Sovereign Grace Part 5

GRACE FOR LIVING.

NOW we come to a very important part of our subject--Grace for living. One of the saddest things in the present day is the fact that so many professed Christians have no spiritual power. They bear no testimony for Christ. There are so few who can go to the homes of the sick and read the Bible to them, pray with them, and minister comfort to their souls. How few can go to the abode of the drunkard, and tell him of Christ's power to save! How few there are who are wise in winning souls to Christ!

It is the low spiritual state of so many in the Church of Christ that is the trouble. We are not living up to our privileges. As you go through the streets of London you will see here and there the words, "Limited Company." There are many Christians who practically limit the grace of G.o.d. It is like a river flowing by; and we can have all we need: but if we do not come and get a continual supply, we cannot give it out to others.

Mother! father! are you not longing to see your children won to Christ? What is the trouble? Is it the fault of the minister? I believe that though ministers were to preach like angels, if there is a low standard of Christian life in the home, there will be little accomplished. What we want, more than anything else, is more grace in our lives, in our business affairs, in our homes, in our daily walk and conversation. I cannot but believe that the reason of the standard of Christian life being so low, is that we are living on stale manna. You know what I mean by that. So many people are living on their past experience--thinking of the grand times they had twenty years ago, perhaps when they were converted. It is a sure sign that we are out of communion with G.o.d if we are talking more of the joy, and peace, and power, we had in the past, than of what we have to-day. We are told to "grow in grace;" but a great many are growing the wrong way.

You remember the Israelites used to gather the manna fresh every day: they were not allowed to store it up. There is a lesson here for us Christians. If we would be strong and vigorous, we must go to G.o.d daily and get grace. A man can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough to-day to last him for the next six months; or take sufficient air into his lungs at once to sustain life for a week to come. We must draw upon G.o.d's boundless stores of grace from day to day, as we need it.

I knew a man who lived on the banks of Lake Erie. He had pipes laid to his house from the lake; and when he wanted water, all he had to do was to turn the tap and the water flowed in. If the Government had presented him with the lake, he would not have known what to do with it. So we may say that if G.o.d were to give us grace enough for a lifetime, we should not know how to use it. He has given us the privilege of drawing on Him day by day--not "forty days after sight." There is plenty of grace in the bank of heaven; we need not be afraid of its becoming exhausted.

We are asked to come _boldly_ to the throne of grace--as sons to a father--that we may find grace. You have noticed that a son is very much more bold in his father's house than if he were simply a servant. A good many Christians are like servants. If you go into a house, you can soon tell the difference between the family and the servants. A son comes home in the evening; he goes all over the house--perhaps talks about the letters that have come in, and wants to know all that has been going on in the family during his absence.

It is very different with a servant, who perhaps does not leave the kitchen or the servants' hall all day except when duty requires it.

Suppose some one had paid a million dollars into the bank in your name, and had given you a check-book so that you could draw out just as you wanted: would you go to work and try to live on ten dollars a month? Yet that is exactly what many of us are doing as Christians.

I believe this low standard of Christian life in the Church is doing more to manufacture infidels than all the skeptical books that were ever written.

Hear what the Apostle says: "My G.o.d shall supply _all_ your need."

Look at these words carefully. It does not say He will supply all your _wants_. There are many things we want that G.o.d has not promised to give. It is "your _need_" and "_all_ your need." My children often want many things they do not get; but I supply all they need, if it is in my power to give it to them. I do not supply all their wants by any means. My boy would probably want to have me give him a horse; when I know that what he really needs, perhaps, is grace to control his temper. Our children might want many things that it would be injurious for them to have. And so, though G.o.d may withhold from us many things that we desire, He will supply all our need. There can come upon us no trouble or trial in this life, but G.o.d has grace enough to carry us right through it, if we will only go to Him and get it. But we must ask for it day by day. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

I met a man once in Scotland who taught me a lesson that I shall never forget. A Christian friend wanted me to go and have a talk with him. He had been bedridden for many years. This afflicted saint comforted me and told me some wonderful things. He had fallen and broken his back when he was about fifteen years of age, and had lain there on his bed for some forty years. He could not be moved without a good deal of pain, and probably not a day has pa.s.sed all those years without suffering. If any one had told him he was going to lie there and suffer for forty years, probably he would have said he could not do it. But day after day the grace of G.o.d has been granted to him; and I declare to you it seemed to me as if I were in the presence of one of G.o.d's most highly-favored children. It seemed that when I was in that man's chamber, I was about as near heaven as I could get on this earth. Talk about a man's face s.h.i.+ning with the glory of the upper world! I very seldom see a face that s.h.i.+nes as did his. I can imagine that the very angels when they are pa.s.sing over the city on some mission of mercy, come down into that man's chamber to get refreshed. There he has been lying all these years, not only without a murmur, but rejoicing all the while.

I said to him: "My friend, does the devil never tempt you to doubt G.o.d, and to think He is a hard master?" "Well now," he said, "that is just what he tries to do. Sometimes, as I look out of the window and see people walking along in health, Satan whispers: 'If G.o.d is so good, why does He keep you here all these weary years? Why, if He loved you, instead of lying here and being dependent on others, you might now have been a rich man, and riding in your own carriage.'"

"What do you do when the devil tempts you?" "Oh, I just take him up to the Cross; and he had such a fright there eighteen hundred years ago, that he cannot stand it; and he leaves me." I do not think that bedridden saint has much trouble with doubts; he is so full of grace.

And so if we will only come boldly to G.o.d, we shall get all the help and strength we need. There is not a man or woman alive but may be kept from falling, if they will let G.o.d hold them up in His almighty arms.

There is a story in the history of Elisha the prophet that I am very fond of; most of you are familiar with it. Sometimes we meet with people who hesitate to accept Christ, because they are so afraid they will not hold out. You remember there was a young prophet who died and left a widow with two little boys. It has been said that misfortunes do not come singly, but in battalions. This woman had not only lost her husband, but a creditor was going to take her boys and sell them into slavery. That was a common thing in those days.

The widow went and told Elisha all about it. He asked her what she had in the house. Nothing, she said, but a pot of oil. It was a very hard case.

Elisha told her to go home and borrow all the vessels she could. His command was: "Borrow not a few." I like that. She took him at his word, and borrowed all the vessels her neighbors would lend to her.

I can imagine I see the woman and her two sons going from house to house asking the loan of their vessels. No doubt there were a good many of the neighbors who were stretching their necks, and wondering what it all meant; just as we sometimes find people coming into the inquiry-room to see what is going on. If this woman had been like some modern skeptics, she would have thought it very absurd for the prophet to bid her do such a thing; she would have asked what good could come of it. But faith asks no questions: so she went and did what the man of G.o.d told her to do. I can see her going up one side of the street knocking at every door and asking for empty vessels.

"How many do you want?" "All you can spare." There are the two sons carrying the great vessels; some of them perhaps nearly as large as the boys themselves. It was hard work. When they had finished one side of the street, they went down the other. "Borrow not a few,"

she had been told; so she went on asking for as many as she could get. If there were as much gossip in those days as there is now, all the people in the street would have been talking about her. Why, this woman and her boys have been carrying vessels into the house all day; what can be the matter?

But now they have all the vessels the neighbors would lend. She locks the door; and she says to one of the boys, "James, you are the younger; bring me the empty vessels. John, you are the stronger; when, I have filled them you take them away." So she began to pour.

Perhaps the first vessel was twice as big as the one she poured from; but it was soon filled: and she kept on pouring into vessel after vessel. At last her son says, "Mother, this is the last one;"

and we are told that the oil was not stayed till the last vessel was full.

Dear friends, bring your empty vessels; and G.o.d will fill them. I venture to say that the eyes of those boys sparkled as they saw this beautiful oil, fresh from the hand of the Creator. The woman went and told the man of G.o.d what had happened; he said to her, "Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt; and live thou and thy children off the rest." That is grace for the present, and for the future. "As thy days so shall thy strength be." You will have grace not only to cover all your sins, but to carry you right into glory. Let the grace of G.o.d into your heart; and He will bring you safely through.

Let me close by quoting the words of an old prayer: "G.o.d give us grace to see our need of grace; give us grace to ask for grace; give us grace to receive grace; give us grace to use the grace we have received."

"Grace taught my soul to pray, And pardoning love to know; 'Twas grace that kept me to this day, And will not let me go.

Grace all the work shall crown, Through everlasting days; It lays in heaven the topmost stone, And well deserves the praise!"

CHAPTER VII.

GRACE FOR SERVICE.

"FOR the grace of G.o.d that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared; teaching us that, denying unG.o.dliness and worldly l.u.s.ts, we should live soberly, righteously, and G.o.dly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great G.o.d and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

In this wonderful pa.s.sage we see grace in a threefold aspect: grace that bringeth salvation; grace for holy living; and grace for service. I have had three red-letter days in my experience: the first was, when I was converted; the next was when I got my lips opened, and I began to confess Christ; the third was, when I began to work for the salvation of others.

I think there are a great many who have got to the first stage; some have got to the second; very few have got to the third. This is the reason, I believe, why the world is not reached.

Many say they are anxious to "grow in grace." I do not think they ever will, until they go out into the harvest field and begin to work for others. We are not going to have the grace we need to qualify us for work until we launch out into the deep, and begin to use the abilities and the opportunities we already possess. Many fold their arms, and wait for the grace of G.o.d to come to them; but we do not get it in that way. When we "go forward," then it is that G.o.d meets us with His Grace.

If Moses had stayed in h.o.r.eb until he got the grace he needed, he never would have started for Egypt at all. But when he had set out, G.o.d met him in the way and blessed him day by day as he needed. Many grow discouraged because there is a little opposition; but if we are going to work for G.o.d we must expect opposition. No real work was ever done for G.o.d without opposition. If you think that you are going to have the approval of a G.o.dless world, and of cold Christians, as you launch out into the deep with your net, you are greatly mistaken. A man said to me some time ago, that when he was converted he commenced to do some work in connection with the Church; he was greatly discouraged because some of the older Christians threw cold water on him, so he gave up the whole thing.

I pity a man who cannot take a little cold water without being any the worse for it. Why, many of the Christians in old times had to go through the fire, and did not shrink from it. A little cold water never hurts any one.

Others say they have so many cares and troubles, they have as much as they can carry. Well, a good way to forget your trouble is--to go and help some one else who is carrying a heavier burden than yourself. It was when Job began to pray for his friends that he forgot his own troubles. Paul gloried in his infirmity, and in the tribulations he had to undergo, so that the power of Christ might all the more rest upon him. He gloried in the Cross: and you must bear in mind that the Cross was not so easy to bear in his day as it is in ours. Every one was speaking against it. "I glory in the Cross of Christ," he said. When a man gets to that point, do you tell me that G.o.d cannot use him to build up His kingdom? In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of "the thorn in the flesh;"

he prayed the Lord to take it away. The Lord said He was not going to take it away: but He would give His servant grace to bear it. So the apostle learned to thank G.o.d for the thorn, because he got more grace. It is when the days are dark that people are brought nearer to G.o.d. I suppose that is what Paul meant.

If there is any child of G.o.d who has a "thorn in the flesh," G.o.d has grace enough to help you to bear it if you will but go to Him for it. The difficulty is that so many are looking at their troubles and sorrows, instead of looking toward the glorious reward, and pressing on their way by G.o.d's help.

In ii Corinthians 9:8, we read: "G.o.d is able to make all grace abound towards you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." There are three thoughts here--G.o.d makes _all grace_ to abound, that we may have _all sufficiency_ in _all things_. I think this is one of the most wonderful verses in the Bible.

There is plenty of grace. Many Christians, if they have grace enough to keep them from outward sin, seem to be perfectly satisfied; they do not press on to get _fullness of grace_, so as to be ready for G.o.d's work. Many are satisfied to go into the stream of grace ankle deep, when G.o.d wants them to swim in it.

If we always came to meetings desiring to get strength, then we should be able to go out to work and speak for Christ. There are a great many who would be used of G.o.d, if they would only come boldly to His throne of grace, and "find grace to help in time of need." Is it not a time of need now? G.o.d has said, "I will pour water on him that is thirsty." Do we thirst for a deeper work of grace in our hearts?--for the anointing of the Spirit? Here is the promise: "I will pour water on him that is thirsty." Let all who are hungering and thirsting for blessing come and receive it.

Another reason why many Christians do not get anything is--because they do not give out to others. They are satisfied with present attainments, instead of growing in grace. We are not the fountain; we are only a channel for the grace of G.o.d to flow through. There is not one of us but G.o.d wants to use in building up His kingdom. That little boy, that grey-haired man, these young men and maidens; all are needed: and there is a work for all. We want to believe that G.o.d has grace enough to qualify us to go out and work for Him.

If we have known Jesus Christ for twenty years or more, and if we have not been able to introduce an anxious soul to Him, there has been something wrong somewhere. If we were full of grace, we should be ready for any call that comes to us. Paul said, when he had that famous interview with Christ on the way to Damascus, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Isaiah said, "Here am I, send me." Oh that G.o.d would fill all His people with grace, so that we may see more wonderful things than He has ever permitted us to see! No man can tell what he can do, until he moves forward. If we do that in the name of G.o.d, instead of there being a few scores or hundreds converted, there will be thousands flocking into the Kingdom of G.o.d.

Remember, that we honor G.o.d when we ask for great things. It is a humiliating thing to think that we are satisfied with very small results.

It is said that Alexander the Great had a favorite General to whom he had given permission to draw upon the royal treasury for any amount. On one occasion this General had made a draft for such an enormous sum that the Treasurer refused to honor it until he consulted the Emperor. So he went into his presence and told him what the General had done. "Did you not honor the draft?" said the Emperor. "No; I refused till I had seen your Majesty; because the amount was so great." The Emperor was indignant. His Treasurer said that he was afraid of offending him if he had paid the amount. "Do you not know," replied the Emperor, "that he honors me and my kingdom by making a large draft?" Whether the story be authentic or not, it is true that we honor G.o.d when we ask for great things.

It is said that on one occasion when Caesar gave a very valuable present, the receiver replied that it was too costly a gift. The Emperor answered that it was not too great for Caesar to give. Our G.o.d is a great King; and He delights to use us: so let us delight to ask Him for great grace, that we may go out and work for him.

I find that many Christians are in trouble about the future; they think they will not have grace enough to die by. It is much more important that we should have grace enough to live by. It seems to me that death is of very little importance in the meantime. When the dying hour comes there will be dying grace; but you do not require dying grace to live by. If I am going to live perhaps for fifteen or twenty years, what do I want with dying grace? I am far more anxious about having grace enough for my present work.

I have sometimes been asked if I had grace enough to enable me to go to the stake and die as a martyr. No; what do I want with martyr's grace? I do not like suffering; but if G.o.d should call on me to die a martyr's death, He would give me martyr's grace. If I have to pa.s.s through some great affliction, I know G.o.d will give me grace when the time comes; but I do not want it till it comes.

There is a story of a martyr in the second century. He was brought before the king, and told that if he did not recant they would banish him. Said he, "O king, you cannot banish me from Christ; for He has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee!" The apostle John was banished to the island of Patmos; but it was the best thing that could have happened: for if John had not been sent there, probably we should never have had that grand Book of Revelation.

John could not be separated from his Master.

So it was with this brave martyr, of whom I was speaking. The king said to him, "Then I will take away your property from you." "You cannot do that: for my treasure is laid up on high, where you cannot get at it?" "Then I will kill you." "You can not do that; for I have been dead these forty years: my life is hid with Christ in G.o.d." The king said, "What are you going to do with such a fanatic as that?"

Let us remember that if we have not grace enough for service, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We are not straitened in G.o.d: He has abundance of grace to qualify us to work for Him.