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16 - Jesus Able to Keep - The Spiritual Life - Andrew Murray · Philosophy and Faith

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  Speaker 1: Jesus able to keep. In the second Epistle to Timothy,
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  Speaker 1: the first chapter and the twelfth verse, you have these
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  Speaker 1: words I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded
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  Speaker 1: that He is able to keep that which I have
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  Speaker 1: committed unto him against that day. I chose that text
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  Speaker 1: under the impression that for many this would be our
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  Speaker 1: last gathering, as all cannot come to morrow morning. And
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  Speaker 1: I thought that if in any heart a desire had
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  Speaker 1: been stirred during our meetings to enter the blessed life,
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  Speaker 1: that this word might help them to night, for it
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  Speaker 1: will lead us up to a simple act of committal
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  Speaker 1: and consecration. But this morning I got a request from
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  Speaker 1: some twelve or fifteen brethren in the ministry or in
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  Speaker 1: the work of God, asking me to give a testimony
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  Speaker 1: as to my own personal experience in the Christian life.
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  Speaker 1: And before I speak of these words, I want, in
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  Speaker 1: a few short sentences to tell you how God God
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  Speaker 1: has led me. What God has done to me is
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  Speaker 1: not mine but his own. And if it can help you,
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  Speaker 1: I cannot withhold it. And yet I am somewhat reluctant
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  Speaker 1: to speak of my experience for this reason. When a
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  Speaker 1: man has got a clear, distinct experience to tell, and
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  Speaker 1: a very definite story about something God has done for him,
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  Speaker 1: a clear passing out of one state of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: life into another. It is often very helpful and very stirring.
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  Speaker 1: But that is not my story. I was away in
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  Speaker 1: South Africa, almost alone, and I had to fight and
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  Speaker 1: stumble my way along, and owing to that, I had
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  Speaker 1: no such clear path as I could have wished for.
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  Speaker 1: But let me tell you. If I speak of my life,
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  Speaker 1: my Christian life, the first fifteen years, perhaps I call
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  Speaker 1: a time of darkness and of struggling after the light.
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  Speaker 1: I could divide my Christian life into three periods. That
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  Speaker 1: time of darkness, the time of the vision of the light,
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  Speaker 1: and then the time of the richer experience. I was
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  Speaker 1: as a young minister, most earnest. I was counted a
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  Speaker 1: most faithful gospel preacher, and I was diligent in the
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  Speaker 1: enormous parish that was entrusted to me. I loved my work,
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  Speaker 1: and yet all the time my spiritual life was one
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  Speaker 1: of deep unhappiness. I was bound in the chains of
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  Speaker 1: misapprehension and prejudice. One thing that I thought was that
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  Speaker 1: a Christian must go on sinning every day. I really
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  Speaker 1: thought that this was a must. As a result of that,
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  Speaker 1: I had no definite expectation that God would keep me
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  Speaker 1: from it. I am sorry to say that that was
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  Speaker 1: my belief. And then along with that I had no
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  Speaker 1: conception that obedience was a possible thing. I look back
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  Speaker 1: with shame when in later years I began to see
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  Speaker 1: the place that obedience ought to take in a Christian
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  Speaker 1: life life. I remember how little I understood that that
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  Speaker 1: Christianity is to give up yourself to entire obedience to God.
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  Speaker 1: I never saw it. And then along with that I
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  Speaker 1: had no real faith in the keeping sanctifying power of
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  Speaker 1: God's Holy Spirit or of Jesus Christ. Yet I was
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  Speaker 1: most earnest studying the matter of sanctification, praying about it,
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  Speaker 1: but I got very little light. But it was a
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  Speaker 1: time on which God looked with mercy, for it was
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  Speaker 1: a time of great desire, and often of crying to God,
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  Speaker 1: and God hears cries. Let me say, for the help
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  Speaker 1: of any one who is in that state of desire,
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  Speaker 1: that there was a little story that helps me wonderfully
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  Speaker 1: at that time. There is a book in English, Parables
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  Speaker 1: from Nature by Missus Gatty One of these parables is this.
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  Speaker 1: She represents a number of crickets meeting and talking together.
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  Speaker 1: You know, there are different sorts of crickets, the field cricket,
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  Speaker 1: and the grass cricket, and the tree cricket, and so on.
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  Speaker 1: The crickets were comparing notes, and one said, oh, I
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  Speaker 1: had to seek a long time till I found a house.
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  Speaker 1: But afterwards I got into the bark of an old
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  Speaker 1: tree where there was a hole, and I felt that
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  Speaker 1: was just exactly my place, and oh, I am so
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  Speaker 1: happy there. That was the tree cricket. And another said, well,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I once came to you and I couldn't
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  Speaker 1: get comfortable there. But afterwards I found my right place.
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  Speaker 1: I climbed up on the high grass and I clung
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  Speaker 1: there and I waved backwards and forwards as the wind
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  Speaker 1: swings the grass, and oh, I feel so happy there.
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  Speaker 1: That is just my place. That was the grass cricket.
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  Speaker 1: And another cricket began to tell where it stayed and
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  Speaker 1: found itself happy. And at last there was one cricket said, alas,
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  Speaker 1: I have tried all all these places, but I can't
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  Speaker 1: get comfortable. There is something in me always cold, and
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  Speaker 1: there is no place for me. Then a wise old
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  Speaker 1: mother cricket that was present, said, my child, don't say
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  Speaker 1: that you are speaking against your creator. Depend upon it.
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  Speaker 1: If God created you, he has got a place waiting
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  Speaker 1: for you, and you will find it out. So they parted.
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  Speaker 1: Some time after they met again and were again telling
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  Speaker 1: their experiences. Then this cricket began to tell its story
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  Speaker 1: and to say, yes, I have found my place at last.
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  Speaker 1: You know, since that time men have come to this island.
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  Speaker 1: And as soon as they had built a house, I
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  Speaker 1: crept in. They had made a fire, and I found
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  Speaker 1: that is just the place for me. And I got
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  Speaker 1: into a corner of the hearth, and I am so
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  Speaker 1: comfortable and happy there. I am sure that this is
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  Speaker 1: my place. That was the hearth cricket. And then the
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  Speaker 1: application that the book made was this that when God
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  Speaker 1: has created a need, he will fulfill it. Oh, if
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  Speaker 1: there are any hungry and thirsty souls walking in darkness
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  Speaker 1: and struggling along and saying they cannot understand it, or
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  Speaker 1: trying to understand it and complaining that they can't reach it,
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  Speaker 1: I say to them, lift up your hearts to God
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  Speaker 1: in trust, the God that created your heart for himself,
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  Speaker 1: and the God that made you his child in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: He will provide for your holiness if you will trust
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  Speaker 1: him more. Look away from all teaching. Use it as
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  Speaker 1: a help when you can, but look away from it
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  Speaker 1: to the living God. He made you, and he can
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  Speaker 1: make you holy well. As I said, I suppose for
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  Speaker 1: fifteen years after my conversion, I went on. And then
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  Speaker 1: the time came when in England there was a great
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  Speaker 1: stir about the higher life, and I got some of
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  Speaker 1: these books, and they helped me wonderfully, and I then
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  Speaker 1: began to say, yes, there is a better life. It
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  Speaker 1: was at that time, now thirty years ago, in a
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  Speaker 1: time of revival in my Dutch parish in Worcester, South Africa,
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  Speaker 1: that I wrote Abide in Christ in Dutch. It was not,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps exactly the same as now, but the substance It
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  Speaker 1: was at that time that my heart was feeling after
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  Speaker 1: the truth and beginning to find it, beginning to get
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  Speaker 1: hold of something a little of the blessed experience of
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  Speaker 1: better knowledge of God and of more trust in Him.
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  Speaker 1: And yet I have to confess with shame that at
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  Speaker 1: that time I often stumbled. One thing was I had
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  Speaker 1: never been taught the absolute necessity the supreme importance of literal, immediate,
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  Speaker 1: actual obedience to God. Some one said to me about
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  Speaker 1: that book, I think you have put it more from
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  Speaker 1: the privilege side than from the duty side. Perhaps that
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  Speaker 1: is true. I had not at that time sufficiently seen
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  Speaker 1: the call to absolute obedience. So it went on. Year
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  Speaker 1: after year. I enjoyed more of God, I enjoyed more rest,
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  Speaker 1: I enjoyed more peace, I got more victory, and I
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  Speaker 1: learned to trust God more. The path God led me
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  Speaker 1: in was not that of one decisive crisis, but step
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  Speaker 1: by step. Mind I have a great faith that God
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  Speaker 1: is willing to take a man in by a sudden step,
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  Speaker 1: by a crisis in his life, and I count it
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  Speaker 1: a very blessed thing. And I think the reason that
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  Speaker 1: God did not take me in that way was simply
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  Speaker 1: that I was not properly instructed. I had no Christian
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  Speaker 1: friends of experience around me to help. And when you
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  Speaker 1: haven't any help in that way, you often fail on
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  Speaker 1: some little point of obedience or faith, and then you
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  Speaker 1: fall back again. But then God led me on in
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  Speaker 1: his great mercy, I at times failing, yet at times
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  Speaker 1: in great peace, Till later on it would be difficult
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  Speaker 1: to say exactly how long, for there was no actual transition.
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  Speaker 1: I can see that when I contrast the last fifteen
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  Speaker 1: years of my life with the first fifteen, I praise
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  Speaker 1: God for a very great difference. And what I praise
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  Speaker 1: God for is this the rest of faith. I can
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  Speaker 1: see that He has taught me to rest in Him
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  Speaker 1: and to trust Him, and to believe, even if my
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  Speaker 1: faith does not always rise to its fullest height, but
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  Speaker 1: yet to continue in the abiding belief that my God
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  Speaker 1: is working in me, that my God loves me with
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful love, and that as I yield entirely to Him,
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  Speaker 1: he will do a perfect work in me. O. Friends,
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  Speaker 1: that is what we need to night those who haven't
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  Speaker 1: it to come into that rest, that rest with God,
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  Speaker 1: which leaves everything with Him. And what God has done
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  Speaker 1: more for me is this He has helped me. I
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  Speaker 1: trust to greater and more continued obedience. I do not
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  Speaker 1: say it is perfect, but by the grace of God
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  Speaker 1: I have learned to do His will and to do
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  Speaker 1: it as a thing unto himself personally, and I have
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  Speaker 1: found the peace and blessing of it. One thing more,
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  Speaker 1: it has pleased God to use my labors for the
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  Speaker 1: helping of his children out in the land where I
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  Speaker 1: live and elsewhere. And I cannot sufficiently praise his goodness
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  Speaker 1: that it has pleased him to use me as a vessel,
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  Speaker 1: an earthen, empty, broken vessel into which He has poured
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  Speaker 1: out his life and of his love and of the
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  Speaker 1: living water to bring to others. There is my simple,
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  Speaker 1: short testimony. There was a time a third of my
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  Speaker 1: Christian life that was in great darkness. There was perhaps
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  Speaker 1: another third, seeking God and the light and rejoicing in it,
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  Speaker 1: and yet not getting full access, another third in which
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  Speaker 1: God has brought me out deeper into the enjoyment of
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  Speaker 1: his life and his love. Praised be his Holy name.
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  Speaker 1: And now with these few words, I got courage to
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  Speaker 1: say them because I find that Paul here gives a
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  Speaker 1: personal testimony. And what Paul testifies is this. He says,
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  Speaker 1: I commit everything to God. Oh, there have been times
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  Speaker 1: in my life when I have understood what that was
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  Speaker 1: and experienced it. On the strength of that word, he
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  Speaker 1: committed himself to Christ. And then he looked up and
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  Speaker 1: he saw Christ able in his mighty power to keep him,
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  Speaker 1: and he said, praise God for an almighty Christ. And
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  Speaker 1: then when he had committed himself. He trusted Christ to
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  Speaker 1: accept him, and he trusted Christ also to keep him.
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  Speaker 1: That is what he says here. I know him in
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  Speaker 1: whom I have believed, and I am persuaded. I am
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  Speaker 1: confident that he is able to keep, and that he
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  Speaker 1: does keep that which I have committed unto him unto
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  Speaker 1: that day, Dear friends, I feel it is an nutterably
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  Speaker 1: solemn thing to have this last meeting, this evening. I
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  Speaker 1: feel very deeply what an awfully solemn thing it is
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  Speaker 1: to speak to God's people about a life of holiness
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  Speaker 1: and not really help them up into it. I feel
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  Speaker 1: very deeply how little I am able to speak aright
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  Speaker 1: about the sin and the low state of God's people.
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  Speaker 1: I feel how little I am able to show them
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  Speaker 1: what the unbelief and the want of righteousness and the
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  Speaker 1: fruitlessness of that mixed life which so many live. I
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  Speaker 1: feel what a solemn thing it is that I am
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  Speaker 1: not able to sound the trumpet as I ought to,
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  Speaker 1: and to awaken them out of sleep, and to call
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  Speaker 1: them and to make them feel. Man, you can't live
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  Speaker 1: one day longer in this low carnal life. You must
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  Speaker 1: come out undividedly for Christ. Oh that I could sound
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  Speaker 1: the trumpet. I feel above all how helpless I am
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  Speaker 1: to speak to night what I thought to speak about.
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  Speaker 1: The Lord Jesus Christ. He is ready, in his almighty
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  Speaker 1: love and power to take hold of every child of
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  Speaker 1: God in this house, however far back or low down
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  Speaker 1: he is. If he will give himself into his almighty keeping,
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  Speaker 1: may God himself exalt his blessed son in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of us to night. I want to speak about three points,
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  Speaker 1: what it is to commit ourselves to Christ, what it
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  Speaker 1: is to know him as an almighty keeper, and what
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  Speaker 1: it is to be assured that He will keep us.
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  Speaker 1: Shall we not, before we speak further, unite in quiet
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  Speaker 1: prayer to God for his Holy Spirit. You know the
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  Speaker 1: words of the text. I know him whom I have believed,
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  Speaker 1: and I am persuaded that he is able to keep
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  Speaker 1: that which I have committed unto him. Against that day
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  Speaker 1: I said three points. First, look at this entire committal
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  Speaker 1: of everything to Christ. Second and look at Christ as
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  Speaker 1: the mighty keeper. And third, look at Paul with his
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  Speaker 1: confident persuasion. Christ will keep me in the first place,
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  Speaker 1: the committal. What does that mean? People have sometimes asked
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  Speaker 1: what was it that Paul committed to Christ. Some have
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  Speaker 1: said it was his life in the midst of so
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  Speaker 1: much persecution and danger. Others have said it was his ministry,
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  Speaker 1: the work that he had to do as an apostle.
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  Speaker 1: Others have said it was his own soul, with his
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  Speaker 1: spiritual life and his hope of the crown of righteousness.
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  Speaker 1: I think it is impossible to separate these things. I
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  Speaker 1: think Paul meant them all, for he had committed himself
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  Speaker 1: wholy to Christ Jesus. And now what does that word
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  Speaker 1: commit mean in the Greek. It is the very word
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  Speaker 1: that is used for what we call in our commercial
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  Speaker 1: business in banks, a deposit. You all know what the
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  Speaker 1: deposit is in a bank. I have a thousand dollars
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  Speaker 1: to spare, and I don't know what to do with it.
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  Speaker 1: If I keep it, it may get stolen, or I
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  Speaker 1: may be tempted to use it too soon, or it
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  Speaker 1: lies there without interest. I go to the bank and
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  Speaker 1: I give that thousand dollars to the bank, and I say,
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  Speaker 1: now take care of it for me, and the bank
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  Speaker 1: gives me what they call in England. I suppose it
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  Speaker 1: is the same in America a deposit receipt and so
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  Speaker 1: Paul says, I have made a deposit of myself with
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  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus. And you know that that deposit of
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  Speaker 1: the thousand dollars in the bank is mine. But the
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  Speaker 1: bank keeps it for me, and the bank uses it
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  Speaker 1: for me, and they pay me so much interest. The
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  Speaker 1: bank asks me when I go to deposit it, for
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  Speaker 1: how long will you deposit it? Suppose I deposit it
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  Speaker 1: there for five years. I leave it there and I
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  Speaker 1: get the interest regularly. They keep it. It is mine,
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  Speaker 1: but it is in there hands. Now. That is exactly
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  Speaker 1: what Paul did. He said, I cannot keep myself. I
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  Speaker 1: have got a very precious thing. I have got a
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  Speaker 1: heart and a life, and a wonderful soul created by God.
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  Speaker 1: But I cannot keep it. Sin and the world, and
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  Speaker 1: the flesh and the devil are all tempting me and
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  Speaker 1: wanting to rob me of my powers. What shall I do?
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  Speaker 1: I will give it up to Christ to keep. And
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  Speaker 1: he did. He gave himself wholly, his head, his heart,
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  Speaker 1: his mind, his affections, his will, his powers, his body,
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  Speaker 1: his righteousness that he had formerly his property, his religion.
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  Speaker 1: Everything he gave up to Christ and said, Lord, do
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  Speaker 1: with it as seemeth good in thy sight, and keep
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  Speaker 1: it for me. That, dear friends, is simply and exactly
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  Speaker 1: what a man has got to do if he wants
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  Speaker 1: to enter into the higher life. The great mischief with
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  Speaker 1: Christians is that they have given over their souls to
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  Speaker 1: Jesus to keep, and say, Lord, keep my soul, and
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  Speaker 1: let me never perish. That is what many people pray.
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  Speaker 1: But they have said, Lord, let me keep my will,
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  Speaker 1: let me keep my own mind and read and think
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  Speaker 1: what I like, Let me keep my position, and let
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  Speaker 1: me keep my own money. They ask to keep a
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  Speaker 1: great many things, and they never never can have peace
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  Speaker 1: or rest. The Lord Jesus comes and says he wants all,
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  Speaker 1: all all, And that is the solemn question with which
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  Speaker 1: I come to every Christian to night. Brother, have you
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  Speaker 1: given up everything you have into the keeping of Jesus?
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  Speaker 1: Or do you not often talk just what you like
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  Speaker 1: about this and that man? You say exactly what you choose,
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  Speaker 1: sharp or foolish things, just as you like. You haven't
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  Speaker 1: given up your tongue to Jesus your thoughts. Do you
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  Speaker 1: not often spend your thoughts upon yourself or upon the world,
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  Speaker 1: just as you like? You have never yet said to
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  Speaker 1: the redeemer. My mind with every power belongs to the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Christ, who bought me with his blood. I want
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  Speaker 1: you to come to night, if you have never said so,
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  Speaker 1: and say Christ shall have all. I want to go deeper.
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  Speaker 1: I want to say, are their sins of which you
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  Speaker 1: never have said? I give that up to Christ? There
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  Speaker 1: is love of the world. Are you going to say
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  Speaker 1: to night? I am going to part with the world
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  Speaker 1: and to give this heart, this life of mine, to
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  Speaker 1: love Christ, to love Christ only, to love Christ with
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  Speaker 1: the love that the Holy Spirit has given me. Dear friends,
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  Speaker 1: you all want the higher life, the life of faith
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  Speaker 1: and the life of Christ. But remember we must pay
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  Speaker 1: the price. We must get rid of everything, and Christ
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  Speaker 1: Jesus must have us all in all, all, may God,
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  Speaker 1: by his Holy Spirit, work conviction in the hearts of
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  Speaker 1: his children. While I ask the question solemnly, Christian, what
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  Speaker 1: are you here for? To night? Can you say I
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  Speaker 1: know of nothing in my life that I have not
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  Speaker 1: really put into the hands of Jesus and that he
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  Speaker 1: has not got and that He is not keeping for me?
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  Speaker 1: Can you say that? If you cannot say it, ask
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  Speaker 1: what is the hindrance? There may be more than one hindrance.
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  Speaker 1: But the first and chief hindrance will be this that
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  Speaker 1: you are not absolutely willing to part with it. I
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  Speaker 1: fear we do not understand how literally and how absolutely
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  Speaker 1: the Holy God in Christ wants to have us for himself.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot fill a vessel unless the vessel is absolutely
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  Speaker 1: empty and at my disposal. And God cannot fill us
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  Speaker 1: with himself and the divine life unless we get utterly
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  Speaker 1: empty of everything, and unless we come and give ourselves
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  Speaker 1: in time, highly and unreservedly into his hands. Now come
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  Speaker 1: to night. Are you willing? But remember there can be
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: no success if you keep back anything you have heard,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: perhaps the story of a rich lady in England. She
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: had a splendid box of jewelry, diamonds and rings and pearls.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: She was going to travel on the continent, and she
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: came to a friend and she said, this is a
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: very valuable box of jewelry, and I'm afraid of leaving
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: it in the house when I am away in case
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: it might be stolen. So I come and ask you
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: to take charge of it. And the lady said, very good.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: There were thirty or forty articles in the box. She
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: took out five of them in the presence of her friend,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: to be used when traveling. The box was locked and
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: handed to the friend. The lady went on her travels,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and after a couple of months she came to her
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: friend and she asked for her box of jewelry, and
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: the friend said, there it is, But where are the
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: things you took with you. Her answer was, I'm sorry
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: to say that they got stolen. I've lost them. You
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: see that all she entrusted to the friend was safe,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and all that she took charge of herself was lost.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: This is just the way with us. All that you
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: try to keep in your own hands and manage gets lost.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Try and keep your own tongue. Take charge of your
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: tongue and keep that. You will fail and you will sin.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Try and keep charge of your temper, you will fail
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: and you will sin. All you try to keep charge
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: of yourself you lose. But come and bring everything into
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the keeping of Jesus, and you can depend upon it.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: You will never repent. Are you willing to come to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: night and to say, Lord Jesus. I want to be
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: a man utterly given up to God, so that everybody
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: can see it. I want to be a man with
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: nothing for myself walking just in the deepest humility and dependence,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and letting God glorify himself in me. I want to
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: be a man sacrificing everything for the sake of God's
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: son and God's love. I want to be a man
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: wholly and unreservedly given to God, that God may do
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: his very best with me. Is that your desire, then
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: I invite you to come. However feeble and however unworthy,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Christ is waiting. You never can honor and glorify God
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: in the way you are living now. But come and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: commit yourself to the keeping of Jesus. And will He
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: not prove faithful? Will He not gloriously and wondrously keep
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: you and bless you? And now secondly, look at the
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: mighty keeper, Paul said, I am persuaded that he is
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: able to keep, Oh, the mighty keeping of Jesus. May
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: God open our eyes to see that. Dear friends, there
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: was a time when I was a young minister. I
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: remember it very well that when I read of the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: omnipotence of God that I thought, well, that is not
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: one of the principal attributes of God that I have
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: to do with. We make a difference in theology between
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the natural attributes of God and the moral attributes. The
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: moral attributes are holiness, goodness, righteousness, truth, and faithfulness. They
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: have to do with character, and I thought that that
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: is what a Christian has to do with. But the
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: natural attributes that can be seen in creation, wisdom, omnipotence,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and such like, I thought of minor importance. After a time,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I began to find out how wrong I was, For
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I began to find out in reading the Bible, that
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of all faith is omnipotence, the mighty
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: power of God. I read about Abraham, how God met
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: him and said, I am God Almighty, and I saw
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: that thought was the rock upon which Abraham stood. I
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: found so often in the history of Israel that God
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: came and appealed to his own mighty power in his promises.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I came down to the New Testament and I found
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: how Jesus said that the things that are impossible with
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: men are possible with God. And I began to see
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: that one of the attributes that I need most in
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: my spiritual life is the omnipotence of God. And I
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: need nothing less than that to trust in. And I
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: think I am learning every day more that that is
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: what I need to rest in, because the whole work
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: that is to be done in me, in keeping, sanctifying
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: and teaching me, is all a work of God's omnipotence.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: And then, dear friends, there is the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: I used to preach upon his miracles with great pleasure,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: and I always spoke of his mighty power. But it
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: was only later on that I began to see that
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: that almighty power must not only be exercised when a
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: man is pardoned and made a child of God, but
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: that almighty power must be exercised every moment in my life,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: every moment. There is not five minutes in the day
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: that I do not need the almighty Keeper to keep
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: charge of me. And when a man sees that, and
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: he reads the miracles in the Gospels, he ever says,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Praise God, that is my Lord Jesus. Whether I see
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: him healing the sick, or feeding the hungry, or raising
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: the dead, or calming the storm, I can say, that
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: is my Christ, in whose keeping my soul is beloved.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Have you learned to understand that I need an almighty
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: keeper to keep me right? O? Friends? You talk about
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: having your temper kept, or your tongue kept, or your
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: wondering heart kept, or your patience kept. What is the
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: reason you have failed when you have entrusted these to Jesus?
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: One reason is this your unbelief. You have not gone
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and said now the Almighty God, here in Chicago, in
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: a place of business, where I am tempted to forget God,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: where I am tempted to be ashamed of Him, Here
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: in Chicago, the almighty power of God is with me
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: in Christ, to keep me all the day long. Oh
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: that I could get souls to night to trust the
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: almightiness of God for their daily life. You need it,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: my brother, my sister, for your daily life. You do
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: not need it now and then on great occasions, but
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: you need it for every hour of your life, the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Almighty Christ to keep you right every day. Will you
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: not come to night and worship this Almighty Christ, of
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: whom Paul tells, I believe and am persuaded that he
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: is able to keep what I commit unto him. Then
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: comes my third thought, the faith in this Almighty Keeper. Yes,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: that is the most blessed part of it. Paul says,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: I know him whom I have believed and that is
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: why I am persuaded that he is able to keep,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: and that he will keep, and that he does keep
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: what I have committed to him. If we were to
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: ask Paul, if we could ask him and say, Paul,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: what do you mean when you say I know him
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: whom I have believed? How do you know him? He
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: would answer, he loved me and gave himself for me.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: I found that out. He came to me when I
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: was his enemy, and he conquered me, and he blessed me,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: and he poured his spirit and his life into me,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and he revealed his love. And I learned to know him,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the Lamb of God, who had purchased me with his blood.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I know whom I have believed, the crucified Jesus, and
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: I cannot doubt him ever again. And he would say further,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: For he was an old man when he wrote this epistle,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: he would say, I have known him for twenty years,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: and year by year, and time after time, in trial
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: and trouble and persecution, and deep suffering and sorrow, in
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: times of apparently utter helplessness, I have tried him, and
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: I have always found him a faithful friend and a
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: loving master, and a blessed companion and an almighty God
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to help me. I know whom I have believed. You
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: have your testimony meetings here on earth often, and I
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: often love to be at a testimony meeting. It has
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: done my heart good many a time. I call up
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Paul to night and I say, Paul, I want you
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: to speak to this company of believers to night, and
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: I want to invite and encourage every one of them
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: to give up all to Christ. Paul, what do you
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: say to that? And Paul would say he is worthy
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: of it a thousand times over worthy, is the lamb
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: that was slain. And he would say, Christians, do not
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: stand back, come and do it. If any Christian trembles
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and say, Paul, I am so feeble and so unworthy
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and so unfaithful, Paul, what have you to say to me?
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: He would say, I know in whom I have believed
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: He is the loving one. I was the chief of sinners,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: a transgressor and blasphema. And he had mercy upon me
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: that in me he might show forth the glory of
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: his grace. And Paul would say, I know him whom
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: I have believed. His love passeth knowledge, his power is
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: without limit, and he would say, souls, trust Christ to night.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Are you going to do it? Are you going to
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: say it? I hear that man speak, I know whom
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I have believed. Remember it was a matter of faith.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Paul had times of trial and of darkness, and of
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: humiliation and of suffering indescribable, and nothing could have held
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: him up. But trust in God. He says, once he
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: had the sentence of death in himself, that he should
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: not learn to trust in himself but in the Living
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: God alone, in God who raised the dead, the Almighty God.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: And so he says of Christ, I know in whom
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: I have believed, and I have put my trust in him,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: and I have never been put to shame. And therefore
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: I am persuaded. He will keep, He is able to keep,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: and he will do it. Unto that day, Paul knew
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: that there was a crown of righteousness laid up for
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: him with positive certainty, and he said, he will keep
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: what I have committed unto him unto that great day.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: And now, dear friends, now we want to come to
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: the application. You know what we have got to do
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: to night. We want to take three simple steps. The
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: first step is this, I want to invite you to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: commit yourself absolutely, unreservedly to the Lord Jesus and to
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: his almighty keeping. I want that to be a transaction
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: here to night, a transaction. And therefore I prayed, and
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I pray again, O Christ, be thou so present here
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: that every soul that is willing may feel that nearness
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: and take courage and put itself into thy hands. Come, beloved,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: with all your feebleness, with all your sins and shortcomings
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: and backslidings. Come with all the darkness that at this
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: very hour may still be in your soul. Come Beloved,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: with all the difficulties that are before you. You have said,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: if you knew my circumstances, you would not think it
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: was so easy to live the blessed life. I tell you,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I know that there are circumstances of tremendous difficulty. But
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ is almighty. Oh come, will you not to night,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Come and commit yourself to him. And then the second
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: step when you commit yourself, the second step is to believe.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Now the Lord Jesus does take me just for what
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: I commit myself to him. I committed myself to him
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: formerly for conversion, and he accepted me. I commit myself
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: to be kept. He accepts me. I have committed myself
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: more than once. Some one will say for a new blessing,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: and I got a new blessing, but it didn't last.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: But I want to commit myself to night to an
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: everlasting keeper, to be kept every day, every hour in
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the power of the Holy Spirit. This is indeed a
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: solemn thing to say. But God is willing in one
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: moment to give it to an honest soul. And therefore
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: I give my message with great confidence and joy. Christ
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: is willing to accept you to night and to take
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: you into His keeping. Will you not now come and
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: trust him and say, Jesus, I believe that Thou art
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: here present and take charge of me. And then comes
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: the third step, that is to say, now I am
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: persuaded that he will keep me. Before I leave the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: house to night, I look at the difficulties I may
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: have to meet to morrow and the next day, and
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: what difficulties I carry about in my own heart or temperament,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: And I say, Jesus, canst Thou keep me all along
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: the line through this week up to the end of
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: the year of next year ninety six? If I live,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: can Jesus keep me day by day. Paul says he can.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: The whole of God's word says he can. There are
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: believers who can testify he can. Will you not to
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: night say he can? I am sure he can. He
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: will do it for any one who will give himself
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: up to him and intrust himself to him. Oh, come,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: young people, with your precious, beautiful young lives to live
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: of twenty or thirty or forty years before you. What
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: a beautiful thing to begin life better than I did,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: better than others have done. To begin life young and
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: fresh for eternity, and say every breath, every pulse shall
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: be for Jesus Us. Come to night. Come you who
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: are farther on in the path of life, You men
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: in the midst of business, you women in the cares
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: of the daily life. Come o, come to night. Let
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: us all come to our God in Christ. Come and
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: look at your life, then gaze at Christ and his keeping,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: and come and trust him to night to do it.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Old men and old women. I call upon every Christian.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: And if there are unconverted people here who have never
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: done it, they can come with us, and they can
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: begin to night and say, Christ, thou wouldst have me holy.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: If thou lt make me holy, and if thou wilt
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: keep me day by day to night, I will give
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: up my soul into the hands of my Creator. Come
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: to night. You know how there have been times of
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: war when a town was in danger of being attacked,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: that people would bring to the bank their valuables to
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: be taken care of. It would be said, let all
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: who are afraid bring their gold and silver, plate, or
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: anything that they have, and have it locked up in
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: the bank. People came, and the doors were set open,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: and every one brought his treasures and got them safely
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: locked in case their houses outside might be burnt down
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: or broken open. And O, friends, I say to night, Christ,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the great manager of the heavenly Bank, of the heavenly
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: place of Refuge, the great keeper of the treasures of God,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: flings the door wide open. His arms are outstretched, and
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: his heart is open, and he is looking out to
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: see who will commit himself to his keeping, Who will
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: give him what his heart longs for, Who will come
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: to night and trust all that is precious in life
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: to his almighty Lord, Who will come to night and
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: give up his whole life into the keeping of Jesus.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: In the confidence that he will keep it safe. Come,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: let us do it now. Let us bow our heads
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: in prayer.