Possessing Possessions
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 23, 1890,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness;
and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions." Obadiah 1:17.
THIS is a remarkable passage. Its wording is singular. It begins with
a, "but," because the previous verses have been denouncing judgments
upon Edom. When God comes forth to punish His enemies He also comes
forth to bless His friends. When Pharaoh is overthrown in the Red Sea,
it is that Israel may pass onward to Canaan. When Amalek is overcome,
it is that Israel may be at peace. There is a black cloud as well as
the silvery rain. The acceptable year of the Lord is the day of
vengeance of our God. This combination so constantly occurs that the
Psalmist said, "I will sing of mercy and judgment."
The sword of vengeance is displayed at the same time as the scepter of
Divine Grace. In that Last Great Day–that coming of the Lord which is
the joy and expectation of His people–there will be confusion to His
adversaries. To the ungodly, "the day of the Lord will be darkness and
not light." When He comes forth there will as surely be a curse to the
left hand as a blessing to the right–and both will be everlasting.
Hell is as deep as Heaven is high, for God, who delights in mercy, also
hates iniquity and will put away the wicked of the earth like dross.
God grant to you and to me that we may know on which side we stand and
may be found in Christ, wearing His righteousness and accepted in the
Beloved so that whenever the Lord comes forth with plagues for His
adversaries, He may have favor towards us.
When, in the words of verse 16, His foes, "shall be as though they had
not been," may the full force of the present text be revealed in our
case–"But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be
holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions." I
have no doubt that this promise has been fulfilled already and that
there was a time when the house of Israel, restored from captivity,
came back to Zion and Edom was utterly consumed. "The house of Jacob
shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau
for stubble and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there
shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord has
spoken it."
But the former fulfillment of a promise does not make it useless like a
cashed check–the promise may be presented again–and it will again be
honored. God's rules of action are immutable and therefore what He did
to one company of His people He will do to others of them. God is
Sovereign but yet He acts according to His unchanging Nature so that
from one of His proceedings we may infer the rest. The temporary
restoration of the captives to Jerusalem can only have fulfilled the
promise upon a very small scale–it has a wider meaning than such an
event could exhaust. The Lord is prepared to do the same on a larger
scale for all those who put their trust in Him.
Taking the text as containing a general principle, I shall use it for
our own encouragement and edification, praying God the Holy Spirit to
make it truly useful. I notice, in the text, first, a privilege to be
desired–"The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions."
Secondly, a favor to be remembered–"Upon Mount Zion shall be
deliverance." And, thirdly, a character to be conspicuous–"And there
shall be holiness."
I. First of all, consider A PRIVILEGE TO BE DESIRED. The land of Canaan
had been granted to Israel by the Lord of All. Each family had a lot
and portion which belonged to it forever, being entailed upon it by a
Covenant of salt. Through their sins the tribes were carried into
captivity–the land was taken from them by their conquerors and they
could no longer possess their possessions. Now, the promise comes to
them by the prophet Obadiah: "The house of Jacob shall possess their
possessions."
A property may be my lawful possession and yet, for different reasons,
I may not be able to get at it–it may be in the hands of one who
defrauded me of it, or I may be far away and unable to reach it. The
words are singular, but their meaning is distinct–"They shall possess
their possessions." Let us use the words as applicable to souls who
shall be led to
take what is promised to Believers. "The house of Jacob shall possess
their possessions." We set before many of you, every Lord's-Day, the
great possessions of eternal life, of pardon, of justification, of the
new birth, sanctification and all the other treasures of the Covenant
of Grace. But though they are set before you and you long after them,
many of you feel unable to grasp them as your own.
You know that the tenure of these possessions is faith, but either you
do not understand what faith is, or you, for some other reason, fail to
exercise it and so you do not appropriate what the Gospel freely gives
to you. You are either confused by ignorance, dazed by fear as to your
sin or held back by the temptations of the devil. I pray that you may
be granted Divine Grace speedily to take what Jesus freely gives so
that you may come to possess your possessions. If you have the power
given you today, by faith, to take the Lord Jesus Christ as yours–and
if you now trust in His most precious blood–you need not be afraid
that you will be taking possession of what does not belong to you, for
every believing soul may know that what he takes by faith was bestowed
upon him in the Covenant of Grace from before the foundation of the
world!
If you believe in Christ, you were chosen of God before the world
began! For Believers, redemption was specially offered by our Lord upon
the Cross–He bought for them the Covenant heritage and He has made it
over to them so that it shall be theirs forever. You cannot know this
before you believe! But faith reveals the Divine choice and gift. You
who now believe were once strangers to such an extraordinary joy as
that which comes by faith. You wandered up and down in sin, knowing
nothing of what free Grace and dying love had done for you–but now you
have come to God and you have ventured by faith to take possession of
what the Lord so freely offers in the Gospel–and behold, it is
revealed to you that these things were yours in the purpose of God,
even from everlasting! Now is it fulfilled to you–"The house of Jacob
shall possess their possessions."
God gave you all Covenant blessings in Christ Jesus according as He
chose you, in Him, from before the foundation of the world. God saw you
in Christ as His elect, His Beloved, His redeemed and therefore for you
He prepared a kingdom which you inherit through His Grace. If you have
now the confidence to believe in Christ Jesus and to say, "My Beloved
is mine, and I am His," then you shall know that in grasping gracious
blessings you do but come to your own! You possess your possessions!
Let it be the prayer of everyone here who by faith has entered into
rest, that others may now be brought in that so the number of the elect
may be accomplished and that all Covenant provisions may be received by
those for whom they are prepared. Oh, for the bringing home to their
God and to their own possessions those who are now prodigals, starving
in the far-off country! Let us go a step further. Beloved Friends, many
by faith have laid hold upon the Covenant possessions, but yet they do
not fully possess them. The text leads me to pray that Believers may
enjoy fully what they have grasped by faith.
Christ is mine, but, Beloved, who among us knows all that is ours in
Christ? He is a case which is all ours, but we do not open its doors
and take out all its treasures! Our possessions in Christ are very wide
but we need to be bid, like Abraham, to lift up our eyes to the north
and to the south and to the east and to the west, that we may form a
clearer idea of the goodly land which the Lord our God has given us! We
see the blessings of the Covenant but do we feed on them as we might!
Do we drink deep into them and is our soul satisfied as with marrow and
fatness by them? I fear we do not by enjoyment possess our possessions!
Alas, with many Believers times of actual realization and enjoyment are
rare–they can talk about the blessing–but they do not habitually
rejoice in it themselves. "Oh, yes," they say, "it is a very delightful
thing to be washed in the blood of the Lamb." But do they enjoy the
peace which flows from cleansing? Have they "received the Atonement"
and with it that peace with God which follows upon justification by
faith? Do they delight in "the peace of God which passes all
understanding"?
You know, dear Brothers and Sisters, that it is your high privilege to
have access to the Mercy Seat–but do you use that access and come
often and boldly to the Throne of Grace? Do you avail yourselves of
your opportunities? Do you make the utmost use of prayer? In other holy
matters do you really stand where God would have you stand? Are you as
rich as Christ has made you? A man may have large possessions and yet
be practically poor because he is miserly in his expenditure. Is it not
so with many a child of God? All things are ours and yet we live as if
nothing were ours! Like a horse shut out of the pastures we nibble
round the hedges–better far for us to be like sheep which enter in and
lie down
in green pastures. Oh, for Grace to appropriate by enjoyment those
treasures of the Covenant which make the soul to rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory!
I pray that we may not look in at the windows of the banqueting hall,
but may sit at the table and possess our possessions. Why should we be
hungry and thirsty when Christ has given us His flesh to be meat,
indeed, and His blood to be drink, indeed? Why should we be hanging
down our heads like bulrushes when the Lord loves us and would have His
joy to be in us that our joy may be full? Why are we so dispirited by
our infirmities when we know that Jehovah is our strength and our
song–He also has become our salvation? I tell you, Brothers and
Sisters, we do not possess our possessions! We are like an Israelite
who should say, "Yes, those terraces of land are mine. Those vineyards,
olives, figs and pomegranates are mine. Those fields of wheat and
barley are mine, yet I am starving."
Why do you not drink the blood of the grapes? He answers, "I can
scarcely tell you why, but so it is–I walk through the vineyards and I
admire the clusters, but I never taste them. I gather the harvest and I
thrash it on the barn floor, but I never grind it into corn, nor
comfort my heart with a morsel of bread." Surely this is wretched work!
Is it not folly carried to an extreme? I trust the children of God will
not copy this madness! Let our prayer be that we may use and enjoy to
the utmost all that the Lord has given us by His Grace and so possess
our possessions!
Go a step further. We possess our possessions when we hold firmly what
we enjoy. Too many Christians hold their blessings with a feeble
hand–they expect where they ought to enjoy–and think where they ought
to know. They are never sure and thus they do not "possess their
possessions." They are not sufficiently at home with spiritual things
to be said to possess them. At times they rise into rapturous joy–I
think I heard one of them sing the other day–
"My willing soul would stay In such a frame as this And sit and sing
herself away To everlasting bliss."
But the Brother very soon came down from that mountain–the Sister soon
quit Tabor and made her way to the place of Wailing. Why this
fickleness? Some do not stay long enough in the garden of Assurance to
see a single fruit ripen–they do not possess their possessions.
It is a grand thing when the Grace of God enables a man to say, "I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that
which I have committed unto Him." When happy feelings vanish, faith
abides the same. Be it night or be it day, our soul waits only upon
God, for our expectation is from Him! When you have such a grip of the
Everlasting Covenant that if all the devils in Hell were to try to drag
it from you, you would defy their efforts, it is well with you! We
know, then, that we have passed from death unto life! We know that
Christ is ours and that we are His. We are resting in Him and are saved
in Him with an everlasting salvation. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord?
When we are thus assured, we then really possess our possessions–our
title deeds are before us–and the inheritance is within sight of our
faith. If a man is living in a house which does not belong to him, he
can hardly be said to possess it. He may be at any moment disturbed, if
not ejected altogether. If one who can prove his claim comes that way,
out he must go! Beloved, our God has given us a Covenant right in
Christ Jesus to the blessings of His Grace–we cannot be ejected!
Justice is on our side as well as Grace since Jesus died. Our tenure is
not uncertain–because Jesus lives we shall live, also. Blessed is he
who, having believed in the Lord Jesus, is able to sing–
"Now I can read my title clear To mansions in the skies, I bid farewell
to every fear, And wipe my weeping eyes." May this be the lot of all
the members of this Church and of all my Lord's servants in every
place!
I have not come to the end of my tether yet. I will fix another meaning
upon these words and apply them to souls realizing things to come.
Brothers and Sisters, we have possessions which we have not yet seen
and cannot as yet enter upon–
"I have a heritage of joy Which yet I must not see. The hand that bled
to make it mine
Is keeping it for me."
We believe in the Second Coming of our Lord from Heaven and in the
Glory that shall follow. We believe in the resurrection of the dead and
the eternal bliss of the godly in Heaven. We believe that we shall
dwell with Christ forever and ever. Can we possess these possessions
even now? We cannot now rise from the dead, for we are not yet buried.
We cannot yet walk the golden streets, for we have not passed through
the gate of pearl. Yet, by the realizations offaith, we may make these
things to be so near that we may measurably enjoy them even now–and so
already possess our possessions!
"He has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus." Though we are not actually in Heaven, yet in
union with our Lord we are virtually there. We have been buried and
risen with Him in Baptism. We have been raised from spiritual death
into newness of life and we have gone up above all earthly things into
the heavenlies, where we dwell. Yes, Beloved, faith has a strange
realizing faculty–imagination can do much in this direction–but faith
can do far more. By imagination a man can make fiction appear
fact–faith has nothing to do with fiction, but it makes the sure hopes
of the future to be the pleasures of the present.
Earth can become the vestibule of Heaven! Life here may be the
rehearsal of the Glory-Life above. Even here we may possess our
possessions by enjoying a period of rest, "as the days of Heaven upon
the earth." Already we have the earnest of the inheritance in the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we have obtained that inheritance in
Christ–
"The men of grace ha ve found Glory begun below Celestial fruits on
earthly ground From faith and hope do grow." More and more may we enjoy
the peace, the rest, the purity, the victory of Heaven–and thus
possess our possessions!
One other meaning and upon this I am going to lay emphasis–we long to
see souls winning others for Jesus. I think when it says, "The house of
Jacob shall possess their possessions," it may also mean the
possessions of their enemies, for, in the 19th and 20th verses, we
read–"They of the south shall possess the Mount of Esau and they of
the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of
Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess
that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of
Jerusalem, which is in Zarephath, shall possess the cities of the
south."
The saints annex the territories of their enemies which are theirs in
Christ Jesus. The whole world belongs to Christ and in His name we are
to possess it for Him. As yet we see not all things put under Him–the
enemy abides in His strongholds. Ah, how terribly does the enemy keep
his hold on London! Beloved, we long that this text may prove true to
us by our achieving the capture of this great city. "There is very much
land yet to be possessed," and we must press on our conquest in the
name of Jesus! We must carry the war into the enemy's country and storm
fort after fort for Jesus! This land is a part of Christ's own
kingdom–let us take it! Is this to be done? It must be done! We must
not be satisfied till millions bow at our Lord's feet–until Jesus, by
the Grace of God, possesses the east and the west, the north and the
south. I regard this as a promise to us–"The house of Jacob shall
possess their possessions."
Drunkenness must come down like Jericho before the trumpets of Israel!
Sin and lechery, like the iron chariots of the Canaanites, must be
broken in pieces before our holy faith. Unbelief and superstition, like
the hosts of Jabin, must give way before the everlasting Gospel which
must and shall conquer. Oh that the whole Church would be up and doing
for the Lord our King! Oh, for a dauntless faith to go up and possess
the gates of our enemies! This is one of God's great designs. He has
chosen us and brought us to Zion that there we may find deliverance for
ourselves and then may lead others to the Deliverer! Is it not written
in the 21st verse, "And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge
the Mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's"?
If we have been chosen of God we have been chosen with this
objective–that we gather out from the world the rest of the Lord's
redeemed–and win for our King the nations now in revolt against Him.
Many of us are, just now, praying day and night that this may be our
best year–that we may have a larger increase than ever before. I
invite you all to join with me in this continual supplication and may
it come to pass before our own eyes, that, in this Tabernacle, "the
house of Jacob shall possess their possessions."
II. So much upon the main part of our discourse. There are two other
things to be handled and, first, comes this–A FAVOR TO BE
REMEMBERED–"Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance." This fact should
help us to possess our possessions! See what God has done for us! What
can He not do? Is anything too hard for the Lord? That you may see the
force of the passage, let me work out its meaning. We have been saved,
for, "Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance" and we have found it so. In
Christ Jesus we have been saved!
The Revised Version has it, "In Mount Zion there shall be those that
escape." We have escaped from sin, death and Hell. One of the greatest
expositors of the Minor Prophets reads it, "Upon Mount Zion there shall
be an escaped remnant," which indicates a people small and weak but
effectually rescued–and such are we. This rendering reminds us of that
other Prophet who said, "In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be
deliverance, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call" (Joel 2:32).
Glory be to God! We are saved!
Delitzsch reads it, "Upon Mount Zion will be that which has been
saved." Yes, we have been saved–saved from spiritual death, saved from
punishment, saved from sin itself–saved unto the glory of our God! We
have been saved, not on Mount Sinai, for there the Law thunders
terribly–but on Mount Zion where the blood of sprinkling speaks better
things than that of Abel! Because of this deliverance let us go up and
publish salvation and proclaim the name of our Deliverer! Hearken unto
His voice, you captives, that you, also, may be delivered! Look to Him,
you perishing, that you also may be saved! Now may we cheerfully
possess our possessions, since we are saved in the Lord with an
everlasting salvation!
We are daily saved, for the text says, "Upon Mount Zion shall be
deliverance." Salvation abides there at all times. Not only have we
been saved, but we are saved continually from all evil. If we fall into
trouble at any time, we fly to Jesus. If we have hourly temptations, we
look to Jesus for hourly succor. We have present salvation. Let us not
think of our salvation as a matter which was finished in us on a
certain day and then and there ended. Conversion is the beginning of
sanctification and sanctification is the life-long working out of
salvation. Grace will always be needed from day to day until we enter
into Glory. In Mount Zion, in Christ Jesus, in the Word, and in the
Church of God there is a fountain of salvation which never dries up. If
it is so, let us enjoy it, without stint, now and always! Let us be
rich in abiding treasure. Let us be happy in never-failing safety and
let us seek to bring this deliverance to others.
We are few, comparatively. I reminded you of that reading of the
text–"Upon Mount Zion shall be an escaped remnant." I will not make
guesses as to what the number of God's chosen will be in the end. But
at present, taking the most charitable view of things, the saved ones
are as a handful of corn on the top of the mountains, or as the
gleanings of the vintage. The world lies in the Wicked One, and those
who are in Christ Jesus are a small remnant. That cheering word, "Fear
not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom," is still applicable to the Church. When we accept the most
enlarged notion of the numbers making up the Church of God at the
present day and compare that slender company with the population of the
globe, it is like comparing a drop in a bucket to the favor of the
temple.
Ah, me! Let us not despair–if God has saved us, though we are but few,
He will accomplish His purposes by us. He saves not by many nor by
few–His own right arm gets unto Him the victory. You are able to
possess the land, few as you are! Only go forth in the same spirit as
the 12 did when the Holy Spirit rested upon them at Pentecost–and few
as you may be–you can yet subdue the nations for Christ.
We are chosen by Divine Grace. In Mount Zion the escaped remnant are
men chosen by Grace and ordained unto this deliverance. If you believe
that God has chosen you, nothing should daunt you. More courage comes
into the heart through a grip of the doctrine of election than by any
other Truth of God. Let a man believe that God has ordained him to this
or that and he goes forward with irresistible resolve! The man
impressed with his election crashes through every difficulty as though
he were a bolt of iron shot from some tremendous cannon by a master
marksman. Who shall hinder my accomplishing that to which God has
appointed me? I shall fulfill my destiny! Who shall hinder me? In this
there is a mighty motive for pressing on to possess our possessions and
win for Christ the purchase of His blood. "The remnant has obtained
it." The victory remains with the people whom the Lord has chosen!
Notice this, that we are set for the deliverance of others. The Lord's
purpose of Grace to any man does not end with that one man. He chooses
one man with a view to others. When God chooses a company of men to
eternal life, it is that they may be the salt of the earth and the
light of the world. Jehovah chose Israel that the favored nation might
receive the oracles of God and preserve them for the ages to come. If
He has chosen us and brought us to His Mount Zion, it is that, finding
deliverance for ourselves, we may go forth and bear the tidings of it
to the ends of the earth! Is it not written, "Out of Zion shall go
forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem"?
Brothers and Sisters, we ought to go in and possess the land and win
the people for Jesus, for that is why we are we chosen! Has He saved
you? Has He taken you out from among the fallen mass of mankind? Has He
chosen you by His discriminating Grace? Oh, then you are not your
own–you are His forever–and you are not to live for yourselves, but
for His Glory and for the making known of His salvation among your
fellow men! Beloved, take heart and courage and let your souls be big
with high enterprise and noble purpose! Say to yourselves, "It shall be
true, 'the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions,' for we know
of a truth that there is deliverance upon Mount Zion."
III. Our final word is perhaps the most important of all. I call your
attention to a third matter, namely, THE
CHARACTER TO BE CONSPICUOUS. "Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and
there shall be holiness." It is
through holiness that the house of Jacob shall enter into that
possession of which I have spoken at so great length. If there is no
holiness, then there has been no deliverance–and there shall be no
possessing of possessions. Holiness is a link which is essential to the
golden chain of blessings. If we are without holiness, we shall not see
the Lord on our side. To give you the bearing of the words before us, I
remark, first, that it might be translated, "Upon Mount Zion shall be
deliverance, and there shall be a sanctuary," or, "a holy place"–an
inviolate sanctuary of God.
The people of God are the Temple of God. The Church of God should be
God's peculiar dwelling place where He walks as King in His own palace.
The Temple of the Godhead, is, first of all, the Person of Christ, and
next the Church of the living God. "This is My rest; here will I dwell,
for I have desired it." With what dignity is the Church invested, when
it is, in very deed, the Temple of God! When we come together in our
solemn gatherings and especially when we surround the communion table
and are visibly seen as a Church, let us be filled with solemn awe and
holy trembling–for the Lord is among us as He was in Sinai–or, better
still, as He was in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle of old. True
saints are living stones of the living Temple where the Lord Jehovah
deigns to make Himself known!
Unless we can realize this we shall not possess our possessions. If
your Church membership is a mere trifle to you. If you think that a
Church is simply a community of people who meet together for religious
purposes you miss the mark. The Church must be the sanctuary of
God–the place where God reveals Himself–and if it is not so, the men
and women who make up that Church have never tasted the Divine
deliverance and neither will they possess their possessions! Without
the Presence of God in the Church it has no power to subdue the world
to the faith. The great thing that makes God's people a holy people, is
the Presence of God with them. He sanctifies both the place of His
abode and those that come near to Him. It is holy ground where Jehovah
reveals Himself, though it is but in a bush. God is everywhere but He
is not everywhere as He is in His Church.
There is a special, gracious Presence of God in the midst of His chosen
people and this it is that makes them "holiness unto the Lord." Have
you ever been forced to cry with Jacob, "How dreadful is this place!"
and that because you had also cried, "Surely God was in this place!"?
In a gathering of saints, when you have drawn near in solemn prayer to
God and have laid hold upon the Covenant Angel and prevailed, have you
not felt that you were the Lord's? We are never so holy as when we are
near to God! God's overshadowing Presence sanctifies the man whom it
covers! Beloved, we must have this or we cannot conquer the nations! If
God is not with us and the shout of a King is not in the camp, there
will be no brave deeds done in the battle! The Church needs reviving at
home. We hear men talk of "getting up a revival." What idle talk is
this! If the Church of God becomes spiritually quickened, the revival
will come–but no way else. Let us carefully see to our holiness and
God will see to our success.
Next to this, there must be holy teaching– "there shall be holiness."
All the teaching that goes forth from us must be God's holy Truth and
not the dream of human wisdom. If I hear of a ministry under which
there are no conversions, I usually find that it is not a holy
ministry. If in the teaching there is nothing which is calculated to
convert sinners, we cannot wonder that it is not used to that end. If I
go fishing with a torn net, is it any wonder that I catch no fish? God
will not convert souls by unholy sermons, for it would not be to His
Glory to do so. Instrumentality must be fitted for what it aims at, and
soul-saving sermons must deal with sin, salvation and with the blood of
Jesus! What have we to do with themes which are foreign to our design?
If I were to come here and talk to you about strikes, or Home Rule, or
Socialism and should you pray to God to convert souls by my
discourse–would it not be a mockery or worse? I think so. Zion must
have holy preaching if she is to have conquering power. Whatever our
ministry lacks, it must be said of it, "There shall be holiness," or
there will be death in the pot. Oh that the preacher might always be
holy! Unless we preach a holy God, a holy doctrine, a holy Gospel
and holy practice, we sow the wind! Beloved, we must maintain holy
ordinances. God forbid that we should put a slight upon Baptism and the
Supper of the Lord! Some have rejected these sacred institutions–and
how they will answer for it in the day when Christ shall come! If the
Lord Jesus has ordained these institutions, how dare we set them aside?
Surely this is presumptuously mounting to the Throne of Christ, pushing
Him from the seat of legislation and daring to make laws for ourselves!
No–there shall be holiness and then we shall possess our possessions
and find in the ordinances means of instruction and usefulness.
There must be holiness in the form of holy pleading. If every member of
this Church, which has enjoyed so much of Divine favor, could be
aroused to mighty intercession for the souls of men, should we not see
great things? If every member were in earnest in praying for the
visitations of God and if everyone pleaded day and night for the
display of Divine power–and added to his pleading that which would
prove it to be sincere, namely, his own individual effort– what a day
would break upon us! It would be a morning without clouds! I see no
reason why it should not be so. I pray it may be realized at once. May
our ideal become a fact! May God Himself fulfill the promise, "There
shall be holiness"! Holiness will breed prayer and prayer will bring
power–and that power will work mightily for the Glory of the Lord.
One thing more–there must be holy living. Prayer Meetings–what are
they if they are held by a number of people who do not serve the Lord
at home? Preaching–what is that if the preacher preaches what he has
never experienced and is not prepared to practice? Teaching in Sunday
schools–what is that if the children are taught by frivolous persons
whose lives are destitute of piety? God will not bless us to the
effecting of His purposes of salvation unless we are clothed with
holiness as with a garment. Zion's priests must put on their snow-white
garments of holy living if they are to offer an acceptable sacrifice
before Jehovah!
If I might plead on my knees with tears in my eyes, I would beseech
every Brother and Sister here to be holy! Hear how the Lord says, "Be
you holy, for I am holy." "Be you imitators of God as dear children."
"Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the
flesh." "Let your conversation be as it becomes the Gospel of Christ."
You cannot possess your possessions to your own joy unless your lives
are holiness unto the Lord! You cannot have full assurance; you cannot
rise to close communion with Christ; you cannot anticipate the joys of
Heaven–you cannot be useful to men unless you carefully obey the Lord
and walk in holiness before Him. Our hearts can truly pray–
"Yet one thing we need, More holiness grant, For more of Your mind And
Your Spirit we pant."
If this panting is fulfilled, all things will go well with us. Suffer
the word of exhortation. As we so eagerly desire that we may have a
great increase to this Church through numerous conversions, let us lay
this to our hearts that we must be holy–for if we are not holy we
shall not be fit to be blessed.
The unholy worker is not really in earnest. He may have a factitious or
fictitious earnestness but heart-passion for souls is not found in
unholy men. Unless you are thoroughly consecrated to God and then
sanctified by the Spirit, you will not speak with that accent of
conviction which carries the Truth of God home to the hearer. Do you
not know yourselves that when you have listened to a clever preacher
who has no spirituality–but is a mere actor and known to be of worldly
habits–his preaching has no power in it for you? What he said was all
very well but it fell flat–he was a clever and eloquent man but he did
not touch you.
When I heard George Muller some years ago, there was nothing of oratory
in what he said–but then there was George Muller behind it–and every
syllable had weight. That blessed man spoke as one who had experienced
what he said. His long life of faith in God made every word powerful
with the heart and conscience. Teachers of Bible classes and schools–a
holy life must be your power in your classes or your words will be to
your children as idle tales! If they see your lives to be unholy, the
ungodly will reject your testimony and it will be no wonder that they
do so! They need to reject it. They are looking for excuses to reject
it and they will gladly find an argument in your unhallowed
conversation.
They will say, "The man does not believe it, himself, or else he would
not live as he does." I heard of one who was asked by her minister
whether she remembered last Sunday's sermon. "No," she said, "it is all
gone." "But you ought to remember it," said the minister. "No," she
replied, "I am not to be expected to do so, for you did not remember it
yourself–you read it all from a paper." The argument is if the
preacher does not remember his own preaching to put it
into practice, how can he expect others to do so? Shall the taught
excel the teacher? Brother, you lose your leverage of power if you fail
in holiness!
What is more, saints cannot pray for a blessing on a work which is not
holy. If you work for God in an unholy way or work for God rightly,
yet, nevertheless, are inconsistent in your ordinary life, the people
of God will be grieved and will find it impossible to pray for you.
"Ah!" said one to me, talking of his minister of whom I was sorry that
he should have so to speak, "You may well have a blessing, for God's
people love to pray for you–but as for our minister, he is a fine
preacher but there is nothing gracious about him–and none of the
Lord's people feel drawn to him." This is a grievous loss to a man–a
leak which will sink his ship. Can any good come of a ministry for
which saints cannot pray? Unless the people of God see in a man
downright consecration to God and holiness of spirit and life, they
cannot feel that union of heart which produces intercession.
Lastly, God Himself will not honor a ministry which is not accompanied
by holy character. How can God set His seal to an unholy life? Ah,
Brothers! If we can go into the world and sin as others do all the days
of the week, it will be in vain to pull over us the garb of sanctity on
Sunday and say, "I am a witness for Christ." What does God think of
such conduct? Does He call on evil men to be His witnesses? He hates
hypocrisy and therefore He cannot append the "signs following" to a
ministry which is impure. O my Brothers, we desire honor from the Lord
in conversions. We would not be as Saul, when he laid hold on Samuel
and cried, "Honor me before the people!" All the honor which rhetoric
and oratory could bring would be nothing to us if we did not see souls
saved!
O you that are not yet Believers in Jesus, how much I wish that you
were so! May you be led to believe at once in Him whose death must be
your life! Who must Himself be your salvation! Look to Him and live!
And you that are Christ's, I beg you to remember the remarkable
expression of the text and may you "possess your possessions"! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON– Psalm 44.