G.o.d allows that failure that the regenerate man should be taught his own utter impotence. It is in the course of this struggle that there comes to us this sense of our utter sinfulness. It is G.o.d"s way of dealing with us. He allows that man to strive to fulfill the law that, as he strives and wrestles, he may be brought to this: "I am a regenerate child of G.o.d, but I am utterly helpless to obey His law."
See what strong words are used all through the chapter to describe this condition: "I am carnal, sold under sin" (Rom. 7:14); "I see another law in my members bringing me into captivity" (Rom. 7:23); and last of all, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:24). This believer who bows here in deep contrition is utterly unable to obey the law of G.o.d.
The Wretched Man Not only is the man who makes this confession a regenerate and an impotent man, but he is also a wretched man. He is utterly unhappy and miserable; and what is it that makes him so utterly miserable? It is because G.o.d has given him a nature that loves Himself. He is deeply wretched because he feels he is not obeying his G.o.d. He says, with brokenness of heart: "It is not I that do it, but I am under the awful power of sin, which is holding me down. It is I, and yet not I: alas!
alas! it is myself; so closely am I bound up with it, and so closely is it intertwined with my very nature." Blessed be G.o.d when a man learns to say: "O wretched man that I am!" from the depth of his heart. He is on the way to the eighth chapter of Romans.
There are many who make this confession a pillow for sin. They say that if Paul had to confess his weakness and helplessness in this way, what are they that they should try to do better? So the call to holiness is quietly set aside. Would G.o.d that every one of us had learned to say these words in the very spirit in which they are written here! When we hear sin spoken of as the abominable thing that G.o.d hates, do not many of us wince before the word? Would that all Christians who go on sinning and sinning would take this verse to heart. If ever you utter a sharp word say: "O wretched man that I am!" And every time you lose your temper, kneel down and understand that it never was meant by G.o.d that this was to be the state in which His child should remain. Would G.o.d that we would take this word into our daily life, and say it every time we are touched about our own honor, and every time we say sharp things, and every time we sin against the Lord G.o.d, and against the Lord Jesus Christ in His humility, and in His obedience, and in His self-sacrifice! Would to G.o.d you could forget everything else, and cry out: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Why should you say this whenever you commit sin? Because it is when a man is brought to this confession that deliverance is at hand.
And remember it was not only the sense of being impotent and taken captive that made him wretched, but it was above all the sense of sinning against his G.o.d. The law was doing its work, making sin exceedingly sinful in his sight. The thought of continually grieving G.o.d became utterly unbearable-it was this that brought forth the piercing cry: "O wretched man!" As long as we talk and reason about our impotence and our failure, and only try to find out what Romans 7 means, it will profit us but little; but when once every sin gives new intensity to the sense of wretchedness, and we feel our whole state as one of not only helplessness, but actual exceeding sinfulness, we shall be pressed not only to ask: "Who shall deliver us?" but to cry: "I thank G.o.d through Jesus Christ my Lord."
The Almost-Delivered Man The man has tried to obey the beautiful law of G.o.d. He has loved it, he has wept over his sin, he has tried to conquer, he has tried to overcome fault after fault, but every time he has ended in failure.
What did he mean by "the body of this death"? Did he mean, my body when I die? Surely not. In the eighth chapter you have the answer to this question in the words: "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." That is the body of death from which he is seeking deliverance.
And now he is on the brink of deliverance! In the twenty-third verse of the seventh chapter we have the words: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." It is a captive that cries: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He is a man who feels himself bound. But look to the contrast in the second verse of the eighth chapter: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." That is the deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord; the liberty to the captive which the Spirit brings. Can you keep captive any longer a man made free by the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus"?
But you say, the regenerate man, had not he the Spirit of Jesus when he spoke in the sixth chapter? Yes, but he did not know what the Holy Spirit could do for him.
G.o.d does not work by His Spirit as He works by a blind force in nature.
He leads His people on as reasonable, intelligent beings, and therefore when He wants to give us that Holy Spirit whom He has promised, He brings us first to the end of self, to the conviction that though we have been striving to obey the law, we have failed. When we have come to the end of that, then He shows us that in the Holy Spirit we have the power of obedience, the power of victory, and the power of real holiness.
G.o.d works to will, and He is ready to work to do, but, alas! many Christians misunderstand this. They think because they have the will, it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be each moment received from the Holy Spirit. It is the man who is conscious of his own impotence as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can live a holy life. This man is on the brink of that great deliverance; the way has been prepared for the glorious eighth chapter. I now ask this solemn question: Where are you living? Is it with you, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" with now and then a little experience of the power of the Holy Spirit? or is it, "I thank G.o.d through Jesus Christ!
The law of the Spirit hath set me free from the law of sin and of death"?
What the Holy Spirit does is to give the victory. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live" (Rom. 8:13).
It is the Holy Spirit who does this-the third Person of the G.o.dhead.
He it is who, when the heart is opened wide to receive Him, comes in and reigns there, and mortifies the deeds of the body, day by day, hour by hour, and moment by moment.
I want to bring this to a point. Remember, dear friend, what we need is to come to decision and action. There are in Scripture two very different sorts of Christians. The Bible speaks in Romans, Corinthians and Galatians about yielding to the flesh; and that is the life of tens of thousands of believers. All their lack of joy in the Holy Spirit, and their lack of the liberty He gives, is just owing to the flesh. The Spirit is within them, but the flesh rules the life. To be led by the Spirit of G.o.d is what they need. Would G.o.d that I could make every child of His realize what it means that the everlasting G.o.d has given His dear Son, Christ Jesus, to watch over you every day, and that what you have to do is to trust; and that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable you every moment to remember Jesus, and to trust Him! The Spirit has come to keep the link with Him unbroken every moment. Praise G.o.d for the Holy Spirit! We are so accustomed to think of the Holy Spirit as a luxury, for special times, or for special ministers and men. But the Holy Spirit is necessary for every believer, every moment of the day. Praise G.o.d you have Him, and that He gives you the full experience of the deliverance in Christ, as He makes you free from the power of sin.
Who longs to have the power and the liberty of the Holy Spirit? Oh, brother, bow before G.o.d in one final cry of despair: "O G.o.d, must I go on sinning this way forever? Who shall deliver me, O wretched man that I am! from the body of this death?"
Are you ready to sink before G.o.d in that cry and seek the power of Jesus to dwell and work in you? Are you ready to say: "I thank G.o.d through Jesus Christ"?
What good does it do that we go to church or attend conventions, that we study our Bibles and pray, unless our lives are filled with the Holy Spirit? That is what G.o.d wants; and nothing else will enable us to live a life of power and peace. You know that when a minister or parent is using the catechism, when a question is asked an answer is expected.
Alas! how many Christians are content with the question put here: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" but never give the answer. Instead of answering, they are silent. Instead of saying: "I thank G.o.d through Jesus Christ our Lord,"
they are forever repeating the question without the answer. If you want the path to the full deliverance of Christ, and the liberty of the Spirit, the glorious liberty of the children of G.o.d, take it through the seventh chapter of Romans; and then say: "I thank G.o.d through Jesus Christ our Lord." Be not content to remain ever groaning, but say: "I, a wretched man, thank G.o.d, through Jesus Christ. Even though I do not see it all, I am going to praise G.o.d."
There is deliverance, there is the liberty of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of G.o.d is "joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17).
"HAVING BEGUN IN THE SPIRIT"
The words from which I wish to address you, you will find in the epistle to the Galatians, the third chapter, the third verse; let us read the second verse also: "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish?" And then comes my text-"Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"
When we speak of the quickening or the deepening or the strengthening of the spiritual life, we are thinking of something that is feeble and wrong and sinful; and it is a great thing to take our place before G.o.d with the confession: "Oh, G.o.d, our spiritual life is not what it should be!"
May G.o.d work that in your heart, reader.
As we look round about on the church we see so many indications of feebleness and of failure, and of sin, and of shortcoming, that we are compelled to ask: Why is it? Is there any necessity for the church of Christ to be living in such a low state? Or is it actually possible that G.o.d"s people should be living always in the joy and strength of their G.o.d?
Every believing heart must answer: It is possible.
Then comes the great question: Why is it, how is it to be accounted for, that G.o.d"s church as a whole is so feeble, and that the great majority of Christians are not living up to their privileges? There must be a reason for it. Has G.o.d not given Christ His Almighty Son to be the Keeper of every believer, to make Christ an ever-present reality, and to impart and communicate to us all that we have in Christ? G.o.d has given His Son, and G.o.d has given His Spirit. How is it that believers do not live up to their privileges?
We find in more than one of the epistles a very solemn answer to that question. There are epistles, such as the first to the Thessalonians, where Paul writes to the Christians, in effect: "I want you to grow, to abound, to increase more and more." They were young, and there were things lacking in their faith, but their state was so far satisfactory, and gave him great joy, and he writes time after time: "I pray G.o.d that you may abound more and more; I write to you to increase more and more"
(1 Thes. 4:1,10). But there are other epistles where he takes a very different tone, especially the epistles to the Corinthians and to the Galatians, and he tells them in many different ways what the one reason was, that they were not living as Christians ought to live; many were under the power of the flesh. My text is one example. He reminds them that by the preaching of faith they had received the Holy Spirit. He had preached Christ to them; they had accepted that Christ and had received the Holy Spirit in power. But what happened? Having begun in the Spirit, they tried to perfect the work that the Spirit had begun in the flesh by their own effort. We find the same teaching in the epistle to the Corinthians.
Now, we have here a solemn discovery of what the great want is in the church of Christ. G.o.d has called the church of Christ to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the church is living for the most part in the power of human flesh, and of will and energy and effort apart from the Spirit of G.o.d. I doubt not that that is the case with many individual believers; and oh, if G.o.d will use me to give you a message from Him, my one message will be this: "If the church will return to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is her strength and her help, and if the church will return to give up everything, and wait upon G.o.d to be filled with the Spirit, her days of beauty and gladness will return, and we shall see the glory of G.o.d revealed among us." This is my message to every individual believer: "Nothing will help you unless you come to understand that you must live every day under the power of the Holy Spirit."
G.o.d wants you to be a living vessel in whom the power of the Spirit is to be manifested every hour and every moment of your life, and G.o.d will enable you to be that.
Now let us try to learn that this word to the Galatians teaches us-some very simple thoughts. It shows us how (1) the beginning of the Christian life is receiving the Holy Spirit. It shows us (2) what great danger there is of forgetting that we are to live by the Spirit, and not live after the flesh. It shows us (3) what are the fruits and the proofs of our seeking perfection in the flesh. And then it suggests to us (4) the way of deliverance from this state.
Receiving the Holy Spirit First of all, Paul says: "Having begun in the Spirit." Remember, the apostle not only preached justification by faith, but he preached something more. He preached this-the epistle is full of it-that justified men cannot live but by the Holy Spirit, and that therefore G.o.d gives to every justified man the Holy Spirit to seal him. The apostle says to them in effect more than once: "How did you receive the Holy Spirit? Was it by the preaching of the law, or by the preaching of faith?"
He could point back to that time when there had been a mighty revival under his teaching. The power of G.o.d had been manifested, and the Galatians were compelled to confess: "Yes, we have got the Holy Spirit: accepting Christ by faith, by faith we received the Holy Spirit."
Now, it is to be feared that there are many Christians who hardly know that when they believed, they received the Holy Spirit. A great many Christians can say: "I received pardon and I received peace." But if you were to ask them: "Have you received the Holy Spirit?" they would hesitate, and many, if they were to say Yes, would say it with hesitation; and they would tell you that they hardly knew what it was, since that time, to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Let us try and take hold of this great truth: The beginning of the true Christian life is to receive the Holy Spirit. And the work of every Christian minister is that which was the work of Paul-to remind his people that they received the Holy Spirit, and must live according to His guidance and in His power.
If those Galatians who received the Holy Spirit in power were tempted to go astray by that terrible danger of perfecting in the flesh what had been begun in the Spirit, how much more danger do those Christians run who hardly ever know that they have received the Holy Spirit, or who, if they know it as a matter of belief, hardly ever think of it and hardly ever praise G.o.d for it!
Neglecting the Holy Spirit But now look, in the second place, at the great danger.
You all know what shunting is on a railway. A locomotive with its train may be run in a certain direction, and the points at some place may not be properly opened or closed, and un.o.bservingly it is shunted off to the right or to the left. And if that takes place, for instance, on a dark night, the train goes in the wrong direction, and the people might never know it until they have gone some distance.
And just so G.o.d gives Christians the Holy Spirit with this intention, that every day all their life should be lived in the power of the Spirit. A man cannot live one hour a G.o.dly life unless by the power of the Holy Spirit. He may live a proper, consistent life, as people call it, an irreproachable life, a life of virtue and diligent service; but to live a life acceptable to G.o.d, in the enjoyment of G.o.d"s salvation and G.o.d"s love, to live and walk in the power of the new life-he cannot do it unless he be guided by the Holy Spirit every day and every hour.
But now listen to the danger. The Galatians received the Holy Spirit, but what was begun by the Spirit they tried to perfect in the flesh.
How? They fell back again under Judaizing teachers who told them they must be circ.u.mcised. They began to seek their religion in external observances. And so Paul uses that expression about those teachers who had them circ.u.mcised, that "they sought to glory in their flesh" (Gal.
6:13).
You sometimes hear the expression used, religious flesh. What is meant by that? It is simply an expression made to give utterance to this thought: My human nature and my human will and my human effort can be very active in religion, and after being converted, and after receiving the Holy Spirit, I may begin in my own strength to try to serve G.o.d.
I may be very diligent and doing a great deal, and yet all the time it is more the work of human flesh than of G.o.d"s Spirit. What a solemn thought, that man can, without noticing it, be shunted off from the line of the Holy Spirit on to the line of the flesh; that he can be most diligent and make great sacrifices, and yet it is all in the power of the human will! Ah, the great question for us to ask of G.o.d in self-examination is that we may be shown whether our religious life is lived more in the power of the flesh than in the power of the Holy Spirit. A man may be a preacher, he may work most diligently in his ministry, a man may be a Christian worker, and others may tell of him that he makes great sacrifices, and yet you can feel there is a want about it. You feel that he is not a spiritual man; there is no spirituality about his life. How many Christians there are about whom no one would ever think of saying: "What a spiritual man he is!" Ah!
there is the weakness of the Church of Christ. It is all in that one word-flesh.
Now, the flesh may manifest itself in many ways. It may be manifested in fleshly wisdom. My mind may be most active about religion. I may preach or write or think or meditate, and delight in being occupied with things in G.o.d"s Book and in G.o.d"s Kingdom; and yet the power of the Holy Spirit may be markedly absent. I fear that if you take the preaching throughout the Church of Christ and ask why there is, alas!
so little converting power in the preaching of the Word, why there is so much work and often so little result for eternity, why the Word has so little power to build up believers in holiness and in consecration-the answer will come: It is the absence of the power of the Holy Spirit. And why is this? There can be no other reason but that the flesh and human energy have taken the place that the Holy Spirit ought to have. That was true of the Galatians, it was true of the Corinthians. You know Paul said to them: "I cannot speak to you as to spiritual men; you ought to be spiritual men, but you are carnal." And you know how often in the course of his epistles he had to reprove and condemn them for strife and for divisions.
Lacking the Fruit of the Holy Spirit A third thought: What are the proofs or indications that a church like the Galatians, or a Christian, is serving G.o.d in the power of the flesh-is perfecting in the flesh what was begun in the Spirit?
The answer is very easy. Religious self-effort always ends in sinful flesh. What was the state of those Galatians? Striving to be justified by the works of the law. And yet they were quarreling and in danger of devouring one another. Count up the expressions that the apostle uses to indicate their want of love, and you will find more than twelve-envy, jealousy, bitterness, strife, and all sorts of expressions. Read in the fourth and fifth chapters what he says about that. You see how they tried to serve G.o.d in their own strength, and they failed utterly. All this religious effort resulted in failure. The power of sin and the sinful flesh got the better of them, and their whole condition was one of the saddest that could be thought of.
This comes to us with unspeakable solemnity. There is a complaint everywhere in the Christian Church of the want of a high standard of integrity and G.o.dliness, even among the professing members of Christian churches. I remember a sermon which I heard preached on commercial morality. And, oh, if we speak not only of the commercial morality or immorality, but if we go into the homes of Christians, and if we think of the life to which G.o.d has called His children, and which He enables them to live by the Holy Spirit, and if we think of how much, nevertheless, there is of unlovingness and temper and sharpness and bitterness, and if we think how much there is very often of strife among the members of churches, and how much there is of envy and jealousy and sensitiveness and pride, then we are compelled to say: "Where are marks of the presence of the Spirit of the Lamb of G.o.d?"
Wanting, sadly wanting!
Many people speak of these things as though they were the natural result of our feebleness and cannot well be helped. Many people speak of these things as sins, yet have given up the hope of conquering them.
Many people speak of these things in the church around them, and do not see the least prospect of ever having the things changed. There is no prospect until there comes a radical change, until the Church of G.o.d begins to see that every sin in the believer comes from the flesh, from a fleshly life midst our religious activities, from a striving in self-effort to serve G.o.d. Until we learn to make confession, and until we begin to see, we must somehow or other get G.o.d"s Spirit in power back to His Church, we must fail. Where did the Church begin in Pentecost? There they began in the Spirit. But, alas, how the Church of the next century went off into the flesh! They thought to perfect the Church in the flesh.
Do not let us think, because the blessed Reformation restored the great doctrine of justification by faith, that the power of the Holy Spirit was then fully restored. If it is our faith that G.o.d is going to have mercy on His Church in these last ages, it will be because the doctrine and the truth about the Holy Spirit will not only be studied, but sought after with a whole heart; and not only because that truth will be sought after, but because ministers and congregations will be found bowing before G.o.d in deep abas.e.m.e.nt with one cry: "We have grieved G.o.d"s Spirit; we have tried to be Christian churches with as little as possible of G.o.d"s Spirit; we have not sought to be churches filled with the Holy Spirit."
All the feebleness in the Church is owing to the refusal of the Church to obey its G.o.d.
And why is that so? I know your answer. You say: "We are too feeble and too helpless, and we try to obey, and we vow to obey, but somehow we fail."
Ah, yes, you fail because you do not accept the strength of G.o.d. G.o.d alone can work out His will in you. You cannot work out G.o.d"s will, but His Holy Spirit can; and until the Church, until believers grasp this, and cease trying by human effort to do G.o.d"s will, and wait upon the Holy Spirit to come with all His omnipotent and enabling power, the Church will never be what G.o.d wants her to be, and what G.o.d is willing to make of her.
Yielding to the Holy Spirit I come now to my last thought, the question: What is the way to restoration?
Beloved friend, the answer is simple and easy. If that train has been shunted off, there is nothing for it but to come back to the point at which it was led away. The Galatians had no other way in returning but to come back to where they had gone wrong, to come back from all religious effort in their own strength, and from seeking anything by their own work, and to yield themselves humbly to the Holy Spirit.
There is no other way for us as individuals.
Is there any brother or sister whose heart is conscious: "Alas! my life knows but little of the power of the Holy Spirit"? I come to you with G.o.d"s message that you can have no conception of what your life would be in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is too high and too blessed and too wonderful, but I bring you the message that just as truly as the everlasting Son of G.o.d came to this world and wrought His wonderful works, that just as truly as on Calvary He died and wrought out your redemption by His precious blood, so, just as truly, can the Holy Spirit come into your heart that with His divine power He may sanctify you and enable you to do G.o.d"s blessed will, and fill your heart with joy and with strength. But, alas! we have forgotten, we have grieved, we have dishonored the Holy Spirit, and He has not been able to do His work. But I bring you the message: The Father in Heaven loves to fill His children with His Holy Spirit. G.o.d longs to give each one individually, separately, the power of the Holy Spirit for daily life.
The command comes to us individually, unitedly. G.o.d wants us as His children to arise and place our sins before Him, and to call upon Him for mercy. Oh, are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye perfecting in the flesh that which was begun in the Spirit? Let us bow in shame, and confess before G.o.d how our fleshly religion, our self-effort, and self-confidence, have been the cause of every failure.
I have often been asked by young Christians: "Why is it that I fail so?
I did so solemnly vow with my whole heart, and did desire to serve G.o.d; why have I failed?"
To such I always give the one answer: "My dear friend, you are trying to do in your own strength what Christ alone can do in you."
And when they tell me: "I am sure I knew Christ alone could do it, I was not trusting in myself," my answer always is: "You were trusting in yourself or you could not have failed. If you had trusted Christ, He could not fail."
Oh, this perfecting in the flesh what was begun in the Spirit runs far deeper through us than we know. Let us ask G.o.d to reveal to us that it is only when we are brought to utter shame and emptiness that we shall be prepared to receive the blessing that comes from on high.
And so I come with these two questions. Are you living, beloved brother-minister-I ask it of every minister of the Gospel-are you living under the power of the Holy Spirit? Are you living as an anointed, Spirit-filled man in your ministry and your life before G.o.d?
O brethren, our place is an awful one. We have to show people what G.o.d will do for us, not in our words and teaching, but in our life. G.o.d help us to do it!
I ask it of every member of Christ"s Church and of every believer: Are you living a life under the power of the Holy Spirit day by day, or are you attempting to live without that? Remember you cannot. Are you consecrated, given up to the Spirit to work in you and to live in you?
Oh, come and confess every failure of temper, every failure of tongue however small, every failure owing to the absence of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the power of self. Are you consecrated, are you given up to the Holy Spirit?
If your answer is No, then I come with a second question-Are you willing to be consecrated? Are you willing to give up yourself to the power of the Holy Spirit?
You well know that the human side of consecration will not help you. I may consecrate myself a hundred times with all the intensity of my being, and that will not help me. What will help me is this-that G.o.d from Heaven accepts and seals the consecration.
And now are you willing to give yourselves up to the Holy Spirit? You can do it now. A great deal may still be dark and dim, and beyond what we understand, and you may feel nothing; but come. G.o.d alone can effect the change. G.o.d alone, who gave us the Holy Spirit, can restore the Holy Spirit in power into our life. G.o.d alone can "strengthen us with might by his Spirit in the inner man." And to every waiting heart that will make the sacrifice, and give up everything, and give time to cry and pray to G.o.d, the answer will come. The blessing is not far off. Our G.o.d delights to help us. He will enable us to perfect, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, what was begun in the Spirit.
KEPT BY THE POWER OF G.o.d.
The words from which I speak, you will find in 1 Peter 1:5. The third, fourth and fifth verses are: "Blessed be the G.o.d and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ... hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible ... reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of G.o.d through faith unto salvation." The words of my text are: "Kept by the power of G.o.d through faith."
There we have two wonderful, blessed truths about the keeping by which a believer is kept unto salvation. One truth is, Kept by the power of G.o.d; and the other truth is, Kept through faith. We should look at the two sides-at G.o.d"s side and His almighty power, offered to us to be our Keeper every moment of the day; and at the human side, we having nothing to do but in faith to let G.o.d do His keeping work. We are begotten again to an inheritance kept in Heaven for us; and we are kept here on earth by the power of G.o.d. We see there is a double keeping-the inheritance kept for me in Heaven, and I on earth kept for the inheritance there.
Now, as to the first part of this keeping, there is no doubt and no question. G.o.d keeps the inheritance in Heaven very wonderfully and perfectly, and it is waiting there safely. And the same G.o.d keeps me for the inheritance. That is what I want to understand.
You know it is very foolish of a father to take great trouble to have an inheritance for his children, and to keep it for them, if he does not keep them for it. What would you think of a man spending his whole time and making every sacrifice to ama.s.s money, and as he gets his tens of thousands, you ask him why it is that he sacrifices himself so, and his answer is: "I want to leave my children a large inheritance, and I am keeping it for them"-if you were then to hear that that man takes no trouble to educate his children, that he allows them to run upon the street wild, and to go on in paths of sin and ignorance and folly, what would you think of him? Would not you say: "Poor man! he is keeping an inheritance for his children, but he is not keeping or preparing his children for the inheritance"! And there are so many Christians who think: "My G.o.d is keeping the inheritance for me"; but they cannot believe: "My G.o.d is keeping me for that inheritance." The same power, the same love, the same G.o.d doing the double work.
Now, I want to speak about a work G.o.d does upon us-keeping us for the inheritance. I have already said that we have two very simple truths: the one the divine side-we are kept by the power of G.o.d; the other, the human side-we are kept through faith.
Kept by the Power of G.o.d Look at the divine side: Christians are kept by the power of G.o.d.
Keeping Includes All Think, first of all, that this keeping is all-inclusive.
What is kept? You are kept. How much of you? The whole being. Does G.o.d keep one part of you and not another? No. Some people have an idea that this is a sort of vague, general keeping, and that G.o.d will keep them in such a way that when they die they will get to Heaven. But they do not apply that word kept to everything in their being and nature. And yet that is what G.o.d wants.
Here I have a watch. Suppose that this watch had been borrowed from a friend, and he said to me: "When you go to Europe, I will let you take it with you, but mind you keep it safely and bring it back."
And suppose I damaged the watch, and had the hands broken, and the face defaced, and some of the wheels and springs spoiled, and took it back in that condition, and handed it to my friend; he would say: "Ah, but I gave you that watch on condition that you would keep it."
"Have I not kept it? There is the watch."
"But I did not want you to keep it in that general way, so that you should bring me back only the sh.e.l.l of the watch, or the remains. I expected you to keep every part of it."
And so G.o.d does not want to keep us in this general way, so that at the last, somehow or other, we shall be saved as by fire, and just get into Heaven. But the keeping power and the love of G.o.d applies to every particular of our being.
There are some people who think G.o.d will keep them in spiritual things, but not in temporal things. This latter, they say, lies outside of His line. Now, G.o.d sends you to work in the world, but He did not say: "I must now leave you to go and earn your own money, and to get your livelihood for yourself." He knows you are not able to keep yourself.
But G.o.d says: "My child, there is no work you are to do, and no business in which you are engaged, and not a cent which you are to spend, but I, your Father, will take that up into my keeping." G.o.d not only cares for the spiritual, but for the temporal also. The greater part of the life of many people must be spent, sometimes eight or nine or ten hours a day, amid the temptations and distractions of business; but G.o.d will care for you there. The keeping of G.o.d includes all.
There are other people who think: "Ah! in time of trial G.o.d keeps me, but in times of prosperity I do not need His keeping; then I forget Him and let Him go." Others, again, think the very opposite. They think: "In time of prosperity, when things are smooth and quiet, I am able to cling to G.o.d, but when heavy trials come, somehow or other my will rebels, and G.o.d does not keep me then."
Now, I bring you the message that in prosperity as in adversity, in the sunshine as in the dark, your G.o.d is ready to keep you all the time.
Then again, there are others who think of this keeping thus: "G.o.d will keep me from doing very great wickedness, but there are small sins I cannot expect G.o.d to keep me from. There is the sin of temper. I cannot expect G.o.d to conquer that."