Christian Resignation
(No. 2715)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1901.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT NEW PARK STREET CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A THURSDAY EVENING, EARLY IN
THE YEAR 1859.
"Not as I will, but as You will." Matthew 26:39.
THE Apostle Paul, writing concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, says,
"Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He
suffered." He who, as God, knew all things, had to learn obedience in
the time of His humiliation. He who is, in Himself, Wisdom Incarnate,
did, Himself, condescend to enter the school of suffering–there we
learn that important lesson of the Christian life–obedience to the
will of God. And here, in Gethsemane's Garden, you can see the Divine
Scholar going forth to practice His lesson. He had been, all His
lifetime, learning it, and now He has to learn it for the last time in
His agony and bloody sweat, and in His terrible death upon the Cross.
Now is He to discover the utmost depths of suffering and to attain to
the height of the knowledge of obedience. See how well He has learned
His lesson! Note how complete and ripe a scholar He is! He has attained
to the very highest class in that school and, in the immediate prospect
of death, can say to His Father, "Not as I will, but as You will."
The objective of this discourse is to commend to you the blessed
example of our Lord Jesus Christ and, as God the Holy Spirit shall help
me, to urge you to be made like unto your glorious Head, and yourselves
to learn, by all the daily Providences with which God is pleased to
surround you, this lesson of resignation to the will of God, and of
making an entire surrender to Him.
I have been struck lately, in reading works by some writers who belong
to the Romish Church, with the marvelous love which they have towards
the Lord Jesus Christ. I did think, at one time, that it could not be
possible for any to be saved in that church, but, often, after I have
risen from reading the books of those holy men and have felt myself to
be quite a dwarf by their side, I have said, "Yes, despite their
errors, these men must have been taught of the Holy Spirit.
Notwithstanding all the evils of which they have drunk so deeply, I am
quite certain that they must have had fellowship with Jesus, or else
they could not have written as they did." Such writers are few and far
between but, still, there is a remnant according to the election of
Grace even in the midst of that apostate church!
Looking at a book by one of them, the other day, I met with this
remarkable expression, "Shall that body which has a thorn-crowned Head,
have delicate, pain-fearing members? God forbid!" That remark went
straight to my heart at once. I thought how often the children of God
shun pain, reproach and rebuke–and think it to be a strange thing when
some fiery trial happens to them. If they would but remember that their
Head had to sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the
ground, and that their Head was crowned with thorns, it would not seem
strange to them that the members of His mystical body have also to
suffer.
If Christ had been some delicate Person. If our glorious Head had been
reposing upon the soft pillow of ease, then might we, who are the
members of His Church, have expected to go through this world with joy
and comfort. But if He must be bathed in His own blood. If the thorns
must pierce His temples. If His lips must be parched and if His mouth
must be dried up like a furnace–shall we escape suffering and agony?
Is Christ to have a head of brass and hands of gold? Is His head to be
as if it glowed in the furnace, and are not we to glow in the furnace,
too? Must He pass through seas of suffering and shall we–
"Be carried to the skies,
On flowery beds of ease"?
Ah, no! We must be conformed unto our Lord in His humiliation if we
would be made like He also in His Glory!
So, Brothers and Sisters, I have to speak to you upon this lesson which
some of us have begun to learn, but of which as yet we know so
little–this lesson of saying, "Not as I will, but as You will." First,
let me explain the meaning of this prayer Then, urge you, by certain
reasons, to make this your constant cry Next, show what will be the
happy effect of its being the paramount desire of your spirits. And we
will conclude with a practical enquiry–what can bring us to this
blessed condition?
I. First, then, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS PRAYER? "Not as I will, but
as You will." I shall not address myself to those Christians who are
but as dwarfs, who know little about the things of the Kingdom of God.
I will speak rather to those who do business in the deep waters of
communion, who know what it is to pillow their heads upon the bosom of
Jesus, to walk with God as Enoch did, and to talk with Him as Abraham
did. My dear Brothers and Sisters, only such as you can understand this
prayer in all its length and breadth. Your Brother, who as yet scarcely
knows the meaning of the word, communion, may pray thus in some feeble
measure, yet it is not to be expected that he should discern all the
spiritual teaching that there is in these words of our Lord. But to you
who are Christ-taught. You who have become ripe scholars in the school
of Christ–to you I may speak as unto wise men and women– judge what I
say.
If you and I mean this prayer and do not use it as a mere form of
words, but mean it in all its fullness, we must be prepared for this
kind of experience. Sometimes, when we are in the midst of the most
active service, when we are diligently serving God, both with our hands
and our heart, and when success is crowning all our labors, the Lord
will lay us aside–take us right away from the vineyard and thrust us
into the furnace! Just at the very time when the church seems to need
us most, and when the world's necessities are most of all appealing to
us, and when our hearts are full of love towards Christ and towards our
fellow creatures–it will often happen that, just then, God will strike
us down with sickness, or remove us from our sphere of activity! But if
we really mean this prayer, we must be prepared to say, "Not as I will,
but as You will." This is not easy, for does not the Holy Spirit,
Himself, teach us to long after active service for our Savior? Does He
not, when He gives us love toward our fellow men, constrain us, as it
were, to make their salvation our meat and our drink? When He is
actively at work within our hearts, do we not feel as if we could not
live without serving God? Do we not then feel that to labor for the
Lord is our highest rest, and that toil for Jesus is our sweetest
pleasure? Does it not then seem most trying to our ardent spirit to be
compelled to drink the cup of sickness and to be incapable of doing
anything actively for God?
The preacher is seeing men converted and his ministry successful, but,
all of a sudden, he is compelled to cease from preaching. Or the Sunday
school teacher has, by the Grace of God, been the means of bringing his
class into an interesting and hopeful condition–yet, just when the
class needs his presence most, he is smitten down, so that he cannot go
on with his work. Ah, then it is that the spirit finds it hard to say,
"Not as I will, but as You will." But if we adopt this prayer, this is
what it means–that we should be prepared to suffer instead of to
serve, and should be as willing to lie in the trenches as to scale the
walls–and as willing to be laid aside in the King's hospital as to be
fighting in the midst of the rank and file of the King's army. This is
hard to flesh and blood, but we must do it if we present this petition.
If we really mean this prayer, there will be a second trial for us.
Sometimes God will demand of us that we labor in unpropitious fields.
He will set His children to plow the rock and to cast their bread upon
the waters. He will send His Ezekiel to prophesy in a valley full of
dry bones, and His Jonah to carry His message to Nineveh. He will give
His servants strange work to do–work which seems as if it could never
be successful, or bring honor either to God or to themselves. I doubt
not that there are some ministers who toil and labor with all their
might, yet who see but little fruit. Far away in the dark places of
heathendom, there are men who have been preaching for years, with
scarcely a convert to cheer them. And here, too, in England, there are
men who are preaching the Word of the Lord in all sincerity and
faithfulness, yet they do not see souls converted. They know that they
are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, both in them that perish and in
them that are saved. Our hearts are, I trust, so full of the Spirit
prompting us to cry, like Rachel, "Give me children, or I die," that we
cannot rest content without seeing the success of our labors. Yet the
Master, in effect, says to us, "No, I tell you to continue to toil for
Me, though I give you no fruit for your labor. You are to keep on
plowing this rock, sim-
ply because I tell you to do it." Ah, then, Brothers, it is hard to
say, "Not my will, but Yours be done." But we must say it! We must feel
that we are ready to forego even the joy of harvest, and the glory of
success if God wills it!
At other times God will remove His people from positions of honorable
service, to other offices that are far inferior in the minds of men. I
think that I should feel it hard if I had to be banished from my large
congregation and from my thousands of hearers, to a small village where
I could only preach the Gospel to a little company of people. Yet I am
sure that if I entered fully into the spirit of our Lord's words–"Not
as I will, but as You will"–I would be quite as ready to be there as
to be here. I have heard that, among the Jesuits, such is the
extraordinary obedience which they are compelled to pay to their
superiors that, on one occasion, there was a president of one of their
colleges who had written some of the most learned books in any
language. He was a man of the highest talents, but the superior of the
order took a freak into his head, for some reason, to send him
straightaway from the country where he was, to Bath, to stand there in
the street for a year and sweep the crossing, and the man did it. He
was compelled to do it! His vow obliged him to do anything that he was
told to do.
Now, in a spiritual sense, this is hard to perform, but, nevertheless,
it is a Christian's duty. We remember the saying of a good man that the
angels in Heaven are so completely given up to obedience to God that if
there should be two works to do–ruling an empire and sweeping a
crossing–neither of the two angels who might be selected to go on
these two errands would have any choice in the matter, they would just
leave it with their Lord to decide which part they were to fulfill. You
may, perhaps, be called from the charge of the services in a place of
worship, to become one of the humblest members in another church. You
may be taken from a place of much honor and put in the very lowest
ranks of the army. Are you willing to submit to that kind of treatment?
Your flesh and blood say, "Lord, if I may still serve in Your army, let
me be a captain, or, at least, let me be a sergeant, or a corporal. If
I may help to draw Your chariot, let me be the leading horse, let me
run first in the team, let me wear the bright ribbons." But God may say
to you, "I have put you there in the thick of the battle. Now I will
place you behind. I have given you vigor and strength to fight with
great success. Now I will make you tarry by the stuff. I have done with
you in the prominent position–now I will use you somewhere else." But
if we can only pray this prayer. "Not as I will, but as You will," we
shall be ready to serve God anywhere and everywhere, so long as we know
that we are doing His will!
But there is another trial which we shall all have to endure, in our
measure, which will prove whether we understand by this prayer what
Christ meant by it. Sometimes, in the service of Christ, we must be
prepared to endure the loss of reputation, of honor and even of
character itself I remember, when I first, came to London to preach the
Word, I thought that I could bear anything for Christ. But I found
myself shamefully slandered. All manner of lies were uttered concerning
me and, in agony, I fell on my face before God and cried unto Him. I
felt as though that was a thing I could not bear–my character was very
dear to me and I could not endure to have such false things said about
me! Then this thought came to me, "You must give up all for Christ, you
must surrender everything for Him–character, reputation and all that
you have–and if it is the Lord's will, you shall be reckoned the
vilest of the vile! But so long as you can still continue to serve Him
and your character is really pure, you need not fear. If it is your
Master's will that you shall be trampled and spit upon by all the
wicked men in the world, you must simply bear it and say, 'Not as I
will, but as You will.'" And I remember how I rose, then, from my
knees, and sang to myself that verse–
"If on my face, for Your dear name,
Shame and reproaches be,
All hail reproach, and welcome shame!
If You remember me."
"But how hard it was," you say, "for you to suffer the loss of
character and to have evil things spoken against you falsely for
Christ's name's sake!" And what was the reason why it was so hard? Why,
it was just because I had not fully learned how to pray this prayer of
our Lord Jesus Christ–and I am afraid that I still have not completely
learned it. It is a very delightful thing to have even our enemies
speaking well of us, to go through this world with such holiness of
character that men who pour scorn upon all religion cannot find fault
with us–but it is an equally glorious thing for us to be set in the
pillory of shame, to be pelted by every passerby, to be the song of the
drunkard, to be the by-word of the swearer when we do not deserve
it–and to endure all this for Christ's sake. Thsis true heroism–ths
is the meaning of the prayer of our text.
Again, some of you have at times thought, "Oh, if the Master will only
be pleased to open a door for me where I may be the means of doing some
good! How glad I should be if I could have either more wealth, or more
influence, or more knowledge, or more talents with which I might serve
Him better!" You have prayed about the matter and thought about it, and
you have said, "If I could only get into such-and-such a position, how
excellently should I be able to serve God!" You have seen your Master
give to some of His servants ten talents, but He has given you only
one. You have gone on your knees and asked Him to be good enough to
trust you with two–but He has refused it. Or you have had two and you
have asked Him to let you have ten–and He has said, "No, I will give
you two talents and no more." But you say, "Is it not a laudable desire
that I should seek to do more good?" Certainly! Trade with your
talents–multiply them if you can. But suppose you have no power of
utterance? Suppose you have no opportunities of serving God, or even
suppose the sphere of your influence is limited, what then? Why, you
are to say "Lord, I hoped it was Your will that I might have a wider
sphere, but if it is not, although I long to serve You on a larger
scale, I will be quite content to glorify You in my present narrower
sphere, for I feel that here is an opportunity for the trial of my
faith and resignation, and again I say, 'Not as I will, but as You
will.'"
Christian men and women, are you heartily prepared to pray this prayer?
I fear there is not a single individual among us who could pray it in
all its fullness of meaning. Perhaps you may go as far as I have
already gone, but if God should take you at your word, and say, "My
will is that your wife should be struck with a fatal illness and, like
a fading lily, droop and die before your eyes. My will is that your
children should be caught up to my loving bosom in Heaven, that your
house should be burned with fire, that you should be left penniless–a
pauper dependent on the charity of others. It is My will that you
should cross the sea, that you should go to distant lands and endure
unheard-of hardships. It is My will that, at last, your bones should
lie bleaching on the desert sand in some foreign land." Are you willing
to endure all this for Christ? Remember that you have not attained unto
the full meaning of this prayer until you have said, "Yes," to all that
it means. And, until you can go to the uttermost lengths to which God's
Providence may go, you have not gone to the full extent of the
resignation in this cry of our Lord!
Many of the early Christians, I think, didknow this prayer by heart–it
is amazing how willing they were to do anything and be anything for
Christ. They had got this idea into their heads that they were not to
live to themselves–and they had it also in their hearts. And they
believed that to be martyred was the highest honor they could possibly
wish for. Consequently, if they were brought to the tribunals of the
judges, they never ran away from their persecutors. They almost courted
death, for they thought it was the highest privilege that they could
possibly have if they might be torn in pieces by the lions in the
arena, or be decapitated with the sword. Now, if we could but get that
idea into ourhearts, with what courage would it gird us! How fully
might we then serve God and how patiently might we endure persecution
if we could but learn the meaning of this prayer, "Not as I will, but
as You will."
II. In the second place, I AM TO TRY AND GIVE YOU SOME REASONS WHY IT
WILL BE BEST FOR US ALL
TO SEEK TO HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN US, SO THAT WE MAY BE BROUGHT
INTO THIS FRAME OF
MIND AND HEART.
And the first reason is because it is simply a matter of right. God
ought to have His way at all times and I ought not to have mine
whenever it is contrary to His. If ever my will is at cross purposes to
the will of the Supreme, it is but right that mine should yield to His.
If I could have my own way–if such a poor, feeble creature as I am
could thwart the Omnipotent Creator, it would be wrong for me to do it.
What? Has He made me, and shall He not do as He wills with me? Is He
like the potter and am I but as the clay, and shall the thing formed
say to Him that formed it, "Why have You made me thus?" No, my Lord, it
is but right that You should do what You please with me, for I am
Yours–Yours for You have made me–Yours, for You have bought me with
Your blood. If I am a jewel purchased with the precious blood of Jesus,
then He may cut me into what shape He pleases. He may polish me as He
chooses. He may let me lie in the darkness of the casket or let me
glitter in His hand or in His diadem. In fact, He may do with me just
as He wills, for I am His and so long as I know that He does it, I must
say, "Whatever He does is right. My will shall not be in opposition to
His will."
But, again, this is not only a matter of right, it is a matter of
wisdom with us. Depend upon it, dear Brothers and Sisters, if we could
have our own will, it would often be the worst thing in the world for
us! But to let God have His way with us, even if it were in our power
to thwart Him–would be an act of wisdom on our part. What do I desire
when I wish to have my own will? I desire my own happiness! Well, I
shall get it far more easily if I let God have His will, for the
will of God is both for His own Glory and my happiness! So, however
much I may think that my own will would tend to my comfort and
happiness, I may rest assured that God's will would be infinitely more
profitable to me than my own. And, although God's will may seem to make
it dark and dreary for me at the time, yet, from seeming evil He will
bring forth good such as never could have been produced from that
supposed good after which my weak and feeble judgment is so apt to run!
But, again, suppose it were possible for us to have our own will, would
it not be an infringement of that loving reliance which Christ may well
ask at our hands, that we should trust HimP. Are we not saved by
trusting our Lord Jesus Christ? Has not faith in Christ been the means
of saving me from sin and Hell? Then surely I must not run away from
this rule when I come into positions of trial and difficulty. If faith
through the blood of Christ has been superior to sin, it will certainly
be superior to trial through the almighty arm of Christ! Did I not tell
Him, when I first came to Him, that I would trust no one but Him? Did I
not declare that all my other confidence were burst and broken, and
scattered to the winds? And did I not ask that He would permit me to
put my trust in Him alone? And shall I, after that, play the traitor?
Shall I now set up some other object in which to place my trust? Oh,
no! My love to Jesus, my gratitude to Him for His condescension in
accepting my faith binds me to trust to Him, and to Him, alone,
forever!
We often lose the force of a Truth of God by not making it palpable to
our own mind. Let us try to make this one so. Imagine the Lord Jesus to
be visibly present in this pulpit. Suppose that He looks down upon one
of you and says, "My child, your will and Mine do not, just now, agree.
You desire such-and-such a thing, but I say, 'No, you must not have
it.' Now, my child, which will is to prevail, Mine or yours?" Suppose
you were to reply, "Lord, I must have my will." Do you not think He
would look at you with eyes of infinite sadness and pity and say to
you, "What? Did I give up My will for you and will you not give up your
will for Me? Did I surrender all I had, even My life, for your sake,
and do you say, you self-willed child, 'I must have these things
according to my will, and contrary to Your wish and purpose, O my
Savior?"
Surely you could not talk like that! Rather, I think I see you
instantly falling on your knees and saying, "Lord Jesus, forgive me for
ever harboring such evil thoughts. No, my Lord, even if Your will is
hard, I will think it pleasant. If it is bitter, I will believe that
the bitterest draught is sweet. Let me but see You dying on the Cross
for me. Let me only know that You love me and wherever You shall put
me, I will be in Heaven as long as I can feel that it is Your will that
is being done with me. I will be perfectly content to be just wherever
You choose me to be and to suffer whatever You choose for me to
endure." Yes, dear Friends, it would show a sad lack of that love which
we owe to Christ and of that gratitude which He deserves, if we were
once to set our wills up in opposition to His! Therefore, again,
Beloved, for love's sake, for wisdom's sake, for right's sake, I
beseech you ask the Holy Spirit to teach you this prayer of our Lord
Jesus Christ and to impart to you its blessed meaning.
III. I notice, in the next place, THE EFFECT OF TRULY SAYING AND
FEELING, "NOT AS I WILL, BUT AS YOU WILL."
The first effect is constant happiness. If you would find out the cause
of most of your sorrows, dig at the root of your self-will, for that is
where it lies. When your heart is wholly sanctified unto God and your
will is entirely subdued to Him, the bitter becomes sweet, pain is
changed to pleasure and suffering is turned into joy. It is not
possible for that man's mind to be disturbed whose will is wholly
resigned to the will of God. "Well," says one, "that is a very
startling statement"–and another says, "I have really sought to have
my will resigned to God's will, yet I am disturbed." Yes, and that is
simply because, though you have sought, like all the rest of us, you
have not yet attained to full resignation to the will of the Lord. But
when once you have attained to it–I fear you never will in this
life–then shall you be free from everything that shall cause you
sorrow or discomposure of mind!
Another blessed effect of this prayer, if it is truly presented, is
that it will give a man holy courage and bravery. If my mind is wholly
resigned to God's will, what have I to fear in all the world? It is
with me, then, as it was with Polycarp. When the Roman emperor
threatened that he would banish him, he said, "You cannot, for the
whole world is my Father's house, and you cannot banish me from it."
"But I will slay you," said the emperor. "No, you cannot, for my life
is hid with Christ in God." "I will take away all your treasures." "No,
you cannot, for I have nothing that you know of. My treasure is in
Heaven and my heart is there, also." "But I will drive you away from
men and you shall have no friends left." "No, that you cannot do, for I
have a Friend in Heaven from whom you cannot separate me! I defy you,
for there is
nothing that you can do to me." And so the Christian can always say if
once his will agrees with God's will! He may defy all men and defy
Hell, itself, for he will be able to say, "Nothing can happen to me
that is contrary to the will of God and if it is His will, it is my
will, too. If it pleases God, it pleases me. God has been pleased to
give me part of His will, so I am satisfied with whatever He sends."
Man is, after all, only the second cause of our sorrows. A persecutor
says, perhaps, to a child of God, "I can afflict you." "No, you cannot,
for you are dependent on the first Great Cause, and He and I are
agreed." Ah, dear Friends, there is nothing that makes men such cowards
as having wills contrary to the will of God! But, when we resign
ourselves wholly into the hands of God, what have we to fear? The thing
that made Jacob a coward was that he was not resigned to God's will
when Esau came to meet him. God had foretold that the elder of the two
sons of Isaac should serve the younger–Jacob's business was to believe
that and to go boldly forward with his wives and children–not to bow
down before Esau, but to say, "The promise is the elder shall serve the
younger. I am not going to bow down to you–it is your place to fall
prostrate before me." But poor Jacob said, "Perhaps it is God's will
that Esau should conquer me and smite the mothers and their children.
But my will is that it shall not be." The contest is well pictured at
the ford Jabbok, but if Jacob had not disbelieved God's promise, he
would newer have bowed himself to the earth seven times before his
brother Esau. In the holy majesty of his faith, he would have said,
"Esau, my brother, you can do me no hurt, for you can do nothing
contrary to the will of God. You can do nothing contrary to His decree
and I will be pleased with whatever it
is."
So, this resignation to God's will gives, first, joy in the heart, and
then it gives fearless courage. And yet another thing follows from it.
As soon as anyone truly says, "Not as I will, but as You will," this
resolve tends to make every duty light, every trial easy, every
tribulation sweet. We should never feel it to be a hard thing to serve
God, yet there are many people, who, if they do a little thing for the
Lord, think so much of it. And if there is ever a great thing to be
done, you have, first, to plead very hard to get them to do it–and
when they do it, very often it is done so badly that you are half sorry
you ever asked them to do it! A great many people make very much out of
what is really very little. They take one good action which they have
performed and they hammer it out till it becomes as thin as gold
leaf–and then they think they may cover a whole week with that one
good deed. The seven days shall all be glorified by an action which
only takes five minutes to perform! It shall be quite enough, they even
think, for all time to come! But the Christian whose will is conformed
to God's will, says, "My Lord, is there anything else for me to do?
Then I will gladly do it. Does it involve need of rest? I will do it.
Does it involve loss of time in my business? Does it involve me,
sometimes, in toil and fatigue? Lord it shall be done, if it is Your
will, for Your will and mine are in complete agreement. If it is
possible, I will do it, and I will count all things but loss that I may
win Christ and be found in Him, rejoicing in His righteousness, and not
in my own."
IV. There are many other sweet and blessed effects which this
resignations would produce, but I must close by observing that THE ONLY
WAY IN WHICH THIS SPIRIT CAN BE ATTAINED IS BY THE UNCTION OF THE HOLY
ONE, the outpouring and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our
hearts.
You may try to subdue your own self, but you will never do it alone.
You may labor, by self-denial, to keep down your ambition, but you will
find that it takes another shape and grows by that wherewith you
thought to poison it. You may seek to concentrate all the love of your
soul on Christ and, in the very act, you will find self creeping in! I
am sometimes astonished–and yet not astonished when I know the evil of
my own heart–when I look within myself and find how impure my motive
is at the very moment when I thought it was most pure! And I expect it
is the same with you, dear Friends. You perform a good action–some
almsgiving to the poor, perhaps. You say, "I will do it very quietly."
Someone speaks of it and you say at once, "I wish you had not spoken of
that. I do not like to hear anyone talk of what I have done. It hurts
me." Perhaps it is only your pride that makes you say that it hurts
you, for some folk make their modesty to be their pride. It is, in
fact, their secret pride that they are doing good and that people do
not know it. They glory in that supposed secrecy and, by its coming
out, they feel that their modesty is spoilt and they are afraid that
people will say, "Ah, you see that it is known what they do–they do
not really do their good deeds in secret." So that even our modesty may
be our pride–and what some people think their pride, may happen to be
the will of God, and may be real modesty. It is very hard work to give
up our own will, but it is possible, and that is one of the lessons we
should learn from this text, "Not as I will, but as You will."
Again, if there is anybody of whom you are a little envious–perhaps a
minister who takes a little of the gloss off you by preaching better
than you do, or a Sunday school teacher who is more successful in his
work–make that particular person the object of your most constant
prayer and endeavor as much as lies in you to increase that person's
popularity and success. Someone asks, "But you cannot bring human
nature up to that point, can you–to try and exalt one's own rival?" My
dear Friends, you will never know the full meaning of this prayer till
you have tried to do this–and actually sought to honor your rival more
than yourself! That is the true spirit of the Gospel, "in honor
preferring one another." I have sometimes found it hard work, I must
confess, but I have schooled myself down to it. Can this be done? Yes,
John the Baptist did it. He said of Jesus, "He must increase, but I
must decrease." If you had asked John whether he wished to increase, he
would have said, "Well, I should like to have more disciples. Still, if
it is the Lord's will, I am quite content to go down, that Christ
should go up."
How important, therefore, it is for us to learn how we may attain to
this state of acquiescence with our heavenly Father's will! I have
given you the reasons for it, but how can it be done? Only by the
operation of the Spirit of God! As for flesh and blood, they will not
help you in the least–they will just go the other way–and when you
think that, surely, you have got flesh and blood under control, you
will find that they have got the upper hand of you just when you
thought you were conquering them! Pray the Holy Spirit to abide with
you, to dwell in you, to baptize you, to immerse you in His sacred
influence, to cover you, to bury you in His sublime power and so, and
only so, when you are completely immersed in the Spirit and steeped, as
it were, in the crimson sea of the Savior's blood, shall you be made to
fully realize the meaning of this great prayer, "Not as I will, but as
You will." "Lord, not self, but Christ. Not my own glory, but Your
Glory. Not my aggrandizement, but Yours. No, not even my success, but
Your success! Not the prosperity of my own church, or my own self, but
the prosperity of Your Church, the increase of Your Glory–let all that
be done as You will, not as I will."
How different this is from everything connected with the world! I have
tried to take you up to a very high elevation and if you have been able
to get up there, or even to desire to get up there, how striking has
the contrast been between this spirit and the spirit of the worldling!
I shall not say anything to those of you who are unconverted except
this– learn how contrary you are to what God would have you be and
what you must be, before you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You know
that you could not say, "Let God have His will," and you also know that
you could not humble yourself to become as a little child. This shows
your deep depravity, so, may the Holy Spirit renew you, for you have
need of renewing, that you may be made a new creature in Christ Jesus!
May He sanctify you wholly, spirit, soul and body, and at last present
you faultless before the Throne of God, for His dear name's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN15:1-11.
Verse 1. I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser If you
want to know where the true Church is, Christ here tells you–"I am the
true vine." All who are in Christ are in the true Church. If you want
to know who is the Father of the Church, its Keeper and Guardian,
Christ here tells you–"My Father is the vinedresser." Hence, I feel
persuaded that the true vine, the Church, will never die, for it is
Christ. And I am also persuaded that it will never be uprooted, for
Jesus says, "My Father is the vinedresser." And that fact is a
guarantee that He will take care of it.
2. Every branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes way. In some sense,
men and women may be in Christ by a mere outward profession. But if
they have no evidence of a real union to Christ–if they produce no
fruit–they will be taken away, some by death, and others by apostasy.
But they will be taken away.
2. And every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring
forth more fruit! From these words it is clear that many of the
afflictions which we have to endure are not brought upon us because we
are unfruitful, but because we are bearing fruit!
3, 4. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except you abide in Me.
Dear Friends, beware of a Christless Christianity! Beware of trying to
be Christians without living daily upon Christ! The branch may just as
well
try to bear fruit apart from the vine as for you to hope to maintain
the reality of Christian life without continual fellowship with the
Lord Jesus Christ!
5, 6. I am the vine, you are the branches: he that abides in Me, and I
in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without Me you can do
nothing. If a man abides not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and
is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they
are burned. The vine must either bear fruit or be good for nothing and
you, Believer, must be vitally united to Christ and bear fruit in
consequence of that union or else you will be like those fruitless
branches, of which our Lord said that, "men gather them, and cast them
into the fire and they are burned."
7. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what
you will and it shall be done unto you. Do not take that verse as a
promise of unlimited answers to prayer, for it is nothing of the kind!
Remember the, "if," that qualifies it–"fyou abide in Me, and My words
abide in you," for a man who is truly in Christ, as the branch is in
the vine, and who is feeding upon Christ's words will be so influenced
by the Holy Spirit that he will not ask anything which is contrary to
the mind of God. Consequently, his prayers, though in one sense
unrestricted, are really restricted by the tenderness of his conscience
and the sensitiveness of his spirit to the influence of the mind of
God. There are some Christians who do not get their prayers answered
and who never will as long as they do not comply with this condition,
"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you." If you do not take
notice of Christ's words, He will not take notice of your words. He is
not going to open His door to every stranger who chooses to give a
runaway knock at it, but He will pay attention to His own children who
pay attention to Him.
8. Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall
you be My disciples. ' 'You shall be known to be My disciples."
Everybody will perceive that you must be branches of that fruitful
vine, Christ Jesus, if you bear much
fruit!
9. As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you: continue you in My
love. How wondrously Jesus loves those who are truly His! As the Father
loved Him, so does He love us–that is, without beginning, without
measure, without variation, without end! "Continue you in My love."
That is–live in it, enjoy it, drink it in, be influenced by it.
10. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love. "You shall
live in the realization of My love if you live in obedience to Me."
10, 11. Even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His
love. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in
you, and that your joy might be full. For, when Christ is not pleased
with us, we are not likely to have joy in ourselves, Oh, that we may so
live as to please Christ!