The Project Gutenberg EBook Of 'Jesus Himself', By Andrew .

not only of all evil, but of many lawful things, and even, if necessary, of lifeitself, may lead us to understand what the demand is that Jesus makes upon us.The motto of the Cape General Mission is,"God first."In one sense that is a beautiful motto, and yet I am not always satisfied with it,because it is a motto that is often misunderstood. God first may mean "I" second,something else third, and something else fourth. God is thus first in order, butstill God becomes one of a series of powers, and that is not the place God wants.The meaning of the words, "God first" is really "God all; God everything;" andthat is what Christ wants. To be willing to give up everything, to submit to Christto teach him what to say and what to do, is the first mark of the man to whomChrist will come. Are you not ready to take this step and say: "Jesus! I do giveup everything; I have given up everything; reveal Thyself."Oh, brother! oh, sister! do not hesitate. Speak it out in your heart, and let thisbe the time in which a new sacrifice shall be laid at the feet of the blessed Lambof God.There is a second thought. There is first the idea of having forsaken all tofollow Him; of having given up everything in obedience to Him, and living justa life of simple love and obedience. But there is a second thing needed in theman who is to have this full revelation of Christ. He must beConvicted of his unbelief."Oh! fools, and slow of heart to believe what the prophets have said." Oh!brother, sister, if we could have a sight of the amount of unbelief in the hearts ofGod's children, barring the door and closing the heart against Christ, how weshould stand astonished and ashamed! When there is not unbelief but wherethere is faith, Christ cannot help coming in. He cannot help coming where thereis a living faith, a full faith. The heart is opened, the heart is prepared; and asnaturally as water runs into a hollow place, so naturally Christ must come into aheart that is full of faith. What is the hindrance with some earnest souls, whosay: "I have given myself up to the Lord Jesus. I have done it often, and by Hisgrace I am doing it every day, and God knows how earnestly and really I amdoing it, and I have the sanction of God upon it, I know God has blessed me"?

They have not been convicted of their unbelief. "Oh! fools, and slow of heart tobelieve." Do you know what Christ said about a man calling his brother a fool?Yet here the loving Son of God could find no other word to speak to His beloveddisciples: "Oh! fools, and slow of heart to believe." You want the Lord Jesus togive you this full revelation of Himself? Are you willing to acknowledge thatyou are a fool for never having believed in Him? "Lord Jesus, it is my own fault.There Thou art, longing to have possession of me. There Thou hast been withThy faithful promises waiting to reveal Thyself."Did you ever hear of a man loving another and not longing to reveal himself?Christ longs to reveal Himself, but He cannot on account of our unbelief. MayGod convict us of our unbelief that we may get utterly ashamed and brokendown, and cry, "Oh, my God, what is this, this heart of unbelief actuallythrowing a barrier across the door that Christ cannot step in, blinding my eyesthat I cannot see Jesus, though he is so near? Here He has been for ten or twentyyears, from time to time giving me the burning heart, enjoying the experience ofa little of His love and grace, and yet I have not had the revelation of Him,taking possession of my heart and dwelling with me in unbroken continuity."Oh! may God convict us of unbelief. Do let us believe because all things arepossible to him that believes. That is God's word, and this blessing, receiving therevelation of Jesus, can come only to those who learn to believe and to trust him.There is another mark of those to whom this special revelation of Christ willcome, and that is,"They do not rest until they obtain it."You know the story. Their hearts were burning as they drew nigh to the placethey were going to, and Christ made as if He were going farther. He put them tothe test, and if they had allowed Him quietly to go on, if they had been contentwith the experience of the burning heart, they would have lost somethinginfinitely better. But they were not content with it. They were not content to gohome to the disciples that night and say, "Oh, what a blessed afternoon we havehad! What wonderful teaching we have had!" No! The burning heart and theblessed experience just made them say, "Lord, abide with us," and theycompelled Him to come in. They constrained Him to come in.It always reminds me of the story of Jacob, "I will not let Thee go, exceptThou bless me." That is the spirit that prepares us for the revelation of Jesus. Oh!

my dear friend, has this been the spirit in which we have looked upon thewonderful blessing that we have sometimes heard of? "Oh! my Lord Jesus,though I do not understand it, though I cannot grasp it, though my struggles availnothing, I am not going to let Thee go. If it is possible for a sinner on earth tohave Jesus every day, every hour, and every moment in resurrection powerdwelling in his heart, shining within him, filling him with love and joy,—if thatis possible, I want it."Is that your language?Oh! come then and say: "Lord Jesus, I cannot let Thee go except Thou blessme." The question is asked so often: "What is the cause of the feeble life of somany Christians?" What is really the matter? What is actually the want?How little the Church responds to Christ's call! how little the Church is whatChrist would have her to be! What is the cause of all the trouble? Variousanswers may be given, but there is one answer which includes all the otheranswers, and that is, each believer wants the personalFull revelation of a personal Christas an indwelling Lord, as a satisfying portion. When the Lord Jesus was hereupon earth, what was it that distinguished His disciples from other people? Hetook them away from their fish-nets, and from their homes, and He gatheredthem about Himself, and they knew Jesus. He was their Master, and guardedthem, and they followed Him. And what is to make a difference between Christ'sdisciples—not those who are just hoping to get to heaven, but Christ's wholehearted disciples—what is to make a difference between them and other people?It is this, to be in fellowship with Jesus—every hour of the day; and just asChrist upon earth was able to keep those people with Him for three years, day byday, soChrist is ablein heaven now to do what He could not do when He was on earth—to keep inthe closest fellowship with every believer throughout the whole world. Glory beto God! You know that text in Ephesians: "He that descended is the same alsothat ascended, that He might fill all things." Why was my Lord Jesus taken up to

heaven away from the life of earth? Because the life of earth is a life confined tolocalities, but the life in heaven is a life in which there is no limit and no boundand no locality, and Christ was taken up to heaven, that, in the power of God, ofthe omnipresent God, He might be able to fill every individual here and be withevery individual believer.That is what my heart wants to realize by faith; that is a possibility, that is apromise, that is my birthright, and I want to have it, and I want by the grace ofGod to say, "Jesus, I will not rest until Thou hast revealed Thyself fully to mysoul."There are often very blessed experiences in the Christian life in what I call thethird stage—the stage of the burning heart. Do you know what another greatmark of that stage is? Delight in God's word. How did the disciples get theirburning hearts? By that strange opening of the Scripture to them. He made it alllook different,—new,—and they saw what they had never seen before. Theycould not help feeling,How wonderful,how heavenly was that teaching. Oh! there are many Christians who find the besttime of the day is the time when they can get with their Bibles, and who lovenothing so much as to get a new thought; and as a diamond digger rejoices whenhe has found a diamond, or a gold digger when he has found a nugget, theydelight when they get from the Bible some new thought, and they feed upon it.Yet with all that interest in God's word, and with all that stirring of the heart withjoy, when they go into business or attend to their daily duties, there is stillsomething wanting.We must come away from all the manifold and multifarious blessings thatJesus can bestow from time to time, to the blessed unity of that one— that Jesusmakes Himself known, Jesus Himself is willing to make Himself known. Oh! if Iwere to ask, "Is not this just what you and I want, and what many of us havebeen longing for?" I am sure you would answer,"That is what I want."Think what the blessedness will be that comes from it. You often sing:—

"Oh! the peace my Saviour gives!Peace I never knew before,And my way has brighter grown,Since I've learnt to trust Him more."I recently had a letter from some one in the Free State saying what awonderful comfort and strength that little verse was in the midst of difficultiesand troubles. Yes; but how can that peace be kept? It was the presence of Christthat brought the peace. When the storm was threatening to swallow up thedisciples, it was the presence of Christ Himself that gave the peace.Oh! Christian, do you want peace and rest? You must have Jesus Himself. Youtalk of purity, you talk of cleansing, you talk of deliverance from sin. Praise God,here is the deliverance and the cleansing, when the living Jesus comes and givespower. Then we have this resurrection of Christ, this heavenly Christ upon thethrone, making Himself known to us. Surely that will be the secret of purity andthe secret of strength.Where does the strength of so many come from? From the joy of a personalfriendship with Jesus. Those disciples, if they had gone away with their burninghearts to the other disciples, could have told them wonderful things of a manwho had explained to them the Scriptures and the promises, but they could nothave said, "We have seen Jesus." They might have said, "Jesus is alive. We aresure of that," but that would not have satisfied the others. But they could now goand say,"We have seen Himself.He has revealed Himself to us." We are all glad to work for Christ, but there is acomplaint throughout the Church of Christ, from the ministers in the pulpit downto the feeblest worker, of lack of joy and lack of blessedness. Let us try and findout whether this is not the place where the secret will be discovered—that theLord Jesus comes and shows Himself to us as our Master and speaks to us.When we have Jesus with us, and when we go every footstep with the thoughtthat it is Jesus wants us to go, it is Jesus who sends us and is helping us, thenthere will be brightness in our testimony, and it will help other believers, andthey will begin to understand; "I see why I have failed. I took the word, I tookthe blessing, and I took, as I thought, the life, but I was without the living Jesus."And if you now ask, "How will this revelation come?" Brother, sister, that is

the secret that no man may tell, that Jesus keeps to Himself. It isIn the power of the Holy Ghost;Christ, the risen One, entered into a new life. His resurrection life is entirelydifferent from His life before His death. You know what we read: "They knewHim." He revealed Himself, and then He passed away. And was that vision ofChrist worth so much? It was lost in a moment. It was worth heaven, eternity,everything. Why? Because henceforth Christ was no longer to be known afterthe flesh. Christ was henceforth in the power of the Spirit, which fills Heaven; inthe power of the Spirit which is the power of the Godhead; in the power of theSpirit, which fills our hearts. Christ was henceforth to live in the life of Heaven.Thank God, Christ can by the power of the Holy Ghost reveal Himself to eachone of us; but oh! brother, it is a secret thing between Christ and yourself. Takethis assurance, "Their eyes were opened and they knew Him," and believe that itis written for you.You say, "I have known the other three stages; the stage of the sad heart,mourning that I knew no living Christ; I have known the stage of the slow heartto believe, when I struggled with my unbelief; and I know the stage of theburning heart, when there are great times of joy and blessedness." You say that?Oh come then and know the fourth stage ofThe satisfied heart,of the heart made glad for eternity, of the heart that cannot keep its joy in, butgoes away back to Jerusalem, and says, "It is true. Jesus has revealed Himself. Iknow it, I feel it." Oh! brother, oh! sister, how will this revelation come? Jesuswill tell you. Just come to the Lord Jesus and breathe up before Him a simplechild-like prayer, and I, His servant, will come and take you by the hand and say:"Come, now, my work is done. I have pointed to the Lamb of God, to the risenOne. My work is done."Let us enter into the Holy Presence and begin, if you have never yet sought itbefore, begin to plead: "Oh! Saviour, that I might have this blessedness everymoment present with me—Jesus Himself, my portion forever."

"Jesus Himself.""Lo, I am with you alway."IIWHEN I think of all the struggles and difficulties and failures of whichmany complain, and know that many are trying to make a new effort to begin aholy life, their hearts fearing all the time that they would fail again, owing to somany difficulties and temptations and the natural weakness of their character, myheart longs to be able to tell them in words so simple that a little child couldunderstand,What the secret is of the Christian life.And then the thought comes to me, Can I venture to hope that it will be givento me to take that glorious, heavenly, divine Lord Jesus and to show Him tothese souls, so that they can see Him in His glory? And can it be given to me toopen their eyes to see that there is a Divine, Almighty Christ, who does actuallycome into the heart and who faithfully promises, "I will come and dwell withyou, and I will never leave you?" No; my words cannot do that. But then Ithought, my Lord Jesus can use me as a simple servant to take such feeble onesby the hand and encourage and help them; to say, Oh, come, come, come, intothe presence of Jesus and wait on Him, and He will reveal Himself to thee. I prayGod that He may use His precious Word. It is simplyThe presence of the Lord Jesus.That is the secret of the Christian's strength and joy. You know that when He wasupon earth, He was present in bodily form with his disciples. They walked abouttogether all day, and at night they went into the same house, and sometimes slepttogether and ate and drank together. They were continually together. It was the

presence of Jesus that was the training school of His disciples. They were boundto Him by that wonderful intercourse of love during three long years, and in thatintercourse they learned to know Christ, and Christ instructed and correctedthem, and prepared them for what they were afterward to receive. And nowwhen He is going away, He says to them: "Lo, behold, I am with you always—all the days—even unto the end of the world."What a promise! And just as really as Christ was with Peter in the boat, just asChrist sat with John at the table, as really can I have Christ with me. And morereally, for they had their Christ in the body and He was to them a man, anindividual separate from them, but I may have glorified Christ in the power ofthe throne of God, the omnipotent Christ, the omnipresent Christ.What a promise! You ask me, How can that be? And my answer is, BecauseChrist is God, and because Christ after having been made man, went up into thethrone and the Life of God. And now that blessed Christ Jesus, with His loving,pierced heart; that blessed Jesus Christ, who lived upon earth; that same Christglorified into the glory of God, can be in me andCan be with me all the days.You say, Is it really possible for a man in business, for a woman in the midst of alarge and difficult household, for a poor man full of care; is it possible? Can Ialways be thinking of Jesus? Thank God, you need not always be thinking ofHim. You may be the manager of a bank, and your whole attention may berequired to carry out the business that you have to do. But thank God, while Ihave to think of my business, Jesus will think of me, and He will come in andwill take charge of me. That little child, three months old, as it sleeps in itsmother's arms, lies helplessly there; it hardly knows its mother, it does not thinkof her, but the mother thinks of the child. And this is the blessed mystery of love,that Jesus the God-man waits to come in to me in the greatness of His love; andas He gets possession of my heart, He embraces me in those divine arms andtells me, "My child, I the Faithful One, I the Mighty One will abide with thee,will watch over thee and keep thee all the days." He tells me He will come intomy heart, so that I can be a happy Christian, a holy Christian, and a usefulChristian. You say, Oh! if I could only believe that, if I could think that it ispossible to have Christ always, every hour, every moment with me,Taking and keeping charge of me!

My brother, my sister, it is just literally this that is my message to you. WhenJesus said to His disciples, "Lo, I am with you always," He meant it in thefullness of the divine Omnipresence, in the fullness of the divine love, and helongs to-night to reveal Himself to you and to me as we have never seen Himbefore.And now just think a moment what a blessed life that must be—the presenceof Jesus always abiding. Is not that the secret of peace and happiness? If I couldjust attain (that is what each heart says) to that blessed state in which every dayand all the day I felt Jesus to be watching and ever keeping me, oh, what peace Iwould have in the thought, "I have no care if He cares for me, and I have no fearif He provides for me." Your heart says that this is too good to be true, and that itis too glorious to be for you. Still you acknowledge it must be most blessed.Fearful one, erring one, anxious one, I bring you God's promise, it is for me andfor you. Jesus will do it; as God, He is able, and Jesus is willing and longing asthe Crucified One to keep you in perfect peace. This is a wonderful fact, and it isthe secret of joy unspeakable.And this is alsoThe secret of Holiness.Instead of indwelling sin, an indwelling Christ conquering it; instead ofindwelling sin, the indwelling life and light and love of the blessed Son of God.He is the secret of holiness. "Christ is made unto us sanctification." Rememberthat it is Christ Himself who is made unto us sanctification. Christ coming intome, taking charge of my whole being; my nature and my thoughts and myaffections and my will; ruling all things. It is this that will make me holy. We talkabout holiness, but do you know what holiness is? You have as much holiness asyou have of Christ, for it is written, "Both he that sanctifieth and they who aresanctified are all of one;" and Christ sanctifies by bringing God's life into me.We read in Judges, "The Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon." But you knowthat there is in the New Testament an equally wonderful text, where we read,"Put on the Lord Jesus Christ," that is, clothe yourself with Christ Jesus. Andwhat does that mean? It does not only mean, by imputation of righteousnessoutside of me, but to clothe myself with the living character of the living Christ,with the living love of the living Christ.

Put on the Lord Jesus.Oh! what a work. I cannot do it unless I believe and understand that He whom Ihave to put on is as a garment covering my whole being. I have to put on a livingChrist who has said, "Lo, I am with you all the days." Just draw the folds closerround you, of that robe of light with which Christ would array you. Just comeand acknowledge that Christ is with you, on you, in you. Oh, put Him on! Andwhen you look at one characteristic of His after another; and you hear God'sword, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Jesus Christ," and it tells youHe was obedient unto the death; and

The Project Gutenberg EBook of 'Jesus Himself', by Andrew Murray This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: 'Jesus Himself' Author .