SA 7:3-13{THE last evening we were upon the subject of consecration, which, as we saw, consists in simply receiving Christ, in 'having the hands full of Christ, and the heart full of Christ. It is not giving Him' anything, for we have nothing to give Him hence, as the apostle says, what is needed is " that Christ, may dwell in your hearts by faith." The believer is thus formed by Him for His own purpose: What comes next after this is, How is this consecration to be acquired? A person may see very plainly that what he needs is Christ, but how is he to find what he needs? The way to find it, and the way the Lord makes it known to the soul practically, is by dependence.
In Judges and Samuel this comes out very distinctly. In Judges everything has been tried in the way of restoring Israel from the state of failure and degradation into which they had fallen; the knife, the ox-goad, the nail, the-lamps in the pitchers of Gideon, and lastly; the strongest man. But all had been a failure. And now we come to a new kind of power; Samuel is born. His mother, feeling the wretchedness of Israel, cries to the Lord; she is a woman of a sorrowful spirit; and the Lord gives her her petition: Samuel is born in answer to prayer. Thus he comes Out from the first in entirely a new light: he is the answer of dependence upon God. In the chapter we have read we find him saying, " I will pray for you unto the Lord." I do not desire to interpret the passage, but merely point out that he prays, and that as the result, "the Philistines came no more into the coasts of Israel, all the 'days of Samuel." This puts prayer in a very remarkable place.
Satan at the fall introduced into man's heart the lie that he could depend on himself-that he could depend on himself more advantageously than on God. That was the real point in the fall. Into the wonderful circle of favor in that garden Satan comes, and tells the woman that eating of that fruit they should be as gods; she takes and eats, and so self-dependence comes in and renunciation of dependence on God-that 'dependence which is what faith in the soul is. The prodigal when he comes to himself does not begin to think of what he is but of what the father is. His thought was of what was in his father's house. The point of the departure was the point of restoration. All dealing with God must be of faith. Ananias hears that Saul of Tarsus is a changed man: " Behold he prayeth.”
Instead of everything around you in this world expressing the favor and interest of God, it is " a famine;" everything is gone; it is the very opposite of the garden of Eden. But, this being discovered, the light of God dawns in the soul of the prodigal. He says, " No man cares for my soul;" and then he thinks of God: " I will arise and go to my father."
Thus, as I have said, in Samuel a new light springs up. Rationalists talk of love, but love cannot precede faith. Let us see what comes out in Samuel, after the test of Israel, too, in the book of Judges. Judges ends with Samson: immense bodily strength; doing wonderful things, but dying in the long run. And now comes in simple dependence, and achieves the most wonderful victory. And in this I see the way in which the soul learns Christ.
It is in a double way, for I have to do with two scenes: the holiest of all up there, and down here on the earth; in spirit there, practically to walk here. As in Paul, you get him taken to the paradise of God, which was the consummation of the work of Christ. Adam had lost man's paradise, but the apostle, of the Gentiles was conducted into God's. But he was not to stay there; he was to come down here again, which I have alluded to before. I pass into the holiest. It is the simplest way of expressing my standing before God. It is not worship in itself; it is where worship takes place; but it does not tell me what worship is. ' There is now boldness to -enter 'into, the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way;" not and " by a new and living way" as is often said. It is " through his flesh that we have got into the presence of God, and it is an immense thing to know this.
I wish to show you that: you have no dependence upon God when you-have dependence on yourself. Man lost dependence upon -God and got in its place self-reliance, which is so greatly thought of among men. When in the presence of God, Paul could say to God, I am beside myself-outside myself-it is ecstacy. If a natural man do that he is almost a fool, but in a spiritual man it is realizing his new creation. When you are in the presence of Christ it is not your cares nor-your sins; they all vanish; go they must where He is. You have not really learned what the presence of Christ is, unless you can say, I knew that He was there, but, as to myself, there was nothing of the human thing in me ministered to, and I was perfectly happy. Spiritual ministry brings Christ to your soul, and so brings Him to you, that, whilst it rebukes you,, it gives you Christ instead of, yourself. As the Lord said to Hips disciples,` there was " no bread," but they had Him, though nothing else, and would that do? This is the grand characteristic of being in the presence of God, and I press it, for people often think -they are inspirit with Christ simply because they are, as they say; " so happy." Look at the disciples going to Emmaus their hearts burned within them; and they did not know that He was there at all.
What is needed to keep us in His presence is practical dependence. See how it comes out in 2 Cor. 12. the apostle comes down from paradise, from not knowing whether he was in the body or out of the body, and what does he find? why that Satan is here, and that he has got flesh., What does, he need then? I say, he needs to know the power of Christ down here as he knew it up there, and for that he must be as clear of his flesh down here as he was up there. People say, I was very happy in my room reading, and I came out and immediately lost my temper. The fact is you were trusting to your enjoyment of the Lord, instead of to the Lord Himself. I was in. a scene up there where I so enjoyed Him, but, having come out to act down here, I find that I have this flesh, and I get wearied and put out. I have, then, to learn now that by dependence I can be free of all this down here, for I was free of it when I was in the presence of the Lord. 'That is the lesson I learn I find the Lord Sufficient to sustain me.
If you turn- to Matt. 14 you will see there the way-in which the Lord introduces us to the wonderful place of dependence in which He would have us. The Lord is here as rejected, and two things come out as the consequence: one, that He feeds the poor of the flock in the desert; the other, that He walks on the water. Upon this, faith leaves the ship that was made for water and walks with. Jesus on the water. That is the place of dependence, that is the new ground. But are we to do that? Yes, there is no other place promised you here.
When the apostle comes down from paradise he finds he has a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him. " For this thing," he says, " I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me," but, He said, No; " my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness;" I will, make that power shown out in you. Hence Paul comes out with that extraordinary paradox, " When I am weak then am strong." I ask you whether any natural man on earth could explain that? When I am weak then am I weak, is what man would say. But the fact is when I am weak in myself, and have got nothing to depend on, then I depend on Christ. This being so I ask Peter, What then makes you sink there? Wily, it is Simon makes me sink, is his answer. Is it possible for you to be kept up in such a place? Yes it is, if I have my eye on Him. The Scripture is careful to tell us that he did walk; it was not in the majestic way that the Lord did, but he did walk, at any rate a little. Wonderful to see a, person superior to circumstances wherein he himself is the thing that would sink him, but instead of sinking; superior to them all. Just look at Stephen; he could, look up to the bright glory and was thus superior to the whole thing down here, his soul perfectly free to intercede for his murderers; a wonderful prodigy of divine power in a poor earthen vessel here; Christ's strength perfect in his weakness.
Well, I am set in His presence absorbed in the joy and delight of it. Would we knew more of it! When I come out from that presence I find that I sink; I discover my susceptibility to all things that are here. It was not that Paul was conceited about what he had had revealed to, him up there, but the thorn was given- to him. for fear he should be. It is all very well for-anyone to say, I have been enjoying such a. time with the Lord. I say, It is all very well to do so, but come down now and live it out here. Yes, but I find nothing here to support me in any way.-You do not; but that is just that you may keep your eye on Christ. It is confidence in self that is the ruin of the believer. Peter never would have gone into the high priest's house and denied his Lord if he had not had confidence in himself. Therefore it comes to a, question of rower here. While I learn up there the sweets of His presence, I learn down here His power, so the Psalmist says, " Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, who passing through the valley of Baca makes it a well," because he is down here. Go to any believer you like, and ask him, and he will tell you that he wants power.
Now, you never get a supply of power; you have it only as you keep your eye on Christ. So Peter was walking very well one moment, but the next his eye was off Christ, and he sank. " Without me ye can do nothing." Many persons quote it as if it were be nothing. It is when you come to do an act that I see where you are, because the act always declares the prominent power. If you have lost your place with Christ you sink. The act always discloses your state. Just as with Samson. He said, " I will go out, as at other times before, and shake myself." Ah, but you cannot! it is no use: " He wist not that the Lord was departed from him."
When you come to act, you find you are in a scene from which you cam get nothing, and the power for action must come from above. The Lord has gone to prepare a place for me, and says, I make you acquainted with the Owner of that place-the Father; and everything you shall " ask in my name I will do;" it is do there. But it is only as I am dependent upon Him that I lean the goodness of Christ there in His own scene, and learn, Him here power because of my need of it. It may be humbling to say so, but it is true, that the measure of the strength of any person in this room is the measure of the strait he has gone through with God. The water will' not' bear me up. Well, what sinks you? It is yourself. There, is no acquiring of Christ, but by the displacement of myself. The moment Peter saw the water boisterous " he was afraid, and, beginning to sink, he cried', saying, Lord, save me! " The Lord says, Where is your faith? He does not say anything else 'about him; the point is that he is not really dependent. So it says,, " Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God;" why? " That he may exalt you in due time."
Well, it is a great thing to get hold of the fact that, if you are to enjoy Christ, you cannot be dependent on self. I would guard you against what would only minister to what is natural and not what is spiritual. It is possible to be worked upon and buoyed up, and yet all the while only self that is acted upon.
I turn now to another Scripture, as a kind of rule for prayer which the Lord has given us. It is in Luke 18 I will just trace through the characters that we find in this chapter., First there is the widow, with an adversary from outside. Then the publican. Then the little child. And lastly, the young ruler who has kept the law, and who is very rich: he is neither publican, little child, nor helpless and oppressed.
Now what is the Lord teaching us here? Why it is as if he said: When you are resource-less you are better off than when you have resources; or, in other words, you are better off without a boat than with one. Here is a young man who has a boat; he has everything both within and without to depend on, and yet he cannot get on a bit. He turned. away very sorrowful. With all his resources he cannot go. On the other hand, what could be worse off than a widow with an adversary? Where could you find a more pitiable sight? And yet she gets her desire; she is avenged of her adversary. Then the publican; he is better off than the Pharisee who has got a boat; he goes down to his house justified rather than the other. Then the little child, whom the disciples would thrust away; the Lord says, This is the very one that I want: " Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein." In Mark it adds, " He took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them." It is the very helplessness of the objects that is their attraction in His eyes. In another place He tell us, " Their angels do. always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven." Poor, helpless little things, says God, they cannot take care of themselves, so I will. Do the angels always take charge of them? you ask. I do not know; but this I do know, while they are helpless God does, just because they have no boat. The lesson of the whole chapter is, the one on water without a boat is better off than the one who has one.
Peter exclaims, We have given up everything and followed thee. To this the Lord replies with this meaning: You have done very well, and you have gained by it. Never did any give up for Christ that he lost anything by it; on the contrary, he gains inconceivably; " manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting."
We will now look a little first at private prayer, and then at public. In Luke 11 we find an example of private prayer, in the story of the man who went to his friend at midnight. Now I hope you will not misunderstand me when I say that there is no such thing as praying without fasting. I am not upholding Ritualism when I say this; I will explain my meaning; but I repeat, there is no praying without fasting. Suppose I am praying for the Lord 'to enable me to give up some particular weakness. Then, says the Lord, you must not minister to it. If you incline to be a politician, you must not read the papers. But would not that be on the principle of making a teetotaler of me? Would it not be self-culture? No, if you only gave up the papers it would be; but if you look to Christ He will give you Himself instead of what you give up. Woe be to the man who has a passion for anything when he ministers to it, even while he prays against it! It will be a sore time for him ere he gets free of it.
Mind you, I do not believe in fasting without praying; but they must go together. It is impossible to have Christ without the renunciation of the man here. You must " avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away." You must come to that stern purpose in yourself.
If you go to a teetotaler and ask him if he has a taste for sobriety, he will say, No. But I want a man who can say, Yes; for my heart glories-in the excellency and beauty that I have got in Christ. That is a person who has not only got rid of the negative, but who has got hold of the positive.
In this man who goes to his friend at midnight we see one who has nothing himself. He says, The credit of my house is at stake; I cannot venture to go back to it and see how things are there without the bread I- ask of you. I am resourceless there, but I know where the re-, sources are. I am not laying this down as the way to pray, but as the ground-work of prayer. I lay it down because many think they can relieve their consciences by praying about a thing which they are not quite easy about doing; or they will pray about a thing, and thus try to avoid doing what they know they ought. I always dread people who say, " Let us have a little prayer about it." I always expect they want to get out of what they evidently ought to do, like Balaam. It is strange that it should be so, but it just shows how deceitful the heart is.
In Phil. 4 we get the principle of prayer. The great subject of the chapter is, joy in the Lord. In the third chapter the point is that the apostle gets rid of himself; but in the fourth chapter the question comes up, What about things outside him? Well, the answer is, " Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God which passeth all understanding stall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." As to the cares, whatever they may be down here, the true orderly way, the normal way, the way in which every soul ought to be found, is simply taking all to God with thanksgiving, remembering how He has helped you in time past, but with the distinctive point that, whilst men know your moderation you do not make a point of telling them of it, though you do not make a secret of it. The English reader might think the word in the fifth and sixth verses was the same, but it is not the same thing. I do make my requests known to God. It is not merely that I send in a message to the Queen through a Secretary of State, but I have got an audience of Her Majesty. Just so I do not know what will be the result, but this I do know, that I have poured my request into the ears of God. This knowledge gives a peculiar tone to a man. It is not as if the queen had read in the newspaper something that had happened to me, but I- have been allowed, to tell her the whole story of it myself, and I know that she has been interested in it. She did not tell me what she felt about it, but she heard it all.
And so the poorest and most simple person in this room may have the greatest favor ever conferred upon man on earth-the peace of God. It is not that He has answered you-that He has given you what you wanted-but that He has taken it in; and that because you have been occupied with Him you have got into His state. You came into His presence writhing tinder the state of things from which you were suffering, whether as the widow, or the publican, or the little child, and you have gone out possessor of His own peace, and of power to carry you through all that is against you. You have confided it all to God, and you come out from His presence in the very state of God Himself. Was there ever anything more wonderful than that a poor creature here can come out from God's presence in the state of God Himself—in peace?
Now I turn to another more special passage in 1 John 5 But first a little word upon the third chapter, as to the practical hindrances to prayer. If I do not act to others according to the grace of God, I shall not have His grace act towards me. God has love in His heart. You cannot go to Him if you have not acted in love yourself towards, your own poor brother. Your heart condemns you. But suppose you can go to God and say, I have acted out all that I have of your love, and now I come to you. Very well, says God, then come. So, " whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." And in the fifth chapter, " This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his Will, he heareth us." It is very distinct that He hears us. I can understand at times that such or such a thing is according to the will of God I ask according to that will, and the Lord says, I have heard you.
But one word I say to guard this. Though He has heard 'you, and will answer you, you must be prepared for His answering you in His own way, and that way always comes about by putting you down; what He does will never be for the exaltation of man, it will in some way make little of him. As with Jacob, he said, Now you will bless me. And God said, Yes; I can bless a cripple. And, when the sun rose, that active man of the company was lame: " He halted upon his thigh; " he was diminished among men, but blessed of God. I see it everywhere. A man must be diminished if he is to be blessed of God; he must suffer persecution or something.
As in Psa. 107, " They that go down to the sea in ships," when the stormy wind rises, "they mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble. Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble." Here we get prayer. And what is the result? There is a marvelous interposition. "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven." And so it is The Lord comes in in a wonderful way for His praying dependent people. He, loves to surprise us, and He surprises most the one who depends most on Him. He says to that one, You shall see that you have not trusted me in vain.
And now just one word as to public prayer. Private prayers are, I believe, the most humbling things: 'a, groan, a desire, a wandering thought, and a return; and public prayers should partake much of this character. They should be direct, a real utterance to God for the assembly-avoiding sermonizing and contemplations which the assembly would not use; then there would be a sense of direct prayer. I do not understand a person praying in the assembly without a direct purpose in it.
And direct prayer is not a thing that necessitates a long time. You can pray a great deal in five minutes. John prayed a very good prayer when he said, " Lord, who is it? " And as to how to pray, a beggar gives us a true example. He never takes his eyes off you; he looks at you the' whole time, thinking, not of himself, but of the effect he can produce on you; and you cannot escape giving, if you pay attention to a beggar.;, the only way is to avoid his story, unless you are hard-hearted.
Blessed be His grace who delights to give when we are ready to receive.
(J. B. S.)