell
with His disciples. While Jesus was with His disciples on earth, He could
not get into their hearts in the right way. They loved Him, but they could
not take in His teaching, they could not partake of His disposition, and
they could not receive His very spirit into their being. But when He had
ascended to Heaven, He came back in the Spirit to dwell in their hearts.
It is this alone that will help us to go, the minister to his congregation
with its difficulties, the business man to his counter, the mother to her
large family with its care, the worker to her Bible class. It is this only
that will help us to feel, "I can conquer, I can live in the rest of God."
Why? "Because I have the almighty Jesus with me every day." With God's
people, there seems to be one hindrance, _they do not know their Saviour_.
They do not realize that this blessed Christ is an ever present,
all-pervading, in-dwelling Christ, who wants to take charge of their entire
lives. They do not know, they do not believe that He is an Almighty Christ,
and ready in the midst of any difficulties and any circumstances to be
their keeper and their God. This is absolutely true. Many Christians are
asked as to how one may have the joy unspeakable, the joy that nothing can
take away, the joy of the friendship and nearness and love of Jesus filling
his heart. We complain that the rush of competition is so terrible that we
can not get time for private prayer. Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, if He
comes to you as a brother and a friend and an abiding guest, can give your
heart the joy of the Holy Ghost, so that business will take its right place
under your feet. Your heart is too holy to have it filled with business;
let the business be in the head and under the feet, but let Christ have
the whole heart, and He will keep the whole life. Our glorious, exalted,
almighty, ever present Christ! why is it that you and I can not trust Him
fully, perfectly to do His work? Shall we not say before God that we do
trust Him, that we will trust Christ to be to us every moment all that we
can desire? On the Cross of Calvary Christ was all alone, and you believe
He did a perfect and a blessed work; and Christ in Heaven is all alone, as
high priest and intercessor, and you trust Him for His work there. But,
praise God! it is equally true, Christ in the heart is able all alone to
keep it all the days. May it please God to reveal to His children the
nearness of Christ standing and knocking at the door of every heart, ready
to come in and rest forever there and to lead the soul into His rest.
We all know what the power of joy is; we know there is nothing so
attractive as joy, there is nothing can help a man to bear and endure so
much as joy; we know that the Lord Jesus Himself for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross. One is not living aright if he is living a
sighing, trembling, doubting life. Come to-day and believe the joy of the
Holy Ghost is meant for you. Does not the Scripture say, "Whom not having
seen we love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing ye rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Do you not believe that this
blessed, adorable, inconceivably beautiful Son of God, the delight of the
Father,--do you not believe that this Son of God could fill your heart with
delight day and night, if He were always present? And do you not believe
that He loves you more than a bridegroom loves his bride? Do you not
believe that, having bought you with His blood, Jesus is longing for you?
He needs you to satisfy His heart of love. Begin to believe with your
whole heart, "The joy of the Holy Ghost is my portion," for the Holy Ghost
secures to me without interruption the presence and the love of Jesus.