And He brought us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He sware unto our Fathers." --Deut. 6:23.
I have spoken of the crisis that comes in the life of the man who sees that his
Christian experience is low and carnal, and who desires to enter into the full
life of God. Some Christians do not understand that there should be such a
crisis. They think that they ought, from the day of their conversion, to
continue to grow and progress. I have no objections to that, if they have grown
as they ought. If their life has been so strong under the power of the Holy
Ghost that they have grown as true believers should grow, I certainly have no
objection to this. But I want to deal with those Christians whose life since
conversion has been very much a failure, and who feel it to be such because of
their not being filled with the Spirit, as is their blessed privilege. I want
to say for their encouragement, that by taking one step, they can get out into
the life of rest, and victory, and fellowship with God to which the promises of
God invite them.
Look at the elder son in the
parable. How long would it have taken him to get out of that state of blindness
and bondage into the full condition of sonship? By believing in his father's
love, he might have gotten out that very hour. If he had been powerfully
convicted of his guilt in his unbelief, and had confessed like his prodigal
brother, "I have sinned," he would have come that very moment into the favor of
the son's happiness in his father's home. He would not have been detained by
having a great deal to learn, and a great deal to do; but in one moment, his
whole relation would have been changed.
Remember, too, what we saw in Peter's case. In
one moment, the look of Jesus broke him down and there came to him the terribly
bitter reflection of his sin, owing to his selfish, fleshly confidence, a
contrition and reflection which laid the foundation for his new and better life
with Jesus. God's word brings out the idea of the Christian's entrance into the
new and better life by the history of the people of Israel's entrance into the
land of Canaan.
In our text, we have these words:--"God brought
us out from thence (Egypt), that He might bring us in" into Canaan. There are
two steps: one was bringing them out; and the other was bringing them in. So in
the life of the believer, there are ordinarily two steps quite separate from
each other;--the bringing him out of sin and the world; and the bringing him
into a state of complete rest afterward. It was the intention of God that
Israel should enter the land of Canaan from Kadesh-Barnea, immediately after He
had made His covenant with them at Sinai. But they were not ready to enter at
once, on account of their sin and unbelief, and disobedience. They had to
wander after that for forty years in the wilderness. Now, look how God led the
people. In Egypt, there was a great crisis, where they had first to pass
through the Red Sea, which is a figure of conversion; and when they went into
Canaan, there was, as it were, a second conversion in passing through the
Jordan. At our conversion, we get into liberty, out of the bondage of Egypt;
but, when we fail to use our liberty through unbelief and disobedience, we
wander in the wilderness for a longer or shorter period before we enter into
the Canaan of victory, and rest, and abundance. Thus God does for His Israel
two things:--He brings them out of Egypt; and He lead them into Canaan.
My message, then, is to ask this question of the
believer:--Since you know you are converted and God has brought you out of
Egypt, have you yet come into the land of Canaan? If not, are you willing that
he should bring you into the fuller liberty and rest provided for His people?
He brought Israel out of Egypt by a mighty hand, and the same mighty hand
brought us out of our land of bondage; with the same mighty hand, He brought
his ancient people into rest, and by that hand, too, He can bring us into our
true rest. The same God who pardoned and regenerated us--is waiting to perfect
His love in us, if we but trust Him. Are there many hearts saying:--"I believe
that God brought me out of bondage twenty, or thirty, or forty years ago; but
alas! I cannot say that I have been brought into the happy land of rest and
victory?"
How glorious was the rest of Canaan after all the
wanderings in the wilderness! And so is it with the Christian who reaches the
better promised Canaan of rest, when he comes to leave all his charge with the
Lord Jesus--his responsibilities, anxieties, and worry; his only work being to
hand the keeping of his soul into the hand of Jesus every day and hour. and the
Lord can keep, and give the victory over every enemy. Jesus has undertaken not
only to cleans our sin, and bring us to heaven, but also to keep us in our
daily life.
I ask again:--Are you hungering to get free from
sin and its power?--Anyone longing to get complete victory over his temper, his
pride, and all his evil inclinations?--Hearts longing for the time when no
clouds will come between them and their God?--Longing to walk in the full
sunshine of God's loving favour? The very God who brought you from the Egypt of
darkness is ready and able to bring you also into the Canaan of rest.
And now comes the question again:--What is the
way by which God will bring me to this rest? What is needed on my part if God
is really to bring me into the happy land? I give the answer first of all by
asking another question:--Are you willing to forsake your wanderings in the
wilderness? If you say "We do not want to leave our wanderings, where we have
had so many wonderful indications of God's presence with us; so many remarkable
proofs of the Divine care and goodness, like that of the ancient people of God,
who had the pillar to guide them, and the manna given them every day for forty
years; Moses and Aaron to lead and advise them. The wilderness is to us, on
account of these things, a kind of sacred place; and we are loath to leave it."
If the children of Israel had said anything of this kind to Joshua, he would
have said to them (and we all would have said):--"Oh, you fools: It is the very
God who gave you the pillar of cloud and the other blessings in the wilderness,
who tells you how to come into the land flowing with milk and honey." And so I
can speak to you in the same way; I bring you the message that He who has
brought you thus far on your journey, and given you such blessings thus far, is
the God who will bring you into the Canaan of complete victory and rest.
The first question, then, that I would ask you
is,
ARE YOU READY TO LEAVE THE WILDERNESS?
You know the mark of Israel's life in the
wilderness--the cause of all their troubles there--was unbelief. They did not
believe that God could take them into the promised land. And then followed many
sins and failures--lusting, idolatry, murmuring, etc. That has, perhaps, been
your life, beloved; you do not believe that God will fulfill His word. You do
not believe in the possibility of unbroken fellowship with Him, and unlimited
partnership. On account of that, you become disobedient, and did not live like
a child doing God's will, because you did not believe that God could give you
the victory over sin. Are you willing now to leave that wilderness life?
Sometimes you are, perhaps, enjoying fellowship with God, and sometimes you are
separated from Him; sometimes you have nearness to Him, and at other times
great distance from Him; sometimes you have a willingness to walk closely with
Him, but sometimes there is even unwillingness. Are you now going to give up
your whole life to Him? Are you going to approach Him and say, "My God, I do
not want to do anything that will be displeasing to Thee; I want Thee to keep
me from all worldliness, from all self-pleasure; I want Thee, O God, to help me
to live like Peter after Pentecost, filled with the Holy Ghost, and not like
carnal Peter."
Beloved, are you willing to say this? Are you
willing to give up your sins, to walk with God continually, to submit yourself
wholly to the will of God, and have no will of your own apart from His will?
Are you going to live a perfect life? I hop you are, for I believe in such a
life;--not perhaps in the sense in which you understand "perfection"--entire
freedom from wrong-doing and all inclination to it, for while we live in the
flesh the flesh will lust against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh;
but the perfection spoken of in the Old Testament as practiced by some of God's
saints, who are said to have "served the Lord with a perfect heart." What is
this perfection? A state in which your hearts will be set on perfect integrity
without any reserve, and your will wholly subservient to God's will. Are you
willing for such a perfection, with your whole heart turned away from the world
and given to God alone? Are you going to say, "No, I do not expect that I will
ever give up my self-will."? It is the devil tempting you to think it will be
too hard for you. Oh! I would plead with God's children just to look at the
will of God, so full of blessing, of holiness, of love; will you not give up
your guilty will for that blessed will of God? A man can do it in one moment
when he comes to see that God can change his will for him. Then he may say
farewell to his old will, as Peter did when he went out and wept bitterly, and
when the Holy Spirit filled his soul on the day of Pentecost. Joshua "wholly
followed the Lord his God." He failed, indeed, before the enemy at Ai, because
he trusted too much to human agency, and not sufficiently to God; and he failed
in the same manner when he made a covenant with the Gibeonites; but still, his
spirit and power differed very widely from that of the people whose unbelief
drove them before their enemies and kept them in the wilderness. Let us be
willing wholly to serve the Lord our God, and "make no provision for the flesh
to fulfill the lusts thereof." Let us believe in the love and power of God to
keep us day by day, and put "no confidence in the flesh."
Then comes the second step:--"I must believe that
such a life in the land of Canaan is a possible life." Yes, many a one will
say, "Ah! what would I give to get out of the wilderness life! But I cannot
believe that it is possible to live in this constant communion with God. You
don't know my difficulties--my business cares and perplexities; I have all
sorts of people to associate with; have gone out in the morning braced up by
communion with God in prayer, but the pressure of business before night has
driven out of my heart all that warmth of love that I had, and the world has
gotten in and made the heart as cold as before." But we must remember again
what it was that kept Israel out of Canaan. When Caleb and Joshua said, "We are
able to overcome the enemy," the ten spies, and the six hundred thousand
answered, "We cannot do it; they are too strong for us." Take care, dear
reader, that we do not repeat their sin, and provoke God as these unbelievers
did. He says, it is possible to bring us into the land of rest and peace; and I
believe it because He has said so, and because He will do it if I trust Him.
Your temper may be terrible; your pride may have bound you a hundred times;
your temptations may "compass you about like bees," but there is victory for
you if you will but trust the promises of God.
Looking again at Peter. He had failed again and
again, and went from bad to worse until he came to denying Christ with oaths.
But what a change came over him! Just study the first epistle of Peter, and you
will see that the very life of Christ had entered into him. He shows the spirit
of true humility, so different from his former self-confidence; and glorying in
God's will instead of in his own. He had made a full surrender to Christ, and
was trusting entirely in Him. Come therefore to-day and say to God, "Thou didst
so change selfish, proud Peter, and Thou canst change me likewise." Yes, God is
able to bring you into Canaan, the land of rest. You know the first half of the
8th of Romans. Have you noticed the expressions that are to be found
there--"The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death". To walk after the spirit; To be after the spirit; To
be in the Spirit; To have the Spirit dwelling in us. Through the Spirit to
mortify the deeds of the body; To be led by the Spirit; To be spiritually
minded. These are all blessings which come when we bind ourselves wholly to
live in the Spirit. If we live after the Spirit we have the very nature of the
Spirit in us. If we live in the Spirit, we shall be led by Him every day and
every moment. What if you were to open your heart to-day to be filled with the
Holy Spirit? Would He not be able to keep you every moment in the sweet rest of
God? and would not His mighty arm give you a complete victory over sin and
temptation of every kind, and make you able to live in perpetual fellowship
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ? Most certainly! This, then, is
the second step; this is the blessed life God has provided for us. First, God
brought us out of Egypt; secondly, He brings us into Canaan. Then comes--
Thirdly, the question,
HOW DOES GOD BRING US IN?
By leading us in a very definite act, viz., that
of committing ourselves wholly to Him;--entrusting ourselves to Him, that He
may bring us into the land of rest, and keep us in.
You remember that the Jordan at the time of
harvest overflowed its banks. The hundreds of thousands of Israel were on the
side of the river from Canaan. They were told that tomorrow, God would do
wonderful things for them. The trumpet would sound, and the priests would take
up the ark--the symbol of God's presence--and pass over before the people. But
there lay the swollen river still. If there still unbelieving children among
the the people, they would say, "What fools, to attempt to cross now! This is
not the time to attempt fording the river, for it is now twenty feet deep." But
the believing people gathered together behind the priests with the ark. They
obeyed the command of Joshua to advance; but they knew not what God was going
to do? The priests walked right into the water, and the hearts of some began to
tremble. They would perhaps ask, "Where is the rod of Moses?" But, as the
priests walked straight on and stepped into the water, the waters rose up on
the upper side in to a high wall, and flowed away on the other side, and a
clear passage was made for the whole camp. Now, it was God that did this for
the people; and it was because Joshua and the people believed and obeyed God.
The same God will do it to-day, if we believe and trust Him.
Am I addressing a soul who is saying:--I remember
how God first brought me out of the land of bondage. I was in complete darkness
of soul and was deeply troubled. I did not at first believe that God could take
me out, and that I could become a child of God. But, at last, God took me and
brought me to trust in Jesus, and He led me out safely." Friend, you have the
same God now who brought you out of bondage with a high hand; and can lead you
into the place of rest. Look to Him and say, "O God, make an end of my
wilderness life--my sinful and unbelieving life,--a life of grieving Thee. Oh,
bring me to-day into the land of victory and rest and blessing!" Is this the
prayer of your hearts, dear friends? Are you going to give up yourselves to Him
to do this for you? Can you trust Him that He is able and willing to do it for
you. He can take you through the swollen river this very moment;--yes, this
very moment.
And He can do more: After Israel had crossed the
river, the Captain of the Lord's host had to come and encourage Joshua,
promising to take charge of the army and remain with them. You need the power
of God's Spirit to enable you to overcome sin and temptation. You need to live
in His fellowship--in His unbroken fellowship, without which you cannot stand
or conquer. If you are to venture to-day, say by faith "My God, I know that
Jesus Christ is willing to be the Captain of my salvation, and to conquer every
enemy for me, He will keep me by faith and by His Holy Spirit; and though it be
dark to me, and as if the waters would pass over my soul, and though my
condition seem hopeless, I will walk forward, for God is going to bring me in
to-day, and I am going to follow Him. My God, I follow Thee now into the
promised land."
Perhaps some have already entered in, and the
angels have seen them, while they have been reading these solemn words. Is
there anyone still hesitating because the waters of Jordan look threatening and
impassable?
Oh! come, beloved soul; come at once, and doubt
not.