Submitting to the Test
0 God, our Heavenly Father, we have been looking forward to this day, and do, we pray thee, disappoint us not. We know, O (xod, that if there is a life here without the fullness of God, the difficulty must all lie within that life. Thou art willing and ready to give unto us thy fullness. We thank thee it is our birthright privilege in Christ.
Search us, know us, try us, see if there be any wicked way in us, and if there is one single thing, take it away. We ask in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our blessed Redeemer. Amen.
SUBJECT — “SUBMITTING TO THE TEST.”
“The same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost” (John 1:33).
It was on the banks of the river, when John the Baptist was preaching the gospel of the coming kingdom, and when the people from all the towns and cities round about were listening to every word from his lips, that suddenly from out the crowd there appeared Jesus of Hazareth, and as he appeared the heavens were opened, and a dove descended upon him; and then it was that John realized that he was looking upon the face of the One of whom he was speaking, when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
1 am sure that if we study John’s teaching and preaching, we will find two cardinal points in his belief. One was his belief in the atonement that was to be provided as we now receive it. Read the twenty-ninth verse, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin. of the world.”
It has been said that if you turn over the pages of the Old Testament and the Hew, and whenever you find a verse with blood or sacrifice in it, you touch that verse with red ink; and then, every verse you find in the New Testament with the sacrificial blood of the Son of God in it, and touch that, also, with red ink, you will be astonished to see how red your Bible is. In the same way you will be surprised to see what a mutilated Bible you will have if you leave out all that pertains to sacrifice and blood. There will be no peace, justification, or forgiveness, and nothing of the music of heaven. Indeed, those who preach the gospel and study the Word of God for any length of time come to know that the Bible is full of the blood of sacrifice. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.’’ So I make the statement to-day, which you will surely accept, that no man can have the favor of God if he rejects the atonement.
The second great element in his teaching is in connection with the baptism with the Holy Ghost. If no man may have the favor of God, if he be astray concerning the atonement, surely no man can have the power of God without having a conception of the Spirit of God. You cannot divorce the Spirit of God from the power of God, or from the Son of God. He is the power of God, and so there is no way of possessing power save as you possess the Son of God in your life. Just as in the Old Testament the river from the sanctuary ran east, because the east was the point of resurrection, and also the point of the coming Messiah, so the Holy Ghost always points to Christ. And when John spake, he said, “The same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” So it is well for us to keep in mind the fact that the Power of God and the Spirit of God are both in Jesus Christ for us.
I think in much of the teaching concerning the Holy Ghost the disposition is to turn away our minds from the Son of God. But remember always, “The same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” I know there are many views concerning the baptism with the Holy Ghost. They may, however, be summed up under two heads: There are those who say, “The baptism of the Holy Ghost is entirely distinct from regeneration.” But there is an added blessing after conversion in the provision of God for his children. From the point of regeneration, you went on in defeat and weakness, and then you came to the place where you knew that there was something better, and you must have it, and you surrendered to God, and when you did, the baptism of the Holy Ghost came.
The second view is that when regenerated you became a child of God, and you received the Spirit of God then. “But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
You may be a larger and a stronger child now than you were then, but when by faith you received Jesus Christ as a Saviour, you read in God’s Word you were justifled freely and foreVer. Everything in Jesus Christ became yours because he is yours — peace, power, ^’all things are yours/^ When you became a child of God you became an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. All this was yours and mine from the very moment of regeneration. But, alas, this was not my experience, practically, and has doubtless not been the experience of many of you. But one day, after much defeat and unrest, it came to me that I was a child of God, and blessing was mine because Christ was mine. It was all there in him, but I had not claimed it. It was there for me, because I was born into the family of God. It was absolutely mine, yet I had not appropriated it for my daily living, and then the time came when I knew I could have it by simply appropriating Him. Then came the day of surrender. “O God, take from me all that keeps back the blessing. I do now claim Him as my own, and I appropriate all there is in him as my birthright privilege.”
Those who hold to the second view say that your baptism with the Holy Ghost came at the time of regeneration, and your surrender was the day you appropriated him as yours. We are not here for argument; we are here that our eyes may be opened that we may see Christ; but I would like to say that I hold clearly to the second view. I believe that when I became a child of God by faith, I became an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. Oh, the joy of it! I dont want to take up the thought of the baptism of the Spirit this morning; that comes this afternoon. Just this thought. Do you need a better appreciation of Christ in your life? We will submit the tests, by means of which you may clearly know:
If in your life as a Christian, there is constant unrest, you are in need of Jesus Christ. John 14: 27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’’
Did you ever take the pronouns that run through the New Testament, and see how much of sweetness there is in them? ‘’My peace.” Not a peace that he purchased, but his own peace, a bequeathed thing. IIow does the world give? Why, like a child. One time my little one came up and gave one of her toys to her mother, and said, “I give it to you, mother; it is yours.” And not very long after I saw her give the same thing to her brother, and she told him it was his. And then after a while she was playing with it as hard as ever; she had forgotten all about having given it away, and it was all her own now. That is how the world gives — like a child; gives to-day, and takes away to-morrow. “Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.”
I was in Pittsburg with Mr. Moody, a little less than a year ago, and he told us a great many war stories. He told us how one day he went across the battle-field after the fight, and he found a boy with shattered limbs; he looked as if he were dead. He used some of the water in his canteen to moisten the boy’s lips, and he opened his eyes. He thought it was the chaplain beside him, and when Mr. Moody asked him if there was anything he could do for him, the boy said, “Well, chaplain, if you can put your hand in my pocket and pull out the little Testament my mother gave me, you might read to me.” Mr. Moody said that when he put his hand in to take the book, the blood of the boy was on his hand and on the book, too. Where shall I read He hesitated a moment, and then answered, “You might read the peace chapter’; you know which one that is.” Mr. Moody turned to the fourteenth of John and read twenty-six verses, and the boy lay still. He wondered if he was hearing it. He began with the twenty-seventh verse, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,” and he did not get any farther, for the boy tried to raise his hand. “You need not read any more; I have that peace, I have it”; and his eyes went shut, and you could almost hear the brushing of the angels’ wings as they took him.
I hold it possible for every man to have peace like that. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” Now put over against that verse your life of unrest, your life of fretfulness, my life of impatience, our lives of constant unrest. I ask you. Is He your peace? Isn’t it true that you and I need a little more of Jesus Christ in our lives? Oh, may he come this morning and fill us to overflowing!
Second test: Constant failure at the same point. I call your attention to the fact that I did not say “constant failure,” hut constant failure at the same point. This, I think, is a test for many of us. I think if I am all the time losing my temper, and I am a Christian, it is a clear indication that I am not the kind of Christian I ought to be. If I am frequently showing an unforgiving spirit, it is a clear indication that I am not living where God wants me to live. If I fail again and again and again at the same point, it is clear that I need more of Christ in my life. If you have read Drummond’s “Ideal Life,” you will remember what he says in one of his sermons about Christians losing their temper — “It is a singular thing that you can lose your temper and still have it.” You ought never to smile at a display of temper. you analyze that display of temper you will find jealousy, anger, pride, sulkiness, selfishness, touchiness, all present.’’ A man never loses his temper that he doesn’t find all these things in it. Every display of this kind shows that back in the life there is a fever burning, and these displays of sin are the symptoms of disease, and we need Christ. We must come to the place where we say, not “We are resolved not to do this thing again,” but ‘’We will take him, and let him he our victory/”
Third test: Our inahility to pray. How do you pray? I
don’t mean the prayer you say in the morning and the evening, or the petition you offer at the family altar. There are two sentences I want to give you from Andrew Murray’s book: “Our prayer-life is the measure of the Spirit’s work in us”; so if we do not know how to pray, we have not yet reached the place where we know the Holy Ghost in fullness. “Feebleness in prayer is a mark of disease.” As I read these sentences, and got them running in my mind, I said, “O my God, how many of us are feeble!” Now these are the tests; bring your life up against them. Do you not need a better apprehension of Christ when you pray? What would it mean for you and me to place Christ in our lives as God would have us? What would it mean? Well, the same as to the early disciples. I know why it was Peter could stand up and preach and the people beheld his boldness and marveled. It was because he remembered “Lo, I am with you always.” I know why it was Paul could ring out his “Pejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!” although in prison; he knew the Word of God, which said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” The fact is, most of us are unbelievers; you have a promise in God’s Word, and I have the same — he is with me always. What does it mean? Why, it means that when I enter this room and walk along this platform and take my seat, the Son of God goes with me. “Ah, if we could be with him in the flesh, we could preach.” He is just as near me as if in the flesh. There are those who say, ^‘Oh, that is mysticism”; then I want to be a mystic; I believe I can walk with him for a minute, and if for a minute, for an hour; if I can walk with him for an hour, I know I can for a day; if it is possible for a day, it is possible for a month; and what is possible for a month may become the habit of my life. I know that all the time I can have sweet fellowship; the Holy Ghost makes him real.
In the next place, I suggest that when we put Christ in the right place in our lives, by the Spirit, there comes to us a real baptism of joy. Now, joy is not happiness, for it is absolutely independent of circumstances. Let us read J ohn 15: 11, ‘‘These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
Of course, if you donT believe the Bible is inspired, that text is not for you. If you open your Bible and read along two or three verses, and say, “That is inspired,” and then read out three or four verses which you think not inspired, you will not have joy. If you think there is a question about the Bible being God’s Word, it is a serious question as to whether you can have any joy in it. But if you believe it is the Word of God, while you read it you cannot help having joy in it. How is it, brethren?
One of the members of our household, not long ago, went as a missionary to take the place of her grandmother in a home in Shanghai, China; and when she sailed it was a question what we could put in the box to please her when she reached China; it was finally decided to put in a phonograph, into which each one of us would speak some farewell message. And so, from the old man, her father, who talked in his blessing with a sob, to the little baby of the household, who could hardly make herself understood, we all said something which she should hear again when she opened her box. The other day we got a letter back from China, “I hear your voices, and it made my heart burn and the tears fiow when you spoke to me.” With all reverence for this Book, it is God’s phonograph; he talked into it, and any one of us can sit at the feet of our Master and hear him speak his words to our hearts. We cannot read it without having our hearts filled with joy. Don’t you see it is all Christ a The whole life of blessing is Christ being in you. You cannot divorce blessing from Christ.
And then I want to say, it means becoming holy. For the early disciples it was a baptism of holiness when they put Christ in the right place in their lives, and it will be the same for you and for me. Some of us are afraid of terms in our denominations. Talk of being holy, and people are afraid of us. Talk of being sanctified, and they lift their eyes and say, Well, are you one of those people?” But isnT it a fact that the two words we fear most are in the Bible, and aren’t they the most helpful in the Word of God? The word “sanctify” literally means “separate,” and if you are not a separated man, and I am not a separated man, we have not put Christ in his right place. Campbell Morgan said last year, at Winona, of holiness, ‘’It means to he spiritually healthy,” If you are not spiritually healthy, it is your own fault. We have in this book all we need to make us so.
Holiness is God in us. How much of God is there in your life and mine? There is just that measure of holiness. So if you put Christ in his place in your life, and he controls you, you are a holy man.
I remember a family in an eastern city, devout friends of Mr. Moody, especially the father and mother, who were in the habit of going to the Northfield conferences. Two young ladies in the family did not care to go, and could never be persuaded to try it. The mother described the views to her daughters, saying Northfield was the most beautiful place in the Connecticut Valley, and was well worth seeing; and one of her daughters said she would go. She met F. B. Meyer there, and one evening they sat out on the piazza talking about the scenery. He is a fascinating man. She became interested, and she said, ‘T will go to the auditorium in the morning and hear
SUBMITTING TO THE TESi’ him preach.’^ She went; and, on coming back, went to her mother’s room. “Mothei she said, have been a church-member all this time, but until this morning I have never been Christ’s; and now, here, this morning, beside this bed, upon my knees, I take him. I am his own.” Shortly after, she was taken ill and died. When I met the mother, she said: ‘‘I will tell you about her death. She put her arms around my neck and said, Mother, I want to say to you that before the funeral I want you to ask every girl I have known to come to this house and stand beside my coffin, and I want you to say that while I have moved in the best social life in this city, I have had moje joy in the little time since I have received Christ than in all the rest of my life put together.’” That is what I mean; it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Will you not make this the day of your yielding? God grant it.
Some of you know the story of the old organist in the Freiburg Cathedral. He played the organ for so many years that he loved the instrument, and it was hard to see another take his place; but they let him show the organ to visitors; he would take them around and show the instrument, and then he would run his stiffened fingers over the keys and show the sweet tones of the beloved organ. One day a stranger came; the old organist made the rounds, and then said, Would you like to hear the tone?” Wes,” said the stranger, “let me test the tones.” “What, let you play the organ; why, man, no one but the organist ever touches the keys of the organ.” “But I would like to test the tone,” said the stranger. Tie slipped onto the bench, and it seemed as if a choir of angels had come into the cathedral to give heaven’s music. The old organist listened, and then went to the stranger. “Who are you? Tell me your name.” “My name is Felix Mendelssohn,” said the stranger, and after that until the day of his death the old organist used to tell of the visit and say, “I almost missed hearing him play.”
But there is a better than Felix Mendelssohn here this
morning. Will you let him touch your life? He is here this very day. Oh, if you miss him, if you miss him! He can touch your life and make it ring out joy; he can touch it, and make it sing peace, peace. He will touch it and make it mean — Christ. God pity you if you miss him.
Let us pray: O Lord our God, help us to make this a day in which we shall enthrone Christ. God forbid that wo should live carnal lives when we may live spiritual lives; that we should live selfish lives when we may live lives of peace and joy.
Our God, fill us to-day with thyself. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.