Jesus Able to Keep

In the second Epistle to Timothy, the first chapter and the twelfth verse, you have these words: “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

I chose that text under the impressioh that, for many, this would be our last gathering, as all cannot come to-morrow morning. And I thought that if in any heart a desire had been stirred, during our meetings, to enter the blessed life, that this word might help them, to-night, for it will lead us up to a simple act of committal and consecration. But, this morning, I got a request from some twelve or fifteen brethren in the ministry, or in the work of God, asking me to give a testimony as to my own personal experience in the Christian life. And before I speak of these words I want, in a few short sentences, to tell you how God has led me. What God has done to me is not mine but His own. and if it can help you, I cannot withhold it. And yet, I am somewhat reluctant to speak of my experience, for this reason: When a man has g-ot a clear, distinct experience to tell and a very definite story about something- God has done for him, a clear passing out of one state of the Christian life into another, it is often very helpful and very stirring-. But that is not my story. I was away in South Africa, almost alone, and I had to fight and stumble my way along”, and owingto that I had no such clear path as I could have wished for; but let me tell you.

If I speak of my life, my Christian life, the first fifteen years, perhaps, I call a time of darkness and of strug-g-ling- after the light. I could divide my Christian life into three periods: The time of darkness, the time of the vision of the light and then the time of the richer experience. I was, as a young minister, most earnest. I was counted a most faithful g-ospel preacher, and I was diligent in the enormous parish that was entrusted to me. I loved my work and yet all the time my spiritual life was one of deep unhappiness. I was bound in the chains of misapprehension and prejudice. One thing that I thought was that a Christian must go on sinning every day. I really thought that this was a must. As a result of that, I had no definite expectation that God would keep me from it. I am sorry to say that that was my belief, and then along with that I had no conception that obedience was a possible thing. I look back with shame when, in later years, I began to see the place that obedience ought to take in a Christian life. I remember how little I understood that — that Christianity is to give up your self to entire obedience to God. I never saw it. And then, along with that, I had no real faith in the keeping, sanctifjdng power of God’s Holy Spirit or of Jesus Christ. Yet I was most earnest, studying the matter of sanctification, praying about it, but I got very little light. But it was a time on which God looked with mercy, for it was a time of great desire and often of crying to God, and God hears cries. Let me say, for the help of anyone who is in that state of desire, that there was a little story that helped me wonderfully, at that time. There is a book in English, ’ ‘Parables from Nature, “by Mrs Gatty. One of these parables is this: She represents a number of crickets meeting and talking together. You know there are different sorts of crickets, the field cricket and the grass cricket and the tree cricket and so on. The crickets were comparing notes and one said, “O, I had to seek a long time till I found a house, but afterwards I got into the bark of an old tree where there was a hole, and I felt that was just exactly my place and, oh, I am so happy there.” That was the tree cricket. And another said, “Well, you know I once came to you, and I couldn’t get comfortable there. But afterwards I found my right place. I climbed up on the high grass and I clung there and I wave backwards and forwards as the wind swings the grass, and oh, I feel so happy there. That is just my place.” That was the grass cricket. And another cricket begat to tell where it stayed and found itself happy.

and at last there was one cricket said, “Alas, I have tried all these places, but I can’t g-et comfortable. There is something- in me always cold and there is no place for me.” Then a wise old mother cricket, that was present, said, “My child, don’t say that. You are speaking* against your Creator. Depend upon it, if God created you, He has g“ot a place waiting for you, and you will find it out.” So they parted. Sometime after they met ag“ain and were again telling- their experiences; then this cricket began to tell its story and to say, “Yes, I have found my place at last. You know since that time men have come to this island, and as soon as they had built a house I crept in; they had made a fire and I found that is just the place for me, and I got into a corner of the hearth and I am so comfortable and happy there. I am sure that is my place.” That was the hearth cricket. And then the application that the book made was this: That when God has created a need, He will fulfil it. Oh, if there are any hungry and thirsty souls, walking- in darkness and strug-g-ling along-, and saying they cannot understand it, or trying to understand it, and complaining that they can’t reach it, I say to them, lift up your hearts to God in trust. The God that created your heart for Himself, and the God that made you His child in Christ; He will provide for your holiness if you will trust Him more. Look away from all teaching. Use it as a help when you can, but look away from it to the living God. He made you and He can make you holy. Well, as I said, I suppose for fifteen years after my conversion, I went on, and then came the time when, in England, there was a g“reat stir about the higfher life, and I g“ot some of these books and they helped me wonderfully, and I then began to say, “Yes, there is a better life.” It was at that time, now thirty years ag-o, in a time of revival in my Dutch parish in Worcester, South Africa, that 1 wrote “Abide in Christ” in Dutch. It was not, perhaps, exactly the same as now, but the substance. It was at that time that my heart was feeling- after the truth and beginning to find it, beginning to get hold of something — a little of the blessed experience of better knowledge of God and of more trust in Him. And yet I have to confess with shame that, at that time, I often stumbled. One thing was, I had never been taught the absolute necessity, the supreme importance of literal, immediate, actual obedience to God. Some one said to me, about that book, “I think you have put it more from the privilege side than from the duty side.” Perhaps that is true. I had not, at that time, sufficiently seen the call to absolute obedience. So it went on, year after year. I enjoyed more of God, I enjoyed more rest, I enjoyed more peace, I got more victory, and I learned to trust God more. The path God led me in was not that of one decisive crisis, but step by step. Mind, I have great faith that God is willing to take a man in by a sudden step, by a crisis in his life, and I count it a very blessed thing, and I think the reason that God did not take me in that way was simply that I was not properly instructed. I had no Christian friends of experience around me to help, and when j’ou haven’t any- help in that way, you often fail on some little point of obedience or faith, and then 3’ou fall back ag”ain. But then God led me on, in His great mercy, I at times failing, yet at times in great peace, till later on, — it would be difficult to say, exactly how long, for there was no actual transition — I can see that when I contrast the last fifteen j-ears of my life with the first fifteen, I praise God for a very great difference. And what I praise God for is this: the rest of faith. I can see that He has taught me to rest in Him and to trust

Him and to believe, even if my faith does not always rise to its fullest height, but yet to continue in the abiding belief that my God is working in me; that my God loves me, with a wonderful love, and that as I j’ield entirely to Him He will do a perfect work in me. Oh friends, that is what we need, to-night, those who haven’t it. To come into that rest, that rest with God, which leaves everything with Him. And what God has done more for me is this: He has helped me, I trust to greater and more continued obedience. I do not say it is perfect, but by the grace of God I have learned to do His will, and to do it as a thing unto Himself, personally, and I have found the peace and blessing of it. One thingmore. It has pleased God to use my labors for the helping of His children, out in the land where Hive and elsewhere, and I cannot sufficiently praise His goodness that it has pleased Him to use me as a vessel, an earthen, empty, broken vessel, into which He has poured out His life and of His love, and of the living water to bring” to others. There is my

simple, short testimony. There was a time, a third of my Christian life, that was in great darkness; there was perhaps another third seeking God and the light and rejoicing in it and yet not getting full access; another third in which God has brought me out deeper into the enjoyment of His life and His love — praised be His holy name.

And now, with these few words, I got courage to say them because I find that Paul here gives a personal testimony. And what Paul testifies is this: He says, “I commit everything to God.” Oh, there have been times in my life when I have understood what that was and experienced it on the strength of that word. He committed himself to Christ and then he looked up and he saw Christ, able, in His mighty power, to keep him and he said, “Praise God for an Almighty Christ.” And then when he had committed himself, he trusted Christ to accept him, and he trusted Christ, also, to keep him. That is what he says here, “I know Him, in whom I have believed, and I am persuaded, I am confident, that He is able to keep, and that He does keep that which I have committed unto Him unto that day.” Dear friends, I feel it is an unutterably solemn thing to to have this last meeting this evening. I feel, very deeply, what an awfully solemn thing it is to speak to God’s people about alif e of holiness and not really help them up into it. I feel, very deeply, how little I am able to speak aright about the sin and the low state of God’s people. I feel how little I am able to show them what the unbelief and the want of righteousness and the fruitlessness of that mixed life which

SO many live. I feel what a solemn thing- it is, that t am not able to sound the trumpet as I oug-ht to and to awaken them out of sleep and to call them and to make them feel, “Man, 3’ou can’t live one day longer in this low carnal life, you must come out undividedly, for Christ.” Oh, that I could sound the trumpet. I feel, above all, how helpless I am to speak, to-night, what I thought to speak, about the Lord Jesus Christ. He is ready, in His almighty love and power, to take hold of every child of God in this house, however far back or low down he is, if he will give himself into His almighty keeping. May God Himself exalt His blessed Son in the midst of us to-night.

I want to speak about three points: What it is to commit ourselves to Christ; what it is to know Him as an almighty keeper, and what it is to be assured that He will keep us. Shall we not, before we speak further, unite in quiet prayer to God for His Holy Spirit.

(Prayer.)

You know the words of the text, “I know Him, whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” I said, three points. First, look at this entire committal of everything to Christ;, second, look at Christ as the mighty keeper, and third, look at Paul with his confident persuasion, “Christ will keep me.”

In the first place, the committal. What does that mean? People have sometimes asked. What was it that Paul committed to Christ? Some have said it was his life, in the midst of so much persecution and dang-er; others have said it was his ministry, the work that he had to do, as an apostle; others have said it was his own soul, with his spiritual life and his hope of the crown of rig-hteousness. I think it is impossible to separate these thing’s. I think Paul meant them all, for he had committed himself wholly to Christ Jesus. And now what does that word “commit” mean? In the Greek it is the very word that is used for what we call, in our commercial business, in banks, a deposit. You all know what the deposit is in a bank. I have a thousand dollars to spare and I don’t know what to do with it; if I keep it, it may g-et stolen, or I may be tempted to use it too soon, or it lies there without interest. I go to the bank and I g-ive that thousand dollars to the bank, and I say, “Now take care of it for me.” And the bank g-ives me what they call, in Eng-land — I suppose it is the same in America — a deposit receipt. And so Paul says, “I made a deposit of myself with the Lord Jesus.” And you know that that deposit of the thousand dollars, in the bank, is mine, but the bank keeps it for me, and the bank uses it for me, and they pay me so much interest. The bank asks me, when I g-o to deposit it, “For how long- will you deposit it?” Suppose I deposit it there for five years, I leave it there, and I g-et the interest reg-ularly. They keep it; it is mine, but it is in their hands. Now, that is exactly what Paul did. He said, “I cannot keep myself. I have g-ot a very precious thing”. I have g-ot a heart and a life and a wonderful soul created by God, but I cannot keep it. Sin and the world and the flesh and the devil are all tempting- me and wanting- to rob me of my powers; what shall I do? I will give it up to Christ to keep.” And he did. He g-ave himself wholly. His head, his heart, his mind, his affections, his will, his powers, his body, his rig“hteousness, that he had formerly, his property, his religion, everything, he g“ave up to Christ, and said, “Lord, do with it as seemeth good in Thy sig-ht and keep it for me.” That, dear friends, is simply and exactly what a man has got to do if he wants to enter into the higher life. The great mischief with Christians is, that they have g-iven over their souls to Jesus to keep and say, “Lord, keep my soul and let me never perish.” That is what many people pray. But they have said, “Lord, let me keep my will, let me keep my own mind, and read and think what I like; let me keep my position and let me keep my own mone3” They ask to keep a g“reat many things and they never, never, can have peace or rest. The Lord Jesus comes and says he wants all, all, all. And that is the solemn question with which I come to every Christian, to-night. Brother, have you given up everything- you have into the keeping- of Jesus? Or do you not often talk just what you like? About this and that man you say exactly what you choose, sharp or foolish things, just as you like. You haven’t g-iven up your tongue to Jesus. YoUj. thoughts! Do you not often spend your thoug-htg upon 3’ourself or upon the world, just as you like? You have never yet said to the Redeemer, “My mind, with every power, belong-s to the Holy Christ, who bought me with His blood.” I want you to come, to-nig“ht, if you have never said so, and say, “Christ shall have all.” I want to g-o deeper. I want to say, are there sins of which 3’ou never have said, “I g-ive that up to Christ?” There is the love of the world. Are you going- to say, to-night, “I am going to part with the world and to give this heart, this life of mine to love Christ, to love Christ

only, to love Christ with the love that the Holy Spirit has given me.” Dear friends, 3’ou all want the higher life, the life of faith, and the life of Christ, but remember, we must pay the price We must get rid of everything and Christ Jesus must have us all in all. May God, by His Holy Spirit, work conviction in the hearts of His children, while laskthequestion solemnly: “Christian, what are you here for, to-night?” Can you say, “I know of nothing in my life that I have not really put into the hands of Jesus and chat He has not got, and that He is not keeping for me?” Can you say that? H you cannot say it, ask what is the hindrance. There may- be more than one hindrance, but the first and chief hindrance will be this: that you are not absolutely willing to part with it. I fear we do not understand how literally and how absolutely the Holy God in Christ wants to have us for Himself. I cannot fill a vessel unless the vessel is absolutely empty and at my disposal, and God cannot fill us with Himself and the divine life unless we get utterly empty of everything, and unless we come and give ourselves entirely and unreservedly into

His hands. Now come, to-nig-ht. Arc you willing-? But remember, there can be no success if you keep back anything. You have, perhaps, heard the story of a rich lady, in England. She had a splendid box of jewelry — diamonds and rings and pearls. She was going to travel on the continent and she came to a friend and she said, “This is a very valuable box of jewelry and I am afraid of leaving” it in the house when I am away, in case it might be stolen; so I come and ask j’ou to take charg-e of it.” And the lady said, “Very g-ood.” There were thirty or forty articles in the box; she took out five of them, in the presence of her friend, to be used when traveling”. The box was locked and handed to the friend. The lady went on her travels and after a couple of months she came to her friend and she asked for her box of jewelry. And the friend said, “There it is,” but where are the things you took with pou? Her answer was: “I am sorry to say that they gfot stolen, I have lost them. “You see that all she entrusted to the friend was safe, and all that she took charg-e of, herself, was lost-This is just the way with us. All tbc!.t you try to keep in your own hands and and manage gets lost. Try and keep your own tongue — take charg-e of your tongue and keep that; you will fail and you will sin. Try and keep charge of your temper. You will fail and you will sin. All you try to keep charge of yourself you lose, but come and bring everything into the keeping of Jesus, and you can depend upon it you will never repent. Are you willing to come, to-night, and to say, “Lord Jesus,

I want to be a man utterly given up to God, so that everybody can see it. I want to be a man with nothing- for myself, walking just in the deepest humility and dependence, and letting God glorify Himself in me. I want to be a man sacrificing everything for the sake of God’s Son and God’s love. I want to be a man wholly and unreservedly given to God, that God may do His very best with me.” Is that your desire? Then I invite you to come, however feeble and however unworthy. Christ is waiting. You never can honor and glorify God in the way you are living now, but come and commit yourself to the keeping of Jesus, and will He not prove faithful? Will He not gloriously and wondrously keep you and bless you?

And now, secondly: Look at the mighty keeper. Paul said, “I am persuaded that He is able to keep.” Oh, the mighty keeping of Jesus! May God open our ever to see that. Dear friends, there was a time, when I was a young minister — I remember it very well — that when I read of the omnipotence of God that I thought, well that is not one of the principal attributes of God that I have to do with. We make a difference, in theology, between the natural attributes of God and the moral atttributes. The moral attributes are holiness, goodness, righteousness, truth and faithfulness. They have to do with character. And I thought that that is what a Christian has to do with, but the natural attributes that can be seen in creation, wisdom, omnipotence and such like, I thought of minor importance. After a time I began to find out how wrong I was, for

I began to find out in reading- the Bible that at the bottom of all faith is omnipotence, the mig-hty power of God. I read about Abraham, how God met him and said, “I am God Almighty,” and I saw that thoug-ht was the rock upon which Abraham stood. I found so often, in the history of Israel, that God came and appealed to His own mig-hty power in His promises; I came down to the New Testament and I found how Jesus said that the things that are impossible with men are possible with God, and I began to see that one of the attributes that I need most in my spiritual life is the omnipotence of God; and I need nothing- less than that to trust in. And I think I am learning every day more that that is what I need to rest in, because the whole work that is to be done in me, in keeping, sanctifying and teaching me, is all a work of God’s omnipotence. And then, dear friends, there is the Lord Jesus Christ. I used to preach upon His miracles with great pleasure, and I always spoke of His mighty power, but it was only later on that I began to see that that that almighty power must, not only be exercised when a man is pardoned and made a child of God, but that almighty power must be exercised every moment in my life. Every moment. There is not five minutes in the day that I do not need the almighty keeper to keep charge of me. And when a man sees that and he reads the miracles in the gospels, he ever says, “Praise God, that is my Lord Jesus.” Whether I see Him healing the sick, or feeding the hungry, or raising the dead, or calming the storm, I can say, “That is my Christ, in whose keeping- mj soul is.” Beloved, have you learned to understand that? I need an almig-hty keeper to keep me right. Oh friends, you talk about having- your temper kept, or your tong-ue kept, or 3’our wandering heart kept, or your patience kept; what is the reason you have failed when you have entrusted these to Jesus? One reason is this: Your unbelief. You have not gfone and said, “Now the Almighty God, here in Chicag”o, in a place of business, where I am tempted to forget God, where I am tempted to be ashamed of Him, here in Chicago the almighty power of God is with me in Christ, to keep me all the day long-.” Oh, that I could g-et souls, to-nig-ht, to trust the almightiness of God for for their daily life. You need it, my brother, my sister, for your daily life. You do not need it now and then, on g-reat occasions, but you need it for every hour of your life, the Almighty Christ to keep you right every day. Will you not come, to-night, and worship this Almighty Christ, of whom Paul tells, “I believe and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I commit unto Him!

Then comes my third thought, the faith in this almighty keeper. Yes, that is the most blessed part of it. Paul says, “I know Him whom I have believed and that is why I am persuaded that He is able to keep and that He will keep and that He does keep what I have committed to Him.” If we were to ask Paul, if we could ask Him and say, “Paul, what do you mean when you say, ‘I know Him whom I have believed,’ how do you know Him?” He would answer, “He loved me and gave Himself for me. I found that out. He came to me when I was His enemy and He conquered me and He blessed me, and He poured His Spirit and His life into me, and He revealed His love, and I learned to know Him, the Lamb of God who had purchased me with His blood, I know whom I have believed, the crucified Jesus, and I cannot doubt Him ever ag-ain.” And he would say further, for he was an old man when he wrote this epistle, he would say, “I have known Him for twenty years, and year by year and time after time, in trial and trouble and persecution and deep suffering- and sorrow, in times of apparently utter helplessness I have tried Him and I have always found Him a faithful friend and a loving-Master and a blessed Companion and an Almig-hty God to help me. I know whom I have believed.” You have your testimony meetings here on earth, often and I often love to be at a testimony meeting”, it has done my heart g-ood many a time. I call up Paul, to-night, and I say, “Paul, I want you to speak so this company of believers, to-nig-ht, and I want to envite and encourage every one of them to give up all to Christ, Paul, what do you say to that?” And Paul would say, “He is worthy of it, a thousand times over. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” And he would say, “Christians, do not stand back; come and do it.” If any Christian trembles and says, “Paul, I am so feeble andsoun. worthy and so unfaithful, Paul, what have you to say tome?” He would say, “I know in whom I have believed. He is the loving One. 1 was the chief of sinners — a transgressor and blasphemer — and He had mercy upon me that in me He mig-ht show forth the glory of His grace.” And Paul would say, “I know Him whom I have beliered. His love passeth knowledge, His power is without limit,” and He would say, “Souls, trust Christ, to-night.” Are you going to do it? Are you going to say it? I hear that man speak, “I know whom I have believed.” Remember, it was a matter of faith. Paul had times of trial and of darkness and of humiliation and of suffering, indescribable, and nothing could have held him up but trust in God. He says once he had the sentence of death in himself that he should not learn to trust in himself, but in the living God alone, in God who raised the dead, the Almighty God, and so he says of Christ, “I know in whom I have believed, and I have put my trust in Him, and I have never been put to shame and therefore I am persuaded He will keep. He is able to keep, and He will do it, unto that day.” Paul knew that there was a crown of righteousness laid up for him, with positive certainty and he said, “He will keep what I have committed unto Him, unto that great day.” And now, dear friends, now we want to come to the application. You know what we have got to do, to-night. We want to take three simple steps. The first step is this: I want to invite you to commit yourself absolutely, unreservedly to the Lord Jesus and to His almighty keeping. I want that to be a transaction here, to-night. A transaction. And, therefore, I prayed and I pray again, “Oh Christ, be Thou so present here that every soul that is willing may feel that nearness, and take courage and put itself into Thy hands.” Come, beloved, with all your feebleness, with all your sins and shortcoming’s and backsliding-s, come with all the darkness that, at

this very hour, may still be in your soul, come, beloved, with all the difficulties that are before you. You have said, “If you knew my circumstances you would not think it was so easy to live the blessed life.” I tell you I know that there are circumstances of tremendous difficulty, but — Jesus Christ is almig-hty. Oh come, will you not to-nig-ht, come and commit yourself to Him?

And then the second step: When you commit yourself, the second step is to believe, “Now the Lord Jesus does take me just for what I commit myself to Him. I committed myself to Him, formerly, for conversion and He accepted me, I commit myself to be kept; He accepts me.” “I have committed myself more than once,” some one will say, “for a new blessing” and I got a new blessing, but it didn’t last. But I want to commit myself, to-night, to an everlasting keeper to be kept every day, every hour, in the power of the Holy Spirit.” This is, indeed, a solemn thing to say, but God is willing, in one moment, to give it to an honest soul, and, therefore I give my message with great confidence and joy. Christ is willing to accept you, to-night, and to take you into His keeping. Will you not now come and trust Him and say, “Jesus, I believe that Thou art here, present and take charge of me.”

And then comes the third step. That is to say, “Now I am persuaded that He will keep me.” Before I leave the house, to-night, I look at the difficulties that I may have to meet, to-morrow and next day, and what difficulties I carry about in my own heart or temperament, and I say, “Jesus, canst Thou keep me all along- the line, througfh this week, up to the end of the year, of next year, ’96, if I live?” Can Jesus keep me day by day? Paul says He can; the whole of God’s word says He can; there are believers who can testify He can. Will you not, to-nig-ht, say, “He can, I am sure He can?” He will do it for anyone who will give himself up to Him and entrust himself to Him. Oh come, young- people, with your precious, beautiful young lives to live, of twenty or thirty or forty years before you, what a beautiful thing to begin life better than I did, better than others have done, to begin life young and fresh for eternity and say, “Every breath, every pulse, shall be for Jesus.” Come, to-night. Come, you who are farther on in the path of life, you men in the midst of business, you women in the cares of the daily life. Come, oh come, to-night. Let us all come to our God in Christ. Come and look at your life; then gaze at Christ and His keeping, and come and trust Him, to-night, to do it. Old men and old women, I call upon every Christian, and if there are unconverted people here, who have never done it, they can come with us, and they can begin, to-night, and say, “Christ, Thou wouldst have me holy; if Thou wilt make me holy, and if Thou wilt keep me day by day, to-night I will give up my soul into the hands of my Creator.” Come, to-night! You know how there have been times of war, when a town was in danger of being attacked, that people would bring- to the bank their valuables to be taken care of. It would be said, “Let all who are afraid bring- their gold and silver plate or anything- that they have and have it locked up in the bank.” People came and the doors were set open and everyone brought his treasures and got them safely locked, in case their houses, outside might be burned down or broken open. And, oh friends, I say, to-night; Christ, the great manager of the heavenly bank, of the heavenly place of refuge, the great keeper of the treasures of God, flings the door wide open. His arms are outstretched and His heart is open and He is looking out to see who will commit himself to His keeping. Who will give Him what His heart longs for? Who will come, to-night and trust all that is precious in life to his Almighty Lord? Who will come, to-night, and give up His whole life into the keeping of Jesus, in the confidence that He will keep it safe? Come, let us do it now. Let us bow our heads in prayer.