Part 38
Abraham, who, though he was as one dead and his wife far
advanced in years, yet knew that God had promised him a son and,
therefore, believed that he would have a son–and looked for him
without a doubt! And then, when God bade him take Isaac and slay
him, he believed that God would even raise him up from the dead,
but, somehow or other, He would keep His promise.
Beloved, believe anything except that God can lie. Believe any
miracle, any impossibility, or that which ungodly men tell you is an
inability. Take it all in, but never let the thought come into your
mind that God can be false to you! Oh, if we only believed God as
He deserves to be believed, we should be able to move mountains
and cast them into the sea! Nothing is impossible to the man to
whom it is impossible to doubt his God. A mighty faith, though it is
not, in itself, omnipotent, yet lays hold upon the Omnipotence of
God and girds itself with Divine strength. Does not the Lord
deserve such a faith from us? Yet we shall never have it unless He
gives it to us! Oh, that the Holy Spirit would work it in us, preserve
it in us and perfect it in us till faith is lost in sight–and hope is
changed to full fruition! Never let us doubt the living God for a
single moment.
The Lord bless you, dear Friends, and especially bless any of you
who have not yet believed in His Son, Jesus Christ! Oh, that they
could see the sinfulness of doubting the great God and Jesus Christ,
His Son! Oh, that they would but trust Him and confide in Him just
as they are! They would never have to lament doing so, but,
throughout eternity they would have to bless the Lord who taught
them this sweet way of life and peace, namely, the way of simple
dependence upon the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ!
Ge 32:12 • The Master-Key, Opening the Gate of Heaven
ERMON 1938
The Master Key—Opening The Gate Of Heaven
"And You said, I will surely do you good."
Genesis 32:12
THE possession of a God, or the non-possession of a God, makes
the greatest possible difference between man and man. Esau is a
princely being, but he is "a profane person." Jacob is a weak,
fallible, frail creature, but he has a God. Have you not heard of "the
mighty God of Jacob"? There are many wise, careful, prudent men
of the world who have no God and, truly, these in the highest sense,
like the young lions, lack and suffer hunger, for their highest nature
is left to famish. Those who wait upon the Lord are often very
simple and devoid of ability and policy, but they shall not lack any
good thing–their highest nature is well supplied from heavenly
sources. This is the great difference between the two races which
people the world–I mean the sons of men who say in their hearts,
"No God," and the sons of God, the twice-born, who have received
new life and, therefore, with heart and flesh cry out for God, even
the living God!
The child of this world enquires, "Where shall I flee from His
Presence?" The child of Light cries, "O God, You are my God;
early will I seek You." There are thus two races of men who can
never blend, either in this life or in that which is to come. Deep in
their innermost nature lies a vital difference–they are of two
distinct seeds. My dear Hearers, you can divide yourselves without
difficulty by this rule–Have you a God, or have you none? If you
have no God, what have you? If you have no God, what good have
you to expect? What, indeed, can be good to you? If you have no
God, how can you face the past, the present, or the future?
But if you have God for your portion, your whole history is
covered! The God of the past has blotted out your sin; the God of
the present makes all things work for your good; the God of the
future will never leave you nor forsake you! In God you are
prepared for every emergency. O Man, if the God of Jacob is your
God, you shall be safe at night, though you may sleep as unguarded
as the Patriarch at Bethel. And you shall be secure by day, though
you may be met by Esau with his 400 men! You are safe in
banishment though Laban is churlish–and safe in the midst of foes,
though Canaanites thirst for your blood–for the Lord has said,
"Touch not My anointed and do My Prophets no harm." It matters
not where you go if the God of Israel is with you and says to you,
"Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will go down with you; and I
will also surely bring you up again." He shall guard you from all
evil–the Lord shall preserve your soul.
Because Jacob had a God, therefore he went to Him in the hour of
his trouble. He did not know how he should escape from his injured
and angry brother, Esau. In fact, he believed that Esau had come on
purpose to cut him up, root and branch, and so, after doing the best
he could, Jacob looked to his best Friend and Helper, and cried
unto his God! He who has a God will be sure to fly to Him in his
distress. There is no use in having a God if you do not use Him. I
am afraid that many professed Christians place their God afar off
and never dream of going to Him for practical succor in the hour of
danger. As well have no God, as have an unreal God who cannot be
found in the midnight of our need! But what a blessing it is to be
able to go to our God at all times and pour out our hearts before
Him–for our God will be our Helper and that right early! He is our
near and dear Friend in joy and in sorrow. Poor Jacob, in the calmer
days of his life, had failed to walk with his God as his father,
Abraham, had done. But now a storm has overtaken him and he
flies to the Lord, his God, as a mariner puts into port to escape the
tempest.
Dear Friend, are you in trouble at this time and have you a God?
Then go to Him in prayer at once and spread your case before Him.
Have you a Rabshakeh's letter in the house? Go, like Hezekiah, and
spread it before the Lord! Have you a dying child? Then cry to the
Lord as David did! Are you in the deeps with Jonah? Then let your
prayer arise from the very bottoms of the mountains! Have you any
bitterness in the vessel of your heart? Then pour it out before Him.
Make good use of your God and especially gain the fullest
advantage from Him by pleading with Him in prayer. In troublous
times, our best communion with God will be carried on by
supplication. Tell Him your case–search out His promise and then
plead it with holy boldness. This is the best, the surest, the
speediest way of relief.
What would some of us do if we had not a God to go to? Though
we are not tried and troubled as some men are–and God has set a
hedge about us–yet there are times in our life when we should die
of a broken heart if we could not tell our griefs to God! Like Job,
we could curse the day of our birth and wish that we had never
been born if we were utterly bereft of God. We would look forward
to annihilation as a hopeful thing if we could not speak with God,
our evergracious Friend. But when we can get away to Him and tell
out the whole matter–and lay hold upon Him by the hand of faith
and plead His promise–then the darkened cloud withdraws and we
come out into the light, again, and sing, "This God is our God
forever and ever! He will be our Guide even unto death."
Beloved, we see that Jacob had a God and that he made use of
Him in prayer, but the point I want to call your attention to, at this
time, is that the stress, the force, the very sinew of Jacob's prayer
consisted in his pleading the promise of God with God. When he
came to real wrestling with the Lord, he cried, "You said." That is
the way to lay hold upon the Covenant Angel–"You said." The art
of wrestling lies much in a proper use of, "You said." Jacob, with
all his mistakes, was a master of the art of prayer–we justly call
him, "wrestling Jacob." He said, "I will not let You go." He gets
grip for his hands out of this, "You said." With this he lays hold
upon his unknown antagonist–a desperate hold which he will not
relax, even though his sinew are made to shrink.
"You said" is a good grip with which to hold an honest man and
not less does it lay hold on our faithful God. This will have power
over any honest person, for he that speaks truly will not run back
from his promise. When we come to pleading terms with God,
there is nothing that so helps us as to be able to quote the promise
and plead, "You said." In handling my text, which was Jacob's
prayer, I shall notice, first, that it ought to be our memorial,
secondly, that it is God's bond and, thirdly, that, therefore, we may
make it our plea.
First, it ought to be OUR MEMORIAL. I mean, dear Friends, that
we ought to remember, much more than we do, what God has said.
If we had a silent God who, to this age had never revealed Himself
by actual speech. If it were given out at this hour that now, for the
first time, God was about to make a promise, how eagerly would
all God-fearing men desire to hear it–and how carefully would they
treasure it up! Why, every syllable would be more precious than a
pearl! The very tone of the utterance would be mystic music full of
meaning. You would charge your memory to embalm each word–
no, to preserve each syllable in all its living force and beauty.
Whatever else you forgot, you would lay up every letter of the
newly-spoken promise in the archives of your soul. Ought we not
to treat God's Word with equal reverence, though spoken ages ago,
since it is a fact that He has spoken it?
The Lord has often spoken from the foundations of the world by
His Prophets–and in these last days by His Son–and we are bound
to jealously guard every single Word which He has thus given to
us. He has preserved His own Words in the Scriptures–let us
preserve them in our hearts. No subjects in the world can be so
worthy of the consideration, the memory and the reverence of man
as those upon which his Maker has deigned to give instruction. The
choicest communications ever made to human minds are those
which have come from the great Father. I ask you, therefore,
Brothers and Sisters, if I say not rightly that God's Divine, "You
have said" should be our memorial? We should lay up His Word in
our hearts as men lay up gold and gems in their vaults–it should be
as dear to us as life itself. My heart stands in awe of God's Word,
but I am sorrowful because so many trifle with it. No good can
come of irreverence towards Scripture–we ought to cherish it in our
heart of hearts.
We ought to do this, first, with regard to what God has said. You
notice that Jacob puts it, "You said," and then he quotes the
words–"Surely I will do you good." It is an essential part of the
education of a Christian to learn the promises. I always admire that
fact in the life of General Gordon, who, whatever mistakes he
made, was a grand Believer–a very Abraham among us in these
latter days–that he always carried with him that little book called
Clark's "Precious Promises," which is an arrangement of the
various promises of the Old and New Testaments under different
heads. The General used to consult that collection of Divine
promises and seek out that holy text which best suited his particular
condition. Then he sought solitude and pleaded before the Lord that
Inspired Word, believing that it was true and that the Lord would
do as He had said. By faith he looked for an answer and acted upon
it! He went down through the Sudan alone, as you know, daring all
manner of dangers because he believed in God. The heroism of his
life grew out of his confidence in the promises. If we would be
heroes, here is the food with which to sustain a noble life!
I would have all Christian people know God's promises. If you
had in your house a number of checks which you believed to be
good, I do not suppose that you would long be unaware of their
nature and value. No merchant here would say, "I have a number of
bills, drafts and checks at home somewhere–I have no doubt that
they are all good and that they are my lawful property–but I do not
know much about them. Their value is quite unknown to me." Such
ignorance would argue insanity! Will you know your earthly wealth
and never consider your heavenly riches? In the Bible there are
"exceedingly great and precious promises"–shall it be said that
some of God's children do not know what those promises contain?
They have read them, perhaps, but they have never really searched
into their meaning to see what God has promised. Of many good
things provided for them, they are quite ignorant. And even in
reference to their personal and present trouble they are not aware of
what the Lord has promised to do for them in such a case! What a
pity it would be for a trader to be short of money and to have a
draft for a large amount, but not know where to find it! It would be
a poor way of doing business, would it not?
Is it not a shameful thing to be dealing with God in a like slovenly
fashion? Brothers and Sisters, I would that we studied God's Word
much more. We read all sorts of books, but many of them are
unprofitable. As for a great part of current literature, one might as
well open his mouth and eat the east wind, for there is nothing that
can stay his soul therein. One single sentence from God is worth all
the books of the Alexandrian library, or of the Bodleian! All that
has been consumed of human literature and all that still exists, if
put together, would not equal one book of the Bible! O my Hearer,
get to know what the Lord has said and you will be on the way to
wisdom! Within the compass of, "It is written," lies Infinite Truth!
If you are well instructed in it, it shall be well with you.
Moreover, Jacob also knew when God had spoken a promise, for
he quotes twice the fact that God had spoken to him and said so-
and-so. It is clear that he knew when the promise was spoken. I
have often found peculiar comfort, not only in a promise, but in
noticing the occasion for its being made. I have observed the
condition of the man to whom God gave the promise and I have
gathered much instruction from it. Sometimes the frame of a
picture is almost as beautiful as the painting, itself, and so the
occasion of the promise may be as instructive as the promise itself.
The conditions under which the Lord uttered it may be so similar to
our own, that they may cause the Word of the Lord to come with
special comfort to our hearts. "Surely," you say, "God, who spoke
thus to Jacob, or thus to Daniel, or thus to Paul, finding me in the
same condition, speaks, also, thus to me, for the promises are not of
private interpretation. They are not allotments hedged in for
individuals, but they are a wide and open common which is the
undisputed property of all Believers. They are not confined to those
to whom they were first spoken, but they reach also to us who are
fellow-heirs with them."
Brethren, take pains to know what God has promised and to know
when God has promised it. Note well both matter and date. These
are flowers from which the bee of meditation will suck much
sweetness.
There is another matter which is important for us to know,
namely, to whom God made the promise. Jacob knew to whom it
was spoken. He tells us in a previous verse that God had spoken a
certain promise to him. "Which said unto me, Return unto your
country, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you." A
promise that was made to another man will be of no service to me
until I can discover that I, being in the same condition as that other
man, being of like character as that other man, and exercising like
faith as that other man, stand before God in the same position as he
did and, therefore, the Word addressed to him is spoken, also, to
me! Brothers and Sisters, I entreat you continually to study God's
Word to see whether the promise is made to your character and
condition–and so is made to you as much as if your name were
written upon it!
Many and many a time has God brought a promise home to my
own heart with such freshness that I have felt that the Bible was
made on purpose for me. Yes, I have been sure that the promise
was written for me, if for no other man that ever lived! When a
man sees a garment left at his door which fits him exactly and is
evidently cut to suit certain peculiarities of his form, he concludes
that the garment was meant for him. Even so, in many a promise I
see certain private marks which are the exact counterparts of the
secrets of my soul–and these show that God meant me when thus
and thus He spoke!
Beloved, I say to you, one and all, study much the promises of
God's Word! Have them at your fingertips. Remember what things
God has said to men and when He has said them–and to what kind
of men He has said them–and discover, by this means, how far He
has said them to you! Let this, indeed, be the forefront of your
knowledge. If you cannot read the stars, yet read the promises. If
you cannot study the stone book of geology, yet know the Rock of
Ages and the declarations engraved thereon. If you remain a
stranger to the deep things of metaphysics and philosophy, yet at
least know the household privileges of the family of God. Dear
child, know what your Father has said! It will be very sad if you do
not. Happy heir of Heaven, know what it is to which you are an
heir according to the promises and the Covenant.
Thus much upon the duty of making God's Word to live in your
mind and memory.
II. Secondly, "You said, I will surely do you good"–this is GOD'S
BOND.
Nothing holds a man like his word and nothing so fully fixes the
course of action of the Lord our God as His own promise. We
speak with the deepest reverence in reference to the great God, but
it would not be reverence if we said less than this–that God has
bound Himself to be true to His Word. He can do all things, but He
cannot lie. If God had made no promise, He would have been free
to act, or not to act–but by His promise He engages Himself to act
in a certain way–and He will do so. From the necessity of His
Nature, He will be faithful.
What a mighty thing, then, is a promise, since it is a bond which
holds God Himself! How does it do so?
I answer, it holds Him, first, by His Truth. If a man says, "I will,"
it is not in his power, without a breach of truth, to refuse to make
good his word. If a promise is made by one man to another, it is
considered to be a matter of honor to fulfill it. Unless a man is
willing to tarnish his honor and disgrace his truthfulness, he will
certainly do as he has solemnly promised to do. Alas! Many
persons think lightly of truthfulness–they even dare to swear
lightly. And what do we think of such people? To utter solemn
promises and then to disown them is not the way to be esteemed
and honored. It can never be so with God. None can impeach His
veracity. None shall ever be able to do so. Has He said and shall He
not do it? Has He given His Word and will He not make it good?
Learn, then, when you are praying to God–whether you are saint
or sinner–to take the promise and say, "O my God, You have bound
Yourself to give me this blessing, for You have said that You will
do so and I know You cannot lie! I am sure that You will do even as
You have said, for You are a God of truth!" The promise is God's
gracious bond, since His truthfulness cannot be put in question.
But, next, he who enters into an engagement is bound to keep his
word or he is considered to be vacillating and changeable–the Lord
is, therefore, held by His Immutability. He is God and changes not.
We hear persons say, "I have changed my mind," but God is of one
mind and who can turn Him? Change is written upon all human
things, but listen to the Eternal–"I am the Lord, I change not;
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed." Jesus Christ is "the
same yesterday, today and forever," and all the promises are yes
and amen in Him. The great Father of Lights is "without
variableness, or shadow of turning." When the Lord made His
promise, He foresaw every possible contingency and He made His
promise with a determination to stand to it. Ages make no
difference to Him. His promise is as fresh and unfading as when
first He caused it to delight the eyes of His chosen!
This is fine pleading. You can fall upon your knees and cry,
"Lord, here is Your promise; be graciously pleased to fulfill it! I
know that You have not changed and that Your Word is not
withdrawn. You have never run back from Your Word and You
never will–therefore fulfill this Word unto Your servant, whereon
you have caused me to hope." An unchanging God is the
foundation of happiness to the Believer!
But sometimes men make a promise and they are unable to fulfill
it from lack of power. Many a time it has cost honest minds great
grief to feel that, though they are willing enough to do what they
have engaged to do, yet they have lost their ability to perform their
word. This is a grave sorrow to a sincere mind. This can never
happen to the Almighty God. He faints not, neither is weary. To
Him there is no feebleness of decline, nor failure of decay. God
All-Sufficient is still His name! His arm is not shortened so that He
cannot reach us, neither is His hand palsied that He cannot help us.
The strongest sinew in an arm of flesh will crack in course of time,
but the Lord never fails. The weakness of God is stronger than
man. The least of God is greater than the most of man. The Lord
cannot possibly withdraw from His Word though inability for,
"with God all things are possible." Therefore, go to Him in prayer
and take His promise and say, "Lord, be pleased to help Your
servant, for I know that You can deliver me and I trust in You as
God All-Sufficient!" The Lord will never allow a slur to be cast
upon His power, which is one part of His glorious name. He wills
to make His power known and it is never according to His mind to
leave that power in doubt.
Once more, the Lord's wisdom also holds Him to His promise.
Men make engagements thoughtlessly and before long they realize
that it would be ruinous to keep them. It is foolish to keep a foolish
promise. Yet, because wisdom is not in us, we make mistakes and
find ourselves in serious difficulties. It may so happen that a person
may feel compelled to say, "I promised to do that which, upon
more careful consideration, I find it would be wicked and unjust for
me to do. My promise was void from the beginning, for no man has
a right to promise to do wrong." Whatever justification an erring
man may find in his folly to excuse him from fulfilling his rash
promise, nothing of the kind can occur with God! He never speaks
without knowledge, for He sees the end from the beginning and He
is infallibly good and wise. Therefore, I say unto you, again, what a
hold we have upon God because of His Character! We can plead,
"Lord, You did not make a mistake when You promised me this
blessing! You knew all that would happen; all my sins and all my
follies were foreseen by you! You did foreknow all. Therefore be
pleased to keep Your Word unto Your servant, even as now I bring
it before You and ask You to fulfill it!"
I wish that I had power to make this matter plain so that every
Believer who is in need and is about to pray, may see the arguments
with which he may approach the Throne of the heavenly Grace.
I should not, however, complete my statement if I did not add that
to go to God through Jesus Christ is to use the best and most
powerful of pleas. All the attributes of God are in His Son and,
moreover, the Lord Jesus deserves great things at His Father's
hands. He permits us to urge His merits and use His name as our
authorization–what better leverage can we desire? Is not this an
overwhelming argument? The great God will deny nothing to
Jesus! For His sake, He will give us all things. When we bring His
Son in the arms of our faith and lay Him before the Father, we may
have whatever we need. Let us not be slow to use this august plea!
Let not our Lord Jesus have to say to us, "Up to now you have
asked nothing in My name."
III. So then, last of all, this may be, and this ought to be, OUR
PLEA in prayer, as it was Jacob's plea–even this–"You said." We
may urge the gracious promise of the Lord as pleading against our
own unworthiness. Listen to Jacob's cry, "I am not worthy of the
least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which You have showed
unto Your servant, but You said, 'I will surely do you good.'" Is not
that splendid pleading? Down in the dust he prostrates himself and
then prays right up! In this fashion let my Hearer cry–"Lord, I am
worthy of nothing but wrath and cannot hope to speed with You on
the ground of works. But, Lord, You have said, You have said,
YOU HAVE SAID!"
This must win the suit. If a man has made me a promise, he
cannot refuse to keep it on the ground that I am unworthy because
it is his own character that is at stake, not mine! However unworthy
I am, he most not prove himself to be unworthy by failing to keep
his word. "If we believe not, yet He abides faithful–He cannot deny
Himself." Everything hinges upon the Character of the Promiser.
Do you not see this? When you are burdened with a deep sense of
sin; when your heart is ready to break with an overwhelming
consciousness of guilt; still know that "God abides faithful, He
cannot deny Himself." When the surges of Divine Wrath beat upon
you without a pause, confess your sin and cease not to plead with
God. Acknowledge your wickedness and firmly lay hold on the
promise and say, "You have said." Plead such a Word as that in
Isaiah, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow:
though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Say unto
the Lord, "You have said, 'I, even I, am He that blots out your
transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your
sins."'
Entreat the Lord to do as He has said. Under a crushing sense of
your own unworthiness, still know that all this does not alter the
fact that the Lord has spoken in unchanging mercy and will surely
make it good. A God of Truth must keep His promise, however
unworthy you may be to whom that promise is made! Is not this
most effectual help to a poor soul in drawing near to God in
prayer? If you are as evil as seven devils, God will not run back
from what He has promised you! If you have waded up to your
throat in sin's foulest infamy, yet if there is a promise made to you
and you can plead it, God will stand to His Word! Whatever you
may be, God is no liar, no hypocrite, no changeling! He never
made a promise to the ear to break it to the experience. He is more
willing to keep the promise than we are to have it kept. Come, poor
Trembler, in all your sin and defilement, with this upon your
tongue–"You said and, therefore, I pray You do as You have said!
Your Word says, 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'
Lord, I confess and I pray You to forgive." O my Brothers and
Sisters, such a plea, urged by a breaking heart, must readily prevail
with the great Father who waits to be gracious!
This is also good pleading as against our present danger. See how
Jacob puts it with regard to his own peril. He says, "Deliver me, I
pray You, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I
fear him, lest he will come and smite me and the mother with the
children. And You said, I will surely do you good." In these words
he sets out his very natural fear from his brother's anger–the
mother, the children, everybody would be murdered by fierce
Esau–and to save himself from this threatened horror, Jacob lifts
the shield of the promise and as good as says to the Lord his God,
"If this calamity should happen, how can Your promise be kept?
You said, 'Surely I will do you good' but, Lord, it is not good for
Esau's sword to shed our blood! If You permit his anger to slay us,
where is Your engagement to do good unto Your servant?" This
reminds one of the plea of Moses, when he asked, "What will the
Egyptians say?" If Israel were destroyed in the wilderness, what
would Jehovah do for His great name? This is a prevalent
argument.
Brethren, what is your present trouble? One sighs out because he
knows not where to look for food and raiment. But there is a Word
of the Lord for that need–"No good thing will He withhold from
them that walk uprightly." There is another, "He has said, I will
never leave you, nor forsake you." And another, "Bread shall be
given him; his waters shall be sure." Can you not go to the living
God with these words of His upon your tongue and beg Him to be
as good as His promise? Say in so many words, "Lord, I am afraid
that if I am much longer without employment, I shall not have
shoes for my feet, nor bread for my children and I shall be brought
to a condition of utter penury–and yet You have said, 'I will never
leave you, nor forsake you'! Lord, I plead that promise!" See
whether the Lord does not deliver you.
Do you ask me, "Are you sure that God will keep His Word?" I
answer, yes. I will be bound for Him at any time and in any place.
Many children of God are in sore distress. I do not know how low
He may let them go, but I do know that they shall never go lower
than that Word–"Underneath are the everlasting arms." I cannot say
with David, "I have been young and now am old, yet have I not
seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread," for I have
seen his seed begging bread and I expect to see it again. If the seed
of the righteous misbehave themselves, they shall beg their bread
as other people have to do. But I can say, "I have been young and I
am now in middle life; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken;
no, not so much as once!" The Lord will not turn His back on His
friends, nor suffer those who trust in Him to be forsaken.
One cries, "I have been anxiously doing my best." Perhaps you
have, dear Brother! Perhaps you have, dear Sister! I am very far
from censuring you for doing your best. But sometimes, if you
would let God do His best, it would pay you much better! You see
Jacob did his best when he divided his company and prepared a
present for his brother. But it did not amount to much. It was a very
poor little best, was it not? It would have come to nothing if he had
not spread the matter before the Lord in prayer. Indeed, when the
Lord wrestled with him at Jabbok, that night's prayer, weeping and
supplication did the work! Esau was won, after all, not by Jacob's
little arrangements, but by the hand of the great Lord laid upon his
heart! Jacob's schemes and plans do not figure in the whole
narrative except as feeble measures which the Lord rendered
superfluous. The cry, "You have said," did all the work!
I beg to bear my witness, as far as my experience goes, that the
shortest way out of trouble is pleading with God. Straightforward
makes the best runner. You may go round about, and round about,
and round about, and come at nothing–but go straight to God about
the business and if He does not end it, then it is not to be ended, but
is meant to go on and work out a higher good. In any case, "Cast
your burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain you: he shall never
suffer the righteous to be moved." Try that promise–it will cover
you with armor of light.
Once more, as to future blessedness, Jacob used this argument,
"You said, I will surely do you good," as to all his future hopes, for
he went on to say, "You said, I will make your seed as the sand of
the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." Not as much as
he should, but still, in a measure, Jacob lived in the future. He lived
under the influence and expectation of the Covenant blessing. Now,
Brothers and Sisters, what hope have you and I of getting to
Heaven? None, except that the Lord has said, "I give unto My
sheep eternal life and they shall never perish." I shall never perish,
for Jesus says I never shall! He has also said, "Where I am, there
shall also My servant be." Therefore I shall be in Glory with Him
and that is enough for me! All our hope of the appearing of our
Lord Jesus Christ and the reward which He will give His saints in
the day of His manifestation–all our hopes of the crown of life that
fades not away and of the Beatific Vision–all depend on, "You have
said." We, according to His promise, look for a new Heaven and a
new earth.
Did you ever notice, in the Epistle to the Galatians, how the
Apostle Paul makes this dependence upon the promise the
distinguishing mark of the chosen seed? He declares that the child
of the bond woman was born according to the flesh, but the child of
the free woman was born according to the promise. Hagar's seed
was according to the flesh, but the true seed, even Isaac, was by
promise–and he says, "We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children
of promise." It is far better to be the child of the promise than to be
the child of creature strength, or the child of legal hope–for the
child of creature strength and legal hope will have to go packing
into the wilderness with a bottle of water and a poor slave mother
for his guardian. But the child that hugs the promise, the child that
lives upon the promise, the child that waits for everything till he
enters his inheritance, he abides always–and all his Father's goods
belong to him! Are you in the line of the promise, dear Friend? If
so, get into your chamber in your time of trouble and plead for
greater mercy than you have ever enjoyed as of yet, because God
has promised it to you–and He will do as He has said.
I have done when I have just mentioned, in as brief a way as I
can, two or three of the things which God has said and which I
want some of you to plead.
Is there one here who needs to find salvation tonight? I invite you
to go home, enter your chamber, shut the door, get down your Bible
and open on this passage, Isaiah 55:7–"Let the wicked forsake his
ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return
unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God,
for He will abundantly pardon."
Now I imagine that I see you in your little room and if you do as I
wish you to do, you will read the words carefully and thoughtfully,
and then say, "Lord, I am one of these wicked ones! This night I
desire to forsake my ways. I will have done with them. This night I
desire, unrighteous as I am, to forsake my thoughts and return unto
You. Now, You have said, 'I will have mercy upon him: I will
abundantly pardon him.' Lord, have mercy upon me and
abundantly pardon me, for You have said it!"
When you have thus prayed, expect the Lord to keep the promise.
When you look an honest man in the face and say, "You promised
it," you expect him to be as good as his promise. Even so, expect
that God in Christ Jesus will fulfill His Word. Do not doubt.
Believe God and expect the pardon and the blessing.
Next, O tried child of God, I want you to go home and open your
Bible at Psalm 1:15. Put it down on a bit of paper, will you? Read,
"Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you and you
shall glorify Me." Put your finger on that text and then kneel down
and say, "Lord, here I am calling upon You! It is a day of trouble.
Deliver me, that I may glorify You." Believe that God means His
promise and is not trifling with you. On the other hand, do not trifle
with His Word, but make business of it and wait upon the Lord to
have His promise made good! Some big-mouthed folk will promise
anything, but they perform nothing. God is not after their order–I
pray you, do not treat Him as if He were! He will hear the cry of
the humble and He will remember for them His Covenant.
Is there a poor soul here seeking salvation who cannot get at
either of these promises? Then go home and look up John
3:18–"He that believes on Him is not condemned." Go and plead
that, and say, "I believe on Jesus Christ and, therefore, I am not
condemned. Lord, give me to feel the peace which comes of Your
justifying Grace!"
If that Scripture does not suit you, there is one more upon which
I, myself, lived for months in the days of my selfdespair. It is found
in Romans 10:13–"Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved." I remember getting hold of that passage and
feeling that it was a door of hope to my soul! Let me quote it in
full. "There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the
same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him: for whoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." My heart said,
"I call upon His name. I trust in Him. I pray to Him. If I perish, I
will perish crying to Him and calling upon Him!" And on that
promise I lived until I found the Lord! I pray that some of you may
go home and plead in the same manner, "Lord, I call upon You;
therefore fulfill Your Word and let salvation come unto my house!"
Do you believe that God speaks the truth? If you do, you have
living faith within you! Can you trust God to keep His promise? If
you can, the work of Divine Grace has already begun in your soul!
You are no dead sinner any longer. You are not under
condemnation. "He that believes on Him has everlasting life." You
have a measure of that everlasting life within you at this moment
because you have a measure of faith in God! Oh, for power, now, to
turn that faith to practical use by an earnest, pleading prayer!
"Lord, do as You have said!" Such a prayer will soon bring peace
and rest to your soul.
God bless you, dear Friends! I feel much pleasure in addressing
you at this time. If I have exceeded the time, you may well excuse
it, for I am not always well enough to address you. Oh, how I have
wearied to be in my pulpit! I would ask nothing more of God than
to give me bread and water and permit me to occupy this pulpit on
every occasion when I ought to be here! But I cannot, as yet, get
that privilege at His hands, for it is not a matter of promise. If He
had said I should always be in good health, I am sure Satan,
himself, could not make me ill! Having, therefore, no specific
promise, I am satisfied to accept the general assurance that all
things work together for good to them that love God. From this
assurance I know that I shall have such good health or ill-health as
shall be good for me! What more can I desire than that the Lord's
will should be done in my mortal body, whether by weakness or by
strength?
This, however, I will do–by God's help I will preach as earnestly
as I can when I do preach–and I will speak as plainly, as pointedly
and as earnestly as possible when I am allowed to open my mouth
in His name. Oh, that God might give me every soul in this place at
this hour! And He will do it if we go to Him in humble prayer,
pleading what He has said! The Lord is able to bless the word
which we preach to an incalculable extent. There is no limit to the
good which He can work by this one sermon! Oh, my dear Hearer,
your hope does not lie in what you can say, but in what the Lord
has said! Think little of the word of man, but think everything of
the Word of God! Believe it for yourself and see if it is not
fulfilled. Cling to the promise, come what may! The promise will
hold you as surely as you hold the promise! God will be true to His
promise and true to you, for Jesus Christ's sake–be you true to
Him. Amen. PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE
SERMON–Genesis 28:10-22; and Genesis 32:1-12.HYMNS
FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–192, 981, 687.
This sermon commences the 33 rd volume of our sermons. It is a
fit moment for grateful praise for their long continuance and for
asking readers who have profited by them to spread them far and
wide. What the Lord has blessed to some, He will bless to many
more. The Preacher is recovering from severe illness and sends his
loving salutations to all his readers, desiring for them, "A Happy
New Year." He hopes to be in his pulpit, again, as soon as he has
recovered strength. Oh, that he might gain spiritual as well as
physical vigor! Will not his readers pray for this? If sought, why
should it not be received? The present sermon leads the Preacher to
beg importunately for the daily prayers of his friends.
Ge 32:28 • Power With God
ERMON 2978
Power With God
"As a prince have you power with God."
Genesis 32:28
MEN think a great deal of anyone who has power with royalty. If
it were said, concerning somebody in this place, "That individual
has very great power with the Queen," there are a great many of
you who would turn at once to look at that person. He who has
great power with an earthly prince is sure to have many flatterers
around him who will pay him homage for the sake of the advantage
which they hope to gain through his mediation. But, dear Friends,
what a far greater honor it is to have power with the King of kings!
Power with men may be an evil thing, but what blessing must come
from power with God! How it ennobles the soul of the man who
possesses it! This man, Jacob, who has power with God, is called
Israel, a prince, for so he is–but princes have no such dignity as his
unless they, too, have power with God, for he is "a prince of God."
What a comprehensive blessing it must be to have power with
God, for he who has power with God must have power with men!
Creatures must submit where the Creator, Himself, has yielded. If
you can have your way with the Master, you may depend upon it
that you can have your way with His servants. The man who has
power with God must be safe. "If God is for us, who can be against
us?" No weapon that is formed against such a man can prosper and
every tongue that rises against him in judgment, he can condemn,
for, having power with God, he shall be able to plant his foot upon
the neck of his adversaries and to reign over those who rebel
against him. Such a man as that cannot be in need. If he has power
with God, he will tell Him about his needs and they shall all be
supplied. He will confess his sins and they will be forgiven. God
will deal well with the man who has power with Him. There is such
a wide range of blessing here that I must not stop to enlarge upon
it. If you have power with God, you will see that this is a weapon
which, like the flaming sword at the gate of the Garden of Eden,
turns every way. Or I may say of it what David said of the sword of
Goliath, "There is none like that; give it to me." Human language
can never tell a thousandth part of the value of power with God!
I want you to note, first, WHAT THIS POWER CANNOT BE.
"Power with God."
You scarcely need to be told that it cannot be anything like
physical force in opposition to GodwithGod, not power against
God, that is mentioned in our text. No creature, however mighty,
can have any power to standin opposition to Omnipotence. Who
are we that we should ever stand up to oppose the Most High? Let
the twig contend with the fierce flame, or the wax with the burning
heat, but let us not contend with God! If we did so, we should be
like the moth in the candle–utterly consumed. The strongest and the
proudest men must be but as stubble in the day of God's anger. In
fact, to think of man having any power against God is sheer
madness, for we have not any power at all apart from God. We only
exist because He wills it. The breath in our nostrils is His gift,
moment by moment. We should go back to the nothingness from
which we sprang if He withdrew, for a single instant, His sustaining
hand! Man has no power against God. O you foolish sinners who
are resisting Him, give up the unequal battle! I charge you, before
God, to count the cost of a contest with your Maker before you
begin it! As well might a potsherd strive with him who molds it as
for you, a creature, to strive with your Creator! He will break you
in pieces, like a potter's vessels, in the day of His anger. Therefore,
be wise and end the fight–and be at peace with Him!
Neither can this "power with God" mean mental power. There are
persons who seem to exalt their intellect evenabove God Himself!
It is a fine thing to be gifted with powers of argument and to have a
keen reasoning faculty. But, at the same time, to some people these
are very dangerous possessions. I know certain individuals who say
that they will never believe what they cannot understand. If they
adhere to that determination, they will never believe in their own
existence, for they certainly cannot understand that! They seek to
overthrow the Word of God and the Doctrines of the Gospel with
their subtle wit and profound thought, but it is sheer madness for
human folly to contend with Divine Wisdom! It is insanity carried
to the very highest point for even the wisest of men to think that
their intellects are a match for the Omniscience of God, for, "the
foolishness of God is wiser than men." Even the simplicity of the
Gospel–and it is very simple–and "the foolishness of preaching"–
which, in some people's esteem, is utter foolishness, shall win the
victory while those who imagine that they are wise shall be proved
to be fools! Brothers and Sisters, let us never attempt to argue any
case in opposition to God's will, for we cannot have any power
with Him in that way. Let us always surrender our judgment to the
teaching of His Word and conform our will to His will. If we ever
think that a certain course is best, but it is evident, by the working
of God's Providence, that He does not think so, let us not for a
single moment hold a debate with Him, but let us say, as David did,
"I was dumb, I opened not my mouth because You did it." If God
does anything, that is enough for us! If God says anything, that is
enough for us! Instead of arguing andreasoning, "It is written," or
"God has said it," is sufficient to settle any question that concerns a
Christian!
It is almost necessary, in these days of superstition, to say that
neither can any man have any magical power withGod, for, albeit
that people nowadays would be ashamed to confess that they
believed in magical arts, yet something very akin to it seems still to
exist among mankind. They suppose that there is some efficacy in
the mere repetition of certain words. I am sure they must think so,
for they do not put their hearts into the words, but they are quite
content if they have galloped through a collect, or some set form of
prayer. Another supposition is that the prayer is all the better for
being offered by a certain individual who is ordained to that
particular work, so those who are sick send for an official to come
and "pray for them"–I have often heard that expression, as though
it was thought that this person, by reading a prayer out of a book,
could, by a sort of magic, do the sick one good! O Sirs, mere words
strung together–whether they are in Hebrew, or Greek, or Latin, or
English–are of no use before God! It is the utterance of the heart
that He hears,and you must never imagine that there is any
excellence in a certain arrangement of letters and sounds, or that
certain men, by the use of these words, can bring down blessings
from above! Oh, no! Jacob had no abracadabra, no talisman, no
magic, no charm, no enchantment–and God forbid that you and I
should ever be such heathens as to believe that there is any power
with God in any such things! God is not prevailed upon to grant
His blessings by any such fooleries as these–He utterly abhors
them!
And, again, when we speak of having power with God, we must
not suppose that any man can have any meritoriouspower with
God. It has been thought by some people that a man can attain to a
certain degree of merit, and then he will receive Heaven's
blessings–if he offers a certain number of prayers, if he does this,
or feels that, or suffers the other, then he will stand in high favor
with God. Many are living under this delusion and, in their way, are
trying to get power with God by what they are, or do, or suffer!
They think they would get power with God if they were to feel sin
more, or if they were to weep more, or if they were to repent more.
It is always something that they are to do, or something they are
toproduce in themselves which they are to bring before God so
that, when He sees it, He will say, "Now I will have mercy upon
you, and grant you the blessing you crave." O dear Friends, all this
is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There is far
more power with God in the humble acknowledgment of sinfulness
than in a boastful claim of cleanliness–much more power in
pleading that Grace will forgive than in asking that Justice should
reward–when we plead our emptiness and sin, we plead the truth–
but when we talk about our goodness and meritorious doings, we
plead a lie! And lies can never have any power in the Presence of
the God of Truth. O Brothers and Sisters, let us forever shake off
from us, as we would shake a viper from our hand, all ideas that by
any goodness of ours, which even the Spirit of God might work in
us, we should be able to deserve anything at God's hands and to
claim as right anything from the Justice of our Maker!
II. Now, secondly, let us inquire FROM WHERE THIS POWER
PROCEEDS. If anyone asks, "How can a man have power with
God?" The answer is, "Not because the power is in him, but he can
have power with God by reason ofsomething that is in God."
First, God's people get power with Him from the very Character
of God's Nature. You will soon see what I mean. Have you ever
visited a family in the depths of poverty and found them with a few
rags to sleep upon, with nothing whatever in the cupboard, with a
child dying for lack of food, mother and father with pinched
countenances who tell you that, for the last 48 hours they have had
nothing whatever to eat? And have you not felt that they have had
power over you, so that you could not help them? I am certain that
it has been so, if you have a tender heart, and are of a gracious,
generous spirit. The power that they have over you does not arise
from their riches, but quite the reverse–from their poverty. Their
power over you does not lie in their being respectable and well-to-
do–quite the opposite–their power over you lies in their being in
abject distress. Their misery has power to excite your pity! Because
you see them in such a sad state, you, being a man of
compassionate spirit, are straightway moved to try to help them.
There is many a spectacle of suffering and sorrow in this world that
even a strong man cannot bear to look at, especially if he is unable
to relieve those who are in distress. Now, if we, being evil, are so
stirred by the sight of human misery, how much more is our
heavenly Father, who is all goodness, tenderness, gentleness and
love, moved to pity by the miseries of His children? Whenever you
and I come to Him, it is wise for us to plead before Him our
weakness, that He may pity it and make us strong–our poverty, that
He may pity it, and enrich us–our dire necessity, that He may pity it
and supply all our needs–our low estate, our sinking heart, our
trembling spirit, our utter nothingness! In that way we shall have
power with Him.
If you have been accustomed to visit the poor, you know how
those who have got to be "old stagers" at receiving charity, never
put their best leg forward when they want to impress you with a
due sense of their need. If they had a little of anything in the house,
they would take care that you did not see it. If there has been any
improvement in their circumstances since you last called upon
them, you will have to fish a long while before you will find it out–
but they are very adept at bringing forward the black side of their
case because their power lies there with those who have generous
hearts! And so, Brothers and Sisters, our power with God, when we
come to Him as sinners, lies not in what we are, butin what God is!
He is Love, He is full of pity, He is Tenderness, He is Gentleness.
He wills not the death of a sinner, butdelights to display His saving
Mercy, to manifest the abundance of His Grace. The foundation of
our power with God must always lie in the love and tenderness of
God. He is susceptible of pity–yes, He is Tenderness itself. He is a
God of Compassion and, therefore, it is that the poor, feeble sons of
Adam have power with Him!
But we get a further view of the source from where this power
with God proceeds when we reach the next point, namely, God's
promises. God has, in His Word, been pleased to say that He will
do this and that and give this and that.He was quite free, once, to do
whatever He pleased, but now that God has given us His promises,
He is not free to break them and it would be inconsistent with His
glorious attributes that He should do so. Neither will He ever be
false to a single syllable that has gone forth out of His mouth.
When God gave His promises, He did, as it were, put Himself in
the power of those who know how to plead the promises. Every
promise is so much strength given to the man who has faith in the
promise, for he may, with it, overcome even the Omnipotent God
Himself! Why, Brothers and Sisters, if your character is what it
should be, and a person comes to you and says, "You promised to
give me such-and-such a thing," has not the person who can say
that, power over you to the full extent of your promise? If you are a
true man, he has beaten you at once! If you say to him, "But when
did I give you that promise? You may have misunderstood what I
said," and he puts his hand in his pocket and brings out your
promise in black and white, with your name signed to it, there is no
getting away from that, is there? Now, that is just the way in which
God gives us power with Him, for He has given us His promises in
black and white! Here they are in the Book which we know to be
His Book, His own Infallible Word! It is a blessed thing to be able
to come before God on your knees and to put your finger on a
promise in the Bible, and to say, "Lord, this is what You have
promised that You will do. I beseech You to do it because You are
the God of Truth. I know that You cannot lie, so I remind You of
Your promise and plead with You to do as You have said." Do you
not see what power you have with God when He has given you
faith to lay hold upon Him, bringing His own gracious promise in
your hand? There is a conquering power in faith, because faith
pleads the promises of God!
Thus, you see, there are two sources of power–God's Nature and
God's promises.
But the true child of God knows of other sources of power with
God, so next, he pleads the relationships of Grace.God, in His
infinite mercy, has been pleased to choose certain people to be His
children. "You shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord
Almighty." There was no reason, in themselves, why they should
be His sons and daughters, but His Sovereign Grace adopted them
and His Spirit regenerated them. But the moment that God made
any one of us His child, He did again–I speak with all reverence–
give us power with Him and put Himself into our hands! Who
among us does not know the power of a child over his father?
There are some children who have too much power. There is a
Greek story of the little boy who ruled all Athens because he ruled
his mother and his mother ruled his father–and his father ruled the
senate and the senate ruled Athens! And so, in that way, the little
boy practically ruled the whole city! And I am afraid that there are
some children who have a good deal too much power in that way.
But our Heavenly Father, though He is too wise to indulge us in
that way, is so good that He will not deny us any privilege that, by
right, belongs to the position of a child. When your child appeals to
you because there is something that he really needs, but which you
have withheld from him, and he says, at last, "But, my dear father,
will you not grant me this?" Or if you have chastened him and he
says, "Father, stay your hand! Am I not your child?" you cannot
resist his appeal. He has power with you–you know that he has!
And what a wonderful power we have when we can truly say,
"Abba! Father!" We shall have power with God in our times of
greatest weakness if we can cry, "Abba! Father!"
I can never forget a certain illness when I had been racked with
pain and brought very low with heaviness of spirit through the
nature of the complaint from which I was suffering. I felt driven
almost to despair, one night, until I laid hold of God, in an agony of
prayer, and pleaded with Him something like this, "If my child
were in such anguish as I am in, I would listen to him and relieve
him if I could. You are my Father, and I am Your child, then will
You not treat me like a child?" Almost at the very moment when I
presented that plea before God, my pain ceased and I fell into a
sweet slumber, from which I woke up with, "Abba! Father!" on my
lips and in my heart! I believe that this is an invincible plea,
because, when God calls Himself our Father, He means it. There
are some fathers in this world, who do not act at all as fathers
should–shame upon them! But that will never be said of our
Heavenly Father. He is a true Father and He has a heart of
compassion towards His children. And He does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men–and when we know how to appeal to
His Fatherhood, we shall prevail with Him!
Once more, dear Friends, the power that we have with God also
springs from His past actions. Look at what He hasdone for His
own people. First, He chose them. Well, then, as He chose them,
He cannot cast them away because He is an Immutable God! As He
has made His choice, He stands to it. Paul asks, "Has God cast
away His people?" And he answers his own question, "God has not
cast away His people which He foreknew." That is what He has
never done! Then, in addition to choosing us, He has also redeemed
us. And after He has redeemed us from destruction by the blood of
His Son, can He allow us to be lost? Can He pay for us with such a
price as that and yet neglect to keep us to the end? That cannot be!
When He gave His Son as a Ransom for us, He did, indeed, put
Himself into our hands, for, "He that spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely
give us all things?" Do but know that God gave His Son for you,
dear Friend–know that Jesus Christ is yours and the logic of your
prayer is clear enough, and forcible enough, when you say, "What
can You deny me, O my Father? You have given me Your Son, so,
by His blood and wounds, by His life and death, and resurrection
Glory, give my spirit the Grace it needs, since You have given me
Jesus Christ."
Do you not see, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, that every
mercy which God has bestowed upon you gives you power over
Him? "Therefore, sing with John Newton–
"His love in time past forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink!
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review,
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through."
If He has done so much for us, will He not do still more? Does
not every blessing which is bestowed by God come to us with this
message in its mouth, "There is more to follow," and may we not
be quite sure that He who has blessed us now for 40 years, for fifty,
sixty, seventy–and I see some who have numbered 80 years, and
you have had God's blessing all the while–then, has He not, by all
these years of favor and mercy, pledged and bound Himself to bless
you even to the end? Assuredly it is so!
III. Now, in the third place, notice HOW THIS POWER WITH
GOD CAN BE EXERCISED BY CHRISTIANS. What shape does
power with God take? Of course it takes the shape of prayer.
Christians put forth the power they have with God when they draw
near to Him to ask for blessings upon themselves and upon others,
but it is not every man who prays who has power with God, or who
knows how to use the power which really exists. Who are the
people who really have power with God! I will tell you.
First, this power is exercised by those who are deeply sensible of
their own weakness. No man has power with Godwho thinks he is
strong, except in the sense in which Paul wrote, "When I am weak,
then am I strong." I have an idea, and I think that Scripture
supported it, that Jacob wrestled very hard with the Angel, but that
he never won the victory till the Angel touched the hollow of his
thigh and caused the sinew to shrink. Then, when Jacob could not
any longer stand–as he fell, he clutched the Angel with all his
might as though he would also pull Him down if he must himself
go down–and the weight of Jacob was all the greater because he
could not stand. His very weakness was an element of his strength
and that moment of weakness was the moment of his victory! Now,
if you go to God feeling that you are partly full, He will not fill
you, but will wait till you are quite empty before He will pour His
blessing into you. He will not mix oil with water and, until He has
emptied all the water out of the vessel, He will not begin to pour in
His oil or His wine. When you feel that you have a little strength
for prayer, I think it is very likely that you will not have power with
God. But when it comes to this, that you cry out, "O God, I can do
nothing–all my power is turned to utter weakness! I am driven to
the lowest extremity," then, in the very desperation of your
weakness, you will clutch the promise-making God and, as it were,
drag down the angel and win the blessing, as Jacob did. It is your
weakness that will do it, not your strength!
Have you ever tried to go to God as a fully-sanctified man? I did
so once. I had heard some of the "perfect" brethren, who are
travelling to Heaven by the "high level" railway and I thought I
would try their plan of praying. I went before the Lord as a
consecrated and sanctified man. I knocked at the gate. I had been
accustomed to gain admittance the first time I knocked, but this
time I did not. I knocked again and kept on knocking, though I did
not feel quite easy in my conscience about what I was doing. At
last I clamored loudly to be let in and when they asked me who I
was, I replied that I was a perfectly-consecrated and fully sanctified
man–but they said that they did not know me! The fact was, they
had never seen me in that character before. At last, when I felt that
I must get in, and must have a hearing, I knocked again and when