Andrew Murray

XIII.

1 Corinthians 15: 24-28.–”Then cometh the end, when He shall have
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put
down all rule, and all authority and power. For He must reign till He hath
put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith, All
things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put
all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then
shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him, that God may be all in
all.”

This will be the grand conclusion of the great drama of the world’s
history, and of Christ’s redemption. There will come a day–the glory is
such we can form no Read More…

Andrew Murray

IV.

Hebrews 4: 1.–Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of
entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Hebrews 4: 11.–Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall after the same example of unbelief.

I want, in the simplest way possible, to answer the question: “How does a
man enter into that rest?” and to point out the simple steps that he takes,
all included in the one act of surrender and faith.

And the first step, I think, is this: that a man learns to say, “I believe,
heartily, there is rest in a life of faith.” Israel passed through two
stages. This is beautifully expressed in the fifth of Deuteronomy: “He
brought us out, that He might bring us in”–two parts of God’s work of
redemption–”He brought us out from Egypt, that He might bring us into
Canaan.” And that is applicable to every believer. At your conversion, God
brought you out of Egypt, and the same almighty God is longing to bring you
into the Canaan life. You know how God brought the Israelites out, but they
would not let Him bring them in and they had to wander for forty years in
the wilderness–the type, alas! of so many Christians. God brings them out
in conversion, but they will not let Him bring them in into all that He has
prepared for them. To a man who asks me, “How can I enter into the rest?” I
say, first of all, speak this word, “I do believe that there is a rest into
which Jesus, our Joshua, can bring a trusting soul.” And if you would
know what the difference is between the two lives–the life you have been
leading, and the life you now want to lead, just look at the wilderness and
Canaan. What are the points of difference? In the wilderness, wandering for
forty years, backward and forward; in Canaan, perfect rest in the land that
God gave them. That is the difference between the life of a Christian who
has, and one who has not entered into Canaan. In wandering backward and
forward; going after the world, and coming back and repenting; led astray
by temptation, and returning only to go off again;–a life of ups and
downs. In Canaan, on the other hand, a life of rest, because the soul has
learned to trust: “God keeps me every hour in His mighty power.” There is
the second difference: the life in the wilderness was a life of want; in
Canaan, a life of plenty. In the wilderness there was nothing to eat; there
was often no water. God graciously supplied their wants by the manna, and
the water from the rock. But, alas! they were not content with this, and
their life was one of want and murmurings. But in Canaan God gave them
vineyards that they had not planted, and the old corn of the land was there
waiting for them; a land flowing with milk and honey; a land that lived by
the rain of Heaven and had the very care of God Himself. Oh, Christian,
come and say to-day, “I believe there is a possibility of such a change
out of that life of spiritual death, and darkness, and sadness, and
complaining, that I have often lived, into the land of supply of every
want; where the grace of Jesus is proved sufficient every day, every hour.”
Say to-day: “I believe in the possibility that there is such a land of rest
for me.”

And then, the third difference: In the wilderness there was no victory.
When they tried, after they had sinned at Kadesh, to go up against their
enemies, they were defeated. In the land they conquered every enemy; from
Jericho onward, they went from victory to victory. And so God waits, and
Christ waits, and the Holy Spirit waits, to give victory every day; not
freedom from temptation; no, not that; but in union with Christ a power
that can say, “I can do all things through Him that strengtheneth me.” “We
are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” May God help every
heart to say that.

Then comes the second step. I want you to say not only, “I believe there is
such a life,” but, second, “I have not had it yet.” Say that. “I have never
yet got that.” Some may say, “I have sought it;” some may say, “I have
never heard about it;” some may say, “At times I thought I had found it,
but I lost it again.” Let every one be honest with God.

And now, will all who have never yet found it honestly, begin to say,
“Lord, up to this time I have never had it?” And why is it of such
consequence to speak thus? Because, dear friends, some people want to glide
into this life of rest gradually; and just quietly to steal in; and God
won’t have it. Your life in the wilderness has not only been a life of
sadness to yourself, but of sin and dishonor to God. Every deeper entrance
into salvation must always be by the way of conviction and confession;
therefore, let every Christian be willing to say: “Alas! I have not lived
that life, and I am guilty; I have dishonored God; I have been like Israel;
I have provoked Him to wrath by my unbelief and disobedience. God have
mercy upon me!” Oh, let it go up before God–the secret confession: “I
haven’t it; alas! I have not glorified God by a life in the land of rest.”

Then comes the third word I want you to speak and that is: “Thank God, that
life is for me.” Some say, “I believe there is such a life, but not
for me.” There are people who continually say: “Oh, my character is so
unstable; my will is naturally very weak; my temperament is nervous and
excitable, it is impossible for me always to live without worry, resting in
God.” Beloved brother, do not say that. You say so only for one reason: You
do not know what your God will do for you. Do begin to look away from self,
and to look up to God, Take that precious word: “He brought them out that
he might bring them in.” The God who took them through the Red Sea was the
God who took them through Jordan into Canaan. The God who converted you is
the God who is able to give you every day this blessed life. Oh, begin to
say, with the beginnings of a feeble faith, even before you claim it, begin
even intellectually to say: “It is for me; I do believe that. God does not
disinherit any of His children. What He gives is for every one. I believe
that blessed life is waiting for me. It is meant for me. God is waiting to
bestow it, and to work it in me. Glory be to His blessed name! My soul says
it is for me, too.” Oh, take that little word “me,” and looking up in the
very face of God dare to say: “This inestimable treasure–it is for me, the
weakest and the unworthiest; it is for me.” Have you said that? Say it now:
“This life is possible to me, too.”

And then comes the next step, and that is: “I can never, by any effort of
mine, grasp it; it is God must bestow it on me.” I want you to be very bold
in saying, “It is for me.” But then I want you to fall down very low and
say, “I can not seize it; I can not take it to myself.” And how can
you then get it? Praise God, if once He has brought you down in the
consciousness of utter helplessness and self-despair, then comes the time
that He can draw nigh and ask you, “Will you trust your God to work this
in you?” Dearly beloved Christians, say in your heart: “I never, by any
effort, can take hold of God, or seize this for myself; it is God must
give it.” Cherish this blessed impotence. It is He who brought us out, who
Himself must bring us in. It is your greatest happiness to be impotent.
Pray God by the Holy Spirit to reveal to you this true impotence, and that
will open the way for your faith to say, “Lord, Thou must do it, or it
will never be done.” God will do it. People wonder, when they hear so many
sermons about faith, and such earnest pleading to believe, and ask why it
is they can not believe. There is just one answer: It is self. Self is
working; is trying; is struggling, and self must fail. But when you come to
the end of self and can only cry, “Lord, help me! Lord, help me!”–then the
deliverance is nigh; believe that. It was God brought the people in. It is
God who will bring you in.

One should be willing, for the sake of this rest, to give up everything.
The grace of God is very free. It is given without money and without price.
And yet, on the other hand, Jesus said that every man who wants the pearl
of great price must sacrifice his all, must sell all that he has to buy
that pearl. It is not enough to see the beauty, the attractiveness and the
glory, and almost to taste the gladness and the joy of this wonderful life
as it has been set before you. You must become the possessor, the owner of
the field. The man who found the field with a treasure, and the man who
found the great pearl, were both glad; but they had not yet got it. They
had found it, seen it, desired it, rejoiced in it; but they had not yet got
it. Not until they went and sold all, gave up everything, and bought the
ground, and bought the pearl. Ah, friends, there is a great deal that has
to be given up: the world, its pleasures, its favor, its good opinion. You
are to stand to the world in the same relation as Jesus did. The world
rejected Him, and cast Him out, and you are to take up the position of your
Lord, to whom you belong, and to follow with the rejected Christ. You have
to give up everything. You have to give up all that is good in yourself
and to be humbled in the dust of death. And that is not all. Your past
religious life and experience and successes–you have to give all up and
become nothing, that God alone may have the glory. God has brought you out
in conversion; it was God’s own life given you: but you defiled it with
disobedience and with unbelief. Give it all up. Give up all your own
wisdom, and your own thoughts about God’s work. How hard it is for the
minister of the Gospel to give up all his wisdom, and to lay it at the feet
of Jesus, to become a fool and to say: “Lord, I know nothing as I should
know it. I have been preaching the Gospel, and how little I have seen of
the glory of the blessed land, and the blessed life!”

Why is it that the blessed Spirit can not teach us more effectually? No
reason but this: the wisdom of man prevents it; the wisdom of man prevents
the light of God from shining in. And so we could say of other things;
give up all. Some may have an individual sin to give up. There may be a
Christian man who is angry with his brother. There may be a Christian woman
who has quarreled with her neighbor. There may be friends who are not
living as they should. There may be Christians holding fast some little
doubtful thing, not willing to surrender and leave behind the whole of the
wilderness life and lust. Oh, do take this step and say: “I am ready
to give up everything to have this pearl of great price; my time, my
attention, my business, I count all subordinate to this rest of God as the
first thing in my life; I yield all to walk in perfect fellowship with
God.” You can not get that and live every day in perfect fellowship with
God, without giving up time to it. You take time for everything. How many
hours a day has a young lady spent for years and years that she may become
proficient on the piano? How many years does a young man study to fit
himself for the profession of the law or medicine? Hours, and days, and
weeks, and months, and years, gladly given up to perfect himself for his
profession. And do you expect that religion is so cheap that without giving
time you can find close fellowship with God? You can not. But, oh, my
brothers and sisters, the pearl of great price is worth everything. God is
worth everything. Christ is worth everything. Oh, come to-day, and say,
“Lord, at any cost help me; I do want to live this life.” And if you find
it difficult to say this, and if there is a struggle within the heart,
never mind; say to God, “Lord, I thought I was willing, but I see how much
unwillingness there is; come and discover what the evil is still in the
heart.” By His grace, if you will lie at His feet and trust Him you may
depend upon it deliverance will come.

Then comes the next step, and that is to say: “I do now give up myself to
the holy and everlasting God, for Him to lead me into this perfect rest.”
Ah, friends, we must learn to meet God face to face. My sin has been
against God. David felt that when he said, “Against Thee, Thee only, have
I sinned.” It is God on the judgment seat whose face you will have to meet
personally. It is God Himself, personally, who met you to pardon your sins.
Come to-day and put yourself into the hands of the living God. God is love.
God is near. God is waiting to give you His blessing. The heart of God is
yearning over you. “My child,” God says, “you think you are longing for
rest; it is I that am longing for you, because I desire to rest in your
heart as My home, as My temple.” You need your God. Yes, but your God needs
you, to find the full satisfaction of His Father heart in Christ in you.
Come to-day and say: “I do now give up myself to Christ. I have made the
choice. I deliberately say, ‘Lord God, I am the purchaser of the pearl of
great price. I give up everything for it. In the name of Jesus I accept
that life of perfect rest.’”

And then comes my last thought. When you have said that, then add: “And
now, I trust God to make it all real to me in my experience. Whether I am
to live one year, or thirty years, I have heard it to-day again: ‘God is
Jehovah, the great I AM of the everlasting future, the eternal One; and
thirty years hence is to Him just the same as now;’ and that God gives
Himself to me, not according to my power to hold Him, but according to
His almighty power of love to hold me.” Will you trust God to-day for the
future? Oh, will you look up to God in Christ Jesus once again? A thousand
times you have heard, and thought, and thanked–”God has given us His Son;”
but will you not to-day say, “How shall He not with Him give me all things,
every moment and every day of my life?” Say that in faith. “How shall God
not be willing to keep me in the light of His countenance, in the full
experience of Christ’s saving power? Did God make the sun to shine so
brightly, and is the light so willing to pour itself into every nook and
corner where it can find entrance? And will not my God, who is love, be
willing all the day to shine into this heart of mine, from morning to
night, from year’s end to year’s end?” God is love, and longs to give
Himself to us.

Oh, come, Christians, you have hitherto lived a life in your own strength.
Will you not begin to-day? Will you not choose a life in which God shall be
all, and in which you rest in Him for all? Will you not choose a life in
which you shall say: “Oh, God, I ask, I expect, I trust Thee for it. I
enter this day into the rest of God to let God keep me; to let God keep me
every hour. I enter into the rest of God.” Are you ready to say that? Be of
good courage; fear not, you can trust God. He brings into rest. Listen to
God’s word in the Prophets once again: “Take heed, and be quiet. Fear not,
neither be faint-hearted.” Joshua brought Israel into the land. God did
it through Joshua; and Joshua is Jesus, your Jesus, who washed you in His
blood; your Jesus, whom you have learned to know as a precious Saviour.
Trust Him to-day afresh: “O my Joshua, take me, bring me in and I will
trust Thee, and in Thee the Father.” You may count upon it. He will take
you and the work will be done.

James 4:4.

 4:4.  Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Enemies of God.

The core meaning of what this passage is about is that we should seek to always be friends of God. The world view of what is right, or acceptable may drift into various directions, but when in doubt, when a world opinion varies, stick to being friends with God.

The world at large doesn’t believe in following God. As a whole, laws of society or government are good. They seek out for the general wellfare of the population. Civic laws protect the rights of a citezen, keep people from infringing on the rights of others, and generally lay ground rules for safe behavior. However, every so often, a social group, on the fringe of accepted culture grows enough to be placed in the forefront. That fringe element demands that their unique lifestyle should be embraced as normal. Or at least just as good as some alternate lifestyle. Is it really just as good? Should it be considered just as honorable?

James addresses adulterers. In his day, the Christian people were being swayed to be accepting and tolerant of this behavior. They might even have been persuaded to also take part. At least to accept it and acknowledge it as a valid lifestyle. Though Christians are called to show tender mercy to those who are ungodly, we are not called to support that kind of living. To be a friend to such things makes us enemies of God.

God doesn’t make enemies. Human beings, or any being for that matter, make themselves an enemy when they turn from God and put distance between Them and him.

God created everything that we can know about. Our univers, our world, our environment, and all the living things in it. He created it ust the way he likes. He has a special love for the part of his creation that reflects him, namely, the people who choose to live according to his word that we have in the scriptures. But he loves all of his creation, even the parts that don’t reflect his image.

To use a modern buzz word, we are to be tolerant of even sinners, as far as they are God’s creation. God made them, they have the same good qualities built into them that God put in all of us. We have that common ground. When it comes to being a friend to a sinful practice, choose God.

What is sinful behavior? The world has its own measuring stick. But as any scientist, or engineer knows, any measuring stick has to be calibrated from time to time. A scale has to be zeroed out, delicate electronic measuring equipment needs to be serviced, using precise techniques to ensure it is still accurate. Even printed lines on a yard stick can’t always be trusted. The paint may have chipped, or rubbd off, or the stick may have become worn at the ends, or bent, or nicked. Though it may be close enough for most jobs, it is no longer precise and accurate.

The bible, and the standards it lists there for human behavior are the ultimate calibration tool. When dispute arises about a world view being right, check it against the word of God. When a world view wants to be socially accepted, check it against the bible.

Numbers 14:2
And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!
–NKJ

The children of Israel were a bunch of complainers. It seems they they couldn’t be content if they didn’t have anything to complain about. They complained because they were in slavery to the Egyptians, but who wouldn’t complain about that? God saw fit to rescue them anyway.

God raised up Moses, who wasn’t entirely without complaint, but at least his desire for his nation, andfor God over rode any reluctance. Now think about this, Moses came to set them free, and the children of Israel complained about that too. God gave Moses certain signs to do, so that the people would know that Moses was the genuine article, and that freedom was at hand. Their work duties were increased and they complained.

In the desert, they complained there wasn’t enough water, and God gave them water. They complained about food and God sent mannah, which is bread from heaven. The whole time they were in the wilderness, God provided and gave them what they needed.

He was about to offer them the promised land within a short time of leaving Egypt. Spies were sent in, and gave good reports about the land. The people became afraid of the inhabitants and refused to follow God and let him fight this battle as well. God’s desire will be done, but nothing says that you, or anybody in particular has to be a part of it. God will raise up someone who is willing to get his job done.

In the second part of this verse, the children of Israel complained, and wished they had died in Egypt, or in the wilderness. They would get what they wished for. God made them to wander in the wilderness until that old, sinful generation died away. It would be the upcoming generation, one who could see how God cared and provided for them. , A generation who was willing to follow God and anticipated his promise.

That model still exists for us now. god has raised someone up to rescue us, Jesus. God’s plan to save us comes to us when we are a bunch of complainers who don’t deserve it. There’s a saying that says, “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” Or another, “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” Moses took the people out of Egypt, but they carried their sinful ways with them. Jesus offers a better deal than what Moses did, but we can carry our sins with us and keep ignoring his gift.

God leaves us to wander around in our own wilderness of sins. We are normally too busy complaining to see how he has provided for our needs despite ourselves. He won’t keep contending with us forever though. He’ll just allow us to die off. On an individual note God lets us wander around and live in our sin, but we do have the power to cast off those burdens and recieve the promise that awaits.

When we come to realize, like the young generation of the Israel people, that God really does what he says he does. We don’t have any room to gripe. Trust that there is no obstacle that God can’t pick us up and carry us through. That’s when we have made our old generation to die off. God works best when you let him into your sensitive innermost part. He can transform you from the inside out. Then there won’t be anything that you can’t handle. Once you have that trust in him, you’ll find that there isn’t anything that God can’t handle.